Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Good morning from Venezia!!!!
Hi everyone! We arrived in Venice Monday morning, and took a water taxi from the train station right to the hotel. We are staying at the Ruzzini Palace located on a beautiful piazza. The hotel is gorgeous, only 29 rooms and fortunately we were upgraded to a lovely junior suite with huge 20 foot casement windows that open to the piazza. This morning I woke to the smell of fresh bread and pastries baking from the restaurants right across the square, as well as to the sound of glorious deep church bells ringing the square awake. The sun is beaming and the weather here has been gorgeous, around 60 or so, sunny and incredibly bright and cheerful.
Yesterday we walked all around Venice and spent some time in St. Mark's square, and we visited St. Mark's Basilica. The church was built in 1053 and frankly everything here is about 1000 years old. The canals are incredible and it is really easy to get lost here because there are so many twists and turns. There are no cars, just water taxis, water busses, private boats and gondolas (I may have missed another kind of transport). There are tiny bridges that connect you to other places on the island but you need to pay attention to the street you are on, otherwise you end up down an alleyway to a small plaza with no outlet except the canal.
The food here is wonderful, and Tim and I have had our fill of wine, pasta, bread and salad both mixed and capreze that I think I am now half italian!
Today we are taking a tour of the Hidden Gems of Venice with a tour guide from where else? England of course. Ha! Angelina Jolie and my love Johnny Depp are filming a movie here, a remake called The Tourist and I am hopeful that we can find out where they are filming and watch by the sidelines. In the other two cities I was worried about looking like a tourist, but in venice pretty much everyone is a tourist!!! The city is busy but not too much so so it's nice to wonder around, stop at little side street cafes and order espresso and/or gelato and watch the world go by.
Last night after a lengthy walk by the sea, the vendors and a host of gondoliers, we ate a romantic dinner by the grand canal at a cute little restaurant called Al Buso. The owner was wonderful and kept bringing us things including some after dinner drinnks I couldn't recognize but were delicious! A couple next to us had a great big yellow lab at their feet and they were sitting behind me but the dog came next to me and put his head on my feet while I stroked his head and belly. Tim was jealous!! The dog was adorable and every time I see a dog I realize how much I miss cricket. After dinner we took a beautiful moonlit gondola ride with a gondolier who has been doing this gig for 44 years, and whose family has been doing gondoliering for 500 years. 500 years!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine? He took us to these quiet out of the way street or canals, and we saw Mozart's home and Marco Polo's home. Their homes!!!!!!!!!!!! It was unbelievable!!!! The history here is so rich, and now I can also understand why the venetians talk about carpe diem...some of these homes don't look like they are going to last another 1000 years, with the water damage and age of the buildings.
The people are very nice, kind and sweet and have been very helpful to us, especially if we find ourselves suddenly lost down the road walkway. We have lots of touring to do today, so now that it's after 7amI will wake Tim, get us some coffee and begin the excitement of our day.
On Wednesday we fly back home, and while we have had a wonderful adventure meeting great people, seeing beautiful places, breathing and walking and touching history every moment, drinking incredible wine and eating the best food on earth, it will be good to get home!
Have a great day and a good week!
Gail & Tim
Yesterday we walked all around Venice and spent some time in St. Mark's square, and we visited St. Mark's Basilica. The church was built in 1053 and frankly everything here is about 1000 years old. The canals are incredible and it is really easy to get lost here because there are so many twists and turns. There are no cars, just water taxis, water busses, private boats and gondolas (I may have missed another kind of transport). There are tiny bridges that connect you to other places on the island but you need to pay attention to the street you are on, otherwise you end up down an alleyway to a small plaza with no outlet except the canal.
The food here is wonderful, and Tim and I have had our fill of wine, pasta, bread and salad both mixed and capreze that I think I am now half italian!
Today we are taking a tour of the Hidden Gems of Venice with a tour guide from where else? England of course. Ha! Angelina Jolie and my love Johnny Depp are filming a movie here, a remake called The Tourist and I am hopeful that we can find out where they are filming and watch by the sidelines. In the other two cities I was worried about looking like a tourist, but in venice pretty much everyone is a tourist!!! The city is busy but not too much so so it's nice to wonder around, stop at little side street cafes and order espresso and/or gelato and watch the world go by.
Last night after a lengthy walk by the sea, the vendors and a host of gondoliers, we ate a romantic dinner by the grand canal at a cute little restaurant called Al Buso. The owner was wonderful and kept bringing us things including some after dinner drinnks I couldn't recognize but were delicious! A couple next to us had a great big yellow lab at their feet and they were sitting behind me but the dog came next to me and put his head on my feet while I stroked his head and belly. Tim was jealous!! The dog was adorable and every time I see a dog I realize how much I miss cricket. After dinner we took a beautiful moonlit gondola ride with a gondolier who has been doing this gig for 44 years, and whose family has been doing gondoliering for 500 years. 500 years!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine? He took us to these quiet out of the way street or canals, and we saw Mozart's home and Marco Polo's home. Their homes!!!!!!!!!!!! It was unbelievable!!!! The history here is so rich, and now I can also understand why the venetians talk about carpe diem...some of these homes don't look like they are going to last another 1000 years, with the water damage and age of the buildings.
The people are very nice, kind and sweet and have been very helpful to us, especially if we find ourselves suddenly lost down the road walkway. We have lots of touring to do today, so now that it's after 7amI will wake Tim, get us some coffee and begin the excitement of our day.
