Archive for July, 2008

I am in Venice, and I have to say, I am in love! Shabby and worn this city may be, but it is fabulous. Now if all those other tourists would just disappear and leave me to it! I am staying here for three nights; not long enough, but Florence awaits. I am staying in a lovely B&B called San Giacomo and my hostess, Itala, is lovely. The place has three bedrooms and the guests share breakfast at the same table.

I haven’t been able to “do” everything, but have loved what I have done (have to save something for next time… yes, there will be a next time). I have wandered the laneways, not quite getting lost (I am amazed how easy it is to remember land marks and routes). I have travelled almost the whole length of the grand canal by vaporetto. I have taken the lift to the top of the bell tower and stood amazed at St Mark’s Basilica. I have visited the islands of Murano and Burano (Burano was my favourite; I loved the candy-coloured houses and the bell tower on a decided lean). I have eaten in tiny trattorias and stood enjoying the sensory overload at the fish market. I have had a random conversation with an old man on a vaporetta about the architectural history of the houses along the grand canal, and talked at length with an American nurse stationed at a US Army hospital in Germany whose job it is to treat the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tonight there is a festival on the harbour and fireworks. The water is already filling with yachts of all sizes and it promises to be quite a party. Not sure if I can handle the crowds. We will see how the mood takes me! In the meantime I am off to Florence tomorrow. Wonder if George Emmerson will make an appearance this time? He didn’t get the memo that I was in town in 2005…

Ah, sweet Verona.  What a lovely little town!  So yes, Verona is a real place.  Shakespeare didn’t make it up.  Didn’t really have an original bone in his body, the Bard.  Liked to take tiny threads of truth and weave marvellous tales about them, never letting that truth get in the way of a great story!

You can visit the house that the real Juliet lived in, stand on “that” balcony, wander through the house (beautiful it is too, well worth a visit for its architectural and historical interest alone), and grope the right breast of a statue of Juliet, which is supposed to bring your lover running.  I resisted the temptation, mainly because it involved standing in line with about 100 other tourists.  My future lover will have to find me another way!!  I also visited the tomb of the real Juliet, which frankly was a little cold and damp and miserable.  Don’t suppose tombs are supposed to be cheerful, cosy places though!

There are a number of sites of Roman interest also, including an arena smaller than the Colosseum but still impressive.  They were holding operas there in the evenings which would have been fun had I thought to get myself organised!  Ah well, off to Venice tomorrow.

So on Monday I transfered back to the train station at Avignon TGV to await my train to Nice and then Milan.  I had 15 minutes between these trains, so you can imagine my concern when I discovered the train was 15 minutes late!  I asked about it at the ticket counter, and the woman made a call and told me that I should show my ticket to a conductor who would try to hold the Milan train for the minute or so it should take me to board.  What I didn’t count on was the fact that there were forest fires near Marseilles that caused the train to be further delayed by two and a half hours! Needless to say the Milan train left without me and probably a dozen other tired and disgruntled passengers.  It was the last train of the night so I had no choice but to find somewhere to say, not an easy task at 9pm in the summer on the French Riviera!  I found the last bed in a youth hostel in a shared room with David from Seattle – a pleasant squeaky clean American lad with an obsession with killing mosquitos.  Didn’t sleep much because I was anxious about getting the train at 7am the next morning, but I was safe and comfortable.  So I got the train to Ventimiglia at 7am, then a train to Milan at 9am.  Thankfully I had accidently booked at extra day’s travel on my rail pass, so it only cost me an extra 5 euro reservation fee.

Betcha Brad and Angelina never have this trouble…  They and the twins send their love, by the way!

I finally got some washing done today and spent the afternoon wandering around the duomo in Milan – spectacular.  Am off to Verona tomorrow to hob nob with the Capulets and Montagues!

The aim of my week in Provence was to walk from village to village with the occasional transfer by taxi.  On the first day I walked 19km from St Remy to Les Baux and back again. It was a hot day, but the walking was quite managable.  The views from the range were lovely and Les Baux is an amazing village with a castle perched high on the rocky hill.  I know there are all sorts of strategic reasons for building castles on top of a hill, but it is annoying to keep having to walk up steep narrow paths!!!  I had lunch in the village, then visited a site whose name escapes me at the moment, but is a quarry that has been dug out of the mountain side to form large spaces onto which images are projected along with a soundtrack.  The exhibition changes each year, and is currently displaying the work on van Gogh.  It was stunning!

The next day the plan was to walk from St Remy to Eygalieres, which sounded simple enough.  Only 18 km and the route seemed straight forward enough. However it was even hotter than the day before, and the path, which started out as a perfectly respectable mountain trail, soon turned into a rediculously rocky and narrow path that some moron thought would be most fun it it passed over a series of rocky ridges.  It was far too hot, my feet got shredded, and I decided that once I eventually made it back to the hotel, that was me done with the walking!  Wandering the streets of cute villages is much more sensible in this weather!After all I was mostly paying for the hotels and taxi transfers, not to have my feet shredded on those horrid rocks.  (for the record the walking was tougher than Ireland AND Nepal…).  All the villages were divine.  Not sure which is my favourite, but Gordes and Les Baux were certainly spectacular, while Fontaine des Valcause was quiet and refreshing.

So that was me done in France!  On Monday I was off to Italy… or so I thought!

I woke early again, dang that jet lag, had, breakfast, then went for another walk up all those stairs to Sacre Coeur and around Place du Terte.  I was due at Gare Du Lyon to catch my train to Avignon, and decided to spend the money on a taxi so I could see a little more of Paris.

I had treated myself to a first class rail pass (not as expensive as you might think) and very comfortably ejoyed the 2 3/4 hour journey through the beautiful French countryside. I was met off the train by a taxi driver (and by the way, it was nearly 10 degrees warmer here than in Paris – sorry to all of you who are shivering in SA – its about 28 in Provence!).  The driver took me to my hotel in St Remy-de-Provence, the Hotel Gounod, which is very nice indeed!  Wonderful decor, a gorgeous bed with white linen, bath products from L’Occitane en Provence (yum) and the scent of Verbena in the air!  Far nicer than what I would normally stay in.

I went for a walk around the old town, which was full of all those lovely crafts and products I could not afford nor had room for in my suitcase.  At 5pm I was met by Jean-Marc who was to give me an orientation on my waking tour.  He quickly whisked me through the topographic maps (too quickly?) then left me to it.

Dinner was a part of the package and was at the Hotel Le Mas des Carassins.  I ate the most gorgeous meal I have had in ages (5 courses) seated in a beautiful garden.  Just lovely!  Then it was a lovely walk home to my hotel and bed.