SealsInItaly2012

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Seals in Italy

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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Day 3 – Vatican City

No more late mornings for the Seal clan. No siree! We’ve got sites to see.

Today, up at the crack of dawn. That’s 7:20am for those of you who don’t know it! We had tickets to see the Vatican at 9:30am, so no lazing around for us. Alarms were set the night before and right on cue, at 7:20am, we were serenaded with a wake-up call from One Direction on Claire’s Ipod (for those of you out there who don’t know what/who One Direction is, you are blessed!). Up and at-em!

The debate the night before was how best to get from the apartment to the Vatican. We could walk, which would take (according to google maps) about 1 hour. That of course assumes we don’t lose our way – easy to do in this city. It is also hot (I think I’ve mentioned that). Second option was the Metro. Rome has two metro lines, so its probably hard to get totally lost on this system. The nearest Metro station is about a 10 minute walk, and we would have to change trains. And it would be rush hour. No idea what rush hour is like on the Rome metro, but that last fact was enough to nix it from subway-weary-Claire’s list of travel methods. You would think the kid who subway’s to school all year, and then subwayed to her summer camp all July, would be a subway pro. But instead, she’s a subway whiner. Like most Torontonians I suppose!

So our last travel option, and the one we landed on, was to take a cab. Since we’re just outside the Colosseum area, there are plenty of taxi’s just down the street. So after a quick breakfast at the apt (juice, fruit, yogurt and Italian pastries) we were off.

Cab ride through the city was about 20 minutes and 10 euros. Worth it. He dropped us off just outside the Vatican museum at about 8:40am. The lineup for those that didn’t have tickets was already stretching down the street and around the block. We had been warned of the lineups, so Lisa had pre-purchased tickets online. But since were early for our pre-arranged time (they limit the times you can go in when buying your tickets online) we thought we would have some wait time anyway. But apparently not. We flashed our tickets at the entrance, they were scanned, and we were in (well, once we passed through the metal detectors anyway).

Despite the long lineups outside, there were already tons of tourists and tour groups inside also! For the first part of our visit to the Vatican museum, we flowed along with the river of tourists through the halls with paintings and statues. Barely enough time to look at anything for 10 seconds before the next group kept the flow moving. At the end of the great hall however, there were two ways to go: one way was the short-cut to the Sistine chapel, the other way went through some of the various historical papal apartments and artwork they contained. Of course, the tour groups made the beeline to the short cut, so naturally, we took the less traveled route. Much more pleasant. Eventually though it did join back up with tour group in the Sistine chapel.

The chapel itself, while beautifully appointed with paintings throughout was not like I expected. It is a fairly small chapel (I guess that’s why its called a chapel and not a basilica – more to come on that!) and because of all the tourists, all the pews and furniture have been removed. So its really like a nicely painted box. Sorry, a beautifully painted box. Not really moving or anything (again, the wall to wall tourists I guess take away from the atmosphere).

After the chapel, there were more galleries of paintings, sculptures, and closets (really, nicely painted wardrobes) on the way to the exit.

After the museum, it was a fairly short hike around the fortified walls to the entrance to Vatican city, St Peters square, and St Peters basilica. Another line, but because entrance to the basilica is free, it moves along quite quickly. The only thing slowing the line down a bit were the dress code police. Entrance to St Peters basilica, arguably the most holy church of the Catholic faith, is highly regulated when it comes to dress code. They actually make it pretty clear on the web site, and quite well posted around the entrance itself (posters showing a man and woman in their underwear, with a big red bar through it, and pictures showing a man and a woman in full trousers and parka with a green circle) what is appropriate and what is not. But there were plenty of people in line with short-shorts and tank tops. Needless to say, the Vatican fashion police were not tolerant of these folks. I, despite the heat, wore long trousers and Lisa and Claire made sure they had wraps/sweaters to cover their arms. We passed!

St. Peters itself is huge! Despite being full of tourists, it easily swallowed us up. We spent about 45 minutes walking around and taking in the statues and paintings. Unfortunately, the Pope did not make a surprise appearance (sorry Tracey!). We did however bump into a nun and monk or two.

After the Vatican, we took a walk over the Tiber and towards our next destination, the Etruscan exhibit in one of the many Roman museums. It took us a bit of hunting to find the museum, as it was located just off of all of our maps. By a bit of guessing, we eventually found it after a short hike through a hill-top park (Villa Borghese). The exhibit was located in a very nice palace-like structure that we never found out the origin of. It was an interesting exhibit, and air conditioned!!!! (We needed that after the hike). Those Etruscans sure used a lot of clay pots! (and most of the ones in the exhibit were ones found in burial sites. Imagine the number that must have been used in everyday use!!).

