Ferrying along Lake Maggiore

Did I mention that we are in Angera?

The tiny town actually sits on Lake Maggiore.

At the suggestion of Allesandro, the hotel concierge, we explored the lake via ferry.

Unfortunately the weather prevented us from seeing what I suspect would have been some awesome scenes with the alps in the background.

But we certainly can't complain since the man in the ticket office managed to make us an awesome ticket deal.  And, considering that we don't speak Italian, and he spoke just a little English, we felt like it was the deal of the century.  In fact, at the end of the day, when we were returning to Angera, I spotted the man on the ferry and thanked him.  Marty shook his hand and thanked him.

And....he looked at us like we were crazy.  In fact, for a brief second, I thought that we were thanking the wrong man and that he thought that we must be some really crazy Americans.

But, I determined that we did have the correct man.

And, I'm sure that he thought that we were some really crazy Americans.

It's been quite a bit of fun here today.  We ended up going to the same restaurant as last night:  the food was excellent, and we were guaranteed wi-fi since our hotel still doesn't have their's working.

The restaurant was empty when we entered, and the owner greeted us tonight, seated us, and thanked us for coming back. He even gave us a complimentary appetizer.  How awesome is that?

At the moment, he's making a fresh chocolate souffle for Marty's desert.  "Give me 50 minutes" he said, to which Marty commented, "We aren't going anywhere".  So....blog time.

In any event, I really must keep this brief, so once again, I'm going to post some photos and try to get a more informative story written later.

Enjoy!

The ferry:

Approaching Sestra in the fog

Can you spot Marty?

Isola Bella Castle Gardens

leaving Isola Bella

Lunch in Sestra

Leaving Sestra

Approaching Santa Catarina, once a monastery 

One last castle photo

Tomorrow we leave for Scotland and on Monday we leave for home.

So, for now, I will bid you "Caio".

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?