Italy Part 2: The second leg of Italy began in Venice. We took the train from Florence to Venice and seeing Venice again for the first time in 30 years was just as thrilling as it was the first time. For those of you who have not been to Venice, it can be hard to describe. For me, Venice is a feeling. It has an electricity in the air that I breathe in as soon as I walk out and see the Grand Canal. Prior to arriving in Venice, I had mapped out the exact route to take to get to our hotel because it can be confusing and in Venice, confusion ultimately ends up with you spending a lot more money than planned. When we arrived and went down the stairs and to the right to the number 1 Vaporetta station (basically a bus on water), there was no number 1 Vaporetta running on Sunday due to elections. So, after a rapid redirection and a few questions, we managed to get on the alternate Vaporetta to go to the hotel. They made us wear masks (which we have not worn since leaving the States in August). They made us take off our backpacks which irritated me and there were nine million people on the Vaporetta. Plus, the tickets cost $9.50 each for a 5 minute ride. The positive thing about the ride was that our hotel was directly off the fourth stop so we did not have to carry our bags through the confusing streets of Venice. I do have to report that cell phones and GPS have made walking around Venice a much easier venture than it was using paper maps back in the day! The first day, we went exploring and spent the afternoon on what we named “the Cathedral Tour” because there was a Basilica on every corner. We went into one large Basilica and the pipe organist was playing a concert which was wonderful. We headed to the Leonardo da Vinci museum and were amazed at how many things he had invented during his lifetime. Many of his inventions did not work but later inventors built upon them to create many of our modern tools. I think it is rare to find someone who is a talented artist and a scientist in the same brain. I am not sure da Vinci ever slept but we were exhausted when we left the exhibition! Our next day started early because we could not get timed tickets to St. Mark’s Basilica as they were all sold out online. We knew we would need to stand in line to get tickets but when we arrived shortly after 9am, the line already curled around the square. We voted to try that line later in the day and took a public gondola ride across the canal ($2 each) to another cathedral. At 11:30, we had tickets to Doge’s Palace. Much like Venice, describing the Doge’s Palace is close to impossible. As we walked into the building, I turned to Bill and said, “Okay, I am done taking pictures of ceilings because I have at least a hundred pictures of ceilings and people have to be getting tired of them.” Then…..we entered the first room. The ceilings were so grandiose that we did not even know where to look. There were paintings everywhere and gold everywhere. I started snapping those ceilings before the words I had just uttered had even left the air! One room was about the size of a football field and had a floor to ceiling painting that measured 75 feet wide by 20 feet tall! Rather than a living palace, the Doge was a government building of sorts complete with a prison! The palace was a highlight for both of us and made the next nightmare a little more tolerable. When we left the palace, we headed back into St. Mark’s square to check the length of the line. The end of the line was much shorter (or so we thought). As we rounded the corner, we saw the flood. We were in Venice during a “super tide” which was an unusually high tide. It had flooded the square and water was everywhere. I was surprised to see no pigeons in the square but later discovered that Venice passed a law in 2018 forbidding people to feed pigeons in the square. At the time, they were killing over 15,000 pigeons a year to control the population so something had to be done. Not feeding the pigeons certainly made a huge difference as there were none in the square which (in my opinion) was a huge improvement. Back to the water….during the flood, workers had quickly assembled a makeshift sidewalk that was elevated above the water. Bill said he would stay in line for tickets and wade through the water since he had on sandals. I had on boots so I walked over to get onto the bridge. The bridge was chaos and I could not figure out why people were not just walking to the top of the square which was not flooded. I skipped the bridge and started walking. I easily crossed the square and soon discovered why no one was going that way. The far side of the square was flooded up to shin level. I ended up taking off my shoes and working my way through the flood back to Bill. When I found Bill in line, he said that a woman with about 20 people had just broken in line in front of us. Since we had previously experienced the “official” looking tour guide break into line routine in Florence, we were not going to fall for that trick! We walked up and stepped back in line in front of the group. Another couple followed us and the woman said they could not break in line. Bill set her straight pretty quickly and nothing more was said about the situation! After a long wait, we finally made it into St. Mark’s Basilica. After all of the cathedrals we have seen, we felt that St. Mark’s was a bit of a let down. The altar piece, Pala d’Oro, was the highlight. It was made of solid gold and had thousands of gems inlaid. While seeing the altar, we had a new level of selfie takers….Narcissistic Nuns! They were snapping their pictures in front of that altar