N and R were in Como, and then Milan, but are now in Paris

We've reached the final leg of our trip, a one month stay in Paris. I'm not sure how two months passed so quickly. At any rate, we spent a couple days on Lake Como in the resort town of Bellagio (I've never seen so many asten martins, rolls royces, and mazeratis) before driving to our final italian stop, Milan.

On the last day in Bellagio, we had drinks at a lake front cafe, which looked like this:

We also took a boat ride (basically public transportation connecting all the lake villages) from Bellagio to Como and back. The boat ride was great, the views amazing, and we even stopped at Tremezzo, made famous by George Clooney who apparently lives there. The boat ride looked like this:

N and R in Lake Como also looked like this:

Next we drove 1.5 hours south to Milan, where we returned the rental car. We were there during Milan's Fashion week, which is such a big deal that we actually could not even find a hotel in town, but stayed in the suburbs. While we didnt see anyone famous, we did see several tall skinny model type people followed by camera crews walking around. Milan was full of people who looked like they were out of magazine adds, even more so than New York or Paris. It was pretty interesting to see. As a big city, there's alot to do in Milan, and we didn't have time for too much in the one afternoon we spent there, as the following day we were heading out for Paris on a 6AM train. In any case, the duomo there is incredible, and when N and R stand in front of it, they look like this:

Finally, at 430AM on saturday, we awoke, and took a taxi to the Milan train station, where we boarded a train that took us from Milan to Paris over seven hours of amazing scenery. The train passed through the italian and then french alps (picturesque lakes and snow capped mountains out the wazoo) before passing through some of the most breathtaking countryside i've ever seen. In the final two hours of the trip, passing through central france, we saw fields of patchworked green and yellow stretching off into the distance, the yellow being rapeseed flowers (used to make canola oil). The flowers were so bright yellow and so vast in their presence that it was a really amazing sight. and of course, i didn't take any pictures. Driving through Chianti and the rest of tuscany a month ago i thought italy had the better countryside, but this train ride reminded my that the french countryside, which is much underrated, is actually even more picturesque.

To conclude, we've safely arrived in Paris, have been here for two days, and I will post soon about our early adventures in this city.

N and R were in Ravenna, Bologna, and Venice, but are now in Bellagio

Our week of travels before settling into Paris has been going great. We left florence last saturday and drove to Bologna. Bologna is the culinary capital of italy, and for good reason....the pasta there is amazing! we ate well, and hung out in their very medievil central square, which features a giant fountain by my favorite renaissance scultpor, Giambologna. They also have two leaning towers. I'm not sure why I didn't take pictures in Bologna, but it was a really lovely city.

Next we went to Ravenna, which is famous for its 5-6th century mosaics that decorate several churches in the historic center of town. These are the best preserved examples of Byzantine art....and well they were fine. R liked them maybe more than me. I thought they were cool but was not blown away. I was quite happy however, when we stumbled onto a farmer's market and came across a beer stall...the brewers from this small italian craft brewery (Cajun) had a table set up, and after enjoying several samples I bought some nice bottles of italian beer. finally.....in florence and further south i had alot of difficulty finding good beer, as it seems people there are pefectly happy drinking bad beer. In Ravenna we looked like this (note leaning tower in Ravenna also....its like no one in italy knew how to build foundations for their towers):

and some of the mosaics looked like this:

The next day we drove north to Venice, where we spent two days. I could say all kinds of awful things about Venice (the food is bad...there are no locals....they nickle and dime you and everything is expensive.....it is touristy to the point of disneyworld, to name a few), but when it comes down to it, R and I loved it and had a great time. For all the times I've seen Venice in the movies or on tv, and knowing that it is a city of hundreds of interconnected islands, nothing really prepares you for seeing it with your own eyes....It was difficult for me to imagine how such a city ever came into existence, let alone rising to be one of the most powerful and influential cities in italy during its heyday. There are no cars, all supplies are delivered by boat. The public transportation is all boats. There are countless buildings that have a door, a few steps, and then water, with no dock or anything. In fact the hotel we stayed at had a dock out front for guests arriving by boat. I cant imagine how people lived this way. Now of course they don't....all the real Venitians have apparently moved to the mainland because of rising prices in Venice, which has become increasingly focused on tourism at all costs.

