We started our day with a good American breakfast at the diner next to our hotel. They served us huge amounts of food which Dale, Jane and I put to good use walking to and through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While Jacquie and Brian decided the Museum of Modern Art was the way to burn calories. Everyone saw amazing sights and agreed that 2 hours in any museum is sufficient before you lose the ability to focus We regrouped at the Village Green before heading to lunch.

We started off in search of a highly recommended Shake Shack burger only to discover they had a take out only policy and it was a bit cool to sit outside. Instead we chose Antonio’s for authentic NYC pizza as our alternative. It happened to be in the same building as the theatre where the Late Show with Stephen Colbert is filmed. We felt near to celebrity just being there. The pizza was delicious and gave us the needed energy for our next activity.

We crammed all 5 of us into an Uber built for 4 people and headed to Pier 36 for our river cruise. Getting a larger vehicle is challenging. Apparently New Yorkers never go anywhere in groups larger than 4. We made it onboard in good time. We had a blustery, cool day (10C) on the deck of the boat and had an excellent view of the Manhattan sky scape. We got up close to the Statue of Liberty just as the wind picked up and the sun started setting. We finished our evening with dinner at a seafood restaurant near the pier and an Uber ride home,

Tomorrow we will repack, do a bit of sightseeing and then, off to JFK airport and our journey to Cairo continues.

It is wonderful to start contributing to this blog again. We started our journey to Egypt with a weekend in New York. My travel companions are Dale, Jane Cavanagh, Jacquie Pei, and Brian Moody. We will join a tour group hosted by Road Scholar on Monday, but more of that later.

Our first outing in NYC was to explore Central Park. The weather was brisk (-3C) but warm for us considering the -27C we left behind in Edmonton. We were surprised to see daffodils budding in the park. We eventually needed to warm up and had a great stop at the Tavern on the Green. Refreshed we headed toward Broadway.

We went to see The Book of Mormon at the Eugene O’Neal Theatre. The theatre was built in 1925 and was beautifully decorated over two floors. We were in the first row of the 2nd balcony and had a great view of the stage

The performance was delightful and we laughed ourselves silly. The play was an astute social comedy with lots of irreverence thrown in. After the play, we headed to Time Square. It was chaotic and brightly lit with advertising of all sorts. We made our way through the crowds and found our way past Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Centre. We eventually found a nice Irish Pub for a beverage then found our way to a cozy Italian restaurant near our hotel for supper. Now for a good night’s sleep before more exploring tomorrow.

Hi Everyone, we are getting on the road again. Hopefully you will enjoy travelling with us as you receive updates as we travel.

Today we set out to find our conference and get oriented to our part of Rome. The Sunday session of the conference looked like it was a short walk from our apartment so we headed out on foot. That is when we learned that the instructions left a lot to be desired. It was smoking hot as we walked around the entire walled site of the private university. Who ever heard of putting a whole university behind a wall and locking it up on the weekends? When we were at the point of giving up, a woman asked us if we were looking for the conference. She escorted us to a beautiful building and we were able to register. Actually, Karen could – they didn’t have my name badge. It was a total confusion. We decided to let it all go and head back to finishing up the last pieces of our presentations. We passed this image as we left campus outside the physics building.This would be a bit of a disconcerting an image as one went into write an exam.

Our next step was to figure out how to get to the actual conference the next day. We learned that a bus that stopped just near our apartment would take us, non-stop, to the university in 20 minutes. That was a bonus. We met up with Archie and Kim for dinner and found a delightful little restaurant on Urbana street. Our landlady left us a who list of restaurant recommendations and we were happy to take her up on them. We looked out of our window as we turned in for the night. We could see the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore to one side and heard the stereotypical sounds of an Italian accordion player rising from the street below.

Our goal today was to get from our villa in Tavarnuzze to Rome. This required leaving our quiet country resort, a taxi ride into Florence and then a train ride to Rome. We had lots of time in the train station where we learned that we had paid economy fares but got upgraded to first class. Yeah us!! The train was fantastic and travelled at almost 250 km/hr. The trip was only 90 minutes and we were able to walk to our apartment in 10 minutes.

The apartment is spacious and has all the comforts of home, including our own Sphinx and a beautiful ceiling that was apparently painted a long time ago for one of the Popes. We also made good use of the washer and dryer.

Rome is a big place. Our apartment is in the middle of many good things. We walked down to the coliseum and the Forum tonight on our way to a lovely dinner. Now we are ready for an early night.

The Pitti palace was originally built by a wealthy banker named Pitti in 1458. Almost 100 years later, Medici family moved in and expansion began. The family’s official residence was The Palazzo Vecchio and the Pitti Palace was used mostly for guests and private functions. They could walk indoors from the both residences though a series of covered walkways that crossed the river on the Ponte Vecchio.

In the 1700’s Napoleon took it over as his base. It was also the home of the Italian royal family for a short time before Italy became a republic. The king donated the palace and its contents to the state in 1919.