like Kim Kardashian on a Rodeo Drive shopping spree! It was very entertaining to watch! Our last night in Venice, we had grown a bit tired of pasta (even amazing pasta can only be eaten so many times in a week). Bill discovered a restaurant called The Old Wild West which was just too funny not to be investigated. On the menu, every hamburger had the ingredients listed. All the lists started with “bun”. As an American, I found that listing “bun” as an ingredient on a hamburger seemed to state the obvious but perhaps other cultures do not know that a bun is a given. The food was so-so but the experience was worth it. Our next stop on Italy Part 2 was a city called Ferrara. Ferrara boasted a castle and a huge cathedral so we thought it would be a good place to spend the night before continuing our train journey south. The lesson learned on this stop was ‘do not trust the internet’. The castle was cool and had an actual moat but it was closed on Tuesdays. The cathedral had been damaged in an earthquake in 2012 and had been closed since that time. Since 2012….and no one had thought to update the internet information? We spent most of the day on our usual food hunt and were just glad we only had one day in Ferrara. The next morning, we hopped on the train to head to Montepulciano. Montepuliciano was a hill town in Tuscany. I chose it because it was on a train route and it had wine. Lots and lots of wine. I thought since I had found a liking for port, perhaps I would find a wine I liked as well. We arrived at the train station in Chuisi and took a taxi up to Montepulciano. It was a beautiful ride and we picked out my “under the Tuscan sun” homes to buy along the way. Our hotel was an old palace and I had to specifically request a room with wall outlets. Being an old palace, the room stayed very cool and the weather in the hills was cooler than we have had. We asked how to turn on the heat and were informed that we could not have heat yet. We also were informed that if the grapes needed water, we might not have any during the day. Glad to see some things in Italy have not changed over the years! We had a great day of wine tasting and did a tour of some underground streets and Etruscan tombs. I did not like any of the wine and even Bill said this particular wine was too dry for his taste as well. I guess I’ll just stick to port wine! On to Italy Part 3 which will be several days in Rome. We made sure to enjoy the peace of Montepulciano today before we head into the fray. Arriverderci! Ratings for Venice and the countryside: Overall: 8 Venice; 7 countryside Points of interest: 10 Venice; 7 countryside Ease of communication: 7 (most people spoke English thank goodness!) Ease of transportation: 10 (foot power!) Friendly people: 6.5 Venice; 7 countryside Food: 10 Cost of living: 7 Weather: 9 Bill’s favorite thing: Doge’s Palace Sally’s favorite thing: Pipe organ concert in the cathedral From Bill: So, the doge’s palace in Venice was way over the top..doge actually means duke, so this was a seat of govt. The palace started off fairly normally, venice was founded in the 800’s by the current italian rulers, but didnt merge into italy until much later.. ( see attached link to a good quick history of venice) https://www.britannica.com/place/Venice/In-unified-Italy Venice grew from its once sleeping fishing village to a world class power due to the elite families ruling the city, keeping their money and power tied up in the doge’s levers of power.. Most of the amazing paintings and gilt work you will see in the pics was done after a fire in the mid 1500’s by then the spanish were bringing massive quantities of gold back from the new world, and we figured that the ruling families used their trading efficiencies to help the spanish move product, for a small pittance of gold.. Tongue in cheek small.. The venetian empire grew schlerotic in its old age before it peacefully fell in the late 1700’s the ruling elites got lazy and greedy and over extended and the people finally had enough. This is the general fall of an empire throughout history.. Isnt it fun, as we are dealing with our own issues.. Read the piece, not too long and gives good background as to all the goings on..
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Italy Part I: Our initial day in Italy was a bit rough due to my mistake. After deciding not to go into Amalfi due to cost, we voted to keep our reservation in Herculaneum to see the ruins. Prior to leaving Monaco, I booked our train tickets from Herculaneum to Florence. Easy peasy. We would see Herculaneum on Wednesday once we landed in Naples, spend the night and head out on the train the next morning. Only one small issue that I overlooked….Herculaneum was closed every Wednesday for cleaning. I wasn’t sure exactly how or why you’d need to clean ruins, but my daughter the archeologist explained it was very important to keep the roots and undergrowth from destroying the foundations. That knowledge still did not help my situation. We went to the train station in Naples to change the train tickets to later in the day. I was informed the ticket I purchased was non changeable. Next came tears (mine, not the train employee’s). Bill said that if this was the worst “oops” we had on a three month trip then that would be good news. We arrived in Herculaneum and found several other groups of people that had not known the park was closed on Wednesdays either so that made me feel a little better. We walked and walked to our hotel. When booking a hotel online, I do my best to read all reviews and try to find something functional for us but I am never quite