Author: Sheryl

Before I get going on this post, if you don’t know of, or much about, the Camino de Santiago, I’m going to refer you to this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago – it explains what the Camino is, and why people make this walk, much better than I can.

For many years I have had the thought that I would like to walk part (honestly, no desire to walk all – all being from Mont St Michel in France, to me at least) of the Camino. Not necessarily from a faith based reason, more just because it sounds like an amazing thing to do. As with most things, it’s the history that fascinates me. So, when the Husband mentioned that Santiago de Compostela was only a 2.5 hour drive from Porto I got rather excited. No, it wasn’t walking, but to actually go to Santiago – well, that’s pretty cool! Plus, it was finally getting to go to Spain. Another country checked on the Places Been app!! Another UNESCO site checked off!

Off we went, in our rented Fiat 500. First stop Guimaraes, Portugal. Why? It had a castle, of course. Not just any castle though. In 1128 this castle was integral to the establishment of Portugal as an independent country. And, as European travelers have come to expect from historical landmarks, the castle was undergoing extensive restoration. Sigh. We only had a couple of hours to spend in Guimaraes, which was really too bad as it is a beautiful little town.

We continued our journey north into the Galicia region of Spain. One of the cities we drove through, Vigo, looks amazing! We noted this as a possible future stop. It is located on a – for lack of a better word, fjord – and is absolutely beautiful. I’m not certain exactly what I expected Spain to look like, but we were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful countryside. As we came into Santiago we could see the cathedral looming above everything else – what a sight it was! Naturally, the medieval part of town was absolutely crawling with pilgrims who had completed their Camino, as well as other tourists.

The cathedral was very beautiful, and rather unique. The exterior that you see is from the 15th century, built to protect the incredible 11th century portico that is preserved inside. I wish we could have taken photos of that portico – stunningly beautiful. There has been a church on this site since the 800s, when Santiago was declared a pilgrimage site. The amount of preservation of the very old (800-1100s) inside that structure made me very happy. Again, no photos allowed! Sigh. We did get to do an amazing tour…I’ll get to that in a sec. Back to the people who have walked the Camino – some who have walked for a month or more – seeing the faces of those arriving in the plaza in front of the cathedral, the sound of bag pipes welcoming them (Galicia is Celtic – did you know that?), the sense of joy and elation – we couldn’t help but smile (as we frantically raced to our tour appointment).

I love finding unique things to do in the cities that we visit. The activities often involve climbing a tower. One (Duomo in Florence) involved walking around the edge of the roof – very cool. I don’t think I will ever find an activity to top (hahaha) what we did in Santiago…we walked ON the roof of the cathedral. Not just around the edges, but up and over the top. It was amazing and somewhat terrifying! I am not normally bothered by heights, but I am a bit of a klutz, so I didn’t wander around too much – I just stood at the very top and took it in. The Husband was all over the place – but, he is half mountain goat.

Before I move on to day two of the trip, there are a couple of bits that I should share. One: the Fiat we started our trip with is not the Fiat we ended our trip with. When we got into the car Monday morning to head back to Porto we were greeted with an assortment of dash lights being on.

When we first arrived in Santiago we weren’t certain where our hotel would want us to park, so we headed for a lot right near the hotel. There was a young man directing people to available parking slots. He took one look at our little Fiat 500 and directed us to a spot – the Husband said no way was he going to be able to park there! Between me and the young man guiding him he did it!! Without hitting either vehicle in front or behind!! He says never again.

Day two of the trip was a tour of the coast of Galicia, part of which is called the Costa da Morte, or Coast of Death. Crazy, treacherously beautiful coastline! I can honestly say that this was the first, and last, big bus tour we intend to take. Van tours, yes. Small groups, yep. But not a big bus again. Certain people, ahem, deal with motion sickness.

You know, the funny thing is, we saw some really beautiful places on that tour. Most were nature focused, as one would expect from a tour of a coast, but I think my favorite place we went was to see a little bridge.

Where are we? I’ll get to that in moment. How did we get here? Through London, of course. More accurately, through Heathrow – the airport we have this love/hate relationship with. Okay, I don’t mind most things about Heathrow – it’s their security that hates me. Kudos to them for being so very…very…very…thorough…as I should have an award for most consistently being pulled over into the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad queue and have every item examined. Sigh. Usually it’s my liquids that are never right – I will be interested to see how I fare once the UK (Heathrow in particular) does away with the liquids restriction next year. We spent the night at the Doubletree at Heathrow (thank you daughterly unit, for the Hilton discounts!) as yours truly still fights motion sickness, before continuing on to…Porto, Portugal.

Once Heathrow security deemed me acceptable (while the Husband waited patiently per the norm) – they didn’t lose my shoe this time! – we joined the A gate chaos and were finally on our way to Porto.

We are delighted with our apartment – although a small part of us questions if we should have stayed in Porto proper, rather than Gaia across the river. The ease of living over here is nice though, plus we got one month unlimited passes for the Metro (not cheap but worth it), so we can easily cross over to Porto.

We have already taken a historical walking tour and a Porto food/wine tour. While both were outstanding and highly enjoyable, our food and wine tour through Taste Porto was, hands down, the most hilarious afternoon we have spent in a long time. Our guide, Miguel, was wonderful and the group of people we were with were hilarious!

Other than the tours we have just done a lot of walking around town. One place we have come across but not tried yet is a Mexican restaurant that looks to be pretty authentically Mexican – pretty excited about that! We have tried a few traditional Portuguese foods, including the famous pastel da nata (this was as good as I anticipated it being). Some we have liked more than others.

One place we visited right after arriving was the Porto Cathedral and the Bishop’s palace. Both were beautiful and we very much appreciated that the cathedral had not been overly baroqued! Construction began in the mid – 1100s, but seeing as this was my first exposure to medieval Iberian Peninsula, I wasn’t entirely certain of what to expect. The main body of the church was original stone (which I appreciated), with only the altar being of baroque style (think Palace of Versailles in Paris – if a little gold is good A LOT must be better). The bishop’s palace was surprisingly restrained. We loved the main staircase!

Some scenes from around Porto:

Venice. Wow…just, wow. I expected to like the place, but I really, really liked it! The fact that we were there in late March probably assisted in the enjoyment – no mosquitoes, no heat, no humidity and manageable crowds. We had four days there, but you could easily spend a week or two to really explore. If you don’t go broke that is. Venice is not cheap.

Let’s start with the most important piece: gelato. Duh! Did you think I meant art or architecture? Which are definitely cool, and I will get to those. However, there are priorities here. Some rules of thumb for gelato: if the gelato is piled high in the tub – skip that place. Gelato is too soft to be kept that way so piled high means it has preservatives or other yucky stuff in it. If the gelato is vividly colored it’s a no. Gelato should be the colors of nature – pistachios are not luridly green, they are kind of a muddy brownish green, right? The busiest shops might have the gelato in pans and that’s okay, but most artisanal gelato is in closed cans. Did I mention I am a gelato snob? Yeah…which means I get to try a lot of gelato! Our definite favorite in Venice was Gelato Suso. The flavors!! The line at this shop is often long, but does move fast.

Oh yeah…sites of Venice (get gelato out of my head now!)!!! When I thought of Venice and the canals, I didn’t fully appreciate just how many canals there are. Five steps, up and over a canal. Five more steps, up and over a canal. Some canals were very busy, some were incredibly peaceful. The Grand Canal is like a crazy freeway without lanes, but somehow it all works. And riding the vaparetto is a truly Venetian experience – it’s the city bus – and it pays zero attention to how many people are crammed onto it! Again, somehow it all works. And as touristy as a gondola ride is, it is a must! We lucked out as it was our gondolier’s final trip of the day and where we were eventually headed was the direction he wanted to go. So we got an extra long, very leisurely ride through the quietest of the canals. Dreamy.

During our time in Venice we did three different tours – each was very different from the others. The first night we did an after-dark Dark Legends and Ghosts tour, a perfect mix of storytelling and sights. The following morning we took an electric boat tour – this was probably our favorite of the three tours! We were the only passengers and our captain/guide was a wonderful man who gave us the perfect balance of story telling and just letting us absorb the beauty of Venice. Our final tour was right before we left and focused on architecture from a historical perspective. It was pretty fabulous to learn how fresh water was obtained and stored! And…Venice still sends raw sewage out into the water. It has to do with the salinity of the Adriatic Sea quickly breaking down biological material. No, Venice is not stinky – maybe it is in the summer? Just another reason to not go in the water in the canals! Other than the huge fine that is. We are often asked how we find the tours we go on. At risk of giving them a plug (because there’s a lot about this company that really bugs me), we often use AirBnb Experiences.

The Cathedral of St Mark completely blew me away! Like, really, really. Gob smacked. Jaw dropped. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful churches, and I’ve seen a lot of big churches. This might be my favorite. I loved the Byzantine mosaics, the gorgeous altar screen, the very Moorish influence on the exterior – I loved everything about it. We had the ticket that allowed access all the way to the roof which was pretty awesome – seeing the beautiful bronze horses up close and personal was a thrill! And looking out over the square and the lagoon from up there was thrilling. We loved being there so much we considered buying tickets to go again, but seeing as we ran out of time and didn’t get to everything on my list, I guess we just have to go back again!

