|
|
||
01/04/08 |
      
|
OverviewWhat an incredible adventure, 2 whole weeks in Southern France and the Italian Riviera, then a jaunt inland to explore Rome, Florence and Venice. It was a trip of a lifetime, read the day to day glorious details here! (Select the hyperlinks below to go directly to the journal entry for that day)
DAY 1-
Arriving in Nice, France
October 4, 2003 - DAY 1 - Arrival in NICE, FRANCE:
Our day began with the alarm at 3:30 am in Colorado, excitedly waking up to begin our magnificent journey! After many hours of flight, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany at 5:30 am – the next morning! It was a sleepy airport that greeted our first ever moments on German soil. As we arrived at what we thought would be our connecting gate to take us to our final destination of Nice, France – we met Doreen and Phillip and began what we hope will be a friendship for years to come! JJ. They gave us wonderful suggestions from their many journeys in Italy. Upon our mutual arrival in Nice, we parted ways with big hugs and each others our contact information. Nice is a beautiful port city considered the Cote D’ Azure of the Riviera. We checked in at Le Meridien and were happy to see Jill’s smiling face to greet us! After dropping off our luggage, we proceeded to take a stroll on the beach front, then through a nearby park to the Marcheaux Fleurs (Market of Flowers). This beautiful array of fresh produce, flowers, olive oil products, confection candies, seafood, etc… were beautifully laid out in a farmers market fashion - provided us plenty of “eye candy” as a fabulous addition to the already stunning architectural beauties that were before us. The Market of Flowers is located in the old town area of Nice with classic Greek/Italian styles of architectural. Inhabitants had to live longer, healthier lives in this region due partly to their eating habits. They don’t cook with butter; instead they use primarily olive oil and eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies with every meal. Staples are garlic and onions, red wine and seafood with little red meat. After spending a couple hours exploring the market area we joined our Olivia buddies for sight seeing tour via bus of the Three Corniche highways, passing through magnificent scenic areas such as Monaco, the second smallest country in the world (next Vatican City) with the highest wealth per capita – real estate is primo – many, MANY celebrities and royalty Monaco and own property. There are only two classes of people in Monaco: residents and natives – with natives being born here, and residents being wealthy enough to pay money to own a piece of this paradise. The landscape feels similar to California coastline with rugged scenic drives and breath taking views at every turn. It was a sight to behold. We made our way to the village of Eze. We stopped for cappuccino and pastriesJJ. What a sweet little village - we really enjoyed the stories provided by our French guide – she was fantastic. We also connected with Sue and Nancy and plan to take in a few art museums tomorrow with them! Matisse and Chagall especially - all museums are free on the first Sunday of every month – it’s our lucky day! After a very long day (almost two days) with little sleep we were wiped out and headed back to our room to get real ZZZ’s and be fresh for tomorrow’s big adventure! October 5, 2003 - DAY 2- Day in Nice, Board the WindSurf ship:Boy! We caught up on our sleep!! :0 After crashing out around 7:00 pm on Saturday, we both awoke at 1:30 am wide awake! We proceeded to investigate (troubleshoot) some technical difficulties with our digital camera and watch our video footing this far! Wonderful – we were so jetlagged during the tour, it was nice to really see what we actually saw the day before! After a couple of hours, we proceeded to catch up on more ZZZ’s. We startled ourselves awake at 11:15 am - Oh My! We completely missed our breakfast and needed to have our luggage packed and to be checked out of our room by 11:00 am! Whoa – After quick showers and speedy packing, we were in search of a lunch spot. We found a wonderful ristorante called La Pizza. Mary had Lasagna and I had spaghetti – both were deliciouso. Our next stop was back to our hotel to claim our luggage and board the bus that would transport us to our ship. We ran into many friends from our Tahiti trip! Yay! Sue, Ellen, Mindy and Lynette are all here! Yippee – it feels like a family week! Once on board, we completed our check in, excursion signups, safety meeting and joined our new friends Sue and Nancy for a chat, appetizers, and then dinner at Le Bistro. It was an early night - we came back to our room to unpack and settle in. We could hardly wait for morning to begin our adventures! October 6, 2003 - DAY 3 - Eze, Monaco and Monte Carlo:We awoke at 5:45 to see what or