We like to travel.
June 28Milan is Big City, Big Noise (courtesy of the radio station broadcasting from portable tents in the Duomo main square), Big Heat & Humidity, Big Cathedral (4th largest in the world), Big Shopping.This is the entrance to the shopping arcade, famous for its famous brandware, and famous because it was the first covered shopping… Continue reading Milan
The Certossa di Pavia is about 45 minutes south of Milan and is run by the Cisternian order (I believe) of monks. It has a beautiful cathedral and lovely grounds. We first entered through this gate.We do have a straight-on shot of the church, but as usual, it was in renovation so parts of it… Continue reading Certossa di Pavia, Italy
June 26 & 27 Bergamo, Italy Bergamo is really two towns: Citta Alta, or Upper City (Upper Bergamo) and Citta Basse, the Lower City. It began with the upper city settled by the Venetians in the 17th century, surrounded by a wall with four large gates. The modern city now resides in Citta Basse, and… Continue reading Bergamo Italy
Bergamo's bells chime at noon and at 10 p.m. We were up in the large tower and caught this sonorous sound (but my apologies on the shaky picture).In the early days of Bergamo, the gates would close around the city at 10 p.m. and the chiming was to tell the citizens they'd be locked out.More… Continue reading Bergamo Bells
Lake Como—June 25-26th We left Lake Maggiore on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Lezzeno. I had printed out driving directions from each hotel to the next on Google. These were useless. It’s so American to want to know the name of the road and when to turn left. Instead we learned to navigate the Italian… Continue reading Hot Hot Day on Lake Como
One of the challenges of ordering food in a foreign country is our preconceived ideas about what that food should like—in other words, when we order we are thinking of our American version of this food. Sometimes what you imagine agrees with what is put before you. Green Salad. That’s it—ribbons of green lettuce that… Continue reading Menu I
Tuesday, June 24th--2008 Dave's off to his conference today, so after a slow start, I decide to wander around the little towns around Lake Maggiore--well, inland of the lake. I head for another lake: Lago di Monte, a short drive from Ranco, where our hotel is. First stop is the grocery store. I had a… Continue reading Grocery Stores and Broken Columns–Lake Maggiore area
June 23 Santa Caterina On the day we nearly croaked for heat exhaustion (Orta and its island) we got back in the car and recovered sufficiently to think about another place to go visit: Hermitage Santa Caterina. A hermit built the original chapel on the side of the cliff—88 steps above lake level, but 288… Continue reading Hermitage Santa Caterina
June 25, 2008
"Not Very Cloudy"
The Traveled Mind 