Changing exhibits, illuminated texts, mummy hands, and musical instruments are just some of our new discoveries in Florence. I never feel like I’ve seen it all, and I never feel like leaving this ever-evolving city.
Archive | Italy
Seasoned Traveler Finds European Adventure with Competitours
Last year we wrote about a company that calls its competitive European mystery tours “SightDoing” rather than sightseeing. This year, a competitor from the 2015 experience talked to us about how this all played out from the traveler’s perspective. Competitours began their wacky form of small group tourism eight years ago. The gist of the […]
2016 Books and Beds
In this second annual round-up of the books I’ve read and the beds I’ve slept in, I gotta admit I’m cutting corners on the reading list. Every year, I promise to keep better records, because by December it’s all a jumble. I’m left to cobble together notes, scan my bookshelves, log in to Amazon and […]
50 of Our Favorite Photos of 2016
It was a bit of an odd year for us in 2016. While we did some trips around the Midwest in the first half of the year (and Kris went to Baja California by herself) we didn’t do much until June. Two reasons for that: we bought a small condo in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to […]
An Exclusive Tour of Rome’s Palazzo Colonna
You may have walked right by this place, the Palazzo Colonna in the middle of Rome, and noticed nothing. Given the number of stray pieces of architecture strewn around town–columns, cornices, pillars, carvings, and building blocks–the plain exterior walls of this property can easily go unnoticed. But the Palazzo Colonna is worth a look inside, […]
Colonna Palace, Rome, Italy
The main thing I love about Context Travel tours is that they often take us to places we’d never get to on our own, and when we do get there, show us stuff we often didn’t even know existed. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time in Rome. We’ve visited here at least […]
Baptistery of St. John, Siena, Italy
When it comes to early Renaissance art, Siena is more or less thought of as Florence’s little brother. A lot of the same artists worked in Siena. Donatello and Ghiberti come to mind. But, in general, the Sienese had their own artists, and the art there tends to the more purely decorative, which I guess […]
St. John Lateran, Rome
The Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran is notable for a few reasons. First, it’s the oldest church in Rome. Second, it is the actual seat of the Pope, his “home” church, not Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. And third, while it’s outside the boundaries of Vatican City, it is the property of the Vatican and […]
Saint Cecelia in Trastevere, Rome
I can clearly remember the first time I saw Saint Cecilia. It was in 2000, and I was studying Latin in Rome for two months. And so I had plenty of time to wander the city poking my head into random churches and other ancient sites. That’s just what I was doing when I came […]
The Medici Chapels, Florence, Italy
Maybe it was just the day–Christmas Eve–but, aside from us, there was almost nobody in the Medici Chapels. That’s lucky if you’re trying to make photos, but disturbing when you know that Florence, no matter what the day, is full of tourists. And that none of them were seeing one of the most beautiful buildings […]
