Roses 1.0 Van Life

Savannah…

…a beautiful city, the second busiest port on the east coast, well worth a visit. Savannah is a success story. Thirty years ago it was run down, dirty and plagued by crime. Things slowly began to change. No one I spoke to seemed to know the exact reason but probably control of crime played a big role, the coming of SCAD (Savannah College of Arts and Design from its beginning in the ’70’s to 16,000 students now), some hit movies and historic preservation and tourism all combined to start the snow ball rolling down the hill leading to an avalanche of improvements. Today Savannah rivals Charleston for beauty, southern culture and tourism. Pretty much any random street in Savannah looks like this:

Live oaks, their tendency to horizontal spread creating an archway over the street complete with an adornment of Spanish moss.

We left home Sunday 11/2 at noon, made it to Dalton, Ga. From there to Skidaway State Park at 4:00 PM Monday. This is our campsite:

After checking in and setting up we took a 2 mile hike on a trail that went through slightly elevated woodlots alternating with boardwalk through salt/brackish water marshes. Tuesday was our Savannah day. It started with a tour on the Old Town Trolley:

Trolley seen passing the Basilica of St John the Baptist

The quality of the 1 1/2 hr. trolley tour depends greatly on the quality of the driver/guide. Ours, Big E as he calls himself, was wonderful. Funny and informative, we were lucky to get him. Since the trolleys are hop-on-hop-off, Peggy took a different one back and experienced another driver/guide. The guide can make a big difference. After the trolley tour we walked along River Street, had lunch at “Two Cracked Eggs”, then walked down Bull Street where Savannah history is on full display. Here pictured below is the center of southern commerce in the first half of the 19th century. This building on River Street was where nearly half of the world’s cotton was bought and sold.

From there we took a pleasant walk down Bull Street to a little beyond Forsyth Park, total about 2 miles. The restored historic houses are a treat to see, and there is a “park”, or public square every two or three blocks, each dedicated to an important historical figure from Savannah’s past. This synagogue pictured below, built around 1830, represents a jewish community established in the early 1700’s. Like the Jews of Newport Rhode Island the Savannah jews received a letter from George Washington but unlike the more famous RI letter in which Washington writes – the children of Abraham should enjoy “the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens” – the Savannah original is lost.

picture taken from the public square opposite the synagogue, it’s hard to get a picture in Savannah without live oaks being in the way

We stopped at The Sentient Bean for coffee and tea, Savannah loves coffee houses, then Peggy took a trolley back to the car, I walked a little farther on then walked back to the car. We ate at Cary Hilliard’s, a local chain, which has eat in car or order from a car-hop and carry out.

Wednesday we went to Tybee Island, Savannah’s beach. The beach was nice enough but we aren’t beach people, and they don’t allow dogs on the beach so we skipped it. Fort Pulaski national historic site was on our plans but it was closed due to the government shut down, we forgot, wasted a drive. Finished the day with an excellent meal at Sundae’s, a Guy Fieri rec.

Thursday started the day at Wormsloe. Founded by Noble Jones a member of the original 114 settlers brought to Savannah by Oglethorpe in 1733 to create a new colony which would serve as a buffer between Spanish Florida and South Carolina. Oglethorpe had investigated England’s debtor prisons and became very disillusioned by what he found. He obtained a charter from the king and brought mostly unemployed debtors to his new colony. The idealistic Oglethorpe banned slavery and alcohol, gave each colonist 50 acres and intended a kind of utopian community. Another 400 settlers, again mostly debtors, came in 1733 two years after the first group, but despite the eventual success of the new colony, Oglethorpe’s vision for it was a failure. Here is the image of Wormsloe everyone remembers. The over one mile long entrance to Wormsloe is lined by hundreds of live oaks planted in about 1891?. Each is 33 feet apart, and 66 feet opposite each other across the lane.

Wormsloe was originally 5,000 acres, direct descendants of Noble Jones still live on a portion of the original land, but most is now a state owned historic site. From Wormsloe we went to Bluffton, S.C., a small town on Hilton Head island, to their farmer’s market. Supper was back in Savannah at Erica’s Low Country, very good local food.