where our ship was en-route to Monte Carlo. The porthole views were magnificent. We peered out into a dark sky with the big dipper poised above the horizon and the lights of Monte Carlo glittering brilliantly against a crystal clear midnight blue sky. This was only foreshadowing of what was to become the norm for our experience of the day! Just as we were “ooohing and ahhing” we both caught sight of a shooting star directly over soon to be port city. *magic* is * everywhere! JJ After enjoying several dazzling minutes, we showered and prepared for our adventure. We took a stroll around the ship and watched the sunrise, then enjoyed a quiet breakfast before meeting Sue and Nancy for our morning tour. We climbed aboard the bus and proceeded to enjoy our guided tour of the medieval castle of Eze of the 14th century. This extremely well preserved and protected castle was stunning, we enjoyed every curvy, craggly, cobblestone twist and form of our path that led to the top of the castle to a beautiful view of the city of Monaco, all the way to the sea. Words can not adequately describe the sights of beauty we enjoyed from these ever changing visits. After marveling for a fair amount of time, we continued our journey to “Old Town” Monaco. Our bus driver was amazing. We were fortunate enough to get the “jump seats” and really see the sights from the “driver’s seat” - wow these drivers are talented! We arrived near the Prince’s Palace of Monaco (Prince Albert Rainier III), joined a few gals for a scenic walk through a beautiful park, passing the Oceanographic Museum – beautifully styled with Greek pillars and fully adorned by marble statues on all levels. Wish we could have spent more time here, but, alas on our way to “The changing of the guards” procession at the Palace. Not having a clear sense of the distance required (via foot) to arrive at the Palace of Monaco, we were quite a bit early, there were a few people mingling, anticipating the event. Not a lot to be seen for another 30 minutes or so, we decided to do a bit of souvenir shopping – got a few neato items! J Then watched the guards perform the dramatic ceremony! Then we enjoyed our first gelato (Italian ice cream) Yum! Yum! Yum! The coconut is our favorite flavor thus far. We may have to sample more flavors to be sure though J It was now past lunch time and we were ready for some real food! We arrived back to the ship in perfect time to enjoy lunch with Sue and Nancy to plan our next adventure. We ended up getting to spend another day in Monte Carlo, due to some ship malfunction (nothing real serious) this was cool and a happy surprise! We talked Nancy into joining the three of us for our own tour of the infamous Monte Carlo – Famous for movie stars, fashion, expensive property, gambling and excesses of every kind. We learned that Monte Carlo; in the country of Monaco – is filled with much drama. The Grimaldi family has ruled the country since the 13th century. Prince Rainier married Hollywood actress Grace Kelly – they were a beautiful and well loved famous couple. Grace was killed in a terrible automobile accident in 1982 and Monaco has never really recovered from the tragedy. There is also much drama and gossip galore surrounding her daughters throughout their lives. Princes Stephanie - notorious bad girl – still hasn’t toned her wild ways. Lots of fodder for tabloid gossip – seems to be norm in all who live here with day to day happenings. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, next to Vatican City. If you choose to live here entry fee is two million to even be considered to become “wait – listed” for possible residency. Your other option is to marry an existing resident of Monaco and if you are interested, you must also reside in Monaco for more than six months per year. Many famous billionaires own homes here – there is even an area called “Billionaires Bay” -- truly an exclusive community. This country is also known to be money laundering capital of Europe! - there are many bank accounts here and no taxes AND most importantly - no questions asked. The country is well protected, approximately 1 police officer to every 8 -10 residents. Its very clean – cameras on all corners, huge fines for littering - lots of glamour, fabulous weather, very California – like. We enjoyed a scenic walk into Monte Carlo from our ship with my guidance and made a slight detour! Oops! We missed the casino and opera house by almost a mile on foot - it was a LONG walk for all but we did arrive (finally!) pooped, at the Monte Carlo Royale Hotel, Casino, and Opera House – beautiful architecture, stunningly landscaped and we got what we came here for! Some poker chip souvenirs for the Grams! Among our travels, we also stumbled along this beautiful Japanese garden area. There were waterfalls, ponds, and streams with some of the most beautiful collection