Ori and Doron

Ori is Israeli but currently lives in New York. His sister, an art student who also works as a flight attendant for El Al, was planning to visit him on his birthday, so their mum ordered a card for her to bring along. Mum told me that Ori loves coffee and that he sends them coffee photos all the time! He works for Apple Inc. and of course lives in The Big Apple. She also asked me to include the Empire State Building, and told me that he favours Omega luxury watches too. 

I showed bespectacled Ori standing in front of the Empire State Building, the eighth-tallest building in New York City. He is holding a cup of coffee and wearing one of his favourite watches. I then added a little graphic of an apple with the words "The Big Apple" on it. The "shine" on the apple is the Apple Inc. logo.

Doron was turning 30 and was going to celebrate his birthday in Rome! His mother-in-law asked me to create a large card with a Rome theme. She also wanted a big 30 somewhere on the card.

The card was simple but a lot of fun to make. I cut out a large number 30 and decorated the card with the Italian tricolour - green, white, and red. Then I added a slice of pizza (of course!), a glass of wine, a gladiator's helmet, and an image of the Colosseum, the huge amphitheatre built nearly two thousand years ago as a gift to the Roman people and originally used for gladiator games, dramas, and - yes - public executions! To finish it off, I cut out tiny pieces of pasta, a classic symbol of Roman hospitality.

* This post has been shared on Saturday Sparks Link Party, Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Busy Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Tuesday Turn About and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs.

We spent three days in Venice and had a truly wonderful time there. Yes, it was full to bustin' with tourists and yes, we found it expensive, but what a magical place it is! My favourite morning was spent simply getting lost amongst Venice's small, traffic-free streets and  less crowded campi (squares), discovering many charming places along the way.  

Saint Mark's Square was the kids' favourite. My animal-loving boys took a bread roll from breakfast each morning to give to the pigeons and they flew down en masse to receive their tasty treat. The other big tourist attractions were pretty impressive too. The views from the Campanile were simply breathtaking and the Doge's Palace, with its beautiful architecture, art, and of course the Bridge of Sighs, was incredible. The streets in the Jewish Quarter were quiet and peaceful, giving me ample time to share with my kids that this area is where the word ‘ghetto’ was originally coined.

We took the boat to Murano and visited just about every furnace and glass shop on the island. Seafood is a big part of Venetian cuisine and was rather intriguing to this Jewish family who stick to a kosher diet. The Rialto Market was full of some interesting animals that the kids had never seen before and they were both captivated and a little repulsed all at the same time.

Venice was simply a great place to enjoy the scenery, beautiful buildings and people. We walked and walked and walked some more. There were more than enough nooks and crannies to explore to keep the boys entertained and they even found the shops, bursting with glass ornaments and Venetian carnival masks, quite fun!

And then our cases were packed. We had time for just one more pigeon feeding session at Saint Mark's Square. Our two and a half week holiday had come to an end and it was time to say our goodbyes to Venice and to Italy – for now anyway. I hope we'll be back someday.

* I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; / A palace and a prison on each hand. (Quote by Lord Byron who visited Venice in 1816).

Tantalizing Tuscany

We all fell in love with Tuscany in a big way. Mile after mile of olive trees and vineyards. Renaissance art in Florence. Beautiful squares in Siena and Pisa. A good glass of wine in the evening. I mean, what's not to like?

The kids adored the dogs at 'Il Sodo', the delightful farmhouse we stayed at. The property dated back to the 15th century and, located on a hill top in the heart of Chianti, was surrounded by the enchanting Tuscan countryside. None of us wanted to leave... 

We climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and ate delicious Bruchetto drizzled with olive oil. The hubby and I tasted locally produced Chianti wine - I loved it, he didn't - whilst the kids stayed on the farm and swam in the pool.

Dinner was pizza almost every night and none of us bored of it. The absolute best was at the 'Palazzo Pretorio' in the Tuscan medieval village of San Donato in Poggio (below).

Florence was magnificent. We walked for miles. 'Il Palio' was soon to begin in Siena and the atmosphere was electric. We had been advised not to stay for the wild bareback horse race itself but very much enjoyed all the flag waving and pageantry building up to it.
But it was the splendid Tuscan landscape with its castles and country churches, olive groves and vineyards, that did it for me. Really, what's not to like?

When in Rome

I've been away from this little space of mine for a short time. For those of you who read my blog regularly, you might well remember that I mentioned a planned holiday to Italy earlier in the year. Well, that holiday has now been and gone and we had an absolutely amazing time.

As immigrants to Israel we are somewhat obligated to visit England, where our families live, as often as we are able. Naturally, because we are not quite yet millionaires, that means that we don't really get to see other places. However, very occasionally we do travel elsewhere and this year was one of those years! Italy it was.

Now, I know that plenty of you do travel on a far more regular basis than I do. I am also aware that I am not the first person to travel to Italy. Therefore I am going to give you just a taste of our trip and not my usual background history to it all! And believe me, it was very hard to whittle down that 'taste' to a few photos that I feel sum up our first stop, Rome. Let's just say I was reaching the 1,000 photos mark by the end of our trip!

So, enjoy our visit to Rome and our day trip from Rome to Pompeii. From top to bottom: the Coliseum, some tasty gelati, Pompeii, the Vatican Museums, the Ponte Sant' Angelo, the Pantheon, watching street artists near the Trevi Fountain, and finally, the stalls at the Tiber River festival taken from the Ponte Sisto.