Friday we went to the Savannah botanical garden, quite small, essentially a project of the local garden club, then we ate lunch at Kayak Kafe, got cookies at Byrd’s Cookie Co., both local chains, and then hit the road.

One life bird, Clapper Rail, on the marsh trail at Skidaway park.

Gibbs’s Garden. Visiting this was always a part of our purpose on this trip. We have been to a lot of garden’s on our travels, Duke University’s was fantastic, and Montreal has a very nice one, but for shear beauty nothing tops Gibb’s Garden. Located in the north Georgia foothills of the Appalachians, the scenery is stunning.

This isn’t the usual ‘learn about plants’ garden, there were almost no identifying name plates. This garden is about landscape design. It is intended to have four season interest and I hope to see it again in each season. Notice the row of crepe myrtle and daylilies in the small right side photo, that would be spectacular in summer. Some of the hillsides have thousands of daffodils blooming in spring.

Lastly I want to mention Puckett’s Grocery in Murphreesboro Tn. where we ate supper Saturday evening. Good food, and a ‘rising star’ performs country music most nights, and every weekend night.

Montreal Day 3

Thursday 8/7/2025

Today’s schedule was a Steve and Peggy day. We picked Montreal’s botanical garden and insectarium. Both are fabulous, the latter is more out of the ordinary, after all lots of cities have botanical gardens. They are located on the same property literally in the shadow of the olympic stadium built for the 1976 games.

That’s the stadium tower looming over their heads, the biodome is on the left side. They are looking toward the botanical garden. The Botanical gardens are both inside in greenhouses, like the picture below, or outdoors. A variety of garden themes are present from herbs and vegetables to bromeliads. We had only scratched the surface in about 2.5 hrs when it was time to go to the insectarium (they assign times to prevent it from being mobbed with people).

The insectarium had numerous displays like these three…….

The butterfly displays were arranged mostly by color, the number and diversity of beetles is other-worldly.

The grand finale of the insectarium was the butterfly room. One of the best we have seen it was filled with a variety of mostly tropical butterflies. After a nice lunch at the gardens we went back to regroup before supper at Pub Wolf and Watchman, very good food, and they allowed dogs. And then we walked around observing the considerable night life going on in the downtown port of Montreal area.

We came across these two opposing statues in the square representing British snobbery and French aloofness. Here they are, taken at night….

With their noses in the air so they can look down on Notre Dame cathedral in the case of the Englishman, and an important English bank in the case of the French woman, neither is aware the dog they hold are bonkers each for the other. She holds a poodle, he a bulldog. Kevin and Jackie doing their best poses beneath.

Montreal day 2

Tuesday 8/5/2025 was a travel day, after dropping K & J off at Holiday Inn Centerville we had a devil of a time getting parked and into our vrbo. I finally decided to take the car top carrier off and carry it into the room. That way we could use the building’s underground parking. K & J had a spa day and date night at a local eatery. We walked to an Irish pub and ate on their patio. Today, Wednesday the main activity was a tour of Habitat 67, as in 1967. Built for the world’s fair, it is one of the few structures still standing from that fair. Concrete slabs were fabricated on site and lifted into place to form cubes, each about 600 sq. ft. The idea was to create a community in which people would live their entire lives, one cube accommodates a single adult, two a married couple, 3 or 4 for a family, back down to two when the kids move out, then one…..and so on. Built on an island across the St Lawrence from Montreal it does have some stunning views. Below is Peggy approaching Habitat 67.

A “picture window” view at street level from inside central courtyard, standing under a cube.

It feels like a jumbled maze of concrete inside. This picture is from the second floor looking up and across to other units.

A picture from the top of one unit looking across to another jenga like cluster of cubes.

It does have some great views.

Inside the units does feel private and quiet. The affordable housing community idea never worked. The units are privately owned now, sell in the millions, $4,800/mo fee in addition to whatever the mortgage is. Only the super rich live there now.

Below is the biosphere designed by Buckminster Fuller, like habitat 67 it was a structure created for the ’67 worlds fair. Lunch was a picnic in the park where the Biosphere is located.

Afternoon was spent walking in old Montreal and visiting the History of Montreal museum. Evening meal at L’original.

Whales !!!

