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Italy - Paris 2025
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Italy - Paris 2025

We're planning a trip to Monterosso, Verona, Venice, Italy, & Paris. We start planning about a year in advance because we LOVE researching the possibilities.... some of our family think we like the planning as much as the traveling :) Read more
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  • Trip start
    August 31, 2025
    Traveling SisterhoodItaly - Paris 2025Traveling Sisterhood

    Trip planning

    July 15, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    For us, planning this trip is a huge part of the fun. We plan for months and fine tune as the trip gets closer. We are 5 senior women who travel to Europe together. Our first trip without men was in 2016, and we decided we should have a girl trip every couple years, and we've kept it up except during covid when a trip had to be cancelled. We love Italy and have a hard time thinking of going other places... this trip we'll add Paris. Last trip was Portugal and Spain, which was a great trip (and we missed Italy), so this time we decided some Italy and a little bit of another country.

    After as many trips as we've taken, I think we could plan senior women trips for others!    Read more

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    1 night in Florence

    September 1, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F

    We landed in Florence and had decided to spend the night in a hotel near the train station. It was hot and we got a little lost, but finally got settled. We had big plans to eat a great meal, have an affogato at a famous gelato store, and watch the sunset from Michelangelo Park. What we actually did was barely make it through dinner after walking quite a ways to Mercato Centrale, and then back to our apartments for showers and sleep. We misread our train departure information and had to rush in the morning through pouring rain to get to the train, but we made it and headed off to Monterosso to settle in for a few days.Read more

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    Beach day in Monterosso

    September 3, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Today was a wonderful lazy day on the beach, an early dinner (I think they would call this lunch in Italy), and some of us climbed to the Capuchin Convent of Monterosso, described as a “soul stirring chapter of Cinque Terre’s history perched dramatically on the San Cristoforo hill overlooking the sea like a guardian of serenity.” The convent was built in 1618 and took on other purposes over the centuries, but restored for the 2000 Jubilee and reopened in 2006, and is home today again tot he Capuchin Friars who live there in quiet devotion. We saw no sign of life when we were there, aside from some beautiful song echoing from somewhere… we weren’t sure if it was live or a recording… beautiful nonetheless. We ended our day with a double scoop of limone and chocolate gelato.Read more

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    Trek to the other villages

    September 4, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Train strike starts tonight at 9pm, so we decided to trek to the other villages today. We’d planned to do this over 2 days but tomorrow isn’t certain with the trains. We visited Corniglia high on a hill and wandered around a bit, had some delicious frozen lemonade and saw some beautiful views of the sea.

    We had a 3pm reservation to walk the Via Dell’amore, the “walk of love” from Riomaggiore to Monarola, so hopped on the train to eat lunch and have some time in Riomaggiore and then took our time walking along the sea in beautiful weather to Monarola. This walk isn’t like the other treks from village to village, it’s a paved walk tucked along the hillside with incredible views of the sea, and easy compared to the others.

    We made it back to Monterosso in time for an afternoon siesta and out to dinner Italian style… a bit later than our usual. Dinner was fantastic and the weather all day was just amazing. We have one more day in this little bit of heaven on earth and then off to Verona.    Read more

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    Last day in Monterosso

    September 5, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    This was a very laid back lazy day. We started the day with a bit of rain on our breakfast. The Hotel Marina makes their guests a made-to-order beautiful meal every morning, complete with latte’s Italian style. The train strike is on until 6 pm this evening so it was a perfect day to stay in Monterosso and wander. We did some rock and sea glass hunting, scoped out our train route for tomorrow, packed for our trip, and just generally enjoyed a slow day. Tomorrow we take a train to Verona where we’ll spend a week. We’ve never been there so it’s going to be a nice new adventure.Read more

