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We’ve had a few adventures here in Europe that I haven’t blogged about yet. I’m calling them Long Lost Adventures. Here’s the first in the series. Our first guests in Milan.
Long Lost Adventure #1
Way back in July of 2007, my Mother and her husband Wes planned an amazing 3 week Italian holiday. The first week they spent with us in Milan, then they headed south for a tour of Rome and Tuscany. Ah, the life…
Even though Milan is in Northern Italy, it’s very hot and humid there in July. And smoggy (you’ll be able to see it in some of the photos). So just moving and breathing require a little more effort.
A little bit about jet lag
When you fly west, jet lag is often a very big problem for the first couple of days.
We’ve found the best way to deal with this is by not napping. If you stay up until bedtime of the location you have arrived, you’ll adjust much more quickly to the new time zone. It is never easy. When guests arrived, I basically dragged them out into the city to try to keep them awake! I’ve had people fall asleep on me in the middle of a conversation at the dinner table.
One of the first things that I dragged them out for was Gelato. Cool delicious, distinctly Italian.
Donna and Wes’ first gelato
I don’t think they like their photo taken while they’re eating either…
Here’s a photo of my gelato from that day. Cocco e Mango, or Coconut and Mango.
1. Don’t get too close to a canal
Yeah, we actually saw another tourist fall into a canal with his camera. You might think you have a good foot hold, but remember that wet steps can be slimy and slippery.
There is a section in the Mtv Italy guide that talks about what you should do if you fall into a canal…it’s basically a guide to decontaminating yourself (including antibiotics, I believe).
Here is a photo of steps into the Grand Canal…see what I mean!
2. Don’t feed the pigeons unless you are prepared to be attacked, especially in the morning.
Here is my slide show of a little girl who decided to feed the pigeons bright and early Sunday morning.
And some more photos of pigeons in Piazza San Marco:
These girls decided to throw all their food out at the same time…this is the pigeon stampeed that resulted. Thanks to Lisa for the use of this photo!
This gentleman decided it would be fun to pour all the food on top of himself while lying down…eewwwwww!
This little boy was fun to watch feed the pigeons. His mom is looking a little worried I think, but he’s not scared at all!
And last, but certainly NOT least, is Lisa’s photo of the Giant Pigeon of Piazza San Marco!
3. Always bring a raincoat or umbrella when you travel.
Even if you are going someplace where it doesn’t rain often. Lisa, Chris, and I ended up buying umbrellas the first day in Venice because it was pouring rain. Also, I’ve used my umbrella to shade myself from the sun. Here are some photos of fun in the rain:
Chris and I enjoying Piazza San Marco with our new umbrellas (Photo by Lisa)
Lisa in Piazza San Marco with her new umbrella
Rain does not scare tourists away from Piazza San Marco
Gondola in the rain, gondolier on mobile phone
4. Pretty much anything you want to see in Europe is covered in scaffolding (at least partly).
No explanation needed. See photos.
Lisa in Piazza San Marco (being silly). Note scaffolding in background.
There are many more examples. I will probably put a set and maybe a slide show together on this theme. It’s pretty funny and almost unbelievable. And I understand the necessity to maintain these historical treasures, but it just seems that it’s all happening this year. The year we are in Europe.
5. Make your own fun when necessary!
Sometimes stuff doesn’t go as planned. So sometimes you just have to work with what you have and enjoy it in your own way! Here are some examples.
Chris amusing us all (including himself) with a plastic bag.
Michael, Lisa, and Chris being silly in front of our hotel.
Chris’ review of the restaurant where we had our (terrible) dinner the previous night.
The Bellini that Chris got us for the train ride home! (photo by Lisa)
6. When you ask for a room to accommodate 4 adults, make sure there are enough beds.
Otherwise someone will end up sleeping on the couch! Michael made a reservation for a room for 4 adults at a scandalous rate for Saturday night. We had heard that Venice was expensive, and they were selling it as a suite, so we sucked it up and were ok with it. Until we saw the room. There was a bedroom with a queen sized bed. There was a living/dining/kitchen area with a small couch. The small couch ended up being a convertible that turned into 2 twin size cots. After some excellent negotiating on Michael’s part, the reduced the rate by $100 (so you can only imagine how much we were originally paying). The hotel was nice, great view and small balcony.
