I have a photo album containing 395 pictures (maybe half of the total shot). My mother and friends from all over won't have a chance to see the album soon, so I took advantage of my father-in-law's new scanner of Christmas to capture some of these photos.
Warning -- I'm going to be gushy and over-explain things as some visitors to this page haven't been there themselves (and it was the trip of a lifetime)! Many of the scans came out darker than the original photograph. I don't have access to something like Adobe PhotoShop, so I haven't been able to reduce the size of the pictures to display better over slow modems and low-resolution screens (e.g. 640 by 480). Image sizes range between 50 and 150 kilobytes. 28.8kb/sec or better modems are recommended. Some were 100dpi and some 150dpi. They will look best at thousands or millions of colors. There are about five megabytes of pictures here.
We visited the Louvre museum area each day, once on a bright morning and once in a glowing warm afternoon. We took the metro from our hotel to Place De La Concorde (112kb). An Egyptian obelisk is mounted at the center of this square, which saw over a thousand people guillotined during the French Revolution. Texans will note that the ornate lamp post to the left of the obelisk looks somewhat like a saguaro cactus. At least it did to me!
In one direction, you look down the broad avenue Champs-Elysee, to the Arc de Triomphe. In the other direction, you look through the formal gardens to the Musee du Louvre. These gardens, built in the mid-1700's for Louis XIV, are called Jardins des Tuileries (Mom, that's pronounced in a very fun way - Twee-la-ree). Diana (62kb) standing in front of some of the flower beds.
Here's the view looking back from the Louvre to the Arc (116kb). Between the Tuileries and the Louvre is this arch (77kb) commemorating Napoleon's many military victories. As you can see, it was made of many colors of marble. The age of western civilization (that "how old Europe is" sentiment that is required from American travelers at some point in their trip) was made clear to me when I reached Rome and saw a very similar arched monument next to the Coloseum from days of the Roman Empire. It was already ancient when Napoleon commissioned this version. I love the ceiling detail (74kb) found on grand old buildings and monuments in Europe. (This picture makes me think of the saying "The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust)
In the 1980's, President Francois Mitterand commissioned a number of grand projects in Paris. One of them was a new entrance to the Louvre. The choice, a simple glass pyramid (48kb) in the center of a courtyard, was a perfect counterbalance to the ornate detail of the arms of the palace which surround it on three sides. It opened in 1993 and was designed by I.M. Pei.
This part of Paris made me feel as if I were on the the Mall in Washington D.C. It is the grand ceremonial heart of the city. I realized that it was no accident -- I had walked to the Louvre through a sequence of public spaces which were placed in a straight line and kept clear of visual obstructions. This open vista of monuments, gardens and buildings creates a sense of grandness of which I am fond. Both the Mall in Washington D.C. and the Rice campus were laid out ahead of time by architects influenced by Paris. It took vision to build up over centuries in Paris, only good taste to duplicate in the younger two sites.
We walked from the Louvre over to the Ile de la Cite, an island in the middle of the Seine River. The Notre Dame cathedral is here, as well as Sainte-Chappelle, a king's chapel tucked away in the middle of what is now the police headquarter's courtyard. We sat on a bench in front of the cathedral with a great view (76kb) and ate our lunch. The sky was blue and the air crisp - we love the fall! It is a great time to get married and to take trips. Note how the lower one third has not been cleaned yet. Here's a photo of the main door (147kb). Each of these singing angels was different. I thought they must make quite an impression on a small child told by his or her mother that all of these angels were watching them.
Here's a closer view of the complete front of Notre Dame (116kb).
Next, we toured Sainte Chappelle. Here is a view of the ceiling of the lower chapel (137kb). Unfortunately, the rich blue ceiling with gold fleur-de-lyses didn't come out as bright in the scan as it is in the picture. Here is a great (but large) photo of the stained glass walls (106kb) of the upper chapel. The entrance is not easy to find, but it is worth taking the tour, especially on a bright sunny day.
We went to the top of the Eiffel tower on the afternoon of our first day. Maybe it was the thin air, maybe it was the jetlag, but I felt like we were on top of the world. Boats were passing by below us on the river and you could see how large the city was, stretching in all directions. I found it interesting that there were no skyscrapers and most of the buildings were the same white/yellow marble color. There must be a long history of building code restrictions. I also noticed that the window awnings were all of the same color throughout the city.
You go up in two stages -- via enclosed cable car up one of the sloped legs, which, as you can see (136kb), are huge. (I snapped a picture looking straight up (72kb) from the center of the base.) There will be a big party on 12/31/1999 in Paris.They are already counting down the days (54kb) with a large illuminated sign on the Eiffel Tower. From atop the tower, one can see Sacre Coeur (78kb) on Mont Martre, the highest hill in Paris. (This picture makes me feel as if I were in Turkey looking at mosques. The tour book says it looks like a wedding cake. You decide.) We visited Sacre Coeur (20kb) on our second day.
