This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Sunday – our last full day in Italy. We got up early and (after a couple espressos and a pastry of course) caught the bus up to Settignano. Well, that’s what we intended at least. Turns out the number 10 bus to Settignano doesn’t run…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 After the Fiat 500 tour, we hopped a train to Lucca for a quick overnight. We stayed at Guest Apartment Margherita and can’t say enough things about how wonderful our hosts were. Because it’d been raining, Roberto met us at the train to drive us…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Friday was Fiat 500 day. After a quick run to Sant’Ambrogio market, we caught a taxi to Galluzzo for our Fiat 500 Tour. After a quick lesson in double clutching (no syncros – like my Alfa, except my Alfa had them originally and they’d just…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 First thing Thursday, we met up with friends at the Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato. Think massive art fair – 10 buildings, hundreds of vendors. Everything from flower pots made out of recycled soda bottles to fine jewelry and clothing. Plus food! And dogs! We were on…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 You know, the Renaissance. Wednesday night was White Night (Notte Bianca), a city-wide, all night party (conveniently taking place the night before Labor Day, so there’s no need to worry about getting up the next morning). White night ostensibly gets started around 7:30, but aside…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 The European Union has, at least from the perspective of this American tourist, been a rather beneficial development. When you ask an Italian craftsman though, you get a very different perspective. Wednesday was our jewelry tour. This was my birthday present to Kat, and I…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Right then, where were we? I’m realizing that, given the long and travel-rich future in store for Kat and me, I may need to develop some different blogging habits. Traveling alone, days end relatively early, giving plenty of time for blogging. Traveling with another, dinners…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Catching up a bit – a late dinner last night meant I didn’t get a blog post up. Yesterday was a day of milling about and exploring further. Most importantly, this meant a trip to the Mercato Centrale, wherein I buy far too much balsamic…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 On my last visit, I went to La Specola, the taxidermy museum. La Specola is run by the University of Firenze, and they run a few other museums as well. Today, we ticked some off the list – the Geological and Paleontological museum, the Mineralogy…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 A long, but thankfully uneventful travel day brought us to Florence mid-afternoon on Saturday. A short taxi ride got us to our AirBnB and our host, Marilena. I’ll do a full tour of our apartment in another post – it’s frighteningly charming. I hadn’t realized,…
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This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Shakespeare was talking about gelato right? I don’t think there’s a way to say “heading back to Florence, again” without a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness. But hey, it’s me, so there’s always a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness, right? Regardless, we depart…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today I took a somewhat odd trip to the Mekong Delta. I had presumed it would be a big bus tour with a bunch of folks from all over. Instead, it was myself, an Australian couple, our guide, and our driver, in a Sprinter. I’m…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 This evening, I took the Foodie tour from XO Tours. The gist is that a group of folks travels the city on the back of mopeds, each driven by a woman in traditional dress, stopping to eat the street food that you don’t normally eat…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Yesterday, my body (or a helpful bacteria) called timeout and asked me to stay in bed (or the bathroom). So, no big news there. Misery, a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, and more misery. All better now though! I’ve only spent one day wandering…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Like Sleepless in Seattle, just a different kind of horrible. Yesterday, I made the trek to Hoi An. Hoi An is part Ye Olde Town, and part beach resort. Because the river silted in, it was basically frozen in time a few hundred years ago…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Sitting in Hoi An, having flown from Hanoi to Danang earlier to today, I’m feeling reflective on my first week in Vietnam. At this point in the trip, I have nothing but superlatives for this country. Hanoi is a seething cauldron in the best possible…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Last day in Hanoi – a bit sad really. I’ll write up my thoughts on the city, and week on in Vietnam, tomorrow. For now, let me just say that Hanoi has quickly propelled itself near the top of my list of favorite cities in…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today, I got on a boat full of interesting people for adventure. A good start to a day! I did a split kayak/climbing day with Asia Outdoors on Cat Ba. Somewhere around 18 of us got on a boat and headed out into the bay…
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This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Cat Ba Island, and, I’m lead to believe, all of Ha Long Bay, is in the category of “places which cannot possibly be real but apparently are.” It’s too perfectly picturesque, like it’s been staged for a film. It’s lush and dramatic and unlike anywhere…
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