What a wonderful day in Venice, Russ. So glad you found your way up to the museum and the mosaics - probably better than the ground floor at the moment, TBH, while they are presumably taking the opportunity to repair the damage done by the "acqua grande" of last November. Though it sounds as if it wasn't in operation while you were there, the good news is that the Mose flood barriers have been working for the last 10 days or so when very high acqua alta was expected - up to 135cms at one point - so the repair work they have done already shouldn't be wasted. I have a special pair of wellingtons that I keep specially for Venice but it sounds as it I may not need them any more! Your photos are amazing - I still can't believe how empty it is.

Thanks for the link but it turns out to be a link to the entire airBnB site, strangely. Never mind, I put in my reorients requirements and you're right, the prices are very low for Venice at the moment. I wonder how long that will last.

Looking forward about the end of your trip, though sorry it's over.

Oh! Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to mention, Sam said that he was awoken early that first morning by what sounded like an air raid siren. (I slept through it since I wear earplugs). We found out later that day that it was MOSE, which they had used for the second time this month. My understanding is that the water would have been 50cm higher than we saw it, rendering the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica impossible to visit, and that half of the city would have been under water. So we were VERY lucky, to say the least.

Sorry that the link didn’t work. Here is a screenshot of the first pic on the AirBnB listing for the place where we stayed, in case that helps. Hope you can get there soon.


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Russ and Sam, congratulations on your fantastic voyage through Europe. I admire the way that you chose carpe diem. How fitting to climax such an unforgettable trip in Venice, of all places!
*To the rest of us reading this thread, raise your hand if you are jealous.

(rushing sound of mass arm movement, including mine)

I am done. The trip.

Wow, Russ, your photos belong in a coffee table book. Thanks for taking us along on this journey.

annhig,.... “my mum is in lockdown anyway because one of the staff where she lives tested positive. Ironic or what?” sorry to read this, best wishes.

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Still really enjoying your report and pics. My wife is in the center of this pic looking back at me when we there in 2001. Almost the same location but it was just a little different for you.

That’s fantastic!

Thanks again everyone for your feedback! Just a couple more days to report.

In the meantime, these pics below are of my mother visiting us in Italy 21 years ago. They just popped up today on Facebook. Mom passed away five years ago, but she left me with my love of travel. She would go anywhere at any time, and if her legs couldn’t carry her any longer, she would have us each take an arm, half carying her, and keep going. She was a trouper!
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On the terrazza of our apartment in Bologna.
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Our farmhouse stay for the weekend in Orvieto.
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Sam trying to set up my mother with the owner of the farmhouse. We could be living in Umbria right now! 😉
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Me and Mom in Padova.
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Leaving Vernazza by boat (right before mom put her scarf around her head to hold on her wig).
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Mantova

Love those memories, Russ.
I have taken each of my parents to Europe in the last 2 years, fabulous experiences and I’m very grateful we made it happen.

What a fantastic trip report and with such lovely pictures. Opportunities of a lifetime for seeing so many usually crowded places with so few other tourists. A photographer's dream come true. And you certainly used your opportunities to great advantage. Thanks for all the memories--yours and ours.

<<Oh! Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to mention, Sam said that he was awoken early that first morning by what sounded like an air raid siren. (I slept through it since I wear earplugs). We found out later that day that it was MOSE, which they had used for the second time this month. My understanding is that the water would have been 50cm higher than we saw it, rendering the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica impossible to visit, and that half of the city would have been under water. So we were VERY lucky, to say the least.

Sorry that the link didn’t work. Here is a screenshot of the first pic on the AirBnB listing for the place where we stayed, in case that helps. Hope you can get there soon.>>

Russ - the sirens are to warn of acqua alta not the Mose - the more times it sounds, the higher the water level forecast. I heard it several times when I was there last November when it was only up to 115cm, but even then on my way to lessons at the language school in Campo St Margarita the water level came half way up my wellingtons. I hadn't realised that you were there when the Mose was operated and you were lucky that it worked - the damage done by 135 cm would have been appalling, especially coming so soon after the even higher water last November which I escaped by only one day, not to mention the disruption to moving around the city as the passerelle are put into use and the vaporetti struggle to get to certain places as they can't get under the bridges.

