My mom and I went to a European highlight tour with Globus last week. We went to London, Paris, Lucern, Bergamo, Venice, Florence, and Rome in 8 days. It was very fast, and we didn't get to all the places in Rome that was scheduled, due to the Prime Minister of Italy visiting the Vatican. I really wanted to see the Pieta and walk around St. Peter's Square but unfortunately they closed the square early. We took a red eye to London and it was terrible! There were screaming kids, a child playing with the back of my seat; my mom and I were so uncomfortable. I did manage to take this night time photo of NYC (the Rockaways?) on the plane. London: I went to London before, with my sister for 7 days. We did almost all the touristy things, since I created an itinerary that was non stop! I still missed some things. So this time, I took my mom to the Natural History museum and we we went on a night time river cruise on the river Thames. Unfortunately I was not impressed with the Natural History museum in London. There were no beautiful dioramas like the ones at AMNH. It was just taxidermy in a clear glass display box; no rocky foreground, curved background paintings, flora/fauna, etc. What a disappointment! I did like the night time river tour and our guide was really funny. Ah, Paris! I've been dying to go to Paris for so long, the catacombs, their Natural History Museum. But I didn't have time! First we had a night drive through the city of lights, stopping by the Arc de Triomphe, located at the west end of the Champs-Elysées. The arc honors those who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Engraved on the top and the insides of the arc are the names of the general who fought during the wars. We also saw the beautiful Opera house, and the outside pyramid of the Louvre. The next day we saw the Eiffel Tower and went to the second floor, which was too high for me and my mom, so we quickly exited! I did take a photo of the view from up top. I was hanging on the security rail so tight, I think I lost circulation in my arm! Then we went to Norte Dame Cathedral. Look at those flying buttresses in the back and the inside of the cathedral! The rose windows are so nice. We also went to the Louvre to see the amazing art which included: the inverted pyramid, the Mona Lisa, (so crowded), Virgin of the Rocks (also by da Vinci), Coronation of Napoleon painting (which is 20 feet long, by 32 feet high), Harem Woman by Ingres, Winged Victory, (to honor the Greek God, Nike and sea battles) the Gold Apollo Gallery (also check out the ceiling!), a dragon cup, Venus de Milo and the Great Sphinx of Tanis (which is 4000 years old). We didn't stay too long, which was upsetting, (I missed so much art!) but we had to go to our next stop! Picturesque Lucern, Switzerland. The walking tour included the Chapel Bridge, and Thorwaldsen’s Lion Monument, dedicated to the fallen Swiss Guards who protected the Royal House of France during the French Revolution. This was carved into the cliff and is 32 feet long and 19 feet high! Here was my view from the balcony of my room! In the evening, we all went to this restaurant, Stadtkeller. They had musicians, and served cheese fondue! Through out dinner, the musicians invited people on stage, to try various instruments, such as the blowing into the alpine horn, yodeling, and dancing! I went up on stage for the alphorn and I did it, I got a loud sound! No one got a photo of me doing it. Insert sad face here: :( Early next day, I walked towards this marina, and saw the beautiful mountains! Holy crap they are amazing. Some of the group went up to Mount Pilatus, but my mom and I are afraid of heights, so we didn't go with them. This view is fine with me! Bergamo: This was a stop before we traveled to Venice. We went to the medieval hilltop town built in the 16th century called: Citta Alta, meaning upper city. You need to take a cable car to go there. Upon researching online, I read that Bergamo was an "extremely expensive" place to live. We visited the Cappella Collenoi Church, which is celebrating 750 years! It is so beautiful inside. Notice the decorative ceilings! Ah, Venice. Hard to be in love, when the city is full of tourists. The coach bus drove to a port, where from there, you have to travel on boat to get to the 117 islands of Venice. The islands are separated by canals, and linked by bridges. The foundations of the buildings are built by wooden platforms and wooden stakes (from trunks of alder tree of Slovenia and Croatia). I would think that wood as a support structure would be a poor choice, instead of metal or stone, but the wood is submerged underwater, not exposed to oxygen, therefore does not rot. The wood petrifies over time, turning the wood into a hard stone like structure. Then a stone foundation is placed on top of the horizontal wood platform. From there, the building is built using brick or stone. Here is Rosie, our tour director in front of St. Mark's Basilica. This is St. Mark's square in front of the basilica. Rosie said this place gets totally packed during the summer. We went to a glass blowing demonstration, and when you first walk inside, you see this huge glass horse! Venice is known for their glass. Of course photos of the canals, gondolas, and old churches are a must have in the Venice section... In the evening, we went on a water taxi down the Grand Canal. It was full of old buildings. I found out Venice has a Natural History Museum! Florence. Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo are buried here. Well Dante has a cenotaph for him at the Basilica of Santa Croce; he was buried in Ravenna. I walked passed the basilica quickly so I couldn't take a picture, nor did I go in! It wasn't part of our walking tour! I wanted to look at their tombs! This cathedral, called St. Maria of the Flower was part of our walking tour. We walked by and our tour guide said it was plain inside, compared to other cathedrals, but look at all the decorative facade! The Baptistery of St. John Church, right across from St. Maria, housed a gate I wanted to see for a while now. Unfortunately, it was under renovations at the time we visited. But the Gates of Paradise weren't covered, so here is a photo of it. One day I will visit the Gates of Hell by Rodin in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris! They have bronze cast of the Gates of Hell in Philadelphia, Tokyo, Zurich, and Korea. We also visited the Palazzo Vecchio, or Old Palace. It is a town hall with a copy of Michelangelo's David statue (It's 15 feet tall!) in front. The real one is at The Gallery of the Academy of Florence, which we did not visit. To the left of David is Baccio Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus. This is the Fountain of Neptune by sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati. It has a lot of history of vandalism associated with it. It was used as a wash basin, a satyr was stolen in 1830, and a hand was cut off in 2005. It went through a lot of restorations, and substitutions through out the years. Finally, after looking around the Piazza della Signoria, (there are so many sculptures and building I missed out on, like the Loggia dei Lanzi) we got to go inside. This is the first courtyard. Musicians are always nice to photograph on the streets of Florence... Rome Our first stop was the Vatican Museums, which my mom was dying to see. The Vatican Museums were closing early (10:30am!) due to the prime minister of Italy visiting. Here's a photo of my mom in front of the Vatican wall. We did manage to see the Sistine Chapel, but were not allowed to take photos. Our tour also included walking around St. Peter's square and visiting the basilica, but that was closed as well. I was kinda irritated because I wanted to see the Pieta and walk around the square to take photos, but I was denied. I was right there damn it! Walking around the Vatican Museums, I caught a couple of "characters" that made me smile. I really like this gallery, only because it was a bit creepy. I like the weird stuff. It was under construction, and I like the way the light was hitting one of the sculptures. The sculptures were also bubble wrapped with tape, making you wonder what kind of sculpture/face was under it. This is Sphere within a Sphere by sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. This was taken out of the window of a gallery, and I really wanted to explore, but couldn't since we didn't have time. Here are the spiral steps, with traffic going both up and down. I didn't realize the beauty of it until I looked up. Next stop, the Colosseum My favorite place so far because it is old and in ruins. Before we went into the Colosseum, we saw the Arch of Constantine. It is right next door! It was built in 315 AD, to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312. I am really not familiar with that battle. This arch is huge (68 feet high and 82 feet wide)! The Colosseum is an elliptical amphitheatre built in 72 AD, built under the emperor Vespasian. It can hold 50,000 people and was used for gladiatorial and public events. A lot of animals and people died here! The underground is called hypogeum. It consisted of tunnels and cages for the gladiators and animals, right before the games. My friend called it the first "Hunger Games!" This is the Horrea Vespasiani and I never heard of it. Apparently it was a warehouse for imperial goods and food. I really wanted to see the Roman Forum, but unfortunately that was not on our walking tour! I never heard of this place, but we kept driving around it. The Victor Emmanuel Monument or Altare della Patria in Venice Square is huge. This monument was built in honor of Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, and was completed in 1925. Of course I wanted to get off the bus and walk around, but time restraints had to be respected. The Fountain of the Four Rivers represent the four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread. The Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing America. This is the River God, Ganges. The Pantheon is around 2000 years old, and has a central opening (called oculus) in its dome. The word Pantheon is a Greek adjective meaning “honor all Gods”; In fact the pantheon was first built as a temple to all gods. The 16 massive Corinthian columns supporting the portico weigh 60 tons each. They are 39 feet tall, five feet in diameter and brought all the way from Egypt. The diameter of the dome is 142ft and is in perfect proportion with the Pantheon by the fact that the distance from the floor to the top of the dome is exactly equal to its diameter. I like to know these things! The Pantheon now contains the tombs of the famous artist Raphael and of several Italian Kings and poets. The Jesuit Church of Saint Ignazio was supposed to have a dome, but money ran out, so Jesuit brother Andrea Pozzo proposed that he paint a life-sized illusion of a dome that would fool the eyes of visitors. Can you believe the ceilings are all flat? It's pretty remarkable! The Trevi Fountain. Fu@k!! It was going through renovations. Look at all the scaffolding! Another beautiful monument/sculpture I missed out on photographing. I was so mad. This was our last drive in our coach bus, and we passed St. Peter's square. We had a couple of minutes to take photos right out front, but not inside the square. Insert sad, disappointed, irritated, annoyed face here:( All in all, good and bad, I enjoyed myself and I hope my mother did too. It was definitely a different way to travel. Globus did ALL the work for you, so I didn't have to figure out anything! They arranged our hotels, and transfers. I always had a comfortable ride to and from each place (I didn't have to take public transportation in 4 different countries!), we didn't wait in lines (Globus made the earliest or first reservations for each excursions in our itinerary) and breakfast, along with some dinners were included everyday! Our group consisted of retired, friendly people, singles and young couples. I enjoyed making new travel companions. Finally, I really appreciated that our tour director told us everything before hand, so we were ready for any problems and wouldn't waste any time! THANK YOU ROSIE! Next time I go to Rome I want to visit the Roman Forum, Castel Sant'Angelo, Circus Maximus, Baths of Caracalla, the Capucchin Crypt, and the Catacombs of Callixtus.
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My short blog topics include: photography, music, science, crafts, vacation photos, movies, events in NYC, and of course stop motion animation.
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