All good things must come to an end and that includes vacations. For our last day in Italy we decided to tour the Royal Palace and visit the National Museum of Cinema. Neither has disappointed.

Royal Palace of Turin

The ballroom – musicians were in the balcony at the far end – built in music stands

One of the gallerys in the Armory Museum – real horses and armour

Relaxing watching a silent movie

The Palace was built for the House of Savoy in the 16th century and was later modernized. Included in the ticket are three museums- the armory, the library and the archeological museum. There is also an art gallery that includes much of the art collection of the Savoy family. It also houses the Chapel of the Shroud, in which the Shroud of Turin is on display from time-to-time. The Shroud actually belonged to the Savoy family until 1946 when both the Palace and all its accoutrements were turned over to the State.

We enjoyed lunch in a little cafe deciding to try the salami & cheese platter for a change from Pizza. It was more than enough for two!

The elevator is up in that square in the ceiling

Our afternoon visit was to the National Museum of Cinema. This was probably one of the most engaging museums we have visited in Italy since it was very much hands-on.  It began with a collection of Maria Adriana Prolo’s which included all kinds of early pre-cinemagraphic machines and toys. Her Foundation supports the museum to which has been added film memorabilia including sets, costumes, posters, etc. from the Italian film industry. The musuem is housed in a very unique building which includes a glass walled elevator that rises to a panoramic viewing area 75 metres above the floor. The displays are housed on five floors that go around the outside of the building in an atrium type design. On the main floor is about 50 lounge chairs in which you can sit to watch silent movies on a large display screen and interesting projections on the ceiling way above you.

A rest back at the hotel, to avoid a passing thunder shower, provided a welcome pause before we headed out again for our final dinner in Italy. We decided to go to an Indian Food place that is highly recommended on Trip Advisor – enough pasta for a while! We sauntered back through town stopping for a cafe americano along the way. First stop is definitely going to be Timmies.

Tomorrow morning we have an early flight so will need to leave the hotel shortly after 7 a.m. in order to return the car, get our VAT refund and get through security. It’s been a real pleasure to travel with our son. He’s been patient, understanding, and it’s been fun to experience Italy with him. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas present, George, but most of all for the gift of your presence!

Today turned out to be a bit of a non-event mostly because of the weather. Our plan was to tour through the Lake Como region but the weather didn’t cooperate. We drove from Bergamon to Varenna in a gentle rain, but by the time we arrived it was pouring. We had hoped to visit some of the villas in the area, one with a must-see garden and another that had been used for one of the Star War movies. We decided to scrap our plans and just head for Turin. This required a ferry ride to Bellagio and an interesting drive down to Como; one with lots of twists and turns and very narrow passages through small towns. The remainder of the drive to Turin was on yet another Autostade through the very flat Lombardy plain, where we were able to lots of rice fields. The speed limit is 130 km/hr but there were many cars that blew past us going at least 150!

Our hotel in Turin is right downtown and we have probably the smallest rooms we’ve had of the whole trip. Fortunately, we’re only here for two nights and at least they provide BBC on the TV. We spent the late afternoon resting and then walked down the street to a restaurant for dinner. Coffee was purchasd at MacDonalds while walking off our dinner.

We have plans to visit two museums tomorrow and have yet to decide what we’ll do on our last night in Italy.

Villa Sant’Anna – view from breakfast room

Villa Sant’Anna – bedroom upper right, breakfast room lower level, note wisteria on left

When I was booking our trip, I had a great deal of difficulty with finding accommodation in Milan. I subsequently learned that we were going to be here during Design Week, hence the very pricey hotel rooms. I searched on the B&B website and found one about an hour outside of central Milan in Bergamon. Finding it last evening was a bit of a challenge since it’s out at the end of a laneway. I wouldn’t want to find it for the first time in the dark. In actual fact it’s what I would call an Italian Villa – a very large house on an estate sized lot, which Federico tells us has been in his family for over 100 years. He’s a recently retired criminal lawyer and decided to open up his house as a B&B since his children, cousins and parents have either died or moved away. George and I have a little suite of our own – one master bedroom, one twin bedroom upstairs, and a bathroom. There is also a shared common room. Breakfast is served either on the patio or in an inner hallway overlooking the garden. Federico’s sister owns the property behind them and operates a winery.

