Day 11 - Ritorno a casa

Wednesday we travel home, the trip is over and we go back to the real world, at least most of us, Eamon is continuing on his world exploration trip, his next stop is Munich.

On Monday when the group was really first getting to know each other, we had a group photo taken at the Colosseum. On our last day in the bus, Fabrizio gave everyone a copy of the photo as a gift as well as contact information for everyone on the trip (unless one decided they did not want to be on the list). It is a nice photo and included Fabrizo and our local specialist from Rome, Susanna.

The departure from Rome went pretty much as planned, Bob and Maribeth had an earlier flight than us and got on the 6AM shuttle to the airport, no breakfast for them. June and I were on the 8AM shuttle and had time for breakfast and to say good bye to Eamon before leaving for the airport.

As we left Italy for our connection to Paris (CDG), we flew over the Alps, they are beautiful.
















I will say, be it the USA or EU, the airports are huge and confusing. The signage is not great and airport workers in general just don't appear to be very helpful.  We had to change terminals in both CDG and JFK, and both were lots of walking, confusing turns, etc.. Asking for directions usually gets you some half effort from an airport work.  We made it, but they don't make it easy.

The easiest part was finding our car waiting at the BTV airport thanks to our friends that Kilmartins, who dropped it earlier in the day.  We have great friends.

We flew Rome to Paris to NY to BTV, left our hotel 8AM Italy time and arrived at our door just a bit before midnight, overall about 22 hours of travel. So we got to bed a bit after midnight but I was up at 4AM (my body thinks it is 10AM) my first thought was..wow this is a big hotel room....and our bedroom is not that big, amazing how your prospective changes.

When I got up it was 16F and we are going to get snow Friday...welcome to the real world.

Overall it was a great trip, we got a taste of Rome and the northern cities of Italy.  You have to visit to really appreciate the history. The trip was rather fast paced, but to there is really no other way to fit so much into a bit over a week. 

I think Trafalgar did a pretty good job on the tour, Fabrizio and Fabio were both great and every local specialist brought something new to the experience. I am not sure other tour companies employ local specialists like Trafalgar, but they really do make a difference. The local specialist tend to be born and raised in the city they represent and are proud of their heritage. This adds color to their tour, Helen from Luca would say "those bastards from Pisa", Fabrizio warned us she was a "hot pepper" and she was a hoot.

The other thing that the tour company brings is access, if we were on our own, we might have not been able to tolerate the lines, especially in Rome. With Trafalgar we cut the line at St Peters Basilica, the Vatican Museum and the Colosseum, which can be huge. The tour company also provides additional experiences (some optional) that you would probably not get on your own.  We really enjoyed Villa Il Leccio in San Gimignano and the Villa Machiavelli in Florence. Some of the experiences seemed like a sales push, for example the Murano Glass factory should have been optional,  it was interesting but it took a good part of the morning and we are not the kind of people who buy $500+ pieces of glass work..just saying. The meals provided by the hotels tend to be less authentic than what you find on your own in a good restaurant, but I guess they are trying to accommodate all palates.

Finally, the tour company removes all the stress of finding hotels and transportation. The cities in Italy are narrow and crowed, we just sat back and enjoyed watching Fabio do his magic, at times it was like being on the Harry Potter Knight bus. The hotels they booked were clean and generally located where you could walk to attractions. In Rome we walked to the Vatican the day before the tour started and in Venice we walked everywhere from our hotel.

We very much enjoyed the company of Bob and Maribeth and getting to know Eamon a bit.  Bob was our 'not so local' specialist, he did lots of homework and was continuously reading up on our next attraction, he was a good supplement to the local specialists. Eamon was our Navigator, google maps gets really confused by narrow alleys and tall buildings, Eamon has a nack for ignoring google but following her maps. We really enjoyed hanging with Eamon and wish him safe travels and prosperous future. My primary skill was getting us into places were it took google and Eamon's navigation skills to get us out..but I consider this part of the adventure. June and Maribeth just shake their heads and put up with us all.  Trips are so much more fun when you travel with old and new friends.

