Author: call me TLC

Our driver arrived at 4:00am to take us to the Florence airport. We had a layover in Frankfurt before returning to Detroit.

This blog was created primarily for our parents and also shared with some family and friends. Please drop me a text if you’ve enjoyed reading it. ❤️ It would mean the world to me to know that you cared enough to share our trip. ❤️

Reflecting on the trip, Here’s an excerpt from a poem shared by my friend Melanie titled “For the traveler”

Every time you leave home, Another road takes you Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await. New places that have never seen you Will startle a little at your entry. Old places that know you well Will pretend nothing Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself Alone in a different way. More attentive now To the self you bring along.

There’s more to this poem and it was taken from the book “To Bless the Space Between Us” by John O’Donohue.

Until next time…….

Today is our last day in Italy. We spent the day on a private guided walking tour of Florence. We learned a lot of history, saw some beautiful churches and some amazing art. There were lines to get into the beautiful Duomo church while, sadly, most of the other smaller beautiful churches were mostly empty.

The highlight was learning about Michaelangelo and seeing his beloved “David” as well as his “prisoners” who were never quite completed. He has carefully studied anatomy of corpses so his representations were so true-to-life. Here’s a few picture from the day.

The Cinque Terre area is home to five villages along the coastline overlooking the lovely Ligurian Sea. We had a private tour guide that picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the coast.

We started the Cinque Terre tour in Manarola and walked up and around the entire town in about an hour. The hidden crucifix at the top of the hill was worth the hike. We then took the train to Monterossa and had a wonderful traditional lunch of homemade pasta, fresh fish and local wine. We walked around a bit before taking a ferry boat with amazing views of the coastline to Vernazza where we walked around and did some wine tasting of regional wines. Cinque Terre is known for their white wine and the flavors were unique. We jumped on the train and passed through the other two towns of Corniglia and Riomaggiore while enroute to La Spezia where we met up with our tour guide once again.

We’re having an amazing trip. We’re also homesick and ready to go home. We have one more day in Italy and then we fly back to Detroit. Thank you for following our travels.

We’re packing up and heading to Florence today. After a 1.5 hour train ride we are now in Florence. We are staying at the Golden Tower Hotel in the downtown area. We walked around town and watched the sunset from the Piazza Michelangelo. The Duomo is absolutely amazing. We bought a bottle of wine and some cheese from the local market to share for dinner.

We spent the day on a hop on/off bus touring the city. We went from one side to the other and saw the amazing churches and ruins around the city. The most notable was the Colloseum. We did some shopping and stopped for lunch and a bottle of wine. We’re enjoying the city and we’re also a bit homesick.

We went to mass at St Maria Madelana and thought we needed to arrive early to find a seat. Sadly, there was no need to arrive early. This church was large and amazingly beautiful with only a handful of people attending Italian mass. Right outside of the church was a street filled with Saturday night celebrations. We stopped for a glass of wine and finger food at a local ristorante and then finished with gelato. We’re preparing to leave Rome and take the train to Florence tomorrow.

We started the day with a tour of the Pantheon. Our hotel room overlooks this huge building and today we learned that it is actually a church and has much history inside.

We reserved a food & wine tour later tonight so I’ll post more later.

We spent a good portion of the day walking around the city. We walked down the Via dei Cestari where there are many religious shops. We visited many Piazzas were we found fountains and food. We visited the Jewish Ghetto which is a thriving community with a sad history. We ate fresh sea bass where they beheaded, skinned, and deboned right at the table. We saw many beautiful churches and I have a new perception of Mary as humble, pure and who loves Jesus more than anyone since she is His mother. The sunshine is glorious but the crowds are growing.

Our food tour started with meat and cheese appetizers along with red wine. We walked to a second course of fish with white wine. We walked to the main course of veal and chicory with red wine. We finished with gelato. It was an amazing experience shared with Canadiens and Australians.

We started the day with a walk to the Piazza Navona with many fountains including the Fountain of the Four Rivers as seen in Angels & Demons. We walked around the city and saw St. Ignacio church along with many stores, restaurants and gelaterias along the alleys

The highlight of the day was a tour of The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. I had tears in my eyes as we walked these holy places.

We walked around the Castel St Angelo and found a lovely local place for dinner.

We are staying at the oldest hotel in Italy. The taxi ride here seemed to be first on highways, then on city streets, then in alleys, then sidewalks and bike paths. The taxi driver let us off and told us to turn right and our hotel was 50 meters on the right. We entered through the door off the alley to find a beautiful hotel — the oldest in Rome. Crazy!

We spent the afternoon walking around Rome. We had lunch and a bottle of wine at a local restaurant. We watched the sunset, walked down the Spanish Steps and saw the Trevi Fountain. We stumbled back to the hotel for our welcome drink. It’s been an amazing day.

We started the day with breakfast in the beautiful St George hotel on Lycabettus Hill overlooking the city. We walked down the hill to take a tour bus of the city. We toured the Parthenon and learned that the architects logically built it to look larger as explained by our guide. The Acropolis museum was amazing as it was built over the archeological ruins of the city and exactly reproduced the size of the Parthenon in the distance.

John and I are now on our own and we walked through the streets of Athens. We stopped for Souvlaki for lunch followed by a gelato waffle. We watched the changing of the guard from the sixth floor of the Public cafe. We walked and walked and found our way back to the hotel before sunset. Our hotel balcony overlooks the Parthenon so we enjoyed the sounds of the city while drinking sparkling water.