Statia

Sandi, I am really enjoying your report. What a fabulous and memorable anniversary gift for your parents. Not just a trip to Europe, but time well spent with loved ones, too. You are a remarkable lady to have done this for them.

My mother has never been to Europe, either, and I have always wanted to take her at least once in her lifetime. She has also had knee replacement surgery, and has recently been diagnosed with Lupus, so I had pretty much given up on the idea to fulfill her dream. However, you have given me newfound hope that perhaps one day I can make the same journey with her.

I can also relate to having that little problem with perfectionism, and feeling as if the whole trip and the time to be had by everyone is all on your shoulders. I am so glad that you were able to overcome that.

I'm also glad to hear that you and your husband took some time to yourselves on your journey. My husband and I travel together alone for the most part and I think we would have to be sure to take some time alone together, as well, if we were traveling with parents.

I'm really looking forward to reading about the rest of your journey.

Lynn_Gibson

Sandi - I took my parents to England and Scotland three years ago. It was my Mom's first trip out of the USA. She was in London for about 2 hours when she turned to me and told me that she now understood why I love to travel so much (she always encouraged me before to stay at home). My Dad had been in WW2, so he had been to China and Japan, but not to Europe. We chose England and Scotland because that is our ancesters came from.

My Dad passed away in May. My Mom and I often talk about that trip and the fun we had. I'll always be so grateful that I was able to take them and took the time to do so. The memories that the three of us made on that trip are priceless to me. I'll never forget my Mom and Dad getting separated from me on the tube, taking the trains, exploring Skye, taking the ferry from Skye to Mallaig, etc. And finding names of family members in the books in Edinburgh Castle.

Glad that you had a wonderful trip and I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of it!

sandi_travelnut

12/22/04

We hadan 8:40am train from Gare Lyon to Geneva then a regioal train to Montreux. We reserved a mini-van to pick us all up at 7:45a. The ride plus the extra people and luggage was only 26e. That was a much better price than taking 2 seperate cabs. We made the train with no problem once they posted the track number.

The first leg Paris-Geneva (8:40a-12:15) was with reserved seates. Very comfortable and smooth ride winding through small villages and rolling countryside. Of course the mountains got taller as we went along and eventually the homes took on a more "Swiss" appearance in the architecture. But I didn't see what I expected until we approach Lucerne.

This was our first view of the snow-covered peaks of the Alps around Lake Geneva. We got off in Montreux to a crowd of people along the streets just above the quai-level. The hotel described itself as being an 8-minute walk from the train station. I guess that would be true if you were trudging through a sea of people looking at all the chalets set up for the Christmas market while you're pulling your bags and waiting for your folks who have fallen behind...and the fact that it was uphill from the station.

sandi_travelnut

We finally made it to Hotel Helvetie on rue de Casino. The hotel is a bit past its prime but has a lot of old world charm. There is a very small lift at the bottom of a grand staircase. You can meet your luggage at the top if you don't want to drag it up the stairs. There are several large lounges or salons that are comfortably furnished but are void of anyone enjoying them. We check in and go to the rooms. Ours, a triple, is quite large with 2 low, lumpy twin beds pushed together in an alcove. My son had a twin bed against the wall a ways from our bed. In the middle of the room was a nice rug with a couple of red velvet chairs and table. The bathroom was 2 large rooms; the first was just a room with a sink, mirror and closet which connected to another room that had a tub, toilet and bidet. Both rooms had tall ceilings and echoed way too much.

We had 2 french doors that opened to give us a sliver of a view of the water between 2 buildings. My parent's room had a small balcony with a table and chairs.

We walked a block or so down to the quai where we saw Freddie Mercury's statue where there's a large round pier that juts into the water. The view around the lake is absolutely stunning.
The Christmas market is on its last leg (it closes tomorrow) but the quai level and the block above is packed with people. There are dozens of wooden chalets offering homemade cookies, hot wine, chocolates and crafts.