Another thing we did was climb to the top of the clock tower in the Square. Heights don’t really bother me but I don’t like feeling insecure – the roof of the clock tower is at a slight slant, not quite level – I kept a firm grip on the railing! Not that the railing was going to stop a fall🤐Seeing the clock mechanism from the inside was quite something though – the mechanism has only been significantly re-done once since the original installation in the late 1500s!

One of my goals was to get out to Burano and Murano, two of the main islands off the coast of Venice proper, although still located within the lagoon. Another oh – so – interesting Vaparetto ride later we were at Burano. Of the two islands Burano is definitely cuter. The buildings were brightly colored, with a couple of canals running through it. We took our time and really looked through the shops. The island is known for the production of silks, linen and lace – there are some really beautiful items!

Next we went to Murano, where the specialty is glass. Venetian glass makers had secret processes for making unique glass products and very clear glass – something unheard of in the Middle Ages. There has been glass making in Venice since the 8th century – it was (wisely) moved out to Murano in the 12th century to reduce the chances of burning Venice down due to the intense heat!

Something I had wondered about, because my brain thinks that way, is how are emergency services handled somewhere like Venice? There are, seriously, no vehicles. Boats. Yep, fire truck boats (which I did not get a photo of. Bummer), police boats, and ambulance boats. Sirens and all! We saw an ambulance boat when it was in a big hurry – that thing was flying over the water!

And, my final bit…Somebody Feed Phil, an outstanding food travel show on Netflix (if you’re one of the five people who haven’t watched it yet), did an episode on Venice. One of the items he had, which he later stated as one of his favorite things of all time, was a pork chop. Yep! Venice was our first SFP stop ever! Vini da Arturo is a TINY place – maybe 8 tables – and the staff has worked together for over 30 years. If I remember correctly, the restaurant has been open for about 50 years. But this pork chop was unlike anything I have ever had – delicious! And massive. We finished it, but that was maybe not a brilliant idea. Go hungry.

Venice. Everything I had hoped for and more. Grazie.

If I waited one month I could claim I was waiting for the six month point before posting this…however, I’ll be daring and post now. Day of the Dead. Pretty much the whole reason we timed this trip to Mexico for when we did. San Miguel was on our short list of places to go already, and when we found that the town REALLY celebrated (yes, it is a celebration) dia de los muertos, then we knew we needed to go there. Something we did not know – not everywhere in Mexico has this celebration tradition. In fact, the large city not far from San Miguel, Queretero, does not celebrate it at all. Nada. We took a short tour there the day before we left Mexico – our tour guide said he didn’t even realize that San Miguel went all out for dias de los muertos! Something new learned.

So, San Miguel has a large expat population and that population has added their own vision to the celebration. I’m sure there are many native Mexicans that don’t appreciate or like these additions, but there were many who certainly entered into the spirit! In 2001 an expat group held a Catrina parade (Catrina/Catrino is the sugar skull style makeup) with eight participants. Now it is a massive parade that is widely enjoyed. Except by us. We didn’t see it. Why? Because somebody – not yours truly – had the dreaded, um, intestinal issues. I’m sure it was an extremely awesome parade😖

The week or so prior to 2 November was a time of preparation. Buildings, parks, streets, businesses all were decorated with marigolds. Why marigolds? Because it is thought that the brilliant color and rich scent attract the souls of the dead and help to lead them back to the world of the living. You might be asking yourself how (or, perhaps, why) do I know this? Because we did one of our favorite things to do in a new location – we hired a guide to teach us. In this case we found a lovely American gentleman, Joseph, who has been living in San Miguel for over 20 years, and has written a small book about the traditions of dia de los muertos, to tell us about the traditions and stories. He did this the best way I can think of – he took us to the main cemetery of San Miguel! It was rather fascinating to see the cemetery about two weeks prior to 2 November, hear about what to expect and then see it all happen!

I had it in my head that it would be fun to have the Catrina makeup done – I did not expect that there would be DOZENS, many dozens of place to have your makeup done! We try to be aware of cultural appropriation and didn’t want to offend anybody. This did not seem to be an issue as most everyone was having makeup done! You could certainly spend a lot of money getting a very elaborate design, or you could be like us and spend about $20 for both of us. It looked fabulous but my face was very unhappy for a few days afterwards. Oh…and don’t sweat.

After we got our makeup done we headed over to the cemetery to see what was happening there. Wow. The street leading to the graveyard was lined with hundreds of vendors selling flowers, food, candy, cleaning supplies – a head spinning array of items for your ancestors! Plus food stands for the living, as this preparation is hard work!

Then the cemetery itself was…wow! First of all, the sheer number of people in there was crazy. There were people painting graves, weeding the grounds, decorating EVERYWHERE, there were priests available to say masses, musicians would play for your family – it was dizzying!!

In the main plaza there were several public altars set up. One was a motorcycle group remembering members who were no longer with us, one was for a beloved local priest, a Rotary group had a altar for past members, another was to honor the victims of a horrible recent accident. Huge groups of people spent hours creating these altars!

The effort and enjoyment of this day was humbling in a way. Why don’t all cultures celebrate their ancestors? Not that I necessarily want them hanging for dinner, but remembering those that have gone before you, who helped form you into the person you are (for good and for bad!) – these are all things to be celebrated.

Yep…back to Mexico! Turns out fourth attempt to come to San Miguel worked – yay! This place is worth the effort to come here – and it is a bit of effort. It is at least an hour from an airport – there are two options – and Mexican highways are a bit of an adventure. We have been here a few weeks now and have definitely enjoyed our time thus far!

We arrived a week earlier than our original date and unfortunately our house was not available that week. We decided to splurge a bit and stayed in a very nice hotel right off the main plaza. Which, of course, has the main big church. With bells. Bells that ring…all the freaking time. Every fifteen minutes. And I don’t mean ring once at 11:15, no, they ring with two other ringing thingies, then they ring once for the quarter hour. The bells are slightly muted at night but not much. And if you didn’t want to be awake at 7AM, too bad, because the bells go nuts then. Like fifteen people are all ringing their own bells to their own internal tune. Even our trusty white noise machine (named Miami) can’t compete with those bells. Anyway, Hotel la Morada was very nice and quite comfortable. But most importantly it had a good desk, as that was the week prior to, and where we spent the night of the Great Switchover – the hospital system that the Husband works for was switching their EMR (electronic medical record). This was a huge deal, with a year and half of work leading up to it. We thought, yeah, nice place for him to work and we were close enough to everything that when he had a little time we could explore. What we didn’t know…was that this was the culmination week of a month long festival in honor of Saint Michael (San Miguel). And the grandest day/night/day of the party? The night that the Switchover occurred. Holy moly. We have never been witnesses to such events! Parades every day at 10AM, musical performances, giant papier mache characters, mariachi bands (sometimes several playing at the same time – different songs), and people…so many people. The best thing about our hotel room? We were on the top floor with a private terrace that looked over the plaza! Our own viewing point without being in that super spreader event! Although I did not drag myself out there at 5AM for the giant, final fireworks – I think I was evented out by that point. But what a party it was! Confession time…we took very few photos of the events! And they are just not very good. Nor did we take a good photo of our view from our terrace. Failure.

One of the final events of the Festiva De San Miguel was the biggest freaking parade I’ve ever seen. The route was probably 2.5 miles long and it wasn’t exactly flat. It was dedicated to the indigenous people of the area with traditional costumes, music and dancing. I think 60% of the area population was in the parade. The other 40% was lining the streets to watch. Some of the costumes were amazing!

Our encounter with the parade was accidental. We had moved into our house and needed to go to the grocery store. The two biggest stores are right next to each other – on the opposite side of town from us, about a two mile walk. With a Panio on the way (I’ll talk more about Panio in another post. I will dream of Panio). Right…grocery store…I thought Puerto Vallarta had the nicest Mexican grocery store ever, but City Market now gets that award. Cheapest place? No. But we can find things that we need and it has a great vibe. I love fresh ground peanut butter and was super happy to see they had a grinder. Do need to teach them that roasted peanuts are a better choice than raw though. They also have machines with almonds and white chocolate or almonds and dark chocolate – yum! We were happily getting a couple of containers when this local family saw us. They asked us, and we understood enough, that they were asking what you do with it. Toast! we answered and I also mimicked eating it right out of the container. The kids were enthralled so I think they got a little of each one! One of those hilarious moments 😂

Once the Festiva de San Miguel was over the decorations for Dias de los Muertos went up! Over the last couple of weekends we have been seeing more and more marigolds – these golden flowers are believed to help the dead find their way to the altars set up for them. We intentionally timed our stay in San Miguel to be able to experience this tradition, so expect more on this subject.

I will leave you with this spectacular photo the Husband took…one of the few from our hotel terrace!

