Victor Travel Blog

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A Christmas holidays again. We are taking rest. There is a time to dream and to… bring back. How is it there in Italy now?

I felt like to have a look on Milan

To see a lacy cathedral – this is how I call it. The constructions of Duomo, as it is called by the Milanese, have been lasted for ages. A Celtic sanctuary of the down of history and the Temple of Minerva later on, during the ancient Romans, stood just where the lacy white-marble cathedral spires to the sky now.

Duomo in Italian Milan is the biggest marble building all over the world. Unique in its size and beauty, it might be the best template of the flaming Gothic in the whole Italy.

The famous Teatro alla Scala a Milano and fashionable, always crowded “Passaggio” are fast beside.

We also had the best lasagna in Italy in this very place, close to Duomo.

I felt like to stay a little in San Gimignano

This is a special place, even for Italy – a kind of medieval Manhattan.

San Gimignano is only fifty kilometers away from Florence. In the middle of the XII century competitive patrician families, which ruled the city, started to construct high stony towers. Some of them reached 50 meters aloft, what is sure enough huge for the Middle Ages.

Several dozens of years and San Gimignano got filled with 72 medieval skyscrapers, which were symbolizing all the power of their creators. Even for Italy this city is a miracle! Only 13 or 14 towers survived, but regardless the time, San Gimignano managed to keep the remarkably exact look of the feudal city.

Traditional Italian souvenirs: pasta, truffles, wild boar sausage and wine, of course. The specialists highly commend the Tuscany Brunello. Well, unfortunately we did not understand this wine for the first time. But the lunches in Italy are off the charts as always! And then we returned to wandering among the medieval streets, soaking ourselves up with their incomparable magic.

If you ever decide to visit San Gimignano, keep in mind that this city attracts millions of tourists; you should arrive at dawn or vice versa by the evening to stay for a night. And now we have to move further.

I felt like walking through Venice

Have the constructors of Venice ever thought that their city become one of the significant places on Earth? And it did after all! I don’t believe in such accidents, although I am prepared to admit that all people split down the middle on issue of their attitude towards Venice.

For some people Venice is a place of incredible attraction. And my darling got under the spell of this aged beauty in a matter of munutes.

Seeing Venice only once, many people dream to come here again all their life, somebody returns, and some of them start to visit it regularly…

And for the second type Venice is nothing more than a funny amusement, a city that can be looked over within two days as maximum. It is hot and stuffy in summer, foggy and windy in winter, in addition sanitary norms are doubtful, and it smells musty in a heat.

I guess I would find it interesting to find myself in Piazza San Marco during the flood, and it’s a sure thing – we will arrive for the carnival!

People of the Roman Empire were trying to escape from the barbarians on the islands. This is how this settlement and the unique relations between the humans and the water appeared.

Hard-working and desperate people built their amazing city and adapted to live, surrounded by the sea. The vivid sea, with storms, ebbs, floats and floods.

They not only learned how to build houses on piles, they managed to create a powerful democratic state that has maintained its independence during one and a half thousand years.

Yes, I said democratic, Venice has never been a monarchy, and the almighty doge – is not a monarch at all. You will never find monuments to the former rulers in Venice, they have never recognized the cult of personality. Doge has been elected through the complicated voting system and in fact he lost his personal freedoms upon the elections for the Republic good. All for Her – Venice – a mysterious lady and an obvious beauty!

And I felt like to stay in Florence forever!

Oh, Florence, Florence, translated from the Latin means «Bloomy». You are extremely interesting for me with your museums, galleries, cathedrals – the whole History.

The city was based by order of the great Julius Caesar, who devoted a small lot of the land on the bank of Arno River to the veterans of his army.

At different times Florence went through the barbarians’ attacks, wars and internecine quarreling, but the age of its progress came in IX-X centuries.

For quite a short time Florence became a city of bankers and patrons. Countless treasures circulated on this “golden” bridge.

Florence is the place where the first Italian and even European gold coins were stricken in XIII century. The famous dynasty Famiglia de’ Medici that later on became relatives with French and Austrian kings, came from the Florence banks.

Medici ruled the “blooming city” for 300 years. In their presence Florence has become a cultural center of Europe and the local dialect formed the basis of the literary Italian.

Florence significantly impacted the development of the worldwide civilization, by praising the world with the Renaissance epoch.

This small by today’s standards city endowed the whole world with such giants as Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Rafael, Benvenuto Cellini, Dante, Petrarch, Galilei, and the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci, whose name was given to two continents.

You can’t help admiring with San-Marco Monastery and Santa-Maria Novella Cathedral, Medici Chapel and San-Lorenzo Church, amazing Duomo and Dante’s quarter. And with many other things in belle Italy.

More about Italy:
Italian Cuisine: Our Gastronomic Feat in Florence
Venice. Travel to Dying Beauty’s Bedside
Our “Thorny” Way to Lake Maggiore in Italy