11 kms today - and my legs think my watch has understated the distance covered

Back at the hotel after the longest walking day yet, I'll try to stay awake to complete this post. I took the elevator to the 1st floor instead of the stairs when we got back. I could not manage one more step up. In case you don't know, the ground floor here is 0, and so I am on what we would call the 2nd floor but here it is the first floor.

Our rooms here are tiny, have no kettle and thus no supplies for coffee or tea, no place to put my suitcase other than in front of the little closet. The rod in the closet is so high I can barely reach up to put the hangers on the rod. But it's very clean and I have a balcony. I leave the balcony door open at night to get some fresh air because it's supposed to be too early for mosquitoes. It's not. I had one mozzie join me this morning, but I'm happy to say his life indoors was short.

The food here is pretty good and finally the portions are not huge. There is great coffee in the morning and steamed milk that keeps it hot, and of course, tasty. I'll try not to take a croissant at breakfast tomorrow.

We are on staying on the coast and Florence/Firenze is inland. It was at least a 90 minute coach ride to the parking lot where tour coaches can drop off their passengers - for the measly sum of €600!!! Yes - two zeroes. That's just to drop us off, and the same again to pick us up. I'll try not to complain about parking charges at home.

We had a long walk to the place we met our local guide. Michael has more knowledge about Florence and its history in his head, that the average encyclopedia. And my "whisper," or headset, was only working intermittently so I didn't hear everything he had to say. We had a two and a half hour walking tour during which I took my usual overload of photos. They are currently uploading so I hope to have some to put in this post before I call it a day. 

The wine window. During the plague you could place your order and receive your wine via one of these windows on the street. I wonder if they were reopened during Covid.

On the Ponte Vecchio - jewellery stores
 selling some very lovely and very expensive baubles. The
little round windows allowed light into the corridor used
by the Medicis to move between their homes and "offices"
without having to mix with the common folk.

This art installation has something to do with climate change.
If you figure it out, please let me know.

You can look up all that history for yourself. I focussed on the architecture. The streets are narrow and at first I thought it was a pedestrian-only area. Nope! Watch out for cars and bicyles and loaded hand carts. They won't stop for you, so you have to get out of their way. The streets and plazas and every location in sight were all very crowded. It's not even tourist season quite yet but you could have fooled me.

After the guided tour. during which we learned about so many interesting buildings and landmarks, we headed to the huge indoor market which would have been worth a visit in itself. However, we had lunch in mind and the location was new to Approach tours. It's soon to be a bad memory. We had three tiny samples of meat served in tiny paper cups similar to those used to dispense medication in hospitals at home. Our guide asked for bread and we got some. They did provide bottles of water - some still and some fizzy. So that we didn't go hungry, Sandra and Francesca ordered pizzas for us to share. We had passed some lovely looking restaurants on our trek to the upstairs gallery in the market. Maybe next time they'll be part of the tour instead of the weird offerings we had.

We had the option after lunch of a tour of the Uffizzi Gallery, along with thousands of our dearest foreign friends, or free time to wander. We wandered back to the Ponte Vechhio where I purchased a lovely pair of earrings. They were not like the ones I'd been looking for, as a pair similar to what I wanted, cost €734 or close to $1,000 CAD. Call me cheap, but I settled for lovely pair of twisted oval hoops in 9K gold. I suppose the high cost of gold is fine if you have purchased some in place of stock, but my budget does not stretch to 24 Carat or even just 18K.

This purchase was followed by a celebratory gelato. Mine was a combo of dark chocolate and peanut.

We wandered slowly back to the square with the statue of David, which is only one of many many statues in that location. Each one has a story. Sadly, I recall very little. I do recall that the statue of David is not the original, but a lifesize copy. 

We still had a little time to kill and did so happily with Lattes for two of us and a beer for the other. Choices will not be attributed to the individual participants. But mine had caffeine, just fyi.

Then it was time to meet the guides for our walk back to the bus. We did so at a pretty steady pace on very tired legs. It took half an hour. Nothing looked as good as our bus with the doors open for boarding. The drive back included some rush hour traffice but we weren't in a hurry. The scenery was lovely.

All the homes seem to be made of concrete and painted either beige, yellow or light salmon. Here and there are some old stone houses. I wonder if those are the only options so that the common perception of a Tuscan landscape remains unblemished. 