We arrived through the Boboli Gardens behind the palace. They are acres of ornate, manicured gardens connected to the palace. We didn’t spend much time in the gardens as we wanted to get too tired before the museum tour.

As we got to the front of the building, we saw that a ceremony of sorts was happening.

The ceremony celebrated an economic pact between Italy and Germany.

We started our tour and did our obligatory climb up six long flights of stone stairs. It was worth the climb.

The walls and ceilings were covered in paintings. The rooms were richly decorated and there was a lot to see. There was also a great number of statues. This one was original to the entrance to the Boboli Gardens and has recently been restored.

The top floor of the palace was “modern art” which really meant anything from the 1800-present era.

We had lunch in town and then headed back to our villa for a swim. It’s been the great having the fun of the big city and the comfort of a small town. Our bus ride in was 30 minutes and our bus stop was just outside a grocery store.

We are now transitioning from holiday mode to conference going. We are taking the train from Florence to Rome. I am looking forward to train ride.

The Medici’s in Florence had so much wealth, they needed a place to stash it. They created the Gallery we explored for over 3 hours in the early 1500’s. This place was way beyond incredible. There was art from all the renaissance artists you may or may not have heard of, including: Michelangelo

Da Vinci and, one of my favourites, Caravaggio

Of course we saw the “Venus on the half shell” by Botticelli. I was particularly struck by some of the portraits. Like this woman in a larger painting by Suttermanns,

Or this one by Bonacossi

There were also all sorts statues from all sorts of eras. This one seemed to be a classic poseand this one had all the talent and all the drama

We finished our tour with a relaxing lunch. There is nothing like the backache that arises from walking on centuries old stone floors.

We wandered a little through the leather market and headed back to the restorative swimming pool at our apartments.

I apologize if you’ve had lots of blog updates. For some reason the pictures wouldn’t load as usual. I think I got them now. It may have been that I was writing on my iPhone while on a bus careening through the Italian hills. Or, it may have been my inexperience with WordPress.

We started our journey to South Africa at the airstrip near our tented camp. It was 12 seater Cessna C208B. We got on the plane without confirming we had a ticket, giving anyone our names or showing any ID. It was somewhat tight but we all fit. It brought back nostalgic moments for Anne but she wasn’t inspired to start jumping again..

We arrived in Siena in time to check into our hotel and set out for a morning of wandering. We started with the home of the Dominicans. It was a lovely church that housed the head of St. Catherine, a patron saint of Italy (along with St Francis of Assisi). She looked peaceful, in a leering, I am a skeleton, way.

Our next goal was the shell -shaped Il Campo square in the centre of town. We started our walking tour here. Alice, our guide, told us that Siena is divided into 17 communities (Contrade) who compete in the Palio. This is a madcap horse race held twice every summer. It occurs in the square. They put down a sandy clay surface and let the bareback riders run the race. The horses matter more than the riders as it is the first horse across the finish line, without without rider. https://www.italyscapes.com/events/tuscany/siena/historical-reenactments/palio-di-siena-palio-di-provenzano-2019/

Each Contrade has an official colour and animal. We noticed plaques as we walked that told us which Contrade we were in.

This is the symbol of the forest Contrade. They changed their animal symbol from the wild boar to the Rhino in 1512 when the first drawings of this mighty beast started arriving in Siena. The horses come into town three days before the race to practice and our houses in these tiny stables hidden down what used to be totally covered alleys.

We continued past all sorts of touristic stores and restaurants as we walked through this old city. Siena was important in the Middle Ages as the stopping point from Rome north. The plague stopped in its tracks in 1348. It took several generations to recover and that showed in its loss of political/economic status and in its buildings. Recovery was seen by the time of the renascence.

We toured the Duomo and were impressed by both the internal and external decor.

One chapel was designed by Bernini, one of our favourite sculptors. Another altar was designed and started by Michelangelo. He carved 4 panels before ditching the project for the more lucrative commission to sculpt the David in Florence. The statue he did of St Paul is believed to be his first self-portrait. If you stripped away the beard you might also see the face of the David.

There was a fascinating library full of illuminated sacred music. The Dominican with us on our tour told us they were Gregorian chants she has sung. The colours of everything in the room were vibrant because the library was private until the 1970s.

After our tour we found food, wine and the need for a rest. We headed back to the hotel and had a lovely glass of “old style” chianti. One rule change in recent times is that no chianti Classico can include white wine. The old style wine was nice sipping on our patio and had a slight fizz to it. Superstore Liquor store never wraps our wine this well. Our next stop was the bus station to explore how to get back to Florence. Then off to Via del Capitan for dinner. This restaurant was in the Eagle Contrada and our pre-dinner entertainment was a display of flag waving.

The boys here start learning flag waving at 6 years old. The parade before the Palio involves costumed flag wavers doing advance techniques. the drummer was fantastic and an athlete in his own right.

Next stop Florence!