Our Trip to Italy!
Our Trip to Italy! | |
Here are photos from our trip to Italy.
All of Dick's and most of Carlyn's photos are here, and eventually we'll have better captions! Keep checking back.
After we finally arrived, we saw Piacenza on our way to Cremona.
Cremona is the birthplace of the modern violin
Carlyn's recital was in a lovely old villa, Villa Manna Roncadelli Vaghi, near Cremona
Firat we had to fix the piano! Fortunately Dick had his tiny Swiss army knife.
Checking out the piano
After the recital, with our hostess, Chiara Vaghi
And with Carlyn's colleague, Siro Saracino
And then a lovely reception/party
Leaving Cremona, we stopped at "Villa Verdi"
From Villa Verdi we continued to Sirmione, on a peninsula at the South end of Lago di Garda
Verona has the oldest Roman amphitheater still in use, plus much ado about Romeo and Juliet
On to Venice. Scenes from the vaporetto going down the Grand Canal
From the other side of the vaporetto.
At the end of the Grand Canal we can see San Marco (Saint Mark).
And the Bridge of Sighs.
San Marco.
From the campanile in S. Marco square.
The Doge's Palace is right between San Marco and the canal.
We loved seeing the gondolas, but didn't ride in one because of the cost - over $100 for 15 minutes.
After quite a search we found this little church - S. Maria dei Miracole - tucked away in a corner.
The search was made more interesting by most of the directions we got on the way being in Italian!
The Rialto Bridge.
S. Maria de la Salute.
The last day we went to a couple of islands in the Venetian Lagoon, including Murano where the glassmakers were relocated several hundred years ago for fear of fire. On the way we went through a smaller canal, Canale di Cannaregio, where one of the bridges was one lane for larger boats like ours.
The first island was San Michele, which is devoted entirely to cemetaries.
Murano is a separate island in the Venice Lagoon where they do nothing but make glass - and sell it. They've been out on this island since the 1500s!
Our first stop after Venice was Ravenna, which is a wonderful little city with an incredible collection of mosaics
Perugia was our first hill city. We parked at the bottom and took a city bus. We didn't stay long but enjoyed a street merket.
Assisi was our next hill city. We parked part way up and hiked a steep path.
We stayed at a lovely family-run hotel and restaurant at the bottom of the hill in S. Maria degli Angeli.
This is the field behind the hotel.
Rome is overwhelming, and we were glad we'd decided to stay in the outskirts at a hotel with shuttle service to downtown.
We spent three days. The first day we started on Capitoline Hill, starting with Piaza Venezia.
This square was designed by Michaelangelo.
More of the Capitoline hill.
The Forum.
Palatine hill.
The Coliseum.
The fountain of Trevi.
The Spanish Steps.
The Pantheon.
The second day in Rome we went to Vatican City.
Saint Peters.
Then the Vatican itself
Other sights
The third day we explored catacombs. We didn't take any pictures there, but on the city tour bus that took us there, we drove on a stretch of the original Appian Way , saw a section of aquaduct, and passed ruins out in the country.
Pompeii was much larger than we expected. We only saw a fraction of it in the time we had.
Villa d'Este was built by a powerful cardinal who diverted a river to feed his fountains.
Here are some miscellaneous scenes as we drove the highways.
We intended to stay in Orvieto, but all the hotels were full because of a convention. Here is the duomo.
Instead we stayed in another hill town, Todi, with splendid views of the surrounding countryside.
Here we had a lovely room with Gothic arched windows and faux draperies and columns painted on the walls.
Sorry about the focus.
The next morning we were treated to a view from our window of a hot air balloon race!
Siena is wonderful, but very busy and many hills to climb.
Near Siena is the lovely hill town of San Gimignano. It is best known for its many towers.
These were taken from our hotel room window.
Everybody knows about Pisa.
After Pisa we spent the night in Lucca.
After spending the night nearby, before dawn we arrived at Milan Malpensa airport for our flight to Amsterdam and then home.
