Lots of pictures today. Though it wasn’t my favorite place we went to during the honeymoon, it turned out to be one of the most photographically interesting.
Photos of Venice
Tag Archives: Italy
Photos from Siena
The last city we visited while we were still down in Tuscany, Siena was probably my favorite bigger city we visited in Italy. Here are some photos we took in the city, from the city of the surrounding area, and a couple we took that day when we got back to Radda at the end of the day.
Photos from Gaiole, Meleto and Brolio
Today’s photo installment comes from what might have been my favorite day from the honeymoon. When we talked about going to Italy for our honeymoon, this is what I was imagining. I already told you about the time we spent in these places and I’m finally posting the pictures from the day.
Photos from Volterra and San Gimignano
Some more shots from the honeymoon. These are a from the first two hill towns that we visited in the Tuscan countryside, Volterra and San Gimignano.
Photos from Tuscany
Finally getting around to putting up some more of our pictures from our honeymoon trip. We took these pictures around the little town we stayed in, Radda in Chianti, while we were in Tuscany. These will give you a good idea how incredible the area is and how amazing the view from our hotel room was.
Photos from Florence
A lot of people have been asking about pictures from our honeymoon and I simply haven’t taken the time to go through them and upload them yet. Given that there are somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 pictures from the trip I’m not uploading them all. This first installment is a sampling of unedited pictures from our time in Florence.
Venice
I have to admit that when we were discussing the top Venice was the first place I was willing to skep if we needed to cut out a portion of the trip. After making the visit I’m glad that we worked it in, even if it that is due to a few particular things we saw and did there..
First let me get a few negatives out of the way. More of an annoyance than anything, (and as we had been warned) the streets are incredibly difficult to navigate. The problem lies primarily in that they don’t have street names posted all the time, and the names of streets change constantly from block to block. In addition to them being extremely windy, getting from place to place in the city is an adventure.
Venice might be the smokingest city I’ve ever visited. You couldn’t take five steps without inhaling a puff of someone’s second hand smoke. You would think as an island the wind would blow the smoke away, but given the close quarters of the street the wind can’t get in their so the smoke just hangs there for everyone to enjoy.
Public transportation costs a fortune. To take a regular bus boat one way is euro 6.50. Not exactly the most cost efficient way to get around. I’m sure that residents that use it regularly have some sort of monthly pass, but I would bet its extremely expensive as well.
Now the good stuff. St. Marks Basilica is truly amazing. Tons of domes, all done in Mosaics, with symbolism everywhere. They also had several impressive chapels inside done in marble with religious statues and paintings. My true “moment” was actually when we were leaving and a looked back into the church to try to take it in more on the whole. I just felt this really cool, sort of mystical power, thinking about that fact that the building has been around in some form or another since the first century. Truly amazing.
The Campanile, or bell tower in St. Marks Square, is the best way to view Venice. I tried to get a full panoramic of the city from the top to try to share with everyone. Be forewarned, though, that they don’t stop ringing the bells during the day, so check the time before you go to the top, like we didn’t, or you’ll have the bells ringing right over your head, like we did. Loud as all hell, it was still a pretty funny experience; I could feel the rings vibrating in my chest.
I had my first opera experience in Venice, which I think is sort of fitting. Although, I’m not wild about the type of singing, I try to be open to new experience so when Cris wanted to go I was game. The cool thing about the performance was that it was in three different rooms of a private residence. We watched three different scenes in three separate rooms. It was much funnier than I expected it to be, and Cris said it was very informal for an opera. The house was really neat as well, and has one of the best views down the Grand Canal to one of the more impressive churches in the city.
Best part of Venice, in my opinion, wasn’t technically Venice. One of the small islands on the North Lagun, named Burano, is really awesome and a must visit in my opinion. It’s a relatively small island, but it populated with a more arts and craftsy demographic. All of the houses are painted in veritable rainbow of pinks, greens, blues, and reds. It was also very clean and had a really nice breeze blowing through the town. I think if I were going to have to live in “Venice,” I would live on Burano.
I have to admit that when we were discussing the trip, Venice was the first place I was willing to skip if we needed to cut out a location. After making the visit I’m glad that we worked it in, even if it that is due to a few specific things we did there as opposed to the city in general.