Monday 8/4 was our day to see whales. It was a 2hr 40min drive to Baie-Saint-Catherine, where the Sagueney river flows into the St Lawrence. With Tim Horton’s coffee and a few pastries from Cruquembouche (Peggy’s new favorite place in the whole wide world) we made the drive with plenty of time to find an ideal spot to park leaving our dog in the shade (it was 65 degrees outside) and still be early for boarding. We had been told by our guide the day before not to expect much but things looked promising when Jackie spotted a seal while we were still waiting to board. We hadn’t been on the boat more than two minutes when we spotted beluga whales. The population of belugas in the St Lawrence is not migratory, only about 2,000 remain here. They were easy to see, the adults being all white, but the boat isn’t allowed close to them. In a few more minutes we saw our first non-beluga, a Minke whale. This one was about 30 feet long. Hard to photograph, they suddenly appear, spout or splash then dive again….

Minke whale, briefly surfaced. The splash he made was as impressive as the whale.

No pics of belugas. Although fairly easy to see they look don’t show up well in pics taken from 2 – 300 yards. We thought we had 3rd class seats but when the attendant saw our tickets he called for back up. Someone came and escorted us to the top deck.???

While the top deck was great with 360 degree views and looking down on the whales, the lower decks were nice to escape the constant wind and cool temps.

Going up the Sagueney river, they call it a fiord., and eating our box lunch. We had the best looks at beluga whales here.

The cruise was 3 hours, about the right amount of time. We stopped at Montmorency falls on the way back. Much higher than Niagra falls its obviously not as wide. An early location for hydroelectric power (late 1800’s) it no long has a turbine.

On the boardwalk to the falls observation deck. Notice the wooden stairway that climbs the rock beside the falls. We climbed to the bottom roofed platform..

We climbed part way up the staircase to an observation platform.

The walk makes a circle and takes you to the top of the plateau where you can walk over the river, see the footbridge above the falls.

Ate at a ramen place near our hotel later that night back in Quebec city. Breakfast again at Peggy’s favorite place in the whole wide world, then packed, picked K & J up at the Clarendon and headed for Montreal. Ate lunch at the place pictured below, truly local, basically they only sold poutine to diners, they also sold cheeses for take out but all we saw people buy were very large bags of cheese curd, ?to make poutine at home? …..

Drove on to Montreal where I took the car top carrier off and put it in our hotel room so we could use the free parking beneath our hotel.

Quebec !!!

We started this trip in Quebec city. Kevin and Jackie were to meet us Saturday 8/2/2025 at the airport then to Chez Victor, a small restaurant chain specializing in Quebec style foods, burgers and poutine. But that wasn’t to be as there were intense thunderstorms in the area. They were forced to land in Montreal, finally arrived a little after 10PM. A&W was their first meal.

Kevin and Jackie stayed in Hotel Clarendon, in old Quebec, it’s located about 2 blocks from the most photographed hotel in the world, the Fairmont. We stayed at the dog friendly Hotel Pur.

The Fairmont, picture taken from the citadel of Quebec. This hotel is massive, is the center point of old Quebec. Built in the late 1800’s the tower was added in the 1920’s. When transcontinental travel was by rail, this was an important stop. Dufferin’s walk is between the hotel and the cliff edge. Buskers are always on the walk, an outdoor performance is going all weekend between the Fairmont and the walkway. The St Lawrence seaway is on the right horizon, there are great views of it all along the walkway.

Sunday morning started with a guided tour of old Quebec. Our guide, Diane, is enthusiastic about Quebec city. We started near the St Lawrence river, and slowly made our way up hill. Here is our guide in the left picture, Fairmont hovering over, 96 umbrellas suspended in the background.

Our guide, umbrellas immediately above, the Fairmont high above, a typical post card scene.

The streets were filled with art; gallery’s, murals on the buildings, displays and finally the profusion of flowers in bloom are art as well. Here is a mural from 2022 depicting scenes from Quebec history:

Top to bottom the four seasons are depicted. Joliet, explorer of the upper Mississippi river is in the lower left.

