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- Europe Vaction
2023 - Milan, Lake Como, Sardinia/Corsica and Normandy
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In late June we traveled to Europe for
the first time in over ten years. This trip include a vist to
Milan, Italy where we met up with Ethan who was on his own post-college
European adventure with his friends. From Milan we took in a
day trip to Portofino, before moving on to Lake Como for three
days were we met our good friends Mario and Cristina. After Lake
Como we joined a Backroads adventure in Sardinia, Italy and Corsica,
France where we enjoyed spending six days with new found friends.
Finally, we concluded our vacation with a weekend in Normandy
taking in the historic sites.
See below for the Best of Europe 2023 pictures,
a condensed presentation with select images from location.
Or jump to a specific place:
Europe
2023
Select Highlights from each
day of our Europe trip
Milan, Italy
We started
our trip in Milan, Italy home to the famous Milan Duomo and Leonardo
da Vinci's Last Supper. Milan was founded almost 2,500 years
ago in 590 BC by a Celtic tribe. It was then conquered by Rome
in 222 BC and Milan served as the capital of the Western Roman
Empire. After Rome fell, Milan was sacked by the Visigoths and
eventually conquered by Charlemagne and the Franks in 774. The
Visconti family eventually ruled Milan and the surrounding area
when what is now Italy was ruled by various powerful families
and City States. Under the Visconti's Milan became a Renaissance
force. For hundreds of years, Milan was one of the largest European
cities and a major trade and commercial center. And in modern
times, Milan has been the ecomonic center of northern Italy and
is known as one of the worlds's four fashion capitals. This history
framed the backdrop for our visit.
Day 1
We met up with Ethan and friends in
the old center of Milan the afternoon shortly after arriving
from the airport. From there we visited the Duomo, the Galleria,
Castle Sforzesco, Simplon Park and the other parts of the old
city center where we ate dinner and of course had gelato later
in the evening.
- tOn the first day meeting Ethan and
his friends in front of the Duomo di Milano, the third largest
cathedral in the world. More on the Duomo later.
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- Entering the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
II, Italy's oldest shopping gallery in the town center next to
the Duomo. The Galleria was built in 1865 and features shops
and resturants.
- Parker spinning his heel in on the
Turin Bull mosaic on the Galleria floor where in the Milanese
tradition if you spin quickly 3 times your wish will come true.
- Ethan with a new friend in front of
the Sforzesco Castle, a medieval fort built in the 1400s by the
Visconti family and built on the foundation of an ancient Roman
fort.
- The Porta Sempione or Simplon Gate
marks a spot where the old gates of the city were located, now
it is the entrance to Simplon Park
- The Galleria at night...
- The Duomo dazzles at night in the heart
of old Milan...
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Day 2
We booked a tour which took us to the
Castle Sforzesco, the old Markets and Roman ruins, The Last Supper
painting, the San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore and finally
the Duomo for a tour if its interior. Later in the afternoon,
we walked the Porto Neuvo district which included the Vertical
Forest buildings and finally ate dinner with Ethan and friends
in the Canal District.
- Back to the Castle Sforzesco as part
of a Milan city tour
- Our tour guide for Milan city highlights
- Ancient ruins of the Roman Emperor's
palace. On this very spot, Constantine and Licinius issued the
Edict of Milan agreeing to treat Christians benevolently.
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- The Santa Maria dell Grazie, a UNESCO
World Heritage site as it houses da Vinci's The Last Supper,
one of the most famous paintings in the world.
- Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting
- The Last Supper. The painting is a mural painted in 1495 to
1498 on this very spot. We were literally standing where da Vinci
worked. Unforntately da Vinci experimented with a new type of
application and The Last Supper detoriated quickly, requiring
careful restoration. At times in its 600 year history, the wall
was part of a barn. During WWII most of the walls of the church
were destroyed, but the wall with The Last Supper miraculously
survived.
- Inside the church of San Maurizio al
Monastero Maggiore which is often described as 'Milano's Sistine
Chapel' because it contains one of the most beautiful and complete
cycles of sixteenth-century Lombard frescoes, very well preserved.
- A daily sometimes twice dailiy visit
to a Gelatoria
- Back to the Duomo as part of the city
tour, this time we would go inside. Meanwhile Inter Milan fans
gathered to cheer on the team which would be playing in the Champions
League finals later that night.
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- Detail of the Duomo exterior. There
are over 3,0000 sculptures adorning the exterior facade.
- Construction on the Duomo started in
1386 and it was in various stages of construction for 600 years
and thus incorporates many different styles. The 40 marble columns
are 80 feet tall.
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- During WWII all of the stain glass
panels from the many windows were meticously removed and stored
far underground and then replaced after the war.
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- Details at the tops of the columns,
courtesy of a zoom lens
- One of the many sculptures in the Duomo,
this one was is of St Bartholomew by Marco d' Agrate and depicts
Bartholomew as flayed with his skin draped over his shoulder.
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- Inter Milan fans rally in the afternoon.
Unfortnatly, the would lose to Manchester City 1-0 later that
night...
- The Big Apple in front of Milano Centrale
( Milan Central Station which we would use frequently). The "bite"
out of the apple has been repaired with metal stitching. Created
by Michelangelo Pistoletto in honor of a food and noursishment
expo.
