Italy Day 12 - The end and the beginning

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The end of our tour, and the beginning of our trip home.

This is the last day in our Best of Italy Tour. Of course, ending in Switzerland technically isn't Italy, but the border has been very dynamic over the centuries, and it used to be at one time.

Today was a free day for everyone. Some chose to take a train ride up into a quaint little village, and return. Others chose to hang around town, walk some more, shop some more, eat some more, walk still some more, and return to the hotel.

For most of us who are not hanging around for the 'extended' version of the trip, are heading home tomorrow. So, while there is a Day 13, it is on a plane, starting at 6AM and as far as I can tell, nothing exciting is going to happen on Day 13. So, like the meal tonight, which is the "Good-bye Italy" meal, we will close out the blog with this day's entry.

Our experiences have been broad, the history has been wonderful in learning about how kingdoms rose and fell. The age of the continent is a whole new perspective from the American point of view, since everything in USA didn't start until the early 1700's which in Europe time, is fairly recent.

The tour was not designed to "see churches", but in every village, the town started with a church, a Cathedral, a square where the bell tower called people together for public announcements (before Twitter and Facebook) and everything built up around it from there.

Romans conquered all the territory, and so the roads were into and out of the city, where they had their camps and garrisons. Mostly where there was water, just about every 10 miles, was a camp, which turned into a village, because that is about how far the army could march in a day. Roman towns grew up with grid patterns for roads, while Greek villages had the hub and spoke arrangement.

The history has been great, and while I hate to bore you with such data, on individual days and town, I think Google can fill in the blanks for them. My fear, because there was so much to inhale, is that I would have the details for a town or square hanging on the wrong town.

It's been a wonderful trip, with great friends, with new friends, and a very pleasant 2 weeks.

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Photos

The Best of Italy Tour Group
Twenty-four people got together to see Italy. We saw a lot, learned a lot, and had a great time doing it.

The Lake and the village on the other shore
Our view from the parking lot of the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant
There is a fountain, several orchids that are beautiful, as well as the view out to the lake.

Comments

[James Keating]

Thanks
Thanks for sharing with us. I enjoyed keeping up with you guys. Ingat! (Safe travels)

[Joy]

Great Trip
What an amazing trip. So glad I finally got to sit down and look at all the pictures on the computer. Great documentation!