Recommended sites in Italy, or where Rick Steves' guides say you should go

Yesterday, Rick Steves offered a free webcast of his European Travel seminar which I was able to watch and listen to part of online.  One part of the seminar addressed touring in Italy and came with a handout available to download that lists various points of interest throughout Italy.  I was excited to see it because it included several of the ports we'll be visiting.  I'm sharing parts of it here in this blogpost.  The red sites are ones we have plans to visit and the italicized ones are places we've been before; if you're planning a visit to Italy, be sure to check out the recommendations.

Venice/Venezia

•  Europe’s best preserved big city
•  St Mark’s Square, Europe’s living room
•  Rialto bridge and market
•  Vaporetto, slow boat down Grand Canal fine intro tour
•  Doges Palace, Bell tower, St Marks
•  Glass blowing demo just off main square
•  Great art – Accademia, Scuola San Rocco
•  Gondola – expensive but worthwhile
•  Traghetti – ferry gondolas, very cheap
•  Wander, get lost, you’re on an island, it’s ok navigate not by streets but by landmarks and signs
•  Flood in winter “acqua alta”
•  Magical evenings, staying in town makes a difference
•  Carnival, 40 days before Easter, masks
•  Stand-up-progressive-Venetian-pub-crawl-dinner

 Nearby islands including:

•  Burano (famous for lace and colorful houses)
•  Murano (glass works)
•  Torcello (oldest island settlement, mosiacs)
•  Lido (residential core and sand beaches)

Florence/Firenze

•  Birthplace of Renaissance
•  Duomo = cathedral, center, dome by Brunelleschi
•  Arno River, Ponte Vecchio
•  Bargello – best sculpture
•  San Lorenzo and Leather Market
•  Central Market, good for specialty foods
•  Food in Florence is some of best in Italy
•  Possibly best gelato is found here
•  Uffizi Gallery – Botticelli, best Italian paintings
•  Baptistry - Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise”
•  David and “Prisoners” at Accademia, Michelangelo
•  Duomo Museum – original doors, Donatello
•  Santa Croce, burial place of famous Italians
•  Pitti Palace, modern Italian art, park is nice for picnic

Cinque Terre

•  5 tiny towns on Riviera between La Spezia and Genoa
•  Vernazza is best town
•  Wine, hiking, swimming
•  Consider sleepy Levanto as a base
•  Carrara, best marble quarries

Rome/Roma

•  Colosseum, 50,000 numbered seats
•  Forum, center of ancient city
•  Palatine Hill
•  Circus Maximus
•  Capitoline Hill – city hall and great museum
•  Victor Emmanuel Monument
•  Pantheon – best preserved Roman building
•  Villa Borghese, fine Baroque art museum and park
•  Many, many churches to visit with great art - Moses by Michelangelo in St Peter in Chains church, St.Theresa in Ecstasy by Bernini at Santa Maria della Vittoria
•  Vatican – center of Catholicism, become a temporary Catholic, climb St. Peter’s dome
• Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel
• Cappucchin Monastery, bones galore, off Piazza Barberini
•  Passeggiata, or the evening stroll, Piazza del Popolo down via del Corso
•  Trastevere – the seedy, colorful side of river
•  Night spots, Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps=over-rated
• Piazza Navona for tartufo gelati, dinner at Campo di Fiori, atmospheric square

Naples, Sicily and South

•  Hairy urban jungle, 2 hours south of Rome, birthplace of pizza
•  Best to see Naples fast and sleep in Sorrento
•  Pompeii, stopped by Volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD
•  Herculaneum, better preserved than Pompeii
•  Pompeii art in Nat’l museum, Naples
•  Sorrento – Romantic tourist town, easy base for Amalfi Coast, Paestum, islands, Vesuvius, one hour from Naples,
•  Amalfi Coast – exciting bus ride, beautiful villages of Positano, Amalfi and Ravello
•  Scenic tourist trap – Isle of Capri

The many costumes of Minnie Mouse

As much as I love Mickey Mouse, Minnie is my favorite of the Fab Five Disney characters. And on a cruise, Minnie is so fun and adorable and always dressed for whatever the occasion. These are just a few of the outfits we might see her wearing.

My favorite thing to collect on a Disney cruise is a photo of Minnie in each of her costumes. When we get home, I will be sure to share that collection with our readers.

Captain Mickey

Dining on the Magic

A cruise ship offers several dining venues, and the Disney Magic is no exception. These are the three main restaurants included in their famous rotational dining plan as well as two of their casual, counter service dining options.

World Heritage Sites

I was beginning to research Malta today and see what there was we might want to see and do while in Valletta when I saw that the City of Valletta is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It caught my attention because I had noticed that designation for a couple of the other places we will be touring this summer, so I wanted to find out more.