Even though it has always annoyed me to have to clarify that I am from Washington state I have always wanted to go to WA DC. In addition to that, I have had to state to numerous people from other countries, nope, I have never been to Washington DC. That has now been corrected. I will even somewhat grudgingly admit that I really liked it. Of course, I’m not a resident of a place that has to pay federal taxes but has no elected representatives at the federal level – you know, that whole taxation without representation thing (this sentiment is stated quite clearly on their license plates no less!). I mean, tea got thrown in a bay over this whole idea. Not something I had ever contemplated. Which is exactly what travel is supposed to do for you; it makes you think and be aware of other people and places. Broadens the mind and all that.

Our main goal of our time in WA DC was to see as much of the various Smithsonian Institution museums as we possibly could. We did our best but didn’t even come close to seeing it all. We did go out to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Center at Dulles Airport though – that is a fair distance from WA DC in Chantilly, VA. Definitely worth the drive!! Many people don’t realize that there are two Smithsonian Air and Space Museums – the one at Dulles is where a lot of the large air/space craft are. The other one has been closed for four years for renovations. When does it re-open you may ask? Just two weeks after we were leaving the area. Urgh. Oh well, I guess we won’t see the Wright Flyer. But we did see the space shuttle Discovery. I can live with that.

We could not get tickets to the Smithsonian African American Museum, which made us sad. It is one of the few times I failed in planning ahead! Tickets are claimed months in advance. Like all of the Smithsonian Museums, it is free but you do you have to have reservations. And, note to others: do not go to the Natural History Museum on Labor Day weekend. We thought it might have a cool paleontology section, being the Smithsonian and all, but it does not. At this point the Field Museum in Chicago has the best display of dinosaurs and such that we have found. What it does have though is the Hope Diamond and I am terribly fond of sparkly things. This did not disappoint. However, it is not easy to get a good photo of it 🙁

Sometimes we have set ideas of what we want to see and what is optional. For whatever reason we both felt the American History museum was optional. Go figure. One afternoon we had a couple of hours to kill and decided to go there. Yeah…took us two more trips to see everything AND the Popular Culture section wasn’t even open (this was a total bummer as we realized that we really wanted to see the items in there). When you hear such and such is in the the Smithsonian this is the place!

To keep us firmly grounded we made certain to tour the American Holocaust Museum and all of the various war memorials. I am ashamed to say that in all the times I have been to Berlin I have never gone to the Holocaust museum there. I will fix that on the next trip. The American museum does not hold anything back though, and it is very clear where the US could have stepped in and made a difference with regard to the many, many lives lost. I know hindsight is 20/20 but it’s pretty obvious the US government had a pretty good idea what was going on and chose not to get involved. Rather sobering and not part of what I was taught in world history.

Each of the war memorials is very different and evoke very different feelings. Strangely, the World War II memorial has a sense of peace and serenity, whereas the Korean War memorials evokes confusion and fear. The Vietnam Memorial is probably the best known and is dramatic in its simplicity. The World War I memorial is still being built – huh? Seriously? Even the tiniest village in western Europe has a memorial to the Great War, with a list of who died, but the US is just now building one. Sometimes I shake my head.

One of my absolute musts was to visit the White House. To visit here is a bit more complicated than in the past – if you are planning to go definitely look at the requirements early on! Three months prior to our trip (but no more than three months) we had to apply to tour through one of our elected state officials in Washington DC (their website usually has a form). After the application has been accepted then you get a questionnaire from the White House. I know that foreign nationals are allowed in, I’m just not certain who you apply through. Maybe your embassy? Once you have submitted all your details you get to wait until it’s two weeks (or so) before your requested date to tour to find out if you have been assigned a tour date/time! And when it is your date and time you get to discover just how thorough the Secret Service is.

As for the White House itself – we loved it! Getting to see things and rooms that we have only seen in photos was quite fun. Needless to say, I don’t think the staff of the White House has EVER gotten rid of anything. The memorabilia was quite astonishing.

One of my other must dos was to go to the National Archives. You know when you see the Declaration of Independence in movies and you can see what it says? Yeah, that’s not real. The real one is so faded you can barely see the writing. John Hancock’s signature is so faint I had to really look for it. It was still amazing to see it and the Constitution (which is far more legible)! The security is rather impressive too I might add – Nicholas Cage was not going to get his hands on any of those documents!

The side of the US Capitol that faces the Mall was under construction. Of course it was…it is a rule of travel that you will go to see something that you have waited your whole life to see and it will be covered in scaffolding. One day we finally trekked up to the building and looked at the other side. It needs a bath.

We did take a quick walk through the Library of Congress since it is right across the street from the Capitol. Gorgeous building! We honestly did not spend much time in there – a quick look at the Gutenberg Bible that the library has and we enjoyed looking at maps from the Lewis and Clark expedition was all.

On our last day to do any walking around we decided to go to the National Zoo. It’s another Smithsonian Institute location, so it’s free. Is it the biggest zoo we’ve been to? No. But it is a very manageable size. The animals have very nice habitats and seem fairly relaxed which was nice to see. I love the big cats, so that is where we headed first. The lions were lounging quite happily with their heads down – fine – but that is not going to let me look at them! So I did the same thing I do with any cat – I made a quiet kissy sound – and it worked!!!!! One sat up and looked around! Good kitty boy!

All in all I would deem this to have been a very worthwhile stop. We are going to try to add in a few of the American (and Canadian!) cities we have wanted to explore – I think New York should be next. I have almost completed my Museums of the World list!! The Met is on there and the Husband needs to go to the Natural History museum. During the day, not at night.

Why do I do this to myself? I totally do intend to get these posts done in a timely manner, and they are far easier to write when everything is fresh in my mind, but, here I am, nearly two months later – trying to catch up! Sigh and groan. Anyhow…Puerto Vallarta…love it! Okay, okay, maybe a bit more detail…

I loved the one hour flight from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta. That’s just about a perfect flight time – about the point I decide I’m all done with this flying nonsense it’s over. Works for me. Plus, our apartment was very nearly perfect. It was missing a couple things that I find to be basic supplies in the kitchen, but other than that it was amazing: location, space, decor, best bed/bedding/pillows, all of it. I could live in that apartment! It was in the Francia neighborhood, which was about a half an hour walk to old town. Close enough without having to deal with being there. Cobblestones look cool but they can be a pain to walk on. And trip on. We also had a plethora of amazing restaurants within just a few blocks of home. The best bit? Fifteen minutes up the road was the best and nicest supermarket I have ever been to in Mexico – with a Costco in the same area. Heaven!

And, here I am…two MORE months later without having finished this post. Good thing nobody reads it RIGHT?

My biggest helpful hint for Puerto Vallarta (all of Mexico, lots of Europe, etc)? Don’t look at your phone while walking. Not even to quickly glance at the map to make certain you are on the right street. Four months later I’m still dealing with the pain – good thing I already needed a new knee. My time frame may be sped up a bit due to that fall. My pride will never recover.

We ate far too much good food too, including a spectacular anniversary dinner right on the beach. The Husband outdid himself on that one. Most every meal that we ate out was memorable – that is really saying something. I think our favorite though was La Colonia Burger in our neighborhood – most definitely the best hamburger I’ve ever had. If you find yourself in PV…go to this place!

Being Mexico, there is a fair amount of wonkiness to Puerto Vallarta. Sidewalks that suddenly end, stop signs are not even a suggestion, bizarre stairs…the list goes on. However, it is gorgeous, the people are gracious and just being there made me smile.

We walked a lot, bought some unique items for friends and family and just enjoyed beach time. It was a wonderful month, after which we headed to Louisiana for some Grandson time. Then home to Washington to eagerly await the birth of another Grandson (he arrived on June 27th)! We took a couple of weeks to visit the oldest Son and crew, now based at Pearl Harbor. Darn…we had to go to Hawaii. Even though we were home for several months it still didn’t feel like enough time with every one.

I promise to try to be better at this blogging thing. Operative word…try.

Yep, a place I have grumbled about going to quite some time – I was so looking forward to getting to Mexico City. But the flight to there should have been a signal that all was not right with my moons, or my alignment, my chakras had deserted me. I have not had more than just a touch of motion sickness queasiness in a few years, and my coping mechanisms seemed to always work, ahhh…not this time. We flew Rome to Atlanta, which, granted, was one of the longest flights in quite some time. By the time we were a couple of hours out of Atlanta I knew I was in trouble. Anyway, instead of continuing on to Mexico City that night, we stayed at one of the hotels at the airport and took the flight out the next morning. Good plan – plus Delta was able to re-route our bags to the flight we were going to be on! We were quite pleased to see them come out at baggage claim in MEX. The first couple of weeks were good – jet lag wasn’t too awful, we enjoyed exploring, the bed was comfortable in our apartment (yay!!), we found the BEST BBQ ever (seriously!). Then disaster struck. I don’t really care for shellfish anyway, so I’m not entirely certain why I tried those mussels, and I can assure you that it will never ever ever in a million years ever no way no how happen again. It wasn’t pretty. And it took me about three weeks to feel human again. So, here we are, in a different location already, and I haven’t even posted about the last stop. Sigh. But I had a good excuse this time! Okay, done whining.