Thanks for the link to the apartment - it looks great and I love your photos of your trip with your mum. She looks a real sport.

<<annhig,.... “my mum is in lockdown anyway because one of the staff where she lives tested positive. Ironic or what?” sorry to read this, best wishes.>>

Thank you so much Adelaidean. That's very kind of you. She and all the other residents are fine, so far, thank goodness.

How great that you were able to take both your parents on those trips during the last 2 years. Carpe diem.

Thanks for the clarification. I can’t imagine how terrible that would have been. Hopefully, the truly devastating floods will be a thing of the past.

Into every life a little rain must fall
 

So we knew it was going to rain the next day. We anticipated it. We expected it. We planned for it. Well, not exactly planned. We had talked about doing indoor things in a general sense, but hadn’t actually formed a plan, so the next day when we decided we should check the opening hours and ticket availability, reality rained on our parade. Doge’s Palace, sold out. Peggy Guggenheim Museum, sold out. Ca’ d’Oro, Ca’Pesaro, Ca’ Rezzonico, Palazzo Mocinego, Palazzo Franchetti - closed, closed, closed, sold out, sold out. Not that I have any reason to complain, not after the amazing first day we had.

We finally landed on a Henri Cartier-Bresson photography exhibit at 1pm at Palazzo Grassi, which would give me time to sauté some eggplant, garlic, onion and tomato purée, to put over pasta for lunch. Fortunately, the rain stopped by noon, so we were happy that we wouldn’t have to spend the rest of the day walking around in squishy shoes.

After the museum, we headed across the Academia Bridge to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, with its stunning collection of paintings by Tintoretto. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that it’s his “Sistine Chapel”, in scope if not in style.

The next morning we awoke to sunny blue skies, and a reverse performance of our 45 minute vaporetto tour of the Grand Canal, just as spectacular as on our arrival. We are feeling very thankful for the previous three days, and to have had this once in a lifetime experience.

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Scuola Grande di San Rocco
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Arrivederci, Venezia!

Bella Italia, thank you Russ. My DH wondered why there weren't more tap dancers with all those floors.

Mantova - Palazzo Te
 

For our final two days in Italy, we chose a place near Parma for two nights, in order to break up the drive from Venice back to Nice. On our way there, we stopped for lunch in Mantova (Mantua) which was a favorite of ours, extra special because it’s one of the places we took my mother. The Ducal Palace is one of the major sites there, but the Palazzo Te has one of my favorite fresco cycles in Italy, especially the Camera dei Giganti, which depicts Jupiter striking down the giants . I tried to give it scale by having Sam in a couple shots, but it’s really impossible to capture the impact of the images that go right up the walls to the ceiling, so that you are completely immersed in the scene. Stunning.
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Camera dei Giganti
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Camera dei Giganti
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Camera dei Giganti
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Onions, garlic and peppers as decor.
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Italian food is my drug of choice.

Very nice

The photos of your mother are fabulous. Palazzo Te unbelievable! Just wow!

Oh, the Mantova Palazzo, wow!

Bologna
 

For our last full day in Italy we decided to pay a visit to Bologna, where we had lived for 2-1/2 years in the late 90’s. We had first visited Italy in 1996, and when we got back I declared that we would live in Italy some day, and started taking Italian lessons. Little did we know that Sam would get a job offer a year later with the European licensee of Ralph Lauren. He jetted off one day in May of 1997, leaving me to sell the cars and rent the house out, and follow a month later. The issue of what I would do for employment was resolved when I decided to take a CELTA course (certificate for English language teaching to adults)in Milan upon arrival. At 8 hours a day for 6 weeks, plus a paper to write each weekend, and live students daily beginning on week 2, this was definitely the most intensive learning experience of my life.