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and one of their programs is the World Heritage Center.  Quoting from their site:

"Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa’s Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world’s heritage."

Visiting places that have been identified as World Heritage sites is a wonderful opportunity for our family. I've often said that our children are growing up in a global community, so taking them to see the places that they may read about in their textbooks or learn about in school broadens their interests and helps them realize that our world is shrinking, but with that comes the need to understand the culture and heritage of other places.

Some of the World Heritage sites we have on our itinerary are:

• Old City of Dubrovnik
• The Acropolis
• The Historic Centre of Florence
• The Historic Centre of Rome
• Venice and its Lagoon
• Archaeological Area of Pompeii
• Cinque Terre
• Works of Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona

There are other World Heritage sites in the places we are visiting, but time only permits so much.  The complete list of UNESCO World Heritage sites can be found on their website.

And for the days when we won't be able to travel as far away as our Mediterranean adventure is taking us, there are still plenty of sites to see right here in the good ol' USA.

500 years is the new New

The State of Florida has designated this week as Viva Florida 500 Week in recognition of it being 500 years since Ponce de Leon landed and gave the state its name, La Florida.  The week’s activities are part of the year-long commemoration of Florida’s history and will focus on people and events throughout the last half-millennium.  More information can be found at www.vivaflorida.org.

So what does this have to do with a Mediterranean cruise, you ask? 

As I was reading about Florida’s celebration of 500 years, I thought about how the United States will celebrate her 237^th birthday this summer while we will be in Europe.  And it reminded me of our tour guide in Rome in 2007 telling us about the periods of time and architecture and how anything that was built after 1400 was considered to be new.  Over 600 years old and considered new?? 

When visiting regions with storied pasts that go back over 20 centuries, you can see why the perspective on what is new might differ from somewhere that doesn’t have as far to look back.  Whenever we travel to parts of the world with long, documented histories, we stand in awe and amazement at how things have survived and wonder at how much has been lost.  I’m a voyeur by nature, so when we do get to glimpse into the past, whether by visiting ruins or traipsing through museums, I stop to consider not only what life must have been like for the people of the ages, but what we might be leaving for future generations to find.  How can we take care of the places and things that belong to our time, to our age, and preserve them for our descendants?

While cruising is a great time for fun, relaxation, and enjoying family time, it offers a way to see more of the world without the logistics of finding a place to stay, where to eat, and navigating from place to place.  These things can be intimidating, so a cruise takes them out of the equation and offers the opportunity for passengers to expand their experiences and take in places they might otherwise never be.  And as part of those experiences, if they pause even for a moment to reflect on the people who walked before them, the people who built and lived and loved in the places they stand, perhaps they will at that moment consider how they will impact the future.

Viva the World!

Hello, Please, Thank You, and Where's the toilet?

This summer we will be in seven different countries while on vacation.  We like to learn a few basic words and phrases for the areas we visit so that we can greet others, say please, thank you, and where's the toilet?  Our experience has been that even just these few phrases along with hand signs help us with language barriers in the areas we travel.  Of course we are mostly going to be in tourist areas where English is understood, we find that the shopkeepers and restaurant staff appreciate the effort to be polite in their language.

Our first country will be Spain, but because we'll be in Barcelona, the dialect is not Spanish, but Catalan.  Our phrases are: Hola, complaure, Gràcies, and On és el lavabo?

For our two stops in France, we'll want to say Bonjour, s'il vous plaît, merci, and Où sont les toilettes?

I loved listening to conversations in Italian when we visited Italy in 2007.  I particularly liked that Prego is how you say "you're welcome" in Italian; I remember that because we sometimes use that spaghetti sauce.  Our phrases in Italian are:  Ciao, per favore, grazie, and Dov'è il bagno?

I took a first level Greek class in college, but I was a much better reader of the language than conversationalist.  While in Greece, we'll want to know how to say: Γεια σας, παρακαλώ, σας ευχαριστώ, and Πού είναι η τουαλέτα;

I can't say I've ever hear the Turkish language spoken, and I'm pretty sure you don't just sound out the letters, but perhaps we can recognize it when others speak our basic phrases: Merhaba, lütfen, teşekkür ederim, and Tuvalet nerede?

Our days in Malta may find us needing to use Maltese as we'll be spending some time on our own there, so we should learn Hello, Jekk jogħġbok, Grazzi, and Fejn hi l-toilet?

And while we will have a guide for our time in Croatia, I'd like us to be able to greet him in his native language as well as say please and thank you.  And of course if we need a potty-break, being able to ask where the restroom is will be important, so we should learn these phrases in Croatian before we go: bok, molim, hvala, and Gdje je WC?