Dinner was nice but I was not hungry and ate little. I've done my laundry and am about to tuck myself in for the night. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain overnight and my things are dry in the morning. We do have one more night here so it won't be too much bother if they are still damp.

Here are a couple of other sights:

A portion of the cathedral

A view of part of the enormous cathedral, whose name I don't recall but
it was dedicated to Mary and something about a flower.

Three happy travellers on the Ponte Vecchio

Cinque terre - but we only visited two of them

Our day started very early and I almost missed it. My alarm didn't wake me up but I managed to slap myself together and join the group for breakfast at 6:33. I was only 3 minutes late. I'd set the new alarm time but somehow didn't turn on the alarm on my watch. Ah well, not the first time and won't be the last.

We boarded our bus at 7:30 and headed to La Spezia to catch the ferry. It was about an hour's drive along excellent highways. En route we were still hoping for the rain not to materialize. The forecast wasn't very promising. Fortunately for us, the forecasts here are just as speculative as those at home, and just as (in)accurate. The rain that could have spoiled our day consisted of approximately 3 drops. Then the sun came out and stayed. The high temperature was supposed to be 19C but it got up to 25C. 

Along the highway, our guide pointed out the mountains that are made of Carrera marble. It was cloudy at the time and the marble was not easily seen. However, on the drive home late in the afternoon, we did get a good view.

That's marble in the mountains, not snow

When our bus dropped us off at La Spezia, our terrific guide, Francesca, was first in line to buy our tickets and as a result we were the first group in line to board. It was worth the wait to get the best seats on the top level of the boat, on the side closer to land. This meant that we could get unobstructed views of the coastline. I'm not sure how many photos I took and choosing one or two for this post was difficult.

After about 90 minutes we arrived at Vernazza and disembarked via a moving gangplank between the boat and the land. There really wasn't a dock but all went well as we gathered around our "guiding flag" to learn where to go and what to do. To say Vernazza is hilly is to understate reality. Not only is it hilly, to get to your home if you live there, means climbing stairs, a lot of stairs. 

Almost everyone made the trek up the stone steps to the viewpoint offering a 360 degree view, which somewhat offset the difficulty of the climb. Thankfully there were handrails almost everywhere with only a few gaps. The views from the top were breathtaking.

The trip back down was much less taxing. We did a bit more wandering among the souvenir stalls and along the street lined with cafés and various shops. Overhead, residents were hanging their washing out the windows above the mass of humanity below. It's hard to believe this is not yet tourist season. I'm very grateful we beat the crowd, although it's hard to imagine more humans fighting for space to walk around.

From Vernazza, we once more boarded a ferry to Monterosso, a relatively flat village. Instead of stairs you were merely walking on inclines less steep than in the neighbouring village. We had time to enjoy a lovely lunch at L'Osteria and then wander through the tunnel to the train station for our return to La Spezia. 

The train trip took less than half an hour and was mostly in tunnels through the mountains. Our coach and driver (bus with Giacomo at the wheel) awaited our arrival. The drive back was smooth and I'm very grateful our driver was so skilled. Driving a large coach around a small roundabout requires skill. 

This evening we dined at the hotel and are now relaxing before calling it a day. The photos have not yet uploaded from my phone, so I'll have to add them later. In other words, tomorrow morning. 

We've arrived in Tuscany

Today was moving day, from Relais Corte Cavillari, a spa hotel amidst vineyards, to Hotel Atlantico on the Mediterranean coast at Forte de Marmi.

Our first stop today was at a Parmesan cheese factory and boy was there a lot to learn about parmigiano reggiano. It's a very labour intensive process involving great care at all stages, including after the "wheels" of cheese have been formed. They don't all age exactly the same even from the same batch. They are turned at specific intervals and the typical outer 'crust' is formed. Then they are moved to the storage area where they are aged and inspected for quality. The marking placed on the wheels indicates the level of quality. 

Then we got to taste 12 yr old, 24 yr old and 36 yr old parmesan. But that's not all. There were parmesan crackers, fresh ricotta which was a taste to die for, prosciutto, mortadella and salami, small flat buns that almost looked like pancakesk, and classic balsamic vinegar. You had all you could eat of all of those things and the accompanying beverages were sparking red wine and prosecco. Oh yes, there was water if you wanted any. We did make some purchases of the wine and vinegar and various other tasty offerings. 

