Keep your Feet in the Street

This is, really, my last installment for Italy 2012.
All of these photos are from the "third half" of our trip--after Venice and through to the end.

First off--Amy and me taking it all in, on the trail to the Duino castello, just north of Trieste:

This one was taken with the self timer and the camera on a rock during our second hike in the Dolomites. We were really feeling good!

View...

Sign in the valley indicating that the area is a Unesco World Heritage site:

My dear dear friend and travel companion, Amy, on the balcony of our room at the Hotel Maribel:

And another glamour shot of Amy on the street in Trento:

Street in the center of Trento:

Ken and Kev--they never missed a bench-talk opportunity:

I got my face painted in the Piazza Duomo before the Euro Cup final match:

Do we look happy or what?--Gelato tasting at Grom in Trento:

One more from the baroque Santa Maria Maggiore church in Bergamo:

The orchard behind the Hotel Il Gourmet in Bergamo:

Thanks everyone for reading, commenting, encouraging and coming along on our wonderful ride.

Hope I'll be doing it again in a couple of years!

These photos are not from Venice but the first half of the trip.

We started with a week in Rome and this shot of a lone poppy in the ruins near Portico Ottavia is memorable:

and this one of a photographer set up inside the Pantheon--a place I wish we had gone to more than once.

Our first stop was Montisi in Tuscany where we made a little day trip to Pienza and then to the garden tour at the La Foce estate. The tour guide was straight out of central casting:

Staying at Locanda dalle Valle Nuova near Urbino was a treat. I had "known" Giulia online for years but we had never met. She is so engaging, entertaining and full of life! I will never forget when she interrupted our special dinner with wonderful friends, Palma and Brad to show us the sunset.

The views and the flowers--just so much natural beauty:

Oh, how I miss Venice and Italian travel in general! I think of the freedom, the visual beauty, the musical language, the adventure, the clear tastes and layered smells.

All of these photos are from Venice.

A wall...

A window in Campo Santa Margherita:

A wall on the far side of Giudecca:

Kiosk right near where we sat to eat the "fish fry" on Saturdays at Rialto:

Where the public signs are insufficient, the local residents have done this:

Such a pretty little bridge, at Campo San Barnaba:

Hot day: A spritz for me and gelato for Ken--at Campo Santa Maria Formosa

One of the saddest, Catch 22, type things in Venice is the presence of the "grandi navi" the giant cruise ships that are destroying the canal. They dump thousands of tourists onto the precious island. They don't usually spend any money except for a few trinkets because all of their food and board are provided on the ships. And the ecological impact is enormous. Here they are from the hotel window (Hotel Imperial, last night in Italy)

View, looking the other way, from the hotel room window :

I will do one more post of shots from out of Venice--soon.

I still have a small bunch of photos which I left on my desktop but never quite fit into a blog post. They all represent great memories to me so I thought I'd share them.

I'll try to put them in chronological order.

First, the door to our apartment building in Rome. You can see we were in the best possible location! I still remember the wonderful earthy smell of the "all things pork" shop, right next door.

I saw this man and his dog in the little piazza in front of the Ducal Palace in Urbino.

Ken waiting for the start of the event at the Doges Palace in Venice:

Our apartment, in Venice, from across the bridge over the Fondamenta Minotto--white building, top floor on the right:

Two very different views of the Bridge of Sighs:

View from our apartment looking left:

View from the street towards our neighborhood:

Graduation celebration parade heading for the little bar called Lele:

I think that's enough for one post.
More, soon.

We got up early. I crammed in my blog post and we all had a quicky breakfast at the hotel. We drove Amy and Kevin to Linate airport; there was some traffic backing up around Milan but it was not horrible and they got there with time to spare. Good byes were teary, loving, huggy--well just imagine. We had really done this trip and along with the sadness we were all just thrilled we had made this dream a reality.

Ken and I turned the car around and headed for Venice. Got here around 1:00. Checked into the Imperial Hotel right near Piazzale Roma. Our room is tiny but the A/C definitely works and it was no hassle coming from the car rental place, with all of our baggage, and going back to take the bus in the morning will be easy.

We headed over to the very nearby Majer for shakerato and a couple of tremezzini. We had a list of little errands to run--gifts to buy etc. We broke it all up by sitting in Campo Santa Maria Formaosa with a spritz and a beer for an hour. It was in the mid 90's here today--not conducive to walking, full speed ahead, through the crowded Venice streets. We got everything done, just about, or we gave up on some things. We got our shuttle bus tickets for the morning and rested in the room for a while.

Dinner was a big decision and finally we decided to go to Osteria ae Cravate--not too far and not too fancy. We had walked by this place a thousand times and never eaten there. it was a perfectly satisfying dinner. We started with fantastic, super fresh mussels and clams in a nice broth with a little bit of chopped fresh tomato in it.
Ken had a pasta with pesto which was OK but no WoW factor. I had monkfish with vegetables which was on the same level. Ken had a beer and I had a very generous glass of prosecco and we shared a tiramisu. Bill came to 57euros. Not too bad for a fine meal sitting outside in Venice.

Now we are back in the hotel room. Everything is organized and packed. We plan to catch the 7:20 shuttle to the airport.

It's been awesome in the literal sense of the word. I feel satisfied and ready to go home.

This was a great trip!