A closer look shows de Champlain who founded Quebec City thus creating New France in 1608 just above Kevin’s left shoulder. Lord Dufferin, governor of Canada in the late 1800’s and savior of Quebec’s walls on the far right. In 1874 the city’s business leaders and elected officials decided the walls were no longer needed and were ‘in the way’ of Quebec’s expansion but Dufferin argued against and prevailed. He is celebrated in Quebec City today for that, as well as his general good governance of Canada. The walkway along the cliff overlooking the St Lawrence is named for him.

Flowers are every where, in large pots, in window boxes or in beds like this one:

We could have placed ourselves better inside the frame, composition is lacking, but another opportunity for a postcard-like picture.

The city tour made its way gradually upwards until it was time to climb the breakneck stairs, so named because in their earlier days the wood was often rotten or slippery. Totally replaced since then, the wood is sound now, but the name persists. We climbed them several times but on the tour we took the funicular up.

After the old city tour, K&J and Peggy walked through several shopping areas while I walked around the walls, saw the plains of Abraham where the British won the battle that ended New France and made the territory that would be Canada part of the British empire.

One of three gates through the city walls, cars backed up coming out of the city

picture taken from atop the wall enclosing old Quebec City

The walls, and gates, make this the oldest walled city in North America north of Mexico.

Lunch was at Nouvelle France, evening meal at La Lapin Saute, the latter specializing in duck and rabbit (lapin french for rabbit). Here’s a picture of the former, where we ate poutine, Sammy happily ensconced under the table

Whale watching in Tadoussac and Montmorency Falls on Monday.

Last of Greece

Monday AM July 6 we slept in (’til 8:30), had breakfast at the coffee house next door and then made our way to the ferry that goes to the island of Poros. Left the rental car in a parking lot. The ferry was a short ride, easy on and off, the only glitch was getting a cab to our hotel about 1.5 miles from the town of Poros. Here’s the view of the town of Poros from our room, day and night:

The hotel’s small beach was nice enough, if you could ignore the techno-pop music blaring. Apple EarPods with noise cancellation helped me. Noel and Peggy like being in the water:

first day poros swimming, Noel and Peggy waving

We walked to town on the road, had to climb the hill to find the restaurant Peggy picked out but we knew it would be good, near the top of the hill in the Poros picture, it had lots of patrons and the only way to get there was to walk. It was great and the people were very friendly. We took pictures from the clock tower that stands above the city while we were finding the restaurant. Here’s the view:

Noel on the porch of Garden Taverna, in Poros

We bought pastries to go at a bakery before getting a cab back to the hotel, played cards (hearts) until almost midnight. Our last day was spent at Love Bay, about a half mile walk from the hotel, going away from town. Popular with locals and Greek tourists, we relaxed, swam, ate lunch and eventually walked back to the hotel where we caught a cab back to the ferry. Love Bay had fish that peck at your feet. It only happened a time or two but it was enough to be a worry to Peggy and Noel. Some Love Bay pics:

Love Bay beach Noel swimming, from above (street level)

Almost a 3 hour drive back to Athens, stopped at a restaurant in Corinth for supper and are now comfortably ensconced in our hotel, the long return trip starts tomorrow.

July 4, 2025

This was to be an open day, free to explore. After the excellent hotel breakfast we walked to a small church, The Holy Church of St Nicholas Rangavas. There was a tour group inside, we had to wait until they left. The art work and ornate decorations were worth seeing. The tour guide said during the nearly 400 year long Ottoman occupation of Greece churches were not allowed to ring or even possess church bells but this church has a bell from long before the occupation, having hidden it in the basement. Next we walked the antiflotika neighborhood where homes were built to mimic the brightly colored homes on the Greek islands, specifically the cyclades. This picture is from that neighborhood. It’s possible to get the acropolis in just about every picture.

We walked to the “sort of famous” Mniskleous Stairs, where eateries are on both sides of its considerable length and people sit on the stairs on either side.

Despite the heat we continued to walk. We passed the Roman agora, the ancient Greek agora, and eventually reached the Museum of Illusions. It was the highlight of the day. The two corners of the room are equidistant from the camera

This is a cushion I’m sitting on, the long upright post is 3 or 4 feet in front of me, the two shorter posts are 6 to 8 feet in front.

