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Italian Adventure Sep 2023Italian Adventure Sep 2023
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023

September - October 2023
  • Travel Adventures
Travelling to Italy with a group of friends for 3 weeks, then five days in England to visit Joanna & Asher in Surrey. Read more
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  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Cinque Terre

    September 30, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We left the hotel early so we could catch the 8.15am train to Monterosso al Mare before the crowds arrived. We went to the Focaccia bakeries to get an early warm slice of freshly baked local delicacy.
    We then went for a swim before wandering through the old city and then caught a train to Vernazza. I climbed up high to get a high vantage point over the picturesque city on the high hills of the coast.
    We traveled again by train to Manarolo and it was in the i in which we spent a couple of hours swimming in the most amazing azure waters from which the steep mountains fell precipitously into the Mediterranean from a huge height, mountains on which houses are stacked up on each other and are made more beautiful by the iconic wall colours and contrasting shutters on the windows.
    The last village we visited was Riomaggiore and we swam in two places in this village. We stayed until the sun was sinking into the west and then we boarded the train with wet swimmers to travel back to La Spezia, where, after a shower and a change of clothes, we ventured forth to enjoy dinner for the last night in amongst the myriad of pizza and pasta restaurants that line the cobbled streets.
    Geoff York took the record for the most swims of the day. He swam in seven separate beach locations in the villages we visited during an amazing day. Weather perfect, scenery even better, swimming in the aquamarine water of the Mediterranean was the best.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Como

    October 1, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We walked to the bus from the La Spezia hotel, setting off for Como via the outskirts of Milan. It was about a four hour trip and we arrived at our hotel at lunchtime. We dropped our bags and set off for a walk around the old city of
    Como, spending an hour enjoying lunch in the old city. We spent some time in a street market full of antiques, some of which seemed very old and potentially quite valuable. We had a look through the magnificent old cathedral that is located in the location of the old Roman city ruins, the street level of which is three metres lower than the current level. Como has been sinking for the last 2000 years because it was built on marshlands.
    We caught the funicular up to the town on the high hill above Como in order to enjoy the panoramic views, although it was a bit hazy which limited what we could see. The humidity accounted for the haze, which hung around for our entire stay in the region.
    We enjoyed dinner in town, celebrating Eliza Yorks birthday at the same time, and grabbing a gelato for dessert on our walk back to the hotel. Another great day, this time in northern Italy.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Bellagio

    October 2, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    This morning the bus left the hotel at 8.00am and drove us the 60 minutes to Bellano, a town on the eastern side of Lake Como, from which we caught a ferry to the famous and beautiful town of Bellagio, right at the geographical centre of lake Como. The town, like most in this area, is built on the shores of Lake Como, the surrounding hills of which plummet spectacularly from about 800m above the lake into the water. The mountains seem further back from the lake are up to 2500m above sea level. The lake is said to have been carved out by a glacier over many years.
    Bellagio is a famous town on the lake and we spent several hours wandering through its streets and to the peninsula which reaches right out into the middle of the lake and from which the are almost 300 degrees views.
    We ate a pasta lunch overlooking the lake.
    After lunch we caught another ferry to the western side of the lake to visit Villa Carlotta, a famous large villa built in the early 19th century for an aristocratic Italian family. The villa has been a museum for many years, and is an insight into how the upper class maintained large stately homes in this region hundreds of years ago. The gardens are also extensive and well maintained. There were a large number of huge trees in the garden the must be at least 200 years old, including an impressive cedar of Lebanon which is huge in height and girth.
    We caught a ferry back to Bellano, then the bus back to Como, admiring the amazing tunnels through the mountains that must have taken years and millions of dollars to build. We also respected the skills of the bus driver on the switchback turns climbing the mountain out of Bellano.
    We had a late dinner in Como before heading off to bed after a big day beside the glistening freshwater of Lake Como.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Como to Milan

    October 3, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Leaving the hotel after breakfast, we boarded the bus at 8.15am to travel to Milan en route to Venice. We arrived in Milan at about 10.00am and then went for a walking tour through some of the older and magnificent features of the old city.
    We walked through the Sforza Castle, dating from the Middle Ages.
    We walked to the central piazza of Milan and marveled at the facade of the famous Milan cathedral. I booked a ticket to enter the cathedral and explore the architecture and unique features of the building.
    I then found a nice place for lunch on the 7th floor of the Rinascentre.
    We caught the fast train to Venice at
    2.15pm, scheduled to arrive at 5.12pm.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Arriving in Venice

