Driving to Bellagio

Friday was another driving day, going up North for 4 hours. Through the very flat planes of the river Po, passing by Milan. Then as we approached Lake Como the mountains started quite suddenly rising up. 
We took the ferry from Varenna to Bellagio and then drove slowly through the very small streets, always trying not to run over some tourists who apparently were completely oblivious to the fact that there was a car approching. 

This was our last destination and the reason why we had made this trip in the first place. I had won a competition in a magazine for 2 nights in a five-star hotel, including dinner, massages, a boat tour and entrance to a big garden. The idea had been that since we were going to Italy anyway we might just as well make it a longer trip. And after having stayed in cheap hotels during the entire trip, arriving at the Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni was really wonderful. Loads of employees to take care of us, carry our luggage, guide us to our room with lake view... We even were brought a free bottle of champagne as a welcome!

My first big deed was to take a very long shower. Our bathroom alone was as big as some hotel rooms! 
Then we went out for a walk through the pretty village, over the hill and back. 

In the evening we went to the hotel's restaurant Mistral where we had a table with a wonderful view over the lake and mountains behind which the sun was just setting. The dinner that was included was a 7-course degustation menu of molecular kitchen, Italian style. It would cost 140.- € per person if you had to pay for it... Everything tasted really good and the small portions were just the right size so that we would be full in the end. The last course included ice cream that was frozen in nitrogene, and they prepared it right next to our table. It was quite spectacular with the smoke floating out of the bucket. Flambé is so last century :-)

We finished the evening in the big room next to the restaurant where a trio of violin, piano and bass played a wide variety of music styles. 

Firenze - the park edition

On Thursday the weather was lovely . So we walked into town through the huge park called Le Cascine which was close to our hotel. It took us about an hour to arrive at the Ponte Vecchio. Where  we found out why my mother had warned me that Florence is expensive... Just go to a restaurant near a touristic place!

After taking our pictures we went over to the Uffizie. But there was a long line in front and since they only let a limited number of people inside at a time, according to the sign we would have had to wait 45 to 60 minutes...
So we let art be art and walked over the river and up to the Forte di Belvedere from where we entered the Boboli garden, another very big and very nice park.There we walked up and down, took many pictures of the beautiful view one has from this hill to all sides and visited a procelaine museum and an exhibition on fashion history. 

Olivier had spent one month in Florence when he was about 20 and told me about his adventures back then - mostly they were about getting drunk every night... And he insisted that I had to see the Dome. 
So we went there as well. It's really quite impressive from the outside, and also colorful with its pattern of white, green and red marble as well as several big mosaics. 
Of course there was a long line at the entrance... I have seen many attractions on this trip but Florence seems to be a special tourist magnet!
Anyway, it was already late afternoon so we started to walk home.
Shortly before we came to the hotel we passed by a supermarket to get food for breakfast and driving.
In the end we had been out for about 10 hours, mostly walking or standing, and our feet were killing us!
All we could do was go to a nearby restaurant and get some pasta for dinner.

Siena

On Wednesday we first took advantage of the fact that we finally had a good WiFi connection to check our e-mails, upload the blog entries and do other stuff on the Internet.

Then we went back into Siena to have a closer look on the sights, especially the churches. But first we ran into heavy traffic because there was a huge weekly market. Luckily  we found a free parking space nearby and made a short walk through it. Actually it was large enough to spend the entire afternoon there but after I had bought 2 shirts and Oli a scarf we decided it was time for culture.

San Domenico is a huge but surprisingly empty church that looked like kind of a religious bazar to us. There are several small altars, mainly for Santa Catherina but also for other saints. You could practically go there and choose today's saint of your fancy to pray to.
And they have lots of grave plates on the wall of rich people who could afford ( in past centuries) to be burried in the church. 

