Under the Tuscanan sun.

I was going to give you a rant about our 60 minute cancelled train and our two hour wait to be transferred to our hotel …  but we finished the day with a great meal.

L being told how to eat figs. Figs should be pealed and eaten with the prosciutto. They are so good R eats whole.

They don’t look ripe – but they are – not cooked – soft and sweet.

Tuscan resturant

Vino – local

Figs – best ever -yum

Spinich roll of some sort – yum

Lamb – have only seen crops being grown in Italy

The beef – just as good

Two things done today in Florence – Pitti Palace and Florence Duomo

Pitti Palace – what a suprise – didn’t expect to see somthing like this – comes very close the palaces we have seen in France.

Florence Duomo – in the centre of Florence – always large queues awaiting entry – we join the queue in the afternoon – fairly plain inside – except the floor and the fresco ceiling of the dome.

Pitti Palace:

l

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Florence Duomo:

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l

Day 2 in Florence – many museums – many churches – confused as to what we should visit.

Florence. Seems there are many museums and many chrurches. Many different options and different 

bundling packages.

We elect to visit Palazzo Vecchio ( the old town hall of Florence) this should give us a great view of the city as well as many ornate apartments. 

View of Florence Duomo

Florence Duomo

Palazzo Vecchio

Florence Duomo

Basilica of Santa Croce

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

Pallazzo Vecchio and Tower

Inside Pallazzo Vecchio

Inside Pallazzo Vecchio

 

Today we catch a train from Venice to Florence.

Journey time about 2 hours, we arrive in Florence at 1.00 pm

Train station in Venice is like any other train station in Europe. Trains and people going everywhere.

We have an air bnb in Florence – we think it is close to the station.  

But seems we are further than expected.

We finally arrive at our accommodation – a good choice.

There is only so much research that you can do online – we have a timed entry to see Michelangelo’s David. We exchange our email for tickets. Present tickets at the door, wondering if we need to find a special room where we would need to queue for our allocated time. No, once you are in the museum it is merely turn left and there he is….. simple … if you know how …. nothing is every the same.

Seems one of the things to do in Florence is walk to the top of one of the hills and admire Florence at sunset. Seems lot of people doing the same thing.

Pizza and wines on the way home at the bottom of the hill. Then a walk over the Ponte Vecchio bridge and a 4 1/2km walk home. Bed was extremely welcoming.

L admiring buildings of Florence “Santa Maria Nova Cathedral”

R W and the man in the hat – hot footing it through Florence

Michelangelo’s David Front (L’s back)

Michelangelo’s David -Rear 

Sunset view over Florence

Rain has disappeared – beautiful blue sky day in Venice..

Our accomodation is basic but I would think it is typical of Venice accomodation.

We spent  quite a bit of time wandering in Venice yesterday. So elect to visit St Mark’s Bascilica and 

St Mark’s bell tower and St Mark’s square.

There is a bit of a theme here. 

All impressive.

We have purchased a 24 hour ferry ticket so are going to visit Murano and Burano. Other islands in the Venice group. Venice is on a large island – very extensive canal system with no cars or bikes but with many cruise ships. 

Everything has to be ferried or trolleyed for point to point.

Nothing is in a direct line – you are sent left then right in a maze of shops, houses and lane ways.  B (& google maps) are our chief navigators, and are doing a fantastic job.

Many shops sprucking their wares – & so many resturants out on the pavement.

So many bridges – most with steps – making it difficult for those with luggage.

Murano is a pleasant change to Venice – same canals / bridges as Venice – but way less tourists.

Murano, known for its glass making. So many shops selling things made of handmade blown glass.

Burano, known for the making of lace, more commercial and more tourists, lots of colourful houses. Those living on Burano have elected to actually paint their houses, rather than let them deteriorate from weather and time. Quite cute.

We really haven’t had a chance to stop for the last 13 days and had no washing machines until today. We elect to eat-in, wash and relax. Haha, really not relax, we go for Grand Canal ferry ride, to see the sights and lights by night.

Venice to Murano and Burano .

The view from our Air bnb

Our accommodation in Venice – tallest building – top floor

St Mark’s Square – bell tower on the left

 

Venice

St Mark’s Bascilica

Murano Glass ( Venetian Glass ) in Murano

Glass Christmas tree in Murano

Burano canal – with the ever present Insta glamour

Gelato – anyone ?

Single scoup cone  1.20 to 2.00 euro,  Double scoup 2.40 to 4.00 euro

Mosaics inside church in Murano (L happy to see patchwork patterns everywhere)

Murano Canals

Mestre is situated on the mainland of Italy, about 20 minutes from Venice.

A bus ride from our hotel to Venice, a bit of a pain with all our luggage. Our check in time at our air bnb is not until 2.00 pm. We have requested to drop off bags at 11.00 am 

You arrive in Venice – People everywhere and it is raining. Our air bnb is probably about 1 km away. So a bit of a slog, but in fact compared to other areas of Venice, it would seem we are actually very fortunate.

Access code to access the building, then three flights of stairs to our unit. door to unit is opened by the previous tenants. I guess they haven’t vacated at 10.00 am. We quickly drop off our bags then go for a very long wander.

We don’t return to our unit until 9.00 pm.

