The last stop on this trip was Bergamo – it is by the airport where Ryanair flies. And it is by the snowy Alps that make a super beautiful background! But, this time we came to Bergamo in rain and the day we spent there was very misty and rainy, not so good for pictures. But first of allￂﾠ -the trip to Bergamo was not easy. WE went to Florence train station, they sold us tickets for the cheaper trains we used all the time -you find their schedules on www.trenitalia.com or www/seat61.com/Italy.htm -and expected it to be as usual – came to Bologna. got into the station to wait for another train to Milan and then to Bergamo. No way…Lots of people waiting, their necks stretched towards the information boards which say nothing-ￂﾠ yes, they say there is a train, but what time it is supposed to come? Nobody knew. at last we found information booth, which is not so evident there, Italy tries to sell tickets and provide information in automats. And we found out that our train company is on strike…So what did we do -we had to buy new tickets in the fast train that took us to some other station, but not Milan, then luckily got a train to Bergamo directly – oh. what a luck that was! Because our hosts in Bergamo were meeting us in the station, so we managed to call them about our schedule change and oh how wonderful it was to be taken by car to the apartment! it was like heaven! We found the apartment as all of them through internet and it is called Cosy Apartment in the City center, Maria Luiza Ponzoni is renting it, 39-3473822666, it is in via Sant Alessandro 82 – in a narrow medieval street in front of a monastery, a very cozy and comfortable apartment, I highly recommend it. Close to a food store, to a good pizza place, and on the way to the upper part of the city. We had to enter through those doors!:
And once we entered the upper city – Citia Alta through those gates of Porta S. Giacomo – we again got into medieval narrowￂﾠ streets, fun! And so we walked as usual, checked the very old and newer churches. Here is a sample of a fresco in a very old church standing side by side with some newer ones in one cluster, by one square:
This basilica that you see on top, came out to be the most impressive church to me on this trip…Well, maybe Santa Croce was equally impressive. Everything was impressive there-ￂﾠ the tapestries on the walls all over – never saw them in churches! The old fresco of the Last Supper, the paintings in the altars, the elaborate wooden mosaics under the main altar fence, the confessionals, the doors, the Donizetti’s grave as well as other noble people’s graves, everything:
Again – we walked and walked through nice squares and narrow streets:
Here is how they decorate the window of a store where they sell hair flowers :-)…
My poor Father – we dragged him up the hill so high up to the Castle. There is a funicular, but it was not working that day, so we walked on a cobbled street and it was not easy, but the views were breathtaking. If only the weather would have been a little sunnier:
And then we went back, my family rested and I still wanted to see the downtown – so here are some pics in twilight:
Here is a monument to their famous sonￂﾠ -Gaetano Donizetti!
Here is Bergamo view from the train station – it was on the day we flew into it, it was sunny – quite a difference!
All in allￂﾠ -Italy is a fantastic country, just amazing on each step. Their creativity is endless. Things and places to see are endless. How much time a person can spend there and how much energy one should have to consume so much art and beauty…
The slopes were mostly olive groves, very pleasant in this sunny weather! Up and up the hills that seemed never to end. We expected to meet more old Gothic churches. based on the description – but saw only one:
The forests that our path cut through were very pleasant, even exotic. There were even some flowers blooming in this early spring.ￂﾠ 
We have a dream some day to walk the Pilgrimage path to Santjago de Compostela. Right now we can’t have a vacation in warm seasons, so we did this as a trial. By the way – he path was also marked on trees, not with a shell, but with something like a Polish flag :-):
And there was no summit-ￂﾠ we walked and walked, and as we reached as if one summit-ￂﾠ there was another in the horizon. Then the path disappeared and if it was not for Andrei’s GPS in the phone-ￂﾠ we could have been lost. There were some houses, more like mansions behind big walls and angry dogs in the yards, so how could we ask anyone about the path? Bet the GPS was our showing star and here we went. The forest floors were very dug up -we wondered why? Soon the mystery was solved – there was a man with two medium dogs digging something in the forest close to the road – guess what? Tartiuffo! Or a truffle! I asked him to show me the valued mushroom, so here it is:
Yes, it had a specific good smell, but nothing out of this world…Our Lithuanian Borelia mushrooms smell stronger and more pleasant to my nose, sorry Italians or the ones who like to pay for truffles :-). To each his own. And so we continued the trip which already started to seem to me endless…
There was somewhere a monastery on the way worth visiting. but we would have had to go to the side and climb another mountain, and that seemed too much even for my enthusiastic nature…So we went down on a rather steep slope and landed directly into a regular road where buses go by a town In Colino San Donato. The stop was conveniently there and we returned to Firenze. While waiting for the bus I noticed peculiar blue flowers, like little bells spotting a meadow below:
All in all we walked 13.2 km only…in 4h 20 min and felt very tired…But who knows – maybe we walked more, hard to trust those measuring devices or literature :-). So -ￂﾠ we are still not prepared enough for Camino de Santjago.