Then we went to the Duomo, that had several parts to visit (main church, crypte, museum) which all required a seperate entrance ticket (they take it from the living and the dead...) but it was possible to buy one ticket for all at a reduced price (I am telling you, it's a religious bazar!).
It was all really impressing but I started to get tired of it. I just had too many impressions in the last few days and couldn't take in any more. 

So we walked to the Campo, the big sea shell shaped square in the centre and had lunch there. Shortly after we sat down under one of the big umbrellas it started to rain - but 20 minutes later the sky was totally blue! So we continued our walk and finally went back to the car.

We shortly drove back to the camping lot where we had left our luggage at the reception and then on to Firenze.
There we checked into the hotel at about 7 PMand I decided not to leave it again until the next morning so that my brain and body could get some rest.
I just sat on the bed doing my manicure and watching YouTube videos...

San Gimignano / Siena

On Tuesday we left the tree-covered hills of Liguria and went to the neighbouring Tuscany. Whatever you heard about its beautiful landscape is absolutely true! It's like driving through one big postcard. 

By noon we arrived in San Gimignano where we spend the entire afternoon. This medieval town is famous for its sevral high towers. It is very well preserved and maintained. There are of course some (rather simple) churches, many inhabited houses and countless shops and restaurants for the many tourists. But it's all done with taste and style. 

The highest tower is open for visitors to climb up. But the new stairs that they built in are those metal stairs where you can see through. Not for me! I am afraid of hights, so I gave up soon and sent Olivier up with my camera to take pictures for me while I waited for him. But I was at about the 4th floor and enjoyed the look out of the windows over the roofs of the town. 

We walked through the many little streets, had lunch and walked some more until close to 5 PM. It's unbelievable that we spent so much time in that little town but it was just too amazing and around every corner there was a new motive to be photographed. 

Then we drove to Siena where we checked not into a hotel but the tiny half of a mobile home in the camping area. The things one does for cheap accommodation! But we had our own built-in bathroom so it was fine with me.

Then we had our first look at the city. I know, I sound like a broken record by now, but Siena is so beautiful! We walked around the most important sights and did some shopping. When it got dark we had a pizza and then went back to our room. Already looking forward to a longer tour of Siena.

La Spezia / Cinqueterre

On Monday we drove down to La Spezia and deposited our luggage at the hotel. Then we went on our tour of the Cinqueterre, a coast region that has been declared a national park, and for a good reason. The landscape is beautiful, consisting of many green hills that descend very steeply into the sea. There is a small winding road high up and if you want to visit one of the villages you have to drive down another, even smaller road until you come to the inevitable parking lot for visitors. Then you walk down the little streets towards the shore. 

The first village we visited was Manarola. Like all of them it is located in a valley and the houses go up on each side. The small river in the middle is covered by the main street. With the dark volcanic rocks, the blue water, the colorful houses and the green hills you get a picture that is just incredibly beautiful!
We walked up and down and probably took far too many pictures. 

Then we continued and just as we were halfway down to Vernazza we noticed that our car was running out of gas. So we asked for the next station which was in Levanto, approximately 18 kilometers away. And the most direct way was along a road that was theoretically closed. "Just drive very slowly!"
Well, we wouldn't have gone fast anyway. Most of the road was just wide enough for one car and we wouldn't want to know what would have happened if we had crossed another car.  It was even worse because last October during very heavy rains parts of the hillside had slided down and had either covered the road with debris (which was of course cleaned away by now) or taken the valley side of the road with it (which they were still in the progress of fixing). 
But in the end we made it to Levanto, filled our tank and had a short look around. But besides a beach which was not much in use yet ther didn't seems to be much to see.

So we turned around to go back up the hill and then down in the next bay to Monterosso al Mare. Now this was another village worth the visit! Although you could also see here that the October flood had damaged the village. Every second house had photographs on the wall outside that showed how it had been affected by the waters that had come down the hill and all the wood and earth it had brought along. But they were doing repair works everywhere and a lot had already been restored. 
Down by the little beach it was business as usual - which means only few people at this time of the year. Even though the sun was shining from a blue sky it was very windy and only about 22 degrees celsius. 
We had a snack and then walked around the rocks to the next beach which was longer. Every now and then a train came through. Yes, they had actually once built a train route that goes mostly through tunnels and connects all of the villages on the coast - this or the boats would probably a faster way to visit them than by car!