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    Monterosso al Mare

    September 6, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F

    Time to move on. We loved our time in Monterosso, one of the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre National Park. We stayed at the Hotel Marina, a small family run 23 room hotel right in the heart of old town. The people were lovely, the breakfasts were wonderful, we were treated to a pesto tasting, and had nice comfortable rooms. The weather was perfect every day. We walked everywhere, spent an entire day on one of the many beaches, walked a beautiful path called the Via Dell’Amore “Walk of Love” along the Liqurian Sea, ate wonderful Italian cuisine, too much gelato, and visited the other villages by train.Read more

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    Arrived in Verona

    September 6, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    We traveled to Verona today by train… 2 trains. The first one was a bit late arriving and our 2nd train was right on time …we already had a short layover… so we now had about 5 minutes to get from one train, search the boards in a very busy Milan train station to find our platform and then run like heck. Of course it was a fair distance away. We ran, and when we could see we were not going to make it to our car before the doors shut right on time, we hopped on the closest car to us and helped each other toss the luggage in the door just as it closed and took off!! Close, but we made it. We just wheeled our bags through a few cars to our seats and took a deep breath… happy we made it and off we went. We arrived late-ish in the afternoon, so just had time to meet our host and go to the market so we didn’t wake up with no coffee… :). We did walk across the beautiful Adige river and made plans for tomorrow… including gelato. Our new apartment is amazing.Read more

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    First full day in Verona

    September 7, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Fantastic day in beautiful Verona. We walked out the door and kept going until we’d walked 16000 steps!! We started out at a farmer’s market buying wonderful fresh pasta and veggies, limone olive oil, Parmesan cheese and bread for dinner tonight. There was a beautifully dressed sweet woman named Maritza there… I couldn’t resist following her inside to tell her how lovely she looked. She was so sweet and over the moon appreciative of the compliment and when I asked her if I could take her photo, she posed like a model…. We hugged and exchanged names and off we went in different directions.

    After depositing our goodies at our apartment, we went to the Piazza Elbe, the Arena, Piazza Bra (the fountain in the photos was a gift from Munich in exchange for a statue of Juliet… of Romeo and …. There is a plaque in Piazza Bra dedicated to the Italian lives lost in the concentration camps.

    We capped off our day with an Affogato at 1938 Vitoria Gelato Cafe… just perfect. Our host’s daughter, Emma, works there and is delightful.    Read more

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    After our cooking class

    September 8, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    After enjoying the delicious meal we made, we wandered a bit, and joined all the tourists viewing the balcony dedicated to Juliet. There was a golden statue of her in the courtyard as well and oodles of tourists. There is apparently a myth about putting your hand on her right breast bringing you good luck, so you can imagine how many men’s hands we saw do that…. Eye roll! Check!

    It rained some this afternoon and if the rain stops we’ll be on a bus to Lake Garda tomorrow to a little town called Sirmione. Fingers crossed that it’s a nice day because we’d love to sit on the beach again.    Read more

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    Verona - rainy day fun

    September 9, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    We woke up to pouring rain this morning. Our plans to travel to Sirmione, a town on Lake Garda, were in jeopardy, but after an hour or so of watching the weather we decided to go for it. We Uber’d to the bus station … and everything appeared to be against our plans today. It rained harder and harder, the bus we thought was coming for us never came, and we finally found someone who could speak enough English to give us some clear direction…. And we just weren’t going to get to the lake today. We were soaking wet but didn’t want to give in to this rain and waste a day…. We dashed toward our apartment and on the way found ourselves in front of the Castlevecchio Museum, a monument we planned to visit. It is the most important military construction of the Scaliger dynasty that ruled the city in the Middle Ages. It’s always fascinating to imagine how these incredible pieces of history could have possibly been constructed so long ago without modern tools, but they are amazing. There was amazing art all through the monument, including many frescoes. My photos are drizzling with rain but it’s still beautiful.

    We made it back to our apartment, pretty soaked and just in time for the sun to come out for the rest of the day!!. We really had a nice day despite the weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be a raining even harder so we are armed with a 1000 piece puzzle and a list of sites in Verona to see in between downpours. I’m sure it will be another nice day.    Read more

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    Lamberti Tower & Thrift Shopping..Verona

    September 10, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 70 °F

    Another rainy day in paradise. We went to the top of the Lamberti Tower where the view is the whole of Verona. Then we wandered through the Church of Saint Fermo, which was quite incredible. That beautiful wooden roof was designed after the hull of a ship.

