We were in Zagreb for 3 days. Funicular: We took this very small funicular the three minutes up from the modern town to the old town. It was cheap and it avoided a big hill climb, but it’s not an amazing tourist attraction you must see. However, it’s pretty cool that it’s the oldest public transit in Zagreb (one…
We were in Dubrovnik for 3.5 days. Old Town Walls: I was skeptical of this activity, because paying $20 each to walk up and down steps with lots of other tourists seemed silly. However, everyone seems to recommend it, so we did it. And it was probably worth it. Imagine a big fortress surrounding a…
We spent 5 days in Budapest. Margaret Island: This was a fun pedestrian island, not unlike Djurgården in Stockholm. We sat with our feet in the cool fountain, watching the different patterns of the jets and helping a toddler fish out his rubber ducky. We ate some hot dogs, steak fries, and pickled things. Then, we rented…
We were in Florence for four days. The Duomo: Unlike the Duomo in Milan, which has multiple dozen chapels along the outside, each with very detailed ornamentation, this Duomo is fairly plain. Its primary feature is a large ceiling fresco. It was nice, if slightly deflating after the Milan experience. (It also didn’t help that…
The Langhe is not a city. It’s a bit like a county in the ‘state’ of Piedmont – but a very large county, made up of countryside: vineyards, hazelnut trees, and small family farms. We visited several villages here, over three days: Neive: Most locals asked us if we had come here, suggesting that it’s…
We were in Cinque Terre (which is actually a grouping of 5 towns) for three days. Riomaggiore This is the town we stayed in, on the recommendation of a blog post by a woman who met her husband here. It turns out that a number of local boys had married women from outside Italy –…
We were in Genoa for about half of a day, and we didn’t set out to see anything: we set out to have dinner. Along the way, we noticed: A million Vespas. This is the primary method of transportation here, and there are at least as many of them as there are cars. When we…
We were in Turin for two days. Eataly: This is definitely not a tourist attraction – unless you’re my sister, perhaps. It’s an indoor market with a big cafe in it, not unlike the Berkeley Bowl, or a very fancy Whole Foods. It is now a chain, with two stores in the US, but this…
We were in Milan for 3 days. The Duomo: This is a gorgeous church that seems as large as a village. The outside looks like a white fairy castle – or like a pre-melting Sagrada Familia. Then, there are statues all along the outside, so that even seeing all of one part of one side…
We spent 1 day in Lecco. The downtown: We ambled through the little town’s cobblestone streets, past small shops and cafes. We photographed street art, from the religious to the political and in between. We sat on benches at the lake’s edge, watching the lapping of the water and the mountains in the background, and…