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This concludes my summer trip to Italy. It was a huge success. It was also a great moment of reuniting with Minne. By moving to Italy I will be spending much more time with my daughters and Minne has been very supportive in that. One strange thing is that everyone in the family firmly agreed…

My Last day in Italy for the summer! I will return in October/November to find my new home in Bologna. Early in the morning, Minne, Esther and I drove from Padua to Milano. Where I am staying at a very nice hotel. It took 3 hours to get there. Then Minne and Esther drove onwards…

The last day in Padua was a redeeming day for the city. We got to enjoy the city much more and no see it for what it wasn’t. It’s a charming and friendly city. We had a great time meeting with people and, in particular, talking with the owner of our dinner restaurant, Paulo from…

Given our lukewarm feelings for Padua, we decided to skip exploring the city further until tomorrow and we headed out to Venice. In the deep of summer, the city was only moderately busy (butt still very busy). Here we are in St. Mark’s Square. Smarting from my disparaging remarks about it, the City of Padua…

Well we had our walk through Padua and the environs. It was viciously hot and humid way more unbearable than Bologna. Our landlady even was complaining it was unlivable now until late September. Padua was nice, sweltering walk not withstanding, but it just had nothing of the energy and friendliness of Bologna. I was at…

Our trip to Verona was a success in enjoying the incredible beauty of the touristic center of the city. Outside of the city center the city was less enthralling than either Genoa or Bologna. So that leaves r=today’s trip to Padua to see if we can unseat Bologna as my next home. So here are…

This is how the opera in the Arena ended. 10 minutes left in the first opera, Cavaleria Rusticana at midnight. There had been two rain delays and we were waiting inside as so many people (stretching back to the Roman Empire) had done before us, though probably without the masks. The evening started out well…

After leaving Bologna, pretty convinced I have seen my new home, we then drove to Verona. We took a little detour because Minne wanted to stop in Ferrara, which he heard was a very beautiful town. I must’ve admit I was a little shocked but what a wonderful place it was to visit. We took…

Our last big Bologna highlight was visiting the Anatomical Theater and one of the sites of the oldest universities in the world. The walk started with a walk through Piazza Maggiore with its famous statue of Neptune. It was incredibly ornate with very incredible details, many other pictures I took did nto come out for…

Our last day in Bologna we visited two amazing sites: the Sanctuary of Santa Luca, which was perched on a hill overlooking Bologna and then we went to the Anatomical Theater, a sixteenth century medical school and the site of one of the oldest universities in the world. First the Sanctuary of Santa Luca. To…