Here’s the spumante the management left in our room that evening:
7. Take lots of photos.
This is how the Grand Canal looked the day we arrived, dark and gloomy.
Bridge Of Sighs
Lisa And Chris in Piazza San Giglio
The church in the Piazza San Giglio. We had an excellent view from our hotel balcony. Lisa took this photo.
Piazza San Marco with tower
Lisa’s photo of the doors to Harry’s Bar. Hemingway’s hangout in Venice.
The Bellini are excellent but not cheap!
Lisa took a few really excellent shots of gondolas:
On the Grand Canal (by Lisa)
What lessons have you learned the hard way while traveling??
Please add a comment to share your lessons!
My second semester of college I took a course called History of the Italian Renaissance. I never really made going to Italy a priority, although it was high on my list of places to visit. When we were given the opportunity to live in Italy, I was finally going to have my chance to see a lot of the art I had studied. Or so I thought.
While there is a bit of renaissance art in Milan (Leonardo DaVinci lived there for 20 years), Florence is really the heart of the renaissance world. It wasn’t until the end of our stay in Italy that I finally got to Florence.
My friend Lisa had decided to visit at the beginning of October, and then her brother decided to tag along as well. Part of their visit included a few days in Florence.
Let me also include that I came down with some kind of upper respiratory infection the day that Michael arrived (Lisa arrived the next day). I then proceeded to be pretty sick for the next three weeks. So the whole time I was traveling with them I was not feeling too well. They were very gracious to put up with my awful cough. And we were also lucky enough to have separate bedrooms the whole trip.
A huge thank you to Lisa for the use of her photos on this post. Since I wasn’t feeling well on this trip, a lot of times I was resting on a bench behind her as she was shooting photos. Plus many of them are so excellent that they needed to be shared! Thankyou Thankyou Lisa!
Many thanks also go to Michael, our “travel agent”, without him we might not have had the energy or inspiration to drag our ill-selves to Florence!
I’ve tried to add links to various sites so that you can get more information about the sites or works of art I’ve included. Let me know if you have other references that might be relevant to this post and I will add them! Also, click here for the text book (although my book is the 3rd edition) I used for my Art History class: Italian Renaissance Art.
Lisa in front of our train. High speed trains are wonderful!
Our hotel was just a short walk from the train station, a perfect location. The Hotel Europa gave us a family suite since we had booked at the last minute…it was huge. An enormous first bedroom/living room, a large bathroom, and a large second bedroom. A continental breakfast was included each day. The staff was extremely helpful and very friendly.
Lisa’s photo of the ceiling of the main room of our suite.
When we made our reservations, Michael asked if they could make reservations for the Accademia and the Uffizi Gallery.
These galleries are on the must see list, and they accept reservations. This means that you make a reservation in advance (for a little bit more money I believe) and you get an allotted time for entrance. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wait in line, it means that the line you wait in is significantly shorter (I’m guessing by hours, not minutes), than without reservations. I would highly recommend getting reservations whenever you can.
We checked into the hotel at 1pm on Wednesday. At that time we were told that our host was able to make a reservation for the Galleria dell’Accademia for us between 1:30 and 1:45 that day! Luckily, the hotel is just a block away from the Accademia.
Here is one of the reasons why the Accademia is so popular:
David by Michelangelo
Michael took a lot of photos of David, Lisa and I just a few. Which is actually not even allowed (Lisa and I were asked to put our cameras away).
The Accademia is a lot smaller than I had anticipated. We got through it in about 20 minutes.
After we had lunch, it was getting pretty late and so we decided to get a quick peek into the Duomo. We only had a few minutes as it was closing.
Lisa’s photo of inside the Duomo
The Dome of the Duomo
Lisa’s photo of Michael and I in the Piazza del Duomo (we’re checking out his camera).
We stopped at Birreria Centrale and had some excellent pasta.
This is Lisa’s dinner. Gnocci with truffle sauce. I wish I had gotten this!!
And since there are several excellent Gelateria in Florence, we decided to get gelati at GROM.
On Thursday morning we headed down to the Arno river to see the Ponte Vecchio
This bridge is the only bridge over the Arno that the Germans didn’t destroy during WWII. They say that Hitler ordered it preserved based on it’s history.
A photo of the Arno river taken from the Ponte Vecchio. The Uffizi Gallery is on the left…the arches.