of Koi we’ve ever seen – they were huge! We arrived back to our cabin long enough to elevate our aching feet for about 10 minutes before our telephone rang. Sue and Ellen were having a cocktail party before our group dinner date in about 20 minutes. We showered and joined the group for appetizers and conversations – and finally dinner. Surf and Turf! Yum! To bed now – ship departed at midnight. Will arrive in Saint Tropez early am! October 7, 2003 - DAY 4 - Saint Tropez, Hilltop villages:We awoke at 6:00 am to watch our ship glide into the Saint Tropez area. The weather was quite cold and windy. We’re glad to have our fleece pullovers and long pants for this day’s adventure. After an enjoyable breakfast, we hopped aboard the ships tender for a 10 minute ride to the Saint Tropez harbor. Our French guide today, Jane, was very sweet and exceptionably knowledgeable of Provencal history. We toured through portions of the vineyards, very famous for local wines. Until we arrived at the first of our hilltop medieval villages – Ramatvelle! Beautiful - we fully enjoyed the narrow cobblestone streets and colorful houses dotting the winding little village corridors. We learned that Elm trees were planted in abundance as a symbol of solidarity, prosperity, longevity and peace. Many villages have Elm trees planted in the main street in the center of their community. Our next village was Gassin, which won an award last year for the best little village in Provence. All villages were starkly quiet and free of the hustle and bustle of the cities we’d recently been seeing. It’s also important to note that many of these French villages have seasonal occupancy with part time residents; some are summer or “high season” occupied only. From Gassin, we got a rare opportunity to enjoy the highest scenic point in the area. Lucky for us, the mistral winds had cleared the cloud cover and provided us with beautiful views of the Swiss Alps for the background of our panoramic photos. This rare sight only occurs a couple of times a year! J Gassin, because of its hilltop location was also used as a primary station for military surveillance and was the hub for communicating possible danger to all surrounding villages. Our last hilltop village is a fairly new community, developed in 1966. Port Grimaud, which looks like a fishing village but is actually a very modern complex of luxury houses! Pricing for houses were even steeper than Monaco! New homes cost approximately 6,000 euros per square meter to build. Most are quite small, with their yachts even sometimes larger than the homes. Some call this area “New Venice” due to its intricate waterway designs. After touring the areas, we spent a few moments in Saint Tropez, (cool and windy) window shopping in the many galleries, and trendy clothing boutiques before returning to the ship on the tender. We spent a leisurely afternoon, taking a long lunch, a nice nap and writing our postcards. I think we are getting used to the European “siesta plan”! We enjoyed a quiet dinner then watched comedian Vicki Shaw before coming back to get rested up for our early excursion. Tomorrow will be our first steps into Viva Italia! We’ve been practicing more Italian tonight and trying to erase the French we’ve learned over the past four days. Ciao Bella! October 8, 2003 - DAY 5 - Genoa, Chiavari and Sestre Levante:Buon Journo! Viva Italia! We arrived at Portofino, greeted by 8 – 10 swells which made it impossible to reach our port and instead, sailed farther down the coast to the city of Genoa. This was not nearly as picturesque – it was charming in a large metropolitan city style instead. We docked at the harbor and continued with the same excursion plans with just a 2 hour delay. The feeling was different in Italy almost immediately. It’s hard to explain, but there is a friendlier attitude and a more open feeling about Italy. Our first stop was in a small seaside town of Chiavari. We strolled though a daily farmers market and enjoyed a tour of some of architecture that has been preserved on the facades of the buildings. We also visited the Cathedral, with a gorgeous neo-classical exterior and the most incredible interior filled with frescoes, marble cherub statues and gold accents everywhere. It would literally take weeks to absorb the floor to ceiling carvings, statues, designs etc… that covered every square inch of this Cathedral. Since it was almost lunch time, we decided to stop in a café next door and order our first Italian cappuccino, have a snack and use the restroom. The cappuccino was delish! Shortly after receiving our coffees, the waitress brought over a little plate of what we thought was coffee cake. Upon taking a bite, we realized it was something completely different, but absolutely delicioso anyway! It was a baked vegetable pie-like dish with potatoes, zucchini, egg and bread-like