After the Etruscan exhibit, everyone was getting fairly weary. But our route home would take us by another interesting site, the home of the Capuchin monks in Italy. The Capuchin’s are an order of monks, and the interesting thing about this church (actually named Santa Maria della Concezione, but more commonly known as the Bone Church) is that back in history, one of the monks of the order decided to create crypts “decorated” with the bones of dead monks from the order. There are about 5 crypts in all, all decked out in elaborate constructions of bones – skulls, vertebrae, leg bones, knee caps, you-name-it. Very interesting, and kind of creepy at the same time. Unfortunately, photos weren’t allowed in the crypts so I can’t include any in the slide show.

After the bones, we walked the rest of the way back to the apartment for a little rest before heading out for dinner. There are so many restaurants right in the four blocks around us that it is quite easy to find one. Of course, the fare is pretty much the same – pizza and pasta – but that’s ok. Fairly easy to find something to please everyone. Interestingly, while there is fish on most menus, it is very expensive, and a lot of it frozen (by law, restaurants have to indicate on the menus when anything has been frozen). So pizza and pasta are the main choices.

That’s it for day 3. Tomorrow we’re up early again (6:10am!) to take our bus trip to Pompeii.

And yes, its still hot (though today it seemed a bit cooler, despite, or perhaps because I wore long trousers all day).

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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Day 4 – Pompeii

Woke up to the 1D boys again. Only this time, even earlier. We were up just after 6am Rome time. We had to be at our meeting point by 7:30 to catch our bus tour to Pompeii so it meant a pretty early morning. It was kind of funny checking the baseball scores in the morning to find out the Jays game against Seattle, in Seattle, was still in the 7th inning. Those crazy time zones!!

As mentioned, we needed to meet our bus at 7:30am. The tour departed from near Rome’s Termini train station (their main one) which is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment. Made it there no problem, bus was waiting, and we were off on time!

First stop (other than a coffee/pee break off the highway) was a bus tour of Naples. Bus tour means the bus drove around various parts of the city while our tour guide described what we saw. No stopping. No walking. Just sitting on the bus. Honestly though, from what we saw of Naples (or Napoli) from the bus, we didn’t really need to stop. Maybe I’m not being fair, but that was my impression. I did take a couple shots of the city and of Mt. Vesuvius when we made a brief stop (see slideshow). But that was it.

After that tour, we made one more brief stop before Pompeii – at a Cameo factory. I’d read the tour reviews on Trip Advisor with most people saying they could have done without this stop, and its all true! Just the obligatory tourist-trap-stop. Thankfully, it wasn’t long.

At Pompeii, before visiting the ruins, we had a lunch. We had been travelling since 7:30am and it was now almost 1pm, so most of us were ready for a meal. It was a typical tour-organized lunch, with all of us eating at semi-communal tables in a private restaurant in new Pompeii. We had a nice chat with three young ladies from Perth who were spending most of the summer (their winter) visiting various parts of Europe.

After the three course lunch (Primi, Secondi, and dessert) we were finally heading to our main destination. The excavations at Pompeii are quite advanced, as you can see from the slide show. I had expected a lot of walking around peering down into excavations-in-progress, but actually, the site has been almost fully excavated right down to street level. So we were actually walking through the streets and seeing the remains of the old city. Most of the walls were intact up to about six to eight feet, but of course, no roofs. It was quite neat to be in the place I remember reading about over 40 years ago in my National Geoographic World magazine.

We had a two hour guided tour and that really was a good way to see the highlights. It was extremely hot at Pompeii (surprise!!) so two hours was the right length of time that way too.

That was it for our day four, and last day in Rome. Got back to the apt at about 10:30pm, and finishing up this blog then off to sleep. Tomorrow, we pick up the car and head off to Tuscany (getting slightly nervous about driving – not the driving part, but figuring out the road signs, toll roads, driving conventions, etc. Imagine I’ll have one or two locals giving me an Italian salute, at least in the first couple days!)

