Tag Archives: Italy

Venice

13 Friday Aug 2010

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I am generally not a nervous driver but driving along the coast to La Spezia was petrifying. The roads again were super skinny and all that separated you from going over the cliff was a small guard rail. Not my idea of fun. I think I might have driven 20km’s an hour until we headed inland away from the coast. Other than that, the drive to Venice was pretty painless. We didn’t get lost once! Susan was way better with directions than me! I think it took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there. Except for the part from Vernazza to La Spezia, it was pretty much all highway.

We dropped off the rental car without issues but forgot to put gas in it. Luckily the Avis guy told us not to worry about it and wouldn’t charge us! Yah! We did a lot of driving and only had to fill the car up the once for 50 euros! Not bad!

The vaporetto was just across the street so we were able to get on one right away to take us to Lido. We decided to stay on Lido on a recommendation. The Lido is an 11km sandbar located in Venice. Most of the Adratic Sea side of Lido is a sandy beach where a lot of Italians tend to summer. It took about 20 minutes on the vaporetto to get to Lido and then had to find our hotel which was about a 20 min walk. When we got there, they looked at us blankly because although we had a reservation and I an email confirmation from them (which I was happy to provide), they did not have a reservation for us and nor did they have any room. She asked us what we would like her to do? Um, find us another room perhaps? Same price? Same star level? So she got on the phone and started calling hotels. All full! But finally came to one that was only 1 euro more a night. So if you are going to the Lido, my recommendation is to not book with Villa Stella or at the very least triple confirm your reservation.

The hotel that had room for us was back towards the vaporetto station so we dragged our suitcase once again back toward where we came from and easily found our hotel. Much to our surprise and delight, this new hotel was even closer to the beach and all the restaurants etc. So really, them not finding our reservation was a win!

Sue and I weren’t planning on heading into Venice that night so we hit the beach and went for a swim (grabbing beers on the way). I seriously love how there is no law against drinking in public in Italy!

By this time, it was around 6pm so we went back to our hotel and got ready for dinner. We walked to the main strip on Lido and settled in for our meal. Wine? Of course!! And pasta! A wonderful salmon pasta. And this time we switched it up a little and went for the mussels appy instead of something with tomatoes and cheese! All so good! and filling!

 As we walked back to the hotel (while getting eaten alive by mosquitos) we saw a beautiful sunset!

In the morning, we got up bright and early and made our way to the vaporetto and to Venice’s, Piazza San Marco, where we immediately got in line for Saint Mark’s Basilica. It was still early enough that the crowds weren’t too big so we were still able to get some good pictures of the square without too many people.

It took us no time at all, once the cathedral was open, to make our way inside. You can tell why it is called “The church of gold”!

Another stunning church. The last one we would see in Italy. I really did enjoy each and everyone we saw. All so different and so beautiful!

We then headed straight to the Ponte di Rialto. I think that was the moment that my mouth dropped wide open and I realized I really was in Venice!

It pretty much was the coolest thing I had ever seen! I had to stand there a while and just take it all in. The rest of the day we just walked around Venice. Wandered down streets only to find out it went nowhere and would turn around. Some of the pictures below are from our adventures.

After a while we settled back in St. Mark’s Square and just chilled out. People watched. I napped. We had a while before we needed to be at the gondola dock so we just killed time. Did a little shopping. Had some pizza and beer. We were sitting in the park when the clouds started to get really dark and I heard thunder in the distance. Sue and I got out of the park and were walking back towards the square when the sky just opened up and the rain came down hard!

Everyone scrambled to take cover but a few kids who took the opportunity to cool off and have some fun. What a moment for everyone watching. Pure joy as they splashed around! I was happy to be able to capture it!

And just as fast as the rain started, it ended. Thank goodness! I was really concerned that our gondola ride would be cancelled but everything went right back to normal. Around 7pm we headed to where our gondola ride was leaving from. I was so excited as this was a total bucket list moment for me. I couldn’t wait for it. We wanted to go at sunset as we thought it would be cooler but also we would get better pictures! Was I ever right!

We were serenaded throughout as we moved our way down the Grand Canal and then in through some of the smaller water ways. I was incredibly moved! I had the biggest smile on my face throughout. And it didn’t hurt that there was a little eye candy in the way of the “hot gondalier”…

This was a perfect way to end our trip in Venice and it was a perfect way to spend our last night in Italy. What a trip. It was brilliant from start to finish. I can’t wait to go back!

