The historic center of Florence is just about two miles in size, but throughout the year, this area is host to approximately 10.2 million visitors, all navigating the same narrow lanes and visiting the same handful of sites. When I set up residence for a month last May, I thought I was sneaking into the … Continue reading
About seven kilometers from the Piazza del Duomo but still in Florence proper is the Stibbert Museum, the stately home of Frederick Stibbert (1838-1906), a man born into wealth to an English father and Italian mother. Stibbert inherited the considerable family wealth at age 21 and began a lifelong passion of collecting military armory and costumes. … Continue reading
Up the coast a bit and just a short train ride from Santa Margherita Ligure is the colorful fishing village of Camogli. (Click here for the Italian pronunciation). With a lovely seaside promenade and a large beach area (although rocky, not sandy), this is a popular spot for vacationing Italians. “Lore has it that Camogli, … Continue reading
The not-too-big, not-too-small seaport town of Santa Margherita Ligure, situated on the sparkling Mediterranean, has proven the ideal home base to start our Italian adventure. An easy two-hour drive from Milan and just 30 minutes from Genoa, Santa Margherita is connected to nearby towns including Camogli and Rapallo by ferries and a train station. The next town … Continue reading
If this shot above were wider, then just a bit to the right you would see Florence’s iconic Duomo, capping the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Pictured here, however, a very similar-in-“miniature” dome graces the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of the Princes), one of two structures comprising the Medici Chapels in the complex of the … Continue reading
If the universe had commissioned Walt Disney to create Italy, what he would have crafted, in my opinion, would have looked like today’s Verona. Verona is that exquisite, and magical. Verona Image Credit Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. The entire city of Verona has been named one of UNESCO’s World … Continue reading
Il Ponte Vecchio “Water under the bridge” is a common English saying. In Italian one would say acqua passata non macina più, literally translated as water gone no longer roils. Regardless the language, the water under this famous bridge is the river Arno, which it has spanned for centuries. The Ponte Vecchio is one of my … Continue reading
