Wed & Thurs, Sept 21 & 22

Arrived in Milan after tearfully saying "Arrivederci!" to Stresa. It truly is one of the most beautiful places to visit - we will return one day! Here is a final picture photo of Isola Bella as taken from our hotel room.



Milan is a very busy city - a real mix of business, fashion and art. It's fashion week this week for spring/summer 2012 (I haven't even gotten out of my 2011 summer stuff yet!) and the city is filled with ridiculously thin models. Everyone dresses very stylishly - and it has nothing to do with expensive clothing - people here have a very innate sense of what looks good in clothing and how to put it together.Lots of great fashion billboards around the city . Here is an Armani one.



After arriving at the Westin which is located just outside the old city, we headed to La Brera art museum which has the best and biggest collection of northern Italian art in the world. After wandering through 30 rooms of art our feet gave out and we headed to a cafe for a Campari and orange juice (very Milanese) and a beer.

Today we started with the most delicious apricot brioche for breakfast. I could have eaten 10 of them! People here only have a quick brioche and cappuccino for breakfast as they make their way to work. Sounds very light but they eat very large lunches and then don't eat dinner until 9pm.

We then headed off to meet with our tour group. Why did we join a tour? Because we wanted to see Da Vinci's The Last Supper and the only way to do that was through a tour. I had not realized that in order to get Last Supper tickets you must order at least 2-3 months in advance. So in a panic on Monday I scoured the Internet to find tours who could take us . I finally found a 3 hour Milan tour that included the Last Supper - what a relief.

So we got a tour that took us around the magnificent Duomo cathedral- picture here- and the Galleria indoor shopping mall, a few other local sights and finally the last supper. It is a fascinating work of art - in a serious state of deteriation but still very powerful.





Tonight we went to the La Scala Opera house to see the symphony. Stunning interior -an incredible experience to be there. The symphony was excellent.



Tomorrow is our last day. We'll do some shopping here and then head for the airport where we will stay overnight since our flight is at 7am on Sat.
This vacation has been one of our best ever . Very sad to leave, but we'll be back - can't get enough of Italy!

See you all soon!

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Sunday & Monday, Sept 18 & 19

Just when we thought we couldn't find a more beautiful place on earth than Bellagio, we find ourselves in Stresa. Beautiful little islands (Borromees Islands) scattered around the large lake of Lago Maggiore with towering mountains as a backdrop. The views here are simply stunning!!! We're staying in a huge Old World, over the top Baroque style hotel, the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees where Ernest Hemingway loved to stay when in the area. Apparently he wrote wrote A Farewell to Arms here and used the hotel as a setting for portions of the novel. We are here for 3 nights.






Yesterday we took a short boat ride to Isola Bella- it remains true to it's name (beautiful!) - where the Borommeo family who ruled this area in the 16th & 17th centuries had built a massive palace that takes up about 2/3 of the island.








Filled with opulently decorated rooms and surrounded with beautiful gardens with white peacocks. Also visited Isola Pescetoria, an island with an old fishing village - disappointing place over run with tourists and with nothing other than souvenir shops and pizza stands.

Today we strolled in to the town of Stresa and poked about. Then got in the car and took a 40 min drive over to a neighboring lake to visit the medieval town of Orta San Giulio. We took a short boat ride to a tiny island off the coast of the town which is home to a beautiful Basilica and Benedictine monastery.





Everywhere there are signs and messages about silence - a beautiful and contemplative spot.

Off to Locarno, Switzerland in the morning via panoramic train.

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Location:Stresa

Fri/Sat September 16 & 17, 2011

What a beautiful place! Bellagio is situated at the tip of the peninsula that juts into the middle of Lake Como. It's a lovely old town with steep narrow streets, a lakeside piazza and beautiful gardens. Our hotel, The Hotel Florence, is at the lakeside - the views are stunning. This is a photo of the hotel and the view from our room.




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After arriving we had a leisurely lunch lakeside and began to explore the town - lot of tiny artisinal shops and much climbing of steep steps. Here are a couple of pics.







Here I am quite delighted exiting a glass shop - I found a glass Christmas tree decoration.






Above are more pics from around the town. Later we headed to Albergo Silvio for dinner which has a spectacular view of the lake. We dined on burratto cheese with eggplant and tomatoes. Burratto cheese is a very soft cheese (almost liquid) from Sicily. Followed that with fish caught that day in Lake Como. Dessert was pistachio cream semi freddo with raspberry sauce and chocolate mousse. Have to say that every dinner has been excellent . It pays to research www.chowhound.com for restaurant recommendations before any trip!

Lake Como has several villas situated around it - most were built from the 17th to 18th centuries when the wealthy would spend their summers here. The most famous is Villa Carlotta. It's filled with romantic paintings and sculptures by Canova but the gardens are the big attraction - an amazing collection of exotic plants - azaleas, cacti, bamboos, palms and much more. Here are some pics. We took a ferry from Bellagio to Tremezzo where the villa is located.



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After the villa visit we returned to Bellagio and took a guided tour of Villa Serbelloni perched high above Bellagio and now owned by the Rockefeller Foundation who use it as a think tank for child related issues in the Third World. The views are amazing from the villa - here are some pics.