 

Vernazza

10 Tuesday Aug 2010

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We finally got out of Pisa after getting turned around a little and drove toward the Cinque Terre and a little town called Vernazza. Afyter driving for a little bit, we absolutely had no idea where we were. We were driving down this tiny road with no town in site. I was hoping we didn’t break down because with no cell phone and no house near by, we would have been in trouble! We eventually drove through this tiny town and stopped for directions. Susan is way better at understanding people and was able to decipher from the guy who only spoke italian where we needed to go. So we crossed our fingers and headed in that direction and finally saw signs again for Vernazza. The roads were still so small and windy and literally there was only room for one car at a time. We eventually found the final turn off and winded down the hill towards the town.

The towns are so small that there is no public parking in the town so we parked in the lot and wheeled our luggage down the hill.

And now to find our room. Again, no real visible street signs. Sue went off while I stayed with the luggage and was able to find the street but the street numbers made no sense. I happened to see a women pick up her new tenants at the train station and asked her if she could point us in the right direction. She confered with another woman in one of the local shops and then picked up the phone and called Elizabetta for us. What wonderful hospitality! We then made our way up the 76 stairs to our room. A painful experience but the pain was worth it when we saw the view from our room.

We threw our bags in our room and grabbed a beer and just sat on the patio and enjoyed the scenery for a while. We just needed to chill out after our journey here.

We thought we might as well go and enjoy the beach a little bit so grabbed some lunch and another beer and settled on the beach. So enjoyable. We dipped a few times to cool off and chatted about the plan for the afternoon.

A hike to Corneglia seemed like a great idea. The start of the path was right behind our room so it was easy to find. And what a view right from the start. In the picture below, the patio with the Italian flag, is ours. Pretty nice right?

It was super hot out (as per usual) so we called this our Bikrams hike. It reminded me a little of the grind. Lots and lots of stairs! But it eventually it evened out though which was a relief!

We were finally able to see Corneglia and even Manarola the town beyond it. Couldn’t wait to get there and have another beer to cool off.

What another beautiful little town. Small alley ways for streets. Bright colours. Simple but stunning. And what a beautiful view of the next town.

Instead of hiking back we took the train. A lot faster and literally drops you off right in town. Had we known that, we probably would have driven to La Spezia and just taken the train to Vernazza instead.

By this time, it was late afternoon and time to get ready for dinner and enjoy our patio for our Prosecco and cheese. I absolutely loved this patio. We shared it with another room but had yet to run into them.

 

We headed for dinner at a little place near the beach and out of all the meals we had in Italy, unfortunately, this one was the worst. I ordered the prawn pasta but the prawns came complete with legs, eye balls and all! As we tried to get the meat out, we realized there was just really no meat in them. So not so much of a prawn pasta after all. Behold my alien pasta!

We wanted to enjoy our patio some more so we were going to get into our PJ`s and just relax up there but I wanted to get a quick picture of the sunset before we did and that is when we ran into JP and Danny. They were also watching the sunset so we got to chatting.

Then shared a bottle of champagne that we had left over from the wedding, went for late night gelato and a walk to the pier. What a beautiful serene place to sit and chat. And a perfect way to end our night in Vernazza.

We were so happy to have been able to experience a little bit of the Cinque Terre and meet some new friends in the process.

 

Florence & Pisa

05 Thursday Aug 2010

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Sue drove this leg of the trip and thank goodness as once again we found ourselves trying to find our hotel through the one way streets of Florence. Noted for next trip, get the GPS unit no matter what the cost! We literally found ourselves right in the centre of Florence that had streets big enough for just one car. We knew we had to get out but how? Between Jane and I, we managed to eventually get close to our hotel, where we then parked the car on some side street and walked in to the hotel. Once we checked in we asked if we were allowed to just park on the streets. Makes sense that they are just for residences but that meant we would have to drive again to try and find parking. The last thing I wanted to do was try and navigate our way through Florence streets again.The concierge told us she would have the parking attendant come and get the car for us. Yes!!!

With that taken care of, the three of us set off to explore Florence mainly the markets. Oh the leather!!!! Leather shoes, bags, wallets everywhere. We had only been in Florence like an hour and I had already seen about 10 things I would love to buy! But didn’t want to rush into anything so we just wandered through the stands, looking at everything, trying not to get sucked in by the merchants.

