A whirlwind through Italy

We have been in Italy with my sister Sonja for just over two weeks and have visited the major tourist destinations: Florence, Venice and Rome.  We even managed to squeeze in a weekend in Milan so that Sonja could run the Milan Marathon.  We did as much as humanly possible so that Sonja could see and experience everything on her bucket list. What a time we have had!  The history and architecture, the plethora of art, sculptures, churches, mosaics, tapestries – it has left us in awe. We have discovered Italian coffee – cappucino is my absolute favourite and I may never go back to drinking American coffee again.  And the gelato – divine! We have tasted what “al dente” really means and now understand why Italians think we massacre pasta in America.  The cheese and salamis and abundance of cheap but good red wine – we love it all.  Was I Italian in a former life??

This was the first time I have travelled for more than a weekend with my sister and while the pace was much more intense than what we’ve been used to these past few months, I was pleasantly surprised at how well we all travelled together.  We all seemed to be in agreement most of the time as to what to see, where to go and what to eat.  And when we didn’t agree, we were quite happy to go our separate ways for a few hours to pursue our own interests before regrouping later in the day. Amazingly, our itinerary was executed perfectly: we never missed a train, we always found our apartments, all our accommodations were better than expected, we never got lost unless it was intentional (more about that later), we never lost each other.

Everything was perfect, except, of course, the weather.  We arrived in Venice to cold temperatures (below 10C which felt freezing cold to us after spending the last two months in the tropics) and cloudy skies but at least it didn’t rain on that first day in Italy.  The rain began the next day and it rained on and off for a week! Some days were downright miserable like the day we visited Sienna and got soaked to the skin as the relentless rain turned to hail accompanied by thunder and lightening.  But then the sun came out in Venice and continued to shine right through to the end of Sonja’s visit.   I’ve been told temperatures are going to hit 30C by the weekend!

Sonja left yesterday and we have now resumed our slow travel pace.  Today is a national holiday in Italy and most things are closed so we are taking a welcome break from sightseeing.  Besides, my brain is so full right now, I don’t think I can absorb anything new, and my feet are still aching from wearing the wrong shoes for hours on end on those ancient cobblestone streets in Rome. The price of vanity I suppose.

I will now take some time to write about what we did during these past two weeks and share some of the amazing photos that have been taken.  There is so much to tell but I will try to stick to the highlights.

In the meantime, check out the latest addition to our website: the photo gallery.  After much discussion and many debates, this part of the website is finally coming together in a way that I have always envisioned it.   It can be accessed from the header image at the top of the website – it is the first item listed on the sign post – or you can access it from the left hand column, about half way down in the “Other Info” section.  We have created a Flickr account to host all our photos and we have linked our website to Flickr via a slick plugin very appropriately called “slickr flickr”.

The main purpose of the photo gallery is to showcase more of the amazing photos taken by Chris.  While the photos in the blog support the narrative text, they are a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of photos that Chris has taken. But the photo gallery offers so much more.  Chris manipulates many of his photos using a variety of techniques that transforms them into veritable works of art.  He is continuously finessing his technique and striving for the perfect shot. As his biggest fan, I am thrilled to have a forum in which to display his wonderful work.

The photo gallery is a work in progress and we’re still trying to figure out the best way to organize the photos to make them easy to access and enjoyable to view.  You’ll notice that Chris has added a watermark to his photos, also something that we’re experimenting with in terms of size and location on the photo.  The purpose of the watermark is to prevent his photos from being reproduced without his permission.  You’re free to enjoy them on-line but if you wish to print them or use them in any way, we’d appreciate hearing from you beforehand.  We’re also exploring commercial opportunities and it’s important to retain ownership of the photos in order to leverage such possibilities.

You can expect a lot more photos to be added to the gallery in the coming days and weeks. We’d love to hear your feedback on the photo gallery both in terms of how we have organized the photos as well as the content itself.