First let me get a few negatives out of the way. More of an annoyance than anything, (and as we had been warned) the streets are incredibly difficult to navigate. The problem lies primarily in that they don’t have street names posted all the time, and the names of streets change constantly from block to block. In addition to them being extremely curvy, getting from place to place in the city is an adventure.
Venice might be the smokingest city I’ve ever visited. You couldn’t take five steps without inhaling a puff of someone’s second hand smoke. You would think as an island the wind would blow the smoke away, but given the close quarters of the street the wind can’t get in there so the smoke just hangs there for everyone to enjoy.
Public transportation costs a fortune. To take a regular bus boat one way is euro 6.50. Not exactly the most cost efficient way to get around. I’m sure that residents that use it regularly have some sort of monthly pass, but I would bet its extremely expensive as well.
Now the good stuff. St. Marks Basilica is truly amazing. Tons of domes, all done in Mosaics, with symbolism everywhere. They also had several impressive chapels inside done in marble with religious statues and paintings. My true “moment” was actually when we were leaving and a looked back into the church to try to take it in more on the whole. I just felt this really cool, sort of mystical power, thinking about that fact that the building has been around in some form or another since the first century. Truly amazing.
The Campanile, or bell tower in St. Marks Square, is the best way to view Venice. I tried to get a full panoramic of the city from the top to try to share with everyone. Be forewarned, though, that they don’t stop ringing the bells during the day, so check the time before you go to the top, like we didn’t, or you’ll have the bells ringing right over your head, like we did. Loud as all hell and I could feel the vibrations from the bell in my chest. I thought it was a pretty hilarious experience and made for a good story to tell after the fact.
I had my first opera experience in Venice, which I think is sort of fitting. Although, I’m not wild about the type of singing, I try to be open to new experiences like that so when Cris wanted to go I was game. The cool thing about the performance was that it was in three different rooms of a private residence. We watched three different scenes in three separate rooms. It was much funnier than I expected it to be, and Cris said it was very informal for an opera. The house was really neat as well, and has one of the best views down the Grand Canal to one of the more impressive churches in the city.
Best part of Venice, in my opinion, wasn’t technically Venice. One of the small islands on the North Lagun, named Burano, is really awesome and a must visit in my opinion. It’s a relatively small island, but it populated with a more artsy demographic. All of the houses are painted in veritable rainbow of pinks, greens, blues, and reds. It was also very clean and had a really nice breeze blowing through the town. I think if I were going to have to live in “Venice,” I would live on Burano.
The last bit I’ve been catching hell for and I’m sure I’m going to get some more, but I’m telling the story anyway. Although I really love Italian food, I needed a little bit of a break from cheese. So as we were walking around looking for a restaurant for dinner we ended up in a Chinese restaurant. Yeah, I had Chinese in Italy. I don’t care what you say, I needed a little change up. Anyway, I tell this story because it struck me as very funny that the Chinese waitress in Italy spoke and understood English much better than any Chinese waitress I’ve ever had here. That’s just not right.
On the whole the time in Venice was pretty good. I’m really glad that we went and saw the things that we saw. It was definitely worth the experience, but I have to be honest and say that I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. When I think back on Italy, I would go back to rural Italy in less than a heartbeat, but I’ll have to think twice about going back to the Italian cities.
And we’re off to Switzerland.
Tuscany to Venice
Tuscany to Venice
Our time in Tuscany coming to an end (sad face), we made the drive from where we were staying in Radda in Chianti to Venice. The first several days of driving through Italy weren’t completely terrible, but I was definitely ready to be done with the car. I’d had enough of driving windy roads through mountains.
You don’t need a blow by blow of our drive, so here are a few little tidbits that I found interesting.
Driving on small country roads in the mountains requires constant concentration and gets very tedious after a while. Driving on a freeway in the Italian mountains requires a completely different kind of concentration. It’s the kind that requires you to concentrate on the bends in the road while simultaneously not getting killed by the trucks that are required to go slower in the right lane and the BMW and Mercedes drivers in the left lane who take the speed limit as only a suggestion.
While we’re on the topic, the idea of a speed limit in Italy is funny. Even on the craziest curvy roads Italians were going well beyond the posted speed suggestion. You could always tell when there was a non-Italian tourist driving because we were the ones with the trail of cars backed up behind us. Thankfully, passing zones were only a suggestion as well, because I got passed all the time, even in the middle of turns.