It is a nice half hour ride up one of the hills that surround Florence. A suburb. The bus stops in an attractive square with two men on horses shaking hands, and the path goes up the hill in a narrow street to the viewpoints towards Firenze:
It is a very good place to hike and rest your head from too much art :-)! If we had time – we could have hiked more towards the countryside. also – to a monastery on the other side of town – but as usual – we have too many plans.
The Baptistery is under restoration, meaning under cloths, so just the famous doors:
And we walked and walked – the streets are very narrow for the height of buildings by them – so it is not such a very pleasant walk for us, country people at first. But once you get to plazza – a square – there is usually a ‘wow’ sound you want to shout:
Lots of buildings in Florence have that specific yellow colors that creates a poetic atmosphere. Nice! So we admired lots of buildings crunching our heads, ate some famous ice cream and famous, but not tasty spaghetti, and reached Santa Croche Church with a statue for Dante in front of it:
Here is the Uffici gallery: 
This blog post will be extended soon 🙂
It is open till 6pm, so I rushed through the center of downtown, through the cathedral:
directly to the Medieval quarter. The best part – no cars there! only bicycles. And very few people, no tourists, just some locals, some kids when classes finished. And some 2 or three photographers in Via Delle Volteￂﾠ -so I also followed their example and took many pictures in it, was hard to pick only four:
From there, through Ghetto to the Renaissance part! There is an abundance of palaces and mansions, also parks, so having several hours was far from enough…Ferrara has to be destination in itself. There are even little towns in the surrounding area, so yes, a destination for the next trip, no less than fro 3-5 days there. the only palace that was not closed at that time and was the most peculiar to me was Palazzo Schifanoia. ir is not in the very center, but still within the ols city walls, and the walk is marvelous. It is really one of the most precious art treasures in the city. Its name., Schifanoia, derives from its original function: loathing boredom and sending away tedium. One big hall is Salone Dei Mesi – 12 months painted on the walls. Boy, those artists who painted – were really not bored…It s a triumph of imagination. So many details, so colorful, so perfectly painted. Sad, but only 6 months are left, the others are destroyed…Here is at least one glimpse of them – I guess it is Torres:
The best partￂﾠ -I was alone there! peace and quiet. Here is the ceiling of the other hall- Salla Delle Virtu -where all christian virtues are represented. It has a splendid golden, painted coffered ceiling:
There is also a museum of Ancient Art, but after seeing those two halls how much more beauty can one consume…From there I walked the main street- “Corso” towards the other part of the city Corso is impressive, as usually Corso’s are in Italy. There is a Diamond palace on the way – it houses art collection, but closed early. Some more churches and palaces on the way:
and I came up to a very big cemeteryￂﾠ – Cimitero Della Certosaￂﾠ -so big, it takes the whole corner of the wall enclosed city…it has a beautifulￂﾠ church-chapel and columbarium ansamble:
What a wonderful weather tat was! At last it got warm after windy days in other cities. I didn’t was to go into buildings, but the castle was waiting for me, so what could I do. The first part – believe it or not – from those sunny views I got into dungeons…terrible, terrible, especially for my tall body:
Then up the stairs – and the views of the castle and mote, then an endless walk through frescoed hall. So many frescoes, especially on ceilings, so that there were big mirrors installed not to break ones neck :-). Visitors can see the ceilings reflected in the mirrors. Most of the frescoes were in repair, so had bandages on them:
There were some painting exhibits. One of them was Giuseppe Boldini’sￂﾠ -who is so good in painting beautiful women and their ddressesￂﾠ -loved it! Here is one sample:
A last glimpse to the castle then a short visit to the peculiar oval entrance area of Teatro Comunale – and I had to rush back to Bologna.
Ferrara is to be visited for a longer time!
