The “City of Water”; “City of Masks”; “City of Bridges”; “The Floating City”; “City of Canals”; “City of Romance” all describe one city: Venice, a city sited on a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges. A city built up from mudflats, using closely placed wooden piles, still intact after centuries of submersion. Continue reading
For such a small and relatively unknown Italian city, Modena has many things to be proud of. It is a city full of traditions famous world-wide from opera to engines to cuisine, although often not attributed to the city of Modena. The hometown of Enzo Ferrari, Modena, is where balsamic vinegar originated with production documented as early as 1046. It was a family tradition, making balsamic vinegar in the attic of your house – enough to use yourself and give as small gifts at Christmas to those families who didn’t have the tradition. Continue reading
When I think of Italy, I am really thinking about wine and Italian food and maybe art, as an afterthought. I had three goals in Florence – find a good ‘vino sfuso’ (bulk wine) place, get a loaded panini and go to the Uffizi gallery. Continue reading
The founding of Rome is dated back to around 753 BC – the Colosseum was completed in 80 AD, almost 2000 years ago – and thus, it’s not a secret that many of Rome’s ancient and aging monuments are in desperate need of restoration. It appears that many high-end Italian fashion brands have stepped up to make that restoration possible. All at once. To name a couple, Fendi, one of the biggest names in Italian fashion, has donated approximately 2.10 million Euros to restore the 18th century Trevi Fountain in order to preserve this precious heritage; the first of five fountains they have pledged to restore. And Tod’s shoes founder Diego della Valle donated approximately 25 million Euros to help restore the Colosseum from its aging and deteriorating state. In addition, Renzo Russo, founder of clothing company Diesel, is providing $6.7 million to restore and clean the oldest bridge spanning Venice’s Grand Canal, the Rialto.
That’s right, you read it: in the Swiss Alps, cows’ wear bells. Not a small dinky bell, very large, very noisy solid bell dangles around their necks. Supposedly, there are even ongoing discussions involving animal cruelty and these bells, but that’s not the topic of this post. The sound of the bell is pleasant at first but after about an hour of sitting on top of a mountain in what should be a peaceful and silent area, the constant noise from the bells becomes something else. Continue reading
The city of love and home to the Eiffel Tower. We checked into our ‘apart-hotel’ in the late afternoon and didn’t realize we had a great view of the Eiffel Tower until our second night lying in bed. It lit up at 9:00 PM and every hour for a few minutes, the lights would sparkle and dance causing all those below to ooh and awe; including us one evening. That same evening we witnessed a proposal on the grass beneath the Tower – she said yes! Continue reading
Our first major European city on our around-the-world trip was London – a classic choice. We spent four nights at an airbnb in East London near Bethnal Green Station. Walking to our apartment we felt a bit like we were in the rougher part of town but inside the place was great, and the price difficult to beat in London ($85 CAD/night for two people). Continue reading
Our first glimpse into life in Cuba and the prominence of the import/export bans enforced by the U.S.A on Cuba was at the airport check-in line-up in Cancun. There were at least a hundred large boxes being checked-in by various passengers: air-conditioners, microwaves, TV’s, chairs, etc. Other than that, everything we had been told by fellow travellers and travel blogs we read beforehand about Cuba was dead wrong. Continue reading