A Summer Trip.

At the end of August we drove down to Italy . On the elbow room down , we expend a few days at la Clusaz in the French Alps . Our favourite walking in the Aravis mickle is up the La Tete du Danay above St Jean de Sixt . It is a strong climb but the scene from the top are amazing and the wild flush are fabulous . This is the one place in the Alps where you always seem to see Swallowtail butterfly . This is the first time that I have managed to get a photo of one . I ca n’t refuse bellflower and I love the whiskeryCampanula barbata . I don”t know whatDigitalis ambiguais doing in flower at the end of August . Perhaps it is having second flowering . The rose to the left of it looks just likeRosa rubrifoliabut it is an Alpine rose : Rosa pendulina . I have to include this endearing germ for Debra atUnderThePecanleavesblog . Debra takes wonderful pictures of the unearthly bugs . This is a beautiful Clarence Shepard Day Jr. flee moth , the Six - spot burnet : Zygaena filpendulae .

We were guide to Lucca because the Pianist had book slate for the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago near Lucca . Lucca is the birthplace of Puccini and the purpose build amphitheatre by the lake is a grand setting for a Puccini banquet . We sat and had dinner by the lake and watch over the sun go down as we wait for the execution of Madama Butterfly to start .

The way to research Lucca is by bike . It is great fun cycling round of golf the city wall . I bask just a glimpse of this garden but our holiday had been declare a garden- free zone because our holidays ordinarily consist of too much garden as far as the Pianist is concerned .

Cathedral and Brunelleschi’s amazing dome.

The next stopover was Fiesole which is a wondrous piazza to stay if you need to enjoy Florence . It also is a wonderful place to visit some amazing gardens , but not on this occasion . The views of Florence in the vale are beautiful even on a foggy daytime .

There is a regular motorcoach service that takes you straight into the centre of attention . I am not a city someone but I hump Florence , it is a magical place .

Cathedral and Brunelleschi ’s awesome covered stadium .

Cathedral and Brunelleschi’s amazing dome.

Ponte vecchio

The no -garden -restriction was relaxed when we went to the Boboli gardens . I was too exhausted by a day of sightseeing in the passion to enjoy it full . This renaissance garden created in 1550 behind the Pitti Palace home of the Medicis was the example for all the European courts and still regulate how we view a formal garden today .

This dwarf , Morgante go to the Medici courtroom . I enquire if he minded being depicted as Bacchus , intoxicated and nude , riding on a turtleneck for the rest of time . Perhaps he did n’t have any say in the matter .

Our next stopover was Umbria where we intended relaxing and basking in the sun . We were rent a adorable trivial theatre with its own swimming pool . Bliss . Or it should have been if it hadn ’ t poured with rain for most of the hebdomad . The temperature was a chilly 19 arcdegree for much of the metre . Still we did have a few shiny day . On one of them we climbed the hill behind our business firm and had a beautiful view down to our little house behind the olives . There were still wild flowers to be discover even though it was September by now . It was a delight to find wildCyclamen hederifolium . I have never control colchicums growing angry before . The traffic pattern on the petal looked like that onColchicum agrippinumwhich I mean comes from Turkey . So I am not sure which one it is .

We did have one adorable , sunny mean solar day though and this was the day that we were invited to lunch with lovely Christina who has themyhesperidesgardenblog . I for certain get under one’s skin my garden fix here . Christina ’ s garden is dead stunning . you may see plenty of photos of it on her blog . We had a grand tiffin in her garden listening to the call of the bee -eaters . We revel eating the produce from her garden . Here is the tomato salad make from a medley of her own tomatoes and her own European olive tree oil .

After dejeuner she choose us to see the nearby necropolis of Etruscan grave which was fascinating . I can ’ t hold back to go to The British Museum and learn more about these mystic people . Our day with Christina was one of the high spot of our holiday .

On our means home the last night of our vacation was spend in Vezelay , the pitcher’s mound top town in Burgundy . It has dramatic vista and a wonderful eleventh- one C Romanesque Basilica . The second and third crusades start on their spree of kill and pillaging from here .

Remains of Mary Magdalene were brought here and it became a midpoint of pilgrimage . Mary Magdalene ’ s bones pop up all over the place . You would believe it inconvenient when the same bones are say to be in Provence and Italy too . But in Vezelay this problem was get the best by stimulate Pope Stephen IX amount along in 1058 and declaring them true . Vezelay was a starting point for pilgrims go to Santiago de Compostela . Pilgrims bring wealthiness to the town so it was important to keep them add up . Having holy relics was always a big draw . The Catholic church seemed to be obsessed with the eubstance percentage of dead ideal . I love the story of medieval monks move on raid to steal each others ’ souvenir . As Jesus was supposed to have been ingest up into Heaven , body and all , you would think that there would be none of his organic structure pieces around to fight over . Wrong ! At one point there were 18 church which claimed to have the Holy Foreskin . In fact right up to the 1980′ siemens the Italian town of Calcata had an one-year celebration , The Feast of the Foreskin , on 1st January where the Holy Foreskin would be bring out in its sequined jewel casket and paraded round the Ithiel Town . The Pope then removed the date from the Catholic calendar , presumptively because he was fed up with everyone chortling about it . Anyway I depart , the Holy Foreskin has nothing to do with Vezelay . It is Mary Magdalenes ’ bones that are revered here .

The Romanesque I. F. Stone sculptures picture Bible tarradiddle , myths and legends are wonderful and sometimes unintentionally comical . I sleep together the expressions on the faces of the curse on the tympani on the front frontal .

last we arrived home to enjoy the beautiful sunny atmospheric condition that we had hoped to find in Italy .

58 Responses toA Summer Trip.

What a bummer that the atmospheric condition was spoiled for you in Italy , but it look like you still managed to see some bang-up sights . I would love to go to Italy some day . Christina ’s tomato look toothsome ! Thanks for sharing your vacation photograph .

Dubious torso parts away , it sound like a marvellous vacation , specially take the air in the mountains and sit out by the lake before Puccini . I have it off Lucca too , although I could have spent a fortune in the shops there . Mike was very keen to move on for some reason .

Oh what a fabulous vacation Chloris and how lovely that you were able to meet up with Christina . Her tomato salad looks just the business . I spotted my first morning coat in France a few year ago but the poor creature had suffered some wing scathe . I reckon that the faces of the dammed are the stuff of nightmares . Ironic that you came back home to good weather .

What a wonderful holiday ! You got great pictures despite the garden - free rule , which sounds a lot like the rules that get established in my household . spousal relationship does require its compromises …

Oh my goodness , what a rattling tripper ! The French Alps are stunning based on your photograph . I ’ve never been there , but I can see I require to add that location to my bucketful list . I have been to Lucca and Florence , however , and I concord that Florence is a sorcerous situation – even for people who are n’t half-baked about city . Wonderful stake !

Oh , you are so lucky , Italy is still on my list of places to chatter , I just have n’t seemed to make out it … yet ! Wonderful scenery pic and I ’m glad you had a salutary sentence and got to meet up with a blog acquaintance .

Oh I so savor this travelog pairing such grand body structure with the simplest of wildflowers . Must admit when I think of the Alps I imagine of the lonely goat ruck of the melodious . So glad to see where genus Colchicum come from as I am a big devotee . decent oeuvre .

What a lovely vacation . Lucca with its brick rampart from which you glimpse at gardens is so interesting . I would very much have liked to hear the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago . Did you enjoy it ?

A Summer Trip.

A Summer Trip.

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