Photos!

After a reboot and some messing around, I managed to get access to my photos. So here are some new ones...

The Milano Duomo in 11,000 wooden pieces... I discovered this in an old abandoned school building outside of Asti. We weren't supposed to be there actually, but while trying to climb over the wall a friendly local walked past and directed us to the actual gate, which was open...

And here's the real thing:

This is the building that contains Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Last Supper fresco. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside, but I can assure you it was breathtaking.

Then on to Lago di Como (Lake Como), the second largest of the northern lakes of Italy. Here's a group of us on a ferry. From left to right: Chantelle (Auckland), Judy (Perth), P, random, Sarah (Canberra), Mike (Perth), Clinton (Melbourne). Lots of Aussies on our trips :)

Cool huh? This was my favourite day in Italy.

Looking down on Bellagio:

You can just make out a little church halfway up that mountainous rock. Unfortunately time did not permit a climb up there.

Many ferries service numerous towns around the lake.

This is the town of Varenna. There's a small castle on the nearest hill, which we walked up to.

The view from the castle grounds. That boat is right in my cannon sights...

A bit random to find a lawn with tethered birds of prey sitting around.

This one is called Linda.

And this one is called... uh oh... where'd she go?

I really liked this view.

Approaching the castle tower.

Surveying the lands from the castle tower.

Good lake views too.

Prepare to repel marauding invaders!

To arms!

The castle is in very good condition.

A view down the lakeside to another town.


And here we have a happy traveler on her way to Venezia.

Some typical Venice sights.

One of our traveling companions, Chantelle, just moments before she got into serious trouble from the angry shop owner behind her...

P, Clinton and Sarah on one of the 409 bridges around Venezia.

The main canal during rush hour.

Guess how much this coat costs... a clue - it's made from chinchilla fur.

No, sorry, you're wrong.

Look closely at the top item for the answer. These prices are in euros.

Yeah. That's right. Twenty eight thousand euros. Internet access around Venezia wasn't much cheaper.

We took a ferry to the island of Murano, famous for it's glass production. This guy on the left is playing a strange Venezian musical instrument made from molten glass.

Looking out to the south of Venezia.

San Marco - the heart of Venezia.

The local fire brigade on their way to the local pub, I suspect.


A friendly Venetian near the laundromat.

Then we left our tour group in Venezia and spent P's birthday in Ravenna.

Here's the ceiling of our hotel room! Best hotel room ever! :)

Not so many tourists in Ravenna...

One of the many piazzi (squares) around the town.

This is a mosaic. It's not a fresco. Each element is a tiny coloured piece of stone. Amazing eh?

Ravenna is full of mosaics. They date from the Byzatine era, about 5th Century AD.

More mosaics inside a mausoleum:

Outside that mausoleum:

Aaaaaaah!!! Extreme Closeup!!!

This garment is part of a priest's outfit. This particular item is over 600 years old. It's falling apart but the detail that remains is astonishing. In it's time, it would have been a beautiful cloak.

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the snaps.

Lago di Como

A quick post about Lake Como.

I would LOVE to post some photos of this place - we visited for a few days between Le Cinque Terre and Venezia. Como is one of the large lakes in the north of Italy and it's beautiful. We spent a day exploring the little villages around Bellagio, using the ferry to move between them. Perhaps when I can get access to my photos I will write another post on Como because it was an amazing place.

We also got to see Leonardo's "The Last Supper" in Milano! WOW! What an amazing piece of art! I feel so fortunate to have seen it. It really is stunning and far more impressive than you can imagine from books or photographs.

Venezia & Ravenna

Sorry, no photos today - the computer I'm using seems to be locked down pretty tightly and there's no way to access my camera files.

Yesterday we left Venezia (Venice). I must admit upon arrival in Venezia my expectations were very low. I had heard a lot about the smelly water, crowded streets and pickpockets. In the end, we were pleasantly surprised. Perhaps because it's no longer the high season, the tourists weren't actually so thick on the ground (although the ferries were very busy). We enjoyed exploring the maze of little streets and bridges. There are supposedly over 400 bridges in Venezia! We visited the small island of Murano, site of many glass-blowing factories and shops. We bought some fun blue liquer glasses. In the afternoon, we visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Modern Art - some fascinating works by Picasso, Dali, Max Ernst, Mondrian, Giacometti and Jackson Pollock. Some of the works are almost 100 years old. It was very impressive and far more interesting than I had expected :)

The departure also marked the end of our second Intrepid tour. So now we're completely on our own for the rest of the holiday! We really enjoyed traveling with other people and we made some new friends along the way. We wholeheartedly recommend the Intrepid "original" style of travel to anyone of moderate fitness. It takes a lot of the hassle and uncertainty out of the travel, but still provides plenty of opportunity to have your own experiences. At minimum, you could just travel from place to place with the group and then do your own thing in each place. However, we found a few people in each tour that we liked enough to hang out with most of the time :)

Today is P's birthday and to celebrate we are spending the day in Ravenna, home of many Byzantine-era mosaics. Yesterday afternoon we visited a carpark construction site. Unfortunately for the developer, during construction they uncovered some amazing mosaics so the place is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, rather than a carpark. Today we are going to seek out more mosaics.

Our hotel room is amazing - it has a fresco on the ceiling and it's huge. Also, the room I'm typing this in also has a fresco. The hotel is actually a converted palazzo (palace).

Tomorrow we begin a rather lengthy and convoluted day of travel to Essen, in time for Spiel!

Book Review: "Dune" by Frank Herbert

On our Central Europe trip I read "1984" by George Orwell. What a depressing book that was. Anyway, one of the guys we were traveling with was interested in reading 1984 himself and had just finished his own book. So we swapped and he is probably happily reading it now in Morocco.

Anyway, almost everybody has heard of "Dune". I don't have the book in front of me but I think it was written in the late 1960s. It's science fiction and it's long. I've long known about the mythos from various sources such as the computer games, board game, and both movies, but I'd never actually read the book.

It's the story of a young man, Paul, who is set to inherit the title and power of his father, Duke Leto of House Atreides. The Atreides family has moved from their home planet to the seemingly desolate and dangerous desert world of Arrakis. The main (only?) export of Arrakis is the spice "melange", which is edible and does various things to people including turning their eyes blue. Needless to say, there's more to this spice than meets the eye and it's not long before Paul is forced to grow up very quickly and take control of the situation. I like to call it "The Hapsburgs in Space".

Anyway, I don't want to do a plot synopsis because the plot is long. However, it is very interesting. In my opinion, Herbert has created a very compelling and consistent story that weaves together many aspects of the people and places on Arrakis. One effective device he uses is that of characters' thoughts integrated with the dialogue. As characters interact, their thoughts are exposed alongside. This is done everywhere in the book and it really works well to give the reader extra insight into the motives and flaws of each character. In fact, it's done so well that it actually becomes integral to the plot, which is very unusual. I won't explain how exactly but the ideas of consciousness and thought are explored deeply.

"Dune" is a work of science fiction however I believe it's not fair to put such a general label on it. The work is a very well written piece of literature that covers not just science but also religion, politics, economics and human nature. Some people call it a classic and I think that's a reasonable title - I really enjoyed the book and it had my attention the entire journey. Not once did I find myself bored by it.

However I did find myself somewhat distanced from the main character Paul - perhaps this was intentional. He is, after all, an exceptional character. I imagine most readers would find it difficult to relate to such a person! Also, the constant relating of each characters' thoughts leaves little to the imagination at times. Sometimes I wish I was left wondering whether a character's confidence or fear was real or not.

All in all, a very worthwhile read. If you're intrigued, I definitely recommend you find a copy and start reading. Don't be put off by the "science fiction" aspect, that's merely used to set the scene.

By the way, I thought the movies were rubbish at the time. I might have to watch them again now I understand the story, but I really can't imagine they would ever come close to doing the book justice.

Santa Margherita Ligure & Portofino

Santa Margherita Ligure is a small town somewhat north of Le Cinque Terre. We spent an afternoon here and walked to the nearby harbour town of Portofino.

Not sure who this Americano-verde is. Not sure about the statue either. The buildings are very typical for this area. The decorations are painted on but well executed.


An interesting sculpture in SML:


Some Italians don't do things by halves.


There was a big cruise ship anchored out from Portofino.


A view of a very nice villa on the point.


The Portofino marina. There's a castle on the top of that hill. The closest yacht was HUGE and as you can see the mast almost reaches the top of the hill.




The water was very clear.


The road into Portofino.


And Portofino itself at ground level. This place was swarming with tourists. Food prices were extremely high. We walked right to the back of the town and had a pizza and pasta dish for 20 euro...


We caught a ferry back to SML and P had a quick swim while I read my book.


Later that day we continued by train to Asti, where we will stay overnight and then visit a local vineyard and have a traditional lunch made from regional ingredients. Basically another day of amazing food and great wine!