Lunch at L’ amiral and gelato at Mona Lisa, then to Church of Dimitrius Lombardiaris, closed and locked. Here it is:

On a side of the acropolis hill, it survived an artillery attack, thus the name Lambardiaris (bomber). I was interested to see the Church of St Dionysius built on the site where Paul preached the Aeropagus sermon (Acts 17:16) but it was also closed. In Rome and Florence every church was open, here almost none. We went to the National Gardens again, really a park. Found the tortoises we had heard about. Finally ate at Messi. So far lots of moussaka, souvlaki and Greek salads.

July 5, Saturday

The rental car was delivered to us at the hotel, as promised. But the drive outside of Athens was little more than 8 blocks from the hotel when the “driver” wanted to be dropped off at a bus stop, “just drive straight” he said. We eventually found our way to Corinth to see the canal and a bonus, bungee jumpers.

Straight and deep, that’s the Aegean at the top of the picture, the gulf of Corinth is the other end of the canal. That connects to the adriatic. The bungee jumpers had to wait for the boat to pass, that’s how far down they go. Next stop Mycenae, an outpost of the Minoan civilization. The ruins are another acropolis. Peggy really wanted to see the beehive tombs, we eventually found a few. This one is according to legend the tomb of Clytemnestra, sister of Helen of Troy.

And of course the Lion’s Gate, the entrance to the hill city of Mycenae. Two lions are facing each other on top of the lentil.

This civilization predates the Greek golden age, Socrates, Aristotle, Pericles, by about a thousand years, roughly 1,500 BC to 1,300 BC. The Trojan war probably occurred during that time frame and stories handed down from it became the Iliad and the Odyssey. Next stop on our tour of the peloponnese peninsula was Nafplio, an important port in the middle ages it became a colony of Venice, then of the Ottoman Empire and was briefly the capital of Greece in the early 1800’s. Here’s Syntagma (constitution) square with an abandoned mosque on the left side and the walled, fortified portion of the city above.

Syntagma square Nafplio. Abandoned Mosque from the Ottoman era on left, walled fortress above.

We didn’t have time to visit the theater at Epiduras, finally made it to Galeta around 6:30 PM. The evening meal was at Babis, a truly local “Greek” place, no English being spoken here, although they tell me Babi was speaking it, I couldn’t tell. Here we are with Babi, the ferry we will take tomorrow is in the background.

Athens

The flight here was uneventful, I think of it as “that which must be endured”. Sleeping in a sitting position is a skill I haven’t mastered. We got between two and four hours of sleep. Took a cab to hotel, The InnAthens, pronounced the inn in Athens but spelled as one word, our room was ready so after lunch at “The Victory” cafe we came back and slept until 4:30 PM Athens time, then walked to the Acropolis museum. The Acropolis of Athens (most cities in Greece have an acropolis) is the third highest hill in Athens. Unlike the other two it has a flat top suitable for building. Its structures include the parthenon, the erechtheum, the theater of Dionysius and other smaller structures. The museum, located near the base of the hill holds many of the artifacts or fragments that remain. We took the self guided tour using our phones, my separate ear pods worked well, one in my right ear, the other in Noel’s left ear. We arrived at five, left at 7:15, not enough time but ok. Pictures were not allowed inside the Acropolis museum but I took one before I realized that, a dog sculpted 2,500 years ago. It is in a pointing position, one much like our Sammy would take:

After the museum we walked to a hotel with a rooftop view of the parthenon, after an elevator fail (the elevator door opened to what looked like a steel wall and I didn’t know to give it a good hard push) we had a nice leisurely meal:

End of first day, at the Acropolis select hotel. Parthenon in the background

Thursday began with an excellent breakfast buffet at the InnAthens then a short walk to Hadrian’s Arch to meet our tour guide, Marika:

Marika in front of the ancient agora, acropolis over her left shoulder

Hadrian’s Gate or aka Arch, the symbolic entrance to the new city built by Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD

From there we walked to the Acropolis. Despite winning the war(s) with the Persians the structures on the Acropolis were destroyed by the invaders. It was Pericles who led the effort to rebuild in the 5th century BC. Much of the subsequent destruction was due to neglect, Christians felt indifferent to or actually embarrassed by the pagan worship, or to war, with the Ottoman empire, WWI etc. This restored theater located about halfway up the hill is still used:

Built second century AD odian heroditus theatre, Pavarotti, Mariah Callas and others have performed here

This much larger one, theater of Dionysius, is no longer in use. It could seat 17,000. The wall surrounding the acropolis is in the background.