sure what we will find when we arrive. We were thrilled to find out our Herculaneum hotel was right on the water and had a pool as well! We also discovered that Herculaneum opened at 8:30am instead of 9:30am which meant we would have two hours in the morning to see the ruins! So all’s well that ends well! We woke up bright and early and were the first ones in line to enter the park. The difference between Herculaneum and Pompeii is Herculaneum was buried in ash while Pompeii was hit with ash and lava. Therefore, when Herculaneum was “discovered” again, it was in much better condition than Pompeii. As we walked through the ruins, it was hard to believe that the city had been buried from 79 AD to the 1700’s. Some of the houses could probably have been lived in today. After our morning in the ruins, we headed back to the train station and made our way to Florence. In Florence, we had booked an Airbnb which are even riskier than a hotel with what you are going to find upon arrival. It was perfect! Located only five minutes from the Duomo in a nice area. The best part was it had a washer and dryer! It was great to take a shower without having to wash our dirty clothes at the same time. I must also give Italy kudos for figuring out electricity and water since I was last here thirty years ago. Back then, there was no heat allowed after 6pm until 6am and hot water did not exist. I also had to straddle a hole to use the bathroom in public bathrooms. Now, we had electricity that flowed all day and night, hot showers and real toilets! I will say the dryer situation was not great but I can’t have everything! Our first evening we went to a local restaurant and had an amazing meal. We are going to gain back the weight we have lost thus far with all this delicious food! The next morning, we went to the Uffizi gallery and saw more paintings of the Madonna con Bambino than one should ever need to see. It was interesting to see the paintings pre-Renaissance versus post-Renaissance though. Those pre-Renaissance folks did not have much spunk. After the Uffizi, we wandered over to Piazza Vecchio to see the Fake David and Fountain of Neptune. By this time, the crowds had definitely started to show up so we made our escape over to the Santa Croce cathedral and we could not believe that more people were not there. All of the famous folks were buried there including Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Machievelli, Galileo, Donatello, Marconi and Fermi. Everywhere you looked, someone famous was buried. The cathedral was massive. One of the biggest we have seen and we felt very small inside. After the cathedral, our feet needed a rest so we took a break back at the apartment and then had another amazing dinner of meatballs and wild boar pasta. Our final day in Florence began with a trip to the Boboli Gardens which looked beautiful online. I am not sure when those pictures were taken but it was certainly not in recent days. We found the gardens underwhelming and in need of some TLC. The highlight was the gelato across the street which we had for lunch. This day was our first day of rain but the rain held off until we had finished the gardens which was lucky. We went to wait in line to go into the Santa Maria cathedral. The cathedral was free admission but the price was waiting in line for hours. Just as we got in line, a woman came by and said she was putting together a tour in the next five minutes so we could skip the line. For $15.00 each, we jumped on the chance to skip the line. The tour group consisted of 10 people and the funny part was that she basically walked us over and broke into the line! I guess if you look official enough and have 10 people with you then no one is going to question you! It turned out to be an informative thirty minutes so we felt our time saved in line was well worth the cost. The next adventure was to see the real David. I had tried to book tickets through the official site but they were sold out for all the days we were in Florence. So, I went to another website and purchased tickets. I was convinced that the tickets would be fakes and that I was secretly supporting some terrorist funding operation but much to our surprise, the tickets were genuine! We got to see David, some more Madonna con Bambino paintings and the first piano ever invented which was really cool. Leg one of Italy completed! We head to Venice tomorrow. Fingers crossed our good weather returns so we do not have to swim through the streets of Venice….though the exercise would mean we could eat more food! Ratings for Florence Overall: 9 Points of interest: 9 Ease of communication: 7 (most people spoke English thank goodness!) Ease of transportation: 7 Friendly people: 9 Food: 10 Cost of living: 7 Weather: 9 Bill’s favorite thing: Santa Croce Cathedral Sally’s favorite thing: Santa Croce Cathedral Ok guys, time for more bill stuff, coming soon is a plains trains and automobiles post.. Should be fairly entertaining.. As we traveled from seville spain to barcelona, we noticed a couple of things we did not expect.. The area was very arid, desert like. Almost like the central valley in california.. Also there were cities about every 15 miles or so.. This is common in pre industrial (re : auto) society worldwide, as that about a good days travel. Most of these cities consisted of low (2 story or so) buildings and houses. These were almost always brown/white in color.. There was almost always a larger church with a substantially taller bell tower. Very often there was a fortification near the town, usually always up on a hill overlooking the city.. As i mentioned