    Then we rested… and then we went thrift shopping… so fun. It was not easy to leave that beautiful ankle length leather coat behind, but it probably weighed 50 pounds!! And where would I wear it anyway?

    We made a great pasta dinner and made plans for traveling to Bolzano tomorrow. The rain should be over so we’re hoping for a beautiful sunny day.    Read more

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    Bolzano - from Verona

    September 11, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 77 °F

    We took the train to Bolzano today, a town some refer to as the “gateway to the Dolomites.” It really felt like se’d stepped off the train in Germany. It seemed like everyone was speaking German. Turns out there are 2 major languages spoken there and German is more dominant than Italian. Lots of history behind that. We visited the Museum of Archeology and learned about and saw Otzi, the glacier mummy that was discovered by a couple hiking in 1991. He changed history with all of the info his body and the things found with his body provided. At the time he was found, he had been dead 5300 years!! It’s a very interesting story how he was found and the ensuing process to his now safe place.

    After Otzi, we really got brave and took the gondola from Bolzano (860’) up and over the mountains (over 3900’)… for a cappuccino! I have to be honest, I could have been talked out of it, but truthfully it was a really beautiful site. The photos don’t make it look as high as it was, but it was up there!!

    Tomorrow is our last day in Verona and I’m sure even though we have no plan, we’ll make the most of it.    Read more

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    Last day in Verona

    September 12, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Today was our last day in Verona. It’s been a nice week and we’re ready to move on. We spent a lazy morning, cooked a clear-the-frig breakfast, did a little shopping, joined the passeggiata (stroll around town in the evening) at Piazza Bra through town, did a little shopping and also treated ourselves to another 1938 Victoria gelato. We fixed ourselves a home cooked pasta leftover dinner and finished that puzzle… what a beast that was!! We’d planned to just leave it on the table unfinished but we stayed up late and all worked on it until it was finished.

    We’re off to Venice tomorrow and looking forward to it.    Read more

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    On the way to Venice

    September 13, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    We took the train from Verona to Venice today… short trip (on the train that is). We had told our new host we planned to walk from the train station to our apartment, which was just about a mile. She didn’t say “bad idea” but it was. We started to walk, and we knew Venice had bridges and stairs and canals to maneuver, so I don’t know what we were thinking, but our short trip turned in to a very long time before we connected with our host, because we started walking and realized it was a terrible idea and called her for help navigating the vaporetto system, and because of the language barrier, it became a little more confusing. We made it though and Monica, our new host, was delightful… she said “it’s not smart to navigate Venice on foot with luggage,” but she never said that to me when I was telling her we planned to walk. She probably laughed all night after getting us settled, but she was kind enough to only have a little sense of humor about it in our presence.

    After we got settled, we took off wandering. I’m not sure how we navigated Venice years ago without GPS.. it’s a lifesaver, especially in a city like this. We had a nice dinner, made it to St. Mark’s square and realized we were worn out, so back we went after a short stop at the grocery store for breakfast supplies. We planned a little for tomorrow and called it an early night.    Read more

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    Murano Island from Venice

    September 14, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    Today we purchased 3-day passes on the vaporetto (water bus) so we could just hop on hop off. We were really feeling our age when we tried to do what we thought was going to be simple, buy a ticket at a machine. Turns out the machines were out of order, which caused us to have to walk a ways to a human to buy the ticket. We were off to Murano Island, the glassblowing island. We saw a very cool demonstration by a glass blower, shopped a little, had a great lunch and an even greater gelato treat before attempting the return trip on our own.