On the acropolis itself was very windy, and the views of Athens were super. There are three notable structures on top, the parthenon, the Erechtheon (sometimes spelled Erecktheon) and the entrance gate, the Propylaia. Here are some pics:

Erechtheon, parthenon is behind the photographer

Athens as seen from the acropolis, 360 degrees of this view. A big sprawl with no skyscrapers

We walked back down the acropolis hill to the temple of Haephestus, then the ruins of the ancient agora, the latter are in the picture with our guide. We walked though the very crowded contemporary agora, the monastiraki, full of restaurants and souvenir shops. Very unlike Rome where every other store seemed to be a designer outlet. This place left the biggest impression, Peggy insisted I put it in the blog. It had pillow sized pastel-colored mounds of gelato and this display of gelato popsicles:

Mona Lisa gelataria. I think this is one store in a chain of gelatarias in Europe

Had lunch at Ydria then returned to the hotel for a nap before walking through the national gardens, basically a park, where we saw Monk parakeets, and heard Rose-ringed parakeets, both introduced species foreign to Athens. We then watched the changing of the guard, a Monty-Pythonesque display reminiscent of the ministry of silly walks (sorry but can’t help it) at the parliament building’s tomb of the unknown and finally ate at this place, pictured below on right:

Venice

BYOB*

We had no trouble getting the train from Florence to Venice. Most europeans know at least some English but we didn’t need any help, the arrivals/departure boards were easy to understand. Getting to the hotel from the train station was another matter. There are no taxi cabs, in fact there are no cars, there aren’t even streets just sidewalks. We walked to a lunch place, originally we were going to get a water taxi but finally decided to hoof it the whole way, just under 30 minute walk. Many of the sidewalks are narrow and the near universal cafe tables outside in Rome and Florence become a bit of an uncommon site here as there often isn’t room. We feared the water would be brown and littered but that is not the case at all. The water is clean and blue/green with nothing but sea-air smell. Here are some pictures to get a flavor of Venice.

Gondolas seem suited for this, although you do see them plying the waters of the grand canal

The grand canal, only a few foot bridges over it but 100’s over the smaller side canals

We spent most of Wednesday, our only full day in Venice, in water buses. It was difficult, gondolas and even water taxis are too expensive so take the buses. But it is confusing. Buy an all day or multiday ticket from a machine, study the lines on the posted schedule outside each stop but don’t expect to understand them. Figure out what stop you are at and what stop you want to go to then look at the list of stops on the side of the boat. If your stop is there get on. Pay attention to the line you are on, most are numbers, some are letters. You’ll get comfortable with it after a few trips. One last thing on boats, forget the Traghettos, small boat ferries that supposedly take you across the grand canal for a small fee, there NEVER was a boat at a Traghetto, never. As for walking it’s navigating a labyrinth. The sidewalks vary but are often so narrow two people can barely walk abreast and they rarely go straight because there is always a side canal to find a foot bridge over. There’s a picture of a typical sidewalk above, not all are that narrow but many are.

Basilio Santissimo Redentore, on Isla Giudecca (Jewish island), across from the main island

The only tour we took was St Mark’s Basilica at night. Built in 1097 after the first church burned down, it is a marvel. Old testament scenes are around the narthex, new testament scenes decorate the nave and alter, finishing of course with Christ’s resurrection. The ceiling frescoes are gold, 400 sq meters of hammered gold leaf cut to fit into intricately drawn images. Here’s the ceiling:

There are three domes, father son and holy spirit. This is the central dome, Christ.

