Window Views No8-Italy Rome

I don’t really enjoy Rome, but I like to see the pretty flowers blooming in the winter time, they high lighted those windows…

    

Are those small windows the home of pigeons?

Rome is famous for its fountains. A must place to see in Rome is Trevi Fountain
What are the things in side those closed windows behind the fountain? What kind of stories happened here? That are interesting imagination to me of all those lovely, pretty or even ugly window views.

Window Views No7-Italy Venice

Venice is the lovely city I would like to visit again

Walking around the town, I saw a lot of interesting photo opportunities such as those window display...I wish I could visit the city one more time in summer. I was there in winter, it was freezing cold…Well, some more window views from Italy will be posted next week. More wonderful window views are here. A big thanks to Mary for hosting this Window views- one of my favorite photo meme!

Window Views No6-Italy Verona & Florence

Romeo and Juliet Balcony at Verona, which is a small town that has retained most of the old buildings and really takes you back in time. I like the old feeling of Verona, I remember I was standing below the balcony and looking up to the old windows, thinking of the romantics story…
Florence, a beautiful hilly city made predominantly of marble, in hues of white, green and pink. Known for its art and of course also as the home of famous artists, the most well know being Michelangelo David. I love those windows behind the  Michelangelo David. Looking up the windows and imagining the stories behind it in a sunshine winter afternoon, that was my most relaxing journey in Italy.

 




 

Window views stop here for today, thanks to Mary who hosted Window view , I will post more window views from Italy next week.

Pretty handmade pendant and more

This is a great blog, http://gufobardo.blogspot.com/, with a lot of pretty handmade stuffs. the blogger is an artist from Italy. I love those handmade pretty things, those artistic accessories are so beautiful. It reminds me my last year Italy trip too. Italy is a country with a lot of great artist, I wish I could visit it again in not too long future.           The creative box. I love it.

From Milan To Switzerland Lugano

We departed very early this morning from Milan. Crossing the border between Italy and Switzerland, the weather start to change, colder and colder, there is snowing outside the window. All the kids in the tour bus start shouting, ask the driver to stop by the road side, playing with snow is more fun than any other sightseeing.
After a few hours of driving, finally we reach Lugano, a small town lies at the edge of beautiful Lugano Lake.


I really love this place just like I loved every place else so far. Though they are all so different but that is what makes travelling great. In different places to see different living style and culture, That is life, not just what you see but how you see it.
We continue our journey to Lucerne after lunch.

Romeo and Juliet Balcony

One stop of our Italy trip was Verona, which is most known for the locale of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". Although the story is fictional, it was based on the savage family feuding during the 13th and 14th centuries of the Della Scala family, which was a real family that lived in Verona. The famous sightseeing Romeo and Juliet Balcony-actually the house has nothing to do with the fictional characters in Shakespeare’s play and, from what I understand, the balcony was only added in the 1930s.

Verona is a small town that has retained most of the buildings from that period and really takes you back in time. A river winds its way around the city, and because of the love story of Romeo and Juliet , it become a very romantic place.

A little bit of Verona History Verona was an important Roman city and this is the best city in northern Italy for visiting well preserved Roman buildings. After the end of the Roman era the next “golden age” was around the 13th century. This is the Scaligeri(Scala)era featured in Romeo and Juliet. The Scala family spent most of the next 150 years trying to dominate the north of Italy and, killing rival family members. In their spare time they did manage to build some beautiful buildings, palaces and bridges. The magnificent San Zeno Basilica and the Basilica of San Lorenzo date from this era. After the family was finally removed the city fell under the control of Venice. Most of the main sites you will want to see were built before Venice took control, apart from some elegant villas built by various rich Veronese families. Romeo and Juliet in Verona It seems Verona tends to bring out the romantic in even the most jaded couple and all couples religiously make the trip to see Juliet’s balcony, which in reality is no such thing, but just a good bit of marketing by Verona. I don’t much like the balcony but if you are interested in knowing why and more about it then click here.

