Vacation 2025

Starting off in Venice and then...well, we arent sure Read more

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Vacation 2025
Verona
September 16, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F
After coffee we said our goodbys to the cafe crew and took a train to Verona and by noontime we were here. Its a beautiful little city with many roman sites. We will be here for 4 nights and then move north

-jimRead more
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Vacation 2025
Venice to Verona
September 16, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F
Arrivederci Venezia e benvenuti a Verona! While I was sad to leave, it was time to move on to the next leg of our adventure. Verona is a picturesque little city and we are staying in the historic center so everything is just a short walk away. We followed the river Adige around the perimeter and then worked our way through the middle. Tomorrow we will see some sights in greater detail. We tried a couple of local specialties for dinner then sat in Piazza Bra, next to the Verona Arena which is a Roman amphitheater like the Colosseum. It was another beautiful day in Italy!
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
First full day in Verona
September 17, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 68 °F
Today we took the funicolare to Castel San Pietro for spectacular views of the city then walked down the hill to the ruins of an ancient Roman theater which has been re-purposed as a modern day entertainment venue. Yes, the people of Verona are still using their Roman amphitheaters for entertainment 😁 There is a wonderful Roman archeological museum in the same area and we enjoyed that as well. We're loving Verona ❤️
-MelanieRead more
TravelerSo happy for you
9/19/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Parks of Verona
September 18, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F
Today we visited almost every park in Verona or so it seemed 🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♂️ The weather has been great, if a little hotter than we expected. There are so many cool and comfortable parks in this city! We walked a long connecting park in the outskirts of the city, along an ancient wall. It was another beautiful day 🥰
-MelanieRead more
Traveler👏 awesome,what a great adventure amigos, can’t wait till we’re together to discuss our travels
9/19/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Klimt thing
September 19, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F
We once went to a Klimt exhibit at the Getty in LA, it was facinating and so we are always on the lookout for his stuff. Here in Verona they are staging an exhibit, of sorts, its more of a light show/projection extravavanza. His artwork is animated and set to music and projected 360° as well as the floor. Its very hard to describe but I couldnt stop smiling. It was so well done. Even got some Bowie in German!
-jim

What he said🥰
-MelanieRead more
TravelerCool ! (Had to google Gustav Klimt) !! 🫣
9/19/25Reply
TravelerI'm loving your trip. Every photo is a painting. All of the food is delicious! What an adventure! Right now we're having the biggest storm of the season
9/19/25Reply
Thank you ❣️ [Melanie]
9/20/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Vicenza, scene of the crime
September 20, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F
They was robbed I tell ya, Shakespeare? Snakespeare is more like it. But more of that in a bit...
After coffee we did the most jim and melanie thing possible, she went to a cat show "the most beautiful cats in the world" and I went to a history museum "Fascism and resistance -Verona 1938-1944".
Nuff said?
After all that we hopped on a train to Vicenza, the home of the architect Palladio and a beautiful little town in between Venice and Verona.

Apparently its also the home of the story of Romeo and Juliet, which Shakespeare (and so Verona) so boldly ripped off.
Its a story best googled. I'm staying out of it.

We're here until Tuesday then we go north to the Tyrol and the Dolomites.

-jim

Post dinner edit:
We had an amazing dinner in the historic center finished of with a complimentary local desert wine. I dont like desert wine. This one blew my mind.
Life continues to surprise and amaze.

Link to menu:
https://n3a8xhzfbrvqn27yx63fpzkctgvhzf7x.pages.…Read more
TravelerThe 1968 version with Olivia Hussey - outstanding. Ciao
9/20/25Reply
OurtravelsI agree, i saw it in 1978 in Biloxi mississippi. It had an effect on me.
9/20/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Cat show!!!
September 20, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F
What fun 🤗❤️ These are the only pictures I've taken today (so far.) I got to the show as soon as they opened, because we had a train to catch, and it being Italy the judges weren't ready. I only saw a handful of cats before I had to leave but it was worth it❣️😻
-MelanieRead more
TravelerGlad you were able to go see the cat show, right up your alley 💜
9/20/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
First night in Vicenza
September 20, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 72 °F
We decided to rest and watch qualifying shortly after arriving at our AirBnB. Then we walked into the historic district and had an amazing dinner at E VI. After the meal our waiter offered us an aperitif of a local dessert wine. I think I'm already in love with this place and I feel so lucky to be sharing it with my amazing husband. ❤️
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Day3 in Vicenza
September 21, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F
Today was a relaxing day of sightseeing. There is a general train strike on monday in support of Palestine so we moved our plans to leave here on tuesday, and today we headed to the train station to buy our tickets in advance. We had an american style breakfast, bought some wine, bread and cheese for dinner and generally walked around town. Its such a beautiful place with much grand architecture and yet it maintains a certain small town feel. This despite the 3 local military bases housing 90,000 military personnel. People here are warm and welcoming and english is regularily spoken. We are really enjoying it here. We finished our day watching the race in Azerbaijan and having our wine and cheese dinner.
-jim

