This blog entry is brought to you by Christine (Heather’s sister) and Dana (Heather’s niece). We joined the Scott-Black family for the last two weeks of July. We spent most of this time in Italy, so will share some of our experiences there.
Our first main stop was the Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, which means “five lands” is located on the rugged north west coast of Italy. It comprises 5 distinct villages which, along with the coastal lands and surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Each village is quite small, with pastel coloured houses piled up against one another along the cliffs. We stayed in the middle of the five villages, Corniglia, the only one that is located up the cliff-side (386 steps up) and not right on the water. The villages are connected by trains, hiking paths and, in good weather, by boat (during our stay the weather was lovely, but too windy for the boats to operate). From Corniglia we hiked to the other villages. Some of the paths were very steep and rugged, with breath-taking views of the villages and the coastline, while others were much more easygoing. The path running along the sea from the two villages south-east of Corniglia is called the Via Dell’Amore - it was first created in the 1920s, and became a meeting point for boys and girls from the two villages who over the years have written their names on the walls. Closing a lock with your sweetheart and throwing away the key is apparently a common ritual in Italy, and the Via Dell’Amore was lined with locks that have been left there over the years by locals and tourists alike.
After leaving Cinque Terre, we headed for Florence, making a quick stop en route to see the Leaning Tower in Pisa. It really is leaning! It is currently leaning at a 5 degree angle (15 feet off the vertical), and has reportedly been leaning almost from the time construction began in 1173 (as the guide book said – after only 5 years, someone said “Is it just me, or does that look crooked?”) Over the years, various efforts have been made to stop the lean, some of which were successful, and others just making it worse. Let’s hope all of the money and effort that has been invested in the past few years will keep it standing for at least a few more centuries!
Florence is a beautiful city. We spent 4 nights there, and each day we wandered through the city, exploring the markets, the museums and the churches. One of the main sites in the city is the huge Gothic Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Marie del Flore). The exterior is covered with pink, green and white marble, but its main claim to fame is the dome . Heather, Dave and the kids all climbed up to the top for a spectacular view of the city, and a close-up view of the art on the interior of the dome (I don’t do small enclosed stairs well, so gave it a miss and enjoyed their pictures and descriptions instead!). Another highlight in Florence is Michelangelo’s David. Michelangelo created David in the early 1500s, when he was still only in his 20s. Originally, David was to stand on the roofline of the Duomo, but instead was placed in a prominent position in a main palazzo (Palazzo Vecchio), and in the 19th century he was moved to his current location inside the Galleria dell’Accademia in order to protect him from the elements. David really is beautiful – we were all quite mesmerised looking at him from every possible angle, contemplating the story of David and Goliath, and thinking about the incredible genius who created him. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought him beautiful – we over heard another tourist saying “he is a perfect man, I want to marry him”!
Florence is full of wonderful markets with stalls selling all manner of leather goods. The purses in particular caught Dana, Elizabeth, Holly and Heather’s eyes! Each buying one and Heather splurged for a second. Scarves, and assorted other goodies were plentiful as well. Close to our apartment we found a wonderful bakery (with the happy baker, who sang and danced his way through his work days) and a great little “mom and pop” store where we bought dinner supplies, including wine ‘on tap’. At the main food market downtown, we saw all manner of cheeses, pastas, breads and pastries, sausages and other meats (including decapitated chickens displayed together with their severed heads!), and as we sat taking a break, discovered that the people at the next table over used to live in Halifax, and knew Dave! Small world eh!?
Next stop was Venice. Despite the crowds, we all fell in love with this wonderful city. Our guide book suggested one should just “get lost” in Venice, and that is exactly what we did (although I must say, Dave got pretty good at navigating and leading us to where we wanted to go!). We walked all over the place, exploring many of the little squares, streets, canals and bridges. We found ourselves wandering down streets so narrow we could touch the buildings on either side at the same time. It seemed every time we turned a corner, there was another little campiello (small square) or ponte (bridge). The buildings are all very old, and many of them are now vacant or occupied only on the upper floors as the main floors are flooded. Flooding continues to be a serious problem in the city, with St Mark`s Square being flooded up to 100 days each year. The population of the city is dwindling (only about 60,000 in the old city though many thousands more in the greater Venice area) and tourism is the main money maker. We did spend time looking at the major tourist sites around St Mark`s Square, including St Mark`s Basilica, the Doge`s Palace, the Rialto Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs. The Basilica dates back to the 10th - 11th centuries, and is decorated inside with gorgeous gold mosaics –in the dim interior light of the church, they take on a rather mysterious and quite beautiful glow. We didn`t spend a great deal of time in museums in Venice (although we did go to the Peggy Guggenheim gallery to see some wild modern art) because the whole city is like one big museum. We took the vaporetti (water buses) along the Grand Canal, and took a trip out to the island of Murano, where much of the famous Venetian glass is made (Rory was disappointed that we were not able to see the glass blowing actually happening – apparently that is done only early in the day during the hot summer months). Heather, Dave and the kids had a ride in a gondola, they were very impressed with the way the gondolier’s navigated through some very narrow canals, under little bridges, and through all this happily rowed away talking amongst themselves and acting as guides to the riders. While I spent some time sitting on St Mark`s Square watching the world go by, nursing my coffee and listening to the Café Florian orchestra play old standards! Our time in Venice seemed to go by way too fast. We all felt very sad leaving, more so than any of the other places we had been to. Clearly we will need to return some day!
En route back to Geneva, we spent one lovely night on Lake Como – stayed in a youth hostel with a spectacular view across the lake. We watched the lights go on one by one as the sun went down, and talked about what a wonderful two weeks it had been for all of us.
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