crust on the top, very tasty. It was our first experience trying to converse with our tiny bit of Italian to a non–English speaking Italian. She was very sweet and we enjoyed our interaction. We then moved onto the seaside village of Sestre Levante which we learned meant “west slate” since the local slate is used to make chalkboards, etc. found in this region. Apparently, Sestre Levante is a hustling, bustling village and popular beach destination during the summer months, but at this time of the year many shops are closed or only open in the mornings. We made our way back to Genoa in time for a late lunch on the ship. We met up with out Tahiti buddies and a couple of new gals, Sharon and Betty, and enjoyed a couple of hours of happy chats and afternoon sun. At 5:00pm, we indulged in sushi and Olivia’s up coming travel chat. There are so many great adventures ahead! Olivia’s new partnership with the cable network Showtime – the new series “The L Word” and possible property investments, like Time-shares, and hopefully soon our African Safari - stay tuned! J The evening ended on a perfect note with dinner with our buddy Jill, she’s such a neat gal! We enjoyed lively conversations, shared our Tahiti souvenir stories and enjoyed a great meal. Afterwards we took in a few songs by Suede, then went back up to get ready for the day we’ve been waiting for – Cinque Terre!! Until tomorrow – arrivederci, ciao, haste la Arnold. :-S October 9, 2003 - DAY 6 - Cinque Terre, La Spezia and Portovenere:We could hardly wait to wake up today! After all these years and many happy stories shared by our friends, we were finally going to Cinque Terre! Cinque = 5, Terre = land, thus the land of 5 villages. Our ship arrived pleasantly at Portovenere right before sunrise. It was exactly as I’d imagined. Rows of colorful buildings, lining a sweet little fishing harbor. Our guide, Fredricka, was WONDERFUL! J We began our adventure driving through La Spezia up to our first village of Cinque Terre called Manorola. Along the way, we learned about the countryside - everything from hilltop to sea had been carefully built into terraced, farmable land – truly amazing in this steep terrain! True dedication and extreme hard work made it possible to create such bounty from this region. Exporting wine from the Cinque Terra region dates back to the Roman Empire days. We enjoyed wonderful espresso and pastries in a local café before departing Manorola. We began walking along the beautiful ocean front of the famous “Via Del Amore” (Walk of the Lovers) to the next village of Riamaggiore, a picturesque fishing village, before catching a ferry to the village of Vernazza. What an adventure it was! The sea was very rough and for several hours, we weren’t certain if we’d be able to enjoy the boat or be required to take the bus instead. (We been secretly hoping for the scenic boat ride) J We learned that Italians “touch iron” instead of “knocking on wood” as we do in the USA for good luck. Vernazza was fantastic. We enjoyed several hours of exploration, shopping and lunch. The local people are incredibly friendly and good natured, with a fantastic sense of humor. We ventured in search of a restroom and discovered a wonderful side street that led to a beautiful scenic outlook called Castella Doria. What an incredible find!! We paid our 1 EURO for the entrance and proceeded to enjoy some of the most incredible aerial views of the entire area. The day went unbelievably fast and soon it was time for us to catch our train back to La Spezia where our bus driver was waiting to take us back to Portovenere. Upon arriving back in Portovenere, we decided to hike a bit of the end of the Cinque Terra path, which begins in this port city, Portovenere. After 40 minutes of solid walking up hill, we enjoyed beautiful views of our harbor, ship, churches, shops, the Alps! All truly spectacular! We descended and walked around window-shopping at several of the port shops. We met the sweetest shop owners who spoke absolutely no English. Surprisingly enough, we actually had a very nice chat with out slight bit of Italian, explaining to them about our adventures in Cinque Terre and our plans for the rest of our vacation. They proceeded to whip out a huge map and show us their favorite vacation destinations in Italy. We left the shop with an armload of goodies and gigantic smiles on our faces from the wonderful experience. The evening entertainment and dinner on the ship was delightful. We enjoyed a Mediterranean buffet extravaganza with our new friend Leah. Then had a wonderful surprise as a local dance group joined our ship and shared many traditional dances with us, even asking 8 people to volunteer and join them. Of course, Mary couldn’t wait - it was very fun and festive; much liked the traditional square dancing in the States. What a FUN, FUN DAY!!! October 