Then it was off on the bus again with our first stop being to learn about the production of balsamic vinegar. I blush to admit that what I use at home is not the original traditional Balsamic Vinegar. That has only one ingredient - grapes. There are 30 producers in a consortium and they all use the same white and black grapes, but in unique percentage combinations. The producer where we were uses 80% white and 20% black grapes. Sadly I can't recall the names of the varieties. The traditional vinegar is aged at least 12 years before it is tested. If it fails, it's back to the casks for another year or more. The casks are of five different types of wood and always reused and never cleaned. The woods are: Juniper, oak, cherry and two others I don't recall. While aging the opening in the cask is covered by a piece of white cotton to keep out dust. The aging takes place "upstairs" where it is warmer and the weather plays a huge role in how it ages. 

The tasting was an eye opener. We first tried some 5-year old non-traditional vinegar that uses only white grapes. Delicious. That was followed by the 8 year old version which was a bit thicker and more golden in colour. Even better. Then came the usual black varieties and each was better than the last. Wow. I don't think I'll ever splurge on the traditional type as it is VERY expensive. 

Roadside homage to wine country

After making our purchases, it was a longish bus ride to our new residence for the next four nights. The hotel is on the coast and I have a view of the sea from my balcony. The single rooms are petite, to say the least. We've become accustomed to large hotel rooms with lots of amenities. This hotel scores points for location and cleanliness, but spacious is not a word one could ever use for the single rooms. I don't know about the rooms where people are sharing. 

Dinner is at 7:30 this evening and unlike the previous hotels, shorts are not permitted in the dining room. I hope the meals are a step up from the last location where we had no choices and the options were OK but couldn't hold a candle to what we enjoyed at the Bristol Hotel near Venice. 

Tomorrow we are off to Cinque Terre and the weather forecast is not promising. It will be on the cool side with rain forecast for most of the time we'll spend there. The bus will take us to the boat which will take us to one of the five towns, and a train will get us to another of them. We'll be free to wander and will be given 'lunch money' to spend on a midday meal. 

What's a little rain among travelling friends

A must on any vacation is a rain jacket and umbrella. Today that proved true as we set out towards the town of Sirmione on Lake Garda. It didn't actually start raining until we were on the bus but then it didn't let up for a long time. 

The coach dropped us off at the parking lot and we found out later that such drop-offs and later pick-ups must be scheduled and cost €45 each time. If the coach(bus) decides to stay it will cost €60 per hour. Yikes and I thought parking in Ottawa was expensive. 

Anyway, appropriately garbed we set out towards the area where we'd have a couple of hours to wander around. There were a few options and our first was to find a nice dry coffee shop, and as luck would have it we found one. There we enjoyed our specialty coffee and shared pistachio cannoli. Yum. 

But it was still raining. We wandered on narrow streets, making sure to stay to the right edge because cars are allowed. There were high-end clothing stores, jewellery stores and more than enough souvenir shops. We all resisted the temptations and kept walking.

And along the way we enjoyed the interesting architecture but above all the views we had of Lake Garda.

Our little troup reunited at 11:45 for a boat ride on the lake. The rain stopped, the seats in the boat were dried off, well, not really to the point of being dry but at least we weren't sitting in puddles. Then off we went, to the sounds of music we all enjoyed. Loud music. To the point where my watch gave a warning that I was in a Loud Environment!!

The sun came out and we had some lovely views as we cruised around, stopping to see the bubbles from geothermal "springs" under the water, castles and forests, and snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Once back on dry land, we followed our guide's flag on a bit of a hike, to our lunchtime pizza restaurant where we each chose a personal pizza which was quite large but mercifully had a very thin crust. My personal choice was ham and mushroom. Mmmm good. Our beverage was a choice of a small beer, a glass of wine, or a soft drink. I found the "small beer" to be excellent and indeed it was small.

Following lunch we boarded our trusty coach and headed for a surprise. Along the way we passed an amusement park, Gardaland - that's a reference to the area not the Irish police. The guide tried to convince us that a ride on a huge roller coaster was our surprise. We didn't believe her. The bus drove on and we ended up at a winery where we learned a bit of the history of that vineyard and the types of grapes they grow. This was followed by a tasting of their rosé, Benni. It was delicious, delightful and served nice and cold. Some of our group bought various bottles of their wine, but I declined.

