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Published: October 21st 2012
Best 3 and Worst 3 and some honourable mentions Hello, we are home again in Melbourne and in the tradition that I started many years ago, we have listed below our personal best and worst 3 things about the trip and a couple of honourable mentions as well.
Just a quick note about our last night in Florence.
We attended a classical music concert, which was the last for 2012 for the Florentine city orchestra. The venue was a former renaissance church near the Ponte Vecchio. The acoustics were fantastic. A guest pianist played Brahms accompanied by the orchestra and then the orchestra played a piece from Bizet. The concert ended at about 10:30pm and as it was a mild night and not far from the hotel, we decided to walk back to the hotel. It was a Sunday night in mid-October and there were 4 gelatarias open and doing a brisk trade on the way home. There is a lot to be said for a city that serves gelati on a Sunday night in autumn.
Brendon’s picks Worst 3 · Smoking
outdoors in restaurants
· The beggars
· Stairs – they are everywhere in Europe
Best 3 · Strasbourg – Petit France
· Venice
· Avignon
Honourable Mention
· Lucca
· Munster cheese in Strasbourg – which is the local cheese usually served hot over vegetables.
Lucca also wins Brendon’s Biggest Surprise award.
Cass’ Picks Worst 3 · Smoking in outdoor eating areas
· The need for constant vigilance for the beggars and thieves
· Italian dinners at 7.30pm.
Dishonourable Mentions Closed churches in Italy
Florentine Bread – which for traditional reasons dating back to the 1200’s is baked without salt.
Best 3 · Strasbourg – Petit France and the food, even a vegetarian eats well in Strasbourg.
· Avignon
· Venice.
Honourable Mention for Lucca.
There are a couple of other things that are worth mentioning.
I took a refresher course in French before we left and that proved invaluable to us while we were in France.
We took a photography course a couple of weeks before we left and that was
A long walk down - Palace of Pope's
One of the many passageways leading away from the public and papal chambers in the Palace of Pope's. We imagined doing this laden down with food or drink lit only by candles or rushlight. Scary! Mind the fall!very valuable to us both.
We had wonderful dining experiences in Turin on our last night there and there is a Vegetarian friendly restaurant in Venice that served great food and wine.
I took up reading the International Herald Tribune which is an English speaking newspaper that is a sort of subsidiary of the New York Times, it kept us current on European and world events in a way that BBC World and CNN could not.
Thanks for your feedback during out trip.
Au Revior
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Kym
non-member comment
Thanks
Thankyou to you both for the wonderful entertaining Blogs sent my way. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading, learning and laughing at your blogs. I am guessing it was a fantastic holiday but it is even better now to return home. If you are venturing this way before Xmas please let me know, although I know a sultry 32 degrees in humid Brisbane does not really tip the ideal destination of Cass. If the bread is baked without salt then I would insist on some salted buttter, but the best unsalted butter in the world is usually from europe so I am guessing this is a no go also. My best submission for your trip is definately the blog from Lyon. So much learned information was gained on my part. Ok I am a country girl by nature and I am up with the chooks and pretty much go to bed with them too so what peeved you about the Italian dinners at 7:30pm? Are they eating too late? I hope Sara & Daniel are enjoying all the goodies that I know you would have brought back for them. Enjoy settling back into suburbia and I'm sure we will chat again soon.