In conclusion, I'd like to say: "It's good to be the king!"
We stopped in the city of Lucern for a late dinner and a walk across its famous wooden bridge, then continued on around the northern shore of Lake Lucern to the small, quiet town of Weggis. We checked into the luxurious Hotel Albana and went to bed around midnight.
We woke up and went to the patio expecting a brilliant blue sky and a breathtaking view of mountains. We found ... a dark and dim sky with a low and thick cloudcover. Compared with Paris, it felt as if we had stepped from early fall into the depths of winter. Dejected, we ate breakfast and talked to the concierge. He said no problem - the view was great up on Mount Rigi. We didn't believe him, but we didn't have any better alternatives, so we had one of the hotel porters drive us through town to the Weggis cable car station.
You can get a very good idea of the lay of the land (164kb) from this postcard. The small towns along the north shore of the lake (Weggis, Vitznau, Gersau) are below a mountain called Rigi. You can take a cable car from Weggis to the small town of Rigi-Kaltbad. You can take a train up from Vitznau to Rigi-Kaltbad. This train continues to the town at the summit of the mountain, Rigi-Kulm.
We took the cable car (steeply) up through the dense clouds into .. BRILLIANT SUNSHINE. There are a number of stories I could tell about the afternoon we spent up there, but eventually we made it all of the way up the mountain. I didn't scan in any of the pictures from our hiking, train and cable car rides. They are pretty nice. Here is an artistic shot of the mountains stretching away to the horizon (28kb) that I'd like to blow up and frame. When we came down in the afternoon, I took this shot of the ferry leaving for Lucern (30kb).
The second day we woke up late, ate a very luxurious and slow breakfast in the sumptous dining room looking out over the lake. We packed and Diana went downstairs to check out while I sat on our hotel patio and wrote postcards for a few minutes until noon, when we had to check out. I looked at the graceful church spire (46kb) and decided that the sweeping vertical lines were perfect. The noon ferry tooted it's horn and pulled away from town, bound for Vitznau. I stood, snapped this photo (96kb), and took my leave of a place that made me feel incredibly tranquil. Goodbye Weggis - for now...
We drove eastward along the northern shore of the lake. The next town over was Vitznau. We parked the car and walked down to town ferry station in time to listen to a beautiful waltz played by a community band. We checked out the pretty Hotel Vitznau, bought some chocolate Christmas presents in a little shop and inspected the train station. Remember, trains run from here to Rigi-Kulm.
We continued on to the east through the town of Brunnen. This photo (105kb) may give you an idea why I wouldn't mind being reincarnated as a deckhand on a Lake Lucern ferry. At least during the summer and fall. As we left Brunnen we pulled into an overlook and marveled at the view. Looking to the east, the lake was a shimmering pool of sun-fire (160kb). Looking west and down-sun, we could see the greenest water in the world. It reminded me of the wonderful green rivers of central Texas - San Marcos, Guadalupe, Pecos. Here's Diana standing in front of Brunnen (82kb). She's leaning on a guardrail that keeps one from falling about three hundred feet straight down into that green, green water. (Sorry, Marcela) The view made you breathe deeply and say "Wow, wow, WOW!" Boats were going every which way (160kb) as the Swiss took advantage of a clear day before winter. Someone sailed by in a parachute over the lake towards Brunnen - I don't know where they jumped from!
Lake Como is shaped like an upside-down capital Y. The town of Bellagio sits at the point the Y. We stayed two nights, which is about what it took me to recover from driving down the narrow and twisted road along the lake shore. This view of Bellagio (83kb) was taken from an opposite shore near the Villa Carlotta, which has extensive gardens. One day we took a hydrafoil up the long part of the Y and back. We got out, toured the gardens, and returned via a small ferry carrying three cars, a medium-sized truck and a full sized BUS.
We went to Milano next for two days (see below). We drove south to Cremona for an afternoon to visit a friend of Diana's from high school and then to continued on to Sirmione for a day and a half. Cremona was a quiet medium-sized town but it had a fabulous little opera house. We didn't have time to see the violin museum -- Cremona is where violins were invented and where Stradivarius worked.
The town of Sirmione sits three-quarters of the way along a thin peninsula jutting out into Lake Garda. The peninsula is divided by a narrow band of water, across which passes only two small bridges. Those are at the foot of the castle (106kb). The town is an outrageously-priced warren of tourist shops and restaurants, but beyond it lies a number of estates and the ruins of a large Roman bath. We walked out to the bath complex along the eastern shore path and back along the road through the estates. There is not a lot of land, but people have been wanting to relax there for thousands of years.