Mexico City surprised me, in a good way, with the architecture. I did not expect Art Deco buildings. Not sure why it was such a surprise, but it was. There are a few buildings, mostly churches, that are from the time of the conquistadors (1500-1600s) – not many though. The cathedral, of course, is from that time. Anything Aztec was mowed down by the Spanish conquerors. A lot of the Aztec buildings have been uncovered in the area around the cathedral, and they are viewable from the plaza level. There is also a large museum dedicated to the Aztecs and walking paths through a large section of the ruins. This was one of the things the Husband requested that we do…and it was closed the entire time we were in Mexico City. It would have been super nice if the museum website had stated that it was closed for the time being. Grrr.

When we are in Europe we long for Mexican food (I’ve only mentioned this one or two dozen times)…when we are away from Europe we long for whatever was our favorite during that trip. Naturally we immediately asked our host where the best tacos were that was near our apartment! His answer? Right around the corner. And he was right!

Everywhere we walked in the city we encountered parks, fountains and statues. We were pleasantly surprised by this. Especially the parks – small, center of the street parks, massive parks, dog parks – all beautifully maintained. It was really a delight! And statues of all kinds. Our apartment was right off of Paseo de la Reforma – so the Angel of Independence statue was our landmark (and the US embassy was right across the street.

The food poisoning episode happened two weeks before we left Mexico City, so most of those two weeks are a total loss. We were signed up for an amazing sounding tour of Teotihuacán the weekend after the…incident…and I was not going to be the cause of missing out on that! I am so glad we went, it was definitely the highlight of the trip! Our tour guide picked us up not far from our place and drove us about an hour northeast of the city. It is suspected that if the conquistadors had seen Teotihuacán we would not have been left this incredible site to see. They passed by the site, not realizing what was there because it had been abandoned for about 700 year by then and was mostly covered up. The temples just looked like earthen mounds. So grateful for that! The temples, pyramids and city of Teotihuacán date from about the 1st century, with the site being abandoned by about 500. It is a spectacular place!! Definitely recommend a visit here.

After a few hours spent at the pyramid site, our charming and very knowledgeable guide, Alejandro, drove us to a local restaurant for a delicious lunch, then out to his house where they produce chocolate by hand. They roast the beans over a fire, then manually grind them – best chocolate ever!

I was so glad that I summoned up the energy to go on that excursion. The next day we were to go to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (my request to see of course) and…the Husband came down with Montezuma’s Revenge! We have spent months in Mexico with neither one of us ever having so much as a gurgle tummy-wise, so for both of us to get sick like this -wow. Needless to say, we did not go to the Basilica, which I am sad about. And we really liked what we saw of Mexico City. Yes, we stayed out of any potentially scary areas – but that’s just being prudent! But, for the time being, the place is tainted for us. We will get past it, eventually, and hope to return one day. And if I so much SEE a mussel any time soon I may turn a bit green.

Our time in Rome went way too fast. Every day we found something new or surprising. What a city – I can’t wait to go back! But, now it is time to move on, so I will give you a few more of my thoughts and some of my favorite events/highlights.

Getting to see Pope Francis in person tops the list. He may have been really far away, but we still got to see him. I had intentionally avoided attending the noon Angelus on Christmas as I suspected that St. Peter’s square (why is it called a square? It’s an elliptical) would be way more crowded than we were comfortable with. However, by Epiphany (6 January) a lot of the holiday visitors were gone, plus it was a drizzly day, so we ventured forth. It worked out wonderfully for us!

I am quite proud to say that we walked nearly everywhere we needed to go! And, if we did use a taxi or Uber, we only used it for one way – the other way we walked. We did not use public transport though, partly to avoid the crowds. We definitely used an Uber to go out to the catacombs of St. Callixtus and to St. Paul Outside the Walls and then walked back – one day it was 11 km. The best part about the walk back from the catacombs is that we were walking on the Via Appia (Appian Way) – the ancient Roman highway – and part of it is still paved with the ancient stones! You definitely need to watch your footing, but what a wonderful experience.

St. Paul Outside the Walls. Ever heard of it? Many people haven’t. In Rome there are four major papal basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Maggiore and St. Paul’s. Why is it called St.Paul’s Outside the Walls? Well, because it is outside the ancient walls of Rome. Logical, eh? After St. Paul was martyred, sometime between 64 and 68 CE, he was buried on the Via Ostiensis, outside the walls of Rome. In the fourth century Constantine built a basilica over the site of Paul’s sarcophagus. The main body of this basilica were still standing (although greatly enlarged) when, in 1823, a workman accidently set fire to it (cue my uncontrollable sobbing), so the church you see now is mostly rebuilt, although it follows the original design, plus a few bits survived the fire. Definitely was worth the effort to get to!

I had a list of the oldest churches in Rome – ones that hadn’t been significantly changed since they were built. I quickly discovered that 4th and 5th century churches make me very happy indeed. Most of our marathon walks were because I had to see this church, or that church. The Husband just accepted this – smart man. Besides it gave us a chance to see several areas of Rome that are not normally on the tourists’ radar. And this was a good thing. Except for one day…we had planned to go to San Lorenzo  fuori le mura (outside the walls again. just a totally different direction than St. Paul’s)…it was a 6 km walk each way. Many areas were not the most attractive parts of Rome either, but we schlepped ourselves out there. Only to find the parking lot (having a parking lot was impressive) was full and there was a hearse parked outside! Oh no!! But the funeral ended not long after we arrived. It was an African community funeral – very cool to watch their traditions. We waited patiently for everyone to leave the church…only to have another hearse pull up! There was a second funeral!!! We made that long walk and had maybe five minutes to look around. Total bummer.

I’ve not even touched on Vatican City yet! I loved having our apartment so close to it. It is always a beautiful sight. One of the first things we did after arriving in Rome was to climb to the top of the dome of St. Peter’s! You have two choices for climbing the dome – pay an extra €2 to take an elevator halfway up or take the stairs all the way. We wimped out and took the elevator – we did those stairs at the Duomo in Florence TWICE! The view from up there is so wonderful, it is definitely worth the climb.

While the Mother was visiting us over Christmas I had arranged one of the early morning tours of the Vatican Museums. These tours are small groups and get you in before the museums are open to the public. This is definitely the way to go!! Spend the extra money and do these tours – they are booked directly with the Vatican Museums – not with any other tour companies.

The only drawback to the day we went to the museums with the Mother is that they were closing early so we didn’t get to do any extra wandering – so we went back for another visit just before leaving Rome. Besides, getting another opportunity to look at the Sistine Chapel is always a good thing. Photos aren’t allowed in there though.

In interest of not putting anyone to sleep I’m not going to ramble on too much more. I’ll just share photos of some more of our favorite places…

Alright, I lied – the next photo needs a bit of explanation. In the early 300’s Helena, the mother of Constantine, went to the Holy Land looking for remnants of Christ’s life and crucifixion. Many items were kept by his followers and these were the things she was looking for. Now, there are a lot of churches out there claiming to have a piece of the true Cross. So many in fact, that if they were all put together the cross would be inconveniently large! The piece of wood on the left side of this photo – that is one third of the piece that Helena brought back to Rome. This is at the Basilica of the Holy Cross – it is a newer structure (1100’s) built around the earlier basilica (325). In the case is also one finger from St. Thomas. This is one of those pictures I wasn’t supposed to take…

And that, peoples who have stuck with me here, wraps up our time in Rome. I can’t say it enough…GO! Rome is the most incredible place we have been to yet. I could live there for a decade and never tire of it (I might tire of the lack of garbage removal or taking my life into my hands every time I cross the streets though).

Following Rome our plan had been to go to Croatia, but the Husband is knee deep in a huge work project for the next year, and he was very tired of working until 1 AM most days. So, back to North America we went! Time to discover Mexico City.

I have been giving this a ton of thought – how to document our time in Rome? Would I try to do a weekly summary? Egads, that would be overwhelming for everyone. Besides, if you want to see photos of the Colosseum there are tons on the web, and a vast number of them are better than mine. Besides, I’m too long winded. What I have decided on is to give you my thoughts on Rome and maybe share a story or two if I can remember.

Driving in Rome. Just don’t. Let those who understand the…hmmm…traditions (because they certainly aren’t rules of the road!) of driving, drive these streets. I’ve always sworn that I would never drive in London or Paris. I would drive a minivan through London or Paris if it meant I did not have to drive in Rome. Up in northern Italy, on the autostrada or in the countryside – no problem! But here, oh man, what an adventure. But, since we don’t drive, we walk everywhere. Which means we do share the streets with those same drivers. The trick is – look the driver straight in the eye when you cross the street. Don’t back down. It’s a game of chicken – in the end the pedestrian will usually win. Bus drivers will usually let you cross the street. Police, no.

And speaking of the police. There’s the Carabinieri (which is one of the coolest words to say!), Roma Capitale Polizia, and the Guardia di Finanza. And then every major site and official building has a scary looking security force outside. I know Rome has a reputation for petty crimes (and with normal crowds I can totally see it) but it’s not because the city isn’t trying to have a strong police presence! Then there’s the Gendarmería of the Vatican, plus the Swiss Guards.

