A Doge's Life

We spent the morning at the Doge's Palace next to St. Mark's Basilica and soaked in some Venetian republicanism. The dukes in Venice were elected officials--and they operated a sophisticated system of democratic governance. The Palace gave me some insight into Act 1 of Othello with its Venetian Senate and trial scene.










One photo here shows a lion's head with a gaping mouth--these were slots in the palace through which people dropped paper accusing others of various crimes. The accusations would be considered and a trial might then ensue--certainly Iago would have manipulated and exploited this.

Much to Emmett's delight, the patron gods of Venice are Mars and Neptune (aka Poseidon), so statues and frescos of the water god were everywhere in the Palace, not to mention many many (!) paintings and frescos by Italian masters (Veronese, Tintoretto, etc...most of the Titians were burned in various fires).

In another room, we got to see torture devices including a chastity belt! That was a hard one to explain to the kids, but we muddled through it. Isabella had some choice comments...I'll leave them to your imagination.

Bridge of Sighs (everyone, ahhhhhhhhhhhh), check.

Afterwards, it seemed right to take a decadent gondola ride through Sestiere di San Marco and onto the Grand Canal where we saw Marco Polo's residence (everyone, Marco? Polo!)

Later we took the elevator to the top of the Campanile and looked out over the mountains on one side and the Adriatic on the other. Dinner on the Grand Canal and dessert in St. Mark's Square listening to the women's string quintet. Perfection.

Dear readers--book a trip to Venice sometime soon. It's a great city for kids (and I must say Philip and I are thoroughly enchanted). Alright, I know my family members are remembering my bad (nearly catastrophic) experience here in '73 when I sank fairly deeply into some quick mud on the shores of our campsite on the mainland near Venice. Ginny pulled me out, bless her. But I survived and here I am again!

Venice--Another Planet

Absolute magic! We're staying in a residence hotel with 3 aspects (top photo is view from our windows), a two-minute walk from St. Mark's Square, so the gondolas pass by with great regularity, often enough that there are gondola traffic jams. We get to hear the singing gondoliers too, many with excellent voices. The weather is beautiful, the place unlike any other.

After parking the car in the massive car parks just over the causeway, we took a water taxi to the hotel--this is waterworld; it is like stepping into a different place and time. Our hotel has a dock, so we climbed out of the boat and right into our airy digs. We spent the evening getting our bearings, listening to the water, the gondolas, the singing, then walked through and hung out in St. Mark's Square, which is always a happening place. Several small orchestras were playing favorites as we sipped cappucinos and the children ate gelato.

Art Overdose in Florence

Still being lulled and coddled here in the cradle of the Renaissance--ah!

Last full day in Florence--we had to pack it all in. So...we toured the Palazzo Vecchio with frescos and carvings galore--those Medicis really loved their art...and themselves apparently. Lorenzo the Magnificent? The elaborate and gorgeous frescos mostly focus on the celestial gods, the theory being that the stories of the celestial gods are a nice complement to the lives of the terrestrial gods (the Medicis). Too bad that Savonarola came in and rained on the parade with his Bonfire of Vanities. He was, of course, burned himself in the same spot sometime later.

At the Palazzo, we made sure to hang for a bit in Machiavelli's office (the Chancery) to absorb some practical politics. Maybe we should adopt a more Machiavellian style of parenting...

So, against the protestations of a child or two, we took in Casa di Dante on the way home for the daily siesta, passing the church where Dante first glimpsed Beatrice and got a sense for the Florence of the Middle Ages.

Later that afternoon, we explored the Uffizi Gallery (Da Vincis and Botticellis mostly, but also the occasional Carravaggio for a bit of drama) and had a beer (kids had waters) on the roof where the Medici family would listen to concerts on the Piazza below. It was a gorgeous evening, so we walked across the Ponte Vecchio. So lovely!




Did you know that Florence Nightingale was born in Florence (hence her first name)? She's one of the few women commemorated in this city (although I can't say where--it is just noted somewhere). Just saying. I realize the Middle Ages and Renaissance weren't exactly good times for women, but still. And in the sculptures we get David, Neptune, Hercules, etc... and then Judith beheading Holofernes. Nice. Botticelli is refreshingly kind to women in his paintings, though. You go, Sandro!

Hats off to our Folks

Both Philip's and my family (both families of 6) took a trip similar to this when we were young--my family in 1973 and his, I believe, in 1976. We keep thinking how much more difficult and daunting this venture would have been 35 years ago:

1. Navigation. Our parents only had fold-out maps. We have a navigation system in our rental car (with AC, stereo, iphone chargers, DVD player), plus the ipad, which pinpoints our location in a matter of seconds. And we still get confused. At one point, we gave up on finding our B&B and had to put the longitude and latitude of the place into our ipad to figure out where we were going. Notably, our current navigation system talks to us in French--so in Italy, we hear it say, "tournez a droit" or whatever, and it can get a little comical.

1a. Currency. We've only had to deal in 2 currencies--the British pound and the euro. It's still a bit confusing, but imagine going from country to country and having to exchange money!

1b. Borders. Nowadays, you just breeze on through, like you're going from West Virginia to Maryland--no worries. But the queues, the questions, the rigamarole all those years ago? Daunting.

2. Children. They get bored easily. We have 2 itouches, an iphone, an ipad, books, and movies and tv shows downloaded onto the computer. And they still melt down. What in the world did our parents do? Peter and Joan had two boys under 7.