Despite the inherent insanity in most Italian drivers, they surprised me as incredibly courteous whenever I needed to get over in their lane. They would often slow down to let me over; something unheard of on American roads.
Best rest stop food I ever had was in Italy. Yeah, that doesn’t really sound like much, but the sandwiches we had at the Jersey Turnpike-like fuel and food stop were better than sandwiches you would get at many delis in the US.
Well, my driving adventure in Italy is completed., for now. I say for now because I would go back to Tuscany in a heartbeat. Absolutely loved it. I definitely think their could be an anniversary trip to Tuscany in our future one day. I hope someone has a merit badge or an “I survived driving in Italy” t-shirt waiting for me back home.
Our time in Tuscany coming to an end (sad face), we made the drive from where we were staying in Radda in Chianti to Venice. The first several days of driving through Italy weren’t completely terrible, but I was definitely ready to be done with the car. I’d had enough of driving windy roads through mountains with crazy Italian drivers.
You don’t need a blow by blow of our drive, so here are a few little tidbits that I found interesting about driving on Italian freeways and in Italy in general.
Driving on small country roads in the mountains requires constant concentration and gets very tedious after a while. Driving on a freeway in the Italian mountains requires a completely different kind of concentration. It’s the kind that requires you to concentrate on the bends in the road while simultaneously not getting killed by the trucks that are required to go slower in the right lane and the BMW and Mercedes drivers in the left lane who take the speed limit as only a suggestion.
While we’re on the topic, the idea of a speed limit in Italy is funny. Even on the craziest curvy roads Italians were going well beyond the posted speed suggestion. You could always tell when there was a non-Italian tourist driving because we were the ones with the trail of cars backed up behind us. Thankfully, passing zones were only a suggestion as well, because I got passed all the time, even in the middle of turns.
Despite the inherent insanity in most Italian drivers, they surprised me as incredibly courteous whenever I needed to get over in their lane. They would often slow down to let me over; something unheard of on American roads.
Best rest stop food I ever had was in Italy. Yeah, that doesn’t really sound like much, but the sandwiches we had at the Jersey Turnpike-like fuel and food stop were better than sandwiches you would get at many delis in the US.
Well, my driving adventure in Italy is completed, for now. I say for now because I would go back to Tuscany in a heartbeat. Absolutely loved it. I definitely think their could be an anniversary trip to Tuscany in our future one day. I hope someone has a merit badge or an “I survived driving in Italy” t-shirt waiting for me back home.
Siena
Those of you that know me well know that I’m already back home from the honeymoon. Even though I didn’t have Internets access all the time, I kept what essentially equates to a travel journal most nights when we got back to the hotel. So everyone can share in our experiences while in Italy and Switzerland I’m going to continue posting my thoughts from the end of each day. This is the first of the rest of those posts.
Today was a little more simple than our previous days. We headed down to one of the other more well known cities in Tuscany, Siena. I had heard very positive things about Siena from friends before our trip, but I really didn’t know what to expect.
Getting to Siena was pretty easy, but figuring out where the parking lots were was kind of a pain. In Italy, you can generally can get directed to parking lots by following the blue “P” signs. The only problem is that the signs don’t always differentiate between a large lot and street parking reserved for residents of the neighborhood. Let’s just say the situation resulted in an unexpected tour of less interesting parts of Siena.
Once we got the parking situation sorted out, we set out into the city. While the visit was really enjoyable, there wasn’t a ton to go into in detail so I’ll just hit on a couple of the more interesting points.
We started with a visit to the home of and church dedicated to one of the many St. Catherines, this one living in Siena. The church was pretty huge with some really interesting chapel areas, but the most noteworthy (and sort of creepy) thing was the fact that they had St. Catherine’s mummified head in the church. We weren’t able to find the English language literature behind the story, but there it was. And she’s still revered there, as there was, what I assume was a local, praying fervently to her.
One of the guide books we’ve been using is the “Top 10” series where they tell you the top 10 things overall and in certain categories about a region or city your visiting. A couple of the overall top 10s for the Tuscany region were the piazza and duomo in Siena and I now know why. The piazza is a pretty simple open area, but it’s the biggest in Tuscany, maybe Italy and it’s a fantastic place to go hang out. Lots of merchants and restaurants around the outside edge. There’s also a really nice fountain that sits on one side for more viewing interest. Generally, it would be a cool place to go grab a quick bite or some gelato and hang and out and people watch.
