Blogs from Italy, Europe - page 1571

The name SeaDream is pretty apropos for this vacation. Both the ship and the ports are so incredible, we are just continually in awe. Perhaps the best illustration I can give you is that I heard Kelly say she no longer wants her ashes strewn from a helicopter over Nordstrom, but she wants them thrown over a bluff on the Amalfi Coast. Now don’t take that to mean Kelly has forsaken shopping as her favorite pastime because the shopping here is superb - both small charming shops with examples of local craftsmanship and Rodeo Drive like boutiques with brands I’ve never heard of, but are commonplace in Style and People magazine. That said, the beauty of the coast line and these ancient towns and villages is really indescribable. Most of the story of Sorrento can be ... read more

In the small town of Sacile, in the northeast region Italy known as Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, I entered this world. For 4 months I lived in a small town named Grizzo at the base of the Dolomites. It was about 1 hour north of Venice, 1 hour west of Slovenia, and 1 hour south of Austria. It was beautiful. I saw a city with a whole bunch of canals and pigeons and it was in the land of Amarone outside of Verona that I was introduced to wine tasting. Well, I didnt get to taste the wine, but got to know the nice and interesting people who made it. Unfortunately, I was not only not allowed to drink the wine, but not allowed to eat the cheese, the pastas, the prosciuto, the pizza.......just milk for me. Daddy would ... read more

It was a little tough getting up today because neither of us slept well less night due to the heat and then to the crowing birds that seemed to be perched outside our window. However, since I love to run in foreign places, I drug myself up at about 8:00 and headed out the door with my map and running shoes. As I mentioned, the hotel is really well located and I was able to run straight down the Via Del Corso to Piazza Venezia, probably our favorite of the monuments in all the Piazza's in Rome. It is only a couple of hundred years old (young for Rome), but it is really magnificint. From there it was only a few blocks to the Coloseum right past fantastic ruins of the Forum. I took a lap ... read more

Last night I had dinner (homemade pizza!) at Stefano's with him and Lucia for his mom's birthday. It was really fun to be with a family. It was them, his mom, her boyfriend, Stefano's sister and her boyfriend, and then a couple who I think were neighbors. We ate and everyone talked really, really fast, but I actually understood most of it which is amazing and very encouraging! One thing about being immersed in another culture and language is that it is the best way to learn a language but its also completely exhausting because you are constantly thinking and translating in your head and it just gets exhausting! But i was glad I could understand. I have a hard time understanding Stefano because he talks soo very fast, but I think I realized that he ... read more

Today is a travel day and not much else. We slept in and grabbed some breakfast at a nice outdoor cafe just a few steps away from our hotel. You'll see from the pictures we got one more ride out the James Bond door into our awaiting water taxi. Our train ride from Venice to Rome was delightful as the scenery was great and we met a nice young couple from Nashville who had planned their own trip to Italy and had been to Bellagio (on lake Coumo) then on to Venice and they were travelling on the train with us, but getting of in Florence. We gave them a great deal of advice from our previous trips and we shared stories about Venice. They told us about the great tours and we told them about ... read more