foro romano & palatino

citta del vaticano & san pietro

piazza di spagna in the "historical area"

sienna

sienna was originally called sena julia by the romans in the 1st century bc, after their arrival. it is protected by the saint catherine (santa caterina), who was born in this city. in 1966, sienna was the first city in europe to unauthorise the circulation of cars inside the actual city. what bliss for a wandering tourist!
the "piazza il campo" is something splendid. its an enormous square with restaurants and cafés running around it and the town hall on one side. we spent a while lazing in the sun, snacking on focaccia, before heading to the "duomo".
the cathedral was nothing that i had ever seen before. the rose, green and white façade was both on the ext. and the int. (causing a slight zebra effect). the floor of the cathedral is an untique example of marble inlay and graffito decoration. it started in the 14th century and was completed only in the 1800's. it consists of 56 'cartoons' by numerous artists, stating the entire history of mankind. it starts with the grco-roman wisdom, with philosophy and the prophecies, leads into the old testament then to the new, whereby truth is reached by God. the floor is normally covered for most of the year, so to protect it from the wear of time.
it was all so magnificant and the frescos so alive and detaimed, it was difficult to take it all in. the city was calm (perhaps because it was a sunday?) which was great. a nice change from rome.

florence

according to the legend, florence was founded by cesar around 59 bc, where he settled along the banks of the arno river, which seperates the city in two. whether or not that is true, is something else but the history of its monuments, churches, roads seeps into the atmosphere. its surreal.
the "duomo" is visible from pretty much everywhere, due to its height but also its colours - pink, white and green. its construction started in 1296 by the architect, arnolfo di cambio, and was completed about a century and a half later.
the int. of the cathedral is enormous, measuring 155m x 90m, and has frescos by donatello, del castagno and ghiberti. the "piazza del duomo" consists of a large square with shops and restaurants spilling into it. of course, there are the tourist sellers/ harrassers with their postcards, wooden pinocchios and italian flags. it all adds to the vibe...
here, we stayed in a "pension", which i presume used to be a monstary/ nunery of sorts because on the majority of the walls, there were religious figures luminated. needless to say, this was quite a scary sight in the middle of the night!

le croix du nivolet

whilst the weather is still superb, we have decided to make the most of it and climb as many mountains as possible. this was my first - the nevolet cross. it took about 4 hours and the view from the top was breathtaking. what adds to the splendor is that pretty much from everywhere you are in chambéry, your'e able to see this cross. so every morning, whilst i make my rooibos, there it is, staring down at me. i think it adds to its grandeur.

a night with ben harper

what a concert! for 3 hours, ben and crew sang and played to their hearts content...and of course, we bopped along. it was incredible how much energy he had. the arena was packed so i'm sure that helped a bit. alas, we were not closer...
to begin, there was this guy - william white - who wasn't too bad. a bit lame in parts as the majority of his songs were written for his wife (sweet, i'm sure). he's a mix of ben and perhaps, jack johnson...no doubt he'll be going places!