Tuesday, September 18, 2007
and so .... my last week in zurich ...
okay so the pics are not your usual travel pics but they do reflect my enjoyment of my experience of place ... i love to explore a sense of place, whether i am travelling or at home ...
on the way home from italy
notwithstanding bologne (our first stop) and florence (our last) - my two least favourite spots - i wanted to end the italy experience on an up note ... and the pink cow does it ! outside a petrol pit stop (where the best food ever is served - see earlier posts) on the way back to zurich ! ...
it was, of course, all fantastic ... the least faves only help to elevate the really really great spots ... i had the most amazing time during this time ...
Day 8 in italy - going home (to zurich) via florence
Saturday 25 August 2007
We decided to leave today rather than tomorrow morning. We left early and stopped in Florence. (Firenze). My least favoured place apart from Bologne which was day 1.
A tourist place - to the extreme ... vendors everywhere outside all the monuments - multpile vendors ... keyrings and leather belts from china, nigerians hawking faux leather handbags and posters of famous artworks outside the uffitzi gallery, painters from naieve through realism to abstract and many portrait artists doing 'you' in pencil and charcoal.
The vendors continue throughout the city along the ponti vechio bridge lined with silver and gold jewellery shops.
lunch was a disappointment and shameful for Italy based on what we have experienced so far. The gnocchi was not hand made and they dished it up in bottled tomatoe sauce and a busker was making a nuisance of himself playing the accordian and when one customer paid him some attention he did a musical number and then went through the whole restaurant (which was an outdoor under cover restaurant on the piazza opposite the uffitzi gallery) asking every person for money for listening to the music. and and and .... We told him no.
We took photos of the statues and stopped enroute to home to have dinner - home at 10pm, showered and two episodes of 'Thank God You're Here' which Jon had downloaded and we slept until 11am Sunday morning.
≈≈
We decided to leave today rather than tomorrow morning. We left early and stopped in Florence. (Firenze). My least favoured place apart from Bologne which was day 1.
A tourist place - to the extreme ... vendors everywhere outside all the monuments - multpile vendors ... keyrings and leather belts from china, nigerians hawking faux leather handbags and posters of famous artworks outside the uffitzi gallery, painters from naieve through realism to abstract and many portrait artists doing 'you' in pencil and charcoal.
The vendors continue throughout the city along the ponti vechio bridge lined with silver and gold jewellery shops.
lunch was a disappointment and shameful for Italy based on what we have experienced so far. The gnocchi was not hand made and they dished it up in bottled tomatoe sauce and a busker was making a nuisance of himself playing the accordian and when one customer paid him some attention he did a musical number and then went through the whole restaurant (which was an outdoor under cover restaurant on the piazza opposite the uffitzi gallery) asking every person for money for listening to the music. and and and .... We told him no.
We took photos of the statues and stopped enroute to home to have dinner - home at 10pm, showered and two episodes of 'Thank God You're Here' which Jon had downloaded and we slept until 11am Sunday morning.
≈≈
Day 7 in italy - sienna
Friday 24 August 2007
Sienne. Walking through narrow laneways and cobbled stone pathways past buildings that have accommodation upstairs and businesses on the ground floor; interesting, colourful, flower pots and ephemera. Reaching the piazza and one is overwhelmed yet again by the sheer size of the buildings, the architecture, gorgeous statues, fountains and marble. This piazza is the place for the annual horse race where thousands of people come to watch cramming into the centre and around the whole piazza. Lots of lovely little places to eat and here we found a tiny restaurant and had THE best gnocchi ever.
The clock tower was part of a fortress and different to others we had so far seen. the Clock was closer to the base of the tower and the tower went for about three stories high.
Just outside of the piazza was another glorious church with fantastic architecture, complex facade and beautiful workmanship and materials used throughout.
It was here we found a shop called Cherie.
We stopped on the way home to pick up some groceries and ate picky food at home. Wine, cheeses (parmesan and bufffalo), sardines, bread, tomato, oil and balsamic
Sienne. Walking through narrow laneways and cobbled stone pathways past buildings that have accommodation upstairs and businesses on the ground floor; interesting, colourful, flower pots and ephemera. Reaching the piazza and one is overwhelmed yet again by the sheer size of the buildings, the architecture, gorgeous statues, fountains and marble. This piazza is the place for the annual horse race where thousands of people come to watch cramming into the centre and around the whole piazza. Lots of lovely little places to eat and here we found a tiny restaurant and had THE best gnocchi ever.
The clock tower was part of a fortress and different to others we had so far seen. the Clock was closer to the base of the tower and the tower went for about three stories high.
Just outside of the piazza was another glorious church with fantastic architecture, complex facade and beautiful workmanship and materials used throughout.
It was here we found a shop called Cherie.
We stopped on the way home to pick up some groceries and ate picky food at home. Wine, cheeses (parmesan and bufffalo), sardines, bread, tomato, oil and balsamic
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