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This is a collection of my blog entries related to short or long trips I went on.
I have some master pages for some specific locations/trips:

paris over many years | UK over many years | Belgium over many years | Holland over many years | Vegas over many years | Australia over many years | Canada over many years | Japan over multiple trips | Italy in 2011 | France in 2013 | Indonesia in 2013 | Japan in 2013 | Japan in 2014 | Taiwan in 2014 | Indonesia in 2014 | New Zealand in 2015 | Japan in 2015 | Costa Rica in 2015 | Singapore in 2016 | South Korea in 2016 | Japan in 2016 | Germany in 2016 | Tasmania 2017 | Japan in winter 2017 | Great Britain in 2017 | Australia Flying Safari 2017 | Philippines 2018 | Spain in 2018 | Alaska in 2019 | England in 2021 | UAE in 2021 | Poland in 2023 | Portugal in 2023 | Thailand in 2023 | Japan Snow 2024 |

Table of Content for trips:

More pages: December 2023 June 2023 April 2023 December 2022 December 2021 February 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 June 2018 May 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012 September 2012 June 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 June 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 September 2010 August 2010 May 2010 January 2010 September 2009 August 2009 June 2009 January 2009 December 2008 August 2008 February 2008 January 2008 October 2007 July 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 August 2006 July 2006 April 2006 March 2006 January 2006 December 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 April 2005 December 2004 October 2004 July 2004 June 2004 January 2004 January 2003 January 2001 August 1997



2011/09/17 End of our Visit in Italy Days 18-20: Rome
π 2011-09-17 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
After Pompei and Herculaneum, we ended our Italy tour with 3 days in Rome, which was barely enough (a bit like Paris in 3 days), but we got to see the highlights.

We started with the Colliseum, Palatine Hill, and the Forum, which took a good part of the first day. I booked the fancy tour of Cooliseum, including underground and the 3rd floor others can't get to. Thanks to the Roma Pass we bought at the train station the previous evening, we didn't have to stand in the super long line to get to Colliseum. Yeah!






the underground was used for staging performers or slaves, and they had platforms that could be elevated to the stage level
the underground was used for staging performers or slaves, and they had platforms that could be elevated to the stage level


From the end of that tour, we got some great views from the 3rd floor, including Palatine Hill, which we went to visit next:



bottom of the arch was quite fancier than the Paris Arc du Triomphe
bottom of the arch was quite fancier than the Paris Arc du Triomphe










Next, we went took the Victor Emmanuel II sky elevator for some more great pictures:










And I finished at Capitoline Museum while Jennifer rest and enjoyed the concert that was happening there:










This was a pretty packed day. The next morning we started with the Borghese Gallery where I had morning reservations. Unfortunately it was a no pictures zone and it looked like they were actually serious about it, so I played along and just once didn't take any pictures. Pitty though because it was very pretty. We also visited the park it was in.



Next, we went to the Spanish steps, and a nearby church:




Next, was Castel Sant' Angelo, from which we got great surrounding views, including the nearby Vatican, as well as the passeto/corridor from the Vatican 's St Peter's to Castel Sant' Angelo:



this is the passeto/corridor from the Vatican's St Peter's to Castel Sant' Angelo
this is the passeto/corridor from the Vatican's St Peter's to Castel Sant' Angelo

St Peter's Cathedral
St Peter's Cathedral






After that we went to the Priscilla catacombs, which likely was my only bad call. We had to wait almost an hour for our tour, no pictures were allowed, and all we got to see where a few tunnels with no bones or skulls, because that would be disrespectful. Go see the catacombs in Paris, those are much more interesting.
This left us with just enough time to go to the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi by Bernini and the plaza it's in, and we finished by the nearby Pantheon which we only got to go inside the next day:



The 3rd and last day was a monday, which meant no museums for the most part, but a good time to go see the Vatican. I had reservations for that too, but I upgraded that for a guided tour when we got there.

The special Vatican Guards
The special Vatican Guards




The tour guide showed us a better picture of what we would see in the Sistine Chapel on pictures easier to see than the actual dome:



And we then went for the tour. The art collection and wall/ceiling paintings is just amazing:








nice floor :)
nice floor :)



fantastic ceilings
fantastic ceilings

it does beat versailles
it does beat versailles

old maps
old maps




more nice ceilings
more nice ceilings






and then more random art:


Who knew James Hodges was displayed in the Vatican? :)
Who knew James Hodges was displayed in the Vatican? :)

After that, we finally got to the Sistine Chapel, another 'no pictures' zone (well no one seemed to care)






and we went for another loop around to see the rest of the art:







And the 2nd time around we took the 'secret' exit bypass to St Peter's Cathedral:









Unfortunately, part of St Peter's closed earlier than they were supposed to, so we didn't get to see all of it, but oh well. We finished the tour by going through St Peter's Square and then we walked all the way to the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi plaza, and then to the Pantheon before it closed this time:













And that was it, this time for real, our time in Rome, and in turn Italy, was over. Even if we had 18 days on the ground, we sure saw a lot for that amount of time.

