Date: Thursday May 5, 2016
Subject: Venice & Florence ... wifi delayed
Woo hoo!!!! I have WiFi / internet in Rome!!
We are told to rest for one hour and then we will begin walking again .… time to get caught up on emails!!
Venice was interesting … it looks so old and many buildings are in rough shape. We had a walking tour of the city and also walked around in San Marco (St. Mark's church). It turned out that Rick Steves was in the area as well … later when we were allowed some free time, a few members of our group saw him & took pictures; however, when I was leaving San Marco, I noticed a man a couple meters ahead of me who looked a lot like Rick Steves, but I didn’t get close enough to confirm. (After checking photos of other tour members later, it turns out I did see Rick Steves ... unfortunately, I had been watching older videos back home and had been looking for a younger version of Rick!) .
I planned to go over to a particular museum on the opposite side of the Grand Canal, but I got a little lost. There are no walkways following the edge of the grand canal, so you need to go back & forth and in & out of all the little laneways …. some laneways are dead ends, some end up going in the wrong direction or do not have a bridge to cross over the smaller canals …. to put it simply, it took me 1 1/2 hours to find the museum I was looking for and by then it was closed; and another 1/2 hour to figure out how to get back to our hotel.
We took a late night gondola ride … which was not included in the tour, so we split the cost with the members that chose to go on the ride. I managed to take a good picture of a gondola ride while it was still daylight, that I think would make a good art quilt but I am beginning to think that I will have too many pictures to chose from!
The food has been MORE than I normally would eat …. an appetizer is considered a plate of pasta and then there is still salad, the main course and desert to eat. Many of us are noticing that our legs are staying in shape with all the walking and stair climbing but that our middles seem to be growing!!
When we left Austria and reached Italy, our bus driver said “We've left civilization.” I am beginning to believe him. There are no apparent road rules here … or at least no rules that Italians will follow. There are two lanes of traffic and the Vespas and small motorcycles make another lane between the cars and a 4th lane on the median or center line and then if that isn't good enough they drive into on-coming traffic. You can tell who the tourists are … they wait at the lights, when the Italians just cross the street whether or not the lights are red and whether or not there is traffic. In the churches where there are signs that say “no photos”, people are snapping pictures everywhere. A guard might yell “No photos!” and people put their cameras and phones down, walk a few meters and start taking pictures again! In Rome, cars are parked on the median, next to other cars (double parked), and on the sidewalk. If you want something, you just stop, get out of your car and go to the store … it does not matter if you have stopped in the lane of busy traffic. Crazy!!
In Florence, we had gypsies asking for money yesterday. Our tour guide said that it wasn't the gypsies you had to worry about, but the pickpockets following them … they watch for people giving money to the gypsy ladies and then the pickpockets will know where you put your wallet and relieve you of it quickly. So far no one has had any problems in our group …. one man felt a hand on his pocket while we were in Amsterdam (he had a notebook in his pocket) and quickly grabbed the pickpocket's hand. He is a retired police officer, I think, so he was quick to stop it.
Florence is a beautiful city ... I will need to visit it again, to see more buildings and to do some more shopping. A soft-as-butter light green leather jacket is coming home with me! I hadn’t meant to buy it, but the vendor kept dropping the price ... all the way from 250€ down to 130€! I have discovered if you look interested in something then walk away, they will drop the price. You don’t even have to verbally bargain. The funny thing was, I was willing to buy the jacket when he dropped to 175€, but I hesitated while mentally calculating how much cash I had on me or whether it would be on credit card ... while I was ‘thinking’, the price just kept going down!!
Time for another walk ….
Love Mom / H
The Duomo in Florence (cathedral) that is HUGE and ornate. You can walk to the top of the dome but it is 483 steps, so I skipped that part.
Date: Friday May 6th
Subject: All Roads Lead to Rome
Kate, Liz, Dad, Jan & Sonja,
Another male member of our tour had someone's hand in his pocket yesterday on the bus … he only had a comb in his back pocket. He turned and saw that it was a well-dressed lady who quickly turned her head as if nothing happened and then pushed her way back into the crowded bus. Every time we go anywhere we are being constantly reminded of pickpockets …. I hold onto my purse in front of me at all times, making it difficult to take pictures. I bought a leather purse in Venice and it is not easy to get into since it is still rather stiff.
Here I am travelling through wonderful scenery and enjoying great company and one of the most common conversations is about toilets!! At each pit stop we grab some cash because you need to pay to pee!! And a little side bonus is to see what kind of toilet we get. Some of them have sprays, some of them have self-cleaning toilet seats that spin around, some have chains or buttons, some are automatic, and we were warned that some might not have toilet paper, but so far we’ve been lucky.
Last night we walked to the Pantheon as well as the Trevi Fountains. The fountains were quite crowded but we all managed to toss a penny in, which I think means we will be coming back for another trip to Rome. Today we are off to the Coliseum.
I am not including many pictures about Rome … the history of the city is overwhelming!! And it is impossible to show the size of things in pictures. I found the Coliseum so much larger than I ever expected. Although the river used to flood on a regular basis, there were a number of times that it flooded so heavily that silt buried much of the city; the Romans would simply build on top of the silt and continue until the next big flood and more silt. Our guide says they figure 75% of the original Rome is still buried!
The picture shows a dark brown area in behind the columns (there is also a green door there, but it doesn't show up too well) … this building had been flooded and silted to the top of the brown area .. all the steps and part of the columns had been buried!! People were able to walk on to level ground from the door. This is where Caesar was killed. (Picture 3)
Our morning was with a guide from Rome; our afternoon was on our own. A number of people went to the Vatican but crowds are enormous there. Another friend and I went off on a walk to the Jewish section (including an island in the river). She had downloaded a couple of Rick Steve’s podcasts so were able to take our own private tour. (Picture 4)
On Friday, I was either walking or standing around and looking at sites from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. with one half hour sit-down time at an Italian restaurant for lunch. I have almost worn the treads off the bottom of my shoes!! I think I will look forward to the bus ride north!
Love Mom / H
"All Roads Lead to Rome"
Italy
Date: Monday May 2, 2016
Subject: Venice
Dad, If you had asked about my feet yesterday, I would have said they are doing great. Today is another matter. I kind of got lost in Venice ... no straight lanes and lots of dead ends following little alleyways. It took me 2 hours to find my way to San Marco Square near our hotel. This was after a 2 1/2 hour guided walking tour in the morning. Tonight, my feet are TIRED!!
-H :-)
Date: Wednesday May 4, 2016
Subject: Florence
I am having trouble connecting my tablet to the WiFi, although my cell phone is working. Pictures with a longer email will be sent when I can access the Internet easily. Weather has finally turned warm & it is not raining. Lots of food and lots of walking seems to be the main focus of this trip!! -H
A special walkway bridge over the river built by the Medici family because they didn't want to walk with the common people. They built their covered walkway right through the middle of the shops and houses; the shops on the bridges used to be butcher shops but the Medici's didn't like the smell, so the shops were converted to jewelry shops.
A relief map of part of Florence made for the blind … the street names are all in brail. Unfortunately some one has taken some of the miniature towers and one of the bridges. This reminds me of the novel “All the Light We Cannot See”.
Venice
gondolas everywhere!
Tiber River, Rome
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uncovered Roman ruin
Coliseum, Rome
Trevi Fountain, Rome
Arno River, Florence
Florence cathedral
