Italian Adventure Sep 2023

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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
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
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
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
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
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
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
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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
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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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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
Stonehenge
October 7, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
We left our Airbnb to drive back to Godalming via a few significant locations - Stonehenge and the town of Salisbury.
We first had breakfast in Bath, and a last walk through the amazing old town, before piling back into Jo and Asher’s diesel Puegot that has carried us faithfully through southwestern England.
We arrived at Stonehenge in late morning on a beautiful sunny warm Autumn day. We paid for our tickets and then went through the information centre before catching the shuttle bus to the stones.
I was unprepared for the extent of the site. I thought it was just a few stones but it is a complex of ancient monuments which cover kilometres of ground.
There are burial mounds and structures that we really don’t understand.
Stonehenge itself is about 5000 years old, built at about the same time as the pyramids of Giza and about 1000 years before Moses.
The stones were central in the religious and cultural lives of those who lived here. The stone circles were oriented towards the rising and setting sun on the solstices, and possibly at other times too. It was like a huge sundial as well as fulfilling other purposes. And there was a huge processional way leading up to the henge.
Many of the stones were brought from Wales, hundreds of kilometres away.
It was amazing to stand in this place and see for myself what I had only ever seen in photos. It would be great to see the sunset on the summer or winter solstice.
Amazing archaeological site that requires hours to explore.Read more
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
Salisbury
October 7, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
On our way back to Godalming, after our visit to Stonehenge, we visited the town of Salisbury, to view, among other things, the grand cathedral there.
The bought some delicious Cornish pasties from a Cornish bakery and ate lunch in the extensive gardens around the cathedral. Then we for a visit inside the cathedral. Where the Italian cathedrals have domes, the English cathedrals have spires, at least in the rural townships outside London.
The cathedral was grand. It has been the subject of many paintings over the centuries, particularly in the Romantic art movement.
The cathedral also houses one of only four extant copies of the Magna Carta written on parchment from 1215. Two of the other three are in the British Library and the third is in Lincoln Castle. The copy in the Salisbury is the best preserved of all four. There was originally a copy supplied to each cathedral in England but because it was annulled shortly after, most cathedrals did not keep them. It was then reinstated in a slightly larger form in 1225.
There is a copy of the Magna Carta from 1297 in Canberra.
The earliest copy, in Salisbury Cathedral, is located in the chapter house, where we were able to view it in a large theft-proof glass case. We were not allowed to take photos of the display due to rules related to preservation of the parchment and ink. It is in a darkened space and no flash photos are allowed.
Salisbury is a beautiful old town that is a picture of the Medieval period. It was a sunny afternoon and perfect for a visit.
We left Salisbury in the early evening and returned to Godalming where Steve and Fiona had booked an Airbnb for two nights. I was able to sleep in Jo and Asher’s lounge room in their small one bedroom flat in Salisbury House in Godalming.Read more
TravelerSooo nice!! 🥰💕
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
Hampton Court Palace
October 8, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
I slept in Jo and Asher’s lounge room in their little flat in Godalming overnight. In the morning we went for breakfast at
Gail’s, a favourite haunt of Jo and Asher in this beautiful little Surry township. Steve and Fiona were keen to experience this cafe in which Asher had worked as a barista when he first arrived in the UK over a year ago.
After breakfast, we drove north towards London to visit Hampton Court Palace, the famous palace of Henry VIII and his six wives. It also was
A favourite palace of the Tudors, Stuart’s, Honoverians and Georgian families of royalty.
At least half of the palace of Henry and the Tudors is still intact and can be viewed
as it would have been. But half of Henry’s palace was rebuilt by subsequent kings and Queens who needed things to be grander to compete with other European palaces like Versailles. The result is at least three distinct parts and a huge palace complex that gives insight into the lives of English monarchs and their families over 500 years.
The gardens are huge and the oldest tennis court in the world is still in operation and there is a club and there were members playing on the court, which is tennis with a smattering of squash in the rules.
The vegetable garden, the maze and the various themed gardens, fountains and water canals make the grounds well worth visiting.
We spent most of the day in the palace and its grounds in the beautiful sunny Autumn weather.
We drove back to Guildford to look at the caste and have Thai for dinner for the second time. Then back to Godalming for sleep.Read more
TravelerSpecial memories together ❤️
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
London - a Vigil & a Show
October 9, 2023 in England ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Jo and Asher had to work on Monday so I was left to my own devices. I travelled to London by train and wandered along Southbank and into Westminster area and near 10 Downing Steet. I had fish and chips for lunch like the good tourist I am, paying a fortune as good tourists do.
In the late afternoon, I ended up near Downing Street where I found myself in the middle of a vigil by Jews for the Hamas attacks on Israel in the last 48 hours. The gathering started small, but after a couple of hours it has grown to over 5000 people, nearly all of them Jewish, and the whole area of London was blocked off progressively as the police became aware of the huge number of Jews assembling and the huge security risk that represented.
There was a stage set up and all the most significant Jewish leaders gave passionate speeches, including the Chief Rabbi of London and the Ambassador from Israel. There were also eloquent speeches from ministers and leaders of the British government and opposition, all of whom passionately condemned Hamas as criminals and terrorists and stating categorically that the UK stands with Israel. It was witnessing history to be present. Some of the Jews around me asked me if I was Jewish. They all seemed to know each other.
I got there strong impression from the way people were dressed and their demeanour that I was rubbing shoulders here with some of Londons most elite and rich citizens. There were concerns that there might be some Palestinian agression towards the crowd, but apart from and few minor scuffles and pro Palestinian people yelling out, it was a peaceful and respectful gathering. At the end of the speeches the crowd all broke out in a moving rendition of Hatikva in Hebrew, the Israeli National Anthem.
Many of those present knew or were related to some of those killed, injured or abducted two days ago.
After the speeches and the singing was over, I walked to the area near Tower Bridge to find the theatre where I had booked tickets to the show Guys and Dolls. I had been involved in this musical when I was in year 9 at school and I was keen to see it again. It was an amazing show. It started at 7.30pm and concluded at 10.30pm. I then caught a couple of trains to Godalming and then walked to the flat just after midnight where my adventure for the day ended.Read more
TravelerWhat a fascinating experience to part of! 🇮🇱
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Italian Adventure Sep 2023 Traveler
Leaving England for Paris
October 10, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Saying goodbye to Asher and Jo as they left for work on Tuesday morning, I began packing and getting ready for a trip to Paris, as I start my journey back towards home.
I walked to Godalming Station to catch the train to Guildford, then another train to Gatwick Airport for my EasyJet flight to Charles de Gaull airport. The flight wasn’t until 5.30pm so I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the journey.
I landed at 7.45pm local time which is one hour forward compared to London time, and caught two trains to Vincennes where I checked into the apartment at 9.00pm.
Safely moved from Godalming to Vincennes, from Surrey to Paris.Read more
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Trip end
October 14, 2023