Three months away - Italy & UK

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Last week in Italy of the 5 week stay. I will just cover some highlights of Vicenza, Padua, and Marostica as Bologna and Venice are well known destinations to most tourists who visit Italy.

VICENZA is an often overlooked town very close to Venice and a must see if you are interested in architecture. It was the birthplace of Andrea Palladio 1508-1580 who based his designs on Ancient Greek and Roman classical design. The style of architecture was embraced by Britain - (Greenwich, Chiswick House, Holkam Hall, Woburn Abbey) Prussia and later in designs by Thomas Jefferson in Washington and Virginia.

We stayed at the newly refurbished Palazzo Otello 1837 right in the old city.

Part of the advertising referenced their new spa which it stated was complete with “emotional shower” ???

I have to admit there have been times in my life when I have cried in the shower, but I think something might have been lost in translation in the hotel’s glossy brochure

 

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Marostica - well worth a half or full day detour.

 

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This small town punches well above their weight with the Cherry Festival in May/June and a bi-annual human chess pageant and play held in the Castle Piazza with the whole town lit by torches, and the inhabitants dressed in Renaissance costumes. The storyline features weapons, horses, flag throwing and is held over several evenings. Book well in advance.

When we visited in mid June we had to be content with seeing the museum about the pageant and costumes and buying some cherry wine and chocolates.

There is an impressive upper and lower castle ..I noted quite a few public defib machines scatted about the town ! The reward for walking up the steep path set amongst olive trees to the top castle is great views and lunch in the restaurant.

The memorial stone commemorates some local partisans who were killed. I found these all over northern Italy as the resistance was particularly active in the alpine regions. I was surprised that there were over 35,000 women involved as well. Saddened by the fact that the Germans had a reprisal rule that for every German killed, 10 Italian villagers would be executed.

Interesting to read about their famous son Prospero Alpini 1553-1617 a botanist and physician who brought coffee to Venice ..Thank you ️

 

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Next stop PADUA - a University (c 1222) town where Gailileo taught, that is only 30 minutes from Venice by train. The train station is a decent walk from the University area and the central Prato della Valle, but there is an easy tram system.

I advise prebooking tickets online to the Scrovengi family chapel to see the world famous Giotto frescoes. Entry is timed for only 20 minutes but there is a video before and an attached museum to spend some time in ..not to mention the Roman ampitheatre nearby with Roman artefacts strewn casually about.

Like Bologna, Padua also has many covered walkways which are handy in the heat. I liked eating out at night in the huge squares where all the surrounding restaurants set up their tables and put on entertainment.

While walking around the town checking out the markets, I heard some sublime choir singing. I timidly entered the church to see that an ordination ceremony was about to take place. I liked the Demis Roussos look alike in the procession of priests.

 

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Late June and time to say farewell to Italy, after 5 weeks spent just concentrating on seeing the North.

We flew into Milan and my husband (the not so keen traveller) departed from there back to Perth.

I then took a fast train from Milano Centrale across the country to Venice, where I had originally thought I would get a ferry to the Istrian peninsula of Croatia.

However the ferry for Piran did not leave every day and I did not fancy spending anymore time in overcrowded and expensive Venice... so I got on a train to Trieste.

Funny that I should finally get to see Trieste, my desire to travel started as a very small child. Our neighour in Fremantle was a secretary who worked for a large shippping firm in the port city and every year she would give my family a Lloyd Triestino - (Trieste based) calendar with beautiful photos of distant ports and ships, that looked so much more interesting and exciting than my bowl of cornflakes in the kitchen of our working class home.

 

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Late June and time to say farewell to Italy, after 5 weeks spent just concentrating on seeing the North.

We flew into Milan and my husband (the not so keen traveller) departed from there back to Perth.

I then took a fast train from Milano Centrale across the country to Venice, where I had originally thought I would get a ferry to the Istrian peninsula of Croatia.

However the ferry for Piran did not leave every day and I did not fancy spending anymore time in overcrowded and expensive Venice... so I got on a train to Trieste.

Funny that I should finally get to see Trieste, my desire to travel started as a very small child. Our neighour in Fremantle was a secretary who worked for a large shippping firm in the port city and every year she would give my family a Lloyd Triestino - (Trieste based) calendar with beautiful photos of distant ports and ships, that looked so much more interesting and exciting than my bowl of cornflakes in the kitchen of our working class home.

Aah - LLoyd Triestino. In the 1970's they used to run two lovely passenger ships into Fremantle - SS Guglielmo Marconi & SS Galileo Galilee (Steam turbine powered). I went on-board both of them a couple of times, for official purposes. They were lovely looking "old style" vessels with a beautiful raking bow. SS Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia . Unfortunately the Galileo turned into a submarine in the Malacca Straits in 1999 - as the SS Sun Vista.

