Gosh, I know all (3) of you are waiting with bated breath for details on the trip! I shall not disappoint you. Cousin ‘O Love and I (pictured below on the Venice Gondola ride with our wonderful tour guide Maria) had a fabulous time. Italy is lovely – better than I expected, truth be told. The people were so nice and friendly (not at all (AT ALL) like France), there was basically no language barrier and it’s true what Eddie said in Dress To Kill:
Yes, and I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from. Well, we got tons of history lying about the place, big old castles, and they just get in the way. We’re driving– “Oh, a fucking castle! Have to drive around it…” We got tons of them, ‘cause you think we all live in castles, and we do all live in castles! We all got a castle each. We’re up to here with fucking castles! We just long for a bungalow or something.
Driving around Rome (an experience in and of itself, trust me), there are castles and cathedrals and ancient ruins around every corner. It’s simply amazing. I don’t recall being moved like this by big old buildings when I went to England (1976) or France (2005) but this time, it just thrilled my soul. Of all the things we saw, I have to say that Michaelangelo’s statue of David took my breath away. It is stunning to see the detail that went into this work. I plan to read some about Michaelangelo (an interesting fellow, so I hear) to understand the man that left us such masterpieces. Believe me when I say that pictures of this statue in no way do it justice. It is, in the truest sense of the word, awesome.
So anyway,today I went to a bookstore to see if I can find the actual names of some of the places that match my pictures. Posting one that is captioned “Cathedral 497” doesn’t help much, does it? Didn’t think so. I am working on getting all the pics up on my picasa web page so you guys can see everything (even “Dome 954” taken somewhere in Italy) and will let you know as soon as I get it up.
If you want to visit Italy, I highly recommend Gate1 Travel. And if you are lucky enough to have Maria Fiori as your tour escort, you can do no better.
I am so jealous! After reading Under a Tuscan Sun, Italy is on list of places to go and see.
The cathedral comment was the same that I heard on a school trip that I took to Denmark with HS kids. But all the cathedrals there became Protestant, so we would make snarky comments about stealing from the rich…Great picture. More for tt13?
Aw! YOU do look beautiful! And so happy! Yay! I am still laughing at cathedral 479! Ahhh 479, just mentioning it takes you right back into history…..
What a fantastic photo. How fun!
I am so glad you had a great time. Was Da Vinci friends w. Michaelangelo? I would love to see a picture of that. There are so many beautiful things in this world that we don’t pay attention to.
Heya – You both look SO beautiful! How did you get Linda Lanvin ( from Mel’s Diner) to go on your trip?? I can’t wait to see the rest of the pictures, numbers and all!
Kim