The detail throughout is spectacular. This is one of two 12 ft tall alabaster columns carved with biblical themes. This is Judas hanging himself (why isn’t it white, it’s 1,000 yr old):

The floor is undulating, and cracked. The church like all of Venice is built on marshy islands in what was an estuary lagoon. That helped fend off invasions, mostly barbarians from the north who were fierce on foot but not so great in boats. Wooden pillars were driven into the mud to support the buildings. Over time the buildings have sunk, and large very heavy buildings like this church haven’t sunk evenly. The solid marble slabs in the picture above right crack more than the tiles, both sink and undulate. One last picture, the Bridge of Sighs. Made of limestone it connects the Doge’s palace to the prison. If convicted in court, which was in the palace, the condemned man was marched across this enclosed bridge to the adjacent prison. St Mary di Salute can be seen across the grand canal as well as a foot bridge over a side canal with a gondola crossing beneath.

Our guide in St Marks said the gold and jeweled screen behind the altar was built by Turks in 1104 in Byzantium. Byzantium was Greek in 1104, it wasn’t until 1453 that the Turks conquered and colonized it. This historical inaccuracy bothered me but Peggy insisted I keep quiet about it, was she right?

We had several good meals here. I plan to do a general Italy post on the flight home tomorrow.

* BYOB in Venice stands for Bring Your Own Boots. Flooding is a regular event here December to February.

Florence Y’all*

Florence is nothing like I expected. And it’s hard to describe. Imagine the French Quarter of New Orleans but more than 50 times bigger, with buildings 6 stories instead of 2, and without the debauchery and your close. The city is ancient, many of the buildings date to the middle ages, most of the streets are alleys, a modest sedan can get through but an SUV struggles to fit. There are few green spaces but lots of squares, or piazzas, and there are lots of people out walking, and it doesn’t seem to slow down at night. There are no high rises, no malls, just small shops, many of them specializing in designer goods. Two of the most famous, and best, museums in the world are here, the Ufizzi and L’academia, open 6 days a week but closed on Mondays. This is Monday. We made the best of it by going to three churches/cathedrals, each spectacular in its own way, two are essentially art museums, the third had a separate museum attached. First a few pics to illustrate what Florence is like:

Three typical streets in Florence, basically alleys

Our hotel pictured above, just a door with a small sign to its right with Hotel La Casa di Morfeo on it. You get buzzed in to find an empty stone hall and a stone staircase in the opposite corner. On the second floor you can find another door with a smaller hotel sign. Once again hit the buzzer and the door opens onto a front desk and people. There are about 10 rooms on the second floor, that’s the hotel.

Statues abound in Florence. A replica of Michaelangelo’s David is in the Piazza Signoria, a giant Neptune spouts water from various orifices nearby and a statue of Dante sits outside the Basilica Santa Maria di Croce. That latter was our first church today. Inside are the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Rossini. Tomb-like monuments are present honoring others, such as Dante, Da Vinci, Fermi and Marconi and others.

Michealangelo’s tomb left, Galileo’s right. This church had a few Donatello sculptures in it.

Next we went to the main Basilica of Florence about half a mile away, The Duomo with its bell tower and baptistry next door. The three are each stunning to see:

The marble is naturally white, pink and green as taken from each different quarry

Peggy says “I ain’t climbing that”, and thus we decided not to.

And inside the Basilica:

The Duomo has so much art a separate museum was created for it. That museum held a dozen or so sculptures by Donatello, one by Da Vinci and the 4 ton brass door to the baptistry. A replica is in place, this is the actual door. We had fun trying to recognize the scenes from the old testament. Can you get any (hint, David and Goliath is the lower left)

Bronze doors to the Duomo baptistery , they weigh 4 tons

This was the most moving piece in the Duomo museum, it’s called “The Penitent Mary Magdalene”, by Donatello carved in wood, legend has it she became an itinerant hermit after Jesus death, this is how Donatello imagined her:

Mary Magdalene the penitent in wood by Donatello

There’s so much more but I will close with Ponte Vecchio. A pedestrian bridge over the Arno. Shops line the bridge on both sides, mostly highly expensive designer stuff, and there is a gap in the middle through which the first picture is taken.

We also went to Basilica San Lorenzo which had several stunning works of art, the two pulpits designed by Donatello were the most impressive (the guy was prolific). Also Peggy discovered it is possible to have a bad meal in Italy, more on that later. Train to Venice in AM.

* readers who have traveled I 71 to Cincinnati will get it