 

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Aah - LLoyd Triestino. In the 1970's they used to run two lovely passenger ships into Fremantle - SS Guglielmo Marconi & SS Galileo Galilee (Steam turbine powered). I went on-board both of them a couple of times, for official purposes. They were lovely looking "old style" vessels with a beautiful raking bow. SS Galileo Galilei - Wikipedia . Unfortunately the Galileo turned into a submarine in the Malacca Straits in 1999 - as the SS Sun Vista.

Yes they were the good ‘ol days when only the wealthy could afford an airfare to the UK.

I sailed on the Guglielmo Marconi from Fremantle to Genoa in 1969.
The boring part of the journey was across the Indian Ocean to Durban 10 days ! I may be wrong but I think the whole journey took 4 weeks, but at least you could take all the luggage you wanted !

 

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Yes they were the good ‘ol days when only the wealthy could afford an airfare to the UK.

I sailed on the Guglielmo Marconi from Fremantle to Genoa in 1969.
The boring part of the journey was across the Indian Ocean to Durban 10 days ! I may be wrong but I think the whole journey took 4 weeks, but at least you could take all the luggage you wanted !

I was a bit confused about your route at first but of course the Suez Canal was closed in those days. It must have added quite a few days to your trip.

 

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I was a bit confused about your route at first but of course the Suez Canal was closed in those days. It must have added quite a few days to your trip.

Durban, Canary Islands, Sicily, Naples, Genoa...then the start of my love of train travel with a Eurail pass across Europe. No mobile, no ipad, no data, no money !

 

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I felt at home in Trieste as my Italian had improved in the last 5 weeks. I think that on another trip to Italy, booking a week long intensive Italian course would be useful. I saw many conversational courses advertised that included accomodation. One in Bergamo caught my attention but there were also lots available in Florence.

Trieste also reminded me of my childhood in Fremantle. (they have wonderful old buildings with a Venetian and Austro-Hungarian influence and plenty of Neptune statues about) - but some grubby back streets. That is Port city life.

My hotel pic is not in the same class as Tony Hancock’s car park views - but is one of the better “views of an adjacent wall” shots that I have taken during this holiday.

It turns out the two companies running the high speed ferry services linking many of the ports on the Istrian coast did not start for a few days eg 29th June. The train service in Croatia is not supposed to be that great, so I decided to book a coach from Trieste to my next destination Rovinj. We just passed briefly through Pula which apart from the outstanding Roman ampitheatre was very industrial looking.

 

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After an awful experience where myself and an American tourist were told to get off the coach and our luggage put on the footpath... we finally got into the seaside town of Rovinj. But not before the driver tried to dump us both at the highway instead of driving down into the town !

Fortunately as luck would have it this very jet lagged tourist from USA sat next to me and we empathised, as no one else spoke much English and the limited interaction was very abrupt and rude..not a good welcome to Croatia.

After being collected at the bus station by my lovely airbnb hostess, I went walking in the pictureque old city and I certainly needed that first drink !

Rovinj has a long history of boatbuilding and there is a Batana wooden boat museum housed in a 17 century home, with local fishermen demonstrating weaving nets and making fish traps.

I walked around to see the new 5 star resort called Hotel Monte Mulini which was very swanky, but they still had a pebble beach. Spolit by WA West Coast beaches !

Peak season here is May to September so the town was buzzing. I settled for dinner at a recommended seafood restaurant, although I still feel out of place dining alone at night when travelling. What do other AFF people feel ?

 

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I booked a variety of small hotels and airbnb in Croatia online and last minute.
Usually they panned out just fine but sometimes the difference between the online photo and the reality is amusing.

This is my 2 night stay in a little self contained house very near the old city markets and Riva in Split, Croatia.Spot the difference LOL !

 

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The advantage of travelling solo and being flexible is that you are more likely to meet up with people along the way for a chat, lunch, a drink.

In Split I met a lady from South Africa who was holidaying on the island of Hvar. Over lunch she invited me to come and stay 2 nights in her cottage on the village of Stari Grad.

I got the Jadrolina ferry to Hvar Island and then as per her instructions caught a local bus ( the views from the bus are well worth the kuna ...just amazing) to Stari Grad, where she met me.

Stari Grad is magical with a small harbour, yachts anchored, great restaurants with the freshest grilled seafood, and wandering local a capella singers in the balmy evenings. The Croatians also like their meat dishes including Cevapcici. Everything was fresh and lots of local produce used in restaurants.

 

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