The Italians eat quite late, as is common in the rest of Europe, and after we checked in he suggested a restaurant in town that tourists wouldn’t know about. He also advised us as to what to order that is typical Bergamon cuisine. The restaurant looked quite small from the outside but had a very large back room and it was crowded. Fortunately for us one of the waitresses spoke English and was able to explain how the menu and pricing worked. For 18 euros we got a make-your-own salad bar (the first we’ve seen here), water, wine or beer, one entree, dessert and coffee. It was a great deal…and a great meal. I had a type of pasta that was like Ravioli but a different shape. It’s only made in Bergamon. George had his nomal – beef steak – but each one seems to be a bit different. Unlike at home, no starch or veggies are served with the meat course here (called secondi). Sitting next to us, but close enough for conversation, was a couple with a friend. When they heard us speak in English they asked where we were from and so we struck up a conversation while we waited for our meal. The husband didn’t speak much English but his wife was able to converse quite well. During the meal the rose vendor arrived and the man purchased one. Imagine my surprise when he presented it to me!

Duomo – took 300 years to build and has ~3500 statues on the marble facade

The famous Galleria Mall – not as upscale as it once was

The rebuilt monastery where Da Vinci’s painting is housed

Well on to today – declared by George to be the most fun city yet. We started out thinking that we would take the train into Milan but we couldn’t find parking near the station in Bergamon. Our fall back was to drive about 30 minutes to the end of one of the Metro lines and try to find parking there. We were successful and it was a relatively easy way to get into the city. We walked for a bit looking for a belt for George, something he didn’t bring but finally decided it was a necessity. Then we walked some more looking for a place for lunch that wasn’t Italian. We’re both a bit tired of pasta and pizza and quite honestly surprised at how little other choices there are. We have seen very few ethnic food places and any we’ve seen are just take out type places. There are no chinese restaurants, no curry places, no Subway sandwhich places. We ended up at Burger King! George correctly noted that we hadn’t had rice since arriving, but we solved that later in the day.

Our organized tour was both a walking and a driving tour. We visited the duomo (Cathedral), the opera house, Sforza Castle and the monastery that houses Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. It’s quite an amazing story of how the painting has survived down through the years, especially during WWII when the monstery was completely demolished except for the two walls with the paintings. For personal reasons, Da Vinci didn’t paint it using the fresco technique, so the painting has faded over the years and while having been restored hundreds of times, is in quite bad shape. They are trying hard very hard to preserve it using the latest techniques.

The Duke’s quarters at Sforza Castle where Da Vinci worked

After our tour we decided to go to the design district and tour some of the places that were open to the public. It turned out to be a lot of fun – checking out strange furniture, playing with photo techniques for the iPhone, visiting the botanical gardens and touring an exhibit on perfumes. We stopped at a little Bar near the opera house and ordered risotto which our guide told us is unique to Milan. Because it sits amongst the flatest countryside in all of Italy, and given the abundance of water in the area, the region around Milan is the rice capital of Europe. Who knew? I had a risotto with asparagus and  George had the truly Milanese one made with saffron. Both were good and I didn’t find them as rich as I often do at home – maybe they use less Parmesan cheese here.

One of the other things that we noticed in Milan is how much everyone dresses up for work. Most men still wear suits and I didn’t see any women in business dress and running shoes.

It was a long day and we didn’t arrive back at our B&B until 10:45. I’m sure they thought we were lost.

our first view of the limestone formations

Best time to see these is late afternoon but we were there earlier

Gorgeous view across the valley

….or so it seemed. Today was our day to drive through the Dolomite Mountains. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny blue day making the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. This range of mountains, in the northeastern part of Italy, is part of the southern alps and rises to a height of about 3500 meters. The road is relatively well maintained and not really all that hard to drive. In one pass there were some 35 switchbacks and in another about 27. Lots of braking and turning but George seems to have got the hang of it. The road is even wide enough that we passed a few busses without incident.

The upper reaches are used for skiing and run after run could be seen from the road. Some even went over the road by means of bridges. All of the ski operations seemed to be closed for the season but we did see one lone skier making his way down a long gentle slope – probably one of his last runs of the season. There were some areas where the snow by the side of the road was 6′ deep but on the sunny slopes most of it had melted. The road climbed to just over 2200 meters and we were both surprised by how lovely and warm it felt, having expected that it would be much cooler as we climbed.

We stopped in Bolzano to visit Otzi – the 5000 year old ice man found in 1991. I encourage you to google him to see what he looks like since we couldn’t take photos. We didn’t have a lot of time since tonight’s stop was at a B&B and we wanted to arrive in reasonably good time. We spent about 45 minutes learning about how he was found, all of the research that has been done on him and how they have been able to piece together his story.