10, 2003 - DAY 7 - Portoferraio:Today we joined a guided tour of the island of Elba. We boarded a bus in Portoferraio, which translates to “Port of Iron”. We learned iron was hugely exported during the Rome Empire years. Elba also is the home to more than 200 minerals. The island is shaped like a fish and has 3 distinct climates and regions all varying drastically from each other. Our first stop was to Marciana Marina, an upscale resort town on the coast. We enjoyed a lovely cappuccino while others joined in on wine tasting of local specialty. Our next stop was a mountainous drive up to the base of Mount Capanne. It was a nice change to enjoy a completely different climate. The trees stay green all year around with no real winter impact. The island is inhabited by many types of wild life, including cats, dogs and an abundance of wild boars and a big horn sheep of sorts. Upon arriving at Mount Capanne, we took a lift ride up 3,000 feet to the summit and enjoyed breath taking island views – spectacular!! After an hour of so of enjoying the vistas, we were on our way back to the ship. We had a pleasant lunch (yum) with Sue and Nancy and were joined by Leah for delectable ship desserts. We enjoyed the afternoon sun, lively conversation before taking another jaunt around the port to explore a little of the area. We picked up a fresh supply of bottled water at the local market and more cash at the ATM. We also took care of some details for our week on our own – including firming up Florence tours. J J. It was nice to just have some time for R&R on the ship! We enjoyed the departure from the port, and another beautiful sunset. The Olivia photographer asked to snap some images of us – cool! We joined the Olivia Alumni gathering to celebrate our 4th Olivia trip, and then made our way up to Mindy & Lynette’s cocktail party – fun! All this, before joining Tia and Barb for dinner at our favorite restaurant – Le Bistro! As usual, the meal was fabulous and Franz was exceptional! Tia and Barb had us so engrossed in fabulous stories that we barely realized the restaurant had closed and we were the only ones there! We look forward to keeping in touch - they are truly magnificent gals! We can’t believe this week has flown so fast! We are touring Corsica tomorrow – then packing up our stuff for departure! :0 October 11, 2003 - DAY 8 - Porto Vecchio, Corsica:Good morning and welcome to another day in paradise! Today’s journey began with arriving on the island of Corsica. We are transferring via bus through the county side to Bonifacio – a beautiful port city on the hilltop. We enjoyed a nice climb via foot to the top and explored the narrow streets and many look out towers to enjoy the scenic water views. The city is perched high above the ocean surrounded by limestone and chalk cliffs. The textures and colors provide a fantastic background against the blueness of the sea. We enjoyed another wonderful lunch at a sidewalk café with Tia and Barb and bought a few more souvenirs. And –finally- saw a real cork tree! This is a type of oak tree that all cork products are made from. After arriving back on the ship around 4:00 pm, we went back to our room and began packing for our early morning arrival in Rome! The weather has been magnificent. Sunny and 70’s for most of our afternoons, mild overnight temperatures and the mistral winds have either mellowed out, or we’ve traveled farther south and are no longer affected by them. It was a perfect late afternoon on the ship deck, watching our departure from the dock. We got some wonderful photos of us on the dock, and met even more new friends! October 12, 2003 - DAY 9 - Disembarkation, Civitavecchio, Rome:After packing up our belongings, we said goodbye – arrivederci - to new friends, the wonderful crew, and the WindSurf. We boarded a bus for a 90 minute ride into Rome - the landscape was a bit sparse, consisting of some farmable areas which had already been put to rest for the winter months. Upon arriving in the city limits of Rome, we were immediately dazzled by the display of ruins and out cropping popping up in ordinary areas around the city. Our first stop was St. Paul’s Basilica. It was beautifully decorated with marble and statues galore - unbelievably fantastic. After walking around a bit we went to the massive and incredible Forum and Coliseum - WHOA! It’s amazingly intact and mostly restored; we enjoyed learning about the efficiency of Roman engineering. Can you imagine that they could empty a 70,000 seat stadium in just a few quick moments? Who would have thought that their technology would still be used in modern arenas and stadiums - architects are still using this design today! We then walked through The Forum and viewed many of Michelangelo’s incredible designs and sculptures. The morning went by so quickly and we found ourselves craving a few extra moments, wishing