3. Planning. We avoid queues by preordering tickets on the internet; we booked our accommodations months ago and have all the confirmations on emails. Via the internet also prebooked all ferries and trains in advance. For our parents, it all had to be done over the phone or by mail--or by the seat of the pants. Btw, we booked almost half of our hotels through Tablet Hotels--an international boutique hotel site. They are always excellent and plushy hotels with all kinds of perks and discounts. We're always psyched when a Tablet hotel is coming up.

4. Language barriers. We have Italian "apps" that give us the exact pronunciation of most any phrase we need. Clare has been learning Italian through these apps all summer and has been a great resource. Our parents had old-fashioned dictionaries.

5. Staying in touch with home. We have this blog, email, cell phones, snail mail, New York Times and Sydney Morning Herald access on our i-toys. We are following the US Open on our ipad (updated every 30 seconds).

6. Accommodations.
I believe the Kearns actually slept in hotels and B&Bs. We slept in a very small caravan in dodgy campgrounds every night (George and I swinging in hammocks over everyone else). My mother still talks about the rowdy Australian rugby team that keep us up all night outside of Venice.

Anyway, hats off to George, Pree, Joan and Peter. You guys were crazy (crazy!), but you gave us children an incredible experience.

Firenze--mid stay

Some dome, there, eh? It was the first and still the best. Brunelleschi had a design in mind but alas it could only be made with a crane, which wasn't yet invented. So he invented it. That's the thing about the Renaissance man--he was an architect, painter, sculpture, inventor, engineer, administrator...all in one.


Ensconced in the internet cafe across from the apartment while the kids have a little play, I can catch up on what we have been up to.

In Florence, we have established a pattern of exploring 2 sites in the morning, breaking for a little siesta at lunch, then rallying for more touristy stuff in the late afternoon. The kids need that break in the middle of the day because there is just so much to see in Florence, and it's overwhelming (lots of crowds, crazy streets dodging bikes and cars, fast-speaking Italians, souvenir stands).

After my post yesterday, we ventured oltrarno (other side of the Arno), which is clearly where you would want to live--lovely hills and houses and the view! First we took in the panoramic view at Piazza Michaelangelo where Florence pops in cinemascopic fashion. We proceeded to the loveliest church, San Miniato (I know it is the loveliest because Franco Zefferelli intends to be buried here; he has rather a fetish for beauty). It really is jaw-dropping with its marble facade, intricate inlaid floors, massive frescos, and whiffs of pagan beliefs--little grotesque creatures carved here and there and floor tiles in the zodiac signs. It was used as an artillery outpost at some point; Michaelangelo was so worried, he encased the structure in mattresses. We were lucky that the organist was rehearsing while we gazed. From there we went to the Pitti Palace and walked through the rather scraggy, overpriced Boboli gardens. We were hunting for statues of Poseiden (Emmett's favorite Olympian) and were not disappointed.



At night (generally after a delicious dinner), PK and I watch Italian TV which features American movies dubbed in Italian. I give up pretty quickly, but Philip seems not to get frustrated.

Speaking of food--must backtrack to the Cinque Terre area where I had the tastiest lunch in memory--fresh, crisp local greens, sweet corn, olives, meaty, musky tomatoes, and cloud-like mozzarella. YUM!

Post(poning)

We are in Florence, busy seeing as much as possible in 3 days. Alas we do not have good access to the internet here, but we will update you fully when it becomes available, hopefully in Venice.

A quick recap--

Pisa for lunch on Monday (gorgeous buildings, gloriously restored. Too bad about the lean on that tower.





Florence on Monday afternoon - Friday morning. So far the Duomo, climbing the Campanile (416 steps), Santa Croce (love those Franciscans--they saved Galileo's body from the trash heap. He, along with Machiavelli, Michaelangelo, Rossini are all buried there), Accademia (David, major swoon), Science Museum (fingers of Galileo). Had a very strange dinner last night with an evil female tourist passing judgement on me during the course of the meal. She seemed appalled that the children were playing the itouch and ipad. I wished I had Galileo's middle finger to offer her.



At Santa Croce, I had to wear a robe of shame (above) because my shorts were too short. I think the Italians were just offended by the ghastly pallor of my legs after so much cold weather in the UK and Paris.

We are staying at our friend Elizabeth's sister's apartment near Santa Croce--it's nice to see Elizabeth smiling out at us from the photographs. We feel very much at home!

Cinq Terre. Cinq Etoiles.

It's hard for words to describe how stunning this place is. From the imposing mountains, dropping off into the sea, to the tiny, gorgeous villages carved into the rock, the terraced vineyards, the more recent construction marvels (the train line that spends something like 90% of its time in tunnels, the roads, foot paths) - it's all quite breathtaking. We decided to jump on a ferry from our base (Portovenere) & head up to the 5 towns. This being italy, they scheduled something like 4 boats to arrive & leave at the same time. Chaos, shouting, but eventually everyone seemed to make it on the appropriate crafts.



Leaving the port, the first thing you see is the wonderful striped church with the fort (C.16th) further up the hill.



After 30 minutes of nausea inducing cruising (some of our party were affected) we came to the first of the 5 towns.



With only small natural harbours (our boat performed some exotic maneuvre to disgorge its passengers. Bad choice of words) its really quite amazing that the towns grew to be the size they are (or were, back in the day). The local inhabitants were really quite industrious. Nowadays, of course, the towns are prized for their character, location & downright cuteness.


After disembarking at the first town, we walked up the coastal path (the Via dell Amore). The local custom is to take a padlock & leave it one the path, locked to some convenient stanchion. I guess the hikers are locking their love - the kids spied one padlock with a pacifier...how cute! Its a terrific coastline. It being a Sunday, the local inhabitants were out in force, enjoying the sun & the sea. We even spied one couple taking the name of the path literally. Move on, children.



Quite a special place.