There are so many reasons why you’d want to go to Florence, and just one why you wouldn’t. Pros? The art. The food. The history. The celebrations. The desire to create, and be surrounded, by beauty. The con? Tourists. We’d just come from 2 weeks in Umbria, where we’d often be the only people in…
Author: dani
Lean on Me
Question: What are these people doing? Is it A/ a new dance craze? B/ tai chi? C/ a dramatic Italian “talk to the hand” gesture? It’s all in the angle! They’re doing what everyone does when they come to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa – getting the elusive “Yes, it really DOES look like…
The “Venus de Meelo”
Seeing one of the world’s most famous paintings, one that has inspired beauty, photography and other artists for centuries, begins with a jolt, and then warms all of your senses. It’s like meeting a long lost relative that you’ve always KNOWN has existed through photos and maybe a chat on the phone, but then seeing…
Umbria’s Hilltowns
Our time in the country house in Umbertide, Umbria, is coming to and end. It began in a stressful whirlwind, with Cam’s mum, Deb, set to join us. The girls were mega excited, but the fact we didn’t have her airline, flight times or flight numbers up until the day of her arrival, and the…
“I do, I do, I do, I do, I do”
On January 31 this year, Cam and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a decade, and we laugh more now, understand, chat and cuddle more than we ever have. Our wedding was in Launceston, Tasmania, and was, in my eyes (as most brides would argue), the best…
Survivor: Italia
Our girls have been pretty good with our non-stop hill-town church/piazza/ceramic-shop days in Umbria, so we thought a day of water-play could be in order. Being land-locked, however, could pose a problem! The fancy new local swimming pool, with down-hill tube waterslides has shut for two weeks (as you’d do in the middle of summer!!!),…
The Bread that Bled
I do love a good historical religious story. They usually involve a swelling of intrigue, ceremony, and a fair amount of truth “sculpting”. In Orvieto, Umbria, there is a stunning church, built from 1330 to celebrate an alleged miracle that had the Catholic world abuzz. The story goes like this. In 1263, a passing priest,…
Jousting sticks? What does he want for them?
I’m not much into sport.The blokiness of it all; the fat-and-red-necked rough-nuts that dominate the NRL; the suspect off-field life of the AFL; the paralyzing boredom of cricket. But finally, after 40 years, I have found a sport I’d happily watch again and again. It has everything I want as a fan – pageantry, triumphant…
The Veneto Club
As well as Venice, the Veneto, in Northern Italy, offers loads of gorgeous old towns with art and history aplenty. In Padua, there is Giotto’s amazing “Scrovegni Chapel”, that you have to book to see months in advance. Commissioned in 1305 by wealthy banker Enrico Scrovegni, it was intended to be a “get out of…
Bella Venezia
I can still remember the emotions I felt when I walked down the steps of the train station in Venice towards the Grand Canal for the first time 20 years ago. I cried then, and on these, the 5th and 6th times descending the same stairs, I did again. It’s overwhelming. Venice is one of…
Il Castello
After two weeks of touring Germany and Austria, with their perfect planning, stream-lined organisation and cleanliness, we weren’t ready for what awaited us at the Castello di Roncade in Northern Italy. The location is perfect for us, with my dad’s home town of Treviso just 20 minutes away; Venice a quick train ride; and the…
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks…”
If ONLY it was light breaking across the skies of Verona today, and not billowing clouds, cracking thunder and tumultuous, fat rain! The day started out pleasantly enough. There are two major sites that have tourists flooding into Verona. Juliet’s (alleged) balcony, and the Roman Arena. When I visited 22 years ago, and had the…
“We make savings fun and easy, whatever the amount…”
“Your dollar might go further in a Dollarmite Account”. When I was a kid singing along to that jingle, with Commonwealth Bank and advertising execs rubbing their hands with glee, I never knew that A/ it was a play on words, with the “Dolomites” being a mountain range in Northern Italy, or that B/ I’d…
Trachten
Some of the fab clothes for sale in Germany and Austria. I wish I was brave enough to take pics of the folk in the street wearing this gear. They looked brilliant!
Innsbruck
I’ll admit it. Before planning this trip, I could NOT have told you where Innsbruck was. I might have guessed it was coldish (they DID host the winter Olympics twice), but I might have popped the pin in at Switzerland, Sweden or The Netherlands. Wrong. It’s in Austria. And now that I’ve visited I feel…
The Dark Crystal
When I planned a trip to the Swarovski factory in western Austria, I guess I was expecting a “this is how we make our products” type set-up, and maybe the chance to grab a few bargain buys at the end. Wrong, and wrong! I’ve got a few Swarovski trinkets. I don’t much go for the…
The Token Traveller 