Sam was given a choice of living in Milan, where the showroom was located, or Bologna, where the main offices were located. We decided on Bologna for a variety of reasons: 1) It felt less cosmopolitan and more distinctly “Italian” than Milan; 2) unlike the more famous of Italy’s cities, it felt more like an authentic city than ones dependent primarily on tourism; and 3) to our eyes, with it’s color pallet of yellows, oranges and red brick, and the beautiful portico-lined streets, Bologna was more aesthetically pleasing.



One weekend during my course in Milan, we made the 75 minute train ride to Bologna to find an apartment. Being pre-internet, we had to go there and buy the local paper to see availability, and then call and set up appointments. I had rehearsed, “I’m calling about your ad for the apartment” in Italian before dialing, but my one year of night-school Italian classes had hardly equipped me for the verbal barrage of Italian that each phone call would unleash. Rather than even make an attempt at understanding the response, I would let them go through their entire spiel, and when they came up for air, I’d hit them with my rehearsed question, “when can we see it”?In this way, we managed to find a lovely one bedroom apartment with a terrace, over a salumaio (seller of sliced meats, sausage, etc), on Via Santo Stefano.



Back to the present day, driving into the city, the first thing we noticed was the sheer number of people on the street, much more than any of the other places we had visited in the past month. These weren’t tourists however, but the local town folks, going about their business on a sunny Saturday morning. We were delighted to see that the entire central core of the city was completely closed off to cars, not only the pedestrian zones that we had remembered. Even the main streets (built over the original via Aemilia from the Roman Period), previously the most traffic-choked streets in the city, were barricaded off.



Soon we saw our old friend Neptune, triton in hand, presiding in all his glory over serveral sea nymphs, immodestly shooting water out of their breasts. This Bologna landmark triggered memories of a two-week language course we took our first summer. We would meet many of our classmates at that fountain every evening before going out to dinner together. And right next door, the enormous Piazza Maggiore, where we would sit in the sun on a cold day, lingering over coffee and cornetti, and watch Italian high school boys strut by, trying to cut a “bella figura”, and the Italian girls pretending to ignore them. In the summer, they would show silent films in this piazza, or have occasional orchestral performances, always free. Today the piazza was abuzz with some sort of demonstration, with placards placed around the square and children’s drawings laid out in the center.



We next entered San Petronio, the unfinished basilica on Piazza Maggiore. In the 16th century, Bologna was within the borders of the Papal States, so ultimately ruled by Rome, with whom it consistently struggled for control. At one point, the city wanted to expand the church, the plans of which would have made it larger than St. Peter’s in Rome. Sacrilege! So in a classic power move, the Pope authorized the building of the Archiginnasio, once the main building of the University of Bologna, directly in the way of the proposed expansion. Even today, if you walk down the side of San Petronio, you can see the severed arm of the proposed transept, looking like someone has chopped it off with a giant chain saw.



Speaking of the University of Bologna; founded in 1088, it is considered to be the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, giving the city one of its nick-names, la dotta, the learned. The Archiginnasio, mentioned earlier, now houses a beautiful anatomical theater, built in 1638, which was used for anatomy lectures and demonstrations. The university has over 87,000 students, increasing the total population of the city by almost 25% whenever classes are in session. This helps explain the lively atmosphere and number of affordable eating establishments all throughout the city center.



Part of the enjoyment of visiting a city like Bologna is the lack of super well known tourist sights, freeing visitors from the typical tourist checklist of Instagramable moments, and allowing them to wander around with no particular agenda. Bearing this in mind, we continued our tour around the city. To the area east of Piazza Maggiore, we encountered the grid pattern of streets, following a form established by the Romans in the second century BC, when it was the city of Bononia. This is where you can find many open air markets, food stores, and restaurants, where you can find specialties from the region such as mortadella, prosciutto, tortellini (usually served in broth), lasagna (always made with a béchamel, never with ricotta), tagliatelle with ragu (never spaghetti, and the pasta only lightly coated by the sauce, not swimming it). These items are partially responsible for Bologna’s second nickname, la grassa, the fat.