While the police force are out in…force, so are the panhandlers, peddlers, people in costumes and numerous others trying to separate you from your money. Walking up the big boulevard near the Colosseum you are accosted constantly by people making certain that you have your tickets. They are usually dressed nicely so you think they are official – they aren’t. IF they do have real tickets the cost is greatly inflated, but I suspect that they are often not real tickets. Getting tickets to these locations is easy. Go online, TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE and buy your tickets. I have, a couple of times, stood outside the venue and purchased tickets online, then walked in – you don’t need anyone calling to you in the street to help you. Rome has raised the art of panhandling to great heights though. Wow. From being handed roses to being asked where you’re from to people cleaning the streets and sidewalks to being accosted by men dressed in cheap centurion costumes – they are endlessly creative. Our favorite thus far was at the Spanish Steps: we were headed down the steps and saw an old lady sprawled on the landing of the steps like she had fallen. There was something about how artfully she had arranged herself, with her cane nearby, but making certain she was not far from her bowl to collect money! How very inventive!

Loving old stuff as I do and getting stupidly giddy over old places, Rome is happiness on every corner! I could do an entire post on my favorite buildings or my favorite churches (and I might!). But honestly, it’s walking down the sidewalk and there’s an ancient arch there, or you can see pillars that are two thousand years old that are imbeded in a building that is five or six hundred years old, or a square with ruins in it that you don’t know the history of- so you look it up and realize that you were looking at the spot were Julius Caesar was assassinated! Stuff like that.

The Aventine Hill. Rome was built on seven hills, so each one of the hills has ancient stuff on it! Palantine Hill is probably the most well known as that is where the Roman Forum is. However, Aventine might be my favorite. If you avoid the street and take the old road up it is peaceful and really pretty. At the top are a few really old churches – in a city filled with old anything, the churches are really old, a pretty park, something under restoration (but I didn’t look to see what it was), and a door. The door leads to the property of the Knights of Malta, which is like an embassy – so it really is Malta. In this door is a keyhole, which when viewed through gives a perfectly framed shot of the dome of St. Peter’s basilica! No one seems to know whether this was by intention or by accident – I suspect it was by intention. The first time we were up in this area was on a weekend and the line to view the keyhole stretched down the street and around the corner! No thank you. One of the wonderful advantages to the way we travel – we have the ability to say “let’s try this another day (non-weekend!) first thing in the morning”! A few days later we made the hike again and only had maybe five six people ahead of us. The keyhole view really is something to be experienced in person. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a somewhat decent photo but most of the people around us weren’t able to get one.

And finally, what has become my favorite subject regarding Rome…toilets. It has been far more of an adventure than I had ever contemplated. Mostly due to the lack of a toilet seat on the vast majority of toilets that I have encountered. Shudder. We went to this rather fancy tea shop while the Mother was here (with rather impressive prices I might add) – the WC was very clean and nicely done – but without toilet seats!! I’m dead serious, I get excited when we go somewhere and the toilet has a seat on it. I make certain to mention to the Husband that we should frequent that location. Just this morning we stopped at a tourist information booth to use the toilets there – for €1 I got a (CLEAN!) toilet seat and heating! A warm WC, how novel. Of course the water out of the faucet was like ice and the hand dryer was useless, but it had a toilet seat! Ah, the simple joys.

Rome. Practically perfect. Except where it’s not. But that’s for another post. We were fortunate enough to arrive in Rome a few days before Christmas. Our Airbnb host was even kind enough to put up a little tree for us! We had a couple of days to get our bearings before the Mother arrived from Portugal to spend a few days with us. It had been several months since I had seen her, so I was eagerly waiting at Ciampino Airport (the smaller Rome airport) for her to come out the door! It was pretty fun to watch her on the drive back to our apartment – head almost on a swivel – there is so much to look at! While she was here we were able to visit several of the big tourist sites. The weather wasn’t terribly cooperative, although it was much better than what they had at home. Everybody likes a white Christmas (especially in a place where they rarely happen), but it went a bit overboard with the snow.

So back to the subject at hand – Rome at Christmas. The city goes all out with the lights, so everywhere you look it’s beautiful. St. Peter’s Square looks elegant with its huge tree and every church has a unique Nativity set up. Most are obviously handmade and must be a labor of love. The tight, ancient streets have decorated store fronts, the restaurants have their outdoor areas covered in lights – it’s magic every where you look!

Every where I look in Rome there’s something wonderful to photograph! I could be here for years and always find something new to see. But it does have a few quirks…

Yep, finally. We flew into the Bologna airport (got a fabulous view of the city on approach), we’ve been to the Bologna train station a couple of times – this time it was for real! We took a morning train (oh man, now the Sheena Easton song is in my head) in and an evening train out, but it was no where near enough time. Two days minimum to do justice to this incredible city – a week would be best!

First of all, let me put this rumor to rest: Italian trains do run on time. In fact, sometimes they arrive early! The postal system is another story altogether.

Bologna. Not Bologna, Oscar Meyer style. Although that is based on mortadella, which the Husband assures me, is far superior to the American product. There is also bolognese sauce, which is delicious, and my favorite, lasagna verde al forno. However, Bologna is not only about the food (but it is partly!), it is a very old city that has held onto its past in all the best ways and has created a delightful atmosphere.

One of the first things about Bologna to notice is the porticos. Other cities, including Parma, have them, but not to the degree that Bologna does. In most areas of the old town, other than to cross a street, you are able to walk under these covered walkways. A few hundred years ago a law was enacted that stated the porticos had to be tall enough for a man on horseback to ride under them, so they are plenty spacious! Some have been rebuilt over the centuries, but there are plenty from the middle ages😁, which makes my geeky heart happy.

There is a huge piazza in the medieval center of town, Piazza Maggiore. Standing in the middle of it, looking in every direction, is a feast for the eyes! On one side is the MASSIVE Basilica di San Petronio (fourth largest in Italy, third if you don’t count St Peter’s since the Vatican City is not part of Italy), another side is the Palazzo d’Accursio, which has been the town hall since the middle ages (earliest part of the building is 12th century). Opposite is the Palazzo dei Banchi, the newest (!) building on the piazza, as it was built in the 1400s. Next it is the Museo Civico Archeologico, which – GASP – we did not go in. There just wasn’t enough time! Opposite the basilica is the tourism office which is housed in the Palazzo Re Enzo. In the piazza is the Fountain of Neptune – completed in 1565. Sometimes even I have difficulty wrapping my brain around how old this stuff is!

So, the Basilica di San Petronio. Impressive? Yes. Soul stirring? Not for us. It is very beautiful inside. Outside? Well, it never got finished. It’s not supposed to look like it does. But the beauty inside somehow just didn’t feel…right. Maybe we’ve been in too many old churches? I don’t think it’s that. By all accounts it should wow, and in sheer size it certainly does, just not in a spiritual feeling kind of way. I guess I could leave all of that bit out, however, I am the one writing this so it’s my thoughts!

Our next stop was much more fulfilling. It is informally called the Seven Churches complex – I’m sure it has another, proper, name but I don’t know it. This is where the earliest churches of Bologna were founded. Tradition states that Saint Petronius (Petronio) founded the first church here on the ruins of a pagan temple in the 5th century. The crazy thing is, some of the mosaics in that church still exist! This complex is really special. One of the churches is an 8th century miniature of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Crazy stuff! The whole feel of the complex was peaceful and spiritual -I loved it.

Two more churches to cover…

The Basilica di San Domenico is a little bit outside of the medieval center, not far, but not right there either. And now it is confession time: in my research I knew that this place had significant historical value and artistic value, but honestly I was so overwhelmed with creating priorities to see that I didn’t really think about WHAT a place was. And even when we were standing outside, waiting for the afternoon opening hours to begin, I still didn’t really think about it. They weren’t doing the guided tours – bummer – but there was an app to download. So, there we sat, in a pew in this beautiful space, and it still hasn’t penetrated my thick brain…a friar in brown and white walked by…still hasn’t clicked. OH! WAIT!! Domenico. Dominic. Dominican order! Wait, Saint Dominic is right over there? Sigh. Yep, and I call myself a student of Church history. Pathetic.

Saint Dominic’s tomb is a glorious thing. It was built some two hundred years after his death by Nicola Pisano and his students, with a later addition by no less than Michelangelo Buonarroti.

And, last church…even I was about done with churches for one day! But, Bologna’s cathedral beckoned. The Cathedral of San Pietro is lovely. In a city of massive churches it actually feels not massive. I could detail all of the art and other lovely items in it, but the most memorable bit for us were the areas of archeological excavation. A very nice young man gave us an explanation of what we were seeing – and allowed me to touch! – something that always makes me happy.

Now for impressions of Bologna itself…a very lively city with a lot to recommend it! You really do want to stop there. Really.

An exhausting day, but a day well spent. So much we didn’t see, so much we just took a quick look at. Every reason to return here one day…

First of all, it annoys me that I can’t put emojis in my titles. There…that’s off my chest.

