Venice-Florence-Pisa,
The past two days have be an exploration of three different cultures found in Italy. Each distinct and each with its own personality. To date Venice has been our most favourite city; narrow "streets" and back alleys flanked by water lanes, bridges seemingly out of nowhere crossing over one small water way into a new part of the city to explore. As well, Italian rail service is fantastic! It's serviced very well throughout the country, well laid out in stations and seems to be on time, all the time. As we approach the weekend we head to Rome for the last few days of our journey before coming home on Monday. Here are some thoughts from the past few days...
1. Venice is truly as beautiful and intriguing as the pictures and movies make it out to be. The history and stories it contains make it a must see for anyone able to come, we actually wish we had stayed longer! The people we met where gracious, hospitable and a joy to interact with. We wish we spoke Italian but English is known by all Venetians in some form and feels like it has become a second language that all know. We learned a few interesting things about Venice and the country while here. Most interesting in terms of the language was the numerous dialects spoken throughout the country, and that a common "formal Italian" is used to bridge the gap between say the Venetian dialect and that spoken in Naples. As well, Venice continues to sink and while the Venetian's have a plan in place to try and stop it, the population who used to live on the island(s) has been dramatically dropping. Some think that soon the Venice we see and here about may become one big tourist museum. When in Venice a "must" is to stay on the island(s) and we can not recommend enough Hotel Pensione Guerrato a B&B style hotel, with a wonderful staff. Roberto the owner and his staff were so friendly and we had a wonderful conversation with him about Italian, English, Venice and travel in general. We have already decided we will be back! We could go on, but the last update was so long that we think it best to move on to a few thoughts on Florence and Pisa.
2. Florence: the city is large, at times walking the old city centre is like walking through the narrow streets of Paris. Of interest is that a number of the larger building's architecture is unique to Florence versus Venice, especially the "red" concrete blocks used, that almost made it look like they were built out of cedar. The Domo in Florence is huge, the biggest we have seen to date, and the people just as friendly. But it's a big city in comparison to Venice and Pisa and the numerous tourist flooding it to see the Forenzi Museum, the Domo and walk the main corridor meant it was too busy for our taste. What we have been doing is walking outside of the tourist centres and this is where you get a feel for the Florence's regular daily life. Much more interesting and enjoyable. One regret we had is that we walked a fair way to see the Boboli Gardens (Florence's Stanley Park) but, due to last weeks strange hail and rain storm in Florence, the gardens were closed due to severe damage. Oh well, on to Pisa.
3. Pisa: Ah the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a wonder of the world. We came, we saw but not much else happens here??? Well Pisa is small, it's grand canal is as beautiful as Florence but as we arrived at the end of the day the tourist were leaving and we had the city to ourselves to explore with the few other visitors who decided to stay here as well. We stayed the night in another interesting old original Italian building, the Royal Victoria Hotel, just along the grand canal, with large old rooms, a beautiful roof top terrace and helpful staff. We walked to the tower, both along the main walking district and outside of it and saw Pisa by day and night. We actually reached the tower from the residential side, yes, the tower is located right beside peoples' homes. We enjoyed a wonderful simple Italian meal and then called it night. A long, interesting, and enjoyable day.
Well time to get a good night sleep. The many sleepless nights, from changing hotels frequently has Michael fighting off a cold/flu, Elaine tired and we want to be well rested for Rome. Below are a few more pictures of Venice by day, as well as a few from Florence and Pisa. We will let you figure out which is which.
Michael and Elaine