From this area we strolled to our favorite piazza in the city, Piazza Santo Stefano. It is an unusual triangle shaped piazza, lined with beautiful porticoes on two sides and the church of Santo Stefano on the third, also called the Sette Chiese, for the Seven Churches that make up the complex, one of which was built during the 5th century over a temple to the Egyptian goddess, Isis.



As we continued down via Santo Stefano, the memories kept on coming. Here’s the bus stop where Sam overheard someone speaking English with an American accent and befriended him on the spot, and we are still friends with him today. There’s where one of my work colleagues lived, who we bumped into in a bar in Palm Springs 20 years later. There’s where we used to buy our fruit and veggies (and I learned what you can’t buy out of season), and the place we used to buy our bread, and our wine. Soon we stopped at the giant door which marked the entrance to our apartment building. Right next to it, the salumaio, which has since changed hands, but we went in anyway. As we chatted with the new owner, who now includes “foreign” products in the mix (i.e., from southern Italy), he gave us some savory biscuits that tasted very similar to ones my mother used to make. We thanked him profusely and continued on our trip down memory lane.



We took a left at via Fondazza, passing the home studio of painter Giorgio Morandi, most well known for his mid-20th century still lifes, two of which were chosen by Barack Obama to be part of the White House collection. We took another left and headed down Strada Maggiore, one of the streets built over the old Roman Via Aemilia, until we got to another of Bologna’s landmarks, perhaps its most well known, the Due Torri, or two towers. Both leaning at alarming angles, these were built by two prominent families in the 12th century, with the intent of showing who was the most powerful. Although we didn’t go up them this time, a trip to the top will reward you with the best views in the city.



This area is also the heart of the university district, which has buildings all over town. Not only the University of Bologna, but foreign universities as well. One of these, Johns Hopkins University SAIS (School of International Studies) Bologna Center was the first full-time graduate school located in Europe under an American education system. I came to know this campus well. Three months into my new career as an English teacher, I was teaching at three different language schools in Bologna, but spending more time traveling between them than actually teaching. I interviewed for and, to my surprise, obtained, a position as an assistant to the librarian. My days started with a 15 minute walk to work, through one of the largest and best preserved medieval historic centers in Europe. My responsibilities included placing the orders of books and periodicals for the library, updating the new electronic catalog system, and ordering and selling the textbooks for the classes. Although some of them were a snore (macroeconomics, anyone?), others were actually very interesting. The one that made the biggest impression on me was called the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. This was the true story of the abduction by the Papal States of a 6 year old Jewish boy, who had been secretly baptized by his Catholic nanny in the 1850’s. The international uproar this caused was a factor in the collapse of the Papal States and the eventual reunification of Italy.



We continued to wander aimlessly, just admiring the beauty of the architecture, the most consistent and identifiable characteristic feature being the porticoes. There are over 28 miles of these arcades covering the sidewalks, which in addition to being beautiful and giving a very harmonious look to the city, also help protect you from inclement weather. The only downside is that any little doggie treats that might litter the sidewalks aren’t washed away by the rain, but most shopkeepers clean their sidewalks out front daily. Although most of the buildings are painted, it’s the brick buildings that give the city its third nick name, la rossa, the red (not the election of a series of left-wing mayors, as convenient as that sounds).



One thing we loved about living in Bologna is that it seemed almost untouched by mass tourism. While that still seems to be the case, we did notice more English being spoken on the street and even a big red tour bus. Another thing we noticed was just how affluent the city now seems. There are so many new restaurants now, and the the people on the street seem prosperous. Part of this I’m sure is that Bologna is so well placed in the country, being at the intersection of trains lines running north/south as well as running east/west. I sound like I’m writing for the chamber of commerce, but at only 40 minutes by train from Florence, 60 from Milan or 90 from Venice, it is an easy stop for a low-key visit, when you need a break from the obligatory tourist stops; and if you’re looking for a medium sized city to move to in Italy, I can’t think of a better one.
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Neptune and his sea-nymphs

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Palazzo Communale https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...273f3f3ba.jpeg
Palazzo Re Enzo
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Palazzo della Mercanzia
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One of the two towers flanked by porticoes
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Porticoes
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Door to our old building.
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Store below our apartment
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Our wine shop
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Due Torri
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Archiginnasio
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Anatomical Theater
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Archiginnasio

Thanks! 😊

Amazing, isn’t it?!