we had time to absorb more of what we were viewing. We arrived back at our hotel by 2:30 and went to lunch – pizza down the street with Tia and Barb. It was a quiet corner café – just perfect for people watching! After enjoying a nice meal, we came back and checked into the hotel then got ready to explore more of Rome on foot! We studied our map with grande intentions of tackling Rome’s public buses since our hotel was so close to the main bus terminal. After losing almost 10 EURO’s in the ticket vending machine – asking for help – and seeing many others lose EURO’s, we gave up and decided to walk! This was a great decision - The Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps were magnificent and well worth the time and relatively quick walk, reaching our destinations within 20 minutes. (That is - once we knew where we were going!) We enjoyed quite a bit of people watching at Trevi Fountain, took in some afternoon sun, and then walked to the Spanish Steps to enjoy the sunset. After spending a nice rest here, we made our way back to the Hotel via the Trevi Fountain to see it lit up in its evening glory - what a spectacular masterpiece! We arrived back at the Hotel shortly before 8:00 pm to find Leah, Sue and Nancy waiting for us to join them for dinner. We quickly went up to our rooms, freshened up and changed into dinner attire. Woohoo! Then, hailed a cab and departed on a wild ride to Trastevere section of the city, known for its colorful night life, great food and entertainment. We arrived in about 10 fast, crazy minutes, walked up a beautiful restaurant-clad street and proceeded to get a table for the 7 of us. We joined two friendly gay guys from Germany – who gave us great tips of exploring the city and items that were truly delightful on the menu. My spaghetti was fantisimo! Salad was fresh and the gals raved about the local wine selection. It was such fun watching everyone loosen up a bit - we laughed hysterically many times with jokes, events and conversations. Some of the memorable moments include Sue and Nancy’s impression of the beggar gypsy women we had encountered earlier that day – the moments were priceless!! We all had a blast – a little vino accident – hope Nancy’s new sweater survived!! Cappuccinos and desserts have been phenomenal throughout our entire trip. I’m going to be sad to leave these deliciouso tidbits when it’s time to go home. Around midnight we finally got directions from the restaurant chef on how and where to hail a cab in Rome. He was such a sweetie and even walked us, several blocks to the taxi pick up station – nice information to know. The restaurant owner was also extremely gracious -we highly recommend checking out this place! Tomorrow morning we will be on early wake up call for our vacation tour, and then we need to repack our stuff, secure our train tickets and seek our next adventures to Florence! So much to see – we really need another week in Rome to digest all the incredible artwork. WOW! October 13, 2003 - DAY 10 - Rome and Florence:Our 6:00 am wake up call came much too quickly! We groggily packed up our bags and prepared for our morning tour of the Vatican. (Tidbit of info: Vatican City is the smallest country in the world) Our adventure started in the Vatican Museum with amazing sculptures and frescoes. There is so much to see here - of course we were all patiently waiting for our arrival to the Sistine Chapel! We continued walking through mazes of museums and statues and paintings then arrived at the final courtyard before entering into the Sistine Chapel. Our guides gave us a pictorial guide of what we would be seeing. It was truly amazing – with incredible art work – hard to believe that these statues were not real humans standing in front of us – it felt like they were coming to life before our very eyes! We went on to the St. Peter’s Basilica to view the largest and most ornate church in the world. The internal area alone equals the dimensions of the Roman Coliseum – truly amazing stories and art work. By mid afternoon, we were back on the bus heading for our hotel to check out, say our goodbyes and take our first train ride (flying solo and leaving the group) to Florence. The train station was located very close to our hotel – wonderful news! We loaded up and set out on foot to the train station. It was a much easier process then I thought it would be to purchase the train tickets. After settling in, we gobbled a sandwich and cappuccino at a local shop and waited for our next train. We met a sweet couple from the US just arriving on their holiday - it was a nice interaction. They gave us some great tips of Florence or Firenze – as the locals would say. The train was on time (no strikes, it’s our lucky day!) and very smooth, clean - we loved it! We met a wonderful Spanish student who has been living in Florence for over a year