    October 3, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We arrived in Venice by train at 5.15pm and the boarded a vaporeto ferry along the Grand Canal to St Marks Square. It was the golden hour of the day so the light was beautiful against the old buildings lining the canal. Great for photos. We walked through the magnificent square to our hotel and checked in. Then we went out for dinner before a few of us walked to a concert of Vivaldi in an old church. It was a fantastic concert; the quality of the musicians was very high. The Four Seasons was performed, as well as Dance Macabre by Saint Seans and then an encore by Corelli. A wonderful way to spend the first evening in Venice.Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Walking Tour of Venice

    October 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After a delicious breakfast in the hotel, we met our local guide, an entertaining man named Andrea, in San Marco Square. He talked to us about the fascinating history of Venice and some of the ongoing challenges confronting Venice as the local population decreases and the number of tourists increases. There are now only 50,000 local residents compared to 180,000 just a century ago. This number is to be contrasted with the annual influx of 30 million tourists. That is half the population of Italy visiting just this one special city every year.
    Venice if facing flooding risks which are being mitigated by flood barriers to prevent king tides from inundating the city.
    We walked through San Marco square, by Napoleon’s wing facing the cathedral, past the opera theatre, and explored the small walkways and bridges of this amazing city built on an archipelago of 118 mud islands.
    The city buildings are built on wooden piles driven into the mud and then wooden platforms constructed to bear the weight of the superstructure.
    We saw how the neighbourhood wells provided water in medieval and renaissance times, and even the water bowls built into the well heads for cats and dogs.
    Venice has built large infrastructure in the three openings between the lagoon and the Adriatic Sea so the floods are reduced in the impact on the city. The city is sinking about 25cm every century, so if that continues the will be additional complications for Venice in the future.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Venitian Ghetto

    October 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    At the conclusion of the walking tour through Venice in the morning, we spent some time near the Rialto Bridge, enjoying the view of and from the most famous bridge in Venice. Then we caught a ferry and walked to the Jewish Ghetto. This is the first ghetto in the world, it was established in 1516 and the word ghetto was coined here because the Venetian word geti means foundry, and the foundries we’re located in the area prior to the Jews being confined there.
    We decided to pay for a one hour walking tour through the ghetto, led by an older Jewish lady with a very strong accent. She showed us the five synagogues in the confines of the ghetto. Three are closed and two were open for visits and we went into both of these. They were Sephardic synagogues and they still operate today. Those we could no access were the oldest and they are Ashkenazi synagogues.
    The memorial for the deportation of the Jews in WW2 was also there. 250 Jews were deported to Auchwitz and only my two women survived and returned to Venice, both of them died relatively recently in their 90s.
    There is also a khabad or Jewish rabbinical school in the ghetto and outside that there was a booth built for the Jews to sit inside and eat because it was day four of Sukkot.
    Next door to the khabad is an old Jewish bank, Banko Rosso, the red bank with a red door, which was one of the three money lenders banks of the ghetto. The green bank and the black bank, with coloured doors to suit, are no longer to be seen. The Merchant of Venice is written in the context of this ghetto and the Jewish role in Venice as money lenders. The other jobs they were allowed to do was merchants and doctors. So they were allowed only to be bankers, doctors and merchants; no wonder they made money and were hated as a consequence.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023

    Murano

    October 4, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After our tour of the Jewish Ghetto, we’re caught a ferry over to the island is Murano, so famous around the world for its high quality glass-making. We saw a demonstration of glass making and looked at all the amazing glassware for sale in all the shops. A fascinating excursion.
    In the evening we shared a meal in a nice Venetian restaurant as it was our final evening for the Italian tour together. We thanked Danielle, our tour guide who had been with us for the whole time and had become part of our group. We gave here a new yellow umbrella as the old one was wrecked due to our extensive trip. We also shared magic moments of the trip. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone after spending so long together. Steve, Fiona and I are the first to leave Italy, flying out of Venice airport for London Gatwick at 10.30am tomorrow, so we have to catch the 6.50am ferry from Sam Marco Square in the morning.
    What a fantastic Italian adventure it has been. How many happy memories.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023
    1