Russ, love your descriptions of Bologna and your photos, but especially your memories.

“Being pre-internet, we had to go there and buy the local paper to see availability, and then call and set up appointments. I had rehearsed, “I’m calling about your ad for the apartment” in Italian before dialing, but my one year of night-school Italian classes had hardly equipped me for the verbal barrage of Italian that each phone call would unleash. Rather than even make an attempt at understanding the response, I would let them go through their entire spiel, and when they came up for air, I’d hit them with my rehearsed question, “when can we see it”?In this way, we managed to find a lovely one bedroom apartment with a terrace, over a salumaio”
What a great story. I’ve long wanted to visit Bologna (and so much else) and quite likely that a trip report is as close as I’ll ever get, so this is food for the (travel deprived) soul.

Thanks so much. It’s been a real please reliving these experiences. All the better if I can provide some inspiration for someone else’s future trip. 🙂

Thank you, Russ for the wonderful pics of Mantova and and for the description of your time in Bologna where I have spent about 3 weeks at language schools, 2 in one on the via Santo Stefano so I know that area quite well. . Such a great place to wander round - during my first stay i was staying in an apartment about 15 minutes walk from the school and I tried to take a slightly different route every day. It helped me get to know it but nothing like as well as you of course. i do hope I'll be able to get back there one day, hopefully for longer next time.

I’m so happy you enjoyed your time there. I have so many great memories of that time, and made friends from there, as well as Milan, London and the US. I hope you get there again one day as well.

Russ, i tuoi fotografie sono spectacolare, particolamente Venezia! Per me, la Venezia e una della più bellissima citte del’ mondo! Come me in Croazia, tu e Sam sono molto fortunamente visitare bellissima Italia con solo un po’ turistici! Spero che ritornare a Venezia la prossimo anno se possible, e anche visitare la Sicilia per il prima volta.

Una domanda. Era tua madre Italiana or forse, Italiana-Americana? Mi sembra che lei sarebbe!

Grazie, molto gentile!

I miei quattro nonni sono nati in Italia, tre in Molise (che non esisteva ancora, faceva parte dell'Abruzzo) e uno a Campagna; i miei genitori negli Stati Uniti.

Eccellente! Poi tu sei 100% Italiano! Sono 50%. Mio nonno e nato in Calabria e mia nonna e nata a Napoli. Siamo Italiani vero del’Sud!

Purtroppo non ho dei nonni italiani ma mi sento italiana!

I completely understand. I bet you are more Italian than some of my friends who were born there!

Epilogue
 

On the day of our drive from Bologna to Nice, we decided to stop for a final lunch about half way, in the small beach town of Albenga. We chose what looked like a tiny beach shack with an outdoor terrace, but the food was surprisingly sophisticated. I had spaghetti in a lobster sauce and Sam had ravioli flavored with squid ink. Although I generally love seafood, I was not impressed with my previous encounter with a squid ink pasta sauce, so I was pleasantly surprised that the bite I tried of Sam’s was much tastier than it looked.

The other surprising thing was that the beach surrounding the restaurant was absolutely jam packed with shredded trees and wood debris. It looked like a giant lawn mower had come through and, having chopped down all the trees, deposited them on the beach. When I asked the server about it he said that it had all happened over night with the big storm on October 3, which brought floods and landslides, impacting Liguria from there to the border with France, as well as Piemonte and the French Alps. The trees and debris had blown over and been carried down the overflowing river, with the tide washing them to shore. It was an eerie sight.