The Duomo may have ascended to the most impressive church that we’ve seen on this trip. Its humongous and there is so much to look at that you have a hard time taking it all in. Really ornate alters, an amazing ceiling, a very unique set of columns that support the roof that is striped with different colored marble stones, and a series of 59 artistic tiles adorning the floor. I don’t really think I could do a suitable job of explaining it in words so I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can get them in shape to be posted.
Overall, the visit to Siena was a really nice one. The city is really interesting to look at as you wander through the narrow streets. The other major drawback besides the difficulties of parking is that the city is extremely hilly so if you visit, wear good shoes and be ready for the up and down.
We had sort of a slow day today. A combination of a late start and earlier closing times on Sunday resulted in a less filled schedule. We headed down to one of the other more well known cities in Tuscany, Siena. I had heard very positive things about Siena from friends before our trip, but I really didn’t know what to expect.
Getting to Siena was pretty, but figuring out where the parking lots were was kind of a pain. In Italy, you can generally can get directed to parking lots by following the blue “P” signs. The only problem is that the signs don’t always differentiate between a large lot and street parking reserved for residents of the neighborhood.
Once we got the parking situation sorted out, we set out into the city. While the visit was really enjoyable, there wasn’t a ton to go into in detail so I’ll just hit on a couple of the more interesting points.
We started with a visit to the home of and church dedicated to one of the many St. Catherines, this one living in Siena. The church was pretty huge with some really interesting chapel areas, but the most noteworthy (and sort of creepy) thing about the visit to these locations was the fact that they had St. Catherine’s mummified head in the church. We weren’t able to find the English language literature behind the story, but there it was. And she’s still revered there, as there was, what I assume was a local, praying fervently to her.
One of the guide books we’ve been using is the “Top 10” series where they tell you the top 10 things overall and in certain categories about a region or city your visiting. A couple of the overall top 10s for the Tuscany region were the piazza and duomo in Siena and I now know why. The piazza is a pretty simple open area, but it’s the biggest in Tuscany, maybe Italy and it’s a fantastic place to go hang out. Lots of merchants and restaurants around the outside edge. There’s also a really nice fountain that sits on one side for more viewing interest. Generally, it would be a cool place to go grab a quick bite or some gelato and hang and out and people watch.
The Duomo may have ascended to the most impressive church that we’ve seen on this trip. Its humongous and there is so much to look at that you have a hard time taking it all in. Really ornate alters, an amazing ceiling, a very unique set of columns that support the roof that is striped with different colored marble stones, and a series of 59 artistic tiles adorning the floor. I don’t really think I could do a suitable job of explaining it in words so I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can get them in some shape to be posted.
Overall, the visit to Siena was a really nice one. The city is really interesting to look at as you wander through the narrow streets. The other major drawback besides the difficulties of parking is that the city is extremely hilly so if you visit, wear good shoes and be ready for the up and downWe had sort of a slow day today. A combination of a late start and earlier closing times on Sunday resulted in a less filled schedule. We headed down to one of the other more well known cities in Tuscany, Siena. I had heard very positive things about Siena from friends before our trip, but I really didn’t know what to expect.
Getting to Siena was pretty, but figuring out where the parking lots were was kind of a pain. In Italy, you can generally can get directed to parking lots by following the blue “P” signs. The only problem is that the signs don’t always differentiate between a large lot and street parking reserved for residents of the neighborhood.
Once we got the parking situation sorted out, we set out into the city. While the visit was really enjoyable, there wasn’t a ton to go into in detail so I’ll just hit on a couple of the more interesting points.
We started with a visit to the home of and church dedicated to one of the many St. Catherines, this one living in Siena. The church was pretty huge with some really interesting chapel areas, but the most noteworthy (and sort of creepy) thing about the visit to these locations was the fact that they had St. Catherine’s mummified head in the church. We weren’t able to find the English language literature behind the story, but there it was. And she’s still revered there, as there was, what I assume was a local, praying fervently to her.
One of the guide books we’ve been using is the “Top 10” series where they tell you the top 10 things overall and in certain categories about a region or city your visiting. A couple of the overall top 10s for the Tuscany region were the piazza and duomo in Siena and I now know why. The piazza is a pretty simple open area, but it’s the biggest in Tuscany, maybe Italy and it’s a fantastic place to go hang out. Lots of merchants and restaurants around the outside edge. There’s also a really nice fountain that sits on one side for more viewing interest. Generally, it would be a cool place to go grab a quick bite or some gelato and hang and out and people watch.