I hadn't done a lot of research on Italy before preparing for the trip, and I have to say that I was very positively impressed by Italy. We really saw a lot of cool stuff, the best cathedrals in the world, and fantastic combined history that I'm not sure other European countries still have.

2011/09/16 Visiting Italy Day 15: Pompei and Herculaneum
π 2011-09-16 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
We got an almost ok night in the sleeping car of the slow train that took us from Cinque Terre to Naples. After what we read on Naples, I opted not skip it since we had limited time and it was still not a super safe town. So, we went from the train directly to the local train that took us to Pompei.

Pompei was a great visit, it is pretty cool to see it in person. Thinking that you're walking on roman land from 2000+ years ago.


















whorehouse :)
whorehouse :)







After Pompei, we took a train back to Herculaneum, which is quite different since it's in the middle of a neighborhood:













This was a really interesting day. It felt quite humbling to be in the middle civilization from two millenia ago. We then had just enough time to catch an early train to Rome, for our last stop in Italy (and despite having virtually no Italian, managed to talk ourselves onto an earlier and faster train to Rome. It's just like France, everything is negotiable after talking to the right person and saying the right things :)

2011/09/13 Visiting Italy Day 12: Pisa
π 2011-09-13 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
The next morning from 2.4 days in Florence, we had reservations for climbing the leaning tower, so we took an early train to get there.
We walked across town from the train station, and the town is indeed an uneventful little town that happens to mostly get traffic of people going to the field of dreams and the leaning tower.



And we got there:


this is the most leaning angle, not bad :)
this is the most leaning angle, not bad :)

the marble stairs actually caved under the weight of all the tourists
the marble stairs actually caved under the weight of all the tourists


nice church and baptistery
nice church and baptistery

the field of dreams is enclaved inside a wall
the field of dreams is enclaved inside a wall



The baptistery is gorgeous and had the great property of echoing sound for up to 10 seconds, allowing for multi harmonies from a single voice, very cool.



We also went to see the cemetary, with very old ruins and wall painting left from roman times:




The church itself is also extremely nice:







And before leaving, a few obligatory pictures:


Pisa isn't worth a lot more than half a day, but I'm happy we didn't skip it.

See more images for Visiting Italy Day 12: Pisa
2011/09/13 Visiting Italy Day 13-14: Riomaggiore and Cinque Terre
π 2011-09-13 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
After being done with Pisa, we took a train to La Spezia and connected to Cinque Terre's Riomaggiore where we had a room for a couple of nights. They have 5 nice little towns connected with hiking trails and stunning views of the coast, ocean, towns, while going through wineries. Doesn't get better than that :)

Maps:



The first day, we had enough time for a quick look and getting dinner to eat by our patio:



taking the luggage up was fun :)
taking the luggage up was fun :)

The next morning, we went for the hike going to Manarola (town #2)





In Manarola, because the hiking trail connecting to the next town was damaged, we took a bus up the hill to a local winery, which of course made Jennifer happy :)





And from there, we hiked to Corniglia (town #3) through some nice trails and across wineries. Due to the lower route being damaged by a slide, we got to take the scenic high route:





View of Corniglia from the top
View of Corniglia from the top








Eventually, we arrived to town #3: Corniglia and we finished the hike by taking the trail to Vernazza:





We didn't finish the ride to Monterosso because the last bit of trail was said to be very rugged towards Monterosso and Jennifer had already done a great job hiking all the way there with a bad ankle (which we foudn out later will need surgery). That said, it was more than enough hiking and scenery for the first day.

back for a sunset
back for a sunset


The next morning, we took the Ferry to Monterosso, town #5, and visitted it as well as enjoyed the beach. We then worked our way back up from there by train.

Departing Riomaggiore
Departing Riomaggiore


Down to the boat dock
Down to the boat dock





Via dell' Amore
Via dell' Amore


Arriving in Monterosso
Arriving in Monterosso




Second half of Monterosso, with the beaches, we took the scenic/high route there
Second half of Monterosso, with the beaches, we took the scenic/high route there




After we were done with Monterosso, we took the train back to Vernazza (town #4) which we went through a bit too quickly the first day.



