We are now in Paris. If you go by my blog, it looks like we have been in Italy for several weeks but that was just my loading up some of my many photos and getting blog postings all put together while it was all fresh in my mind. After our trip we were home a couple of weeks getting the house and yard ready for winter when we aren’t in Provence-it can get very cold there-and came back to our apartment in Paris to get familiar with it as we haven’t actually been in it since we bought it except for moving in, find where we put everything and figure out how to get more storage out of what we have. We really miss the huge walk in closet that we had in our old place. We are thinking we will put some cabinets in the bathroom and buy another amoire just for starters.
The days are getting darker and shorter so when the sun comes out it’s always amazing. I love to be in a wide open place in Paris such as a big square like Bastille or Nation especially in the morning or evening as the sun shines its spotlight on the view in front of me. The other morning we were at a market shopping for the week mostly in shade as the entire market is covered with awnings and giant umbrellas to either protect from the sun or the rain so when the sun suddenly made its way into the interior of the market and hit some vegetables, I noticed.

This is what first caught my eye.

Head of cabbage with light shining through its leaves.

A closeup of said cabbage. I thought it looked so pretty.

The Dolomites, a beautiful mountain range in northern Italy, were just superb. I don’t know if I have ever seen more beautiful peaks. As we returned home via Switzerland I found the Swiss Alps lacking after our time in the Dolomites. They are rocky and there are huge rock faces jutting up into the sky. They were a short drive from Venice and on our first day driving through some magnificant passes it started raining and most of our view was blocked by clouds and mist but when it cleared up the next day we were just blown away with the beauty.

We stayed in the beautiful village of Castelrotto, full of ambience and wonderfully painted buildings.

Our really great hotel which has been in service for 800 years if you can believe it. It had a Swiss or Austrian feel. In fact, German is spoken in this area of Italy and I often forgot which country I was in. If WWII hadn’t happened I think this part of Italy would be in Austria.

I saw quite a few sculptures of witches here as it apparantly was once the home of many witches who had their own Salem type occurence when many of them were executed. I thought about buying a cute kitchen witch-there were many for sale-but didn’t.

As you might imagine, there is a lot of skiing in this area but it is also known for its hiking. Here is a photo of the map showing the hiking trails. We actually spent one day hiking on a beautiful sunny day and, luckily for me, it wasn’t all uphill although I did find myself doing that donkey way of climbing, sort of zig zagging back and forth to make it to the top of a steep slope now and then. We took a bus from our hotel to a nearby village, then a gondola to midpoint up a mountain before we finally started our hike. We were gone about five hours and I was very glad to get back to the hotel, take off my seldom used hiking boots and get in a hot tub.

Just one of many photos I took on the hike. We stopped for lunch at a hut and met some nice people. A cute group of men ordered some grappa-a very strong liquor-and sang a little song as a toast before drinking it. We had our own little bottle of a local poire william which we drank at one point. It seems so cool to drink something like that when you are on top of a mountain.

You didn’t think I was done with Venice did you?

All sorts of romantic little bridges are seen in Venice.

This was a door handle on a store selling very expensive shoes. I just looked in the window.

A lot of Saint Marc’s Square is covered with scaffolding so only parts of the cathedral roof there can be photographed.

The square is usually packed with tourists, so much so that we avoided it as much as possible. I took this photo early in the morning before tourists were up and about. One afternoon we heard some music as we crossed the square and saw that there was a band playing very nice music and that you could sit at a table looking at the view and listen to it. We found out when we paid the bill that we were charged 6 euros each to listen to the music. Still worth it. The bells in the church chimed while we sat there too. Did I mention that we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary while there? A nice place to be then.

Many bridges to cross in Venice-again, another shot where I liked the light.

More shots of Venice. One of the best things I did while there was get up very early one morning and wander the streets taking photos, just me and some other photographers. I like it best that way. Even in September, Venice is absolutely packed with tourists.

This green color caught my eye.

A mermaid knocker perhaps?

An oar, obviously. We didn’t take a gondola ride but did do a short trip across the Grand Canal on a sort of public gondola for just .50 Euro.

All of the gondolas are covered up in blue plastic protection when tied up.

I liked the light pouring into this canal.

Is there a more dreamy city than Venice with all of those canals and narrow streets and curving bridges? I think it is so thrilling to get on your first vaporetta and start up the Grand Canal getting the first look of the architecture and way of life there. I took so many photos.

The first thing I noticed was how high the water was, a problem Venice has been having lately. The water level was going down by the time we arrived and it never covered the streets or squares again while we were there. I’m sure most floors at canal level aren’t usable anymore.

This is blurry as I was on a moving boat and it wasn’t very close, but I loved these people sitting outside at tables with the water about ankle deep. They all had on rubber boots and were just waiting for the water to subside. The lady who met us to take us to our apartment wore knee high rubber boots too.

It’s magic to see gondolas docked everywhere. Notice the people walking on raised walkways in the background. When the water level goes down, the walkways are pushed aside and I saw many people using them to sit on, especially in Saint Marc’s Square.

The canal right next to our apartment building.

I was really surprised going down the stairs one time when I looked out the window expecting to see pedestrains and saw a gondola instead.

Is
A gondola traffic jam.

A striped wooden pilon to tie your gondola to.

More photos to come.

I had never heard of Ravenna before nor of the eight Unesco sites there of fabulous mosaics. After we left Tuscany we made a stop here and saw two of the sites and those mosaics, spent the night and then headed to Venice.

This was in San Vital. My camera wasn’t up to taking photos far away in dim light but I have a few photos to give you an idea of just how wonderful they were.

Hard to believe this isn’t a painting.

This was in a tiny chapel behind the church and it was really dark. You were asked to just spend five minutes inside to help cut down on contamination. Every inch was covered in mosaics.

I really had to photoshop this to get it lighter so the color isn’t true. I just liked it with the robes flowing out behind him.