this is not what i expected. This is the area of spain called andalucia, it is rich in agriculture (approx 20% of olive oil production worldwide comes from this area). Lots of grapes per sallys pics and citrus.. What i didnt know was that this area was predominantly settled by the invading moors from north africa in the 700’s they built all the towns and the fortifications and rebuilt the agriculture that had fallen into misuse.. Hence the similar looks of all the towns and cities.. The moors maintained control of this entire area until the late 1400s, when isabella and ferdinand were in power in northern spain, which remained predominantly roman catholic during this time frame.. Interestingly enough very little has changed in the smaller towns thru this area since this time, the bigger cities like valencia, barcelona, seville, granada, etc have modernized but little has changed elsewhere.. With one exception..Benidorm, this city is basically the miami florida of the med coast. There are a mammoth amount of really cool architectural high rises there, its a resort city for the madrid citizens.. Please take a look online at this city and be amazed.. Its really amazing after seeing all the monochromatic cities and towns and then this pops up over a hill.. And we drove around in amazement for a while.. So thats all i got at the moment.. A little history.. A little info and one cool little resort town in the middle of nowhere.. If you do visit spain, this area is a great place to visit/explore Monaco, the playground for billionaires….and Bill and Sally! Our flight from Barcelona to Nice was quick and easy as was locating the train over to Monaco. Once in Monaco, we left the train station and missed a turn on the way to the hotel which was a costly error. We doubled the number of steps needed to reach the hotel but we survived. Monaco sits above the sea on a rock. The entire history of Monaco is basically this: whoever holds the rock, holds the power. Many factions have held the rock through the centuries but its’ current form came into existence after WWII. Monaco is now a principality and they rely on France for military protection….hmmm, would not be my choice LOL. Getting around Monaco is relatively easy as long as you have been training on hills for three weeks which we had. Crossing the entire country on foot takes less than an hour. Our first destination was the port to see the megayachts. Unfortunately for our view, there were hundreds of vendor tents being set up for the yacht show next weekend so we had to view the yachts from top of the hill. Our next stop was in the Prince of Monaco’s car museum. It had two floors of every type of car from the fast to the silly. The past prince evidently collected by passion instead of only value so it made for a nice museum. The royal palace was on the very top of the rock so we climbed some more with some incredible views along the way. The crowds in Monaco were minimal so we definitely enjoyed the palace without tons of people. Princess Grace’s memorial was in the cathedral. Her tomb was easy to spot because it was covered with flowers. It made me feel a little sorry for the late prince who had no flowers on his grave but as much as he loved Grace, he was probably pleased. Our big night was planned for Bill’s major bucket list item….the Monte Carlo Casino. Bill had set up a tuxedo rental so he could live out his Bond moment. I did my best to find a dress to rent but alas, no place was open and none of the dresses in the stores were meant to fit a chesty American gal. I figured I would at least find a nice pair of earrings to go with the one “nicer” dress I had but I could not find any stores selling earrings either! We found a store that sold superyachts and one that sold private jets but no earrings to be found! A scarf would have to do. With Bill gussied up (if you’re not southern, that means ‘looking fine’), we headed over to the casino passing the Ferraris and Lamborghinis parked out front. We made a full evening of it with a lovely dinner of pasta and veal milanese on the terrace of the casino overlooking the sea (sorry, no cameras allowed my foodies!). Then, we wandered through the casino admiring the decor and feeling the history. Many people say they are disappointed because the casino is small but we both found it to be breathtakingly lovely and just the right size for comfort. Neither of us hit the jackpot so we had to leave the Ferrari and the Lamborghini parked out front on our way past but it was a memorable evening! We spent our last night in the city of Nice. We walked along the seaside promenade and got our yacht peeping done at the marina. There was an old fort area on top of a huge cliff. We both decided that we would have to miss the views because our feet could not take a hike up the steps. Then, we rounded the corner and found an elevator that took us straight to the top so we enjoyed the views on our walk down the hill. The beaches in Nice are made of rocks so I don’t think I’d like to do a beach vacation on the French Riviera…I’ll stick to sand beaches. We finished the day with a trip to the cathedral and the famous Fenochio gelato. The gelato was very good but I look forward to my daily binge of Italian gelato that is yet to come! Our observation over the past month of traveling: Before we left the States, I thought the narcissistic levels of people these days was just an American trait. I am happy and sad to report that narcissism is a world wide event and covers almost every age group. The amount of pictures people take of themselves is flabbergasting to me. I could reenact every