Venice

Venice was exhilarating. We realized soon after our arrival that we were in Venice, a city of love and romance, for Valentine’s Day. With three kids in tow that didn’t mean a lot for Geoff and me but it did mean that we shared the town with a lot of couples! We also soon discovered that carnival would begin on our last day, which is no small deal in Venice. I’ve broken our Venice visit into three parts; this first post is a little photo tour in case you’ve never been and because we couldn’t get enough of it...we'll want to look at these photos again and again! Of course, it is one of those places that photos can’t totally capture, especially with our inadequate camera.

We were in Venice for four days. The first few days were slow-moving as we slept in and enjoyed long, delicious Italian meals on the grand canal. We had perfectly sunny (albiet cold) weather the entire time. We had given the girls each 10 Euro to spend. They were immediately drawn to the endless shops of carnival masks. We spent a fair amount of time allowing them to try them on, keep looking, and go back to previous favorites. We walked around a lot but didn't try to see a lot of "sights". We just relaxed and enjoyed being there.

We loved the architecture, a little European gothic mixed with Byzantine domes and Islamic minarets, influenced from their trading in the East.

A boat landing

The gondoliers stand on the bridges looking for passengers

The tide was really high so our gondolier had to lean way over when going under a bridge, often tipping the boat so the front tip would barely miss. They have amazing control around narrow corners and passing other gondolas through skinny passageways.

We were glad to have taken a gondola ride on the first day because as it got closer to the weekend (Valentine's Day/carnival) the canals were congested. Our gondolier didn't sing, but we heard an incredible singer and accordian player on one. It was a show in and of itself!

Saint Mark's Basilica

The Grand Canal is the main waterway through Venice, and where most of the wealthy built their homes.

Geoff and the girls on the Rialto Bridge, the heart of the city.

There are shops up and down the bridge as well as markets on either side.

A view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge

The girls were admiring the painted eyes of some women we met. They were from Spain and kindly pulled out some eye-liner from their bags and made Tennie and Adele's day by painting their eyes, too.

Look how tired these poor girls look! This was taken on Rialto Bridge,

you can see the street markets in the background.

Look at my hottie Valentine!

Those are individual homes along the Grand Canal!

The gold on Saint Mark's basilica at sunset was unbelievable! We went inside at this same time of day in hopes of seeing the golden light reflect on the gold mosaics. We were the last ones in and unfortunately they weren't allowing visitors to see everything due to closing time. The inside of this basilica is stunning. There was a small mass going on in the corner where the priest was quoting Isaiah and there was a little singing...it was really cool. We wished we had more time to marvel at it all.

Verona

We planned to make it to Venice but we were tired by Verona so we stopped for the night. We spent a little time exploring and there is one dominant theme in the medieval town of Verona and that is Romeo and Juliet…quite appropriate for the week of Valentine’s Day. The alley-street to Juliet’s house was filled with a generous amount of lingerie shops, Romeo and Juliet mementos of every variety, Romeo and Juliet lunch specials and our very ordinary Romeo and Juliet hotel. Large red hearts hung throughout all the streets. I guess it is somewhat of a pilgrimage for lovers. There is a large Roman arena (second only to Rome itself), and an in-tact Roman forum, and that is about all we saw of the place before heading out of town.

The old Roman road has this symbol of the beginnings of Rome: two brothers, Romulus and Remus who were raised by a she-wolf

Juliet's balcony

It is believed that if you touch Juliet's right breast you will have luck in love. Lots of people sheepishly went up and gave it a touch...a great people watching spot!

Geoff has plenty of love...

Masks a waiter gave the girls at a restaurant

The Roman forum

The girls played around with this very nice "gladiator" from Serbia who spoke English. Verona's Bishop approached and it was comical how the gladiator shaped up and was suddenly very formal and self-conscious...Tennie clearly wasn't!

A few pictures around the Roman arena

A brief stop-over

We got home late Monday evening and were up early Tuesday morning for our last appointment with the French Government, a physical. It was relatively easy and we were done by 10:00AM. Usually we don’t leave our hotels until about 11:00 (we are still trying to honor Geoff’s need for rest!) With such an early start and the car still packed we came up with the crazy idea of taking a trip to Italy that we planned to take two weeks later. We felt decently fresh…why not? So we kept on driving! We stopped for lunch and an explore in Cervo, a small Italian town on the coast.

This church was beautiful but look at the color of that sky!

Arles (still in France)

We stopped in Arles for its Roman past since we don’t plan to visit Rome (our time is running out!) There is an old Roman theatre where the girls put on an impromptu play...Ceci pulled participants out of the audience and getting them to do different gestures like the circus clown did in Monaco. (It was so entertaining we forgot to take pictures!) We also saw the local Roman amphitheatre which is a smaller version of the coliseum.

Equally as fun was the evidence of Van Gogh’s time in Arles. Many buildings and squares that he painted are still there. The café in his famous Café at Night painting is painted bright yellow in an effort to create the same effect. While closed for winter, we bought some Orangina next door and drank at the tables outside the café.

Streets in Arles are VERY narrow!

Roman ruins start to look alike after awhile but I couldn't choose between

the cute pictures of little Ceci so here are two.

Avignon

In the 14th century Pope Clement V and his court fled political problems in Rome for Avignon. For nearly 70 years the popes spent insane amounts of money on the papal palace. The cardinals have huge homes across the river, and it is said that the pope(s) would cross the bridge of Avignon to visit the cardinals because they thought Avignon was smelly. (Understandably, it was walled in and sewage ran through the streets.) On one occasion a pope had gold coins thrown in front of him the entire way to show his power and wealth…tithing money. Of course at this point the pope was more of a political title and taxes were collected. But often when in rivalry with a governing force the people were taxed twice, by government and church!

We picnicked on what is left of the Avignon bridge and, of course, danced while singing:
Sur la pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse, l’on y danse
Sur la pont d’Avignon
L’on y danse tout en rond

(On the bridge of Avignon
Everyone is dancing, everyone is dancing
On the bridge of Avignon
Everyone is dancing in a circle)

The papal palace