Today we were rewarded with a sunning sunset, more unique every minute and more spectacular – it’s like the sky was on fire. [hd] [hd]
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First Snow
We can’t seem to outrun the white stuff. We went out for dinner and an hour later there it was – the white stuff.
Beach Walk in Sopot
Beautiful and a sunny day – perfect day for a walk on the beach.
Amber Museum
Gdansk certainly deserves to be called the World Amber Capital or so the local sentiment claims. This museum is brand new, it opened last year and it houses some amazing pieces of art and history. It also houses the larges amber in the world weighing in at 68.2kg. Every colour and every shade of amber […]
National Museum in Gdansk
This museum is located in the old late-Gothic Franciscan monastery, which has been used to house exhibits since the end of the 19th century. The museum used to hold a sizeable collection of historical works of art. In 1884. The core of the Museum’s collection constitutes the collection of Jacob Kabrun, which includes several thousand […]
Oliwa Cathedral
The archcathedral in Oliwa is a three-nave basilica with a transept and a multisided closed presbytery, finished with an ambulatory. The façade is flanked by two slender towers, 46-metres tall each with sharply-edged helmets. It is enlivened by a Baroque portal from 1688, as well as three windows of different sizes and three cartouches. The […]
Park in Oliwa
Today we are doing something more productive. Right after we finished the morning coffee and other drinks we set off to Oliwa, a small suburb of Gdansk that’s famous for its parks, gardens and the large cathedral with a huge organ. Did I mention cakes, lots of amazing cakes to eat too.
Gdańsk Old Town
Some things just don’t get old. The weather is absolutely fantastic, the city is buzzing with activity and we are soaking it all in.
A Train Day
We are taking a train from Nuremberg to Berlin to Warsaw to Bialystok. It’s about 13 hour train journey through the German and Polish countryside. Food and wine service and internet at full speed, it’s a relaxing way to travel.
3 Day Birthday Celebration
Today is officially Volker’s 60 birthday. We have been celebrating for the last two days but today it cumulated with a proper 6 hour German Lunch. Five courses, plus two extra desserts, plenty of wine and some great company. This charming little place is in Boxdorf – a tiny town between Nuremberg and Großgründlach.
Favorite Spots
A walk around the defence walls of the old city and some of the favourite and most picturesque spots in Nuremberg we remember. The castle is always good for a few good photos.
Galileo Museum
Everything from Galilio’s finger to a broken glass from his telescope to everything else as it was invented to make the modern world tick – it’s all here and it is well worth a visit. Alternatively – it’s worth even getting the free app and do a virtual tour of the place to explore this […]
Arno River
Our hotel is right over the Arno River which gives us access not only to great views but also great photo opportunities. If you want to see something really interesting look this up here.
Car Tour
Some of the great sites we visited on the little vintage Fiat Tour. From vineries and olive tree orchards to monuments, churches and homes. Lots of great views, food and company. It truly was a great day.
