Ciao bella

Greetings from Florence, the heart of Tuscany; with rolling hills, tall cypress trees and breathtaking villas. Yes, I can see why people want to retire here. Maybe not retire right in Florence though. It is crazy-busy with tourists! It's busier than I thought it would be. You can hardly move in some places.


I arrived Tuesday afternoon and my room is a hundred percent better than "the hotel in Venice that is dead to me." I'm staying at the Hotel Monna Lisa. They have Mona Lisa pictures all over the place, but they are more on the kitschy side. Most of them depict Mona smoking from a bong or joint. There is one where she is holding a cat. Ha ha, cheeky.

After I was settled I looked for the Leather School of Santa Croce. It's been around for over 50 years and you can purchase their creations. I walked into the store and it smelled divine. You could just smell quality. I looked around and purchased a couple of small things (It's not badly priced). I was about to leave, but I decided to go through the bag room again. Big mistake! I found a red calf-skin carry-on bag. It's beautiful! It's also lined in leather. I splurged and bought it. They put your name or initials on items you buy, so I got my initials burned on the front. I imagine having this special bag forever.

I did a little sightseeing after that; looking and walking and looking and walking. When I get home I'm going to want to sit and veg and sit and veg!

On Wednesday I started out walking to the Uffizi to get a ticket and look at their collection of masterpieces by Botticelli, da Vinci and Michelangelo. Once I got there I was shocked at how long the line was. It was at least a two hour wait or more. I don't really have the time of patience to wait that long. I only have two full days in Florence, the rest is touring the countryside. Drat!

I went to Boboli gardens at Pitti Palace instead. It was beautiful and quiet. A nice change from the squares of Florence and Venice. I loved it! The garden is quite large and very high up, giving you nice views of the city.








After the gardens I met up with my Chianti wine tour bus. We went to a 900 year old winery called Castello del Trebbio. It was originally owned by the Pazzi family who tried to kill the Medici family. As you can tell, we got some history with our wine tour.








The wine was fantastic! I sat with an older man from Michigan, and two couples from Sweden. We had a great conversation over our wine and tapas.





When we got back I ventured to a restaurant that was recommended as one of the best places to get pizza. It was ok. I've had better in Winnipeg. I should have had the pasta. It looked better. I shared a table with two German women that were in Florence to learn Italian. Hmm, sound familiar? I wonder if they read "Eat, Love, Pray?"

I topped off my day by going to Vivoli, the famous Gelato place. So yummy. Not as good as Berthillon in Paris, but right up there.


These locks are everywhere. I believe the story goes that if you and your partner put a lock up you will be united forever. Or something like that.

What bridge is this?

It's my last day in Venice and there is a thunderstorm going on right now. I made it back to the room in time. Whew!

Yesterday was another warm, sunny day; a good day to wander around, which is exactly what I did. The nice thing about this city is you easily get lost, but then find your way again.








I would tell you where I went yesterday, but I have no idea where I was for most of it. I passed through markets and alleys that led nowhere. Went over so many bridges I lost count. Ate something wherever I went; pizza, fresh fruit, fresh strawberry juice, ice cream, cookies, more pizza and more ice cream. Oh, and this drink they call "Gingerina." Took a chance thinking it might be like ginger ale. Not even close. I can't even place the taste.


I ended up having one of my pizza slices outside a little restaurant that had the most delicious looking things called "special toast." They looked like extravagant pizzas on ciabattas, loaded with fresh ingredients. They were enormous! I didn't get one because I wasn't so hungry, but the couple sitting beside me did and they gobbled it up.

The couple were from Raleigh, North Carolina. I didn't get their names, but we ended up having our lunch together. We sat and chatted for over an hour. She is a pharmacist and he is a top Marketing Sales Associate for the largest rubber adhesive company in the world. I believe it was called "Lord." (Nothing to do with religion he said.) He seems to travel everywhere in the world for his job. I would imagine that's exciting at first, but then wears thin after awhile.

Anyways, I had a great lunch with them. Definitely a highlight to Venice. It was nice to have a lively conversation over a meal. Haven't had that in awhile. Forgot how much I missed it. Actually, I haven't had a good argument for a long time either. I'm sure CJ is missing that at work! ;)


Last night as I was walking back to the hotel room through St. Mark's square, I stopped to watch all the couples enjoying themselves as they listen to the orchestras play. It's so cute! This one older couple were bopping along, arms around each other with a hand in the other's back pocket. I couldn't resist, I had to snap a shot of them.



