Recuperating in Lake Garda after a weekend in Rome and a week in Venice

Rome was not built in one day and a weekend there does not begin to do it justice.  But we covered so much territory that our feet demanded a travel day so we went off to Venice.  Rome is kind of unique.  It was totally packed with people from all over the world.  Hard to get a look at anything without someone's head being in the way.  The lines to get into places were long so we decided we would enjoy what we could see of Rome-and that was plenty.
 

On our walks we were entertained by various street artists and musicians.

 

Rome is full of interesting spots and we managed to take an underground tour that took us to some pretty old streets buried under churches.  The area of Tersevere was new to us and we enjoyed walking and eating there.  The Jewish neighborhood across from Tersevere reminded us of the Lower East Side of New York on cobblestones.  Kosher restaurants were packed and music was everywhere.

 

We had our fill of churches, and squares but never our fill of beautiful and graceful art work. (and I don't mean the heads below the statue)

 

 

Next to the Spanish Steps, which were mobbed, we found the Keats and Shelly Museum, a quaint place dedicated to the memory of Keats, who died in that house, and his friends Shelley and Lord Byron. That was one place that was not crowded.  Indeed we found it by sheer luck as we stopped on their steps to collect ourselves. (you can't see the steps because of the people sitting on them)

We took one last walk in the evening before we left and ended up at the fountain of Trevi. 

A very romantic spot despite the people taking pictures, the hawkers of everything from scarves to silly toys and our very tired feet!









We were not prepared for Venice!  Fell in love with it 5 minutes after our arrival.  Were met at the train station by our AIRBNB hostess, a lovely young woman named Alice, who felt more like a family member than our landlord during our first 5 nights in her apartment very near the train station.

Another very crowded place in and out of the water! Below a view of the Grand Canal.

 



We used the water bus to get around some but mostly we got lost in Venice.  Everything about the place is fun, creative, colorful, unexpected, and whimsical.  We found ourselves enchanted at almost every corner.  Below we found a bride and groom enjoying lunch at a restaurant.

This is the city of masks and customs

We loved having no cars to hamper our walks and enjoyed the perspective of having water ways as the roads to get around.  The ambulances, the city workers, the taxis, everything has to be taken care of  by a water vehicle. 

 The view from our window in the place where we stayed for the last two days in Venice was different from anything experienced thus far. 

 

 



We celebrated Jim's birthday by adding two days to our stay in Venice and the owner of the pension where we stayed for our last two days gave Jim a glass of Lemoncello, a great liquor,  and a piece of Tiramisu with a candle to celebrate.  He also feasted in the same manner a newlywed young Italian couple and then an English couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.  He turned the lights under the awning off for each celebration and hummed the appropriate tune while walking with the lighted piece of Tiramisu.  Ivano was fun!  And yes, we are eating outside.

We were unable to figure out a way to Dubrovnik from Venice and found ourselves craving some down time so we headed for the Italian Lakes.  I'll share that on the next blog. Hope you are all well and enjoying fall.

Stretching summer on the Italian coast

Left lovely Nice after one more walk and took a tram to the train station.  Half way to the station, the tram had to stop because of an accident on the line.  We did not have much time before our train was to leave so had to hop on a taxi to get to the station. 

The ride to Ventimiglia, the first town in Italy, was lovely,  The train hugged the coast and each town was prettier than the first. In Ventimiglia we bought tickets to Vernazza, one of the towns in the Cinque Terre National Park, our next destination.  It was a long train ride, but we were entertained by the conversation between an American from Georgia and the young woman sitting across the isle from him, a chef who identified herself as Italian/Dutch, and who spoke English well.  She had lived and worked in NYC as a chef for a few months and traveled around the East Coast some, so she considered herself knowledgeable about American life and food. She, a vegan, tried to impress him with the danger of his barbecue ribs eating way of life.  She was trying to quit smoking and he smokes a pack a day, etc...Missed them when they got off in Genoa.

Cinque Terre is an area that encompasses 5 villages and they are linked by walking paths and a railroad line.  Some of the trains do not stop in all the villages and we found out the hard way that our train did not actually stop in Vernazza despite the fact that our ticket was to Vernazza, so we found ourselves at the end village. I had arranged for our host in Vernazza to meet us at the train station at 7 PM the arrival time, so was upset when I approached the  information window.  Unflappable the clerk explained there was "no problem", we could just take the 7:19 train to Vernazza and explained where to catch it. 

After the long trip and earlier difficulties and now contemplating arriving to a new village in the dark and with no particular address other than Vernazza Rooms in Via dos Santos, we must have looked pathetic.  An American couple, a marathon runner and his wife, both retired, and spending the month traveling around Italy helped carry our luggage up and down to the train platform.  They were from Kalamazoo, Michigan.  We did not get their names but they bypassed getting off at their village in order to help us get to ours.  They assured us that was not a problem since the trains between the villages ran often and late into the night, a fact we were later to verify. Our host was waiting for us at the train station and in a few minutes we were installed in our room and out to find some dinner.

