A Day trip to Bergamo

We are in Angera with a room that features a terrace where you can see the lake.....if you hold your head at a certain angle, but it really is nice, nonetheless.

I'd love to share some photos with you, but our hotel seems to be without internet, and the hotel proprietor made a deal with a local restaurant so that I could get online to check in with the kids.

So, this post will have to be very brief, but I hope to catch up on the day's happenings when I finally have the resources to do so, because the stop that we had at Bergamo was AWESOME!

Apparently there is some sort of open house involving the churches in the old town.

And, the open house only takes place on Friday and Sunday.  So, how fortunate for us to be able to have been there on this day!

Did we ever feel lucky!!  So, I'm going to post some photos, and, hopefully, I'll have a chance to actually write more sometime in the near future.

Oh, and by the way......Pope John the XXIII was born in Bergamo, so keep that in mind when viewing the photos.

Enjoy!

old town walls

view from the walk up to the Old Town

Banners hanging in the street

Frescoes on nearly every street corner

St. Maria Magdalena

St. Vincent Church

and, finally, Marty and me in the center square of the Old Town of Bergamo

Touring Venice with the Locals

What a fabulous day for us!

It all began with us boarding a train to take us into Venice.

Morena's cousins, Marcella and Kristina,  arranged their schedules so that they could be our personal tour guides of this famous city.

Kristina attended University in Venice, as well as her husband, Victorio.  The original plans included Victorio as lead guide, but he was feeling under the weather and could not make the trip.  

He was so disappointed!

He made up for his absence by calling Kristina nearly every hour to be certain that she was showing us the top spots.  How funny is that?

The train dropped us off right at this bridge and we didn't waste any time getting a group photo.

With Kristina leading the way, we crossed the bridge and passed St. Rocco's church

the only wooden bridge in Venice

and the University which Kristina and Victorio attended

She showed us Lo Squero di Son Trovaso where the Gondolas are made. 

Every one of the Venetian gondolas are made here.   

We took some photos near St. Marco square with St. Georgio in the background.

And one of Marty and myself in St. Marco square.

Near here was the "Bridge of Sighs," named such because the Prisoners would be transported under the bridge to be kept in the underground prison, without any sign of the outdoors, for the rest of their lives.

The name stems from the sadness in knowing that this would be the last light of day that a prisoner would see again. 

We walked by the School of Music where we were entertained by the operatic sounds emanating from the building as someone was practicing.

Near this spot stands a statue that appears to be a man thinking.  Kristina told us that the statue was somewhat of a joke, because it appears that books are coming from the man's underside.  (Actually, we were given a much more descriptive word, but I'll leave that up to your imagination.)

We were delighted to be able to walk through Maurizio Martire Church which now is the home of the Vivaldi Museum of Music

The place gave a fascinating history of music in Venice and had some unusual items as well.

Here you see a Medieval Ghironda dating from 1850

An antique plucking instrument from 1600 and an old liturgical Catholic Music book.

I cannot tell you how many bridges we crossed, each offering a charming view.

But I should be able to get you up to date on that number since Marty took a photo on his phone from every single bridge that we walked over.  I'll keep you posted on that one.

Marty also decided to drink from the fountain since he read that Venetians pride themselves on having the cleanest spring fed water in all of Italy.

So far, he hasn't contracted any diseases.  I'll keep you posted on that account as well.

Kristina took us to the Jewish Ghetto, something of which I had been totally unaware.  There is a synagogue in the far right building of this photo.  

Once again, the horrors of war were made obvious while reading a plaque devoted to the Venetian Jews who were deported to Nazi concentration camps on 5 Dec. 1943 and 17 Aug 1941.

Despite this horrid tragedy, there appears to be a vibrant community in this place as the streets were filled with stores selling Jewish items and restaurants and bakeries were geared toward Jewish customs.

With Kristina as our guide, we were able to see parts of the city most tour groups avoid, making our visit so much more pleasant!

Our last stop was near the train station where Kristina pointed out the Calatravi Bridge, the last one built in Venice.

It is apparently an engineer's nightmare, having steps that are uneven, and some with glass tops, making them extremely slippery.  Kristina also told us that the bridge has actually moved since it was constructed.

Marty, of course, ran up to the top so that he could check out the steps himself.

See him waving up there?

He managed to make it up and back down without any harm.

Soon it was time to go and we were once again on the train headed back to Cittadella.

It was our last evening here with Morena and Dennis, but we certainly made the most of the evening.

We had a delightful dinner with "the cousins" and were invited to Kristina and Victorio's house where we found ourselves among two extremely talented musicians, Victorio, an accomplished pianist,  and his son, Andreo, a very talented drum player as well as guitarist.

Honestly, we couldn't ask for a better ending to this special week.  It was one that, surely, Morena and I will never forget.

Good times....great food....and superb Spritzers!

Could you ask for anything more?

Vicenza

What a wonderful surprise Vicenza turned out to be!

It took only a short time to get there AND there were very few tourists!  You just couldn't beat that!

Vicenza was founded in the 2nd century B.C and prospered under Venetian rule from the 15th to the end of the 18th centuries.  It is considered the Italian Capital of architecture and is often referred to as the "City of Palladio", after Antonio Palladio who was the architect responsible for the renovation of many buildings in the 1500's.  And Vieenza was certain to memorialize him for his creative thinking abilities and architectural talent.

When we first arrived, we headed to Santa Corona, because we realized that it would only be open until noon, and we wanted to view some of the famous paintings in the interior.

We certainly were not disappointed as we viewed Bellini's famous Baptism of Christ 

And  Adoration of the Magi by P. Varonese

There was also this lovely representation of the Virgin Mary with SS Joachim and Anne, her parents.

I've cropped the photo to feature the painting because these images are so large that you would miss the details with a regular photo.  

It was well worth making the effort to view these beauties, that's for certain.

Moving on, we walked past the Palazzo Chiericati, now an art museum,

and headed towards the Piazzo Signori and Piazza Elbe which adjoin each other.  If these names sound familiar, they were also Piazzas in Verona.

Here we saw the Bissara tower, which stands 82 meters high and has a beautiful motif featured on the front of the building.

the columns of St. Mark and the Redeemer

and the Loggia del Capitaniato

A short distance away, we viewed the Cathedrale of Piazza Duomo

It was not open for public viewing.

As we walked along, I could not help but admire the frescoes and medallions decorating the facades of the Palazzas.

Everywhere we turned it seemed that there was some fantastic building to examine

We stopped for lunch in a lovely restaurant, where I couldn't resist taking a photo of our friends under the Tiki masks

How entertaining is that?  

On the way back to our car, we passed a statue of Garibaldi

and the Torriene di Porta Costella

As you can see, the day was picture perfect, and we thoroughy enjoyed our visit to this lovely city.

Later in the day, Marty and I headed over to the Duomo in Cittadella to check out the interior paintings.  I spotted one that was painted in the 16th century by Jacopo Apollonio.

It was entitled La Madonna della Cintala con Santa Rita, & Santi Battista, Lorenza e La Trinita.

The painting itself is a little dark, but it surely amazed me that I was viewing something that was painted so long ago, and that it still looked so beautiful.  

Visiting this area of Italy has certainly been quite the learning experience, and Marty and I are thrilled to have been able to spend this week with Morena and Dennis.

Today we head to Venice with "the Cousins" as our tour guides.

It's going to prove to be an exciting and informative day.........I can feel it!

Arrivederci!!