Arrivederci alla prossima volta.

Day 8 - The Doge Palace (Bob and Maribeth)

Bob and Maribeth took the tour of The Doge Palace. The palace is situated right next to the Basilica San Marco and is impressive. The palace was the home of the doge of Venice as well as the administration offices of the republic. The Doge was elected and served for life.   His family lived in the palace but, like the White House, it is a building of the people and upon the Doge's death they moved out. The doge and all other officials in Venice were not paid and worked their jobs while serving the republic.  the Venetian Republic lasted for 11 centuries with the last doge leaving office in the 18th century.

There are no frescos in Venice (too damp for things to dry) so instead all of the ceiling art is painted on canvas. The boarder "-frame" is hand carved wood and then covered in 24K gold.  

The prison was in the palace for a while but then one was constructed next door. After sentencing, the prisoner reached the prison via the Prisoner Bridge. Byron Shelley, upon visiting a renamed it the Bridge of Sighs - with prisoners "sighing" with their final glimpse of sunlight.

Looking out the window of the Bridge of Sigh.











The Venetians took great pride in their republic and being open minded to suggestions from the people. This is a marble "suggestion box" built into the wall at the Palace where one could make an anonymous accusation at first. Then deciding they needed to be more critical of simple accusation the accuser had to sign it along with three witnesses. If they were wrong -- well the prison was right next door.!!

Typical cell was for 5 prisoners.

Day 10 - Basilica Papale di San Francesco d'Assisi e Villa d'Este

Tuesday our last day touring in Italy, we had the pleasure of guided tours of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Tivoli Gardens.

We met our tour guide at the gates of the walled city of Assisi, it seems all ancient cites of Italy were walled or they did not survive.

We really did not stroll the city today, it was all about St. Francis.

St. Francis is the Patron Saint of Italy, he gets top billing. The basilica was constructed in the 1200s and  is really two churches an upper and a lower plus a crypt was added later.

Again our local specialist, xxxx, gave us all the high lights of St Francis and the Basilica.  We could not take pictures inside, but the walls are covered with St Francis's life story in Fresco. Since the general public at the time could not read, it was the only way to tell the story. Each Fresco is also captioned in Latin, as our guide put it, it was the 1200s version of a movie with subtitles. The basilica suffered major earth quake damage in 1997, part of the roof with Fresco came down.  It took five years but they mostly repaired it, including piecing most of the Fresco back from 80,000 pieces in the rubble.

We we came out of the basilica, the fog had rolled in and any hope of the gorgeous views we saw the night before were squashed.

We saw some signs that made you wonder....

In most towns in Italy if you want to use the public restroom they charge, typically 1 EU, so most of the time we wait until we are in a cappuccino shop since it is about 2 or 3 EU for cappuccino and that gives you the right to use their bathrooms. 



The bathrooms and hotel rooms in Italy are very compact...small. As Fabrizio puts it, "when you get to your hotel, sometimes you need to decide am I going to open my suit case or the bathroom door, since you really can't do both". The older the city the smaller the rooms.

From Assisi we boarded the bus for Tivoli, to see the Villa d'Este and have our final group meal.

When we got off the bus we were greeted by our final local specialist, Marco.  He gave us a few tips on how to cross the street in Tivoli. You don't wait for a car to let you cross, they never will, you just occupy the lane, don't make eye contact and bless them with an out stretched hand.  If they really appreciate the blessing they blow their horns.  This is how we got from the bus to the Villa, it worked.