Vernazza seen from the tower
Vernazza seen from the tower

After some nice views around Vernazza, we took the train back to Manarola (town #2) which we also went through too quickly the first day. We hiked around for some nice views (we weren't able to hike the bottom part of it since the trail was damaged in that direction, so we had taken a bus back to the winery higher up and hiked from there).


nice view of Manarola
nice view of Manarola


And from there, we took a nice sunset walk back down Via dell' Amore to Riomaggiore:




After a dinner, we had some adventure where we took a train North in the wrong direction so that we could catch the train going South to Naples before 01:00 so that we'd be allowed to enter the sleeping car and sleep while being taken down to Napples for a visit of Pompei and Herculeum.

2011/09/10 Visiting Italy Day 9-11: Florence
π 2011-09-10 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
We were actually done early in Venice on the 9th day, but getting a train to Florence was actually more challenging than we thought. We couldn't get on the next one, the following one was also full, and I had to buy a ticket for 2 trains later. Thankfully I was able to negotiate with the train conductor and get us on an an earlier train with the wrong ticket.
This got us to Florence later than planned (checked in the hotel at 15:00) but just in time to hit a few museums that day before everything started closing. Actually we did really good because we saw 3 museums, that day thanks to one that closed late, and one that was open at night that day: Bargello before they closed at 17:00, then Pitti Palace and Palatine Gallery, plus the gardens before they closed at 18:50, and then a night visit of Palazzo Vecchio.








We then crossed the bridge south to Palazzo Pitti and its beautiful galleries and Boboli Gardens:












After dinner, we went back across to Palazzo Vecchio, which was open during night hours. It wasn't first on the list of museums to see, but we had the Firenze card that gave us access to all museums, and we figured, why not? It was good for a quick tour before going back to the hotel to get some sleep:





and we swung by the cathedral for a few night pictures:


That was a very full half day, but it made sense because we arrived on a saturday afternoon, and most museums were going to close on monday, so we only had a day and a half to see most of the museums (and there were plenty).

The next morning we went to the famous Accademia that hosts a lot of sculptures, including Michelangelo's David.




We then went toward the Galileo Museum on the way to Uffizi:






And finally made it to Uffizi to see their famous paintings:




And after a dinner we went up the last floor of Palazzo Vecchio for night pictures:





The following morning, Monday, our last day in Florence, we went to see more churches that were not available for visiting on sunday, but were good on monday when most museums were closed.
We started with the Medici Chapel Museum:



Next, we got a guided tour of beautiful Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which allowed us to bypass the horrendous line to get to the top.
















narrow stairs to the top
narrow stairs to the top

Once at the top, we had some great 360 degree views:






After that, we went to the nearby museum of the church:







The nearby baptisery:







The Brandici Chappel:



And we finished the day by walking up to Piazzale Michelangelo for a nice view of the city:









Florence was a beautiful city. Seeing it in 2.4 days was a bit compressed (a lot of things in not a lot of time), but it worked out quite well.

See more images for Visiting Italy Day 9-11: Florence
2011/09/06 Visiting Italy Day 5-9: Venice
π 2011-09-06 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
We arrived in Venice a little late the first day due to a strike from public workers, but thankfully Italy added a law that prevented them from striking during rush hours, so we were able to get a train after 17:00 from Bologna, and get to Venice.

We had a few hours of daylight after arriving:

Getting to Venice was quick with 300kph trains like in France
Getting to Venice was quick with 300kph trains like in France

Fresh off the train, to the Vaporetto to Piazza St Marco close to where our condo was
Fresh off the train, to the Vaporetto to Piazza St Marco close to where our condo was

There we are
There we are



The next morning, we went out for sighseeing and started with Piazza San Marco and its beautiful Basillica:



one of many many churches
one of many many churches


Venice has lots of small plazas
Venice has lots of small plazas

Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco

Basillica Di San Marco
Basillica Di San Marco















Across the Plazza, we started with the less busy Correr Museum before Doge's Palace which we did the next day





Then, we went up the Campanile (clock tower) for a nice panoramic view:

Doge's Palace
Doge's Palace









For the rest of the day, we went to see the Accademia Gallery:


from a random art museum
from a random art museum








view from Accademia Bridge
view from Accademia Bridge



The following morning, we went back to Piazza San Marco to see Doge's Palace with the Bridge of Sighs that yields to the underground prison across the canal:





crossing the bridge on the way to their cell, prisonners got a last view of venice, and Sighed
crossing the bridge on the way to their cell, prisonners got a last view of venice, and Sighed


From there, we went towards the huge Frari Church past the Rialto bridge.