We are now enjoying a rest, having walked only a little more than 8000 steps today. My feet are grateful. It was time to relax and unwind and get ready for dinner at 7.

This is a beautiful spa hotel but the dinner last night was disappointing. The salad was minimal and I just skipped it. I can get iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and grated carrots anytime I want them at home. The pasta course was tortellini - ho hum and the entrée was tough chicken, barely cooked potatoes in some sort of tasteless sauce. Dessert was good - tiramisu but obviously thawed and probably not made on site. Maybe tonight they'll do better.

Verona - a special place with an incredible history

Another sunny and warm day. Although our walking today involved fewer sets of stairs and inclines than did our Venetian adventure, I'm up to 11,200 steps and I haven't yet wandered down the corridor to dinner. My feet are doing better than I thought they would, but they are campaigning for overtime pay and a soak in Epsom salts.

We departed Lido de Jesolo at 8 am on the dot this morning and enjoyed the drive to Verona. Just short of the city we stopped at a rest stop which I presumed would be much like the stops on the 401 at home. Hah! We in Ontario have a long way to go before a comparison can even begin. You can get coffee, of course, wine, beer, cookies, candy, many kinds of food, electronics, toys, hardware, clothes I think ... And yes, there are washrooms too. Given that we are incredibly well fed on this trip, I didn't see the need to make any purchases. I must say a lot of wine and beer made its way onto the bus for private consumption. €12 got you a 3-pack of regular sized wine, i.e. 750 ml bottles. Not mini-bottles. 

Once we arrived in Verona we met our guide, Monica. Unlike yesterday's microphone problems for Elizabeth, the guide du jour, the microphone chosen today was perfect. We each have a receiver, on a lanyard of course, and an earpiece, and we could hear Monica tellling us the incredible history of Verona. It's a very beautiful city and once we reached the old historic part, we were surrounded by what I call "eye-candy." There's an old Roman colisseum sort of 'arena' that has been upgraded to now be a theatre. See photo below. We didn't go in, but I believe it was featured in the opening ceremonies for the recent winter olympics. 

Walking around, admiring the buildings and alleys, we learned of the famous inhabitants, much of which I can't recall. I believe it was the La Scala family that seemed to have been everywhere. They even have a very extravagant set of, um gravestones? They were huge sarcophaguses (sp?), statues, ornate structures topped with a figure mounted on a horse. 

We learned the original story of Romeo and Juliet, and after lining up with hundreds of other tourists, we did enter a courtyard to see Juliet's balcony. Yes, of course I took a picture.

After a wonderful lunch, we had some free time to wander around. There are stalls in the open air market square and in the surrounding streets are designer stores. Chanel, Boss, Cartier, Rolex, um, I don't shop at those stores so can't recall the names of others. The store windows are inviting but not being a shopper I gave them little notice. Besides, my budget would not like to be totally used up in one shop.

About the food - eating three course meals is a struggle. I consume only half of what is put in front of me and still get more than enough. All the meals are included on this trip, and apart from tonight's very disappointing dinner, which was pretty awful, the food has been excellent. At our previous hotel the meals were amazing. I skipped dessert the first night but had chocolate ice cream, (not gelato) with fresh strawberries last night. I turned down the Creme Brulé and Tiramisu. The salad each evening at the Bristol hotel was a huge selection of roasted or otherwise cooked veggies, and was wonderful. The appetizer always had pasta as a choice, and the main course was top notch. I had Grilled swordfish the first night and poached sea bass the second.

The lunches we had were in fabulous unique restaurants and the offerings were really tasty. Today's lunch had a tray of mini pastries for dessert. Our opening course of salad was nice, and the main course was delicious pork (don't recall the name of the dish). Potatoes seem to be served at every evening meal.

My only complaint is that dinner doesn't start until 7:30 and takes at least two hours. We're so tired from all the walking that we hit the sack shortly after dinner. This is not optimal but, hey, this is Italy.

Here is today's photo offering - it was hard to choose which pictures to include: they didn't download in order that they were taken.