Lovely Vernazza

 

a beautiful morning in Vernazza

 

 

             Vernazza from anotherWe took 137 photos of the 5 towns in 4 days.  Those of you who know us will be as shocked as we were, but we have never seen such brilliant sun and such picturesque views.  I'll include one photo from each of the other towns which were really a few minutes away from each other by a train that carried hoards of tourists back and forth all day and late into the night.  What you need to know is that to get anywhere in these towns you must climb stairs.  In some cases as many as 200.  Our room was in a house that was fairly low.  Some 9 steps to our door, but then, 3 steep flight of stairs to our room.

 

 

 

This is Coniglia

 Coniglia was the only of the towns without a harbor.  It was a classy place.

Okay, so I can't stop at one picture!

 To reach Coniglia we had to climb over 300 steps which they organized in the zig zag manner seen in the photo.

 

Monterrosa has a wonderful beach front, the only one of the towns with a beautiful beach.  As nice as Nice and with warmish clear water.  Lots of folks wee swimming.

 

 

Riomaggiore is the largest town. 



 

Manarola was as lovely as the rest.

 



 

 
Our street, so to speak in Vernazza.


This is Vernazza's bay.

 

We arrived on a Monday evening and experienced 2 beautiful days with lovely sunsets.  Then while watching the sun set on Wednesday (and taking lots of photos), we noticed the town's folks had pulled all the boats off the bay and had positioned them all over the piazza on solid ground.  That evening howling winds woke us up and the next day the surf was quite impressive.  We visited two towns that day and all the boats were placed on the streets leading to he bay. The winds were with us all day but totally died down during the evening and Friday morning was a beautiful clear morning again.

 

Fishing, tourism and wine seem to be the mainstays of the Cinque Terre.  An unforgettable place.



Making our way out of Provence

I promised some pictures of Mount St Victoire, near Aix, but I can only post the one Jim took as I lost my camera this week during a hike. Fortunately I only lost 2 days worth of pictures!

Mount St. Victoire's southern face is massive and an awe inspiring piece of rock.  No wonder it mesmerized Cezanne!  Picasso bought most of the north side of the mountain and is buried on it.  This picture shows a piece that has broken off.  It is forever a changing piece of work.




Left Aix on a rainy Sunday and traveled to Digne les Baines, a town in the French Alps that is known for thermal waters, and as a sporting mecca.  Long ago I read about fabulous biking there.  We discovered that it had an incredible medieval section and also took some interesting hikes.  One took us to three chapels that cover a mountainside through a steep climb.

A maze of medieval passages and stairs

Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel

Our next goal was to get as  close as we could to the Gorges du Verdon, an impressive canyon with green water at the bottom that is a sports person's paradise.  Unfortunately, one bus goes down a day and we would have had to stay in some pretty pricey places to actually see the Gorges.  s for rafting and kayaking is now off season and the hiking was perilous for most and prohibitive for us.  So we picked a town at the mouth of the river Verdon and decided to spend some time exploring the area.  The town we picked was Castellone.  The bus trip to Castellone was scary.  Hairpin turns on narrow roads that barely fit a car, never mind a bus, and canyons on one side of the road.  I was dizzy by the time we arrived at this small town located at the base of a huge rock with 7 hotels and many restaurants, which speak to how busy it becomes during the summer. 

We actually walked to the top of the rock to see the chapel that has been very inspirational to the town for the last 11 centuries.  The original one was destroyed and it has been rebuilt several times. 



The path was not difficult and the stations of the cross kept us entertained, so to speak. 

         

Sometimes the scenes were depicted in tiles and some times terracotta.

Castellane became a town when the Romans discovered salt water wells.  It had a different name then, one related to the salt and the commerce that it sprang.  When Religious wars and invasions destroyed the town, the few remaining people moved to the top of the rock  and stayed there for several centuries.  Once they made their way down from the rock the town became Castellane.  The Verdon river flanks the town and it adds some levity to the landscape.

We left Castellane to spend the weekend in Nice as we  make our way to Italy.  Nice is cosmopolitan, full of people seeking to have fun and a busy place.  WE have an apartment in the old section of town which is 3 blocks from the beach and full of narrow interesting streets with shops selling everything from spices and lavender t fish and wines.  There are Restaurants of every kind and everywhere you look and all are filled with customers! 


One of our favorite places was the Matisse Museum, which is housed in what was his villa.  The building is colorful and the works are interesting.  Many of the cut outs are there and well organized so the viewer can see the making of the artist's style.  Neat!






Rain was in the forecast, but it only appeared overnight, so we walked endlessly everywhere and learned to like this place more than we anticipated.  I will sign off tonight with a few pictures that need no explanation.