Italian Christmas & Birthday - Lights at Night

This will be the last installment of my Christmas break to Italy then I really must get back to crafting, blogging and making tutorials.

One thing that we did like in Italy is the lack of full on commercialism that we are subjected to here in the UK. yes there were decoration, some of the most fantastic lights I have ever seen and some of the best window displays ever. However, we both felt it was still much more low key that at home and I have to say...I preferred it! I was not followed from shop to shop hearing Slade singing their Christmas song, or having to dodge obstacle courses in shops which have too many Christmas items that you can not actually see or move.

The picture above is a street painting using pastels. We passed this first thing in the morning as it was being started and saw it marked out lightly with white chalk. Unfortunately there were too many people around to take a photo. Much later in the evening on our way home from dinner we came across it again. In real life it was fantastic!! The detail was unbelievable and the realism of the beard made it look like he would suddenly jump up out of the pavement.

This was the massive Christmas tree situated in the Piazza Della Repubblica and the lights were amazing. On the ordinary trees they net of lights go from the top of the trunk and go upwards to the top. It gives the trees a surprisingly different shape, quite nice really.

These lovely candle display stands were in the Duomo. Sophie remembered these from the last time visited.

The carousel looked lovely all lit up.

This is one of the side streets which had many lovely little shops. the shops are very tightly packed in, being very narrow but going back along way. we would only get about 3 shops to every 6 or 7 in these little streets.

Each street had a different style of lights.There were many wonderful shop window displays but not all of them could be photographed very easily. One evening when we were out on one of our walks after dinner Sophie and I found this Christmas Tree.....

Lots of mini woolly jumpers decorating the tree in the window of United Colours of Bennetton. I can remember when some of their advertising got them into a lot of trouble but this one was just right. Hhhmmm! I wonder if this would work with lots of little felt jumpers?

We did end the visit by going to Galleria degli Uffizi which Sophie was very good at looking round and asked lots of questions.

We took loads of pictures between the three of us as we bought Sophie a digital camera (partly to stop her from using ours all the time) and give it to her on our first day so that she could use it during the week. We visited, walked, ate, slept and shopped ourselves silly and then it was time to pack to go home. A brilliant holiday celebrating a special birthday were by we went to a lovely restaurant right by the Ponte Vecchio, and a wonderful Christmas. We eventually flew home as our plane was late due to snow etc in Europe then we drove home, arrived at 1am, fell into bed then the day after we recovered and opened our presents. On 28th we went to my in-laws and had another Christmas. New Year seemed to arrive very quickly and we had my friend and her daughter over to stay as her husband was working into New Year's day because he is a policeman.

I could go on for longer but I will not. I shall post next time some of the lovely gifts for my 40th including our need to go back to the Ponte Vecchio!

I also have an Italian theme giveaway for the New Year but also a late celebration of passing 400 post before Christmas, but missed it!

Take care and continue to keep warm.

xx

Italian Christmas and Birthday - Part 2

After a very good nights sleep and a good breakfast we decided to go out for a brisk walk, and brisk is the word as it was still zero! This is the view to the right of the hotel and it was a glorious bright sunny day and sun glasses were needed! it had snowed quite heavily only a couple of days prior so there was still quite a bit left by the time we got there.

We decided to visit the Musei Fiorentini which we have not had the chance to visit before. For the designers amongst you or those of you that just like to see something pretty and think 'how on earth did they manage to do that?' then these pictures are for you. Some of these will be used for my Christmas cards next year and I intend to use some for note cards that i want to put in my online shops at some point. So here goes.....

A beautiful ceiling which had everyone in the room staring upwards and 'ooooing' over it.

This ceiling was stunning and the picture here is not as bright as the actual ceiling. This is only a section of the ceiling as I wanted to zoom close enough so that you could see the detail.

Painted directly onto a wooden ceiling.

There were lots of items to look at including this lovely shaped chair!

This was the view that we found out of one of the windows as we were walking round. Very festive looking and eye-catching.

On the way out we saw this lovely twinkling tree, there were lots of Christmas trees all over the place even in very cold, draughty stone courtyard on your way out of the museum.

We then decided to have a walk around the Duomo and Campanile which Sophie was astonished to see these buildings. We then got some lunch and decided to walk along some of the side streets which Hubby and I have not managed to see in previous visits.

