Places I've Been: Venice

A few years back, I coupled Paris and Venice together in a 9 day vacation. As dreamy as that sounds, it was almost like eating all your Easter candy in one day. Sensory overload. There was just too much beauty and awe in that trip to even make sense of it, even when I'd already been to Paris a few times before. That said, I do feel that Venice is truly beautiful. It is a heady concept to wrap your brain around: that there are no streets and no cars and no buses. You either walk or get around by boat. Seems sort of crazy but you adapt pretty quickly. There is also the inevitable "getting lost" which everyone must do at least three or four times as maps don't always nail down that little side alley, or fully accept exactly where a street transitions from one name to the next. Venice is a place to be seen, sooner rather than later, before it is entirely destroyed by one or several of its many floods. Get there. Soon. Here are some of my favorite shots from that trip.

Here we have a view of Piazza San Marco from the balcony of Basilica di San Marco. The square is pretty good sized, and known for its cafes and the dueling bands that play at each every evening.



My favorite shot is this one, taken from beside the Doge's Palace across the canal toward San Giorgio Maggiore. I think the contrast of the gondolas and the colors of the water and the sky striking.



If this shot isn't stereotypical Italy, I don't know what is. I love the contrast of the decrepit buildings, the neatly hung every day laundry and the gorgeous flowers.



The Basilica of San Marco is actually a white stone building. However, if you visit it at different times of the day, it will actually pick up the color of the sunlight. Here, it was sunset and the white stone was rendered a soft orangey pink.



The Bridge of Sighs connects the Doge's Palace and prison. Prisoners would cross the bridge to their imprisonment, glancing out at beautiful Venice for perhaps the last time, and sigh.



This Bocca di Leone was a mailbox used to collect complaints from residents anonymously. There are several others throughout the city.



San Giorgio Maggiore lies on an island across the Grand Canal from San Marco. The church houses Tintoretto's Last Supper.



Traghetti are smaller gondolas used to ferry passengers across the Grand Canal. That's about the only place you'll see them, and you'll note they are predominantly used by locals, who are brave enough to stand for the crossing!



The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute is in the Dorsoduro district of Venice, across the Grand Canal. It houses a Tintoretto and several gorgeous Titians.



Burano is one of three islands that visitors can day trip to from Venice (Murano and Torcello being two others). On Burano, the residents paint their houses vibrant colors so that the fishermen in their families can easily see their homes as they leave and return home from long journeys.

Places I've Been: Tuscany

Back in 2005, I went on a cycling tour around Tuscany with Vermont Bicycle Tours. This ended up being one of the best experiences I've ever had, not just on a bike and not just in Italy; I mean best EVER. Now that I've done it, I can highly recommend seeing the area this way if only because it feels like you're in a movie, with the hills and valleys of Tuscany wrapping around you like an IMAX shot. We started in Florence, rode to San Gimignano, Siena, Montelpuciano, Montalcino and Pienza. It was, in a very insufficient word, gorgeous. The mileage wasn't horrible. Now I look back and laugh though. My longest day was 35 miles. On average they were 20-25 mile days for a week.

The Duomo in Siena, which to me, remains the most amazing church I've ever seen, hands down. The striped marble carries through on the inside and is just stunning.




This is me outside the Duomo (cathedral) in Siena.


Even then, I managed to find cat friends wherever I went. This little guy is in Colle Val d'Elsa.



This is the view of San Gimignano from the belltower there. The hills and patchwork fields are amazing. The tower you see is one of the 7 "skyscrapers" that San Gimignano had.


This is the view of San Gimignano from the patio of our villa. You can better see the "skyline" of the town from a distance.


This is near Villa Ducci, near San Gimignano. These were vineyards, which were everywhere we rode, it seemed.


This was the view from my window in the villa in Pienza



This is me near a poppy field somewhere on the way to Pienza.


This is the stereotypical cypress shot that everyone seems to get when they go to Tuscany, but they really are pretty. This was somewhere on the way to Pienza.



This was a house where locals served us lunch on the front porch. I had the best house wine, picci (hand rolled thick pasta, like spaghetti), tomatoes with basil and olive oil and homemade lemon sorbet. It was the lunch of champions! Unfortunately we lost one of our group here, who ended up too drunk to continue riding!



This is me at the town gates of Montepulciano.



This is Montepulciano as seen from a distance. They don't call these "hill towns" for nothing!



This was our picnic stop during one of our day rides. We had a fully stocked SAG wagon as well as guides who really knew how to feed us well!



This is on the way to Montelpulciano, more cypresses.


This was our group out at our last dinner. We survived!


Our group got ready every morning much as you would at home, except the guides would inflate tires and fill water bottles for us. We just had to show up and ride!


Here I am (second in line, in white) finishing off a hill.


Finally, I spent a couple days on my own back in Florence, taking a day trip to Pisa. This is actually much more awe inspiring than I ever imagined!

Places I've Been: Prague

I was going back through a lot of old photos and found the set I took in Prague. That trip in 2004 to Prague and Vienna was my first entirely solo journey. I learned a lot about myself and also stepped outside the comfort zone of Ireland/France/Italy for the first time.

This is Prague Castle, which lies on a hill that is a bugger to climb. I was there in October and it was briskly cold but offered up crystal blue skies. Visitors reach the castle by crossing Charles Bridge and walking through Mala Strana "Lesser Town" and uphill.

This is the view from one of the towers on Charles Bridge. Obviously, the bridge is a great place to people-watch as well as find souvenir hawkers and street musicians.


These are views of both Castle Hill and Charles Bridge, day and night.

This was a quiet little canal I found walking back from Castle Hill.