We were both very glad to get to our B&B tonight which I think will be the story for tomorrow. It’s right out of an historical Italian romance novel. Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you more.

Glass blower at work

Our travels today took us to two islands Murano and Burano, which are well known for their artisans. Murano is well known for its glass making and Burano has been recognized as the European centre for lace making since the 16th century. We went by water-bus, first to Murano, where we watched a display at the glass factory. This, of course, was followed by a tour of their factory store. The range of products was amazing. Photos are not allowed since the designs are unique to each factory. As we walked around town we saw store after store of glass items. One of the sales reps tried to sell me an ornate chandeiier at 250K euros. I told him I’d buy it but it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase!

Pretty Burano

Tatting

After lunch we moved on to Burano, which is the cutest little town. All of the buildings are painted in different colours making for a very engaging and inviting town. We visited the lace museum which tells the story behind lace making in Burano including a school that was there until the 1970s. The art is dying out but there were two women in the museum providing a display of how to tat. My guess is that with modern production methods the handmade lace is really just a tourist attraction now. I saw some table cloths in a store for 1,000 euros so I’m not sure how many they sell.

Water bus

Needless to say, Georgie got to experience what it’s like to travel with a shopper. He spent lots of time waiting in the shade while I did my thing. At least the Christmas shopping is mostly done! He couldn’t figure out why there were so many stores selling the same things and suggested a blue jean outlet could make a killing.

Dome inside St Marks – gold leave mosaic

Famous Bridge of Sighs

Well, here we are in Venice – the city of canals. The city is made up of 118 islands, 400 bridges and 150 canals. There are basically only two ways to get around: by boat or by foot. Boats ply the waterways and provide both public and private transportation. The public side is a large boat that operates like a bus making regular stops along the canal. Private transportation is either by a taxi boat or a gondola. We thought the 80 euro for a gondola a bit steep unless you have a party of 5 or 6 people. Originally, we thought the 20 euro 24-hour day pass a bit steep too…but having walked almost 20 km by 4pm, we decided this would be the best way to get around tomorrow.

Our walking tour this morning took us to San Marco Square, the St Mark church, the government building and the prison. We then walked through a number of squares as the guide told us more of the history of the city and some of its buildings.

There are ony about 57,000 residents in Venice but over 3 billion visitors a year. Life requires a lot of planning when

• it takes a lot of time to get from one area of the city to another
• tourists invade your space every day
• garbage has to be moved in shuttle carts and then transferred to a garbage boat and finally to a garbage truck
• an ambulance call brings two men with a hand-carried litter to take you to the hospital
• the main floor of your house is in jeaopardy of flooding a number of times each year
• you live where there is not one square inch of public green space.

After the tour we had a few hours on our own before our one hour boat tour. We stopped at an outdoor restaurant for lunch and then went to see the Peggy Guggenheim museum. She was a wealthy American who came to Venice and became an art dealer/collector. Her passion was modern art and her will provided for her home to be established as a gallery after her death. While we enjoyed the opportunity to see her collection, it was a small space with 100+ hot, sweaty teenagers who arrived just after us. It became quite unpleasant and so we left within the hour. After investigating the options for water taxis, we decided to walk back and find a spot for a treat in the shade. Sitting in San Marco Square listening to live music and enjoying a sundae seemed like just what you’re supposed to do on vacation!

Our afternoon boat cruise took us through the two main canals to see the houses/palaces and government buildings from the front side. Some of them are quite beautiful while others are showing their age and effects of weather over time. Of importance to some on the tour was which movies were shot in which building, which movie stars stayed where and in which building George Clooney was married.

We used our day pass to take a boat back to the bus terminal where we stopped for dinner before heading back to the hotel. It was quite a warm day here and with the combination of walking and crowds of people, we were both exhausted by the time we arrived back to the hotel. I was even too tired to write this note so it had to wait until morning.

One of the problems we have found the past few nights is that the hotel air conditioners don’t seemed to be turned on yet. Your room is closed up all day or whenever your key is not in the room, and gets quite stuffy later in the evening and over night. Neither of us were able to get any air into the room last night and since we were on a busy road, opening the window wasn’t really an option. Sleep was a bit elusive.

Our travel this morning was through the agricultural area with large fields of green crops, more vineyards and fruit trees. We’ve had a few days of 20+* weather and we noticed this morning how more advanced this area is – vines are in flower and trees have leaves.