I think I took a few pictures so I'll post them here 🥰
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Last day in Vicenza
September 22, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 55 °F
A beautiful rainy day in Vicenza. We had planned to see the show at the Olympic theater but they were closed. I guess that's another good reason to come back to Vicenza. We did our usual walking and sightseeing and were having coffee when the protest march for the liberation of Gaza came around the corner. I pray for an end to the violence 🙏🏻
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Corvara,
Sep 23–25, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 50 °F
In the Alta Badera section of the italian Sudtyrol. The Dolomites. 2 trains and two busses out of vicenza, we are in what must be one of the most beautiful places on earth. And its raining. After a very long day, we had a great dinner and thats all i got. Must. Sleep. More...much more in the days to come.

Edit - if you want a closer look at where we are, or where we have been, tap on the globe/map and you can expand it right down to where we are.
-jimRead more
TravelerIt looks amazing!! Miss you guys!!
9/23/25Reply
TravelerI was telling my nephew a few days ago that we should go hike the Dolomites, can’t wait to hear more about it from you.
9/23/25Reply
OurtravelsIt doesnt look like we will get much hiking in due to weather, but they do have a pass which allows you to ride all the lifts between villages and up to the peaks which we hope to do.
9/24/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Rest day
September 24, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F
We had a nice alpine breakfast at our hotel, did some grocery shopping and got our lift tickets today. It was overcast with the sun breaking through once in a while. Chilly enough to wear puffy jackets and we even had a few snowflakes. Tomorrow we hope to catch a bus to Badia and take some lifts to the top to San Croce. More pics then!
-jim

I'll just add a couple of pictures. They really don't do these views justice.
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
La Crusc
September 25, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F
In this area of the Italian Alps, the Dolomite mountains, we are staying in a collection of 6 alpine villages called Alta Badia. Our hotel is located in the village of Corvara. Today we took a bus north about 20 minutes (our hotel stay came with a public transportation pass) to the village of Badia. We took a series of 2 gondolas up the La Crusc mountainside to a refuge called San Croce. It was once a refuge for pilgrims and it now has a chapel and a small alpine dining hall. Ok, so those are the bare facts. What we saw on our way up and down, and while up there were spectacular beyond words.
I found it a little ironic that in a place like this, someone thought a church was necessary, but hey, I'm no expert. The majesty and scale of the place took my breath away, like nothing I've ever seen.
-jim