By the water was a large, round log cabin with a wood-burning pizza oven inside and a fire in the middle to warm yourselves (very cold outside). Everyone stood around the fire, eating and drinking while a guy and his accordian played music for euros. Did I mention how cold it was? We ate and drank and had a really good time.

We headed back to the hotel, and along the way my husband and I stopped in a photo-shop where the dumped the images off my memory stick and onto a CD for 15 CHF and it'll be ready in an hour.

My Mom was tired and stayed in the rest of the night, my Dad went to the Casino my son styed in and watch a strange movie that had something to do about a couple from India and a monkey which was dubbed in French.

My husband and I went to dinner, it was only 7:30p but the city was already shutting down. We found Brasserie Bavaria just down the street from the hotel. My husband had pepper steak with turnip greens and carrots and I had sausage and lentils. It was all very good, and with 3 beers total, the tab was 75CHF. This is our only night in Montreux and tomorrow we are off to Venice.

sandi_travelnut

12/23- Venice
Up early for breakfast, 2 cabs to the train station to catch a train to Sion and a connection then to Venice. We accidently got on the wrong train which took us a couple of stops in the right direction then stopped and came right back to Montreux. How lucky is that? The only time we did something wrong and it brought us right back with enough time to catch the correct train. The Gods must be smiling...I know I was.

The Sion-Venice leg was beautiful. We didn't have the panoramic car like I thought we would, which would have made view a lot easier..but lovely none the less. We left Sion at 10:17am and arrived in Venice at 3:30p

Venice was very cold and windy. We got our 5e each vap tickets to the Giglio stop in the San Marco area. Once we were off the vap, over a couple of small bridges, across Campo Maurizio we arrived at the hotel...Novecento. The hotel is exactly how it is described in i-escape.com the pros and the cons. It is quite small, 9 rooms, with a generally Moroccan decor and a few Asian influences scattered around. The rooms can be dimly lit but that didn't bother me. The rooms are fairly small but unusually decorated and the bathrooms are very modern and comfortable.

Our room had 2 twin beds together and a beautifully carved antique headboard, a small canapy of fabric over it that was attached to the ancient wooden beamed ceiling. Our son had a twin bed at the foot of ours. It made for a cramped room but we all get along well. On the 2nd floor (where our rooms were), there's a huge sitting room with many rugs but sparse on furniture. We used the room as a sitting, reading room just to get out of the small bedrooms.

HappyCheesehead

Thanks for the great report, Sandi. I am enjoying the details so don't skip them!

maxi

Sandi, I have been waiting for your reviews on Novecento! Do you actually recommend it for our honymoon?

sandi_travelnut

I don't know exactly what you're looking for in a hotel or more specifically a room. The rooms are very small but unique. I like the exotic feel of the hotel and its decor. The breakfast room and breakfast itself (which I haven't mentioned yet in my report) was outstanding. They offer eggs as well but the spread they provide is excellent and coffe made anyway you can imagine it. The staff was top-notch providing every kind of information you would want from basic directions to a laundry to reservations at restaurants and tickets to a concert. They're all young, hip and beautiful. My son fell in love with one of the girls there. I left all of their names at home in my notes.

sandi_travelnut

maxi- look at i-escape.com for lots of pictures and a good pro & con list and descriptions of the rooms.

ellenem

Sandi--enjoying your report. Keep it coming.

sandi_travelnut

Went went to look at the Christmas Market in Campo Stefano, which was winding down. There were about a dozen wooden stalls selling cards and scarves etc.. Nothing terribly exciting. We began to look around for a place to eat and found a corner cafe that had pizza and calzones. My husband went back to this place later in the evening for an Aperol Spritz (Aperol, white wine and soda) and my husband had grappa. We then walked around the Piazza of San Marco in the dark. The place was almost empty.

I noticed a few unfortunate and very obvious changes since we were there last in 2000. There's a very large building next to St. Marks (to the left if you're facing the church) that says "CHANGE" in large letters. It looks very perminent. Also, you used to be able to look past a row of gondolas then into the lagoon which made for a beautiful photo opp but now there's a huge metal pier that runs along the backside of the gondolas that prevents the uninterrupted view. Very ugly.

