Ciao, baby...

Pictures, I forgot about pictures - hope you post a bunch.
I'm interested in how you felt about different places (including aggravated and whatnot as well as happy..).
How'd you do with the luggage and the trains...
did your parents have fun?

Only about five hundred.

Heeheehee...my motto was, take pictures of everything!

I hope to have at least twenty or thirty that are actually worth saving.

No rolling around nekkid in the rigatoni?


<sigh>


Did ya sing out loud on the bridges?

Well, the trip to Italy was great, right up until we found out that there was a strike on that would delay us in Manchester for an extra six hours. That was absolutely horrible.

By the time we got to our place in Venice, it ended up taking us a full 24 hours to get there. Maybe it was the jet lag, or maybe it was just the magic of Venice, but I felt very relaxed and happy there. That place is so cool. We were in a hotel that was off the beaten path, so that probably helped.

As for other places, let's see, I'll have to get back to you on that...I don't want to write a tweny paragraph post here...

The trains and travel once we were in Italy were great though, I will say that. No problems at all. Our train to Rome though, yeah...that one I made a mistake with...I somehow got us tickets on the wrong train...I didn't know that there was a cheaper, incredibly cramped train too. That was an experience.

Funny you should ask about singing...I did rent a bike one day in Florence and as I was flying down these hills in the Tuscan countryside I was singing at the top of my lungs...VOOOOLAAAAAAREEEEE!...WOOOAAA..OOOAAAH! CANTAAAAAAREEEEEE...and then I did a rousing New York, NY while I was cruising around in the city again after I got back...that was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip! Thanks for reminding me, ehBeth!

I knew you'd sing!

Sounds fab.

Yeah, San Marco was incredible for me, too, kicky. I saw it first at night, with all the lights. Unforgettable. Venice was my favorite place in Italy, too. Where else can you find incomparable art, Gothic architecture, great food and ancient history...and NO CARS!!!! I remember hearing the sound of water lapping on stone steps and the ringing of all the church bells. Venice wasn't quiet, but without cars what you hear is the sounds of people living...thousands of sounds that are normally drowned out. I loved it.

Eva, by the way, I looked around but never got the opportunity to pinch some middle-aged american woman's ass...but I did find that place you mentioned on the Rialto bridge, and even got myself a little leather-bound address book there. Rivoaltus, was it? Yeah, I think that's it. Cool place.

When you saw the piazza san Marco for the first time, which way did you walk in? I guess from any direction the full piazza is a surprise - even if you've seen photos..

On the art, even artfan here didn't spend all that much time in museums.. it's the street life that I love, plus the food, oh, yeah, and the buildings and ..

I came in through the "back door." Our hotel was just a few blocks away, so we entered the piazza at its southwest corner, exactly opposite the cathedral. We walked the entire length of the piazza, then turned at San Marco, went past the Doge's Palace, campanile and columns to the water's edge.

The next day we saw it again. I'll never forget that day. Our son (who was 6 years old at the time) lingered at the Bridge of Sighs and was left behind by the group. Hubby and I weren't walking together, and each of us thought the other had him. We were at the other end of the piazza before we met up and realized he was gone. I was mortified! I ran back as fast as I could and finally saw him. He was walking in circles just under the column topped with the Winged Lion, sobbing uncontrollably. He said, "I thought I'd lost you forever!" and I cried, too. Hubby and group found us there a few minutes later, just sitting there on the ground, hugging each other.

When I found the piazza, it was at night and I was by myself. My parents had gone to bed and I decided that I wanted to figure out where stuff was so that I could play tour guide...So let's see, I somehow wandered down this one street where I started to see more restaurants and shops, and then I turned left, and as I walked down that little calle I looked up and I was approaching the Basilica from the right side...I guess that would be the Northeast side?

The four horses on the top of the basilica were, from my point of view, facing to the right, out onto the piazza, which I couldn't see yet. It was so cool because I didn't even know what the Piazza was supposed to be or what it looked like at all. So, I was like, oooh, cool...then I got to the end of the calle and the whole piazza was revealed to my right...it was amazing after going down all those little narrow alleyways to see this giant open space...loved it!

I wish we had more time for Venice, because everytime I went out wandering I found more and more coolness. Damn, I will have to go back there one day.

Next time, with a woman!

god, I love those horses!

Hmm, I think it is Jan Morris, the former James Morris, who writes so well about them..

Will post it later when I can find the paragraph.

TAKE ME! TAKE ME!!!

Doncha lose this precious chance, kicky!

I will take you, Eva. I will take you slowly and passionately, with deep thrusts and long, hard kisses...my hands squeezing your soft tender...oh, wait...did you mean to take you to Venice?

Oops.

:-)

In all the traveling I've done, it's the stuff that I've come across by accident that I loved the most. The few times that it was something guidebook-worthy AND I found it by accident were the absolute best.

Geez. I had this great post all written and my mouse stopped working before I could hit "Submit." I couldn't find an opening for batteries, and then I saw it. My new little Cavalier doggie just chewed through my mouse cord. He was looking up at me, expecting to be praised. "I killed a mouse!"

Found another mouse and plugged it in. Voila, I'm back.

RIVOALTUS! You found it! I'm so excited! I remember the older woman who worked there giving my son an exquisitely handmade blank book. A tiny little book, but he has treasured it ever since. I was amazed that she would just give it to him like that, for free, but she said it was only natural. "Children must have the best of everything, because they are the future," she said. She was right, of course. I left there thinking how different life in America would be if only people here thought that way.

Kicky, I swear, if you take me to Venice, you might very well have me in the other sense as well.

I didn't find the Morris book on Venice yet (I'm packing, house = mess), but I found my piazza outlines and in that, a outline section on what Morris said about the horses.

quoting me re the book -

C. The horses - stand in the Loggia dei Cavalli
SLIDE
(uggh, this probably won't stay in outline format)
The central doorway of St. Mark's is surmounted by four horses, bronze reproductions of the gold, silver, and copper originals.

1. The horses and their travels:

The originals were moved a lot, but they stayed for seven hundred years on St. Mark's facade.

This chronology is from Morris:

a. they may have been of greek origin, or roman.
b. they were taken from Trajan's arch in Rome to Constantinople
c. and then removed from the hippodrome in Constantinople in the fourth crusade by Doge Enrico Dandolo and shipped to Venice; after a short stay at the Arsenal, they were installed at St. Mark's,
d. where they stayed until Napoleon took them to Paris... then they were returned in 1815.
e. during WWI, they were put on a barge for their safety; in WWII they went to a warehouse.
f. now they have a 'stall', in a room in the basilica, to save them from pollution.

2. Morris, lamenting the horses' retirement, recalled seeing them paw the stonework, at midnight, and once heard a whinny from the second horse on the right.

(edit, I seem to remember it was on a dark and gloomy night, or, hey, maybe a foggy one...)

Osso, you've reminded me of a great author I haven't read in ages: Jan Morris.

Kicky, tell it all!

Yeh, Kicky, all....


nag, nag, whinny, nag..