Tomorrow we head to Stresa on Lake Maggiore. Ciao for now!

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Location:Bellagio on Lake Como

Thu Sep 15, 2011

A day of walking, about 5h in total. We arrived in Verona before noon and then sauntered off to the Piazza Bra for lunch. The city is inside the ancient walls and so very picturesque - you can see why it is considered a very romantic city (other than the Romeo and Juliet connection) Then the heavy work began.


First, the 1st C. Roman arena, in spectacular condition and used regularly today during the summer for operas. It is the best preserved Roman arena in the world.


Then off to Juliet's home. This fictional site proved to be a great laugh as we watched people pose and even sing. One part of Juliet's statue is meant to bring good luck (rub her right breast) and apparently considerable embarrassment. People were lining up to do that!





Then across the Adige River on an ancient bridge to the 1st C. Roman theater and it's museum. Perhaps of interest only to those of us who did 5 years of Latin, but we enjoyed it.





Then a lovely river walk to Castelvecchio and its bridge. Museumed out, we only admired the architecture. We don't know why this bella donna stopped her bike here to tan, but she was completely oblivious to those passing her.





The heat continues but we keep walking (and drinking lots of water) Off to dinner at another recommendation tonight - Lafontanina Ristorante Note that we did not go into one church today, choosing instead to admire them from the outside. :-)

Location:Verona, Italy

Tues & Wed, Sept 13 & 14

A travel day. Set off early from the hotel in Venice and and headed north to a very unique house named Villa Barbaro. The villa was built in the mid 16th century for two wealthy Venetian merchants, the Barbaro brothers. Every room wall on the floor level is covered in beautiful frescoes by the Venetian artist Veronese. Scenes of Italian landscapes and mythological figures-all in gorgeous colors. Its a private home so not all rooms were available to us. No photos allowed so unfortunately no pictures to show you. Picture of me below outside the house.



Then on to Padua. We are in the old city, with torturously narrow streets. But we made it and even the police ignored our driving in the car-free zone. Padua is a university city with one of the oldest universities in the world- Galileo actually taught here! Off to see St. Anthony's Basilica and the frescoes in attached buildings. It is a real business for the Franciscans. If ever in Padua, we recommend Osteria dal Capo for authentic Padovan food (try the rabbit).





Padua is known as the city of frescoes and it lives up to that moniker. Incredible amount of Renaissance period art to see in churches and museums. If you've ever taken art history courses it is fascinating to see the works you have studied, often in the buildings for which they were painted.

The highlight of Padua is the Scrovegni Chapel. In 1305, the artist Giotto painted every square inch of the walls of the chapel with frescoes, depicting scenes from the lives of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. He is universally recognized as the first artist to paint in the modern style ie not the rigid one dimensional style of the medieval artists. To see these beautiful frescoes is an amazing experience. There are strict rules around viewing. Groups of no more than 25 must enter together and are given only 15 mins to view the frescoes . You then leave, the chapel is dehumidified for 15 mins and the next group enters. This process is done to prevent further deteriotion of the frescoes. Alas, no photos allowed but here is an external view of the chapel.



For our second day in Padua we visited more churches, strolled the narrow cobbled streets, sat in cafes - very lively cafe life here. Outdoor cafes are a very popular way to pass time and socialize for Italians. This is a typical Paduan street.



The most gorgeous shoes and purses in the stores. I'm restraining myself until Milan!

Temps still in low to mid 30s-we're not complaining though!! On to Verona tomorrow.
Sean & Liam, hope your birthdays were great!

Location:Maser / Padova

Monday September 12, 2011

After all that talk about the Doges palace yesterday, i forgot to include a picture that pays it justice. Here you go:



We had a day of churches. First, San Zaccaria just east of San Marco. Bell ini's Enthroned Madonna was the attraction. A very peaceful and contemplative work of art.





Then brioche followed by a visit to the Basilica San Marco which is overrun by tourists. Still, it is well worth the €5 to go up to the 2nd level which is uncrowded with great views inside and out. The original bronze horses looted from Constantinople are there.





The shortest line in Venice is for St. Mark's bell tower known as the Campanile. The entire city can be viewed from there.





The vaporetto ride to the east brought us to residential Castello, peaceful and non turistica. We visited the original basilica, San Pietro, a banal building in a lovely setting. Napoleon was right to demote it in favor of St. Mark. On to the Arsenale where Venice's ships were built when Venice was the mightiest naval power in the world - circa 15th century.





Carl is very taken with the novels of Donna Leon, an American living in Venice who writes about detective Commissario Guido Brunetti. Fortunately,it was not too far out of our way to visit the Questura (Police station) :-)


From there we continued up to the Saints John and Paul Campo. Because the hospital is there, it also figures prominently in the Brunetti books. The magnificent church features Bellini and Veronese masterpieces And happens to be near Da Alberto, a great restaurant in the Venetian style where we ate more risotto and whole Branzino fish. We can't get enough of that combo.


From there, back to the vaporetto and a lovely walk back from the Accademia. On to Padua tomorrow. Buone notte from Venezia.


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Location:Venice