12/24 - Late night revelers singing loudly as they passed under our window told me that there was a bar opened late last night - somewhere but I'll be damned if we could find anything open past 8p. We were told that the lack of tourist were causing places to close earlier than normal.

The breakfast spread at Novecento is the best I've ever seen at any hotel, anywhere. After breakfast we took the folks to St. Marks. As we entered the basilica there were tears in my Mom's eyes as she said "I never knew anything like this existed in the world". Becuase there were so few people in there, we were able to slowly walk through, stopping and gawking at every turn. In 2000 we were herded through like cattle, never daring to stop lest we be trampled.

We went to the top of the campenille (sp?) for an incredible view of the city (6e each). We stopped in at the Florian for a pricey coffe and hot chocolate before our slow stroll back to the hotel...window shopping along the way. We had lunch at one of the many cafes in the area (pasta, pizza, roasted chicken) which was good and cheap. My Mom and I got a chance to do real shopping . Since we have 4 days here, we are just strolling and looking with not much of an agenda so they days were long. My son took off from the hotel with a compass and a map (and my fingers crossed) and my husband set off on a brisk walk himself.

We had dinner reservations at da Fiore for our most expensive meal of the trip. The hotel made the reservations and we were fortunate to find a restaurant that didn't have a "packaged/pre fixe) menu for Christmas Eve. We had cocktails, wine a couple of antipasti to share, one meat or pasta course with veggies each and a few desserts, the bill minus service and tip was about 300e for 5 of us. The food was good, but it didn't knock me out and our waitress was a cute, short-haired girl that never cracked a smile or a pleasantry for one second...she scared me actually. Very stern.

Everything was closed when we were finished and it was cold so we headed back to the hotel and met in our "living room" to talk about what we had seen so far and what was to come.

maxi

Thanks, Sandi. I read the reviews of i-escape before. And I just want to listen to someone who has been there. The size of the rooms worry me.

sandi_travelnut

It's not luxurious, just kind of funky and different. You might want to choose someplace else.

sandi_travelnut

12/25 - Buon Natale

The bells! The bells!
We just thought we were going to sleep in. The bells all around the city were in full force at 7am. We decided to try to get into the basilica for mass. We are not Catholic but were all eager to experience mass at St. Marks on Christmas Day with a Cardinal presiding. We slipped in to witness the last 40 minutes of the 10:30a mass. The church was full to overflowing but what a magnificent experience it was. The choir and the church's acoustics gave me chills.
The rest of the day was spent wandering the alleys, finding lunch, shopping and popping into every church we could find. It really was very relaxing and stress-free to have so much free time.

My husband bought me a beautiful red leather carry-on size bag in the shape of a doctor's bag. Beautiful. I also found a purse to match.
That evening we were treated to a concert at San Vidal by Interpreti Veneziani. We purchased the tickets at the hotel, and the church is literally in the next Campo. The performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons as well as Haendel and Bach. We all loved the concert and it was very fitting end for Christmas Day.

12/26 - Aqua Alta
At about 7am the sirens wailed. I had never heard the sirens before but knew what they meant. It was exciting to experience it for the first time. I didn't rush out to see it though..it was early. My husband was the first one out to check out the scene. You know how you step down 3 or 4 step into the piazza of San Marco? The water was to the top step. Probably almost knee deep to me. By the time the rest of us got out there is was still over your ankles. Still having no agenda, we relaxed and walk around...
This was our last day in Venice

12/27
The sirens woke me up again..this time I was not so pleased. We had a vap and a train to catch at 12:30. Yesterday it took hours for the water to go down enough that you didn't have to wade thru it our our stop. Keep in mind that I'm thinking of us with all of our bags and my poor Dad that would have to deal with his and my Mom's.

We decided to play it safe and get to the train station early. By the time we got to the Giglio stop, the water was not yet over the tops of our shoes but it was still rising. At times we had to get up on the risers to pass deeper water. It was very cold, rainy and about 2 hours before the train.