This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Again, the photos don't do it justice but I'll post them anyway.
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
4
1
More photos
September 25, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 43 °F
A few more photos from today that didn't fit in the last post 😊
-Melanie
Traveler You going to climb that little hill?
9/25/25Reply
OurtravelsNope. We saw some climbers fully kitted out heading up that way. The pictures dont do the size justice. My conservative guess is 64,000 feet (thats 1,500,000 metrics)
9/26/25Reply
Traveler 😲
9/29/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Rainy day
September 26, 2025 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 46 °F
Nothing much to report today. It's raining and the clouds are so low that we can't see the peaks. We decided to go to the laundromat and then we booked the rest of our trip. From here we go to Bolzano to see the Ice Man, then on to Vienna, Budapest and finally Madrid where we catch our flight home. What an amazing adventure❣️❣️❣️
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Last day in Alta Badia
September 27, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 43 °F
With one day remaing on our lift passes and perfect weather, we traveled to the top of two peaks. One was snow covered and one, a little lower had a great restaurant with wonderful food for lunch. Tomorrow we train to Bolzano. Monday we train to Vienna. More then
-jimRead more
TravelerAwesome photos,majestic scenery!!
9/27/25Reply
TravelerJust Wow, can’t wait to see your next stop. Miss you guys💜enjoy!
9/27/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Another perfect day in Corvara, Alta Bad
September 27, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Yay! The sun came out and we jumped on as many gondolas as we could. The first was a double. A Gondola up to an open chair. My hero, Jim, took the open chair to the top. I stayed at the first stop because I thought it would be too cold. Kicking myself now. He said it was spectacular! After that we returned to town and walked to another gondola. What a beautiful ride. There was a great refugio/restaurant at the top and we had our best meal in Alta Badia 😋
Then we came home and packed for the next leg of our adventure!
-MelanieRead more
TravelerHappy you ended up with a ☀️last day!
9/28/25Reply
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Vacation 2025
Corvara to Bolzano
September 28, 2025 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F
The trip from Corvara to Bolzano boasted more beautiful scenery. At one point we saw paragliders!
When we arrived in Bolzano we checked into our hotel, rested a bit and then went to the South Tyrolean Museum of Archeology to see the Ice Man. We were able to look through a window and see the actual mummy (in a temperature and light controlled space) as well as everything they found with him! They don't let you take pictures on the exhibit floor but they have a re-creation of what he probably looked like that I was allowed to take a picture of. When he died he was wearing a lot more clothing including a bearskin coat and hat (they found the hat completely intact) and carrying a lot of gear (full backpack, bow and full quiver of arrows, etc.) If you're interested, I highly recommend looking him up.
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Moving on, Italy to Austria
September 29, 2025 in Austria ⋅ 🌙 50 °F
The Italian leg of our vacation has been wonderful. We have really enjoyed the trains and buses that we used to get around, we feel like we've seen so much.
The train system in northern Italy has a couple major hubs, like Milan and Verona. Verona connects Venice to the east to Rome to the south, Milan to the west and Innsbruck to the north. We traveled from Venice to Verona, then back halfway to Vicenza, back to Verona to connect north to Bolzano. From Bolzano we took 2 buses to Alta Badia, then bused back to Bolzano. From there we headed north to through the brenner pass to Innsbruck Austria.
Innsbruck is a major east west hub in Austria connecting Munich to the west and Vienna to the east. The 4 hour train from Innsbruck to Vienna was our longest yet . I had visions of traveling across the alps and Austria, snow covered peaks etc. But it turned out to look much more like Vermont.
So having arrived in Vienna, the first thing we'll do tomorrow is buy our 7 day transportation pass for the metro and get our train tickets for Budapest.
-jimRead more
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Vacation 2025
Bolzano to Vienna
September 29, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
We woke up early in Bolzano and headed out to the train station for our short ride to Innsbruck, stopping for coffee and pastry in the main square. Bolzano definitely warrants a longer visit. We weren't expecting it to be so beautiful. Overall, the Italian Tyrol has been more than we could have hoped for 🥰...
We just connected to the train from Innsbruck to Vienna and ended up with first class because everything else was sold out! I have to say, it's a pretty nice way to travel across Austria. I'll post pictures later...
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Belvedere Palace museum
September 30, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F
Last night when we arrived at our airbnb, I noticed a large print of Klimt's "The Kiss" on the wall and I told our host about the Klimt exhibit we saw in Verona. She excitedly told us that Vienna has the world's largest permanent collection of Klimt's work, including "The Kiss", "Judith" and "The Bride" which was left unfinished on his easel when he died...in Vienna.
Today we went to the museum at the Belvedere Palace and saw the amazing collection of those and so much more. A feast.

And not to take away from the experience, but to temper it with a little reality, looted art, both from antiquity and more recently the Jewish Holocaust is a problem for museums and the Belvedere is a prime example. It has an exhibit regarding its collections and recently (ca. 2000) tried to adjudicate the provenance of its collection and tried to divest itself of works that were stolen by the nazis. However, only works that have been claimed by survivors has been returned. The world may never know to what extent looted art remains in museums today, including the Belvedere.Read more
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Vacation 2025
Vienna 1
September 30, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F
Vienna is a big city. We started our day with delicious Vienniese pastries and coffee then took the metro to St. Stephen's cathedral which is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture. After that we walked to the Belvedere Palace and spent a beautiful afternoon in their museum soaking in the work of Gustav Klimt as well as Monet, Van Gogh and others. The building itself is a work of art.
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
Vienna 1 cont.
September 30, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F
More photos
-M
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Vacation 2025
Vienna 2
October 1, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F
Today was very cold and drizzly. Not the best day for walking around the city so we had a short excursion and then relaxed. We took the metro to Karlsplatz which is a good city central location, found out how to take a tour of the opera house tomorrow and stopped into the Sacher hotel to make a reservation for coffee and sacher torte for tomorrow at 10:00😋 We finished the excursion with a delicious Middle Eastern meal.
Looking forward to tomorrow❣️
-MelanieRead more
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Vacation 2025
A day on the town
October 2, 2025 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F
Started out at the Sacher hotel for tort and coffee (dont bother) then walked the island that runs down the middle of the danube. It was cloudy, blustery and cold, but beautiful and must be quite a treat in the summer. The sun came out and we worked our way back to the city center to get into the tour of the opera house, but stopped at the albertina butterfly house for a little butterfly magic first. We never made the opera house tour, it was sold out before the line got to us, but we did have lunch at Subway. Got back to the house by 2:30, I'm beat, my body cant take much more vacation!
-jimRead more
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