Then just up the street to the Bargello Museum
Lisa took this photo inside the Bargello court yard. We were asked not to take photos in the main sculpture room.
Lunch at Gusto Leo was ok, Lisa’s pizza was the highlight.
After lunch we headed up to the Piazza Republica to meet our tour group for the Uffizi. We ended up booking a tour through the hotel since we couldn’t get reservations directly from the Uffizi. I was very happy we did, since the tour through Florapromotuscany was great!
On our walk from the Piazza Republica, we went through the Piazza Della Signoria. This is where the statue of David is located (a copy as the original is in the Academia) among other amazing sculptures (again, copies as the originals are housed safely in museums).
The Loggia dei Lanzi, filled with famous sculptures.
Perseus With the Head of Medusa by Cellini
Pigeons need some place to stand! This is a copy of the statue of David. The original is in the Academia.
We got into the museum within about 15 minutes of arrival of the entrance. You have to go through metal detectors and run your bag through an x-ray machine once inside the doors. Also, if your bag is too big, they’ll make you put it into a locker.
The tour really began on the “second floor”, where the galleries are located. If given the option to take the elevator at the Uffizi, take it. The ceilings at the gallery are probably 20 feet high, so the second floor is more like the fourth when it comes to climbing stairs.
Our tour was excellent. The guide pointed out many of the significant works and spoke in depth about several of them, comparing and contrasting the different styles. It was an excellent tour for those looking to learn a bit about the art as they see it. I would recommend taking a guided tour of the Uffizi. It is so large, it would be easy to miss some very significant pieces.
Palazzo Vecchio, taken from the roof of the Uffizi Gallery. Oh, and there’s Lisa!!
After our tour we found a great little place for dinner which was excellent!
On Friday, Lisa and I were on our own as Michael had a different itinerary planned for the day.
First we headed down to the Arno River to see the Museo Di Storia Della Scienza.
This is displayed as Galilelo’s finger, taken from him after he died. Sort of like a “holy” scientific relic. And really, who needs 10 fingers when they’re dead?
Lisa is a big math geek, so she asked me to take this…LOL!
We grabbed lunch at an outside table on the piazza Santa Croce after strolling through the International Market(and all the delicious smells). Pizza on the piazza!
Lisa’s photo of a spice stall at the International Market
Then we went into the Opera di Santa Croce Firenze
Amazing!
Lisa’s photo of inside Santa Croce…such beautiful light
Lisa’s photo of Galileo’s tomb
Lisa’s photo of Machiavelli’s tomb
The three sculptures of women a the base of Michelangelo’s tomb are disciplines of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture.
Lisa’s photo of The Annunciation by Donatello
And as usual, something you want to see is under scaffolding…the altar.
Sorry for the poor quality photo, it was taken with my phone.
After leaving Santa Croce, Lisa did a little shopping for leather goods (one of the things Florence is known for). Vivoli was just down the street, so we couldn’t resist a little gelato snack after lunch!
That’s me standing in line outside Vivoli. The line is actually extemely short in that photo. I had chocolate and rice and Lisa had chocolate and vanilla! Yum!
We only had a few hours left, and I knew that I had to see the Baptistry and the Chapelle Medicee! Lisa was kind enough to let me drag her to these last two sites.
The Baptistry
Lisa at “The Gates of Paradise”
The Doors of the Baptistryare very famous. There are 3 sets: North, South, and East. They are cast in bronze, and the South doors are guilded in gold. It is said that Michelangelo gave the South doors the name of “Gates of Paradise”.
Oh, and then there’s me at “The Gates of Paradise”, photo by Lisa.
The Baptistry ceiling mosaics are amazing. They sparkle!
Finally, we went to the Chapelle Medicee. You begin to understand the Medicee a little better once you have visited the chapelle. The power and wealth. The entrance floor houses a collection of holy relics. Then you go upstairs.
Just absolutely awe inspiring. The scale isn’t even human…it’s huge! Unfortunately they don’t allow photographs!
Such an austere door for a grand chapel!
Despite our illnesses, we enjoyed Florence! There is so much to see that we weren’t able to get to a lot of great sites (like the Pitti Palace). But if you see everything, then what is your motivation for returning?
Friday evening Lisa and I took the high speed train back to Milan. The next morning we had to get up bright an early to take the high speed train to Venice! Stay tuned for that adventure…
