
This is literally my daily commute now. Up the funky half-stairs half-ladder to my home office.
It's true. Spotify has changed things. It is now much, much easier to find new music to listen to, but it seems that fewer tracks make a lasting impression. My annual lists keep getting shorter. Anyway, here are 3 albums that I liked in 2019. They are all kinda electronic ambient - type stuff, so..... [...]
Apparently, we picked the worst time to visit the Vatican, so had to jostle through the galleries and the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's basilica with literally thousands of others. So it goes. I took one picture of a roped off area that seemed quite pleasant. HVW says I should have photographed the crowds. Next [...]
Today's adventure was navigating the very steep and very narrow, winding roads in and out of Villa Bordoni, which (for some reason) were much busier today. The highlight was coming grill-to-grill with a large truck in a section of road with low stone walls on each side. The truck driver decided that I needed to [...]
The weather is meh today, but we have repositioned (ever so slightly) from Florence/Firenze to the Tuscan countryside. Before leaving Florence, we paid our dues by lining up for +/- 1 hour to get into the Duomo. Then picked up the rental car and, thanks to Google Maps, made it to Villa Bordoni without incident. [...]
There is no escape from Lady Liberty. There used to be fire-breathing dogs in Florence. Tempus fugit. Also, we toured Galeria degli Uffizi with our guide Paola, who did an amazing job of keeping us away from the hordes. (Not to mention great insights into the artwork.) And later, we climbed up and down (and up [...]
Here we are. Touring churches and palazzos and dodging the shocking October crowds here in Florence. I am surprised at how many new discoveries are on display. In the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, there are 3 frescoes discovered from 2004 to 2011 behind the frames of other paintings. Restoration took several years so they [...]