The Villa and its gardens as we know it now are actually the work of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. He was the son of Lucrezia Borgia and the grandson of Pope Alexander VI, and after failing to be elected pope in 1550, he was instead appointed governor of Tivoli by Pope Julius III. Unfortunately, he felt that the governor’s residence, which happened to be a section of a Franciscan monastery, was severely lacking for someone of his status, and he then set out to create a villa and garden suited for “one of the wealthiest ecclesiastics of the sixteenth century” (himself). He used the gardens to impress and lobby to be Pope, which he never achieved.  He is remembered as a greedy cardinal.

 The gardens are really something to be seen, there are manicured foliage, statues, and fountains everywhere.  On a hot summer day, it was a place for the wealthy to cool off. It is said that the Cardinal used it primarily for entertaining in an effort to improve is political future.

 Only about one third of the fountains are running today, it must have been really amazing in its day. All the fountains work on pressure from the elevations above the gardens and the water is recycled through each successive tier of fountains.

The promenade of 100 fountains...

The gardens are guarded by monsters...

 Fountains, fountains, fountains.

 Five hundred old cypress tree.

 The garden has many levels, eventually you have to go up.

Spectacular views.

 After the gardens we were bused to a local restaurant in Tivoli. It had nice views of the valley below.

 You could even see Ancient Roman Ruins on the opposite hillside.

 The restaurant was basically carved into a hillside..were were all good as long as there are no earthquakes.

Our table picture, with Aemon and Phillippe both from Australia. 

Waiting for our bus to pick us up for one last ride to the hotel.

Our bus driver, Fabio, was a master at the wheel and our bus was a four month old Mercedes, a very sweet ride.
















As usual, we gathered in one of our rooms, discussed the day and reviewed photos at the end of the day.

Wednesday we shuttle to the Airport and home...last I checked it was snowing...

Tutte le cose buone devono finire.

Day 9 - Bus per Bologna per pranzo e poi per Assisi

Monday was more bus than touring but still a great experience.

It was a bit sad leaving Venice by water taxi, what a neat place. Our bags went separately, the Venetians know how to stack bags, somehow they all made it to the bus.

The water taxies are amazingly efficient, it is just like getting on a bus. The loading and unloading is no more difficult that getting on or off a bus.








It was a long bus ride to Bologna, we are eventually headed back to Rome so it is a good way to break up the trip by stopping in Bologna for lunch and over night in Assisi.

In Bologna we headed for the main square, Piazza Maggiore. Here you will find San Petronio Basilica, it is the only one I have seen not finished. It was started in the 1300s, it was not commissioned by the church, it was a communal project, maybe that is why it was never finished. They never finished the facade or added the statues you see on typical churches in Italy

The inside however is something to behold. If you want to take pictures inside you have to buy a ticket...as I was reminded when I snapped this one...oops.

Bologna is known for the kissing towers, towers so close they appear to be kissing....we did not get where I could get a very good shot of them.

We wandered the streets of Bologna a bit and checked out their local markets, the veggies looked like they just came from the gardens.

All kinds of meats were also on display.

 We eventually found a small cafe for lunch, Bologna is famous for their Pasta, and the did not disappoint.

 Spaghetti with Bolognese.

Spaghetti Carbonara

In the piazza is a statue of Neptune surrounded by risque mermaids.

















After lunch in Bologna we boarded the bus again for Assisi. It sits high on a mountain overlooking the city below.

Assisi is the birthplace of St. Francis, who founded the Franciscan religious order in the town in 1208, and St. Clare (Chiara d'Offreducci), the founder of the Poor Sisters, which later became the Order of Poor Clares after her death.

If there is one word for Assisi it is 'Medieval', walking the streets you could easily loose your self in another time, it just feels like the middle ages.

We wandered the streets for about an hour, it was just fascinating.

Eventually we stopped for Cappuccino and Prosecco at a nice little cafe.

 We have seen these work vehicles all over Italy, they crack me up.









We had to continue onto our hotel for a group dinner but will return on Monday to tour Basilica of San Francesco.

Our hotel was once a convent, it doesn't look it much from the inside, but does still have a chapel.








Overall, even though the day contained a lot of bus time, it was a good day.

