At sea & Palermo by night

What a restful day! Our cabin had a large window with views over the calm, blue ocean. We spent most of the day reading in our cabin and thereby avoided the hundreds of small kids on board. For lunch we had a prosciutto panini with enough prosciutto to indicate that it is the norm here, rather than something of a luxury.

We arrived in Palermo, Sicily about 5 pm and only had to cross the road to our hotel. Soon we were out pounding! the streets where things don't look like mainland Italy, it feels more like Barcelona or maybe Turkey. We found a great spot for dinner and I asked what was typical Sicilian on the menu. The waiter suggested spaghetti with sardines! I know, it sounds gross, but it was super delicious. I spotted pine nuts, sultanas and lots of juniper berries in it. With a glass of Sicilian red, it went down exceedingly well.

Walking home we passed a gelati shop so I chose pistachio and limone. It was pretty hot for eating whilst walking but we managed with lots of licking. Photo not for publication!!

                                               The Opera House is in the background

Kel is eating calamari

As we were walking home we came across a giant street party. All the streets in the area had a light show which was what caught our attention. It was a celebration for the patron saint of the vecchio borgo (old village), Saint Anna. There was rock music, food, drinks, stalls, fireworks and it seemed everyone was there.

Genoa

Genoa is another marvellous city full of amazing architecture and, with its many narrow lanes, is a fun place to visit. It is said that the narrow ways were to confuse pirates however I think the natural fall of the land has something to do with it!

Christopher Columbus is one of the famous sons of Genoa.

Piazza Ferrari, classic architecture and a great fountain.

Lunch - sitting on the steps of San Lorenzo cathedral eating genuine foccacia and watching the children chasing the huge bubbles being made by the bubble lady, listening to gentle guitar music from a busker and people (and dog) watching.

Off to Sicily!

P.s. uploading photos is slow and time is short so the reports are brief at this stage. Loving the hot weather, already put on the weight I lost in preparation for this trip and enjoying it:)
How many gelati a day do you think is too many?

Milan to Genoa

It rained overnight and continued into the morning. We had planned to do the on-off bus routes today which is a tad tricky in an open top double decker bus. But rain can't deter travellers so we set off with one umbrella. It wasn't long before Kel added to our world collection of cheap umbrellas!

Milan is a very attractive city with tree lined streets and quite a bit of park land and the morning was well spent riding around the city.

After the usual, but very scary and unpleasant dealings with gypsy girls on the train, we arrived in Genoa after 5 pm.

This evening we have enjoyed a meal in the narrow streets of this palazzo filled city. Genoa is the home of pesto so it was essential to have some. I had a divine pesto lasagne followed by a tiramisu.

Milan

Milan was a wonderful surprise to us as previously we had only been to the railway station. We know that Milan is the fashion capital of the world (shared with Paris) but  the architecture here is also stunning. Yesterday we talked about 10 kms to see all the places on my list, today we did the on- off bus routes to see what we had missed.

The star attraction is the Duomo, Santa Maria Nascente, a frothy conglomerate of marble with 135 spires and about 3700 statues on the exterior. Started in 1386, it took hundreds of years to be finished. Inside it is very dark and rather drab.

Late in the afternoon we had a booking to see Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' in the refectory at the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. This work dates from 1495 so it is absolutely amazing that it still exists, especially when you see photos of war damage to the building.
It is forbidden to take photos so I am posting this one which I found on the web.

For us the highlight was the Basilica de Sant' Ambrogio - Saint Ambrose. He is the patron saint of Milan and the basilica was built in 379-386AD. Built in the Romanesque style, the frescoes were beautiful, the place looked well cared for and had great feeling ... and very 
few tourists!

Lunch was at the hottest lunch venue in Milan - Luini. The queues stretched way out into the street but efficient staff moved the customers through with speed and a smile. Guess where we ate our panzerotto?

Andiamo! Let's go!

Andiamo! Let's go!

Finally it is almost time to go.
The roses have been pruned and the garden readied for spring growth, despite all the rain we have had this month.

The cases are almost packed,

the house is clean and the refrigerator is empty,

the nails have been done and the passports are ready,

and the family has arrived to take us to the airport early tomorrow morning.

Tutti per ora.

It's not Italy, it's Lygon Street, Carlton

The days leading up to an overseas trip are quite stressful. This is especially so when you are all ready to go but the days just won't pass quickly enough.

We were feeling like that so we took an over night trip to Melbourne. We rode on the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel then we went for dinner in Lygon Street.

Lygon St, Carlton has been the centre of the Italian community in Melbourne since the 1920s. It is our favourite place to eat and enjoy things Italian in Melbourne. Of course, we are not the only ones who appreciate the joys of Lygon Street, it is a popular tourist destination also.

There are an amazing number of restaurants,

lots of wonderful Italian food, 

gelati, wheels of grana padana cheese, legs of prosciutto, 

other things Italian,

but nothing, absolutely nothing, beats the Brunetti pasticceria!

Marvellous Melbourne

Last night we took a flight on the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel at Harbour Town. It was a spectacular experience giving wonderful night light views over the city.

It is one of only three giant observation wheels in the world, it is as tall as a forty storey building and is held together by 21,000 bolts!

There are 15 million different LED lighting combinations adding great colour to the night skies of inner city Melbourne.

The term 'Marvellous Melbourne' was coined around the 1860s -1880s when Melbourne was growing from the gold boom. Today Melbourne has a population of 4.24 million people with 140 different cultural groups. It is consistently voted the world's most liveable city, it is the world's number 1 sporting city and one of its great obsessions is coffee!

Did you know that Melbourne is the largest Italian city outside Italy? It is also the third biggest Greek city in the world.

Melbourne is one of the great cities of the world - visit with the eyes of a tourist and you will agree too.