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While in Florence we had a lovely dinner with wonderful views of the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno River. I was sporting a Venetian haircut. The lady who cut my hair a few days prior in Venice couldn’t speak a word of English, but she sang to me in Italian through the entire experience. It was very memorable, and I had a smile on my face the whole time.
After dinner we went for a stroll over some of the other bridges going over the Arno to watch the sunset.
After a few days in Venice we headed, by train, to Florence. The above photograph is of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s town hall. In the lower, right-hand corner you can see a replica of Michelangelo’s David which has been there since 1910. The original was there for over 300 years until the 19th Century.
This David is the real deal, unlike the countless copies throughout the world. Michelangelo completed this original in 1504. I took this picture in the Galleria dell’Accademia (even though pictures aren’t allowed). It seemed a shame not to take a picture so I crept back into a corner to take this when the guards weren’t looking. I’m not sure why photography isn’t allowed. Perhaps they want to increase postcard sales in the gift shop.
The first picture for today is from our gondola. This is the Rialto Bridge from which yesterday’s photo was taken. The people on the far right are riding the vaporetto water “bus” which is far less expensive than a gondola. Gondolas are way overpriced and not worth it. Even though the vaporetto isn’t cheap either you should ride it at least once during the day and then again at night while in Venice.
Our last shot of Venice before we continue our tour of Italy in another town tomorrow… More gondolas and canals for your viewing pleasure… This photograph includes an Italian restaurant too. The guys in the lower left corner are the gondola “drivers” (pilots?, captains? I’m not sure what they are called.)
I’m heading out of town for a while for the holidays. You won’t be left in the lurch however. I have pre-blogged the next couple weeks with pictures from our trip to Italy in the summer of 2005. I had a pretty lousy camera at the time, but hopefully the sights won’t be too painful on your eyes.
We’ll start things off in Venice. Today’s photograph is from the Rialto Bridge, one of the main landmarks in Venice over the Grand Canal.
I was jet lagged in Venice, which was the first place we visited. We missed a flight and spent several hours in a plane on a runway in Dallas on the way so it wasn’t a pleasant journey (taking well over 24 hours). So my memories of Venice are rather foggy in my head, sort of like this picture.
Once we are back in Japan next year you can count on daily entries dealing with only Japanese things. Until then, however, I will mix in some other travel pictures and stories (as I already have with Denmark, Paris, Chicago, Norway, Sweden, etc.)
Today’s travel adventure happened last September. I flew to Toronto on a red-eye flight. This made for a spectacular scene from the air as my plane approached the airport with the sun having just risen. I had a great time in Toronto, catching a Blue Jays game, seeing Rush at the Air Canada Centre, and adventuring around town.
My real reason for being in Canada was to teach in Windsor. I drove to Windsor under terrific conditions. The Ontario countryside was beautiful and relaxing.
Anyway, I’ll see what else I can share with you from my Canadian experiences on later dates.
I have a few decent pictures from our day in Washington D.C. this past summer that I’ll put up here from time to time. The above is of the magnificent sunset from our hotel room. We didn’t realize until the next day (since it was an unplanned trip that happened only because we missed our flight to Copenhagen) that we weren’t really in Washington D.C. at all. We were in Virginia.