The door under the columns to the right -is where we lived – in a very nice one bedroom apartment. It was called Falegnani Suites, Via de Falegnani 16, 3922-646471. The owner was very friendly, she met us in the apartment and we had anything we needed there. The sad partￂﾠ -we stayed only 2 nights, the apartment was too nice for such a short stay. But it was enough for us to walk around two evenings and one morning.ￂﾠ The oldest University in Europe was the main point of interest:
And what the students paint nowadays on the walls of one of departments: 
Bologna is distinguished not only by the abundance of columns,ￂﾠ but also by the two big towers, which are so tall that are hard to get into picture. Also – one of them is leaning:
Here are some nice squares we wandered through:
First of all we headed towards St. Marcus square – and that is where the crowds are. Here are some fashions I noticed:
And a very unusual for Venice square with red benches:
In St. Marcus square I stood in a bigￂﾠ line to get to the church, which is marvelous, very byzantine, very golden mosaics:
But then we didn’t go to the Dodge Palace – not enough time and not enough space in our ‘impression boxes” to see all those riches and beauties. The city was beautiful enough. So we went towards “the tail” – travel books consider that Venice is in the shape of a fish – so they tell you of places whether they are in the tail side or head side, etc. And over there the promenade by the sea was almost empty, what a joy!:
Notice – no cars! That makes it an artist’s and photographer’s paradise!
This is the Arsenal.
Then we returned towards the docks and looked if we can take a boat to San Giorgio Magiore basilica, which is built by Palladio, but there was no time for that trip, so we admired it from a distance:
When the sun was setting – the view was outstanding! Maybe it is normal for Italy to have such crystal clear skies in March, good.
And some little exquisite stores like this:
But a day is too short…On the way back we crossed Academia bride and saw the last rays of sun hitting Santa Maria del Salute:
And that was it, we were heading towards the train station… 
Was it easy to not get lost – well, we used the GPS in the phone. Without that you would need more than one day to see this much of Venice. Of course. we saw very little. we didn’t enter any museums, of which there are plenty, any palaces, some of which have exhibits and are open to public. Too much for a day…
St.Anthony’s basilica holds the grave of St. Anthony. It is a big pilgrimage site and all visitors try to touch the grave and ask St. Anthony for favors. I did, too. While walking by the white marble grave you see at least some 8 extraordinary reliefs on marble with the scenes of St. Anthony performing his miracles. Here is one of them – I liked the peculiar face of one or major characters of the scene:
Padova is known for its second to the oldest University in Europe. At those times several liberal professors and students split from the University of Bologna and came here to establish a new and liberal educational facility in 1222! Galileo Galileo was the most prominent professor there. The first Anatomy Theater was built there in 1594 with a way to hide a dead body very fast in case the Inquisition was coming to check. but we didn’t visit the theater this time. neither the Aula Magna, just the corridors and the inner yards and one of the aulas. Students graduate in the university every day.ￂﾠ Traditionally they wear a wreath and are very happy surrounded with their happy families and friends, their pictures being taken:
Their friends prepare for them some text, hopefully funny with pictures and caricatures – and the celebrated graduate has to read the texts loud and clearￂﾠ -fro everybody’s enjoyment. It is a pity not ours, we didn’t understand…
Else – I visited the very good art collection the Eremitani Town museum,ￂﾠ which is by an ancient Roman amphitheater. There in the park there is also a very famous Capella degli Scrovegni – all painted by Giotto in 1303-05. They try to preserve the frescoes and let in only a very limited number of people, and they do it in groups, so I was lucky that the tourist season hadn’t kicked in yet. The line was not too long. And it is very worth seeing the chapel. But no pictures were allowed, so be it. The magnolias were already starting to bloom:
The central part of downtown has three joining squares, here is one of them:
The cathedral doesn’t not look very big or impressive, but it has very outstanding frescoes in the Baptistery on the right:
And again another view of St. Anthony’s in the morning and at night:
And again – they were burying their nobility by the main street – just in the air – a very strange custom 🙂
Then we turned to a path or street that was like carved into stone or more likely – built with very high walls from both sides -so no views…Just a romantic walk in old walls:
Here we see the very famous Villa that would be interesting especially for Americans – it is called La Rotonda and president Jefferson has built his summer house exactly based on Palladio’s architecture of this villa! And exact twin. It is called Monticello in the US, located not far from Washington D.C.ￂﾠ This time La Rotonda was closed so Andrei took a picture through the gate :-).ￂﾠ Meanwhile I visited Villa Valmarana Ai Nani – in translation – The Gnomes villa – because there is a story that at some point gnomes were guarding it. If I am wrong in my memory – go and check 🙂 !
And we never felt any danger…maybe our feeling are not sharp enough…Or maybe they are on the habit of enforcing their homes and gardens since Roman or Barbarian times, maybe it is a useful habit to keep.
This is Park Querini:
Palladio museum and the interesting ceiling fresco:
Piazza Erbeￂﾠ with the most impressive buildings.
Piazza Signori:
And the peculiar chairs in one of the cafes. I wonder – does one feel like sitting in someone’s lap or like being the lap :-).