On to bigger and better... I could go on and on about how great Italy was with my mom, because it was, but instead I think I'll just give you some highlights and then let you look at all the pictures. First, traveling with my mom was awesome! The weather was ridiculously hot and while one would think I might be used to it, having lived in Dubai and all, I'm not. There were days when I was literally drenched in sweat and freaking out. The difference between Dubai and Italy, is Dubai is set up to avoid the heat and places are air conditioned to the point of being freezing. In Italy, everyone is still doing the same old thing, walking around and acting as if it isn't a zillion degrees outside and humid.
Venice was great! We took a train ride up from Rome, stayed at a great little place right near the Rialto Bridge and basically walked around, ate awesome food and took tons of pictures. We got up early one morning to take pictures and there was this massive rat right on the bridge, I was thinking maybe the pictures with people weren't so bad...
Venitian Masks
St. Marks Square
Mom on the Rialto Bridge
Rialto Bridge
After a few days in Venice, we went to Murano Island too, this really cute place where Venetian Glass is made, we went up to Lake Como. We stayed in Varenna, it was gorgeous! It was also a nice break from the heat. It wasn't cold, but I wasn't dripping in sweat either. We hiked up to our hotel from the train station, lugging our backpacks and then hit the "beach" for a few hours. The beach was hilarious. It was this cement slab, covered in pebbles and a boat dock landing that went into a freezing lake. I'm not sure I realized how great the OR and CA beaches are till I realized this was the "much better equipped"beach in Varenna. We relaxed, ate more great food and took a boat ride to Bellagio, which was another cute little city.
Mom and her backpack
Me and my backpack
Bellagio
Lake Como
View from our hotel, where we had breakfast every day
View from our hotel room in Varenna
Varenna
Next we moved on to Cinque Terra. We stayed in Vernazza in yet another really cute place with great views! We hiked, relaxed, drank wine and ate lots of pesto. It was AMAZING and incredibly relaxing. I think I read 3 books. I took lots of pictures, but you really can't see how gorgeous the hike is and how much fun it is to hike into each city. Each city was a little different, of course, I think I liked Vernazza the most :-)
Manarola
Mom hiking
Mom and I just about to Manarola
This is for all you GU in Florence people... remember the bridge?
Here it is again
For those of you that jumped off that thing, crazy. Way too high, probably dangerous and so typical of things Bruno suggested.
Terraces
Vernazza
Vernazza
View from our deck
Me, very busy
Next, we went to Florence. I can't say enough about how great it was to show my mom where I went to school, different places we ate, or the markets we went to and all the little things I did 12 years ago. That is impossible to believe, how is it that 12 years have passed since I went to school there? We once again, stayed at an awesome hotel, it was about a mile from the Ponte Vecchio, so we had to walk a little ways and in the heat it was potentially miserable... but it worked out great! They had this evening apertif, which my mom and I turned into our free dinner every night. How could we resist? Wine and snacks every night at 6:30? Delicious... We spent our time in Florence walking around, had our "museum day" and went to San Giminano (Sp??) one day, took a ton of pictures, ate, drank etc. same thing in a new city! I absolutely LOVED showing it all to my mom. And, I loved seeing it all again myself. Every time I go to Italy, I think, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get back here and when am I going to come back again?
Ponte Vecchio @ night (you wouldn't believe how many pictures of that bridge I have, and how many different settings I tried...)
Where I lived
Me in SG
Mom in SG
SG
Santa Maria Novella (right next to where I lived)
School
Mom and I
I just accidentally erased two great pictures... but I guess this will do. And, I'm getting paranoid somebody is going to notice that I'm working on my blog at work... I''ll try to get a little slideshow thing just in case someone is interested in more pictures... I took about a zillion. Someday I'm going to read that manual that came with my camera.
So, I'm sad that summer is over. I had so much to look forward to, loved every part of it, including my time in Canada, I know, shocking. I didn't have near enough time with anyone that I wanted to see, but I guess that's the way it goes... maybe next summer... or not, who knows.
Dubai should be interesting. I'm heading over to a friend's house to go for a swim after work, then dinner at some place that I won a voucher to that has to be used by August 18th... then another day at work...
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