And, I’m going to make a confession: we made two trips to Modena. That might be kind of obvious as the weather is rather different in the photos. The first trip was when we had the car for the food tour – we had just enough extra time to walk into the historic center and say, yeah we want to come back here! Last week we took the train there. So glad we did. What a pretty town!

Ferrari. My first car love. Okay, not truly my first…that would have been the car Richard Carpenter was driving on the cover of The Carpenters Then and Now album. The car that my 8 year old self insisted was a Pinto. My most profound apologies…seeing as he was driving a Jaguar XKE. I got better. It was somewhere between 1978 and 1980 (maybe coinciding with Magnum PI, but I’m not sure) that I first saw a 308 GTS. This is truly when my gearheadedness began. It was never so much the mechanics, much to my father’s disappointment, it was definitely more about style. Although I can still appreciate the mechanics! And, I will now apologize to all the car salesmen I managed to convince (in my late teens) that I could afford to buy the cars I test drove. And managed not to wreck or get tickets in. Many thanks to any guardian angels that have followed me and cleaned up the messes! Ah, fun times.

Anyhoo…as soon as we decided on Parma and I realized how close to Modena we would be, I made the request for a visit to the Ferrari Museum. I later realized that there are TWO museums each focusing on a different aspect of the brand.

Enzo Ferrari was from Modena. The museum there utilizes the house he grew up in – it was also the house he later sold in order to buy his first race car. Many, many years later he returned to Modena and repurchased the house.

I am actually trying not to post a thousand car photos. Because I do have a photos of nearly every car at both museums.

After taking our time at the Modena museum we took a walk over to the historic center of town. We didn’t have long there as we needed to go to Maranello. But I’ll get to that after a bit about Maranello.

It was quite foggy as we drove to Maranello so we weren’t able to see much. It appears to be an industrial city – not much to recommend it – other than a rather impressive driving track…and Ferraris are built here. A few blocks over from the factory is a very impressive building that I failed to get a photo of. The Ferrari Museum here is BIG. And so cool. Where Modena was more about Enzo and the history – Maranello is a celebration of beautiful cars. Did you know you can have a custom designed Ferrari? Like custom body and everything? Seriously. It costs several million dollars but I guess if you already have everything else…

If you find yourself in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and beautiful cars are your thing I can’t recommend both museums enough. A grand time was had.

Okay, so Modena itself. I think it and Parma are similar in population but for some reason Modena felt larger. It does have one thing that Parma does not have and that is a permanent indoor market. Which, once we saw what the market in Modena was like, we were super sad not to have easy access to! The produce stands alone were amazing!

The main piazza – plus the cathedral – are UNESCO Heritage sites. And yes, I do keep track of all UNESCO sites I have been to🤗 Quick digression here: have I mentioned the Places Been app? It’s so much fun to check off new places! And new UNESCO sites! I do have the additional module for tracking airports because I am a geek that way. If tracking the state/national parks you have been to is your thing you can do this in the app too. Back to Modena. Let us begin as I usually do – with the cathedral. It’s big, yes. Not massive, but big. It has a bell tower. That we did not climb – not this time. It’s the inside that is utterly swoonable. There has been a church on the site since the 5th century. Dude. The current structure is the third church on the site and it was begun in 1099 – the second church was only around for thirty years or so. Ah, I could go on and on regarding the history of this lovely place, but I will just show you!

Modena, like many other Italians towns, makes use of covered porticos. These served to offer protection from the elements and additional space for merchants. I know in Bologna there was a requirement that the porticos be tall enough for a man on horseback to ride inside – based on the size I suspect the same requirement existed in Modena!

We weren’t in Modena for very long, so there is a lot we didn’t see. But of what we did see it seemed like a wonderful town!

Way back in March 2020, as the world closed up, we were supposed to go Florence for two months. This was a dream of mine and the Daughter, and was eagerly awaited. Then we had to cancel it – tears were shed – but we knew it was the right thing to do. Fast forward a couple of years, and we are finally going to Italy. One day the Husband asked me if I wanted to go to Florence for Thanksgiving weekend. Duh, yes. But it was laced with guilt and sadness that the Daughter would not be with us.

Florence. Oh man…it was everything I had hoped it would be and more. And the Husband admitted that he really liked it too💞So I shall begin at the beginning…

Thus far, Italian trains are two thumbs up. It was pretty interesting though that most of the leg from Bologna to Florence (on the Frecciarossa – high speed train) was underground. It would keep people/animals and everything else off of the tracks! Once at Florence SMN (Santa Maria Novella – the main station) we followed the crowd. The walk into the medieval section is flat and easy and only took about ten minutes. Finding our B&B was slightly more challenging, but again, not difficult. We really liked the place we stayed at (Residenza Giotto), plus the hosts were incredibly helpful. Another excellent Rick Steves recommendation! We even had an amazing view of the Duomo from our room. Speaking of Duomo, I could not wait to be standing at the foot of it, so off we went. My view was accompanied by taking a photo so I could share that moment with the Daughter. I was missing her terribly right then.

We joined the not too long queue to see the inside of the Duomo. It is mostly a case of the frosting looking amazing but the cake is not quite what it should be. It’s pretty, but that’s it. The inside of the dome is spectacular, but we would get a better view of it in just a little bit. As has been the case in many other places, the late 1800s people had a firm idea of what medieval should look like. And, during that time period, it was decided that the Duomo didn’t look medieval enough. Now it looks bland inside. Oh well, the outside more than makes up for it. And the dome itself…😁

There are over 450 stairs from the ground level to the cupola level of the dome (that small white bit on the very top). Some are reasonable stairs. A lot are circular, castle style steps (the treads themselves have been replaced over the centuries, but the arrangement hasn’t changed). Then you get higher, into the dome itself- you are between the inner and outer walls of the dome – and the stairs begin to get interesting. Steep, strangely arranged, low roof. But you can see the brick herringbone pattern that holds the dome up! I won’t go into the history of the dome here (I know, gasp!) but it was a super big deal in the 1400s. Still a big deal. If you are interested in the story I highly recommend Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King, fascinating and well written. Anyway, so there we are, gasping for air (it’s quite the workout. Even more so in a mask), but at the very top!

After spending a bit of time enjoying the view and a sense of accomplishment we headed back down to the lower dome for a close up look at the amazing art painted on the inside. Brunelleschi had envisioned the interior of the dome to be covered in gold mosaics. I’m sure this would have been a spectacular sight! But, Brunelleschi died (and not surprisingly is buried in the cathedral) so the interior of the dome was painted white and stayed that way for about 100 years until an artist was hired to paint it (Vasari, followed by Zuccari) with frescoes of the Last Judgement. It is spectacular.

We had time to come back down the hundreds of thousands of stairs, have a quick gelato for energy…and climb part of the way back up! Rarely, very rarely are the terraces (the flat walkway around the main roof area of the cathedral) open to the public. One lady told us this was her sixth trip to Florence – and she had never seen the terraces available to tour before. It was super cool – but most definitely not for those with height issues, as there are areas you are squeezing through with not much more than a railing between you and the very hard ground. Okay, none of what we did is for those with height issues!

I must admit that every step we had to go up or down was met with complaints after this.

Our excursion on Friday meant that I could move another life long longing, eagerly awaited museum to the visited list. Yes, I have a museum list. I’m such a geek. The Uffizi Gallery. Sigh of happiness. My all time favorite painting (Birth of Venus) is there, but it might have some competition now!

After the Uffizi we went to the Husband’s museum choice, Galileo. Because he is a science and technology geek. I had to admit, it was pretty darn cool too. Especially seeing Galileo’s own tools and equipment. So glad someone had the foresight to hold on to them!

I had no intention of wasting a single minute of our time in Florence! As soon as we were done with the Galileo museum we were off to Santa Croce. We had several people tell us this is their favorite church in Florence. We wholeheartedly agreed – until we went to San Miniato – but I will get to that. We even got to wander around the Christmas market set up in front of Santa Croce. We tried to do our part to support some of the vendors😁 The church itself is amazing, but not overwhelming, there is an intimacy about it. It also contains the graves of two very important people: Michelangelo and Galileo.

I promise I am really trying to just sum up what we did and what we saw. I could do a post on each day’s activities, but I know I wouldn’t get it done! So I am trying to put the most interesting (to me!) stuff in.

Saturday’s plan was to climb one of the hills surrounding Florence. There was a church up there that I wanted to see – isn’t there always a church I want to see????? I don’t think the hill has a name – if it does, I can’t find it. But it’s the hill that Piazzale Michelangelo is on. The views! Ah, gorgeous. We were headed for San Miniato al Monte, an active monastery on the top of the hill. It did not disappoint at all. And, if you find yourself there, be certain to visit the gift shop. They have some beautiful things in there and it is run by the monks. This ended up being our favorite of all the churches we saw in Florence. For more information (and better photos) see https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_di_San_Miniato_al_Monte.