The Duomo may have ascended to the most impressive church that we’ve seen on this trip. Its humongous and there is so much to look at that you have a hard time taking it all in. Really ornate alters, an amazing ceiling, a very unique set of columns that support the roof that is striped with different colored marble stones, and a series of 59 artistic tiles adorning the floor. I don’t really think I could do a suitable job of explaining it in words so I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can get them in some shape to be posted.
Overall, the visit to Siena was a really nice one. The city is really interesting to look at as you wander through the narrow streets. The other major drawback besides the difficulties of parking is that the city is extremely hilly so if you visit, wear good shoes and be ready for the up and down.
Gaiole, Meleto and Brolio
Though the day didn’t turn out like we had anticipated, Cris and I agreed it was the best day of the trip so far. We set out looking for vineyards to tour and wines to taste. We ended up finding a bit more and a little less than we’d hoped.
First let me say that navigating the Tuscan countryside is not for the directionally challenged. Addresses aren’t exactly the easiest to come by for some of these sort of remote places and some maps are better than others.
So armed with two maps and a GPS we set off and promptly went in a directions we shouldn’t have gone in to try to find what we were looking for. We’re blaming that on the brochure that said the vineyard was in Gaiole when it wasn’t. So we drove to the town and found no winery, but we did find a local cycling race and a small wine shop that sold us a bottle of wine from the vineyard we were actually trying to find, but couldn’t. After watching the beginning of the bike race and buying some berries from a little produce stand in town we set off the find Castello Meleto.
We were told by the desk at our hotel that they give tours regularly on the weekends and that no reservation was needed. Shocker, women like to get married in old castles with amazing scenery as a backdrop. Little tip if you’re going to visit Meleto on a Saturday call ahead to see if anyone is getting married there that day. When we got they we were told the three o’clock tour we were planning to take was in doubt because they were dealing with a 200 person wedding. After sitting in their little shop for a while trying to plan our next move, much to our delight, the lady came back and told us they could squeeze us in for a very quick tour before they got really busy with the wedding.
The castle was small but interesting and had some beautiful artwork on the walls and ceilings. The most interesting aspect of the castle was that a theater was built into the complex which was really unusual for a medieval castle.
Beyond the building, they grounds and surrounding area were completely stunning. I will definitely post some pictures when we get back home, but if you had given me a glass of wine and a hammock, I may never have left. We also did a quick tasting of their wines and came away with a couple of bottles of their classic Chianti as part of the fee for the tour.
After leaving Meleto, we headed for a another castle not too far away for another tour and tasting. Castello Brolio has a couple claims to fame. It is the birthplace of classic chianti, and the count/owner of Brolio set the standards for the mix of grapes for chianti that is still used today. In my opinion, the most interesting fact about the castle is that since being purchased from an order of monks in the 1400s it has been with the same family, which still lives there today. Though the family still lives there, they allow self-guided tours around the walls, gardens, and family chapel. The chapel was small, but beautiful and had some incredible mosaics inside. The true highlight of Brolio was the view. The scenery from the walls of the castle may have been the most stunning I’ve seen. When I imagine Tuscany in my mind, the view from Brolio is what I pictured.
By the time we finished with the Brolio tour it was starting to get late in the day so we headed back towards our hotel. Earlier while at Meleto we figured out where the first vineyard we wanted to fine was and it happened to be on the way back to our home base, so we headed that direction. After a nice drive on Tuscany’s lovely winding roads, we came to the “driveway” for the vineyard. It was one of the unpaved roads we had been warned about by our hotel front desk. Imagine some of the most ridiculous climbs they make in the Tour de France and then make that road unpaved and rutted. The incline was ridiculous and it wound through a tiny, tiny hamlet on the side of a mountain. And then, when we get to the gate it was closed. And I don’t mean closed for the day closed. It looked like there was a chain on the gate that may not have been open for a little while. With nothing else to do, we precariously turned the car around and headed home.
Despite the small setback it was a really awesome day. We got to taste some great wine. We happened upon a few completely unexpected treasures. And we got to see some of the most amazing scenery I’ve ever come across. Exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when we decided to come to Italy.