Italy Random 2

Italy's pizza was remarkably disappointing. A disappointing pizzeria in Murano put us on our guard. We saw many pizza shops, all with very uncheesed, lack of sauce, lack of toppings, lumps of dough. Other than the good one we found in Verona, we had one other good one. Saturday night with DeWayne and Mari we had a big ol' feast with some cheese and jam, lots of sugary treats, and this pizza: half ham, half fries and sausage. The sausage was a lot less spicy than American "Italian" sausage. Joy remembers it being pretty good and we ate it pretty fast. We also played Thurn and Taxis several times.




"Hi there. Hy here, briefly. Italy was one of the first times I climbed into a toy car and moved around in it. I only drive Ferrari.







"On our way back from Venice, I opened my eyes just a moment from my nap and this is what I saw from the water bus.







"My favorite Venice memory, though, was Mom and Dad coming back from their gondola ride. Here we were in the restaurant that put the fear of running out of money during our first week in Dad. He vowed to go out to eat as little as possible after that, but didn't tell anyone. ... If he didn't tell anyone, how do I know? First sons just know these things. The rest of Italy wasn't as expensive, though, so he recovered soon enough. My poor dad."




That'll do, Hy.

Here's another shot of Venice from the bus boat.








Remember that old bridge we found while exploring in the Dolomites? Here's Sammy crawling across it with his dad looking over him.





Later on in the Dolomite National Park, another beautiful waterfall.







The front of Miramare castle. Man, was that place impressive. I may have taken extra shots of the outside to compensate for not having enough of the inside. You can find a couple over at Wikipedia and view Google Image Search but there really aren't many online either. They do a disservice to their own tourism not posting some.






The mysterious albino ostrich. That zoo really specialized in albino livestock.

Trieste

We spent our last day in Italy at Trieste. We visited the Grotto Gigante (The big grotto) and Miramare Castle ... both of which had rules forbidding taking pictures. Bummer for a blogger.

You descend (and later ascend) about 500 steps into the grotto, which is beautifully lit. The tour guide stops you at strategic points to play a recorded message in as many languages as your group needs. It's one of those breathtakingly beautiful places that manages it physically as well as emotionally. Should you visit, do remember that it's really cold down there: they close it during winter because it's wet down there and all the steps become covered in ice. Either bring a sweater in summer or else have a 30 pound baby in a backpack to keep you warm. Make sure the baby is well layered.





This shows you the path you travel. You start in the upper left corner, go down the stairs and enter the large cavern. You climb back up on the right and out again in the center-right.




The Miramare Castle was owned by an archduke who was annointed Emperor of Mexico, where he was promptly assassinated. We already commented that this was the most impressive, luxurious, well-furnished, "gee, it might be nice to actually live here" castle we've seen in Germany, Austria, and Italy. The fellow apparently made his wealth in shipping, so there are pineapples carved everywhere. His bedroom and study were designed to resemble his rooms aboard his ship with a portrait of his lovely wife, the princess, above his small bed. The entry hall featured an unusual skylight: it's actually an aquarium with real fish in it. The royal bedrooms above were the most sumptuously appointed in gold and burgundy, gold statues, expensive gifts from the Pope, decorative tables, heraldry from nearby leaders .... very wow. He also had a second entrance crafted so that visiting dignitaries could disembark from the port next to the castle and walk right in. The throne room included 10+ foot tall paintings depicting the royal line (including demonstrating that the princess and the archduke were umpteenth cousins and linked to the same royal line).



We got to take little Anna with us through the castle. She was most interested in finding the baby princess' room, but we never found her quarters. We found Maximillian's room, and his wife's, and the servants' ... but no rooms for kids. It seemed very odd.






On the outside is this strange statue looking down on you. Don't jump, man! It's not worth it!







The Victory Lighthouse was built after WWI in commemoration of their fallen. Gorgeous edifice, really dominating across the harbor from the castle.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

We spent a quiet Sunday with DeWayne and Mari's family at church and playing games at home. Monday DeWayne left for a conference in DC he couldn't get out of, so we helped Mari grocery shop and prepare her for ... three days with just her and four kids. She offered to watch Hyrum and her kids while Joy and I took off with their van for a few days to do some longer-distance touring. Joy was understandably nervous about being a bother, but they volunteered, so we took off Tuesday with an air mattress in the van, some luggage, and enough Propel to drown a goat.*

Driving east past Trieste, we entered Slovenia. This was a much bigger change than going from US to Italy. I have a smattering of romance languages and so can make sense of many of the Italian signs and directions. Slovenian not so much. Joy was navigator and we had to come up with nicknames for their major cities so she could direct me. The capital is Ljubljana, for instance. Rather than let Joy struggle it (my best guess: lyub-lyahn-ah) out each time we turned towards or away from it, I told her to call it Lublub. Anyway, we skirted Lublub to the north until we arrived at the amazingly picturesque Lake Bled (pronounced close to Blade).

Lake Bled is the real life ideal on which so many stories are based (the Platonic ideal, even). Perfectly gorgeous little lake with an island lighthouse in it. On one side of the lake is beach and the other side has a sheer cliff face that merges as one with the grand Castle Grad overlooking it (this picture isn't mine). We drove up to the Castle just as dusk was gathering and enjoyed watching as the view over the lake and resort hotels shifted in the sunset.

The castle today is a museum where most of the old, crumbly parts have been plastered over to make it look nice. Lots of fairly standard exhibits about how ancient man lives, some fossils, geology of the area. Enh. Upstairs was a bit more history about the castle and town itself. It was given to the local bishop as part of a deal to secure political control of the area and church support back around 1004.




During the 19th century, they decided the area would be a great resort area for people who need water treatments and it became THE place for the rich and famous to go for fresh air. Jane Austen fans, think Bath. Same idea.

A major fire in the 1940s gutted most of the place, hence the renovations since then to turn it into a hotel and then a museum.






Thankfully, the chapel seems to have been spared the worst of it, so you can see the original artwork on the walls, ceiling, in each cranny. This chapel was a little different from most we visited in that there was a top box for the bishop to sit in, rather than for the organ. No organ that we could see.









Here's another shot of that island in the middle of the lake.







After this, we drove through the Alpan tunnels into Austria and found a quiet residential street in Salzburg to park for the night.










* - No actual goats were harmed in the making of this blog.