When I got back to the room I got a call from Chuck. He always knows when to phone me somehow. Spidey senses? He was looking for the lawnmower recharger. Ha ha. Nice, I got him mowing and cleaning cat litter. Next step, shoveling snow!

More of the same for today. For me, Venice is a two-day max visit. Now onto Florence. Ciao

Time is flying by

I'm more than halfway through my tour and the time has flown by. Although it does feel like months ago I was in London. Go figure.

On Friday evening I flew to Venice. My plane had ashtrays on it and no TVs! It had to be at least 20 years old, right? The flight was fast, but I did get that cold, so my ears didn't unplug after landing. I could hardly hear the sweet italian girl helping me with my water taxi. She talked non-stop about what to do in Venice, and to be honest, I couldn't hear a thing she said.

I arrived in a torrential rainstorm, so everything was wet by the time I got to the hotel. I was so tired and sick and wet I just wanted a nice warm bed to get into.

Guess what, not at this hotel! The room is, to put it mildly, gross. Venice doesn't stink, but my room does. The bed is so old that it has sections in it that have sunk to the floor. And when I pulled down the sheets (a weave from the dark ages) it had at least four hairs in it. Ewwww. Not very tempting to crawl into when you are sick. The hotel lobby is beautiful and maybe other rooms are too, but this is definitely not the four star room I paid for. There are holes in the wall and stains all over the carpet. To top it off, the staff is not very helpful or pleasant. In case you want to know, I'm staying at the Venice - Monaco + Grand Canal.

Suffice to say, yesterday was not a good day. I was miserable by the time I sat in the room for a few minutes. I couldn't hear, couldn't breathe, was damp and sitting in one of my bed "holes." I became completely homesick in a matter of minutes.

Cut to this morning. I woke up, crawled out of the "hole" and left this shit-bag place to go on an island tour of Murano, Burano and Torcella. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the islands were so pretty. Made it all better. They gave us a cool Murano glass blowing demonstration. We all oohed and ahed, then bought some glass. You can buy Murano glass everywhere here. Every store carries it, except maybe Chanel, but you never know!








After the tour, I had the rest of the afternoon to get lost in Venice. It's not hard to do. The streets are beautiful here. And no cars! It took awhile to notice that missing sound. Pretty sweet.








Venice is quite a unique place. The gondolas are everywhere and there are people playing instruments constantly. I ended up at St. Mark's square tonight and sat down for a sandwich and ice tea and watched a lovely orchestra play. When they say Venice is expensive, they aren't kidding! That little dinner and show cost 32 euros! Most expensive sandwich ever! But the experience was worth it. Especially seeing couples get up and spontaneously dance at their tables.





I have no idea when this will get posted. The hotel has wireless in the lobby but they charge way too much for me to justify it.

À bientôt

Well it's my last night in Paris and I am back at the hotel trying my best to keep from getting a cold. I can feel it coming. Oh no! I want to have my taste buds for Italy. The pharmacist nearby gave me some little supplements to try and keep it from arriving. Fingers crossed, but I do believe I am at the point of no return. Drat!

Here is a short version of my last couple of days...

Yesterday I left early in the morning to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur and walk around the area. The church is so high on a hill that you can see all of Paris from it. Since I went early in the morn, most of the city was still under a haze, most likely pollution.


On my way back to the metro station I saw the Moulin Rouge. I took a photo, but it doesn't look that great in daylight. Plus, there are so many strip joints and sex shops on that street. It's kinda seedy. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the sign for Pussy's strip club. I wanted to, but too many people around. It was a great sign though, trust me. ;)





I then went to Centre Pompidou, but I was way too early so I ended up walking down Rue de Rivoli and I never got back to it. Oh well, I wanted to see it, but I guess you can't fit everything in. Although, I did fit in another trip to Berthillon, the ice cream parlor. Yum!

This morning I bought a ticket to the Monet exhibit from the concierge at the hotel. I'm glad I did because it put me second in line. The line up to buy tickets went around the block. Whoa nelly, that exhibit was amazing!!! Definitely a highlight of my trip. They had paintings from London, Toronto, Ottawa, New York, Chicago, Boston, Harvard, Yale, etc, etc. What a treat!


