My second trip this month was a quick jaunt to Italy. We were in Firenze for 2 days of touristing and then off to Lake Como for 4 days for a work related event.
We seemed to be surrounded by American, French and German tourists everywhere we went in Florence. There were super long lines for almost all of the major attractions. So, since our time was so short we decided to skip most of the museums in favor of exploring the city on foot. We did however make it into one museum, the Bargello which is home to many beautiful sculptures. I particularly liked this work, "Madonna and Child".
The streets of Florence are extremely narrow. I would not want to drive around there! Here are a couple of alternative options.
The Ponte Vecchio bridge (along which there is a corridor of shops all selling gold and other jewelry), and the Duomo (the painted effect is accomplished with many panels of different colored stones).
One very warm afternoon we wandered up into the hills above the city and explored the Boboli gardens near the Pitti Palace. From the top there was a lovely view of the city.
Whenever I think of Florence it reminds me of a movie that a good friend and I used to watch over and over again when we were young, "A Room with a View" in which Helena Bonham Carter goes on a chaperoned trip to Florence and winds up meeting the love of her life at the pensione where they stay. We sadly did not have much of a view, but we did have a lovely room with tall ceilings and a chandelier.
After our short trip to Florence we traveled by train to Lake Como and stayed in the tiny town of Moltrasio. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire time we were there and since we spent the majority of our time working we didn't have too much time for site seeing.
Despite the rain it was quite beautiful. Everything was very green and lush. The hills above the lake are gorgeous. Many houses have their own kitchen gardens for growing herbs etc.
There was a large overflowing stream running down through the center of town, turning into a waterfall at several points along the way.
One of the nights we took a boat tour out to The Locanda restaurant on Comacina Island where they serve a very entertaining meal followed by a firey story of the island told by a man in a crazy outfit. There were lots of celebrity photos on the wall including the entire cast of Ocean's 11 (nope sadly we did not see George Clooney).
No comments:
Post a Comment