now. She helped us understand the whole process, it was great! The Tuscan countryside along the way was tremendous – just like in the movies. Once we were in Florence, our new friend helped us understand upcoming train schedules, purchase a phone card (for confirming hotel reservations) and hail a taxi to take us to the hotel! Florence is beautiful and much less crowded than Rome – a pleasant surprise! Our hotel is perfectly situated near the Piazza adjoining the famous Duomo! We signed up for a tour of “Florence in a Day” for tomorrow and we will keep you posted on our next adventure. Hotel Pendini is a very sweet place – inexpensive, convenient, friendly, clean and simple. October 14, 2003 - DAY 11 - Florence:We awoke well rested in our bright little room, showered and walked over to enjoy breakfast in the hotel. We got a map and proceeded to find the office for our days adventure called the “Florence in a Day” tour which includes a guided 3 ½ hour city tour (on foot) of Florence, the Accademia Gallery, and Uffizi Gallery. The city tour was incredible! We studied many architectural designs and learned some fascinating bits of gossip about the Renaissance artists. Our guide was a wonderful well trained art historian and shared her perspective on design as well as overall details. We learned that BIGGER was BETTER in the Renaissance days and wealthy families were always attempting to display their prominence in society. Prominent families even built in benches of marble along the front of their homes – displaying their popularity to the whole city. Iron hooks and rings were mounted into stone walls for visitors to secure their horses when visiting. Doorways were extra large for the home owners to ride into their house on horse back. Hence the saying “And the horse you rode in on”! Little “mailbox” looking slots were built into the walls and used to place leftover food for beggars and homeless to come by, pick up and enjoy. There was quite a remarkable sense of community. Speaking of food, we grabbed a sandwich – very tasty – on our way to the next tour. Our next adventure took us on a tour about Michelangelo. We saw his previous homes and family’s homes before arriving at the Accademia and viewing many of his unfinished statues, as well as - the world renowned statue of David. It really is a regal and magnificent sight and seems so real, very hard to believe it’s a statue. We enjoyed yummy gelato then moved onto the Uffizi gallery – holding the best of the Renaissance artwork in all of Italy. The collection originally belonged to the Medici family before being turned over to the city of Florence. The museum is pretty incredible, consisting of tons of sculptures and various paintings. Many famous artists such as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, De Vinci, Ruebens, etc… But most are not the largest or most famous of masterpieces created in the artist’s careers – you’d need to visit the Louver in Paris for that collection! None the less - it’s the most incredible collection of this time period anywhere in Italy. After spending almost 10 hours on our tours, we were ready for a break! We went back to the center of town – Piazza de Republic to take in a better visual of the sculptures and sit for a bit before continuing back to our room and deciding where to have dinner. We chose a little hole in the wall, place called “Self Serve Leonardo” recommended by Rick Steves. It was fantastic – cafeteria style, “order your favorite dish” yummy home-cooked Italian food. We window shopped a bit after purchasing an Italian folk music CD, then went back to our hotel room and went to sleep. Tomorrow is Florence on our own with no wakeup calls!! October 15, 2003 - DAY 12 - Florence and Venice:AHH!! Our first day without an early morning wakeup call. It was wonderful to sleep in! We woke up well rested at about 7:30 am, showered and began to re-pack our items to depart for Venice. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel, did a little more souvenir shopping, then purchased train tickets for a 2:30 departure and made our way back to our hotel to depart for the train station. We were unable to secure 1st class train tickets, but discovered that EuroStar’s (our train line) non-smoking second class tickets were also quite nice! (and less expen$ive!) We enjoyed a nice row section with 2 gals, mom and daughter from San Diego, that were following a similar route as us – Rome, Florence, Venice. They were lucky enough to be part of a train strike on one leg of this route – fun (or not!!) We arrived at the Venice train station around 5:30 pm, checked our 2 big suit cases at the train station storage and proceeded on foot with only our backpacks! We felt so free! The city is truly beautiful. The waterways make it feel even more inviting. We arrived just in time to watch the sunset colors