By the restaurant was this lovely carousel which was there three years ago and Sophie was delighted and remembered it. She is riding one of the horses but I was not quick enough with the camera. This was here three years ago as well and Sophie does remember it. This was the first ride of several that she had that week.

We decided to have a walk along the Ponte Vecchio which is lined on both sides with jewellery shops. We would come back here later in the week. There is a lot of history linked to this bridge and it was the only bridge along the River Arno which was not bombed during the War. you may be surprised to learn that the arches in the centre of the bridge were originally designed to allow garbage to be tipped directly into the Arno and that the shops were originally butchers and fish mongers who would want to get rid of any waste. Then it was home to the tanners who soaked their hides before tanning them in horse's urine. In 1593 Grand Duke Ferdinando I, found that he did not like the smells and noises from the shops on the bridge so he banished the butchers and fishmongers and installed 50 jewelers and goldsmiths instead, many of whose descendants still trade. Not the best picture but it was starting to get very dull and we were getting rather cold by this time so it was back to the hotel for a shower then out for dinner somewhere.

Tomorrow I shall show you some of the lights there were everywhere in the centre of Florence and the many side streets.

Take Care and keep warm.

xx

An Italian Christmas and Birthday

When my husband was looking through some accounts for his accountant to work out his tax bill he found some money in an e-account left over from having the attic converted!! Hey ho not bad hey? This was last July and we wondered what to do with it. We were planning a building project and I thought we could use it for that but no, my hubby said why not use it for your birthday?

Last Christmas we had a party for hubby's 40th so this Christmas for my 40th I suggested that we all go to Italy instead. Seeing as my birthday is on 23rd December we went to the travel agent and discovered that we had enough for a week away! So we booked it and waited with excitment. We did discuss it with Sophie and she did ask if Santa could find her and we said he could. She then said well Christmas will still be here when we get back won't it? We were shocked that a 7 year old could put things into perspective like that and she never mentioned presents etc all week.

So we left for Bristol Airport on 19th December and as we drove over Bodmin Moor the snow and sleet came in quite badly and we thought that we would have to turn back. Got to Exeter and it was all clear. The plane was over an hour late to Bristol because it was snowed in at Geneva and could not take off. Eventually we were on our way and landed at Pisa airport. It was MINUS 12!!!

We then had a transfer bus to Florence but they kept us waiting in the car park for over half an hour until it turned up then kept us another hour on the bus because they would not leave until it was full. Over an hour drive to Florence then nearly an hours wait for a taxi in MINUS 14 degree temp Sophie was very tearful. Not a good start.

It was not until we got home again that we found out that ours was one of the last planes allowed to leave Bristol airport before it was closed.

The Plaza Hotel Lucchesi was piping hot and we eventually arrived four hours late at gone midnight. Our room was more like a small apartment and we were stunned by it. We are much more used to Travel Lodges etc. This is the main bedroom and I am standing at the top of a sweeping staircase to take the picture.

Our bedroom.

This is looking down the staircase.

There were plenty of cupboards for hanging up clothes so we actually unpacked which I do not really do when I go on holiday. The little corridor down by the cupboards lead to the bath/shower room and on the right was a door into another little bedroom.

This was Sophie's little room complete with a lovely little desk which she did use during the week. Down the stairs was more cupboards, a TV, chair and sofa and another toilet and sink. For the space there was they had packed a lot in but it was very spacious. All of the rooms at the front of the hotel were like this as we looked at the room plan on the back of the room door. Lovely decor and our window overlooked the River Arno.

View to the left out of the window.

View to the right from our window.

Due to our arrival the hotel had no food for us but luckily there was a pizza take-away around the corner which the hotel told us about. so off we went and despite the sub-zero temps there was a huge teenage gathering outside of this little pizza take-away and I have to say that unlike in the UK they were not shouting, being rude or in anyway intimidating just talking etc. Quite a difference as we would probably be very worried and someone would call the police1.

We only had a bite to eat then due to it being 1am we went back to the hotel and fell into bed.

I do not wish to bore you too much so I shall be back tomorrow with more pictures of Italy at Christmas.

Due to it being another snow day I have several piles of work to do ready to take back in to work tomorrow.

Take care, keep warm.

xx