duomo

Training to Bergamo

June 1st, 2012 by alephnaught

Training to Bergamo

We didn’t sleep well. We got up, cleaned up, and had breakfast. Then dropped our big bags with our hotel to hold and caught a taxi to the a train station. We took a train to Brescia, but then a bus to Bergamo; the desk clerk didn’t know they ran buses to Bergamo… We spent […]

Verona, day 2

May 31st, 2012 by alephnaught

Verona, day 2

We didn’t sleep especially well – I fell asleep quickly and then woke up early, Aviva didn’t fall asleep for a while and then sleep until time to wake up. Aviva’s phone stopped accessing data service, so we called AT&T – my phone was on a different carrier and working fine, but we couldn’t get […]

Leave Florence, arrive in Siena

March 23rd, 2009 by alephnaught

Leave Florence, arrive in Siena

We got up early, showered, had breakfast, and went to the train station. We got the 10:40A train to Siena. We arrived and found our hotel, Hotel Duomo. Its inexpensive, the rooms are reasonable size with a reasonable, workable bathroom, but no internet access; it turns out wireless doesn’t work well through thick stone walls, […]

Prato and Florence

March 21st, 2009 by alephnaught

Prato and Florence

We got up pretty early, got cleaned up and are ready to take the train to a couple towns outside of Florence. Its another cold day but at least today it looks mostly sunny. We took a train from Santa Maria Novella to Prato. Prato is the home of biscotti, the famous hard, twice-baked cookie […]

Florence

March 20th, 2009 by alephnaught

Florence

We woke up much too early and ran ragged all day. After breakfast, we walked by a painted facade and decided to shop at the open market near Piazza Republica. It was really cold (it only got into the 50sF and was really windy) so Aviva bought some purple globes and I bought some half […]

October 23rd, 2007 by alephnaught

More paper models!

I built two more paper models, one of the Duomo and the other the Campanile, both in Florence. I also started a web page on my paper modeling hobby. I made two more paper models, which I bought on eBay and from Daedalus Books (a good overstock and discount on-line bookstore). The models are of […]

Florence

May 20th, 2007 by alephnaught

Florence

We got out a little late and went to the Museo del Bigallo across from the Duomo. This was originally an orphanage; women could leave babies outside – if they came back within a week, they could take their baby back, otherwise it was put up for adoption. Then we walked past the Duomo and […]

Florence

May 19th, 2007 by alephnaught

Florence

Today we started walking towards the Orgnissanti. We stopped at a print shop from which Aviva bought a print of grotesques the last time she was in Florence – unfortunately, no small ones so we passed. We went into the Orgnissanti, which has works by Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, who is also buried there along with […]

Orvieto and arrival in Florence

May 15th, 2007 by alephnaught

Orvieto and arrival in Florence

Since we leave Roma today, its time to reflect a litte. Aviva said at one point that Rome is beautiful but messy, which captures well the feeling of the place. At one point on Capitoline hill (it was 11:30A), all the bells in Roma seemed to be chiming at once, making a wonderful racket. Its […]

October 13th, 2003 by alephnaught

Siena

We woke at 7A and ate breakfast and showered and planned our day. Aviva’s feet and legs hurt, and my lower back has started hurting, so we went slowly today. We started at the Duomo. This time we got to go inside, and we got lucky – the floors are decorated with inlaid patterns which […]