On the way home we drove on the other side of the hills which was also very beautiful. 
We only parked the car by the hotel and then walked directly into La Spezia. This being a bigger town it has a much different feeling but it's also very bautiful with big, elaborately decorated buildings. It has a large pedestrian area  with lots of little shops. As if we hadn't been walking enough all day long we went around for over 2 more hours, including some of the stairs that go up the steep hillside. 
In the end we went to a cozy small Osteria for some risotto and fish. 
I was already totally exhausted and thankfully it was close to the hotel where I collapsed in bed soon after that.

Ligurian coast / Portofino

Sunday greeted us with an overcast sky and stong winds. It had cooled down considerably from 30 to 20 degrees which was not too bad since we had quite some driving to do. Actually, the drive to our next hotel in Riva Trigoso would only have taken a bit over 2 hours, but we made several stops on the way.

Firts we took the highway down to Genova. The winds were so strong at times that I had to slow down. But it was a nice drive anyway through a green landscape with many trees in bloom. The view changed from the planes of Torino to a lot of hills which meant countless tunnels on the way. 

In Genova we drove through the city to get an overview and then stopped at the historic harbour where they had an impressive old wooden sail ship - the kind you see in pirate movies. It was open for visitors, so we went on board. It was an old childhood dream come true for Olivier and I also found it pretty cool. Not my preferred choice for a next cruise though!

We drove the rest of the way along the coast and through a lot of pretty villages. This also allowed us to make a little detour to visit the famous Portofino. A very small road with many curves lead us to the most expensive park garage I had seen so far on this trip (but it was guarded which was good because we had all of our luggage in the car). I found Portofino to be much smaller than I had expected. But it really is very pretty. And it has a castle overlooking the harbour which we visited of course. 
After paying 11 Euros for just 2 hours of parking we drove on to our hotel in another small village by the sea.

I have to say that driving down the Ligurian coast gave me a new understanding for the designer Versace. Many houses here have trompe l'oeil decorations painted on their pale orange, yellow and pink facades with green shades that seem to have influences his style. People here like colors and ornaments!

After a short nap we took a little walk down to the beach but it was still very windy and cool so we finally went to eat our first pizza on this trip - my first big meal actally, up until then it had only been snacks and ice cream. But then, ice cream is one of the reasons for visiting Italy :-)

Torino

On Saturday we left for Torino at 8 AM. All went smoothly until we had a little misunderstanding with our GPS shortly before our arrival there and drove in circles for a while. 

After dropping our luggage at the hotel we shortly debated if we should go into town by car or public transport (they have trams, busses and a metro). The traffic and parking situation can get bad on Saturays in many cities. But we tried the car anyway and where pleasantly surprised to find the traffic situation quite normal - and we also got parking spaces wherever we went.

First I went to a shop called Caty Oriental Bazar. They have been recommended to me for nice lace-up dance sandals. I bought a pair in silver and now want to test if I like them - so maybe I can order different colors in the future. And I also got a new dance sword. My old one is just too heavy for my martial style of sword dancing. 

After that we drove close to the Giardino Reale and ended up visiting the Palazzo Madame, a wonderful city palace. Many of the rooms are so beautifully decorated that with every door you enter you just go "wow!" 
We didn't have enough time to go see the Royal palce as well (which is right next to it) but drove to the other side of the Po river instead and had a light lunch.
Then we drove up he hill for the Villa della Regina. It has a beatiful terraced park (check it out on Google Earth!) with a great view over the city. But the best thing about it is the entry hall which is almost entirely covered with very nice trompe l'oeil painting.

