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

Walking the city

Very busy day with much walking. We started with a tour of the Doge's palace, a huge pink and white marble Gothic palazzo beside the San Marco Basilica. For over a 1,000 years a series of elderly men with virtually no power ruled Venice.


The palace is packed with art and endless grand rooms but you can't escape the sense of isolation and inertia the Doges must have experienced. Exhausted and starving we headed for a nearby restaurant where we ran into a man who Carl knows from his many visits to the Vintages section in the LCBO. He too lives in Leaside and had just arrived in Venice - what a small world!

In an effort to escape the hordes of tourists in San Marco we jumped on a vaporetto and headed to Cannareggio, a section of Venice where all the people who are actually Venetians live.


There we visited the Gheto where Venetian Jews have lived since the 14th century- and, yes that's where the word ghetto originated. The only trade Jews were allowed to engage in was money lending and they were confined to a small area in Cannereggio. To accommodate their growing population they built tall apartment buildings which stand out compared to the low lying buildings in the rest of Venice - see photo here.


We visited a Jesuit church where one of Titian's great works, The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, hangs over an altar. But wouldn't you know it, after walking endless streets in the heat, we arrived to find out that the painting was out for restoration. We consoled ourselves with a gelato and a visit to Ca' Doro, a huge palazzo on the Grand Canal whose owner had donated the house filled with Renaissance paintings to the Italian state in 1916.

We ended the day with an excellent dinner at a small restaurant Bentigodi Osteria Da Francesca. Filled with locals and no English menus in sight, we had a feeling it was going to be good and we were right. We had to try that classic Venetian dish, risotto with squid ink and it was delicious. Followed that with grilled filet of beef and panna cotta for dessert-perfetto!!


My attempts at Italian are improving - I made a restaurant reservation and was actually understood. Weather continues to be very hot and very humid- no surprise given all the water. The beauty of the city continues to amaze - wandering the streets and getting lost is a very enjoyable experience! Here are some more photos taken as we walked the city .


























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Sat Sep 10, 2011

Got up early and wondered through the streets. Very peaceful and quite that time of morning. Only the church bells ringing break the silence. We crossed the Accademia Bridge, picked up tickets for the Accademia Museum - an amazing art museum showcasing all the great venetian artists, Bellini, Tintoretto, Titian etc. Breakfast of pannini & brioche on the Giudecca Canal prior to the cruise ships distorting their hordes.


We all met up with Mom, Niall, Carina and Niall Jr at 10am to see the best collection of the Venetian masters. 2h of tour in an uncrowded museum was a pleasure.





Then on to Peggy Guggenheim for modern art, a small but significant collection. Its location on the Grand Canal is worth the admission alone.


Took our first vaporetto ride ( a ferry performing the role of a bus)- public transit with the best views in the world!- to San Toma to see the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Church with its magnificent altar piece, Titian's Assumption.
Venice is crowded but if you stay away from the Piazza San Marco and wander the side streets its a very different experience. Weather is amazing -hot and sunny -like July! All of us met for drinks on the terrace of our hotel overlooking the Grand Canal and then over to the east side of San Marco for a leisurely dinner at Il Ridotto, allowing for 3h of stories. Food was excellent. Carinna treated us to drinks in San Marco as a farewell-they headed back to Ireland next day. We are now planning next year's destination.





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Location:Venice

Fri Sep 9, 2011

3h sleep on the flight to Dusseldorf and 3h more in the Lufthansa lounge and we arrive in Venice in good shape. We took the water taxi from Marco Polo through the city to our hotel (see photo) right on the Grand Canal. We took a quick tour of Piazza San Marco while awaiting Maeve, Carina, Niall & Niall Jr. Dinner near the Rialto with all 6 of us.












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Location:Venice

3 days to go