They also put all of Monet's series beside each other so you could really see how he painted the same subjects at different times of the day. It was just stunning. There must have been around 100 of his paintingsf. Some of the highlights for me were his series of haystacks, London's Thames river, woman with parasol, and of course the waterlilies. He had one still life of chrysanthemums that I also loved as the colour was so vibrant.


So, that was Paris. Didn't get to see as much as I wanted, but did get to thoroughly enjoy a beautiful, artistic, laid back city. I loved it!


Oh yeah, I cannot even count on one hand how many times I saw people walking down the street carrying a full baguette and just taking random bites from it. Just something you don't see back home.

Two tours, two days, too much

It's 10:30 on Tuesday evening and I'm enjoying a glass of wine I bought from a winery and some biscuits from a highly recommended bakery. That's a great end to two long days touring the countryside.

Yesterday was tiring as I had a 12+ hour long tour of the Loire valley. The French countryside is beautiful and the castles are enormous. We went to three in total. Ambiose, Chenoceaux and Chambord. All very nice.

The best part of the tour was our visit to Plou & Fils, a winery that has been handed down father to son for 500 years. The current owner is 25 and has total passion for his vineyard. He gave us a quick tour of the wine cave (not a cellar, a cave that was dug out by his ancestors) and showed us how they make certain wines. It smelled good in there. Afterwards, we lined up for a wine tasting and he gave us a sample of the wines. This was before lunch, so I got quite a buzz going and ended up buying three bottles. They were only six euros each and you cannot buy this wine outside Europe.


Now, on to today. I have no energy to blog about the castles. I've seen too many of them and I don't want to see anymore. Oh wait, I had to see Versailles today. Uh oh.

This morning I had my other tour in Paris. This one took me to Giverny in the morning and Versailles in the afternoon. As I didn't really care for Versailles, I will just talk about Giverny. Wow, Claude Monet's garden there is so pretty. The lily pond is to die for. The tree leaves that gently fall into the pond, the lily's that are still present, and the reflection all add up to a spectacular view.

I can see why Monet loved this place. You gasp when you see the way the morning light hits everything.












I found a great place to have lunch called "Hotel Baudy." It was quiet and only locals were eating there. I ordered the onion soup and goat cheese stuffed with fresh peppers and mushrooms. Oh, and wine since it's cheaper than anything else! It was a tasty lunch for sure.


When I got back this evening I did a little shopping and found a cute pair of italian leather boots from a department store called "Le Bon Marche." Ah, new shoes!

I then hightailed it to a river cruise company. I was hoping to get on the boat that gives you the view of the Eiffel tower when it is being lit and sparkling. I got there just in time and took an amazing hour long ride. If ever in Paris, definitely do the night cruise, everything looks great lit up.





On the cruise we passed by all the big monuments and when you went under the bridges, the people on the bridge would wave or try to start conversations with you. We even passed by a small park on the river where a dozen couples were waltzing to some man playing an accordion. Doesn't that sound like what Paris should be?

When our boat floated by the Eiffel tower, my camera died. Whoops. Oh well. I still got to witness the light show. It's very impressive. So much better than actually going to the tower and dealing with the crowds.

I'm off to drink my wine. Au revoir

Another beautiful day in Paris

I woke up this morning to a sunny, cloudless day. I opened the windows and laid back in bed and took in the view for a few minutes. Breathtaking. When I stepped out of the shower awhile later, church bells were ringing. Great start!

My first stop today was "Marche des les creations" a Sunday art market in Montparnasse. I certainly found what I was looking for, original art by local artists. I took two trips up and down the market absorbing each piece and deciding what I wanted. My first two pieces were small watercolours; one of Sacre Coeur, the other of Cafe de Flore. One is the view I look at every morn, the other is in the area I am staying. I think those were good choices. The artist, Jacqueline Legendre, was very sweet and she had some beautiful watercolours of flowers. A woman after my own heart!





I then found an oil painting by a gentle older man. He was like a sweet grandpa. He had oils of nudes. I was struck by one that reminded me of a Degas I saw the day before. Not that it is even close to a Degas, but that was the first thought that jumped in my head.


As I was leaving the market, I stopped by Jaqueline's tent again and looked through her larger pieces. She had one large pen & ink with touches of watercolour that drew my attention. It wasn't a bad price, so I bought that one too!


