Today we drove from Venice to Zoagli on the Laguria coast, via Verona. Caroline wanted to have a look around Verona because it’s featured in the movie Letters To Juliet. This was my first time driving on the right hand side of the road, and it was the thing I’d been most worried about prior to the… Continue reading The Grand Tour 29 – Autostrade

One of the things I’ve enjoyed while walking around Venice is looking at the brickwork and how things are constructed. Here is a collection of images on that theme. 

Today was busy, with visits to the Natural History museum, the museum of perfumery and costumes, the Acadamemia galley, and finally the Correr and Ancient history museums. In there somewhere we also managed to eat. The natural history museum had a mix of traditional displays with groups of items labeled with their Latin names, and… Continue reading The Grand Tour 27 – Venice IV

Today we visted Murano Island where Venetian glass is made, St Mark’s Square, St Mark’s, the Doge’s Palace, and went for a gondola ride. No pictures were allowed at the glass maker we visited, but if you Google venetian glass you’ll get an idea of what we saw. The most expense item I saw was… Continue reading The Grand Tour 26 – Venice III

Most of the photos you’ve seen so far have been of churches and frescoes that have been restored. Given their age – 400 to 500 years old – it is amazing there is anything left to restore. The effect of light, exhaled moist air, and incense burned over hundreds of years causes paintings and frescoes… Continue reading The Grand Tour 25 – Venice II

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good map will never be lost if he uses it.  However, getting him to actually use it, or ask for directions is another matter.  This rule does not hold true in Venice, a city that is simultaneously the city of gondolas and… Continue reading The Grand Tour 24 – Venice I

This stern looking man is Galileo. His expression may in some part be due to his house arrest in 1633 for heresy. His crime? He believed, based on extensive astronomical observation, that the earth was not at the center of the universe. In 1992 the Catholic Church formally closed the investigation, finally admitting that he… Continue reading The Grand Tour 23 – Museo Galileo

Today we visited the Uffizi Museo, established by the Medici family in the late 1500s. As well as art treasures beyond compare (until we visit Venice, Barcelona and Paris) a zombie apocalypse can also be observed. This takes the form of large masses of people, up to 40 or more, all hypnotized by devices plugged… Continue reading The Grand Tour 22 – Galleria Uffizi and the Zombie Apocalypse 

On the hill above Florence, among hundreds of tourists waiting for the sunset, and stalls selling everything from hats to necklaces to postcards to framed pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands David. You can just make him out on the tree-line in the photo above. Not the real David, but a copy. The stalls… Continue reading The Grand Tour 21 – The Three Davids

It is hard to covey in pictures the vast size of any of the churches we’ve been in or the acoustics, which are sublime.  As a music recording engineer it was a treat to arrive at Santa Maria Novella and find the organ being played. I took a moment to video a 360 degree view… Continue reading The Grand Tour 20 – Santa Maria Novella