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Day 5 – Rome to Lucca

Woohoo!! When in Rome, drive like the Romans. Picked up the car today for the beginning of our Italian road trip. Woke up before Lisa and Claire at 8am and was ready to go by 8:15. Ok, bit of an exaggeration. I actually had myself packed up and ready to go pick up the car by about 8:45, then I woke up Lisa and Claire (the lazy ones). I then headed off to Termini (the train station in Rome) to pick up the car.

I had rented the car through an online aggregator company, and which ended up renting through Budget. After getting to the car rental desks at the station, I couldn’t see one for Budget. Hertz, Avis, Eurocar, etc, but nothing for Budget. After inquiring at one of the other agencies, they informed me that Budget was handled through the Avis desk. And so it was.

Pick up was pretty easy (although all the paperwork is done by hand!! No computer printouts) and I was on my way to pick up the car. That threw me off a bit as I was anticipating picking up the car at the station, and had planned my route back to the apartment accordingly. Only the rental agency doesn’t actually have the cars at the station. They have a van pick you up and take you to where the cars are. That threw my plan for a bit of a loop. However, I brought along with me our trusty GPS, so was confident that Effie (the name we gave to our GPS voice last year when we used it to assist us in our US northwest road trip) would get me to where I needed to be.

So, after adjusting the mirrors, making sure the AC was functioning (yes, it is still stinking hot here), and adjusting my seat, we were off into the Rome traffic. Sure enough, Effie’s directions, plus my quickly learned Roman driving (which basically means driving where ever there is an empty spot on the road, and not bothering about where other cars/scooters/pedestrians happen to be going) got me back to the apartment to retrieve the family. From there we headed out of Rome (though not without a bit of backtracking due to wrong turns, despite Effie’s economical directions).

The drive to Lucca – the town we are staying in for 6 nights while we are in Tuscany – was fairly uneventful. We had programmed Effie to avoid toll roads, as we wanted to drive along the coast on the way up to Lucca. No wrong turns and no Italian salutes (that I am aware of anyway). We arrived in Lucca after about 5 hours of driving (including a lunch stop for some cheese and prosciutto panini’s).

Lucca is a small town about 40km east of Pisa. The old city has a wall which completely surrounds it, and forms a circular park. You can walk all around the city on top of the wall. Our apartment is just inside the eastern part of the wall and conveniently has underground parking nearby. After meeting our rental agent at the apartment, and getting the lowdown on the city, we headed into the city centre to pick up some breakfast groceries. Afterwards, when we had returned the groceries to the apartment (which, by the way, is a great spacious – two bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, kitchen, dining and living room – apartment on the third floor of one of the ancient buildings in the city) we went for a stroll along the wall. The heat had dropped by then (only 33 degrees) and we had a very nice walk, followed by dinner at one of the many restaurants in the city centre. Lisa says it was the best meal she has had since being in Italy (for the record, she had lamb-chops).

That was it. Mostly a driving and getting there day. Tomorrow, we’re visiting Pisa and the famous leaning tower. I’m sure there will be the obligatory shot of one of us holding up the tower with our hands in tomorrow’s slide show. For today, here’s a couple shots from Lucca.

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Friday, August 3, 2012

Day 6 – Tre Citta

Tre Citta is the title of today’s post. That’s Italian for three cities, which is how many Tuscan cities we visited today. First up – Pisa. Of course everyone knows about Pisa and its most famous inhabitant – the vertically challenged tower. A half hour’s drive from our Lucca apt and we arrived at Pisa, about half an hour before our ticket time of our pre-purchased tickets to visit the Tower. As usual, Effie the GPS got us there very efficiently, and even avoided the toll roads! (Effie is challenging Lisa for my affections – a good navigator and a money saver!! Of course, Lisa will tell you that just by being an electronic gizmo, Effie already has the edge!).

Upon first entering the tower, there is a brief history presentation just inside on the main floor. Walking on the floor turns out to be difficult due to the lean (which, at 5%, doesn’t sound like much, but is very noticeable). Then after the presentation, it was time to tackle the 207 steps up to the top. It was actually a fairly easy climb (and I suppose any of you that have done the CN Tower stair climb are probably scoffing at us) and the circular staircase is fairly wide, with enough room to pass the folks heading back down. The steps are quite worn and slick however from the millions of previous visits, and especially tricky on the way back down. Lisa, who is not one for heights didn’t have a problem being at the top, but found the list quite disconcerting – like being on a small boat on rough seas (which definitely is not her cup of tea). The view from the top gives a glorious view of the city of Pisa and the plains surrounding the city.