We did a lot of just wandering the streets and taking in where we were, which led us to some wonderful sights. My favorite though is when we figured out that Sandro Botticelli was buried in Florence. We found the church tucked into a neighborhood but it was late in the day and the doors were closed. It was raining and I almost burst into tears. We walked around the corner to see if there was another way in – no luck. As I walked back around the corner though…the doors were open!!! YAY!! The church was beautiful and contained a painting by Botticelli. There was another person buried there who took us completely by surprise – a name I hadn’t thought of since high school history – Amerigo Vespucci. Wow. The church was once under the sponsorship of the Vespucci family. If you don’t remember who he is: America was named for him.

I’m going to wrap this up with some photos from our last day when we explored the Boboli Gardens and some of my other favorite things in Florence – I’ve got to end this at some point!

Yep, that’s right! We are FINALLY in Italy. Finally. Sigh of happiness. We stopped in Louisiana for a few wonderful days with the Grandson and Daughter in law, spent a week in Berlin (again, finally!!!) with the Brother and his family, before flying into Bologna. We haven’t spent any time in Bologna yet as we headed directly to Parma as soon as we got here. Why Parma? We have been asked several times how we arrive at our decisions on where to base ourselves, so this is a good time to explain that process. Usually first we decide on a country, often considering where we are coming from as we try to keep travel costs down as much as we can! Then, depending on the size of the country, we consider in what part we want to be in – in the case of Italy we wanted to be more north (this time). Then we consider how expensive, or cheap, each area is. We have found that we do prefer to be in cities, with an emphasis on smaller cities, as it is more manageable without a car. The final decision often comes down to where we find a place to stay that we get excited about. Sometimes, like London, it’s a matter of simply finding a place that we can afford – even though we know our home is not going to be ideal. With Parma the apartment seemed fine, but the host showed every indication of being amazing – and she is!! Plus, just before we arrived, she offered us a bigger apartment at no additional cost since it had suddenly become available. Sweet! So, as you can see, our process of choosing where to stay is the equivalent of throwing a dart and seeing where it lands.

Parma. Not along the highest traveled routes of Italy – but it should be! It is a fabulous small city with a fantastic vibe, gorgeous medieval (and earlier) areas, not full of tourist trinket shops, beautiful parks and generous, kind people. Plus, if Italy is the food capital of the world, then Parma is the food capital of Italy! If you’ve not made the connection: Parma, as in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as in prosciutto di Parma. It also shares the balsamic vinegar tradition with Modena. Parma sits almost exactly halfway between Milan and Bologna on the ancient Via Emilia – which runs right through the city. There isn’t much in the way of Roman ruins here, but it is fun to know that the Roman road is still used!

As I said above, Parma equals seriously yummy foods. So, last weekend we went on a day long food tour with Daniela, tour guide extraordinaire. Daniela had already taken us around Parma to teach us about the history of the city, so we were excited to see more with her. Our first destination was to learn about parmesan (as Americans tend to call it) cheese making. I’ve seen the production on TV shows, but to see it in person is amazing. Watching the people making it is like watching a finely choreographed dance – each person has a specific part in the process.

We sampled 12, 24 and 36 month cheeses. The flavor is pretty intense at 36 months. Our favorite (because there is a difference!) is the 30 month from red cows (seriously) that we get from the amazing cheese shop around the corner. Why, yes, we have become parmigiano snobs. I’m okay with that.

Our next stop was at the Medici Ermete vineyards, a smaller, family run operation. While the wines are outstanding, especially the sparkling wines, we were there for the balsamic vinegar. They use the Trebbiano grapes grown in their vineyard, crush them and then cook the mixture until it is reduced by about 30% (grape must). We were not there during the harvest season so we didn’t get to see this part. The grape must is then placed in barrels and stored in the attic. Why the attic? Because the extreme temperature changes (very hot in the summer to quite chilly in winter) are part of what makes the vinegar extraordinary. As the must ages it is moved from one kind of barrel to another to create different nuances. There was a barrel of vinegar in the attic that was the present owner’s grandfather’s! And the taste…sweet, just slightly tangy. Incredible! If you want to take a look at the website for the vineyard, it is https://www.medici.it/

We came away with several bottles of wine and one very special bottle of vinegar 🍷

Our last stop on this food tour of excellence was for Prosciutto di Parma. We had to drive into the foothills of the Appennine Mountains to reach the production facility. I’m sure the views would have been glorious – if there hadn’t been thick fog. The production of prosciutto is not as pretty as that of parmigiano or balsamic vinegar, but the end product is so delicious and to see the way it is created is fascinating, There are other prosciuttos out there, and some of them might be very good, but the standards required to be branded Prosciutto di Parma are very strict and tightly regulated ( if you are interested https://www.prosciuttodiparma.com/en/home-page/ ).

On our way to the prosciutto production facility we passed what we thought was either an ancient monastery or a castle. Turns out it was a castle – and a gorgeous one at that! Of course we had to stop and visit it🏰

Castello di Torrechiara was built beginning in 1448 and was considered to be a major fortress, built atop earlier fortresses. It is considered to be one of the best preserved castles in all of Italy (and we stumbled upon it!).

An educational and delicious day! This was the first of the many adventures I’m certain we will have while we are in Italy.

Since I am so woefully behind, as is happening all too often, this is more of a summary. Yeah, I suck.

We really, really enjoyed our time in Scotland – and we spent way too much money doing a lot of fun things! All experiences we are glad we got to have though.

We very much enjoyed our time in Inverness – it quickly felt homey. It is definitely a place we want to return to!

We are in love. Utterly and completely. Our eyes were shining, our hearts sang – the Isle of Skye is truly special. We used the US Labor Day weekend to take a four day mini vacation but we could have easily spent a week there. I hadn’t driven in a month so it was nice to be behind the wheel again.

To get out to Skye from Inverness (which is where we have been based these last few weeks), it’s about a two and a half hour drive. You drive along several lochs (including Loch Ness) and through many glens in the Highlands. It is a beautiful drive. When we got to the coast we were at our first stop. The one, the only…Eilean Donan Castle. The early scenes from Highlander (the old one) were filmed here, but for me, it is the location that was used for my all time favorite music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOO5qRjVFLw , This is Your Fight Song/Amazing Grace by The Piano Guys. I was just a tad bit giddy 🤩

By the time we finally got to Portree on Skye it was late afternoon so there wasn’t much opportunity to explore. We stayed in a guesthouse just outside the main area of town – an easily walkable distance – which was good because we were on a quest to sample as many Scotches as possible. The grand total of drams tasted during our five weeks in Scotland? 26.

We packed a lot into our weekend and we were very fortunate to have had mostly decent weather! Our hiking shoes definitely got a workout. The worst weather we encountered was when we went out to the Fairy Pools – which also happened to be the most disappointing point we visited. Scotland had had very little rain in the five weeks prior to our visit, which meant that the fairy pools and their waterfalls were pretty meager. I guess we will just have to go back! Of course there was a torrential deluge the day we visited, with strong winds. All in all a very unpleasant time was had there. Yep, definitely will need to go back.

The hike to Old Man of Storr was a highlight. We headed out first thing in the morning, which was smart because there were a lot of people headed up the path as we were walking back down. The views from up there were spectacular and the hike was definitely at the moderate end of the rating scale. Some places were most adventurous!

After our hike we were starving, but we hadn’t brought anything with us. We had seen signs for a couple of cafes a bit further up the road so off we went. Um, yeah, oops…with the low tourism/pandemic life none of them were open. Finally we came to a tiny grocery store where we were able to get sandwiches. Lesson learned.

Once we had some sustenance we continued up along the coast of Skye, dodging sheep in the road. We made several stops, some planned, some – oh look at that! Stop!

We continued up and over the northernmost point of Skye, constantly in awe of the glorious views, both of land and sea. A bit further along we came to the turn off for the Faery Glen. Not far up the road it was almost like we had entered an alternate plane. There were small hills all over, all covered in brilliant green moss and some flowers. interspersed among the hills were beautiful ponds. The area had the air of making you believe fairies really were present.

We hauled our tired selves back to Portree for a quiet dinner and an early night! The next morning we were off to the famous Fairy Pools!!! We have seen pictures of this place and couldn’t wait to see it for ourselves. Lack of rain, however, meant it was far less than spectacular. We were so sad!! We will just have to go back another time. Of course, while we were there it did start to rain…and then it started to REALLY rain. We were beyond drenched by the time we got back to the car. Ugh.

Right near the Fairy Pools is the Talisker whisky distillery – perfect place to get the Husband a dry t-shirt and to get the Brother a birthday gift! They do offer tours but you have to book them way in advance. The distillery is located in a really cute little village too.

Next stop was Dunvegan Castle, the clan seat of the MacLeods. The gardens are spectacular – we wished we could have spent more time there. The castle itself, from the front isn’t as castley looking as I might wish – which is kind of funny, because in the late 19th century it was remodeled to make it more medieval castley looking! The inside though…wow, the inside is so cool. And there has definitely been a castle on the site since at least the 13th century. Where the castle sits on the southwest side of Skye is nothing short of spectacular!