wash across the buildings along the canals. It was a fun walk, with lots of window shopping along the way. We felt like we were on a treasure hunt, following the signs for the Rialto Bridge, where our hotel was located. The streets wound back and forth, crossing over smaller bridges with waterways periodically, and then finally opened near a larger waterway – The Grande Canal - before our eyes caught the first glimpse of the Rialto Bridge – spectacular! Just knowing a brief bit of history – the Rialto was the first and only bridge to allow residents to cross over the Grand Canal. There are many now – but, this was the first! We used a photo taken from a room in our hotel – The Hotel Ovidius – to actually help us get oriented and –viola- located our hotel – mission accomplished! We made our way to the front desk and were greeted by an extremely friendly and helpful attendant. Our room is spectacular- WOW!! We have a wonderful sitting area and 2 huge windows that open onto the Grand Canal that include breath-taking views of the Rialto Bridge. We enjoyed people watching, sights and sounds of the early evening and opera singing as gondola rides departed. After settling in, we set out on foot to have dinner at a recommended local restaurant. Yummy - good food, great atmosphere and awesome company! (My honeypie) What else could I ever ask for? Life is great! J
October 16, 2003 - DAY 13 - Venice:Yet another great night’s sleep – we awoke peacefully as the sun and activity started to liven up on the Grande Canal. The pleasant aroma of pancakes and waffles cooking nearby began to permeate our room, making breakfast sound like a really fabulous idea. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and awesome cappuccino, and then we were off to explore this fabulous city on foot! For having many narrow and winding little corridor-like streets, everything is very well marked and it’s easy to navigate. We also decided that we are glad to be staying next to one of the biggest landmarks of the city. Within 15 minutes or so, we arrived at Saint Marcos Piazza - a huge plaza adjoining St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace and an incredible bell tower, in which we took an elevator ride to the top (no stairs availableL) for some incredible views of the city. WOW! The temperatures have cooled down dramatically over the past couple of days. We were wishing we had some of the warmer clothes that are stored in our suitcase at the train station – no worries. It gave us a great excuse to do some shopping! Mary found a great brown leather shirt, and I found a leather vested sweater. Both fit our personalities perfectly and fit the European fashion scene nicely! We paused for a quick sandwich and gelato to revive our energy for more exploring and shopping. In our adventures, we stopped by and purchased our train tickets for Milan for tomorrow afternoon. We have been in complete disbelief at how fast our vacation has flown by! WOW! We’ve certainly covered some miles, and every stop along the way has been completely different from the last….amazing! Venice certainly has its own vibe. It’s fascinating to think about what it would take to keep a city with no cars in business everyday. Freight-like boats bring supplies to the nearest waterway, where items and supplies are then offloaded onto pallets and hand carted to their destination. As you can imagine, prices are higher due to these extra steps. People are friendly and gregarious here as well as in all our other stops. We’ve really enjoyed their flamboyant personalities! Our next adventure was to explore the city via vaporetto rides on the water! We purchased a 24 hour ticket which allowed us to ride as often as we’d like, getting on and off any vaporetto. We hopped on at San Marcos square and rode #1 all the way to the end, passed the train station, and then hopped on #82 back to the exit before our Rialto, in search of a good dinner and pizza place. We searched every nook and cranny and finally found a couple of Sicilian- style slices that were pretty tasty. We stopped for a cappuccino and dessert before coming back to our beautiful room for a relaxing hot tub in our whirlpool bath. Ahh!!! The life of vacation – yeh!!
October 17, 2003 - DAY 14 - Venice and Milan:We spent a leisurely morning doing a bit more sightseeing via the vaporetto before boarding the train to Milan. This is really it – our extraordinary adventure is coming to a close! We arrived in Milan, then proceeded to our hotel to check in, get some dinner and repack for an extremely early flight home – it has been a blast but there is NOTHING like coming home – we just can’t wait to squeeze our cute little furrballs, Jelly, Jam and Maddy and see how life on the home front has been going.
…..Until the next adventure – Happy Trails To You!!!
|
|||||||
This page was last updated 12/07/07