When we first arrived, it was a really nice sunny day, and we enjoyed prosecco on Piazza San Marco, which looked liked this:

Gondalas are all over venice and look really great, but the cost of riding in one (>80 euro) is pretty ridiculous. nonetheless, seeing gondola's floating down alleys and cannals adds alot to the venetian scenery. This is what a gondola repair shop looks like:

The wine-boat, which delivers jugs of wine to all the local restaurants looked like this:

Finally, N and R in venice looked like this:

This morning, we left venice, and while we were sad to leave, it was hard not to be cheered up knowing that we were trading one boat ride (grand canal in venice) for another (ferries on lake como). So we drove about 5 hours west across northern italy, and are now in one of the Italian lakes, Lake Como, which is nestled within the Italian foothils of the Alps, in the Lombardy region of italy. We arrived just before sunset, and I will for now just leave it at this. The view from our hotel looks like this:

N and R are on the road again

Somehow, six weeks went by and our time in florence is over! We packed everything up tonight and will be off to Bologna tomorrow. After one evening there, we will head to Ravenna on the eastern coast of italy, and after an evening there we will head north to Venice for two days. That is the next time we'll have internet, 4/11. More from there...

N crossed some things off of his to do list...

There are many things that over the last 5 weeks here I had said to myself "oh i should do that sometime." Today, with only three days left before we make our way to venice, I decided its time to start knocking things off my to-do list.

First: caffee correto. This is a traditional italian beverage, which is basically just a a cup of espresso, spiked ("corrected" hence correto) with a shot of grappa, a hard (very hard) grape base liquor. I'd seen many people ordering this (even as early as 10AM), and had decided that, as gross as this sounds, i must eventually try it. Today I did! It was very strange, and also quite good. I really cant believe ppl here drink something so stiff before even lunch time. Especially considering lunch often involves beer or wine, is followed by negronis, and finally by wine with dinner and followed by dessert wine. The tolerance of ppl here must be pretty amazing that they are not constantly drunk. Anyways, the corretto was a good way to cap the pre-dinner walk, and is something I may experiment with when we return to the US.

Second: Trippa al Fiorentina. That's italian for tripe. A very popular florentine dish, tripe is the name given to the first three chambers of the cow's stomach (recall cow's have four stomaches). I finally worked up to this, having a cold trippa salad as my first course at dinner tonight: tripe served in olive oil, garlic, parsely, carrots, and celery. The american couple sitting next to us also ordered this not knowing what it was, and while they were quite put off by it, I thought it was very good! Ok it was a little wierd to be able to see all the layers of stomach muscle, lining, and all, but it was in fact very tasty. Tomorrow I will tackle the third to-do task, which is to eat the fourth and final chamber of cow stomach, called lampredotto. R will no doubt be on hand to document with pictures.

N and R enjoyed another spring day...

It was actually hot today...we got gelato twice: once for sorbets (i got mint and strawberry) once for gelato (spanish almond and hazelnut). We also spent a good chunk of the afternoon sitting in a caffe on the Piazza della Republica, one of the big squares of florence. We enjoyed two florentine drinks, the negroni (bright orange drink made from gin and campari and blood orange) and a carabria (or something, made with rum brandy and bitters) at a caffe that has been around since the early 1800s. Drinks looked like this:

It was a nice way to enjoy the weather, and we also did alot of people watching. People look like this:

Also, dada, you will be glad to know that there was also a pretty happening renaissance performance going on in the square, complete with sword fights and costumes. We really thought that if there's any one place where renaissance fair would mean an arts festival it would be florence, but alas. medieval sword fights look like this:

N and R are enjoying springtime

I've been afraid to say it for fear of jinxing us, but it's finally spring! There have been a few rainy days, but other than that the weather in florence has been incredible. We have started making it a regular part of our day to go to the Boboli gardens (giant Medici garden on a hill overlooking the city center) and sit. This became much more relaxing after I convinced a reluctant R that parks are best enjoyed by lounging in the grass. Now we take a blanket, and R reads and writes in her journal. I alternate between napping and trying to draw sketches for things to paint. Today there were alot of school groups at the gardens and while i was napping R watched some teenage drama where this boy and girl were arguing and eventually she got so worked up she took her shoe off and threw it at him. This is what we look like in spring:

N wouldn't quit his day job (if he had one)....

I finally did some painting, and quickly decided that I paint not because I'm good at it, or even that I am expecting to eventually be good at it, but instead because it's fun and relaxing. The other night I painted my first tuscan countryside. While I nailed the cypress tree, I cant say anything else really panned out. I did this over a beer while listening to music, which made for a very relaxing evening. If, however, I dont get better at this painting stuff soon, I might just buy some things off of the street guys and say i made it. For now, though, my tuscan countryside looks like this: