I am the Quietest Person in Italy - Venice

I think I am pretty sophisticated, maybe even a bit jaded having seen so many major European sites this summer. Then I get to Venice, walk out of the train station, and see a scene like below.... and just start laughing out loud! Its so grand and different and amazing and over-the-top scenic. And packed with tourists.

The city's Grand Canal, shown above, is like a backwards "S" through the city, which is like a bunch of smaller islands smooshed together. The unexpected thing for me was all the smaller canals .... and the resulting little bridges connecting them, like the pic to the left. Looks cute, but when you are rolling your suitcase to your hotel, you have to haul it up and down these steps. Great for my arms! But I kept thinking what the hell do all those out of shape older Americans do in the same situation. More later.

You travel around the city by walking, water taxi which are really expensive, or by boat bus... which is a great way to also see the canals. Here are some houses lining the canal. Note the doors right on the water for folks that boat to their house and enter from the water.




There were several favorite squares for me, this is one of them. Had dinner on this square to people watch two nights. The title of this blog is because I was overwhelmed with how bloddy loud the Italians are! Every conversation sounds like a fight, and there are a lot of conversations. Franny, who is Italian, once told me I was too calculated with my emotions. From her prespective, next to Italians, she may be right. I feel pity for introverted Italians, they must feel like orphans.

I like to call this picture...Lemoncello.

Made my way to San Marcos Square.. Its a huge place filled with pigeons and stupid tourists feeding these aerial rats so that they can get a picture... I loved the clock tower on the square, had an interesting clock with 24 hour marks, not 12, a lion (for St Mark, patron saint of Venice), and two folks banging on the bell on the top. This pic is from the loggia, or patio, of beautiful St Marks Basilica.

The facade of San Marcos Basilica...its all Baroquey, curly cues, golden mosaics, bronze horses stolen by Venice from Constantinople, and of course the ubiquitous lions... I loved it! The inside, which sadly you can't take pictures in, is 10 times as gawdy and alive - from mosaic'ed golden domes to intricate stone and marble tiled patterned floors.

I liked this pic, a gondolier sipping a Red Bull, like he needed the energy to row.

Top of the facade of San Marcos.

The Grand Canal at night.

Pont de Rialto, one of the main bridges over the Grand Canal. Its a wide bridge, the far side is like this one... an open staircase. In the middle its a street of shops, in the buildings behind the steps. Very medieval of them to have commerce on the bridge itself.

I just love the clothes drying outside in Europe, its so personal and familial.

Grrrr, I hate "lion" on my side.

Ah, my little dreamland.... the island of Murano, a separate island just north of Venice known for its glass-making. I spent the day there, shopping, shopping, shopping. I haven't much room in a rolling bag/backpack for 4.5 months, but mentally I was saving room for this day! Here is a nifty glass tree next to yet another scenic clocktower.

Sigh, an irritatably scenic town.

At dinner one night, I was mesmorized by this house, the windows kept capturing the trees and skies and light. These window shapes are quinessential Venice..... I haven't seen their shape elsewhere in Italy.













San Marcos Square, with the Basilica in the center rear, non-descript humongous buildings lining it on the sides and behind me to keep in the tourists who feed pidgeon/rats, and the Campanille watchtower. I went up the tower immediately to a sense of the island. I love climbing towers like this... feel a real sense of accomplishment. Sadly, this one didn't use the stairs, instead had an elevator, so the riffraff got to come up, too.

A view from up top, looking over the square and towards the mainland.

The five domes of San Marcos seen from the clocktower.

A glimpse of the real gold mosaics - this one is from outside the basilica, but imagine a huge church FILLED WITH THESE !!!!!!!!!!! Its amazing. I am so Polish, love the gawdy and over the top decor like this. Mom would be proud.

Locals use boats like cars, since there really aren't roads, and cars cannot drive in the city (people in California are scratching their heads right now in confusion).

So, that means their dogs ride the boats, too!

There are two towers in San Marcos square, here is the lion from the top of one. Public executions were done between these two towers.

Remember the lions from Korcula Island, Croatia? They were the southernmost point of the Venetian empire at its peak so it looks like a mini-Venice in alot of ways.

A moment a peace in a frenetic city.

I bought a 36 hour boat bus pass to make it easier getting around, so that meant that the busboat folks went on strike the next day. It was good for everyone in that it got us all walking off the pasta. And I had to laugh, there were total traffic jams on the smaller canals as people took spendy gondolas (80 Euro, so $110) to get around as an alternative. How romantic to be bumping up against other cranky tourists !

A peek from my window to the street below. How, you ask, do people move stuff, and people around, if there are no streets big enough to drive a truck? Carts !!! Here are several queued up to unload in front of the grocer across the street. Its a high-touch infrastructure - imagine the hands-0n effort it takes to move food, laundry, etc around the city for the 50,000 tourists in town on a given July day.

Arghhhhh, I shoulda avoided that quattro fromaggio pizza.

A very pretty square - had lunch facing this building, and was quite taken by the detailed marble all over the face. Turns out this is the front door of the city's major hospital.












And looking around the corner I figured out how they move around the older Americans having heart attacks from hauling their suitcases up and down canal bridges.

Canals are streets, and streets need stoplights, so,..... here is a stoplight, showing red in front of the middle window of the house opposite. Makes sense, I still think its cute.

Heee, heee ,heee wish I could have found this train!

YUM! Not sure what kind of food contributes the colors here but doesn't it look good - Bon Appetite!

Why Do European Men Wear Orange Pants - Slovenia

Hello All - anyone have an answer to the above question? I see European men wearing orange all over the place... is it just my American Puritan roots that find that odd and funny? Its a life-loving color so actually fun to see.

Get confused between Slovenia and Slovakia? Don't worry, so does George W Bush.. he has been known to make comments about the wrong countries to their ministers. The answer is... Slovakia is south of Poland and split from the Czech Republic in the early 90s. Slovenia is a little powerhouse country between Italy, Croatia and Austria, looks like Austria quite a bit. These first pics are from its capital, Ljubljana. Yep, I spelled that right. The dragon is a dominant symbol in the town.... this shot is from the Dragon Bridge.

My first full day here was a Sunday so I got to see the weekly flea swap... people take over tables lining the river promenade and it makes for terrific people watching.

The stuff was actually fun to see too. Here is an old fashioned iron.. you would put hot coals in it to iron. The scary thing is that when I was in Tanzania in 1998, I saw one of the camp guys ironing my underwear with a similar iron. Sad but true. And I was seriously tempted to buy those accordians.


Here is Saso, the gent who runs the wine tasting store, Enoteca, in downtown Ljubljana. The Pughs and Munshis recommended stopping here after a trip they took here last year and it was great ! Not only did I try some great Slovenian wine by the glass, but got to meet a couple from Portola Valley, CA.... the woman knows my doctor ....small world!
I try to climb stairs whenever possible... here are the stairs to the top of the clock tower on the castel hill.

After a day in the city , I rented a car and drove north to the Julian Alps, the northwest corner of Slovenia.. its where the Alps end bordering Italy and Austria , and is named for Julius Caesar. The first stop was Lake Bled, famous for the monestary sitting in the middle of the lake. I walked around the lake (about 3 miles) and heard the bells of the monestary ringing the whole time... later I read that its considered lucky to ring the bell if you take a boat out to the island and climb 100 stairs to the bell tower. The boats are very charming... the story goes that a town was granted exclusively rights by Maria Teresa when she owned the world to provide boat connections around the lake. Here is a guy trying to flag me down for a 10 Euro ride to the island.

Of course I found a Golden walking around the lake... what , you think I am an amateur at Golden Retriever stalking?

Marshall Tito,the solicialist leader of Yugoslavia (with Truman's blessing, since he was Communism-Lite and was a great buffer to the USSR), took over a former royal palace on Lake Bled and used it for a retreat, including to host folks like world leaders. I had lunch on the patio - its now a fancy pants hotel. I ducked upstairs to use their internet and found this groovy painting.


The next day dawned really rainy... thunderstorms actually.... which was a bummer since I was heading up and over a mountain pass that has 50 switchbacks and stunning views of the mountains. The bad weather turned out to be good, though, in that I had few fellow tourists and got to slow down and spend time with my fellow sheep as they wandered up the windy road. Here is my bud, Curly.

It finally cleared after I passed the summit.... made for some amazing views of the Alps.

The sun was just poking through on this picture.

This area of Slovenia has been a watershed for 1000 years... the latest being WWI and WWII. If you turn your head to the left, you can see metal ladder rungs bolted into the hill... this was across from a fort used to keep Turks out 500 years ago, and Italians out in 1915.

This beautiful valley was the scene of carnage 1915 and 1916. The German and Italian troops had battlelines up on the top of these ridges... nerve gas, trench warfare and brutal winter conditions. General Rommel of Germany cut his teeth here - he used a Blitzkrieg method of overwhelming the Italians that helped turn the favor towards Germany after a 2 year standoff... and he used it at the beginning of WWII.

Korcula Island Croatia and Split

Hello from my dream home, Korcula Island, Croatia. After I left Dubrovnik and food poisoning behind, I think I was ready for some R & R...... and Korcula was the place. Rick Steves was spot on when he said this is the island that keeps him coming back. At left is a pic of my favorite activity on Korcula... late morning coffee and journaling with an amazing view of the Croatian mainland in the background.

I met a woman who lived in Australia but was from Korcula and she was laughing that after 2 weeks you are lulled into a near-comotose state on Korcula..... she was right... and it was good.

Here is my trip on the big ferry from Dubrovnik to Korcula.. its a mellow cruise up the coast for about 3.5 hours. I found a shady spot on the deck and put my feet up. The land in the background is the Peljesic peninsula, which is known for the Little Blue grape,or ZINFANDEL BABY!!!! Mike Grigch from Napa is from Croatia orginially and has opened a premium winery on this peninsula. I was tempted to stop by and see if he would hit on me like he did 10 years ago when I was trapped in a wheelchair with a broken leg (remember ladies?) but passed. Here is a view of my street - I had a room with a great family, Tonci and Teresa. Both are from Korcula, and Tonci renovated this house in the old walled city where I believe his grandmother lived. My window is the one on the top left.. I could hear people walking up those stairs all the time. I don't even know the address... I just navigated by the purple Bougeanvilla by the door.