Italy Milan

With the end of our trip approaching before we're due in Switzerland, we spend a afternoon in Milan.
Our half-day tour of Milan includes a walking tour in this stylish Italian city. Milan is the fashion world's design capital, I enjoy all the window shopping in the glamorous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. We are taken to tour the breathtaking Duomo, The majestic Dome construction Santa Maria Nascente in white marble of about 157 m length, 93 m wide and 108 metres height is the third largest Catholic Church in the world. On the left side of the cathedral's back part there are lifts and stairs to the terraces of the roof. From the roof of the Cathedral Duomo, we have a breathtaking view over Milan, and the the symbol of Milan-the Golden Madonnina, a copper plate statue. Haha, I use the word breathtaking, because I almost freeze on the roof, it is sooooooooooooooo cold.
That is all for my memory of Milan.
I am unable to see one of the most famous artworks in the world, da Vinci's 'Last Supper'.
Looking forward to heading to Switzerland.

Fun.Pigeons.Italy

Feeding the hungry pigeons in Piazza San Marco (St.Marks Square) Venice, Italy.

Venice- Italy-The lovely City I Would Like To Come Back

  Venice, approached St. Mark's square  

 

The Leading Tower Of Pisa

Pisa is located towards the western area of Tuscany, and its origins date from as long as 3.000 years ago. We reached Pisa is almost 5 PM in the afternoon, the leading tower was closed for public to visit already. So we were arranged to visit Leaning Tower on the next day morning. Although it is world wide famous due to its Leaning Tower, I believe the city of Pisa also has many other great attractions and amazing characteristics to offer. Too bad that we don't have much time to look around this beautiful city.
We visited the Leaning Tower in the morning. The tower looks great. It sits on a square where there are some other historical buildings, all are well maintained. I am so excited to see this amazing tower in person, it has been my childhood dream since I am 10 years old, first time read the articles about leaning tower. The tower now leans at 4 meters from perpendicular. I am wondering how it will be after 20 years later.

More About Leading Tower
The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italia: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply The Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and it is the third structure by time in Pisa's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square).

Although intended to stand vertically, the tower began leaning to the southeast soon after the onset of construction in 1173 due to a poorly laid foundation and loose substrate that has allowed the foundation to shift direction.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the lowest side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the highest side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 tonnes. Due to the peculiarity of the tower, there is no lift inside, on the contrary of common belief. The tower has 296 steps (the seventh floor has a different number of steps on the two sides, if you climb it on the north part you can count only 294 steps). The tower leans at an angle of 3.97 degrees. This means that the top of the tower is 3.9 meters from where it would stand if the tower were perfectly vertical.

Italy Florence

Today morning we went shopping, PRADA outlet, huge warehouse store FULL of bags, cloths, shoes, etc. Prices were not bad but I have no much interest on all theses. just follow the tour. Next we went to what is called THE MALL - it is an outlet for Italian brands such as Gucci, Armani, Fendi, etc.
It is bored.
I quite like Florence. This is a beautiful hilly city made predominantly of marble, in hues of white, green and pink. Known for its art and of course also as the home of famous artists, the most well know being Michelangelo David.
Today we saw DAVID - the sculpture is absolutely incredible, it is at least 25 feet tall and depicts the moment following David's defeat of Goliath - guess they fought naked in those days! You could spend hours looking at this statue marvelling that is was carved out of a single block of marble and took nearly two years to finish. David used to stand in the piazza outside the Ufizi Museum but was moved to it's current location in the late 1800's which is a small museum called the Academia Galleria. There are several other works of Michelangelo displayed here, mostly unfinished sculptures.
We visit the the huge church called the Duomo in Florence too. Duomo is second only in size to St Peters in the Vatican. The Duomo is colourful with a terra cotta orange roof and pink, green and white marble facade. It is great.

FLORENCE "DAVID" statue



Porta della Mandorla

Huge beautiful church

Giotto's Belltower

Charming Lucca

Lucca is a little walled city in between Florence and Pisa. Very old and traditional. Lovely little town surrounded by big walls with some very cute piazzas and streets. We took a half day trip to the Cinque Terre from there too, which was beautiful ...