We hadn't really prepared much and simply drove around to places we thought might be interesting. Unfortunately, looking at the city map it's not easy to determine where the best shopping area would be. So we parked somewhere close to one of the train stations and walked in the wrong direction at first. 
When we finally found a street with many shops it was close to 7 PM - and the shops were only open until 7:30 PM. Well, we saved a lot of money I guess :-) I still got a nice top and Olivier bought two scarves.

When we finally returned to the hotel we had been out for about 9 hours and I was really tired...
But it was worth it. Torino is definitely a place I can recommend!

Road Trip!

After all the flying around the globe it certainly was time for a road trip! Since I live in a small country it only takes a short drive to the boarder in any direction. And I had wanted to go back to Italy for quite a while. So I made my boyfriend come to my office on Friday afternoon from where we drove off at 3 PM towards the Aosta valley. There wasn't too much traffic in our direction and after two short stops we arrived at our first destination at 7:30 PM. Châtillon is a small village on the steep mountain side. Although most people seem to talk Italian here nowadays it's originally a French speaking reason. The old lady who greeted us at our hotel spoke better French than Italian anyway - well, so do I :-)  
The main reason I chose Châtillon is simply that it has a cheap hotel on the road to Torino. But sometimes it's nice to stop in smaller places that you normally wouldn't visit.
We took a nice evening walk up and down the little streets and payed a short visit to the bar by the hotel. There's not much of a night life going on so we went to bed early.

Dubai

Dubai, the last station of our journey was also my favourite one. Although everyting here is very new like in Abu Dhabi, somehow I get the impression that there's more effort done to make it look nice and make everything a special experience. It's also greener (of course at the expense of insane amounts of water consumption) and there's reasonable public transport which is always a plus for me. 

On the first day we took one of the "Big Bus" tours - the one where you can hop on and off along the way. It was the perfect way for us. 
All day long, driving or walking, we were repeating how amazing and unbelievable this place is. I'd definitely  come back here, preferably with a bigger budget to really explore all the attractions. 
Of course we also visited some of the many shopping malls. The Dubai Mall is gigantic and doesn't only have the usual shops and restaurants but also the world's largest free standing aquarium with loads of large fish. And you can go ice skating or strolling along the artificial lake.

As usual on cruises we had our fixed dinner table, fortunately with 4 really nice and fun people - an elderly couple and another mother-daughter duo. The couple's wife expressed the wish to go into town after dinner and see more of Dubai because their guided city tour had been rather dissapointing.
So I went out with her and we took a taxi to the Wafi Mall, a place we had been to shortly in the afternoon. Its design is mostly inspired by ancient Egypt, one of the buildings looks like an Egyptian temple - they also used it for a sound and light show that night. There's another entrance that is built like a Greek temple.
We went through the luxury shops, just marvelling at the outlandish shoe designs and prices!

Abu Dhabi and a lazy day

OnTuesday we arrived in Abu Dhabi. I don't remember exactly when I had been there - about 15 years ago. There where some places I still remembered and of course a lot of new buildings - there are dozens of construction sites all over town where they are building like crazy. 
We went on a guided tour which among other things took us to a museum with a nice calligraphy exhibition and the heritage village. 

Our next destination on Wednesday was Khasab, a smaller town in Oman. Its attraction are the "Arabian fjords". I decided that it was time to rest and spend the day on the ship, mostly just hanging around in the shadow. The temperature was over 30 degrees and I really wondered how so many people could stand lying in the sun for hours! I would not only get sunburned but also sun sick!

One of the practical aspects of a cruise is that you can see many different places in a short time without having to pack and unpack your luggage. On the other hand, space is limited. And while a ship on a river cruise will nearly always land very conveniently in the heart of the city, a big sea cruise ship stays out in the harbour and you can't just walk out and into town. First of all it's not allowed but it's also much too far. 
But of course they also make sure that there's always some activity going on and the guests are entertained.
Especially in the evenings. I have lost count on how many musicians there were in the many bars, restaurants and clubs. But live music of different styles was everywhere!