Italy, 6 cities, 15 days.

Florence doesn't disappoint We are finding that the amount we can do in any given day is limited by how much walking our feet can take.  Yesterday was the Ufitzzi, today was the other one, the Palazzo Pitti.  Our apartment is reallly close to this one but we started off with a long walk through the Boboli Gardens, a large ornamental garden with a full set of fountains and ancient statues in the grounds of the palace.  That took us up to lunch time and then a tour of the palace.  There was a bit of a panic as I managed to loose my phone but the staff at the palace were great and found the lost phone in record time. This is the palace - pretty large and this is just the front elevation.    The collection of art is quite astounding both in quality and quantity.  Far too much to take in but we did see our fair share of work by Canaletto, Tintereto, Carivaggio.   The modern art gallery on the top floor has a good display of impressionist work though I have to confess that, by that

Bucciolini Palace We are now sorted for Florence.  Our apartment is in a large old Palazzo a short walk from the river Arno.  The building is pretty remarkable.  Access from the street is via a pair of large wooden doors.  The apartment which is on the first floor, is furnished with antiques.  The living room has frescoes on the ceiling and the two side walls.  The weather today is hot and sunny however the apartment, with it's high ceilings and thick stone walls is cool and quiet. This morning we made the tour of the Ufizzi gallery.   A huge collection of art covering many centuries and styles.  Works by Tintoretto, Caravagio, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci abound.  To minimise queues we had bought out tickets at home and had booked an 8.30 arrival.  Once in we headed past most visitors and sort of toured in reverse.  That worked pretty well and we managed to see pretty well all the exhibition rooms over the course of the morning. We have a

Verona - art and elegance Three churches, once castle, an amphitheatre and the Lambrirni tower but not a godola anywhere. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Verona.  I new about the Shakespeare connection from Two Gentlemen of Verona and of course Romeo and Juliet which were set in this ancient city.  Our hotel was just outside the medieval city walls which in turn are one boundary of the huge central square.  That made the walking just about bearable.   One side of the square has many restaurants covering  a range of  budgets from self service to really expensive.  It’s elegant.  Even the self service one has white linen table cloths.  We didn’t venture beyond the square for food.  The backdrop of the roman ampitheatre was too brilliant to miss.  Pizza again.  The Venice pizza place has a Pizza Bart Simpson on the menu.  Didn’t have that in Verona though but the pepperoni was great.    We did manage to find an Aldi.  They had a good deal on fence paint but Q didn’t think it

Verona city no 3 We arrived yesterday lunchtime.  First time here and it's impressive.  Our hotel is just outside the ancient city walls, a short walk from the biggest square in Europe.    In the square is a huge roman ampitheatre built in 89 ad and still in use today.   It's huge.  Seats 22000, more originally as the outermost ring was damaged in an earthquake and removed many centuries ago. Right now they are setting it up the stage and the scenery for the opera festival.  We bought a ticket for the tour and saw the roadie guys assembling the everything.  Because of the design they use a tower crane to get the sets in and out, Ampitheatre at night and here they are setting up for a production We managed to catch Juliet's house yesterday and spotted a statue of Shakespeare on the way back to our hotel.  Our time here is limited to just two nights so we heed to cram a lot in today.  The book says that the churches have some amazing artwork so we will be doing ou

Venice - Can I have some more time please? We had to leave this morning to get to the next stage of our journey. On our previous brief Venice trip we stayed in nearby Mestre, the town at the shore end of the causeway.  Staying in the city was so much better so, after this trip we know exactly where to stay next time.  It will be the same apartment which we used this time.  It's really near the train station but quiet and we now know two restaurants, a bar and a bakery round the corner from the flat all of which are excellent.  On this trip we avoided the conventional tourist hotspots and concentrated our efforts on finding artwork in the many chuches.  Titian, Canaetto and many others.   We are also now Venice public transport veterans.  At one point Jacqueline was giving directions to other tourists.  We haven't done the gondola trip yet.  Maybe next time. Today we caught the train to Verona.  The train was just great.  Comfortable, very sleek and modern and sp

Yes there are quiet parts of Venice We started today by getting a 2 day unlimited public transport pass.  In Venice that means boats rather than bus or underground.   The system works really well.   We chose to head away from the tourist hotspots and with only a little difficulty were soon in parts of the city visited only by the more intrepid travellers armed with the best guide books. No shortage of things to see.  We were concentrating on churches with the best works of art.  Nothing less than Titian or Carivagio and were not disappointed.  PM he made a point of getting lost for a bit, then headed for a vaporetto (bus) stop to go to Murano, the island where all the glass is made.  On the way we hopped off at the cemetery island and found two graves of particular interest.   Diagalev, the ballet dancer and the composer Stravinski.   On Diagalevs tombstone were several pairs of ballet shoes while someone had marked out the treble, bass and baritone clefs with pebbles.  Lovely tou

Nice fish, great view, splendid evening. Our first night staying in Venice.  We opted for a small restaurant round the corner from the apartment.  Guido suggested it but explained that it isn't always open.  If the umbrellas are up it.'s probably open. The umbrellas were up and the waiter explained that they have only fish and no choice, just what they decide to cook. We ended up with a great meal.   Starter was tapas style of shared dishes.  Squid, starfish, sardines, sea bass and pollenta. Then seafood lasagne which was really great. Mixture of various types of fried fish Panna Cotta desert. All washed down with a dry white wine which came out of a beer tap on the bar. The meal was great.  Pictures include me with my slimmed down Bradshaws.

Train from Treviso to Venice was on time, clean and quiet. Our apartment is splendid.  Modern, spacious and comfortable. The owner Guido met us at the station, took us to his apartment and had a cake and prosecco prepared for us. The apartment is a few minutes from the station but in a quiet part of the city.   We have a couple of restaurant recommendations from Guido.  Tomorrow we buy a pass for the public transport system and do some serious sightseeing. There is a lot to see.

All set for our Ryanair flight to Venice.  We have priority something on the flight. I think that means you get to sit in the plane rather than on the top of the fuselage. Q has booked the no 1 lounge at Edinburgh Airport.   Good decision as the Highland show is on at Ingliston and the airport outside the portal of the lounge is very very busy. Let's hope the flight is OK. Looking forward to Venice tomorrow.

Day zero I'm not entirely sure how the plan for this holiday developed.  It started with a TV programme about the Paleo in Siena, the worlds most insane horse race.   We thought wow wouldn't it be good to go.  Once Jacqueine got into full holiday planning mode things developed.  So we are now doing a Siena sandwich with some truly remarkable cities and accommodation at either side of the main event.  Details will follow as we go depending on wi-fi and levels of blogging enthusiasm.    We are travelling by train except for the Ryanair bit at either end and I have been studying carefully my 1913 Bradshaws guide so that we can be sure to catch the correct trains on the way.  I'm hoping they haven't made too many changes to the timtables. Watch this space for our news and pictures. John and Jacqueline