After I had spent all my money, I visited the Cimetiere du Montparnasse as it was close by. I didn't have a cemetery visit on my agenda, but I should have. It was beautiful. The grandeur of the head stones is impressive and it is very serene. What a nice place to walk around and glance at the history in front of you. When I think of graveyards, I usually think of bad zombie movies and creepiness. But in this one, all you see is how much they cherish the people who are no longer with us. There is a large amount of care and devotion put into one's resting place here. And the flowers! So many graves have little gardens around them with tons of fresh flowers.

That's one thing that is a huge difference from North America. The people here (and in England) cherish fresh flowers. They are everywhere. I see them being bought and carried around all the time. I wish we North Americans did that more.





After the cemetery, it was on to Notre Dame. Very cool. The gargoyles are awesome. I didn't go in as the line was very long. I just sat down and took it in. It smelled like pee. That's one thing about Paris, I think men just piss wherever. Hey boys, your pee stinks! Remember that before you whip it out.


Then it was on to Ile St.-Louis, the little island beside Notre Dame. I read that you can get the best ice cream in the world there. Yep, it's true. The place is called Berthillon. It's the parlor with at least 25 people waiting in line. It was worth the wait! Their ice cream is to die for. I got chocolate and caramel butter salt. Pure heaven.

My last stop of the day was the Eiffel Tower. What a zoo! I think I would rather take it in from a distance. When you are there it is not so parisian, more like Disneyland. I did wait the hour to go up. Now, that's much better. It's very nice up there and the view is pretty awesome.





Hey, is that me in a photo!?

I heart art

Walked my shoes off on my first full day in Paris. I started out at the Rodin Museum and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. In between I saw the Hotel Invalides, Musee d'Orsay, Garden Tuilleries and avenue Champs-elysses. All in all a full 12 hours of walking was had.

The Rodin Museum has a wonderful garden full of sculptures, including The Thinker. I had a quiet walk through and did a little sketch of a statue in the middle of a pond. I totally forgot about my sketchbook! Crap. Oh well, I did get two sketches in.





After the museum, I ventured into Hotel Invalides as it is right across the street. It is not somewhere I was going to see, but I was there, so why not. I'm glad I did. The place is massive and has the tomb Napoleon is in. Boy did that dude have a bad case of short-mans syndrome. Everything he did was over-the-top. The tomb would fit at least 50 clowns.


I then ventured into the army museum there. I believe it's the biggest in the world (don't quote me on that). The French keep everything. They have thousands of pieces of armor from medieval times alone! And the amount of artillery, swords, crossbows canons and horse armor is impressive.


I would highly recommend seeing this place if you are in Paris. It is beautifully laid out and they have demonstration areas where you can put on the armor to see how it feels.


Another cool thing they have is full depictions of most of their war battles. They have these huge screens that animate a battle and you listen and watch as they show you on maps how the battle was won or lost. I listened to the Battle of Waterloo completely.

What a contradiction though. In London, they have so many monuments and are so proud of defeating Napoleon. And in Paris, they are so proud of Napoleon and his accomplishments. It's interesting to hear both sides. It makes me want to learn much more about this crazy little man.

Afterwards I walked over to the Musee d'Orsay. Ok, this is my favorite museum ever! The amount of impressionism and post-impressionism is, in a word, impressive. The one piece that absolutely "wowed" me was van Gogh's self portrait. I bet you can see it a mile away, it's so bright with colour. The aqua colours in the painting are so bright and contrast greatly with the orange of his hair and beard. It's almost cheerful until you look at his face, which is full of pain.


I saw so many other pieces that I loved, but I will not go on and bore you with my nerdiness.

But I'm still sticking with art, I am in Paris after all. After the Orsay, I sat by a fountain in Garden Tuilleries and there was a woman beside me painting in a small book. She had her shoes off and was resting her feet on the fountain edge. She held two little metal bottles of paint while she painted. I kept looking over at her work. It was beautiful. It looked like art deco from the 40's. I finally got up the nerve to ask her if she was willing to sell. Unfortunately, she couldn't. She is making a new design for a larger piece she is working on. Her name was Rusudan Petviashvili, she's an artist from Georgia. Too bad, I would have cherished it. Wasn't meant to be. But she gave me her card and a small pamphlet of her work.

Bonsoir.