    The vaporetto system must take a while to get the hang of, because we surely were at the mercy of strangers today on our way over, and then on our return we thought we had it somewhat figured out but then we watched the boat we were on pass our stop and get farther and farther… and farther away from our apartment. Make lemonade out of lemons we thought…. We ended up at St Mark’s square on a beautiful cool evening, saw a nice sunset and wandered through some streets and alleys and found our way home thanks to a little bit of intuition and a lot of GPS.    Read more

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    Lorenzo Quinn’s “Building Bridges”

    September 15, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 73 °F

    We had a plan… first stop today was Lorenzo Quinn’s sculpture “Building Bridges.” We knew our vaporetto stop…the driver swooped into the stop and out again without opening the gate🤷‍♀️… we watched our stop fade away. We were determined to see that piece of art so we perservered. It’s in a pretty obscure part of Venice, definitely not anywhere a tourist would just happen upon it, so you really have to want to see it, which we did. It’s quite spectacular, and I’m thinking our country might want to commission this artist to find a spot for it in the US. The sculpture has 6 pairs of monumental hands that arch over a waterway, forming a bridge to symbolize the 6 universal human values of Friendship, Wisdom, Help, Faith, Hope, and Love. Its aim is to convey a message of unity, commonality and the need to bridge differences in a divided world. Spectacular.

    We’re having a good attitude about the transportation misses… it just adds to the adventure. After the sculpture we went to the Libreria Acqua Alta, self proclaimed “the most beautiful bookstore in the world,” a quirky packed-to-the ceiling in every room, bookstore that draws a few too many people these days. It has apparently suffered from frequent flooding over the years, so their books are up high off the ground or in bathtubs, bins, and even a full-sized gondola. Along with piles of swollen water-logged books. It was packed, so we moved to the back patio, climbed the stack of books and had a photo taken and scooted out the side door. Then off to the Rialto (have to see it) after a cicchetti stop, photo taken and back to weaving through the narrow streets. We read there was a secret good luck charm in a location in St Mark’s square, so we followed the instructions to no avail. We googled it and learned we’d been fooled… it’s just a legend and we fell for it. We had a successful vaporetto transport back to our apartment and made a delicious risotto dinner and made a plan for tomorrow…. A day of relative rest. Beach day on Lido Island. We’re all looking forward to our fitbits NOT jumping for joy at 10,000 steps tomorrow!!    Read more

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    Lido Island - Venice

    September 16, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Today was that day we planned to relax and challenge our fitbits to stay way under 10,000 steps. We got on the vaporetto… today was the day the water-bus was going to go well, and it did. A couple quick stops and we were at our destination…. Lido Island….home to the international film festival. Beautiful sandy beaches, umbrellas and beach chairs… maybe even a cabana because we deserve it. When we got to the beach, the big iron gate was padlocked shut. We were sure they were just getting set up late…we could see a few people in there. We walked to another gate, padlocked. Turns out they were closed for the season and probably only since yesterday because they were just starting to winterize the beach and pack up the lounges. Disappointing, but there was a free beach and someone renting umbrellas and chairs…. I regret that I didn’t take a photo of the chairs these two fellas brought out for us but they were broken, rusted, sagging, dirty chairs with a following of yellow-jackets. We passed, walked a bit and picked up a few beautiful shells and decided the beach wasn’t going to happen. We treated ourselves to lunch, talked a nice man into making us cold coffee lattes and came back to the big island and decided a rest would keep those fitbits calm. When we got to our apartment the electricity was off…. Had been since right after we left. We rested and then wandered, took a couple vaporetto rides because we finally figured out if you didn’t have a specific destination, the vaporetto’s were easy! The weather was beautiful, we rode the grand canal, shopped, had some dinner, and got a message that our power was back on. Even though this day changed course, which seems to be what happens in Venice… maybe just to us😂, but we had a great day … except the fitbits hit over 16,000 steps!!Read more

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    Arrivederci Venice & Italy

    September 17, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 70 °F

    This was our last day in Venice and last day in Italy. We leave in the morning for Paris. We started our day out at the markets under the Rialto… fish and spices and fresh vegetables… looking for Parmesan and a few other treats to take home. then we just weaved our way through the streets saying our good-byes to sweet and beautiful Venice. Jeanne, Lyn and I got separated in these crazy streets today and genius technology helped us find each other…. Thank goodness for “find my friends.”

