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Published: April 8th 2008
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Jim and Friend
Jim visiting with friend in Roman museum. Okay, so we are not in Venice, but did just leave Venice. Finally able to send a few pics from Italy. Please note is was difficult to pick from our 600+ pics.
Hard to pick favorite things, but here are some of my favorites. Loved hiking in Cinque Terre and in the Dolomites. Very different and very beautiful. And all the trails had a lot of "up" and I still loved it. Granted, I complained a bit just because Jim expects this from me when there is a lot of "up", but it wasn't as bad as hiking up to Mt. Washburn last fall. I really enjoyed wwoofing. The work was hard, but rewarding, and it was fun getting to know the families. Food, OMG, like what can I say except it was really really delicious. Some of the restaurants were good, but eating at the farms was better than good, it was great. Home cooking, but incredibly delicious italian home cooking. Notes for the "future farm": 1)have donkeys; I enjoyed working with donkeys on the first farm and they produce a lot of manure, 2)sheep good, goats bad, 3)eat more stuff that is growing wild (flowers, green stuff to add
Gladiator hangout
Coliseum-Rome-Italy-Europe to salads, etc...). Italy is a beautiful country and the people were fun, patient with our poor inadequate Italian, and did I mention, great food. I enjoyed seeing the coliseum and the many many fountains. I particularly enjoyed walking around the old walls in the city of Lucca one morning and walking around Venice early one morning. Only me and the locals in Lucca and only me and the street cleaners in Venice. Trust me, being anywhere without many people is not the norm in Venice, which has been a tourist town for a few hundred years which translates to a lot of tourists most of the time. The churches were spectacular and while most of them were just a wee bit ornate, the simple as well as the ornate ones had beautiful elements to them. Architecturally enlightening, spectacularly dazzling, yet quietly peaceful amidst chaotic crowds and noisy cities. The Sistine chapel and statue of David have been on my list a long time and both were more impressive and beautiful than I imagined. There sure is a lot of old stuff in Italy. Kind of feel like you are in the middle of a history lesson every day. And
Something Old
Maybe the ruins of the temple of Saturn. Old stuff at the Forum in Rome. bidets. I love bidets. Hmm, maybe I won't go into great detail on this. And one of my very favorite things is watching and observing people and Italy is a smorgasbord for people watching. I remember standing at our window in Genoa and watching folks for an hour. Sitting on benches in every city watching people. Very fun. Seeing Otzi the Ice Man in Bolzano was really cool. Literally, since he is still "on ice". And he is still looking pretty good for a 5,000 year old plus fellow. So that pretty much sums it up for me. Not really, but I better let Moose write a few parting words. Signing out. No more trips in the immediate future, hence no more blogs, but then again, you never know.
Squirrel, Susanna, Susan
I guess we could blog about going to Nashville but would anyone really be interested? As for Italy, it was a wonderful trip and a fitting final fling before coming back to something resembling normal. Not that I know much about that. We saw many famous things, paintings like "The Birth of Venus," by Botticelli, the aforementioned David as well as the Medici tombs by Michelangelo, a
Nice floor
In Spoleto. Tile floor in the home of the mother of one of the emperors of Rome. Nice floor for approx first century AD. Oh yeah, thats old. room full of Jackson Pollack's work. Too much to list. But I think for me the real pleasure was in the small experiences. Getting lost in the back streets of Venice, rambling in the woods near the farm, trying to talk to the old lady who didn't speak english, learning to make pasta, watching a guy fish in Verona, getting directions in German in the Alps, all ways of sharing a real moment with someone of another culture. Being on the farms was a very valuable aspect of the trip. It was something that we would never have been able to experience as normal tourists and thus it was unique. We enjoyed being part of the family for a short time and thank them for welcoming us into their homes. It's an experience we'll remember and, who knows, we might have made some new friends. Who could ask for more than that from any trip? I wish you well on your own adventures and encourage you to blog. Ciao dopo (or as we would say, "See ya later").
Moose
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Lindsey
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Wow. It sounds like you both had an amazing trip! The pictures are beautiful. I am interested in hearing your thoughts on what it was like to see a "room full of Jackson Pollack's work" and then see the statue of David or something by Botticelli. I know they are two totally different types of art- but are they even comparible in any way?