Santa Croce
This tours is definitely lacking in visits to the holy places but little church certainly makes up for it. You walk in here and find some amazing crypts of who is who of Renaissance and beyond. St. Francis of Assisi left his frok here. Buried in this church are Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli, Marconi, Rossini […]
Fiat Fun in Florence
This was really a last minute idea for doing something different – aka something that involved less walking and more sitting. We booked it the night before and had to get up early to be there by 8:30 am. This turned out to be a half day tour through the hills around Florence with an […]
Sunset over Florence
I think one of the greatest benefits of the hotel we are staying at, other than the fact that there are a lot of great pubic areas, is the rooftop patio. You can grab a drink from the bar, park yourself and enjoy a beautiful sunset. Truly amazing. […]
Florence by Night
Took a quick stroll after dinner to figure out where we should eat tomorrow…and to find a good gelato place, and we accomplished both. […]
New Digs in Florence
We took a train from Rome to Florence. This is the first time we are on holidays where we did not bother with a car. Less than 1.5hours later we were in the centre of Florence – instead of the usual almost a 4 hour drive. I think we can get use to it. We […]
Domitian Stadium
The Stadium of Domitian was dedicated in AD 86, as part of an Imperial building programme at the Field of Mars. It was Rome’s first permanent venue for competitive athletics – think Olympic Games and other things, including gladiator fights when the Colosseum burned down. It was modelled on Greek buildings and seated as many […]
Under the Trevi Fountain
To the right of the Baroque church on the opposite side of the Trevi Fountain are the ruins of an ancient Roman apartment complex located 9 meters beneath the city’s Trevi district. The archaeological site dates back to the first century, but wasn’t discovered until the late 1990s. The site is called Vicus Caprarius, the City […]
Trastevere
Trastevere – goes as far back as the days of emperor Augustus. It has been part of the city’s 14 districts, and it was quite popular with important Romans who built villas in this neighbourhood, including Julius Caesar. It is many colourful building and narrow streets. In the old days it was primarily occupied by fisherman […]
Sant’Ignazio
This is a small church among some 900 other churches in Rome, and is dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, located in Rome. Built in Baroque style between 1626 and 1650, the church functioned originally as the chapel of the adjacent Roman College, which moved in 1584 to a new larger […]
Roman Forum and Palatine
We have done bits and pieces of the Roman Forum and the Palatine but this time we took our time. I think we spent good 4 or 5 hours meandering through the ancient ruins of a city built upon an older city built upon and older city still, stories below where the current city is. […]
Still in Rome
Still walking around Rome looking for new things to explore and new things to see. We took a full 5 minute ride on a LIME scooter that would have taken 3 minutes to walk because of traffic and a minor confusion with a car on the road. After that we promptly park the darn thing […]
Went By a Church
Perhaps if Papa Francesco was in we would have gone to the church, aka as St. Peter’s Basilica, but in truth we really just went for the nice walk after dinner to enjoy the night views without the crowds, without the noise and without the vendors. It was a long day. […]
As The Sun Sets
The sunsets are crazy spectacular, this is taken from the edge of the gardens at Villa Borghese on our way down towards the Spanish Steps. On the way down we met the nicest young man a great artist from Albania, studying art in Rome, how amazing is that? […]
Chocolate Festival
In the gardens of Villa Borghese a chocolate festival, the richness of which you could smell from a mile away. Dangerous time and place to ‘find’ yourself in – just before dinner! […]
Quartiere Coppedè
This little area in Rome was built around the 1920s and is was famous for its mixture of several different architectural styles, all coming together to create something never seen before. This is the place where you will find the Villino delle fate (the fairy house) and in the centre of the square the Fountain […]
Shades of yellow orange and red
That seems to be the dominant colour palette for Rome. No matter where you are and no matter where you look those are the three primary colours, occasionally punched with a bit of white, mostly churches, and the broccoli trees, the towering pines. […]
Hello Roma
Yesterday was rough, but today after a good night’s sleep and plenty of coffee we are visiting the old favourites, away from crowds, and at a very leisurely pace. First stop Campo de’ Fiori. Colourful, fragrant and lively. Nothing changed here since our last visit and that’s a good thing. […]
European Solidarity Centre
The European Solidarity Centre is a museum and library in Gdańsk, Poland, devoted to the history of Solidarity, the Polish trade union and civil resistance movement, and other opposition movements of Communist Eastern Europe. It resembles a hull of the ship both inside and outside. It is done exceptionally well with lot of amazing exhibits. […]
Back in Gdansk
This really is a last minute trip – a quick getaway to relax before the holidays. November in Gdansk is cool and grey but the atmosphere is amazing, the food, so far, has been phenomenal and every time we take a turn onto a new street there is a new restaurant or a bar or […]
St. Peter’s
Like yesterday, first thing in the morning, we went to see a bit of Rome, but this time on the other side of the river. We went to St. Peter’s Basilica fully expecting to see thousands of people lined up trying to get in and see the house of the richest god there ever was. […]
Good Morning Rome
We did get up at 6:30am on our vacation to see what Rome looks like when it is quiet and empty. I did not disappoint, it was quiet and empty and serene – just beautiful.
