Life in Spain

Madrid Airport McDonald's, our first taste of Spain.  They serve beer!!!  Some of their tables are kid's games:

Our first stay is with Nick and Kitty in the Kitty Harri Sculpture Garden.  The bar:

 
It has view:

Yes, that's the Med.

Lunch by the pool:

Carol's talking to two 'helpers' from Sarajevo.  A the back are Nick and Kitty, the other two are artist visitors.

My second day in Spain involved a terrifying drive with Nick up a mountain on a single track dirt road with no barrier and a thousand foot drop.  I did see more goats in this herd than I've ever seen in my entire life:

After a few days we moved to Casa Sofia in Otivar:

To get to Casa Sofia, first you park the car on the road, then you walk down the steps:

Then you walk down the road to the next corner:

Then you walk down the next piece of road to the door at the bottom right:

The front of Casa Sofia:

Note the roof where you hang the laundry to dry - nobody has driers.

It's quite cosy inside:

Sunday afternoon in Otivar, collecting olives from the tree in his garden:

We walked to the top of the hill (mountain) behind Otivar:

Italy concluded

Monte Oliveto Maggiore has walls of beautiful frescos, many painted by Il Sodomo.

I always wondered what a 'loggia' was.  Carol in front of one in Castiglion Fiorentino where we had a good lunch:

Observations on eating out in Italy:
  Unlike when I was there 50 years ago, pizza is everywhere.
  There is only one salad dressing - olive oil.  Maybe some balsamic vinegar to go with it, if you ask.
  Wine is really really cheap, even in restaurants.  In the grocery store as low as €0.79/litre.

Lucignano is another attractive walled city up a steep hill not far from Rigomagno (where we stayed in Tuscany)

Every street for every town/village/city is paved with this:

Makes digging up the road hell.

Couldn't visit Tuscany without seeing Florence.

A roadside panini:

The cathedral is truly magnificent and impossible tp photograph with one shot:

I took a look inside and was unimpressed until I looked up over the altar:

The top of the dome is 375' up there.

The obligatory Ponte Veccio which seems like any other street if you walk across:

Observations on Florence:
 Incredible number of tourists.
 Florence airport sucks.

We rented a Fiat Panda to drive to Padua.  1000cc with a 5-speed automatic transmission - not a great combination.

We actually stayed close to Padua in a an AirBnB in Vigodazere.  It was actually more like living in a show room:

The people who own it went away the whole time we were there, so we had the place to ourselves.

Guess what this is:

A cordless upright vacuum cleaner.

We drove into Venice, left the car on an island and took the vaporetto (water bus):

Approaching from the 'sea':

First famous sight, The Bridge of Sighs:

The Doges Palace

St. Mark's Basilica (quite breathtaking):

The Rialto Bridge:

The view from it:

The Grand Canal:

We traveled by vaparetto a lot, it goes pretty much everywhere and once you buy a pass it's easy - $10 a trip if you don't.

Some weird sights:

and gondolas everywhere:

And the (non functioning) Venice 'Eye':

Observations on Venice:
 Incredible number of tourists, St. Mark's Square was wall-to-wall people.
 Worst and most expensive cappuccino.
 Best idea is to actually stay in the city, apparently it's quiet first thing in the mornings.