I got two dives in.. and here I am with my dive master George. He held my hand underwater and it was special. Second dive was terrific.. in addition to lots of lobsters , saw some colorful nudibranches and octopus. And Mike the real dive master let me hold the octopus.. it was great texture..kinda sticky, gelatinous, he kept moving around my hands, his tentacles did nad suckers that sucked,and he kept shooting out dark ink. It was terrific! Mike has my first George pic and has promised to send me a pic of him diving underwater.

One of the perks of Korcula, and time,was that I got to see two American movies......outside....with a view of the medieval walls,and the moon. How cool is that! Movies were silly but the experience of seeing them next to a 1000 year old walled city... priceless. Can you recognize the movie... this one is going out to Karin~!!!!!!!

Went on a tour of the Peljesac peninsula for some wine tasting. Stopped in this town and sampled mussels and oysters.

Rented a bike one day and biked south to the town of Lumbarda. There was a winery in the neighborhood but I had a hell of a time finding it... here is a pic of some of the buildings I passed.

At dinner one night, I was close to finishing up my dinner at an outside cafe when the owner seated a large group right next to me. I geared myself for some loud conversation.. and here it came... except it was singing. In four part harmony!!! Korcula is known for its singing and has many chorus groups. This one next to me sang periodically throughout dinner - it was lovely.

One of the draws of Korcula is its famous Mariska sword dance. Its a tale that is hundreds of years old, revolving around a good (red) and bad (black) prince and their struggle over the woman both love. Here is a pic from the dance my last night in Korcula. My host,Tonci, played the good prince for years. Its a dangerous gig..... they have an orchestrated dance with swords in each hand and I saw guys cut that night.

How cute is this..... they sell plastic swords because of the dance and I caught some boys playing swords on the steps to the walled town. The little guy on the right was shy... but the kid in the middle was up for the game.. he posed for me.

My day on a real beach. Most beaches in Croatia are pebbles... which suck when you leave the water. This beach was real sand. I went there after winetasting, after picking up a huge sandwich at the market. I weaved my way through vineyards to get to this beach, and hung out for hours swimming the Adriatic and scoping out the boats that the rich French people showed up and anchored in.

Passed a boat yard on the way to winestasting.

Wine tasting here was a dream! Small place and not advertised too much.The owner told me a new major road was going in in a few months and he was hoping for more traffic. I didnt even call before I came and luckily two neighbors called him to come out. He is sealing the wax on this bottle of Little Blue, or Zin, that Karin and I will hopefully drink in Ireland (note... its still with me after two weeks.. 3 to go!). He also smoked ham and made goat cheese besides wine. And he made a killer Mandarin and Lemoncello.. Have a bottle of the Mandarin with me.

Here is my bedroom on the next trip I make to Croatia... took this picture from my coffee perch.

Another shot from the other way looking at the place I stayed on the right.. and the Adriatic in the distance. Note that this is a street! No cars in Old Town.. everything is carted in, and there are tons of stairs.

Liked this group of ladies...

My hosts Teresa and Tonci, about midnight, after the sword dance. We had dinner afterwards and they told me amazing stories of life under socialism. Like the guy Tonci knew who made a joke about Tito having beans for lunch when he was having beans. Someone ratted him out.... hard labor on a island quarry for two years. And this was Communism Lite... not as harsh as the Soviets.

Lots of beautiful stonework in Korcula - much is quarried nearby. The stone for the US White House is from an island next to Korcula.

Korcula was the southernmost point of the Venetian empire.. so there are lions and St Mark statues everywhere, just like Venice.

Marco Polo was from Korcula, before Venice adopted him. I liked this sign!

From my bikeride... heading back from the sandy beach through vineyards. You can see the mainland and Adriatic in the background. A great day. See my hand taking my pic in my sunglasses?

Reflections of the sea in a door window.

STONE, STONE, and a view of swimmers in the bay in front of the old town where I slept.

Reluctantly, I had to leave Korcula,and headed to Split on a 6am fast boat. Split is the sight of lots of Roman ruins... .one of the last Roman emporers Diocletian, was from here and built a huge palace and mausoleum to himself.

Around 800AD, Slavic groups invaded the ared and the townspeople retreated to Dio's palace. They never left... and built a town for the next 1200 years around the ruins of the Roman palace. It makes for a mosh of roman, mediaval and baroque architecture - very nifty.

I liked the Palace, and especially the tomb of Dio that has been converted to the oldest active Christian church in the world. Irony, that one, since Dio executed many Christians , and now his body is lost, and the tombs of some of the saints that he killed are now buried in his tomb. However, besides the palace area, I wasn't a fan of Split. Lots of tourists, lots of money, lots of tourists spending money in shops. And I had one of the few bad rooms in a socialist era concrete apartment building on the edge of town.. I took this pic from my window the morning I left.. Took a train to Zagreb and then Ljubljana, Slovenia. Ended up staying two weeks in Croatia.....loved it!