We had coffee in the cafe at the train station and waited for our trian to Florence to be posted.

maxi

Thanks, Sandi.

jmw44

I'm enjoying your report very much, Sandi, and looking forward to the next segment. J.

sandi_travelnut

On to Florence -

I was ready to get there once the train track was finally posted. We got on and settled in..about 3 hours until we arrive. It was raining lightly when we arrived. I was sick of rain by now. We caught 2 cabs to the B&B in Piazza della signoria on dei maggazini #2. You press the buzzer and Monica will let you in. The hotel is on multiple level. When you enter, you walk down a short hallway to get to the staricase or the tiny lift (mainly used for luggage). Up a flight to the level with the office and a couple of rooms, up another level to more rooms, a thrid level has the kitchen and breakfast room and the last level has a private room. Monica was so friendly and gave us the run-down on the hotel. They offer use of the kitchen and unlimted high-speed internet from a laptop on a desk..free of charge.

The rooms are just like they are on the website. We had the Botticelli, a triple with a beautiful modern bath and a large comfortable bed. It looked partly onto the famous piazza. My parents, next door were in the Michelangelo. Lovely canopied bed and modern tiled bath with all windows looking onto the piazza. They were also double-paned and double shuttered to prevent noise...ours were not.

Monica was quick with restaurant and museum reservations whenever asked, as well as, calling cabs which arrived in less than 5 minutes when called.

She told us that someone in the Medici family used to live in the building and that all the frescoes were original. My parents rooms have a lovely frescoe on the ceiling.

We set out for the Piazza, the river and the Ponte Vecchio. We stopped for a gelato and window shopped on the bridge. We took a cab to the Antica Pizzeria della Arte. We had eatne there 4 years before and told my we would go back. It is here that he swears he had the best pizza of his life. When we arrived it was slightly different...a little nicer inside. Less of a noisy family-style place and slightly more elegant.

We had wonderful antipasti of grilled vegetables and bruschetta with artichokes or olive paste, it also had various kinds of salami and other meats. Excellent. My son had the pizza Margherita with buffala mozz. which he loved. My Dad also had a pizza with ham and mushrooms. These are baked in a wood-burning oven that you can see inside as soon as you walk in the door. I had a pasta filled with riccotta and spinach and m,y Mom and roasted chicken and potatoes. I was all delicious along with the wine. For all 5 of us the bill was only 70-80euro. We had mentioned to the waiter that we had been here before and loved it so much that we couldn't wait to come back..he gave my husband a small bottle of grappa as thanks.

We went back to the hotel and slept. There's a reason for the extra sound-proofing on my parent's windows. I must be extra-sensitive to the noises. I flung open the windows around 3am to look down upon the group that was standing under our windows, holding a very animated conversation which echoed on the walls. They looked up, saw me and continued their conversation. It made me really wish I was fluent in Italian.

sandi_travelnut

The breakfast was very good. You go up to the breakfast room and everyone sits at a long wooden table. n The room is full of original oils, all very lovely with windows that look over the piazza. They first bring out plates with a variety of breads. There's already jams and jellies on the table as well as pitchers of fresh, luscious blood orange juice. Then the plates of ham and cheese arrive and eggs too if you'd like. The coffee (any style) keeps coming as well. Having others at your table certainly opens up the possibility of conversation that you might not have started in the first place.

Once finished we headed for the Accademia. We had 10:15a reservations. We stood in line briefly and then went inside. I had not realized that reservations add a 3euro charge to your 8e entry fee. That was fine. Because by the time we left, the line was several blocks long.

My Mom and Dad were in awe of David and my son was so disappointed that he could take pictures of him. When we were there in 2000. you could still take non-flash pictures...not now.