After the tower visit, we spent some more time walking around the piazza and admiring the church, basilica and grounds. We didn’t go in any of the other attractions however, as we hadn’t purchased tickets in advance, and our guidebooks didn’t indicate anything particularly special about them. After a bit of shopping at the trinkets booths, and a bit of lunch from one of the street vendors (salami and cheese panini’s), we were on our way. But of course, not without the obligatory holding-up-the-tower shot (see slide-show).

Our next destination was the hill city of Volterra. About an hour and a half drive south east of Pisa, Volterra is a 12th century town built on the top of one of the Tuscan hills. Like a lot of these Tuscan towns, it is a walled city, and only residents are allowed to drive within the city. And like most of these popular Tuscan towns, there is lots of visitor parking just outside the walls.

The town was teeming with tourists when we arrived, but we found a parking spot with relative ease. We spent a couple hours walking the streets and seeing the sites along with everyone else (I know that August is thought of as a bad time to visit Italy due to heat (vouch for that!) and since August is Italian holiday time so Italians themselves are on vacation and spots may be closed, but tell that to all the other tourists!! There are plenty of them. Perhaps they are also teachers with limited holiday windows? We should ask them.) Fantastic views and a pretty little town.

Then, on to the third city on our agenda, San Gimignano (we’re still having trouble pronouncing that one). About a 45 minute drive east of Volterra, it is another hill town. This tourist town is famous for the many (14 remaining from what used to be 72, though we counted only 8) tall towers that inhabit within its walls. While they are impressive when see on driving towards the town, once you see them from within the city, they are, as described in one guide book, nice piles of stones. Not particularly architecturally significant. And despite the guidebook describing San Gimignano as a “tourist magnet”, it actually seemed less crowded with tourists than Volterra. Perhaps it was due to it being later in the day. Anyway, we had a nice walk around the town, visited the Basilica di Santa Maria (which was covered with 12th century frescos on the inside), and had some gelato (my first of the trip!! Lisa’s second).

And that was our day. We returned to Lucca for dinner, and I updated the blog. Pictures (a small sample of the approx 100 daily photos) from our day, as usual, follow.

Tomorrow’s agenda, Florence (or as we Italians say, Firenze).

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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Day 7 – Firenze

Today was our day in Firenze, or Florence. And in place of my dull blogging, we have a guest blogger today – Claire. Take it away Claire!

Buongiorno everyone! How y’all doing? So as Dad said today was our day in Florence! It started pretty early. Dad was up at 7:00 and went to get some food. I got up at 7:38 to be exact, and reluctantly got out of bed! We were supposed to leave at 8:00, and surprisingly both me and Mom were ready, but somehow the man who was up at 7, needed some more time. We finally got out of the apartment at 8:15, with much ushering being done by me.

After about a 40min drive we got to Florence, we arrived at the parking garage, after many attempts, and my Dad sucking at following directions. We were running late, and therefore had to practically run to the first museum, the Uffizi museum. We had tickets for 10:30. After successfully getting through the metal detector (Dad never seems to be able to get through in one try) we started on the galleries. These were full of beautiful paintings, basically always of the same thing. Jesus, Mary and God, sometimes with some random people thrown in. Most paintings were dating after the 14th century. What we were really here to see were the Botticielli’s. They were very nice, but I gotta admit, after a few of the same painting in a row, it sorta losses its attractiveness. We went through the whole gallery, but it turned into a bit of a speed art walk at the end.

After we got out of the museum, we went for lunch at a little restaurant. And guess what type of food there was? Yup, you got it Italian! I know we are in Italy and all, but there’s got be other food than just Pizza and Pasta! When we were done lunch we had time to kill before the next gallery so we walked around Florence a little. We walked over to the Ponte Vecchio bridge, which has all the shops on both sides. Fun facts for you. 1. it is the only bridge in Florence that didn’t get bombed during the second world war, and 2. it has a ton of jewelery shops because when Medici was in power, he was tired of butchers throwing meat into the river! Interesting facts huh? Anyway, so after we went to the Duomo. It was stunning! The outside is so beautifully decorated, and it has huge beautiful copper doors, with insanely detailed carvings. The inside didn’t have much, but what it did was beautiful as well!