Jane only had a few hours before her flight back to London so we grabbed a bite to eat before we said goodbye to her. Sue and I wanted an early night so we went straight back to the hotel.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which consisted of the usual… tomatoes, cheese, yoghurt, granola. My regular Italian breaky. Might have thrown a croissant here or there into the mix. The agenda for today was busy. The morning we had tickets booked to the Accademia, then to the Uffizi, then to Pitti Palace.

The Accademia is a small museum which is home to Michelangelo’s David, another bucket moment for me. How can you not be in awe of this Renaissance sculpture? The sheer size of it alone makes you wonder how someone could have ever created something so beautiful and perfect. And again you are not supposed to take pictures but I got one off before I realized you were not supposed to. Really they need to put those signs bigger! Ok, so I took two pictures. The second, I did feel badly about! 😉

We did wander through the other halls of the museum but our visit to this gallery was all about seeing David.

We had some time before our Uffizi Gallery visit so we went down to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore which was just about to open up for the day. The lineup was not that bad so we stood in line. Before we knew it, the lineup was about 200 people deep. Glad we got in it when we did! It is another beautiful, Gothic style church. The cathedral, along with the Baptistry and Giotto’s Campanile are a part of the UNESCO’s World Heritage site.

Another church on our list to see was the Basilica di Santa Croce. It is the principal Franciscan church in Florence. Legend says that this church was founded by St Francis of Assisi himself. It has 16 chapels and has tombs & cenotaphs throughout.

For lunch we went to a little cafe with a waiter who would speak to us in Italian really fast and only speak english when we looked at it him with these confused blank eyes. It became a game with us and was actually quite funny. When we left we turned to him and in unison said… Ciao… which made him laugh out loud! So great!

The cafe was just outside the Uffizi Gallery so we were close to our next destination. The Uffizi houses a world-class collection of paintings like Botticelli’s Birth of Venus which was a personal favourite of mine. Some of the other notable paintings were The Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait as a Young Man and Titian’s Venus of Urbino. We spent a lot of time there taking periodical time outs so I could sit down and rest my back. I don’t know much about art but Sue and I both enjoyed looking at all the different paintings and talking about what we liked, what we didn’t like, the colours, the styles etc. I think we managed to hit every room!

We were both getting tired at this point but still had the Pitti Palace to go to. We wandered over the Ponte Vecchio to get there. You are basically on the bridge before you even know it. With all the shops lining it, it is hard to tell until you get to the mid point where you can stand and enjoy the view of the river.

Arriving at Pitti Palace earlier than our ticket time, we thought we would see if we could get in early and did so without any issues. The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and in the late 18th century was used as a power base by Napoleon. In the early 19th century it was donated by the King to the Italian people and that is when its doors were opened to the public. It was so interesting going from room to room discovering what each room was used for and by whom.

At one point you could look out the window and see the Boboli Gardens which we did not buy tickets for. And at another point you looked out and saw all of Florence. Truly spectacular.By this time it was about 5pm so we walked across Ponte Santa Trinita so we could get a better look at Ponte Vecchio, walked through the market and grabbed all the leather goods we had been eyeing the day before and then went back to our hotel for a siesta.

Oh siestas! How I wish I could have you every day! Sue and I still had a bottle of champagne left from the wedding so we thought we might as well have it pre dinner. We were the only room in our hotel to have a balcony so we drank our champagne with our little plastic cups as we people watched and enjoyed the Florence evening.

 I looked forward to each and every meal in Italy because I knew I was always in for a treat. Our last night in Florence did not disappoint. More wine was to be had to accompany another great meal.

 Before we turned in, we asked the concierge about our car and how were to go about getting it in the morning and was so pleasantly surprised to know that they would just bring it around in the morning for whatever time we wanted. In the morning, right on time, the car was waiting for us outside and we were on our way to Pisa.

Pisa was easy to get to. The Leaning Tower, not so much. We eventually asked a few people who pointed us in the right direction but by this point we were so turned around that I never thought we would be able to find the car again.

It was still fairly early in the morning so the crowds around the tower were not too bad.  It was another bucket list moment but I guess I was a bit underwhelmed. Maybe I was just tired or maybe I just really wanted to get on the road to Vernazza. But regardless, I was still grateful to have been able to see it.

And I was right about not being able to find out car. We eventually did but only after asking for directions once again. And we were off! This time to the Cinque Terre.