The pastry selection at lunch today

Interesting street facade

Enter this shopping street at the risk of serious budget damage

A roman ruin repurposed to be a theatre - didn't get inside

Interesting campo (plaza) in Verona

Enjoying a limoncello spritzer in Verona

The view from my room near Lake Garda

Venice in the sunshine

 What can I say about Venice. It exceeds all expectations of beautiful buildings, narrow and wide canals, interesting bridges (unless of course you have to walk up the many steps on one side and then down the other), and hordes of tourists. This is not yet tourist season and Piazza San Marco was a moving tide of humanity. Many, like we were, followed a guide who held up some sort of unique flag so that you would follow the right leader. 

We indulged in a lovely gondola right along mostly tiny canals but did get out to the Grand Canal by the Ponte Rialto. This time we didn't have to climb up and down that bridge. Then it was back to the small canals and a return to our starting place.

It was hard to choose the pictures for today. The entire place is eye candy. But here's a selection.

Rialto Bridge

Lunch which was Venetian tapas and we enjoyed each one,
 well, other than the sardines

Typical view of a small canal and bridge

Ponte Rialto again from the gondola

Coming to the end of our ride

Piazza San Marco with the basilica at the back

Breakfast in the hotel offered many options. My favourite choices were the capuccino and a croissant, but the prosciutto was pretty tasty when paired with a slice of cheese. And the fruit salad was fresh and tasty. We boarded our deluxe coach for the 30 minute drive to the dock where we, eventually, boarded our boat to Venice. The entire trip from the hotel to setting foot in front of the Doge's Palace, took more than an hour. I briefly wondered if we'd have been better staying in the city itself, Then I saw the people wheeling their suitcases which would have needed carrying up and down those bridges. Nope, right choice of hotel.

The two dinners we enjoyed here in the hotel were fabulous, if rather over the top in quantity. There was a "salad" bar of mostly roasted veggies and they were the most delicious ever. I must try to follow what I was told was the way they cooked their spinach. Simple sounding, but I'm not sure mine will be as good. Then there was an appetizer, a main course and dessert. I managed to avoid dessert yesterday but succumbed to the lure of chocolate ice cream with fresh strawberries. I could have had tiramisu, creme brule, lemon gelato, more sliced fruit, and a selection of cheeses. 

Tomorrow we are off to Verona and have been promised less than today's almost 13K steps on flatter territory. 

Bags are to be outside our rooms by 7am, followed by breakfast and an 8 am departure by bus. The drive is about two hours. My feet are grateful.

I didn't recheck this post for grammar or spelling - please forgive me as my eyelids are heavy and it's time to get some sleep.

La vida Italiana

 Greetings from my current location - very close to my very comfy bed that is calling quite persistently. I've been up for about 36 hours give or take 5 minutes and will gratefully tumble in very soon. 

The flights to get here were all on time and relatively smooth. The airports all provided great walking opportunities that I didn't realize I wanted. Actually, I've always wanted to ride one of those extended golf carts in an airport. Today it was not to be. 

Departing Ottawa at noon on Wednesday we flew to Toronto and got in the first 500 miles on foot. We thought that was a lot. Then we flew to Amsterdam and the amount of walking puts Toronto to shame. And then we arrived in Venice, and mercifully found a few of those moving sidewalks after we claimed our luggage. Our bags were loaded onto a bus and the tour group embarked on a water taxi ride to Murano. The idea was to have lunch and visit a Murano glass factory. Ha ha ha. We did those things but there was at least an hour of walking on a bright hot sunny day. The weather forecast had been for rain and I was never more grateful for a wrong forecast. Tomorrow now promises to be much the same. With lots of walking.

We finished the day with a lovely dinner in the Bristol Hotel where we are staying. Each room has a balcony and mine has a view of the beach. I will not be getting up early to walk on the sand before we set out for yet another day of endless walking. And after our bus and water taxi rides we are to do a walking tour of Venice and have lunch. Then five of us are taking a gondola ride - just because we can!!!

Too tired to write more, Here are some pictures. This is the reverse order of how they were taken but I'm too tired to rearrange them. Apologies for grammmmmer and sprelleng errirs. 

Murano in the sun

Street in Murano before lunch

A much faster water taxi than ours

The interior of our water taxi with its supremely uncomfortable seats. See me smiling - that smile is hiding the discomfort my backside was enduring. Besides, it was early in the day and before our many more steps.

Our water taxi waiting for us to board