Diana went to high school in Milano and wanted to show me where she had lived for those three years. We had a room in a small hotel one block from the Duomo and the Galleria and right next to a metro line. A great location and a most interesting shower!
The bathrooms in Italy (and France) usually don't come equipped with shower curtains. One is supposed to take a bath or get the whole place soaking wet. This hotel room DID have a shower curtain, but it was a small one to protect the mirror, because the whole ROOM was the shower. It was a tiny little enclosed room within our motel room with a drain in the floor, a door that sealed tight and a shower nozzle sticking out of the wall. It wasn't until we were about to leave that I discovered that the sink and the toilet slid back and forth along the wall (!), so one could move them aside to get more room for showering.
We visited Diana's old apartment complex, twice ate in her favorite restaurant, Happy Days, and twice had terrific ice cream across the street at the Gelateria Marghera. We had a very relaxing time, hanging out in the square in front of the Duomo (69kb), from which one can look into the Galleria (125kb), which is shaped like a cross and has four entrances. Nets are hung over the entrances to keep out the enormous number of pigeons in the area. We walked through the Galleria (125kb) to see the most famous opera house in the world, la Scala. Diana sang a few notes there from one of the guest seats, so now she can put it on her resume. Every town has one or more Catholic churchs but the main one is called the duomo in addition to its full name (for example, the one in Firenze is really called Santa Maria del Fiore).
If you go to Milano near the Galleria, have someone look up the address of a bakery called Luini's. They make the world's best panzerotti (like tomato and cheese calzones but deep fried).
We drove from Sirmione to Padova (Padua). We toured the basilica of St. Anthony and had a cozy dinner. The basilica was very interesting, with many domes on the outside. The tomb of the saint was located in a very ornate chapel with a blue and gold gilded ceiling, silver covered tomb, and many monks patrolling to prevent people from taking any pictures of these things. The tomb was covered with pictures and letters from people who had written to thank the saint for his protection in their times of need. Many photos were of survivors of car accidents. In the nave of the church was another chapel in which one could view the saint's larynx, tongue and jawbone. (Evidentally he was a great orator. We found this somewhat bizarre. Don't get too close to them or the monk standing guard will get nervous.) As we left the church, we noticed that there was a very visible change in decoration as you grew closer to the entrance. It looked to us like they ran out of money decorating his tomb and didn't have much left for the rest of the church.
We woke up early on a Saturday morning and drove from Padova to Venezia, only about 35 miles. We parked our car and took a traghetto (boat bus) to St. Marks cathedral via the Grand Canal. Venezia has many small canals and one large one in the shape of an S. Many of the fanciest homes/palaces are found along this busy passage.
We walked to the cathedral past rows of artists at their easels selling their watercolors and oils. It was pleasant to see so many different renditions of similar scenes, but it made it difficult to choose two to take home. Advice: Bargain and bargain hard! We overheard one artist quote a price to a tourist which was promptly rejected with a laugh. The artist turned to another and said - guess that was too high! Another tourist walked up and was told a price only half as much as what had been offered to the first person.
I have five pages of pictures, but here are the few that I scanned in: Typical gondola scene (91kb) looking out across the Grand Canal. Venezia's eastern location led to a lot of Byzantine influence. This is visible in the decoration of St. Mark's ceiling with mosaic tiles instead of paint. Mosaic doesn't fade over the years like paint, and the strong morning sun made the gold tiles covering the bulk of the ceiling glow and shimmer. Here's the death of Saint Mark (84kb). This angel (104kb) is slightly out of focus, but it gives a dream-like quality to the photo.
We didn't have much time for Venezia because we had to check into our villa in Toscana by 7pm. We did a lot of shopping for Christmas presents and leapt on board a traghetto out of town. I shot this woman in a gondola in the sun (113kb) and we were gone.
We hurriedly drove from Venezia to the Chianti valley south of Firenze (Florence) and north of Siena. Our villa was in the hamlet of Colle Petroso (Rocky Hill) between the towns of Radda in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti. We arrived late but found our villa unlocked for us. A kitty ran in as soon as we opened the door. We named him Goloso (Glutton) because he specialized in mooching off of visitors. (It's good to be the villa kitty!)
Advice: Get a catalogue of villas from Vacanze in Italia, 22 Railroad St, Great Barrington, MA 01230 (800) 533-5405 and daydream. They have villas in many price ranges. We gave up on the idea as too expensive after looking at the first three villa catalogues that we received. And call well ahead! All of our first choices were reserved when we called in July for an October trip. The company owner had visited many of the properties in his catalogue and was very helpful in steering us to the right choice. And here's a link to a bunch of information about Tuscany.