Our final stop on this weekend was Neist Point. The Brother had told us that we should go out – and we should take a picnic. Um, he wasn’t there in September! We made the drive – which is a bit of an adventure in and of itself – and we made most of the hike to the lighthouse. That was enough! No part of this excursion was for sissies! Heights don’t bother me much, however, this path made me a bit nervous.

I started writing this right after we went to Skye…with grand plans for other Scotland posts. Then we went home. And nothing got done! So, here I am, a couple of months later, finally finishing this post. I’ll do another quick one, mostly just photos, in the next few days because it’s time to move on! I have new adventures💖

We hadn’t intended to go to Edinburgh. Well, we did, and then that got cancelled several months ago, so we figured we would get to Edinburgh another time. Due to several events, we found ourselves wanting to leave York a week early and what better place to spend that week than Edinburgh! We even were able to get a hotel right in the old town. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was going on too, although in much reduced form, with outdoor acts mostly. This made it very fun for us as we were able to see all kinds of performers – although I have to admit to a fair amount of concern as people were crowding together. We did our best to stay to the edges of the crowd. We were even able to hear a lot of the acts from our hotel room 😁which made it a bit easier to work in the afternoon and evenings.

As is our usual, we did a walking tour early in the week. We find it can really make a difference in our enjoyment of a locale. And then, just to be different, we did a night tour with a paranormal professional! She was full of interesting stories – no, we did not see any ghosts. Both tours are ones I would recommend. And The Bow Bar on Victoria Street is a definite recommend! We wanted to figure out if we liked Scotch Whisky – we knew we liked Irish single malt Whiskey (yes, the different spellings are intentional) – but we associated scotch with smokiness. Like licking a campfire. Shudder. The two people who were working at the bar (and taking COVID restrictions very seriously – thank you!) really listened to us and led us to find that we love highland and speyside whiskys without any smoke. Much gratitude to them, although our wallets are perhaps less pleased.

We didn’t leave the city center on this trip, there just wasn’t time. We did try to walk every street in that area though! And what fascinating streets they were. Every few feet there were walkways – called closes – between buildings that led to other buildings and some of them looked like they hadn’t been touched in a few hundred years. These medieval cities fascinate me. Even new town, down below old town, with its Victorian roots was beautifully done.

The Scots take their literature very seriously, and Sir Walter Scott is considered the best of the best. Perhaps his most widely known work is Ivanhoe. Scott was one of the first authors to write about Scottish history and he is much loved for having recorded these stories. Many authors have statues, some are even quite large. And then there is the memorial to Scott:

We toured Edinburgh Castle and the palace of Holyroodhouse. The Royal Regiment of Scotland is based at the castle, but otherwise it is not used for many official occasions. There has been a castle on the site since the 12th century and was used as a royal residence until 1633. One funny bit about the castle: when Queen Victoria came for a visit to Edinburgh she declared that it didn’t look like a proper castle! She had a new gatehouse built that she felt looked more medieval than the medieval one did. Sigh. But she loved Scotland.

The palace of Holyroodhouse is still an active royal residence, but somehow it feels homey. That’s weird, right? But it does. The state rooms are available for touring – plus, and this was huge for the history nerd, the bedroom of Mary, Queen of Scots. The rooms (they are up a cramped spiral staircase) were little used after she left, so are the same as they would have been in the 16th century. The furniture is not the same, but has been selected to look as authentic as possible. It was definitely one of those emotional places for me.

Amongst all of the history packed into Edinburgh is one slightly more modern tidbit: around 1995 a poor, single mother worked on writing a book that had been in her head for a few years. She often worked in a coffee shop in Edinburgh called the Elephant House…the rest is history!

And now, for some assorted views of Edinburgh…

Will we return to Edinburgh? Absolutely. Hopefully in another couple of years we will again buy tickets to the Edinburgh Tattoo (it was cancelled for the second year in a row), rent the Husband a kilt and cross our fingers for nice weather that night!

We hadn’t planned to do much traveling while we were staying in York. Originally we had hoped to get out to Scarborough (just so we could sing the song🤩) – but that plan didn’t work out. Our host grew up in Harrogate and took us for a quick evening drive through there so we decided it definitely deserved a day trip! We also had planned to go to Durham on our journey from Cumbria to York. When we had to change things around we decided to make it it’s own day trip. I’m so glad we did that!

Harrogate first. It seems that most everywhere in England is a quick and easy journey from York. Crazy, busy train station with ten platforms, which is really something for a town its size! And because this is still England, we have a Harry Potter reference. The York train station was used as a stand-in for King’s Cross station in the first movie. Not sure why they didn’t use the real King’s Cross…

Harrogate is the epitome of Victorian elegance. What a pretty town. Kind of made me wish I had a elegant Victorian era day dress to wear – minus the tightly cinched corset of course. There were gardens everywhere, and some massive parks with various formal gardens within them. There are also the Victorian bath house and places to “take the waters”, as Harrogate was known for its mineral rich water (with a decidedly nasty taste!) with supposed health properties.

The decision to go to Harrogate was very last minute – I am so glad that we did!!

On another weekend we went up to Durham. I had thoughts of seeing the Durham Cathedral, and we tried to stop there on our way to York, but that didn’t work out. This way ended up being better anyway, as we were able to take our time.

Durham Cathedral. Oh wow. A stunning building begun in 1093 – its purpose? To house the bones of our friend, Cuthbert (we met him back on the Holy Island/Lindisfarne a few weeks ago). Saint Cuthbert was one of the most revered people of the medieval period, surpassed only after the murder of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The body of the Venerable Bede is also at Durham. Bede is known as the father of English history, as his book, completed in 731, is the earliest known history of Britain. He also wrote the history of Saint Cuthbert, as well as many books on other subjects such as mathematics and calendars. He was integral in establishing the date of Easter in the western Church. After Bede died in 735 he was buried at his monastery at Jarrow (a bit north of Durham). Sometime after the construction of Durham Cathedral a monk, deciding that Bede should be in as grand of a place as Cuthbert, stole the body of Bede and buried him in Cuthbert’s grave. Unfortunately it’s not really recorded how it was determined that Bede should stay at Durham, but stay he did. And in 1320 he was given his own grave in the cathedral. The room where he lies is probably my favorite part of the cathedral (the Husband’s too). There was a light and music installation in the chapel that imparted a serene and deeply moving experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity to travel to such amazing places!

That would be old (and I do mean OLD) York, not New York. I knew it was old, but I was thinking medieval-wise. No, it’s old Roman-wise. In fact, here’s a historical tidbit that I was definitely not aware of prior to being in York: Constantine (the great) was proclaimed emperor of Rome, in 306 AD (or CE, whichever you choose), while posted at Eboracum – later to be named York! This made Eboracum the capital of the Roman Empire during that time period. Wild stuff, man! So, yeah, York has been around a few years. And, other than William the Conqueror’s massive snit (where he decided to decimate the population of Yorkshire because he was mad at them for revolting against him) in 1069, York has remained remarkably unscathed. Which means there are LOADS of really old buildings and city walls and wonky streets and…all kinds of cool stuff!

Let us begin with York Minster. It is a cathedral, so it is also called York Cathedral (clever naming convention, no?) and it is one of the largest of it’s kind in Northern Europe. The first recorded church on the site was in 627, and there have been many structures built, burned down, built, demolished, built, damaged in war and built again. The majority of the current structure was constructed in the 1200s. The archbishop at that time, Walter de Gray, wanted a building comparable to the cathedral at Canterbury – so it’s a pretty impressive building. The time of the English Reformation brought a lot of damage to many historical aspects of the interior – don’t even get me going there – although Oliver Cromwell (grrrr) was kept from causing additional damage during the English Civil War by one of his own commanders. It’s also pretty awesome that you are able to climb up (inside, of course) one of the towers. The stairs are very tight and circular, as all good medieval stairs are, and there are 275 of them. I did it, but that knee that needs to be replaced? Yeah, it was not happy during or after. The view though. Wow.

The place we stayed during our time in York was about 20 minutes by bus from the city center, so we got to know the #6 bus very well. And we learned that using the old city walls to get from one side of town to the other was very efficient! That was a pretty interesting concept for our modern brains.

The walls of York are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England. Even the Scots couldn’t get past them (and they tried). There were, and still are, four entrances to the city. Some of the gates (actually they’re called bars. I’ll get to that in a moment) have had significant work done through the centuries, but a lot of the really old still stands. Monk Bar has its portcullis still!

So, in York a street is a Gate, a gate is a Bar and a bar is a Pub. Gotta love old language!

One of the most famous streets in York is called the Shambles. It is has a lot of very old buildings, is still very narrow and looks exactly how you would imagine a medieval street to look – minus the horsey doo-doo laying about and chamber pots being emptied into the gutters. It is claimed to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. Maybe it is. Enterprising businesses certainly are banking on this – my favorite store name was The Shop That Must Not Be Named.

Now I’m just going to share a bunch of photos from around the city. Love York…really love that place.

Our three weeks in York really flew by. We didn’t travel much, just a couple of day trips that I’ll detail next. We enjoyed our time there and hope to return again one day!