After we were done at the Duomo, we went to the next museum which was the Galleria dell’ Accademia. It had pretty much the same sort of paintings as the other one, but this one had a lot more plaster casts, and sculptures. All of which were pretty. The big attraction was the David, carved by Michaelangelo. It was very interesting to see! It was massive, and quite beautiful! We got through this gallery pretty quickly. When we were done, we decided we were all pretty tired and headed back to Lucca.

While mom took a rest, Dad and I took a walk around the wall of Lucca. We got nearly all the way around! It took about an hour! We decided to take a different way back, so we didn’t quite finish the whole wall! When we got back to the apartment we decided to go out for dinner. After a pretty good meal of pasta, we headed back to the apartment, to rest up for Sienna tomorrow!

Hope you all enjoyed my post today! Ciao! Pics (below)

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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Day 8 – Montiepulciano & Siena

Driving. That’s today’s theme. Driving, and lots of it. We covered a lot of ground today with our round-trip to Montiepulciano and Siena. I noted in one of my earlier blogs that I was slightly nervous about driving in Italy, mostly driving in the cities, and mostly because reading street signs was difficult. Well, I think I can say that by now, I am completely comfortable.

Everybody drives fast over here. Big roads, small roads, motorways, small country roads. It doesn’t seem to matter. They drive fast. And while there do seem to be posted speed limits in places (though not many), that doesn’t matter. It’s only a suggestion. And a bad suggestion at that, because if you are driving the speed limit (or faster), but too slowly for the person behind you, and they want to get past you, they will drive about 6 inches from your rear bumper and let you know. And doesn’t matter if you are on the highway already doing 120km/h, or on the windy country roads doing 60km/h.

But I can handle that. Its ok. And I’ve even found myself occasionally pulling up behind a slow car (must be a damn tourist) and driving really close to let them know I want to get past.

Lines on the road are another thing. When there are lines, it doesn’t matter. It’s as if they aren’t even there. Again, a suggestion as to where your car should be, but not a rule. And if there aren’t lines (and on some of the country roads and in cities, there aren’t any), well then anywhere on the road if fair game. Ok, on the motorways people stick pretty well to their lanes. But on other roads, just a suggestion. Though folks do generally keep to their side of the road.

And I’m getting used to that too. I’m finding myself occasionally annoyed with the white thing down the middle of the road, thinking why do we really need that?

Then there are the traffic circles. I think every civilized country in the world, save North America, makes use of these intelligent, traffic flowing devices. A couple years ago when we were in England, it took me a few of them to get the hang of it, but that was driving on the “wrong” side of the road. Here, after the first couple in Rome, I’m a pro. Zip into one throwing everyone in the car to the left and zip out on the right exit throwing everyone the other directly. Easy. And that no lines on the road thing (see above) helps.

So I’m comfortable. And today we put it in more practice. Our total drive today was about 400km.

We first visited the hill town of Montiepulciano, which is about 100km south of Florence. Like a couple of the other towns we visited – Volterra and San Gimignano, it is built at the very tip-top of a Tuscan hill. Very pretty town, with lots of tourists (finding a parking space was half the battle – another fun driving thing). We spent a couple hours walking around, eating lunch and taking pictures.

After Montiepulciano, we drove north again to Siena. Siena is a much bigger town, and again, is mainly on top of a hill. Again, lots of tourists. We didn’t visit any museums or churches, but, again, spend time just soaking in the gothic architecture and history of the city by walking its many streets, alleys, and piazzas.

For the drive back to home base, we drove the “Chianti Road”. This is a twisty windy road through wine country. Some beautiful scenic views from the tops of hills and in valleys, although of course, I was busy driving fast and loose all over the road. But Lisa and Claire enjoyed the views.

Tomorrow, we hop back in the car again (for those of you who might be interested, its a Fiat Punto. Decent little car with lots of pep (diesel)) and drive to La Spezia, a town near the Mediterranean cost, and hop the train for a hike of Cinque Terre.

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Monday, August 6, 2012

Day 9 – Cinque Terre

Yesterday’s posting was all about driving. Today’s it’s walking.

Today we visited Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is an Italian national park along the Mediterranean coast. It is known for 5 towns within it (hence the name), which are linked by walking trails (as well as by train and by boats). We’ve done a good bit of walking on this trip (besides all the driving). Right from day 1, where we were walking the hot streets of Rome, through to today, part of the fun of exploring Italy is walking the streets of its cities and towns.