Our villa was a terrific base of operations for a week of touring Toscana's towns and cities. We went to Firenze and Volterra twice. Siena, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano were seen once. We ate leisurely breakfasts in Radda twice. Our villa was part of a building which had been divided into three apartments overlooking a pool. Here's the view up from the pool back to the villa (112kb)
Books are written about the things to see and do Florence. Here are some of my many photos. The surprising thing about the duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) is that they used such bright pink and green marble so extensively. When you see the church in movies set in Florence, the large brick dome is what you remember. We came around the corner and I said: "It's pink! It's green!" As you see from the side of the duomo (160kb), they were enthusiastic about squares. They are less obvious when viewed from the Boboli gardens (duomo dome and campanile (73kb)). Directly in front of the duomo's front doors is an octagonal building that served as the city's first church for a long time. Now it is called the Baptistry. There are three doors into the Baptistry. Each was decorated by a different artist. Ghiberti's door, right across from the main church entrance, is the most renowned. Here is one of the door panels (109kb) to help you see why Michelangelo called them the doors to paradise.
The Uffizi museum contains many famous paintings and pieces of sculpture. They don't lower the admission price when they close off rooms full of the art, but we found over half of them closed. Here is a pretty shot of the two wings of the Uffizi (29kb) looking back towards the civic museum next door, the Palazzo Vecchio, and the duomo.
We also spent time in Siena. Here's what the innocent tower of the Museo Civico (94kb) looks like to someone lying in the piazza (square) del Campo. I suggested to Diana that she display her joy (85kb) at being here on such a nice day. Then I got up and illustrated my movie plot idea (90kb). While the duomo in Firenze uses that green and pink marble, the duomo in Siena prominently features black marble. Here's the campanile (bell tower) (101kb). I thought that the decreasing number of arches as you descend was unusual and interesting.
The Chianti valley (famous of course for its wines) reminded us a lot of the hill country of central Texas. The trees were shorter, more olive green and with smaller leaves than elsewhere. Limestone could be seen just beneath the surface everywhere (it would be even more fertile if only they could speed soil formation!).
Maybe it was something in the air, but even the earth itself was beautiful in Toscana. The texture and colors of the earth were interesting in their own right. This was emphasized because many of the fields were plowed and bare when we were there. And the hilly terrain afforded you a view of more of the surface of the fields. I noticed that the earth came in many shades within the same field. On the square mile in upstate New York where my family has lived for the last 200 years, the soil is colored differently where houses have stood in the past. Of course there are other reasons for that, but thinking about old homesteads as we drove past so many fields made me think of how many families must have lived on them in the past 2,000 years. The soil around Volterra was particularly interesting. We went there twice, once in a light rain and the second time at sunset. One could get great landscape pictures of that area if he had more time to sit and wait for the right lighting and season. This hillside (90kb) on the (very) curvy road to Volterra from Firenze caught my eye both times we drove past. The picture didn't capture the warmth of the tans and beiges and light greys of the hill in the last sunlight of the day. And the scan came out really dark. But it reminds me of the place.
We drove to the Umbrian cities of Todi and Spoleto on our way to Roma. Looking down from Todi we could see a marble quarry (35kb). In Spoleto, Diana found a kitty (44kb) to assuage her kitty loneliness. (I like this picture. She's never happier than when with her kitties.)
I've gone on too long - this will be short. We spent our last two days in Roma. Here's the interior of the main dome (95kb) on St Peter's cathedral. Looks like a postcard, no? As you walk into the entrance, you look up and see Jesus and eight other figures (95kb).
We ascended the dome and looked out over Roma. I took a series of five photographs of the square in front of the church using different settings of my telephoto lense (28mm-220mm). Here's the first, wide-angled view (91kb). You can see how the two rows of columns (designed by Bernini) reach out like arms to enfold the people of the Church. You can also see how the oval-shaped domes on the side of the church (above chapels) do not project above the main roof but form wells. Note the black dots running down the face of the dome between the two ribs from the right edge of the picture. These had spikes in them and appeared to be candle holders for large votive candles. We wondered who had been given the job of replenishing those light sources in days before electricity (you can't see them, but now there are rows of lights running down the dome). There are a large number of chairs set up in the square because the day we arrived a celebration was held to commemorate the advancement of five people along the sainthood track (I believe the correct term is that they were beatified).
Here's a closer view (93kb) of the square and the tightest view (95kb).
The Vatican museum is huge. One of our favorite parts was a long hallway of paintings of different areas of Italy. Evidentally they were there to help Popes understand the geography of their possessions. These paintings were very detailed -- we even saw the town of Castellina in Chianti on the one of Toscana. Here's PART of my favorite, a coastal map (65kb) with sea creatures, a huge compass rose and bright gold gilded lettering. We could have spent all day in that ONE hallway. Diana has fond memories of lingering in that hall with her sister Patricia on a visit when they lived in Milano.