Italy Rome-Vatican City

Spending most of the morning at The Vatican City. St. Peter's Square is a wonder to see, and St. Peter's Basilica is just fascinating. Again, I am wordless.
The line to get into the Vatican had wait times more than one hour, but I still think it is worth to wait even stand in such a windy cold place. The art was overwhelming. I took more than 200 pictures, but most of them come out in bad result. One of themes was painting on the ceiling. The ceiling was flat, but the artists such as Michaelangelo painted the ceiling to look curved. Can you tell in the picture below?

Our tour guide spent about 30 minutes explaining the Sistine chapel during the visit. Michaelangelo spent 2 years of his life examining cadavers. He was a Bible and classical literature expert. He could recite whole passages of scripture. Michaelangelo spent 10 years of his life painting the Sistine Chapel and had permanent eye damage. Michaelangelo had the honour of painting the Bible. I am so impressed with his passion to arts and God. Without the passion there is no Sistine chapel today. My eyes began to mist. It was as if the Holy Spirit was painted into the ceiling. I did not take any pictures of Michaelangelo's art work.

About Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance. The ceiling is that of the large Sistine Chapel built within the Vatican by Pope Sixtus IV, begun in 1477 and finished by 1480. Its various painted elements comprise part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Sistine Chapel which includes the large fresco of The Last Judgment on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall paintings by several other artists and a set of large tapestries by Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations.

Italy Rome-Trevi Fountain

Rome is famous for its fountains. Just walk around Rome and you'll chance upon a fountain surrounded by sculptures of gods/heroes very easily. The Trevi Fountain is still my favourite, given it's size and the beauty of the sculptures. There are many people just love to sit around and stare at it for hours. People also toss coins into the fountain over their back... supposedly will help them return to their eternal life (whatever that means). Actually about the tossing coins, Legend has it you will return to Rome if you throw a coin into the water. You should toss it over your shoulder with your back to the fountain. Of course we all took turns throwing coins into the fountains so it looks like we'll be returning to Rome sometime in our future. Whatever it means, it is fun anyway.

The Colosseum in Rome

Think of Rome Italy vacation and what comes to my mind are The Vatican, St. Peters Basilica and monuments, squares and fountains, palaces, villas and gardens, museums and galleries. Sightseeing in Rome is exhilarating and exhausting.

• The Colosseum in Rome, Italy has been named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

The Colosseum (the Flavian Amphitheatre) of Rome (year 70-72) is one of Rome's most famous buildings and enduring monuments to the culture of the ancient Romans. It is located in the center of the city, the spectacular amphitheatre is a masterpiece of Rome architecture. For nearly 500 years, close to 50,000 spectators were entertained to gladiatorial contests and other public spectacles. Today, it is impractical to use the Colosseum to host large events. The Colosseum is shaped like a contemporary football stadium and could seat 45,000 viewers. The four-story facility is 161 feet high, about 600 feet long and 500 feet wide.

Some other pictures taken in Rome  

All roads lead to Rome

All roads lead to Rome, so the story goes. And a lot of stories Rome has! Words truly can't describe this ancient city, which was built on thousands of years of mythology, bloodshed, heroes, villains, crazy eccentric rulers and inventors to what today is one of the most visited cities in the world. All I can say is WOW.
Time is not enough, we only have two nights stay in Rome, and we have a few places must go: The Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, St. Peter´s Square, The Colosseum...So many places, Rome is big, but our time is so limited.
I think no trip to Rome would be complete without seeing Trevi Fountain-a magnificent fountain with lots of very huge, expressive sculptures lying about on it. I enjoyed tossing our coins into the water over our shoulders to insure our return to Rome. But the place is so crowded. In fact everywhere in Italy is so crowed. I hate crowds, they make me cranky. I feel like I am lost in this ancient city. I am lost in the culture, I am lost in the history, I am lost in the crowds.

Spanish steps, Piazza di Spagna