MUSMA Museum of Contemporary Sculpture
This museum is located in a home of a 17th century noble family in Matera and the 7 limestone caves dating back to Neolithic times. The family used the caves for food and wine storage but today the entire residence and the caves are one great museum of modern contemporary sculpture.
Ostuni
No word of a lie it was 40°C so we spent most of the day either in the pool or around the pool. In the evening when it got cooler, 31°C, we set of for Ostuni. It is a small town with about 32K people in winter but during the summer months its populations swells […]
Alberobello – Puglia
Alberobello is a small city of less than 11,000 people and it is famous for it’s trullos. Trullos are scattered throughout this part of Puglia. The story behind trullo was to build a small home with only dry stone and no mortar so they could easily be reconfigured and taken down. They were simply built […]
Spadalunga – Puglia
We have done absolutely nothing since we got here. Haven’t been anywhere, haven’t seen anything yet, other than the inside of some restaurants for food of course. We haven’t even been out for a gelato yet. Lazy and relaxing is the name of the game and this is the perfect setting for it.
The High Tower
To work off some of the gelato we have consumed over the last few days and excessive amount of food and wine today we are going cultural. We are going to visit a couple of museums, some art galleries and climb the tallest tower in the city for the most spectacular view of the city […]
Florence and Uffizi
There is always something new at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence that is worth seeing. The priceless other works of art aren’t too shabby either. I think the best thing about the Uffizi is the fact that it can be done in a reasonable amount of time – even in 3 hours. The rest of […]
Exploring San Gimignano
We are really going our of our way to explore all the side streets in San Gimignano. Not only that, we also managed to have a great afternoon drink, do some laundry, a bit of shopping, have gelato too many times and sit down for a great dinner. A day full of nothing really – […]
More San Gimignano at Night
At around 1 am the town goes quiet with hardly anyone roaming the streets, except people like me aimlessly wandering through the narrow streets with a camera in tow.
San Gimignano by Night
We are, for the first time, not just visiting San Gimignano but staying in the city for a few days. We parked the car at the bottom of the hill and will spent a few days just walking around and exploring all the great gelato places this city has to offer, but really just concentrating […]
Montisi
It appears that after Castelmunzio, Montisi is our next favourite place to over eat at dinner. Montisi is a tiny and serene village, steeped in tradition but largely unspoiled by tourism. It’s also a quiet retreat for a good number of celebrities who come here to hide from the crowds.
Cortona
Perched 600m up on a hillside Cortona is a medical town with narrow and steep streets and architecture. The city overlooks Chiana Valley and Lake Trasimeno, scene of Hannibal’s ambush of the Roman army in 217 BC. Legend has it that Cortona was built some 273 years after the Great Flood. After Arezzo it is the […]
Siena Shopping Spree
Bypassing the usual tourist sites and sticking to what we know about Siena we stuck to a lot of gelato, a bit of espresso and a whole lot of shopping which was not only productive but also very satisfying with exception of Evelina who opted to save her cash!
Daily Trip To Pienza
We either come here for gelato or to have lunch but mostly for gelato since it is the closest place to Sant’Anna. I am not sure for how much longer we can keep up the 3 square meals per day plus gelato once or twice a day. The rest is Sant’Anna getting ready for the first concert […]
Ballooning in Tuscany
Since our flight on Sunday was cancelled due to inclement weather we were happy and thrilled to re-book it for this morning. Six in the morning, generally speaking, is not our idea of fun hour but there are exceptions and this certainly was it. There is really not much more to say other than – what […]
Podere il Casale – Pizza Making Class
Pizza making class is always a blast, especially at Podere il Casale. Making great food together is a great way to spent time with friends and family. A bit of good wine helps too. We love coming here, we love the stories and the experiences Sandra shares and are always in awe on how rewarding […]
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