    Venice to London

    October 5, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Steve, Fiona and I rose early to catch the 6.50am ferry from San Marco Square to Marco Polo Airport. The trip takes just over an hour and the ferry delivers passengers to a dock right at the airport, which is a novel way to reach an airport. Only in Venice. During the journey the sun rose across the lagoon and from behind the centuries old buildings, which was magical.
    We caught the 10.40am Wizz flight to London Gatwick, and there was no repeat of the dramas of my previous Wizz flight, being forearmed against the risk of not checking in online and losing the seat.
    The flight was smooth with views across the snowy alps and then the green landscape of southern England.
    We landed in London at close to midday and met Joanna who came to the airport to pick us up. It was very exciting to see her again.
    We drove through Surrey to the beautiful town of Shere, where we had lunch in an old English Inn dating from 1475, and which has been the set for various movies, including The Holiday. The food was delicious and very English, a contrast to the last three weeks in Italy.
    We visited the 800 year old church in Shere, which is surrounded by centuries old tombstones, and which was also the set for movies such as Bridget Jones and Four Weddings and a Funeral. The scenery in Shere, with huge green trees and quaint old houses and shops, is simply stunning.
    We then drove to Godalming, the town where Jo and Asher have been living, and visited their flat and went for a walk into the village, via the canal with the narrow old canal boats floating patiently in the fresh water. The canal system in England, with its unique locks, once provided an important transportation system through the country for goods and materials. Now tourists use it for a relaxing way to see the countryside. One can travel 350km right up to the north of England on the locks. One day maybe.
    We looked around Godalming, and then drove to Guildford, the larger city in Surrey where Asher works in the hospital. We met Asher after work and went to a delicious Thai restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we enjoyed coffee and dessert before setting off for a two hour drive to Bath, where we have booked an Airbnb for a couple of night to see the picturesque town of Bath. And to visit the old Roman baths that are evidence of the extensive reach of the Roman Empire that has been so prominent in our attention as we moved through Italy over the last three weeks.
    Another amazing day; from Venice in northeast Italy to Surrey and Bath in southwest England.    Read more

  • Travel AdventuresTravelerItalian Adventure Sep 2023
    1

    Bath

    October 6, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Five of us stayed in a nice Airbnb in the old section of Bath for two nights. Jo, Asher, Steve, Fiona and myself all walked into town for an English breakfast. Then we walked around the old town to locate the Roman baths, right next to the imposing cathedral. We bought tickets to enter the Roman Bath compex and were issued with an audio guide to listen to a description of the history of what we were seeing. It is a staggering complex of hot, warm, tepid and cold baths which takes several hours to go through. The complex was buried by the Anglo Saxon town for many years and was only discovered a couple of hundred years ago. As archaeologists gradually dug it out, there was a progressive understanding of what a huge Roman bath complex was built here. The reason the Romans built the complex in this location was because there is a unique source of hot mineral springs here bubbling up from deep underground.
    The ancients believed the water was good for healing diseases so there were not only baths here for washing, but temples and religious structures for worship of the pagan gods.
    The Romans built the baths in around 60 AD, about 100 years after Julius Caesar had conquered Britain in 44 BC.
    There were many fascinating artifacts dug up as part of the excavations which reveal a great deal about the life and culture of the ancient people who lived in this advanced civilisation in Bath.
    There were several layers of history here apart from the ancient Roman, and Anglo-Saxon. There was also the more modern English period of Jane Austens books when the aristocracy came to Bath to take the waters. The Pump Room, which is a location in her books, is still there and is a refined place to have a high tea while overlooking the baths.
    We also went into the amazing cathedral which is 800 years old and a significant structure in the centre of town.
    We then visited the Bath Circus, as it is known, which is a circular range of 30 residential townhouses built in a circle around a roundabout with five large 200yo Plane Trees in the green space in the middle of the roundabout. We also went to see the Royal Crescent, a beautiful semicircular range of 30 houses which overlook Royal Victoria Park. Famous and very expensive townhouses. On is on the market for 10 million.
    We then walked to the Bath Christadelphian Hall, which was understandably closed on a Friday. We had dinner in an Italian restaurant before I went to a play in the Peter Ustinov Theatre in Bath. The play was Voyage Round My Father by John Mortimer who wrote the Rumpole series.    Read more

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