Our last couple days in our final AirBnB outside of Nice were a bonus, as the weather was warm enough for lunches outdoors. We generally stayed out of the densely populated cities, but did visit the Picasso Museum in Vallauris, which focuses on his ceramics, and a deconsecrated chapel he painted, as well as the Fernand Léger Muséum in Biot. In addition to the Léger permanent collection, there was also a Gilbert and George exhibition, with three monumental photos compostions, which appeared to be about 6 meters (20 feet) high and 12 meters (40 feet) across.

So, we are back home in California now, after our 22 hours of travel, Nice - Frankfurt - San Francisco - Palm Springs. We were happy to see that Lufthansa had blocked out every other seat on the first flight, while we were the only two people in our cabin for the 11 hour transatlantic flight on United. Unfortunately, our small plane from SFO on the last leg was packed. In addition to our required masks, on the final packed flight I also wore a bucket hat with a plastic face guard around the front and sides, which made me look like a crazy bee keeper. Surprisingly, no one took our temperatures before any of the flights and no COVID test was required to transit through Germany or enter the US. Considering that cases have increased exponentially in both France and Italy over the past month, I would have felt better if the test had been required, but we are self-isolating at home for a couple weeks, although that also is not required for entry.

With over 4200 kilometers of driving behind us, this brings our Italy road trip to its conclusion. We are so grateful we had the opportunity to experience the country again, after such a long time away. Thanks to everyone who followed along or commented. I didn’t really go too much into logistics, so if anyone has any questions, I’m happy to respond. Ciao for now.


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It was tasty, but black food just doesn’t get me excited. Glad it wasn’t mine.
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Now, this is what I’m talking about!
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Lots of flotsam and jetsam on the beach in Albenga, with our little beach shack restaurant on the left.
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Picasso chapel in Vallauris
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Picasso ceramics in Vallauris
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Modern mosaics at the Léger museum in Biot
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Modern mosaics at the Léger museum in Biot
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Modern mosaics at the Léger museum in Biot
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Stained glass window at the Léger museum in Biot
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Gilbert and George: Images of Utopia, at the Léger museum in Biot
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Gilbert and George: Images of Utopia, at the Léger museum in Biot
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Gilbert and George: Images of Utopia, at the Léger museum in Biot
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Mad beekeeper on the plane

Simply amazing photos, Russ. Your protective gear looked inspired. I ordered a sepia pasta dish in Venice and like you wasn't impressed. Glad to know there are better versions. Picasso's ceramics and the chapel were amazing. And I loved that Leger church window.

Welcome back. May it become God's Country again come November.

<<Simply amazing photos, Russ. Your protective gear looked inspired. I ordered a sepia pasta dish in Venice and like you wasn't impressed.>>

TD - I think that they are very varied as you might imagine. Personally I would prefer the plate that Russ had but I brought some squid ink pasta home with me on one of my visits which we've been eating recently and it was pretty good use in spaghetti alla vongole.

Russ - that is indeed very impressive headgear - I wonder what you would have said if this time last year someone had told you you'd be wearing that on a plane.

​​​​​​​Your photos have been superb and it's been great following you around albeit virtually.

My bad squid ink dish was Venice too! I suspect that some the restaurants in the heavily touristed areas may not use the best quality products. 😉

I would have thought they were crazy!

Russ, it’s been such a pleasure reading about your experiences, thanks for sharing it with us.

It’s been my pleasure. I’ve benefited from many trip reports of other Fodorites over the years, so happy to contribute. Thanks for following along!

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. A much needed distraction during these times. Where did you get your hat with shield? Looks like a great idea for flying.

Not the most glamorous purchase I’ve ever made, but I was happy to have it and the price was right. Here is a link:
Note that the wavy plastic is not great for seeing through, so film watching was out, but reading was fine if I held my tablet so that I didn’t have to look through the plastic.

Russ...

Thank you so much for this report. Having cancelled our planned two weeks in Sicily this past May, I now live vicariously through the travel of others. Your report was a pleasure.

ssander

ohh, looks perfectly, italy is one of my favorite destinations...

Only due to post moderation comment did I visit this thread. Great memories...( I went to 5Terre in the mid 80s thanks to the 4th edition of Europe thru the back door).