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- Milano Centrale rail station. We used
this station several times a day. It was actually fun and challenging
to master both the local metro lines and the regional lines which
we used to get to Portofino and later to and from Lake Como.
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- The Bosco Verticale or "Vertical
Forest" are two residential skyscrpaers in the Porta Nuova
district of Milan. There are over 90 different species of plants
featured on the balconies. It is known as one of the fifty most
inconic skyscrapers in the world. Conceived by Stefano Boeri
in 2007.
- More buildings and nice walking paths
in the Porta Nuova district which is the main financial and business
area in Milan.
- Enjoying a rooftop bar in the Porta
Nuova district...
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- An evening in the Canal district of
Milan. This is a young, hip area with many resturants and bars.
The Canal district is so named for all the system of canals designed
by Leonardo da Vinci (that guy again) for the transportation
of marble from quarries outside the city to the building site
of the Duomo. We met Ethan and his friends in this area for dinner.
- Our hotel - The Exelsior Hotel Gallia
- at night...
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Day 3
We spent most of the day in the Brera
District taking in the Pinacoteca di Brera museum as well as
lunch before returning to Milan Central and then out to the old
town Milan for the evening.
- Spending the day in the Brera District
of Milan, know as the Art District and considered by many to
be one of the most chic and bueatiful parts of the city.
- Visiting the Pinacoteca di Brera, one
of the most important museums in Milan, it houses more than 400
works from the 14th to the 20th centuries including paintings
by masters such as Raphael and Carvaggio.
- Statue of Vittoria Emanuele II, king
of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861
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- Another shot of our hotel...
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- Inside the Milan Central station, top
level
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- The Duomo and the Galleria one last
time before we would depart Milan...
- The regional high speed train to take
us to and from Lake Como
Portofino, Italy
We took a day trip from Milan to the
coastal postcard town of Portofino, the train took us through
Genoa and stopped in Santa Margherita Ligure where we took a
bus to Portofino and a ferry back to the train station.
Day 4
Visting Portofino for the day including
the Castello Brown, the Portofino light house and Santa Margherita
Ligure
- Hiking up to the Castello Brown or
Brown Castle, a villa overlooking the town of Portofino
- View of Portofino harbor from Castello
Brown
- The Portofino lighthouse
- Taking the ferry back to Santa Margherita
Ligure
- The town of Santa Margherita Ligure
Lake Como, Italy
On the morning of day 5 we left Milan
by train and headed north to the resort area of Lake Como where
we would spend three days and meet up with our friends Mario
and Cristina
Day 5
- We arrived at the town of Varenna on
the east bank of Lake Como. Travel by car around the lake is
not practical given the small roads the vast number of villiages.
We quickly had to learn the ocmplex system of boats, hydrofoils
(fast boats) and ferries that allowed us to go from villiage
to village. The ferries only traveleved between Varenna, Menaggio,
Bellagio and Cadenabbia. We were staying in Cadenabbia and traveled
each day to a different area by ferry or hydrofoil.
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- A large villa in Cadenabbia...
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- The view from our Airbnb apartment
in Cadenabbia. That is Bellagio across the lake on the right
side of the picture
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- The Motta resturant where we met Mario
and Cristina for dinner. This was rougly the midpoint between
our two villages and we each endured a 40 minute Uber/Lyft ride
to get there - this was the last time we traveled by car as we
learned to master the boat schedule henceforth
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Day 6
The next day we met Mario and Cristina
in the town of Como at the southmost end of the lake for a food
and wine tour of Como...
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- Walking to the boat terminal...
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- Our "fast boat" coming in
to take us to Como...
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- The main square near the port in Como...
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- The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
catholic church in Como
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- With our Como tour guide...
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- The Como-Brunate Funcicular is a steep
cable operated tram that takes passengers from Como to the small
village of Brunate in the hills above. It was first opened in
1894 and now is a popular tourist attraction.
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- A view of Como from the hills of Brunate
atop the funicular railway
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- Dinner back in Cadenabbia along the
lakeshore
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Day 6
On day 6 we headed to Como in the morning
to join another tour, this time a tour of various Lake Como villages
by boat including Lenno to see the famous Villa del Balbianello
and the town of Bellagio
- A view of Cernobbio from the tour boat
on the way to to Villa del Balianello in Lenno
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- George Clooney's Lake Como villa in
the village of Laglio
- The first view of the Villa del Balbianello
by boat. The villa was constructed in 1787 by the Cardinal Angelo
Maria Durini who converted a 13th centuy Franciscan monastery.
The villa is famed for its terraced gardens and bueaty, but also
because of several films using the site including the Star Wars
film Attack of the Clones and the James Bond film Casino Royale
- The tour group on the walk up to the
villa
- At the villa gates
- Leaving Lenno up the coast past Tremezzo
and Cadenabbia before crossing the lake to Bellagio
- The Grand Hotel at Tremezzo
- First views of Bellagio, one of the
most famous towns in Lake Como
- Our tour guide Violetta
- Bellagio at night
Day 7
On our last full day in Lake Como, we
started by hiking to the church of San Martino high on the cliffs
above the village of Griante. We then had lunch at the small
quiet restaurant just outside of our hotel which we had been
neglecting and it turned out to be our best meal in the Lake
Como area. Afterwards we took a ferry to Varenna to enjoy the
picturesque village and finished the day across the lake in Menaggio
for dinner.
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