Day 8 - Vetro di Murano, Doge Place e Burano Island

Sunday we have plans that were somewhat divergent, we will all go visit the Murano Glass factory in the morning, but then Bob and Maribeth have booked a tour of the Doge Palace and Prison, just about when they get done with that, Fred and June depart for the island of Burano.

As I mentioned before our rooms are somewhat tight but very unique and interesting in the Hotel Bellini. I got a text from Bob in the morning that said look out your window...

Each room is different, each with a different view, Eamon's room is literally on the roof, his bath has a sloped roof so he can't take a standing shower, but what a view.

As we waited for the group to gather, I noticed this stunning boat, you see some pretty special boats in Venice, since they don't have cars, they shine their boats.







Around 8:30A we all boarded a boat to visit the island of Murano to tour the Murano Glass factory.

They gave a quick demonstration of glass blowing and the history of Murano Glass. Of course this was followed by somewhat of a sales pitch and then we were allowed to tour their 7 show rooms. We were not allowed to take pictures, you will have to take my word for it that many of the works were amazing.




After the glass factory, we boated back to San Marco Square. Some, including Bob and Maribeth took the tour of The Doge's palace and prison while others were free to roam. Bob did a separate post on their tour of The Doge's palace.

As you look around San Marco Square you will see "The Lion of Venice" on many sculptures and statues. The more you look the more of them you see, they are everywhere. The Lion of Saint Mark is a winged lion that symbolically represents Saint Mark the Evangelist, patron of Venice. It is a symbol used to give an immediate and unique sign of identity and power. It doesn’t have an official or political meaning, but only a popular and religious origin.











While the Malloys were on their Doge Palace tour, we decided to walk back to the hotel. This was no small feat, the roads and alleys in Venice are like a mouse maze, you can easily get lost again and again..but we made it.  We returned to San Marco square and met up with the Malloys for Cappuccino and a snack before our Burano trip, which left at 2PM.

Even though you are just walking you can't help but be taking in by the sights, like the Doge Palace.

Venice is built on the water, during high tide sometimes the water comes up thru the drains and they have raised platforms for people to walk on so they don't get their feet wet.  This is water coming up from the drain in the square in front of the Doge Place.

During our walk we saw many fancy Gondolas.

We got pretty familiar with the Rialto bridge, it has shops on the bridge and if you are going to get pick pocketed, this likely where it will happen, it is crowed but beautiful.







After our daily cappuccino, we boarded for the one hour boat ride to Burano Island.

 As you approach Burano you can see they also have a leaning tower.

After arriving at Burano Island Frabrizio took us straight to a restaurant for a nice late lunch. It was mostly seafood, and I think the seafood lovers thought it was pretty good.

June found a canopy that made her smile.

Burano's traditional industry is fishing and used to be its biggest business. As a result, there were lots of fishing boats sailing in and out of its harbor on fishing expeditions.

Legend has it that the population began painting their homes luminous colors so that the fishermen could see them even in  thick fog and avoid crashing into the shore after a voyage at sea.

They say it is not going to lean anymore....I wonder?

They say you have to find your color on Burano, it is fun to try to find a house that you can hide in front of.

Eamon is hard to catch on camera, notice how he is part of the back ground.

Burano is known for Lace, this is Emma the oldest Lace maker on the island, she is 103 years young and a celebrity.

We were even blessed with a nice sunset on Burano, it was a great time visiting the island.

 After getting back from Burano, we were too full for dinner so we decided to walk Venice some more and find some Gelatto.  In addition to Gelatto, they make some really good chocolate.















The night scenes in Venice are just spectacular, this is from Rialto bridge looking out at the Grand Canal.

Bob and Maribeth had a nice dinner at a restaurant that looked out over the Grand Canal.

Like the Jaquishes, the Malloys are celebrating 40 years of marriage on this trip.

Congratulazioni Bob e Maribeth!!