Tag: Part 2
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Week #19 ~ Recap
206 Miles, 4 UNESCO World Heritage sites (1 World Heritage “cultural landscape” included in the count), 4 cities, 1 leaning tower, 3 trains, 3 boats (vaporetti), 2 tiramisu desserts, 3 gelatos, 1 moment of falling in love with Italy, and $28.74 UNDER budget. This week we moved from the NorthEast portion of Italy (Venice) to…
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Venezia senza tempo e Verona moderna (timeless Venice, modern Verona)
Verona is a sister city to Venice, having historically been conquered by the same folks and/or formed alliances with each other, but they are as different in temperament as two sisters can be. Venice is timeless as a result of tourism and law, Verona has preserved the city’s art and architectural character, but is definitely…
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Happy Birthday to Me
When we first started discussing this trip my two top priorities were: spend a month in Italy, and spend my birthday in Florence. I wanted to do a cultural deep dive, and what better place than the birthplace of the Renaissance? Florence is the home of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Donatello—and I’m not…
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Week #18 ~ Recap
1,077 miles, 1 plane, 2 trains, 2 countries, 3 cities, 1 UNESCO World Heritage site, 4 museums, average of 12,000 steps/day, 238.54 UNDER budget for the week. We have now entered the part of the trip we have been most eagerly anticipating ever since we started planning it: a month in Italy. The food, the…
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Normandy
If you are looking for a region that is American-friendly, has lots of history, is easy to navigate and has great food ~ Normandy is the place. From the D-Day beaches to thousand year old cathedrals, to pastoral landscapes dotted with cows and sheep, we enjoyed Normandy quite a bit. We also liked Normandy because…
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Paris
I was prepared not to like you Paris. I had heard stories of the French being aloof and arrogant with tourists when they couldn’t speak the language so I started my daily DuoLingo lessons back in July hoping that I could maybe order from a menu by October. I had read multiple warnings of…
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Week #17 ~ Recap
285 miles, 2 countries, 2 big cities, 1 Chunnel train, 2 friends from home, 1 West End show, 2 museums, 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites, 1 haircut, 12,000 steps per day average, and $161.98 UNDER budget. Our count list from last week doesn’t seem very long until we think of the span of history influenced…
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Is that Big Ben?
No, no it is not……the tower we all call Big Ben is just the bell tower…..the BELL is Big Ben. This is one of the many things the narrator on our Thames cruise shared with us as we were seeing the sites of London from the top of a very touristy Thames boat cruise. Coming…
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Week #16 ~ Recap
23 years together, (18 married), 3 countries, 2 friends, 1 museum, 1 castle, 1 ferry, 363 miles, 1 super long town name, and $651.65 over budget. Our overage is a result of buying plane tickets for the France to Italy leg, and the London AirBnB. We came to the United Kingdom to meet the Schengen…
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Erin go Bragh
One visit to this absolutely beautiful island will make you think of the past, present and future all wrapped up together. “Erin go bragh” literally translates to “Ireland til the end of time” or “Ireland Forever”. The green hills filled with white sheep, howling winds coming off the rugged cliffs, cities and towns that are…