Venice, tourism with Barbara and Shannon Aug 2013

church of Redentore on the Giudecca from our friend's kitchen window

view of giudecca canal from friend's

our triple room

great sleigh bed in triple room

looks fake but it is the real thing!

 The Rialto bridge, one of the many which give your legs a good workout

pretty murano glass balloons in a shop

tourism at the vegetable and fish market

in addition to dried red tomatoes they have yellow ones too

i always love these capitals!

the always beautiful Ca' D'Oro  on the grand canal

seppia (squid) with its ink which we had with pasta 

pretty Byzantine slab in the church of the Gesuiti

Gesuiti marble altar recently restored to its splendor 

gorgeous marble steps up to altar

view of venice and San Marco tower 

a glassblowing demonstration in Murano

barbara and a much needed lunch break on Murano

restaurant decor, he was wooden

Murano, looks calm but there were plenty of tourists

Murano is glass overload but there are some stunning pieces available

one of best reasons to go to Murano is to see the church of Sts. Donato and Maria, one of the oldest churches in the lagoon. church origins go back to  7th century

it's floor mosaics are renowed and gorgeous, dating from 1125

lovely mosaics in church

this sailing ship was parked in Venice for two days

practicing for the upcoming Regatta Storica

the mandatory evening  Spritz stop

happy tourists!

Lots to do and little time to do it. We did the best we could from the moment we set foot in Venice. LOTS of walking, eating, admiring, sightseeing, and learning. Saw San Marco, Barbara and Shannon went up in San Marco tower, we visited friends on Giudecca,  took a traghetto (gondolo which crosses the grand canal), toured the fish and vegetable market, crossed all 4 bridges, took vaporetto to Murano and toured the island, saw the wonderfully, elaborate Scala Contarini del Bovolo staircase, saw a few other churches, had a well-deserved celebratory cocktail for Shannon's 25th birthday on the wonderful terrace of the Monaco and Grand hotel. Had two fun dinners, great lunch stop on Murano, and enjoyed our cute bed and breakfast.  Lots of fun and very tired feet.

Cinque Terre August 2013- Many Photos

view from our little hotel terrace in Vernazza

looking to the other side from our terrace

view of  upper vernazza, one of the 5 towns in the cinque terre, founded in 1,000 A.D. You can see the lovely terraced vineyards in the back.

the capers were so pretty

Vernazza church of Santa Margherita

pretty church of Santa Margherita d'Antiochia of Vernazza, begun in 1318.

beach

we enjoyed some time at the beach watching the waves and wading in

view towards nightfall from terrace

we had to sample the wonderful  local white wine on the terrace

view of the vernazza to corniglia hiking trail

enjoying the terrace prior to dinner

view of monterosso al mare, the northern most of the 5 towns,  from the restaurant we ate in in Vernazza.

good view of Vernazza which was totally covered by mud in Oct 2011 from a terrible landslide

Vernazza from the trail, our little b and b was on the left hand side of the cliff

every view of the sea is spectacular

trail from Vernazza to Corniglia. One of the few sections of the trails connecting the 5 towns which is open.

Corniglia in sight! Corniglia is the center town of the 5 towns and only one without direct access to the sea.

town of Manarola which you could only reach by boat as trail was still closed from landslide

a very small section of trail was open from Manarola toward Corniglia. Manarola is town in background.

View of Manarola, which is very often the post card view

On boat toward Monterosso

too bad we didn't owe the boat, we fit right in.

Corniglia from the Ligurian Sea

view of one of the upper hill towns on the mountain

nice to have clear water and skies

we hung out soothing our feet in walk in Monterosso for a while

Church facade in Monterosso

Weather isn't always perfect and is often dangerous as they found out in Oct 2011 when the landslide caused damage in the millions of euro. Thankfully the towns have came back quite well.

Early morning Vernazza before the trainloads of tourists arrive

so pretty to see the capers growing everywhere

Two nights and three days in the spectacular Cinque Terre. We had a fun b and b in Vernazza, hiked a nice, long section of the trail, enjoyed our simple lunches and the famous Ligurian pesto and local Cinque Terre wine with our dinners. Lots of tourists but good to see after the disaster they suffered almost two years ago. My first time in Cinque Terre was almost 23 years ago and it hasn't changed much. It is a UNESCO site and gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. No one will be disappointed traveling there.

Some Roman tourism-travels with Barbara and Shannon. August 2013

A saturday lunch at eataly. The enormous 4 story  train station was converted into an Italian food shopping and restaurant extravaganza.

visit to church and mausoleum of constantine's daughter, Costanza with 4th century Roman mosaics showing the grape/wine harvest.

mausoleum/Church of Santa costanza, daughter of Constantine, probably built by her around 337 A.D

exterior of mausoleum  on the grounds of the complex of Saint Agnes (sant'agnese)

catacombs of sant'agnese, only discovered in late 1800's. well preserved tombs, lots of them with the coverings still over the graves. a small chapel exists where they found the body of st. agnes.

barbara and shannon on the catacomb tour. was a good tour, worth seeing. no crowds like the catacombs on the appian way. 

a butcher's tomb? judging from the relief of a prosciutto

the very elaborate villa torlonia,  where mussolini lived for 20 or more years. recently restored to its splendor

casa della civetta (owl house) also on the grounds of the Torlonia park

one of the extraordinary stained glass pieces in the owl house

exterior of owl house, once home to a prince, now a museum

barbara and I front of owl house

there was a small violin exhibition with fun painted violins

Roman "ponte rotto" (or broken bridge) real name for it is Pons Aemilius. It was the first stone bridge over the Tiber (built from 179-142 BC). It has been repaired numerous times.

Dinner at "Bacco il Tevere" on the Isola Tiberina (on the island in the middle of the Tiber).  Has a great view of the Ponte Rotto which we enjoyed while dining. The island itself was settled during the beginnings of Rome. A temple of Aesculapius was built here and the island is still associated with healing as there is one of the main hospitals in Rome on the island.  The island was faced in travertine, some of which you can still see with the serpent of Aesculapius carved in relief on the stone. Aesculapius was the Greek god of medicine and healing and his snake headed rod/staff is still a symbol of medicine. As an aside one of his daughters was Hygieia,  goddess of health and cleanliness, thus today's word hygiene.

can't leave out a trip to cremolato when friends visit. despite the title there is no cream only frozen delicious fresh fruit in season, topped with thick whipped cream. will cool anyone down on a summer's night.

It was a great pleasure to have my dear high school friend Barbara and her daughter visiting Rome. Barbara and I made the best of two days seeing the Baths of Caracalla,  exploring the layers of San Clemente church, lunch and gelato on the aventine, a swim in a local pool, coffee in the Villa Borghese, peeking through the keyhole, visiting the Capitoline museum and having a great caffe shakerato on the gorgeous terrace next door to museum at the top of Victor Emmanuele monument overlooking Rome. We had a few fun dinners on our terrace, dined out on the Tevere and enjoyed pizza and a walk in Trastevere with some of my Roman friends, and hung out on the sidewalk table sampling some delicious cremolato. We went to Sunday Mass in the Baths of Diocletian having been converted to a church by Michelangelo in the 1500's.  They also went to the Galleria Borghese to see the Bernini Baroque sculptures and first rate art collection. We squeezed in as much as possible.
A good time was had by all!