We are right on the canal, with water views. The sound of water can be be heard lapping as boats negotiate the canal.

Venice, a strange existance – unique, nice but very commercial. 

Rialto Bridge, Venice

Canals of Venice

Gondola boat rides @ 80 euro ($129 aud) for  30 mins – 6 people

St Marks Bascillica , Venice

Bridge of Sighs

Venice canals

Ahhh ! I am cheating . I have two days of blogs to complete. But I think it is easier to blog what has just happened (today).

So we have just arrived at our hotel after 6 days of cycling and approx 350 kms in the saddle. 

There were only a couple of injuries. Both B & L have bruises as the result of bikes falling over while stationary. 

But apart from that – alll survived quite well.

Today we travelled from the thermal district (Near Padua) into Padua. Apart from heated pools and some bubbles that we saw in a canal – there was no obvious Thermal activity (boiling water and mud pools from the ground)

Padua (evidently it is Taming of the Shrew) is a thriving city. In the centre of the city a fantastic market place.

Many deli style shops – selling every Italian food item that you could think of. Outside, vendors selling all types of fruit and vegetables. And all so clean.

Padua, a place much larger than we have seen earlier and so Italian. So beautiful.

Coffees in the Piazza, Lunch in the park.

On our way to Mestre we stop off at an impressive villa (Villa Pasani) and gardens. There is a garden maze. Most complicated that I have been through. B, W & R are successful, whilst L was photographing.

Arrive at our hotel. Out for Pizza. In a back street. Lucky we arrived at opening time. At least 5 in the kitchen, 4 or 5 waitors. When we left – place was packed – great pizzas.

Off to Venice tomorrow… by Bus…  no bikes.

Our bikes get treated well, Second hotel where we have marched our bikes through the reception

area of the hotel.

The markets of Padua – nothing like Paddy’s markets.

The Duomo (Cathderal) in Padua – the ugly side – magnificent inside.

Buildings of Padua

Padua Buildings

Inspecting a Villa Pisani

The backside of the villa (no photos of front – not sure why)

The horse stables at the villa

Pizza – yum

Day starts out with rain… which is a shame

A stinker of a day…. No clouds.

32 Degrees – Over 75 kms in a day to ride – R & L have never done + 75 kms in a day.

Drinking so much water – R has drunk at least 6 litres.

We stop for lunch in a beautiful walled town  – Soave – Castles – pretty as.

Even though our tour is self guided we often meet up with fellow travellers (at the hotel + along the road).

We discover later that some of our fellow travellers stopped for lunch at Soave and decided it was better to catch a train to next hotel – thus avoiding 40 kms – seems like a good idea in hindsight.

B is feeling the heat – we search for somewhere to buy cold drinks in a small town. Has two supermarkets

but all they sell is cold milk. We eventally find a Gelataria that sells cold drinks (not on display)

B feeling much better after hour rest and drinks – 25 kms still to go. 

There are two options for last 25 kms – hilly section (really nice views) and flat section (ok views) . We opt 

for hilly section. Part of hilly section involves 4 km of continuous up hill – a hard slog.

Back to nice countryside – Grapes, corn, olive trees are the main crops.

Arrive at Vicenza for overnight – a really long day.

R able to buy a cold beer at local supermarket still very thirstly – (walking beer) to drink whilst we do our walking tour of Vicenza.

Another nice town.

Countryside

Soave – A walled city

Fellow travellers had lunch here

Last night we arrived at Perchiero – another cute town on Lake Garda. We are wandering the streets at 10.00 pm – so many people out and about – stilll eating in outside resturants. Many theme parks nearby – only explanation of why it is so busy. Maybe it is stil school holidays.

Back from breakfast this morning and L realises her iPad is missing. 

L is not sure where she last saw it, but feels it was left at the last hotel. A 50 km bike ride and a 5 hour boat ride ago and we are moving 35 kms today to our next hotel.

All we need for a nice relaxed start of the day.

L calls the hotel in Trento and is advised to call back in 30 minutes. L calls back later to be told that they had found the iPad. They are going to give it to the man that picks up the luggage. Hopefully, it arrives at the next hotel.

Todays cycle is pretty uninteresting. Landscape has flattened.

We arrive at Verona hotel. Courier that transfers luggage just happens to arrive at the same time as us. Red ipad in hand. Lucky L, because L would never hear the end of it from R.

Good timing.

Time for a well earned swim in the pool before we explore downtown Verona.

Verona – think of Romeo and Juliette – where for out though Romeo – and we saw the actual balcony where it all happened – so excited.

Verona, cute, clean, old, lots of people – such a nice town.

We are going to the opera tonight in The Verona Arena to see Carmen.

A great experiance – Act 1 finishes – then 20 minutes interval. At the end of act 2, it was 10.30 pm, with another interval of 20 minutes and still two acts to follow. We decide that we have slept enough through our Opera experience and decide to leave and xhead back to our hotel.

Verona Arena – with some of the props waiting outside for the next opera (Aida, we think)

More props at Verona Opera

A church in Verona

Verona

Us at at the Opera

Verona Arena

Romeo Romeo

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Verona – so many amazing buildings

Castelvecchio Bridge Verona

Castelvecchio Bridge Verona