Scott left early this morning from Milan to head back to the bay area which leaves me free to recount the events of the past two super cool yet foot cramp inducing weeks!
The adventure began in Paris at Charles de Gaulle Airport. As I sat at our designated meeting spot more than an hour after Scott’s flight landed I wondered if the day was going to be much more interesting than expected... Yet, just as I started to really wonder what had happened to him he showed up! His flight has gotten in early and he had tried to meet me at my gate but apparently we had crossed paths! We made our way to the metro stop and headed towards the center of town. The metro system in Paris is really great. They make it so easy to get around. We had no trouble the entire time we were there.
Our first mission was to conquer the LOUVRE! They really weren’t lying when they said it was huge. The place is palatial! There was no way we could see everything so we stuck to the Mona Lisa, Ancient Egyptian art, Italian painters, and Sculpture. Of course every individual work of art was amazing, but the real awe inspiring part of the Louvre is just how many incredible works of art are housed there. After a few hours there we made our way to the Eiffel tower for an evening view of the now blue mass of metal. (Lit blue at night). The top level was closed so we decided to go up the second level and make our way to the top the following day. It is definitely a wonderful view. Throughout our time in Paris I climbed a lot of stairs and saw a lot of great city views.
Day two was devoted to Versailles, Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. I was so excited to see Saint Chapelle because originally I wanted to go to the Loire Valley to see all the castles in France but this was good because it’s basically the best one in the country. It was built by the sun king, Louis the 14th and is the perfect example of French opulence. The palace itself is amazing but the gardens were really the site to see. They are HUGE because Louis loved to hunt. They go on forever behind the palace. We only walked to the end of the “lake” right behind the palace and it took about 15-20 minutes! Saint Chapelle was probably my favorite church because the stained glass windows there are amazing. The space itself is small but the huge and very high windows ma
ke the space bright and beautiful. We saw Notre Dame and climbed the bell towers the following day. It was beautiful to see from across the Seine River.
The adventure began in Paris at Charles de Gaulle Airport. As I sat at our designated meeting spot more than an hour after Scott’s flight landed I wondered if the day was going to be much more interesting than expected... Yet, just as I started to really wonder what had happened to him he showed up! His flight has gotten in early and he had tried to meet me at my gate but apparently we had crossed paths! We made our way to the metro stop and headed towards the center of town. The metro system in Paris is really great. They make it so easy to get around. We had no trouble the entire time we were there.
Our first mission was to conquer the LOUVRE! They really weren’t lying when they said it was huge. The place is palatial! There was no way we could see everything so we stuck to the Mona Lisa, Ancient Egyptian art, Italian painters, and Sculpture. Of course every individual work of art was amazing, but the real awe inspiring part of the Louvre is just how many incredible works of art are housed there. After a few hours there we made our way to the Eiffel tower for an evening view of the now blue mass of metal. (Lit blue at night). The top level was closed so we decided to go up the second level and make our way to the top the following day. It is definitely a wonderful view. Throughout our time in Paris I climbed a lot of stairs and saw a lot of great city views.
Day two was devoted to Versailles, Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. I was so excited to see Saint Chapelle because originally I wanted to go to the Loire Valley to see all the castles in France but this was good because it’s basically the best one in the country. It was built by the sun king, Louis the 14th and is the perfect example of French opulence. The palace itself is amazing but the gardens were really the site to see. They are HUGE because Louis loved to hunt. They go on forever behind the palace. We only walked to the end of the “lake” right behind the palace and it took about 15-20 minutes! Saint Chapelle was probably my favorite church because the stained glass windows there are amazing. The space itself is small but the huge and very high windows ma
ke the space bright and beautiful. We saw Notre Dame and climbed the bell towers the following day. It was beautiful to see from across the Seine River. The following day we climbed the Arc de Triumph, walked the Champes Elysee, saw the place of the Bastille, went to the Orsay museum and the Rodin Museum, saw Sacre Couer Church and the Moulin Rouge! My favorite event of this day was the Orsay because it houses all of the impressionist art. I saw Monet and Degas (water lilies and dancers) along with a whole bunch of others. Needless to say, we were quite tired after this day.
Early the next day we got up and caught the metro back to the airport. We flew into Venice at about 12pm, plenty of time to get the major sites of Venice out of the way! Ha! This day we saw the interior of San Marco (Before it flooded the next day), the Rialto Bridge, we climbed the tower in Piazza San Marco, and saw the Doges Palace. We also ate dinner at one of the famous (and overpriced) restaurants on San Marco that plays live music (dueling orchestras). We lucked out and got a spot right in front of the piano. It started raining that night and the effects of this were definitely evident the next day. They piazza had flooded so much that they had put out raised walkways for all the people to walk on. The policemen had to keep yelling at the tourists who were stopping to take pictures. I was afraid I was going to fall off into the almost 1 foot high puddles of water. The next day we basically wandered and saw the Academia along with a few other churches that aren’t important enough for me to remember their names…We also saw the Peggy Guggenheim collection at her former summer home. We also made our way back to the Rialto and experienced the open air fish market.
The next day, after several hours of late trains and missed connections we made it to rainy and dreary Vernazza in the Cinque Terre ( five lands) on the cliffs near Genoa where white wine, pesto and anchovies are the thing to eat. We didn’t do much that first evening except enjoy a good meal and a walk through downtown (about a 2 minute walk). The next few days we relaxed and explored the towns. Unfortunately, the first full day there, a storm put a damper on our plans to hike parts of the trail between the five towns. Fortunately, Mother Nature decided to pull a 180 on us and the next day was beautiful and hot. We were glad because Cinque Terre just isn’t as beautiful unless the sun is shining. (We have both been there before)
We made our way back to Florence Sunday night in time for me to get ready for school the next day and I took Scott to a local restaurant near my school called Edi House. The next day after my classes we hung out on the Ponte Vecchio and Scott bought some souvenirs. I also took him to my favorite sandwich spot, the Oil Shoppe. On Tuesday Scott climbed the Campanile by himself while I was in class till 2:45. After, we went to Piazale Michelangelo and had some great gelato while we overlooked the city and Scott took pictures. On Wednesday we took a short train ride to Lucca and I showed him around. This was third time I had gone but I was by no means bored of the place. It’s very cute and the ramparts are great to walk on. We rented bikes for a few hours and rode around the city. We made it home in time to have a meal with my host family. They were really nice to Scott and prepared very typical Tuscan food for him to try.
Thursday afternoon we headed to Siena and spent the following day in San Gimignano. I've talked about these two places before so I wont bore you with the details. We headed for Bologna on Saturday and spent the rest of the weekend there. Bologna is cool because its big but its not touristy. The only things to see really are the church and the view from atop one of the many towers. We walked around a lot and ate TONS of food since Bologna is the culinary capital of the world. I had the best hot chocolate ever and tried pasta al ragu (Bolognese sauce = from Bologna).
A amazing two weeks for sure!
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