Living by the numbers and celebrating the season…

With Christmas 2014 just days away, I woke this morning and thought about the year… and realized, there are some who would look at my year and consider it a mess. When I look at the numbers (financially), it was a mess. No, it was worse than that, it was diabolical.

This year certainly had some moments of being challenging, some of them extremely so… That was, until I looked at the things that were happening, not the things that weren’t.

Twelve months ago I celebrated Christmas in Venice,

and New Year’s Eve in Florence.

I’ve worked with 55 students: face-to-face, one-on-one and in small groups, from beginner to advanced, staff and executives, and online throughout Italy, in Spain, Belgium, Poland and Japan. We have worked in 25-minute sessions online up to intensive 6-hours a day for four days straight. Most of the face-to-face sessions are two hours, offering time to get to know people, and I have loved that!

I have walked on ancient walls in Lucca and Monteriggioni

   

and relaxed in an ancient hot spring in Bagno Vignoni.

I have seen long-celebrated traditions…

   

    

and Andrea Boccelli and Placido Domingo live in the Tuscan countryside

  

I’ve strolled on and off the beaten paths in Cinque Terre for days, wandered through the streets and markets in Milan, Florence, Fiesole, Albenga, Viareggio, Barga, Lucca, Como, Bellagio, San Guilio Orta, San Marino, Ravenna, Pisa, Cortona, Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure, Portovenere, Bonassola and Framura, Bagno Vignoni, Pienza and Figline Valdarno, and crossed the Francigena in different places around Tuscany and Liguria.

I’ve sauntered through olive groves, vineyards and fields of sunflowers.

I’ve walked in the exquisite beauty of the Boboli Gardens, at the shore of Lago di Orta and Lago di Como. I’ve been on ferries on Como and beside the Cinque Terre towns. I’ve caught high speed, regional and local trains. And I’ve walked. …and walked, and walked, and walked!

I delighted at the flavours of local foods at festivals, enjoying ciccolato, prosciutto, formaggio in Florence

chinghiale (wild boar) in Borgo San Lorenzo, new Chianti in Rufina, and tartuffo (truffles), porcini mushrooms, and regional wines in San Miniato.

 

From my wanderings I have written more than 80 reviews, so far – including nine ‘first-to-review’ listings, posting more than 100 photos, helping almost 40,000 travellers on TripAdvisor. Not bad, given I started in late May!

I have pottered my way with this blog, and will be working on a new blog over the holidays. I’ve taken nearly 14,000 photos, most of which I still need to look at properly and decide what I want to do with them… Some are just fun snaps – holding the story of a wonderful moment spent with friends. Others have more to say… I can’t believe the places I’ve seen and the people I’ve shared them with. Both visiting friends and new acquaintances have made this year.

Thankfully, I am healthier than when I arrived in Italy almost 14 months ago. My perspective has changed and is more balanced than a year ago. I have changed. When I look at these numbers, I smile. I don’t naturally think of numbers first – I think of people, shared experiences, and images, but these numbers remind me of the year I’ve had. And the memories at times overwhelm me, in an incredibly positive way – making this year eccellente!

Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo a tutti!

Easter goes off with a bang!

As with so many things in Florence, tourists today get to enjoy traditions that date back hundreds of years, and the Easter Sunday celebration – Scoppio del Carro – is no exception. For more than 350 years, the Florence Easter celebration has included a well-stage series of explosions.

Built in 1622 and standing almost three stories high, a highly-decorated cart is dragged through the Florence streets behind two pairs of white, garlanded oxen.

The oxen procession ends in front of the Basilica di S. Maria del Fiore – the Duomo – ahead of the 11am mass, and a crowd of thousands.

   

 

During the first moments of the service, the Archbishop lights a dove–shaped rocket which flies through the enormous cathedral on a wire and collides with the cart in the piazza del Duomo, starting the fireworks – it is thought that a big bang ensures a good harvest!

Although hard to see from inside, where we had a great view of the service procession and dove rocket, the cacophony of explosions reverberated between the Duomo exterior and scaffolding-clad Baptistry, filling the Duomo with smoke and cheers of the crowd.

Afterwards, as the service continued inside, the drummers and flag throwers moved across to the piazza della Repubblica – providing another well-received flamboyant and noisy display of history celebrated.

As we headed to a quiet lunch, the oxen and cart came towards us, making their way back out of the city. What I hadn’t appreciated until seeing the oxen before the fireworks – they are very tall creatures. As they headed out of the city centre, hauling what must be a very heavy load, they slowly walked with grace, their floral headdresses bobbing on their magnificent heads.

  

Our last glimpse was of the cart stopped in the middle of Repubblica, surrounded by the crowd all getting one more photograph!