Category: photography

Florence [wikipedia.org] was Candice and my base of operation for more then a week. A full third of our honeymoon was spent in a small converted bishops apartment just off the Piazza del Duomo. Just far enough off that if you stuck your head out of our third story windows and stretched your neck enough you could see the dome and maybe part of the bapistry [wikipedia.org]. Actually the location was brilliant, the only problem was the constant lack of water pressure in the hotel shower!

I thought that using Florence as a base of operations from which to visit some of the other must-see cities of Tuscany [wikipedia.org] easy. Unfortunately the reality is that the best way to get to places like Siena [wikipedia.org] and San Gimignano is to take a variety of buses—but the trips there are really worth it, in fact we should have stayed overnight (remember the sun was setting at 4:30ish so everything closed by 3:30… And taking buses means we did not get there till almost lunch time if we got out of bed at 5:00am!). At least Pisa [wikipedia.org] is on the train line.

But enough about the other cities in Tuscany, Florence is the city in Tuscany. You could spend months here and not exhaust the city if you wanted. The Florence Cathedral [wikipedia.org] aka Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore with Brunelleshi‘s [wikipedia.org] iconic dome dominates the city visually and the Uffizi Gallery [wikipedia.org] and the Accademia di Belle Arti [wikipedia.org] dominate it culturally. Between the two you can see some very nice works by all the Ninja Turtles—Leonardo, Donatello, M██████angelo and Raphael. And more renaissance art than anyone without a PhD in art history can appreciate!

Then you have Palazzo Vecchio [wikipedia.org], Ponte Vecchio [wikipedia.org], the Palazzo Pitti [wikipedia.org] and Santa Croce [wikipedia.org] home to more famous only-one-name-needed dead people than you can shake a coffin at; Galileo [wikipedia.org], Michelangelo [wikipedia.org], Machiavelli [wikipedia.org] and (for the physics geeks,) Fermi [wikipedia.org]… oh yea, it’s got a lot of art too. And all this is just scratching the surface of Florence’s museums, churches, palaces and various other old things.

And let’s not forget that Florence is a living city! Within the small town center where most of the above super-attractions are located in easy walking distance from each other you can also find some very fine dinning. Candice and I like two places especially; the I Buongustai di Casini Laura e Lucia and the Birreria Centrale (which is where J███████ and K– had dinner with me a few hours after they got engaged in 2002—still there, still great!) And while I love the food at both places I have a hard time deciding if the food was better than the ‘oh my god! I can’t get enough of it,’ gelato [wikipedia.org] at Festival de Gelato! A hundred flavors! Heaven! Eat your heart out Ben and Jerry!

Florence is definitely my favorite Italian city. But once again Candice and my enjoyment of the city was tempered by the early sunsets and cold weather. And in Florence we had to contend with the Thanksgiving holiday tourists from the US. I can’t tell you how many times I heard college types talk about where they were going to drink or how good the pizza was (or wasn’t as the case may be.) But even with all that Florence was still great! Maybe I’ll get back one day. Maybe I can move there!

You can see the full Florence, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].

Ah, Venice [wikipedia.org]. Possibly the most romantic city in the world. But… like most well known romantic cities Venice knows how romantic it is which means it’s really easy to spend a lot of money and get jaded by too many tourists, expensive hotels and overpriced food.

Luckily this did not happen to Candice and I. I think, despite my being a bit depressed over the loss of my camera, that we have a good time in Venice. We only stayed three days and did not get to see everything but we had a good time. We even did a few overly touristy things; a gondola [wikipedia.org] ride with accordion and live singing accompaniment, and a trip around the lagoon to three of the other islands, Murano [wikipedia.org], Burano [wikipedia.org] and Torcello [wikipedia.org].

The food in Venice was very good. We ate at a couple of local taverns suggested by one of the staff at our hotel and while it was not the best food we ate in Italy it was quite good and not too expensive. The atmosphere was fun too; cramped into tiny tables back to back with other customers with waiters squeezing past to bring the bowls of soup and plates of pasta. Perfect.

I think that the reason Venice is such a wonderful place to visit comes down to only a few things; the lack of cars and roads, the canals and water and the age of the buildings. These combine in Venice is to create a wonderful ‘living ruins’ feeling. The water is slowly eating away at everything making sure the old building always look old, the small twisting streets make the place feel more ancient, you can’t even see a car and the fact that people really do live in Venice—and the shops and services for the people who call the islands home are mixed with the shops and services for the tourist hordes.

I think I would really like to take Candice back to Venice in the summer so we can sit outside at cafes along the canals and drink a good bottle of wine. Take long walks in the warm evening air and explore more of the back streets away for the Grand Canal [wikipedia.org] and see the many sites we did not have time to take in in the few days we were in Venice.

Verona [wikipedia.org] is supposed to be a romantic city for lovers. A good stop you would say for a honeymoon? Well I won’t be remembering it for it’s romantic qualities, not from this trip. You see it was while getting off the train in fair Verona where I lost my camera. Not quite a Shakespearean tragedy but a quick way to ruin my day nonetheless.

I tried to enjoy Verona. Took a few photos with the Ixus I purchased for Candice before the trip—she insisted I keep it to make me feel better, which did make it easier to put aside my desire to sit in a pub and try to find my missing camera in the bottom of a few too many bottles of good Italian wine (and maybe something stronger.)

So. Only a few photos from Verona but I feel I should still post an entry for completeness. On the bright side I should mention that we had our first really good Italian food at a small tavern in Verona. Possibly the best gnocchi I’ve ever had and it was not even on the menu. The chef made it because they did not have any other vegetarian dishes that day. One more reason that Italians are better than French in my worldview.

You can see a few more photos in the Verona, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com]

Candice and I visited Como [wikipedia.org] as a day trip from Milan. Unfortunately we did not leave Milan until about noon. So by the time we got to Como and walked from the train station to town we have little daylight to explore the city by. And then there is the fact that almost all the photos I did take were with my 40D which was stolen a few days later. C’est la vie. I only have a few photos from Como but you can see the rest in the Como, Italy, November 2007 photoset on Flickr [flickr.com].