We walked from the museum to the Duomo. Becuase it was roped off, you couldn't even get close enough to see up into the famous dome..We sat and admired the church then went across to the Baptistry. I had not gone into the Baptistry before and I loved the mosaics. From there we walked to the leather market. My son had a quest of finding a lon, black leather jacket (yes, like the Matrix movie)

After walking around awhile, he found a shop that had the coat the always wanted. He tried it on, spun around and gave me that look...all Moms out there know that look. I was hoping she'd be willing to bargain on the price, which she gladly did to get the sale. My son strutted out of the shop a very happy teenager.

From there, tired of walking I took my parents back to the hotel via cab so they could rest. Once there, I met up with my husband and we hit the streets again, walking back to the train station for our tickets to Rome the next day and doing more shopping along the way. Tomorrow we go to Rome.

SeaUrchin

Hi Sandi, enjoying your report, I felt like I was watching your son spin around in his dream coat and I know the look, believe me. I am so glad you are all having such a good trip.

sandi_travelnut

12/29 - Took the 11:53a to Rome which took about 1.5 hours. From there we got 2 cabs to the Residenza Canali ai Coronari on dei tre archi #13. Our cab driver actually got out the map to find tre archi which is really a pedestrian alley. He dropped us off at the far end of the alley and we bumped our luggage along to #13. The alley (tre archi) is really very short and dead ends into Coronari which is a pedestrian street that houses a lot of high-end antique shops. Buzz in at the door and go up a flight of the marble staircase to the front desk and the breakfast room. The people at the front desk were helpful with the luggage hauling as well as cabs and restaurant suggestions.

I would not stay at this hotel again, mainly because of the noise and the rooms were a lot less (in quality) than I expected. There is a central marble staircase that goes up 3-4 stories with no doors or walls buffering the noise from the stairs to the door of your room, which are right off the stairs. The rooms were nothing special and a fairly modern bathroom. My parents room was next to ours, and the walls were so thin we immediately realized that all conversations were to be kept to a whisper.

We got situated in our rooms and immediately went to Piazza Navona which was a 2 minute walk from the hotel (which is why I chose this hotel). I was stunned to see the beautiful Piazza transformed into a chaotic parking lot carnival...literally. Booths selling all sorts of Christmas leftovers, souveniers of all kinds, plastic nativity scenes etc.. There was even a carousel. You didn't even notice the magnificent fountains from all the other stuff vying for your attention. I was soooo glad that I didn't splurge for a room overlooking the piazza with all of this stuff here. I had to stop at a place selling postcards just to show my parents a picture of what the piazza normally looks like.

From Navona, we had an easy walk to the Pantheon. There was some scaffolding inside becuase I think they were cleaning the inside of the domed ceiling. My parents were stunned when we walked up to the Pantheon. Again, something you hear and read about your entire life is actually before your eyes.

From there, we back walked to the river and crossed Ponte S. Angelo, across the Tiber and past the Castle. We slowly made our way to St. Peter's as the sun was setting. What an incredible site it was. In the piazza was a huge decorated Christmas tree and a massive nativity scene. It was about 5:15 or so and we decided to go in..not knowing they would be closing at 6p. We were able to go inside, see the Pietra. We had about 20 minutes to walk around (in awe of course) before everyone was ushered out. We vowed to return before the end of the trip.

By this time it was quite cold and windy and my husband and son walked back to the hotel while I stood in an impossibly long taxi queue with my parents. We decided to get into a gypsy cab (unregulated) after we agreed to the fare for the 3 of us back to the hotel. He was an animated guy with funny stories in his broken English.

We hung out at the hotel until about 7:30p and decided to walk literally around the corner from the hotel to Ristorante tre archi on via dei Coronari 233. We had our mouths set for the artichokes we saw on the menu, but he said they were finished for the night..I guess they had run out... we did have delicious vegetable antipasti and spinach souffles which were excellent. I had ravioli in a butter cream(light as air and very tasty), my son had canelloni, my husband had grilled sole which he said was perfect and my parents had their usual, roasted chicken. All of that food plus a bottle of wine was 79e. I was very pleased with the restaurant and the service. Tomorrow we have a walking tour of the Forum and Colosseum.