Italy & Holland with Friends

The rest of the flight went well and landed in Rome, Italy. A few days earlier I had booked a flight to Amsterdam to meet a really good mate, Neil, who I hadn't seen for 13 years. The flight left on one of the first flights in the morning so I had decided to do the airport floor sleeping thing. Not fun, not sure why I called it the airport sleeping thing, not much sleep. Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in the world. It is so chilled. Love walking around the canals, seeing the multi-storied beautiful buildings that somehow are still standing, leaning as they are, the atmosphere around the place is just so good. In the past the times I spent in Amsterdam would be ones in party mode, heavy duty and rather forgetful after the event, if you get my meaning. This was no different except being more refined and possibly mature (possibly not), we decided to visit some attractions as well. This led us to the Begijnhof (a convent community that in the past looked after their fellow females), Vondelpark (Neil owns a gardening business and this park had an English garden flavor to it, or so I read, I think), to an outdoor street market and finally saw some cool art in the Stedelijk museum. Neil left the day before me and I spent that night with a previously unknown relative Marga who was a great host. Thanks again Marga, appreciate the hospitality and really enjoyed our talks.

Left Holland, back to Italy where I stayed with friends in Tuscany, hello Giacomo & Francesca. Their two boys are getting bigger and with Luca at 2 and Alessandro at 5 life was definitely not uneventful, or even quiet. Great boys which were lots of fun. Had a great 2 weeks with the family there. We went to many of the surrounding Tuscan towns and even ended up in Lucca for the world's second biggest game & comic book convention, many a great costume worn. Giacomo is in the wine business so my alcohol input went up markedly but my taste buds didn't mind, many a fine drop. Finally put to rest my camera problem after all these months. Nikon Italy wouldn't honor my worldwide warranty unless I had bought the camera lens in Europe??? Got so sick of the crap that I sent my lens back to Australia to get repaired and bought an identical one in Florence. Camera is once again clicking at a accustomed rate. While in Florence I righted a previous wrong and visited the Uffizi museum after the standard 3 hour line to get in (in the morning it was 5 hours so got a bargain there). This gave the camera a work out with Leonardo and his mates showing off their impressive works. It was very sad to say my goodbyes to Fran & Giacomo. They were adamant that I shouldn't leave Italy without seeing Venice so that's what I did.

The first and only previous time I visited Venice in 1988 and it was only a brief 2 hours stopover between trains. Saw the canal, walked over a bridge, been there done that. At least that's what I thought back then. It's good to be proven wrong. Yes the place is expensive and they could sink every gondola and it wouldn't make any difference to me but...there are some special places that I saw there that makes me glad I went back. From the outside the Basilica Santa Maria Glorioso del Frari looks like your standard Italian cathedral, high ceilings, wide and deep main auditorium, nothing special. In fact the outside looked quite plain. It is only once your inside that the church takes on a different personality. Lining both sides of the church as you enter are a number of monumental altars that reach high towards the ceiling. My favorites of these altars were the large burial pyramid where sculptor Antonio Canova lay (I don't know him either but his burial site was impressive) and the funereal monument by Longhena with well-muscled black men holding up the monument with gruesome black skeletons jutting from the wall beside them (my favorite). There were more Italian masterpiece paintings by some famous but unknown to me Venetian artists as well as segmented chambers all fantastically decorated. Churches are rarely my scene but this one was definitely one not to miss. Enjoyed it.

Next I went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum where I saw some paintings of my favorite artists (Miro, Picasso, Kandinsky, Magritte, Dali) and got so very close to a Jackson Pollock, worth around $150mil, that I could have licked it (not that I would). Finally the last place I visited that I would definitely recommend for its uniqueness (as far as I know) is the Palazzo Dulace near St.Marks square. This was the residence of the Doge of Venice (something like the governor) so as you can imagine the place is grand indeed. On the upper floors it's as if each room was a museum in itself with the rooms full on decorated with paintings that weren't just consigned to the walls. In fact it was the high ceilings that were totally covered in these bog standard Italian masterpieces and between each of these intricately designed frames separated one from the next. One room must have been around 60m long. Really impressive. So yes, thanks Fran & Giacomo, I was very happy with the visit to Venice. PS. There were also a few canals (and unsunk gondolas).