In the various hill towns we have been to (see previous posts), we have walked up and down crowded tourist streets, small alleyway’s, around parks, up towers and through churches. It really is the best way to see the sites of these towns. (Recall our bus tour of Naples, which just drove us around. That is probably why we didn’t think much of Naples). Rome, because of the heat, seemed the most difficult to walk around. But I think that now that we are more used to the heat, it is easier to do it. And yes, its still hot here!! (And yes Ed, I made sure that when we were booking apartments to stay that they had air conditioning. Walking in the heat is one thing, but trying to get a good nights rest so that you can walk some more the next day is tough when you are sweating through the night. So air conditioned apartments/hotels was high on the list of requirements. Along with wifi so I could do the blog).

Today’s walk was a little different. We left Lucca around 8:15am for the approx 1 hour drive to La Spezia, a port town close to Cinque Terre, where we could catch a train to the first town in the park. No problem getting to La Spezia, finding parking (thanks again Effie! You’re doing a great job!), and getting our combined train/park visit tickets. (Tickets are needed to walk the trails between the towns).

Hopping on the train, it was a short 8 minute ride to the first town, Riomaggiore, where we hopped off. Between Riomaggiore and the next town, Manarola, there is a nice, easy, paved walk along the cliff face called the Via Dell’Amore (or roughly “Lovers Walk”). Some beautiful views of the Mediterranean, the cliffs, and the towns.

For the next leg of the trip, the guide map indicates that the coastal path has been closed (there was some very severe flooding in Cinque Terre last fall, and a lot of the paths required repair. Not to mention some of the towns which saw torrents of water and mud coursing through them), so we headed up the road a bit to walk one of the more inland paths. Again, because this part of the coast is mountainous right down to the water, there are some very steep hills to be navigated. And its hot (today however, the sun was not blazing on us constantly as it was mostly overcast. Not raining, but a welcome shade from the full sun). We walked along the path we thought was the inland path, only to come across a gate indicating the trail was closed. Taking the alternate route took us back down to the town itself. We had made a nice circle up the mountain and back!! So rather than try it again (we were already pretty much drenched in sweat at this point) we headed to the train station. We would take the train to the next town, and then resume our trail walk from there to the next town.

The train from Manarola to Corniglia is only about 5 minutes long (and almost all of it in a tunnel). We hopped off in Corniglia, and had a 327 stair hike from the station to the town. Sweaty again! From there, after a bit of lunch, we hit the trail for the next town, Vernazza. The start of the trail indicated it would be about a 1.5 hour walk to Vernazza. The trail wound along the cliffs, with some pretty steep climbs, followed by even steeper declines. It was a very beautiful walk among olive trees and grape vines with spectacular views of the Mediterranean. The trail was somewhat busy with tourists for this part, but certainly not packed. And while the hike was not too challenging, by the time we reached Vernazza about an hour later, our legs were feeling it.

At Vernazza, we had a walk down to the sea and along the seawall, and a bit of a rest in the town. Then it was back to the train station. Although there is one more town that makes up Cinque Terre (the town of Monterosso), the trail between Vernazza and it is supposed to be the most difficult of the trails, so we decided that rather than stretch it out, we had seen the sights of Cinque Terre, and decided to head back. A short train ride back to La Spezia and we were headed back home. I’m thinking, despite the amount of walking we have done on this trip, our legs might feel it tomorrow.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Day 10 – Lucca and the Alpi Apuane

A bit of walking and a bit of driving today.

For the first part of the day, we stayed in Lucca. We hadn’t really had too much opportunity to see some parts of Lucca, so we spent the first part of the day being tourist in our own hometown. We climbed the Guinigi tower, one of the towers in Lucca that has a birds eye view of the entire city of Lucca from the top. It also happens to have a bunch of trees growing in the top, so unlike any other tower we’ve been up. Bunch of pics from the top in the slideshow. Lisa also did lots of shopping.

We picked up some lunch from one of the local bars (sandwiches and cookies) and brought them back to the apartment for consuming.

After lunch, we decided to take a drive up into the mountains, just north of Lucca. The Alpi Apuane, or Apuane Alps. Two little towns – Barga and Castelnuovo were our destinations. From these towns – both quite small and both high up on hills – were awesome views of the mountain ranges. We did a little walking around the towns, then did a bit of a circle route back to Lucca through the mountains and valleys. It was pretty slow driving, as there were lots of twists, turns, and switchbacks, and made for a fairly long drive. But overall it was worth it.