On Wednesday we fly back home, and while we have had a wonderful adventure meeting great people, seeing beautiful places, breathing and walking and touching history every moment, drinking incredible wine and eating the best food on earth, it will be good to get home!
Have a great day and a good week!
Gail & Tim
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Just a hello from Florence!
We arrived in Florence wed. afternoon 5/12. We took the train from Roma to Firenze. It was great! The train station is a little bit jarring if you don't speak Italian but Tim was great and we found the right track, right train and finally after some time the right compartment and seats! We had a lovely train ride through the countryside of the region Umbria and arrived at the Florence train station around 1pm.
Our hotel is a beautiful old palace, the Bernini Palace right smack in the middle of a lovely square and right next door to the government building, steps away from Neptune's Fountain, the Uffizi and the Statutes of the Rape of the Sabine Women. Everywhere we look, there are churches, churches and more churches, more squares of cobblestones that you can imagine and lots of little shops....lots of shops!!!!
Every half hour, 45 minutes and on the hour church bells ring right outside our bedroom window. We have these beautiful huge floor to ceiling casement windows that swing wide open into the room and I either feel like Juliet or Rapunzel in looking over the grated patio fencing to watch the people walking in the square next door.
Streets are so tiny that I hold my breath when walking because equally small but fast scooters come racing by about 30 miles per hour and sometimes you need to just jump out of the way. Everyone here speaks another language, but certainly everyone loves the language of beautiful Italian Renaissance art and fabulous Italian food.
During our time in Rome we hired an incredible guide to show us a special tour of the Vatican, as well as a special tour of two of the seven hills of Rome where we viewed some of the oldest churches in Rome. We also saw the Knights of Malta building and hopefully Tim will add that photo soon!
In Florence we hired a tour guide to take us to the Duomo (huge cathedral), the Uffizi (huge art gallery of art formerly owned by the Medici Family, and the academe where we saw Michelango's David. He was beautiful and huge and reminded me a little bit of Timmy. Photos to follow shortly when I wake Timmy from his nap. Today (Saturday) we traveled with another guide for a day trip through Tuscany with a spectacular stop at a winery where we had a private wine tasting and special lunch with a wine discussion by the owner. Just prior to the wine stop, we stopped in Sienna and later after wine we stopped in San Gimignano, an 11 century town with a main street so narrow and slender that cars, even the little smart cars can barely fit, and only the local cars can travel the streets. The town was charming although it was raining and cold, and you know how yucky that is when you are traveling. But after a great lunch, and trying over 10 bottles of different kinds of wine, we were a little bit more relaxed and hopefully those photos will even be okay! Ha!
Having guides to help show you around are wonderful and incredibly helpful and make life much easier for us to enjoy the many sites around us in a more knowledgeable way. Hope to write more soon, but suffice it to say in a heartbeat I would move here for a year to work and enjoy the people and the landscape. Not sure if Tim feels the same way, because he is still napping.
:) Have a great weekend!!
Gail and Tim
Our hotel is a beautiful old palace, the Bernini Palace right smack in the middle of a lovely square and right next door to the government building, steps away from Neptune's Fountain, the Uffizi and the Statutes of the Rape of the Sabine Women. Everywhere we look, there are churches, churches and more churches, more squares of cobblestones that you can imagine and lots of little shops....lots of shops!!!!
Every half hour, 45 minutes and on the hour church bells ring right outside our bedroom window. We have these beautiful huge floor to ceiling casement windows that swing wide open into the room and I either feel like Juliet or Rapunzel in looking over the grated patio fencing to watch the people walking in the square next door.
Streets are so tiny that I hold my breath when walking because equally small but fast scooters come racing by about 30 miles per hour and sometimes you need to just jump out of the way. Everyone here speaks another language, but certainly everyone loves the language of beautiful Italian Renaissance art and fabulous Italian food.
During our time in Rome we hired an incredible guide to show us a special tour of the Vatican, as well as a special tour of two of the seven hills of Rome where we viewed some of the oldest churches in Rome. We also saw the Knights of Malta building and hopefully Tim will add that photo soon!
In Florence we hired a tour guide to take us to the Duomo (huge cathedral), the Uffizi (huge art gallery of art formerly owned by the Medici Family, and the academe where we saw Michelango's David. He was beautiful and huge and reminded me a little bit of Timmy. Photos to follow shortly when I wake Timmy from his nap. Today (Saturday) we traveled with another guide for a day trip through Tuscany with a spectacular stop at a winery where we had a private wine tasting and special lunch with a wine discussion by the owner. Just prior to the wine stop, we stopped in Sienna and later after wine we stopped in San Gimignano, an 11 century town with a main street so narrow and slender that cars, even the little smart cars can barely fit, and only the local cars can travel the streets. The town was charming although it was raining and cold, and you know how yucky that is when you are traveling. But after a great lunch, and trying over 10 bottles of different kinds of wine, we were a little bit more relaxed and hopefully those photos will even be okay! Ha!
Having guides to help show you around are wonderful and incredibly helpful and make life much easier for us to enjoy the many sites around us in a more knowledgeable way. Hope to write more soon, but suffice it to say in a heartbeat I would move here for a year to work and enjoy the people and the landscape. Not sure if Tim feels the same way, because he is still napping.
:) Have a great weekend!!
Gail and Tim
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