The newest model

Modeno is well known here in Italy as it is the birthplace of two famous Italians – Enzo Ferrari of racing fame and Pavarotti of opera fame. The Enzo Ferrari museum is built within and beside his childhood home and tells the story of his life, how he developed the Ferrari name and his friendship with Pavarotti despite a 37 year age difference. The display of some 20 cars was interesting since each was matched with an aria from an opera. Later they presented a multi-media presentation showing their rise to fame over the years.

We then moved on to the town of Maranello which is where the Ferrari plant is now located. The museum there traced the story of the Ferrari car in the racing world and how that has translated into very special road cars. After lunch we boarded a bus and they took us through the plant and test areas explaining how the cars are produced from development to testing and delivery. Each car is custom made to the specifics provided by the client.

Cactus garden

Magnolia ciirca 1786

As we headed towards Venice, we decided we still had time to stop at Orto Botanico in Padova – most public places are open until 7 or 7:30pm. This is said to be the oldest academic botanical garden in the world still in its original location. It was founded in the mid-1500s and there is a palm that dates back to 1550. There were at least three trees that date back to the 1600/1700s. They’ve built a large green house used for the study of bio-diversification with plants from all over the world, which was quite interesting. In the centre of the garden is a series of small 2 foot square plots each with a different plant. These are grouped into zones such as medicinal plants, orchids, water plants and poisonous plants. We were a wee bit early to see too many flowering plants, but there were early peonies, jasmine and roseacea providing some colour.

Church in the central square – wonder how many leaks they have with a roof like this

We stayed in Padova for dinner and then found our hotel just a 45 minute drive away. I’m a happy camper tonight – coffee maker in the room and The Masters via radio on my iPad. Where there’s a will…there’s a way!

This certainly seems to be an understated city. We took the bus downtown this morning to find the main street all ripped up. It made walking around a bit difficult but we visited some of the main sites. Our real destination was the Music Museum, which turned out to be very interesting.

Housed in an old building with refurbished frescoes adorning each room, the museum pays homage to Giovanni Battista Martini, a Franciscan friar, who although he never left his monastry had an immense effect on the musical life of his day. Counted amongst his counterpoint students were Bach’s son and Mozart.  The museum also houses a large array of original musical scores, including a signed copy of Rosinni’s Barber of Saville, and many rare instruments.

Bologna is evidently the food capital of Italy and so for lunch we stopped at a nice restaurant in the downtown quarter. I have a pasta dish with asperagus and bacon with a cream sauce that was really delicious. Gwereeorge had traditional tortelinni which he didn’t really enjoy. The rogue ingredient was nutmeg!

I stayed at the hotel this afternoon while George went off to do his laundry. By the time he returned and had a nap, it was dinner time so we walked back into town and settled on a steak house.

Since this is a relatively short post, I thought I’d give you some of our impressions of Italy:

• we haven’t seen too many businesses (ie – commercial buildings) in the cities we’ve been in so we’re wondering where everyone works
• the pace of life seems to be quite a but slower here – much like the rest of Europe we’ve visited
• people are generally friendly and try to speak English more than we try to speak Italian
• public toilets are unique – bowl with no seat
• it’s easier to travel around that we might have thought although George finds the towns a bit more nerve-wracking than Toronto – not only does he have to deal with the gear shift but just about every block has a zebra walk mid-block so you’re always on the lookout for pedestrians
• motorcycles are rediculous with no regard for solid white lines, rows of cars stopped at a red light or speed limits
• as in the rest of Europe it’s difficult to eat early – in Italy there’s a tradition of aperitif from 5 – 7pm and many restaurants provide free snacks – dinner service pretty much doesn’t start until 7:30 or 8pm
• our one rule is no parallel parking and so far we’ve been successful with that
• while we have four English TV channels tonight…not one is showing The Masters – boo hoo!

The baptistery, the Cathedral and the Tower

This morning was a quiet take-off with at least one of us still in bed at 9:15am. After the busy schedule we’ve been keeping, it was nice to have a slow morning. Our first stop was Pisa to see the most famous tower. We were both somewhat surprised by the size of the tower. It seems to look smaller in pictures than it was in real life. George was going to take to tower tour and walk to the top, but the first available spot was a 90 minute wait. We decided to take a pass and move on to our next stop. I’m glad we did!