    Back home to rest and pack and off to Paris by vaporetto bus, plane, private transport… keeping fingers crossed that all that goes smoothly because we’ve had some transportation misses in Venice. Hopefully tomorrow nite I’ll be adding pictures from the top of the Eiffel Tower.    Read more

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    Paris - we have arrived

    September 18, 2025 in France ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Vaporetto✔️ bus✔️ plane✔️ private transfer to our apartment✔️… our concerns for naught. All of that went well. But you know how it feels when you step into the Airbnb you rented because it had all 5⭐️’s and you immediately sit down and start flipping through the reviews to see what you missed? That’s what happened. I think it was Thumper’s mom who coined the phrase “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” which meant I couldn’t even post about our trip tonight. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully we won’t still wish we were someplace else. Many of the reasons we chose our apartment didn’t seem to be true.

    Also…. There were protests all over the city and because of the unrest, our Eiffel Tower reservation was cancelled…. 😠    Read more

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    Paris Day 2 - Part 1

    September 19, 2025 in France ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We needed an attitude adjustment after our disappointing arrival yesterday…. so we headed out to see some of the beauty of this really big city. We had an afternoon appointment at the Louvre and an evening Seine river dinner cruise, but couldn’t get a reservation to go in Notre Dame, which all of us wanted to do. At least we could see the outside… when we got there we discovered a line for people without reservations and ended up going inside in about 15 minutes… they let about 23,000 people inside this magnificent building every day for free, and it did not disappoint. It’s incredible to know about the damage that occurred from the fire 5 years ago, and then to see it in all its glory is amazing. That was the beginning of a nice day in Paris. The walk to Notre Dame took us by some other pretty amazing old buildings and the river Seine, which is also beautiful. Then we headed to our reservation at the Louvre.

    Part 2 of this day coming up.    Read more

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    Day 2 - Part 2 - Paris

    September 19, 2025 in France ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    After our Louvre visit, we made it home for a rest before our evening dinner cruise on the Seine. Although we saw some amazing sites today, I’d say the evening was the highlight of this day. We got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up and twinkling (day 1 we had tickets to go up in the tower but there was some countrywide civil unrest, with protests and demonstrations that caused the tower to be closed and our plans to be cancelled), so it was nice to see her at night when she shined. The cruise was fun, dinner was good, and we don’t know what the rest of our days here will bring… one day at a time, but this was a good one.Read more

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    Lazy day in Paris

    September 20, 2025 in France ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    Today was kind of uneventful except that we are in Paris! It was a rainy day so we started out slowly and never picked up the pace. We did attempt to eat lunch at the Enfant Rouges outdoor food market but everyone in Paris seemed to have the same idea because there wasn’t a seat to be had… it did look like some delicious food. We walked a ways and had a nice lunch and rainy walk picking up some dinner supplies, then home for a home cooked meal this evening. Similar plans for tomorrow. Maybe no rain.Read more

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    Metro day in Paris

    September 21, 2025 in France ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Feeling pretty brave today and ready to take on the subway. We traveled all over town underground today and not one mis-step. It’s a great way to get around this really really big city. First stop was the Marche-Bastille, a huge outdoor marketplace with all kinds of good food, fresh vegetables, cheese, meats, you name it…. Some clothes and of course souvenirs. We ate sweet crepes for a treat (mine was sucre citron… very good) and then we got some other goodies including savory crepes to take-away to the Jardins du Trocadero (gardens across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower). We sat on park benches eating our lunch…. watching sweet little French kids playing, and the Eiffel Tower in the background. Then we walked up to the Trocadero square and watched kids dance and entertain the audience…. Down the steps and over the river to the Eiffel Tower up close. A very nice day. The rain predicted did not happen and we made it home in the daylight thanks to the Metro, which we love now!Read more

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