Frari Church
Frari Church







nice house :)
nice house :)

The next morning, we went to another random church and the market by Rialto Bridge, and headed towards the train station to take the full grand canal cruise with a front view:






DHL, delivering day and night :)
DHL, delivering day and night :)



It was weird to see streets and cars at the limit of Venice
It was weird to see streets and cars at the limit of Venice

Once we were at the first Vaporetto station, we ran in to score a couple of front seats to do the grand canal cruise as per the Rick Steve book (and its audiobook we had on our phones):




Rialto Bridge
Rialto Bridge


there are only a few seats in the front of a Vaporetto
there are only a few seats in the front of a Vaporetto





Gondolla traffic jam
Gondolla traffic jam

At the end, we hopped off at a random art museum and the nearby Church




Eisher would be proud :)
Eisher would be proud :)

Nice view of Piazza San Marco
Nice view of Piazza San Marco

Once we were back, we took another Ferry to Murano (glass blowing) and Burano (nice colored houses and lace-making). We went to Murano first, and checked out some glass blowing places and a local museum on glass:







how the hell do you get a horse off a blog of glass?
how the hell do you get a horse off a blog of glass?




Then, we went to Burano:








And it was time to head back for the main island and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore and the great view from its top:

cool 'boat' :)
cool 'boat' :)








Doge Palace again
Doge Palace again




After that, we were pretty much done with what we wanted to see, outside of a Gondola Ride on the todo list. The next and last morning, we went for that, and here are a few random picture:

moving equipment from boats looks interesting...
moving equipment from boats looks interesting...


not so good for the first floor...
not so good for the first floor...


high waters that day
high waters that day




almost looks like rush hour :)
almost looks like rush hour :)

And just like this, it was time to move to our next city, Florence. We're lucky because 4 nights in Venice turned out being just right for seeing everything.

See more images for Visiting Italy Day 5-9: Venice
2011/09/05 Visiting Italy Day 4-5: Bologna, Modena, and Maranello
π 2011-09-05 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
It was difficult for me to go across Italy without stopping at the Lamborghini and Ferrari factories by Modena and Maranello (and went to see Pagani while I was at it). Jennife was a good sport and tagged along :)

So, after seeing Milan, we took a fast train to Bologna and I have a different page on the supercar factories and museums.



However, Maranello and Modena had plenty of other things to see. Thanks to the fantastic folks from Hotel Locanda del Mulino who set us up with a visit of Parmigino Parmesan Factory, Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar, and the Castle Rocca Di Vignola.

On the 2nd day, after seeing car factories all day, we started the with a thorough visit of the Parmigino Parmesan Factory, and learned everything about how they make Parmesan from milk:







impressive!
impressive!

We then got a tour of the very small Da Clara Balsamic Vinegar producer. Vinegar is moved to every smaller containers when it becomes denser:





and since we still had some time left, we went to see Castle Rocca Di Vignola:





2011/09/04 Visiting Italy Day 3: Milan
π 2011-09-04 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
We spent our 3rd day in Milan. One day was barely enough, but we got to see most of the sights, starting with the very impressive Duomo di Milano which roof you can climb to and visit:













the crypt
the crypt


We then went around a bit, and saw the Teatro Alla Scala:







and since the weather turned to worse after that, we saw the Da Vinci Museum:



the last supper
the last supper








and we finished the day to visit the main pedestrian shopping street and Castello Sforzesco:








and we grabbed a night picture of the Duomo:


See more images for Visiting Italy Day 3: Milan
2011/09/02 Visiting Italy Day 1 and 2: Lake Como: Bellagio, Varenna, Lenno
π 2011-09-02 01:01 in Italy2011, Ntrips, Trips
As soon as we arrived, we got our "grand" rental car, I used my old trusty garmin and tried offline routing with navdroyd, and it got us there :)

just to be safe, I used double routing :)
just to be safe, I used double routing :)



After a pretty drive next to the lake, we got to the panoramic hotel I found. It wsa not walking distance from downtown (but ok since we had a car), and it had a fantastic view.

nice view from our hotel room :)
nice view from our hotel room :)

After checking in, we drove down to a parking lot (easier said than done) and walked to downtown, where we grabbed a boat to Varenna. We grabbed some lunch and hiked to the top castle.




it was more than time for lunch
it was more than time for lunch










We then went back to Bellagio for more touring, and had dinner by a nice vista point:





The next morning, we had a nice breakfast on the "porch" :) and we took a Ferry to go to Villa Balbianello:








After lunch, we headed back to Bellagio for some hiking around the top of the island (it unfortunately was not that great a trail with so-so views compared to the trail length and difficulty in places.





When we were done, we drove back to Milan where we spent the night.


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