single pose at this point: the duck face lip pout, the single leg hip thrust, the over the shoulder backward glance, the tongue to the side of the mouth, the backward head tilt, the hair shake and all combinations of the above. It is astonishing. People will take these pictures in even the holiest of places right next to people praying. They will take them in front of a bush. They will take them while they are walking and filming at the same time. I really want to stop them and tell them no one thinks they or what they are doing is that important but I believe it would break their hearts. Even the tuxedo rental guy said he constantly had to stop fitting so that people could take their own picture in the mirror. So, for those of you who see yourself in the above description…put down the camera, look around you and live in the moment instead of trying to impress people who do not matter. Years from now, you want to remember the moment at the cathedral, the view of the sea or even that bush…take the picture with your mind and the memory will be even more beautiful. Ratings for Monaco/Nice Overall: 8.5 Monaco/7 Nice Points of interest: 6 Ease of communication: 8 (most people spoke English thank goodness!) Ease of transportation: 9 Friendly people: 9 Monaco/For Nice…they are French… Food: 9 Cost of living: 3 Weather: 10 Bill’s favorite thing: The Monte Carlo Casino Sally’s favorite thing: Bill in a tuxedo! Okay…the other views were amazing as well…. Off to Italy and after 30 years of being away, I am ready to see her again! Our schedule has been a bit tossed due to sold out hotels and crazy prices in Italy but we are adapting. So hang on and get ready for a ride! Barcelona is a vibrant, energetic and beautiful city. The majority of people in the city seemed to be in their twenties and thirties so the city had a great vibe. It also felt wide and spacious compared to London and Lisbon. The architecture held new surprises around every corner. Our first day, we ventured up Montjuic. We enjoyed our ride up on the cable car and had incredible views of Barcelona. Montjuic castle was more of a fort than a castle and had a long history of protecting Barcelona even as recently as World War II. We decided to walk back down the mountain so we could see the Olympic stadium and rings. Alas, we walked and walked but never quite found them so we gave up and limped our way back to the hotel. Day two was the big one. La Sagrada Familia. We could see the cathedral from everywhere in the city as it towered over every other building. As we approached it and got our first look, the outside of the cathedral reminded me of a dirt dauber nest or a tall termite hill. The closer you get, the more details are revealed. Gaudi was definitely an eccentric genius. Once inside the cathedral, it was like a fairy land. The entire inside of the cathedral was made of a grayish concrete. The design of the building was such that the stained glass windows bathe the entire interior in amazing, kaleidoscope colors that change depending on your angle. It was like watching the Wizard of Oz for the first time when it goes from black and white to technicolor. I have never experienced anything like it. There really are no words that can do it justice. After La Sagrada, we jumped on the metro (we figured out public transport easily in Barcelona!) and headed toward Park Guell. What we thought would be an easy trip turned into an hour and half walk all uphill...and then it started to rain. By the time we located the park, we were exhausted. We were not sure if it was our exhaustion but the park left us feeling a little empty after La Sagrada. Gaudi had designed both and the park was whimsical in his style. The ironic part of Gaudi’s life is that he designed most of Barcelona but when he was hit by a streetcar, he was so raggedy that no one wanted to help him (they did not recognize him). After his death, he was celebrated with a huge procession and ceremony. Odd how those things work. We finished our night down at the waterfront and following the suggestion of some locals, we found some awesome paella! It was easily enough for three people so we had to get a doggie bag. After we had eaten, Bill asked about the suckling pig. The manager asked if Bill would like to taste a “small bite” of the pig. Of course, he agreed. We waited a few minutes and much to our surprise, the waiter showed up with another plate full of food! Bill ended up getting another to go box and insisted on paying for the “small” sample. Our last day in Barcelona we visited Barcelona Cathedral and the Opera House. We took a stroll down La Rambla and found a wonderful park with a magnificent fountain. As we were walking, a police vehicle came flying past and a bunch of plain clothed police officers jumped out and ran after some guys in the park who had been setting out wares to sell….I guess they weren’t allowed to sell in that area? We both felt the police raid would have been more effective if the police had not arrived in the SWAT vehicle! Tomorrow we fly into Nice, France and take a quick train ride into Monaco so that Bill can do his best 007 impersonation at the casino. See you in Monacco! Ratings for Barcelona Overall: 9 Points of interest: 9 Ease of communication: 8 (because we speak a little Spanish!) Ease of transportation: 8 Friendly people: 8 Food: 10!!!! Cost of living: 9 Weather: 9 (only a few drizzles!) Bill’s favorite thing: The overall vibe of the city Sally’s favorite thing: The colors of La Sagrada Familia |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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