This is our last day in Tuscany, as we head off tomorrow to stay in Verona. I will miss our nice apartment, and not having to live out of a suitcase for a few days, but am looking forward to Verona and Venice, the last stops on our tour.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Day 11 – Verona

Just a short post today. We left Lucca, and drove about 3 hours straight to Verona (motorway driving is fast and direct, but kind of boring compared to the twisty mountain back roads. And expensive – 17.80 euro in tolls from Lucca to Verona!). A few wrong turns in Verona and we were at the hotel.

I had picked a hotel in Verona that wasn’t right in the main town, but close enough to walk. Turned out it was in a bit of a residential area, so the GPS fooled me a bit in getting to it.

After arriving, we dropped off our bags (too early to check in) and went for a walk to the city centre. Yup, still hot.

The town is bigger than a lot of the other towns we’ve visited, but manageable on foot. After a bit of walking the streets (including visiting Juliet’s balcony) we headed back to the hotel to check in and get changed for the main event in Verona – attending the Opera.

Verona has puts on a opera every night during the summer with the Roman Arena in the center of town. We had purchased tickets online before our vacation, so we just had to pick up the tickets before the event.

The opera was Turandot – an opera by Verdi, music Puccini (who was born in the town we just left, Lucca!). The opera started at 9pm, just as dusk descended. It was a wonderful venue, and looked magical from the stands just before the show. The show itself is an opera set in the Forbidden City in Beijing about a guy who falls for a princess but in order to marry her he has to get the correct answer to three riddles but if he gets one incorrect, he will be put to death, but happily he gets them all right, but the princess decides she still doesn’t really want to marry him so he offers a chance for her to break the promise if she can guess his name within 24 hours, which she doesn’t, so he kisses her and then she realizes he’s not so bad after all. (The above is my speed summary). All sung in Italian of course. While I’m not really an opera fan, a good time was had by all (other than our numb-bums, despite springing for the 3 euro each seat cushions).

That was our day in Verona.

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Day 12 – Venice

So we’re coming to the final leg of the Seals In Italy 2012 tour. After our short stay in Verona, we hopped in the car for the last time, and hit the road to Venice. From Verona to Venice is about a one and a half our drive – easy compared to some of the other drives we have done on this trip. We had to return the car to Venice airport so before we could make it over to the islands, we had to stop there. It was easy to find the car return area and in no time we had dropped off the car, and headed over the the bus stop to take a bus from the airport over to the islands of Venice.

Once the bus dropped us off, the next adventure was finding our hotel. Here again, and despite not being in a four wheeled mechanical device, Effie the GPS came to the rescue! I used Effie to guide us through the maze of streets and bridges known as Venice. (I had forgotten about all the small bridges with steps over the numerous small canals – it made for some fun lugging our bags up and down each of them. Luckily, I think we only had to negotiate about four of them. I note that Venice is not a city for the mobility impaired. I guess you could take a water taxi to where you needed to be, but if you want to do any walking around you will definitely be going up and down these bridges). Once safely at the hotel (again, before check-in time) we dropped off the suitcases and headed out for a walk.

Rather than use a map (which took some effort for me, mr. direction, to get over) we just wandered up one street and then down another alley, then over a canal. We just took our time and soaked in the sights and smells of Venice. Speaking of smells, I had kind of suspected that given the time of year and the heat over here, we might be in for some stinky walks. But in fact, the only smells I can speak of are the wonderful smells of the restaurants, the leather shops, and the ocean. Pleasant smells.

After dinner we had a walk along the waterfront of the DorsoDuro area, which is the part of the island across the Grand Canal from San Marco square. It was just as the sun was setting, and against the scattered clouds that had rolled in and with a breeze off the water it was quite beautiful.

Tomorrow, we will spend a full day in Venice and visit some of the museums and churches.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Day 13 – Last full day in Venice

So we’re down to our last full day of our Italian holiday. And back, by popular demand, is our guest blogger Claire, to give you her thoughts on today and our holiday in general. Take it away Claire!

Buonasera everyone! So, as Dad said above, today was the last full day in Italy! A sad but true fact, although everyone over here is pretty glad that by tomorrow night we will all be back asleep in our own beds. Dad’s missing his bikes, texted Martin to check up on them. Mom’s looking forward to a regular sized shower, and I myself, am looking forward to getting some french fries! So, to get on with our day!