Terraced slopes up the mountainside

Vernazza harbour

Cinque Terre is one of the most unique places in the world. Five fishing villages that date back to medieval time are literally perched on the edge of the ocean amidst mountainous terrain. Cars are not allowed in the villages and the best way to travel between them is by train (a 19th century type that travels though the mountains) or by ferry. The first village is Riomaggoire but when we arrived we couldn’t find a parking spot so we moved on to Manarola. The roads down from the higher highway are quite something – lots of narrow passages and hairpin turns galore. We were able to get a spot in a paid lot and so made our way further down the mountain on foot to find a most unique place. Many of the houses are built right into the mountain which is terraced with vineyards, olive groves and gardens. We took a short hike along a higher path to get a view of the town from above and then strolled through town to the harbour. A nice shop with homemade gellato was a welcome sight. After retrieving our car we decided to travel further along the highway to another village – Vernazza. It was quite different since it was an even steeper walk down from the parking area. There was only one main street but there was a beach and people were actually in the water. George managed to talk his way down the hill with the car to “pick me up” for which I was grateful. I don’t think I could have made it back up!

Our stop tonight is Bologna and because of having spent so much time exploring Cinque Terre we arrived after dark. Dinner was at a service centre, which in Italy has proper restaurants attached. George got a kick out of the fact that I bought wine at the service centre. Our hotel is just a 4 minute bus ride from downtown and we each have a suite with a king sized bed and enough room to have a dance party. Alas, no friends to invite and too tired to dance!

Today’s adventures started early with a tour at 9am. Since we’re staying out in the suburbs and there is no cars allowed downtown, we took the local bus. It seems all quite easy and civilized really. Maybe this is the solution to Toronto’s traffic woes.

Our first stop was the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s David, a renaissance masterpiece he created in the early 1500s. I don’t think I was prepared for the size, 17′ tall, or the detail one can see in the statue. It was originally made to be set high up on the Florence Cathedral, which means the hands and face are a bit out of perspective. Michelangelo was really a master of the human form and muscles, veins and expressions are very realistic. There were a number of other sculptures there, some which he never finished either because the commission evaporated or in one case, he died before he had finished the work. We then left the gallery and proceeded to a walking tour of the old town. The Medici family were very instrumental in the development of Florence and many of the major builldings have some involvement with their family.

We also visited the Duomo, the main basillica in Florence and the eighth largest church in Europe. Built between 1296 and 1436 in the gothic style the exterior is quite ornate – marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered with white. Inside the church was quite plain other than a lovely ceiling painting n the dome over the altar. On the back wall was an interesting 24-hour clock, called a sunset clock because the one and only hand moves counterclockwise and records the amount of time left prior to sunset. Across the road is a building called the Baptistery (part of the church property) one of the oldest buildings in the city.  An octagonal building built in the Romanesque style it is renowned for its three sets of bronze doors with relief sculptures. Michelangelo when he say one of the doors named them the Gates of Paradise. Like many European cities, there are many little squares with statues, cafes and lots of birds. On a sunny warm day like today they appeared quite inviting.

After the walking tour we had about an hour before the second half of the tour was to start. We enjoyed lunch outside in one of the cafes and then did a bit of Christmas shopping at the market.

This afternoon’s tour was to the Uffizi to see some of the important art works associated with Florence. Our guide was quite fun and knowledgeable. We learned:

• how the Catholic church came to own so much valuable art work
• why Mary is always depicted wearing blue
• who always is depicted wearing animal skins
• why is baby Jesus always shown with something red
• why the sky is often shown as gold instead of blue

Free gelato to anyone who can answer these questions! We felt the tour was a bit rushed but he apologized because the tour company cut 1/2 hour from the normal tour, cut his salary in half and left the fee for the tour the same as last year. Such is life in the Italian tourist industry. Speaking of gelato, we each bought one after we left the museum and sat in the sun enjoying the warmth of the day.

Galileo’s first telescopes

Our third museum was the Galileo museum which houses a collection of the Medici family scientific instruments and has been added to over the years by others like Grand Duke Leopold. There were a number of Galileo’s inventions such as the telescope and Leopold’s medical equipment. While it was interesting, we were both a bit tired and perhaps didn’t do it justice. It was neat to see some of the really old equipment though.

We then took a stroll over the Arno via the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval arch bridge, which still has stores as was common in those days. It’s now called the Golden Road since all of the stores are jewellery stores. George wouldn’t let me stop to buy anything! We came back across another bridge and found a Mexican restaurant where we stopped for an early dinner. We were home by 6pm and look forward to a restful night and a slow take-off towards Pisa tomorrow.