We woke up in our quaint little hotel, to go to a pop culture reference, much like Loralie’s inn from Gilmore Girls for those of you that know that show, might only be me! So anyway we woke up around 8ish, early for the parents these days, and went upstairs for breakfast. It was all provided and run by the hotel staff, and was a standard hotel breakfast. At least no pasta or pizza! When breakfast was done, we started our touring! Today we started in the Doge’s palace. This palace was built from 1438-1443 and is in the Gothic architecture style. It was filled with rooms in which they did business and conducted law proceedings. Apparently back then they needed a different room for every thing! This part was all well and interesting, but then we went to the prisons. Just a little fun fact for you, there is a bridge in Venice, known as the bridge of sighs. It got this name from lovers gasping at its beauty, but also, this was the bridge that would connect the court rooms in the palace to the prison. As prisoners would go over it, they would catch their last glimpse of freedom, leading to them sighing in longing of what they wouldn’t have! Anyway, we went down to the prisons, and saw the cells. The parents threatened to lock me in one if I was bad! The lower we got, the stinker it got to! So those poor lower class criminals, would really smell like a mess! After we had walked through the whole palace, we moved onto our next stop of the day, the San. Marco cathedral.

Once we got inside, the line moved pretty quickly, we saw the beauty of the inside. Mom’s been talking to me the whole time in Venice about how the architecture is very flamboyant and over the top. Well let me tell ya, they didn’t leave any surface undecorated! Flying cherubs, lions with wings, and pigs, adorned all the outside. On the inside, guess what all the frescos were! Well, you got it right! Madona’s and Jesus’s all around! The floor was a beautiful marble pattern and I spent more time looking at it than the paintings. The coolest thing I thought, was that you could see the water line from when the cathedral floods in the winter! Strange to think that at one point this city will be full of water! We got through it pretty quick because you had to pay to get into certain parts. Dad was gobsmacked by that! By the way, me and mom were both appropriately covered up, so we didn’t have to wear the disposable table cloths they make people who don’t have appropriate clothing wear! Had to do that once, but never again! After this we went on to Corre museum/palace.

All of these places were in San. Marco’s square so it was easy to get to them all. The Corre museum had some rooms decorated in 19th century style, but the rest were full of artifacts from the Doge’s palace. It had all sorts of weapons in one room, Mom says this is where we need to come when the apocalypse comes, and my favourite room was a library full of old books! This was another speed tour of a museum, a) because we were in good need of a rest, b) nothing we hadn’t seen before, and c) my stomach was grumbling so loudly, that everybody was turning to find out what made that noise! Needless to say, once we were done, we went for lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum of modern art. It was good to switch up what we were looking at in terms of style of art, from old to modern. This museum was in a beautiful location, right on the grand canal, and was originally, Peggy Guggenheim’s house. It had a beautiful outdoor art garden filled with interesting pieces, including a Henry Moore statue, quiet similar to the one in front of the AGO. As we went through the museum, Mom was planning ways in which she was going to steal her favourite pieces to bring home with us. I told her to go for it, but that I wouldn’t be bailing her out of jail for art theft! We visited the two temporary exhibits which both contained interesting pieces. One was about bikes, and I think made Dad miss his even more!

After that, we were done with our museums for the day. It was shopping time! We finished off our souvenirs quickly enough, except for the ever difficult Martin, and then managed to get two very pretty necklaces for ourselves. Dad still doesn’t have anything, and I am sure we will be hearing about how he got squat on this trip and we got tons! Oh well! Told him to buy a belt! We stopped at a little cafe, before heading back to get ready for dinner.

After a dinner of, you guessed it Pasta! We went for a short little walk around the streets of Venice before ending up back here! Overall I have had a fantastic trip! I have seen so many amazing places, Pompeii, Volterra and Venice just to name my all time favourites, and done so many cool things. I loved visiting all the little towns, and seeing how different life is in them! Pretty sure they don’t get no TLC! I have learned many new things, like the fact that cameos are made from seashells, and that if you dig anywhere in Italy and you will basically find an old civilization beneath! Not to mention, we have all become pretty fit from all the walking we have been doing! I have really enjoyed this trip, and it won’t be one I easily forget!

Tomorrow we head to the Marco Polo airport, to fly back to, we hear, cold and damp Toronto. I promise you all we will at least play one game of Marco Polo while we are there! With that, after numerous times of butchering the Italian language, (Dad), walking up over 1000 stairs within 4 days, and at LEAST eating our weight in pasta, our Italian adventure is complete!

Arriverderici!