I Love Paris in the Springtime...

When leaving Trento, which we adored, I thought, "Oh, Paris. We've been there and loved it, but it's not new to us. After all these months of new places and incredible adventures, what can Paris show us?" Well, like just about everything I've seen this year, I was truly enchanted. The weather was lovely and I spent a great deal of time walking through my old haunts, re-discovering old places and finding new ones. Miles was busy the first 2 days with a conference and we toured around together the last 2 days.

A highlight was finding Discover Walks: Free Walking Tours of Paris where I learned a lot of new stuff about Notre Dame, the Left Bank and the Right Bank.

Here are some pictures of some very familiar sites of beautiful Paris:

Opera House

Sacre Coeur

Montmartre

Pompidou Center

The front view of Notre Dame...

...and the back view

The Louvre old and new

The Eiffel Tower

Book stall by the Seine

I just love these stalls and found out on my walking tour that to own/rent a stall requires you to wait up to 8 years. You are only allowed to sell used books (and sell them at a cheaper price than in used book stores), art posters, comic books, postcards and tourist items. There are specific hours when you can be open and the stalls have to be painted dark green. Strict rules for a real Paris institution!

A few years ago, they started a new "attraction": Paris Plage (beach). They bring in sand, beach chairs, umbrellas, play ground equipment, etc. and set it up along a 2-3 kilometer stretch of the Seine River. The Parisians can "go to the beach" in Paris. Fantastique!

A small section of Paris Plage

We asked someone about going to a lesser-known area--we wanted to see something new. They suggested the Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the north-east area of Paris. What a lovely place! This was a hilly park with grassy slopes. It was filled with children who spent a lot of time running around the small lake and getting drenched by the sprinklers. A particularly pretty area was the belvedere atop a small hill. We bought quiches at a nearby patisserie and ate our lunch gazing at the view. Another perfect day!

Parc des Buttes Chaumont

We had a special dinner one night at a friend's house. I met sisters Sylvie and Francoise in 1977 while we were all volunteering at a restoration site in southern France near Avignon. We've been in touch with each other annually and it was a real thrill to see them again (we last saw them in 2001 when we visited Paris with Adam and Daniel.)

Francoise, Sylvie, Istvan and us in Sylvie's home

I hate to write this, but write I must. This brings us to the end of the blog. Although the sabbatical isn't yet over and Miles and I are traveling to San Mateo at the end of July for 5 weeks (to see the family and Miles will be working at Lawrence Livermore again after a 3-year gap), I don't think my every-day activities there are very blog-worthy. I wanted the blog to be about our "exotic" sabbatical destinations, not about my routine trips to California.

Thanks to all of you who told me you enjoyed it--your feedback was just great. (It's hard to think that now I won't be formulating blog entries in my mind after every activity I do.)

We return to Haifa on Sept. 7 and will "suffer" from PSS (Post Sabbatical Syndrome). It's been one heck of a year! I'm going to end on a sweet note: Paris pastries!

"Good bye" from all the major cities we lived in this year since we left Haifa in August 2009:

Sayonara, (Tokyo, Japan), Bye (Auckland, New Zealand), Auf Wiedersehen (Zurich, Switzerland), Arrivederci (Trento, Italy), Au revoir (Paris, France)

Another Great Weekend

Our time in Italy is nearly over. We leave on Friday July 16 for a 5-day conference in Paris. Like I said before, it's a tough life.

For our last weekend in Italy, we decided to rent a car and travel north-west of Trento to explore some of the lakes (there are lots and lots) and another range of the Dolomites. And once again, Italy did not disappoint!

On Sat. our first stop was at Lago di Molveno which is surrounded by gentle sloping meadows (and of course the amazing Dolomites are in the background). Numerous families were enjoying the lake and we took a walk around part of it.

Lago di Molveno

Water cascades near Lago di Molveno

On the way west, we passed a beautiful castle:

Castello Belfort

Our next stop was at Lago di Tovel which is a national park and we were able to walk around this pristine, turquoise lake in about 1 1/2 hours.

Lago di Tovel

We reached our destination for the evening, Madonna di Campiglio by dinner time. This is really a pretty resort town set between a low range of mountains and a higher range of spectacular Dolomites. We've visited a few places like this before: up-scale shops, charming restaurants, local tourists and many ski areas near by. We were lucky enough to see a few classic cars that were part of a car show.

Madonna di Campiglio

Vintage car

On Sunday we walked to the local cable car and went up the mountain to do some hiking. Once again, just beautiful sights and we could have stayed all day.

Us at the top of Funivia (Cable car) Spinali


More of those great mountains

Lots of cows grazing up here, all wearing bells

Our next stop was to Val (Valley) Nambrone. This very windy narrow road, a 20-kilometer drive, took us first to a beautiful rushing river and then up the mountain where there were a couple of small lakes.

Beautiful turquoise river at Val Nambrone

Val Nambrone river

At the end of the 20 kilometers, this is the top of the mountain where you can see Lago di Cornisello and Lago di Nero

The sky was starting to cloud up and by the time we got to our next stop, it was raining pretty hard.

We drove into Val Genova along a rushing river and stopped at Cascata (Waterfall) Nardis. Wow! It was really spectacular and maybe the rain we were experiencing made the falls even bigger.

Cascata Nardis along Val Genova

Ciao, bella Italia!!! Next stop: PARIS!

Verona and the Dolomites...again!

Our close friends from Haifa, Debbie and David Block Temin, came to visit us in Trento. Despite the intense heat (the temperature was toasty--in the high 30s C./90s F.), we had a fantastic time with them.

Our first excursion was to Riva di Garda on Lake Garda. I'll spare you pictures, because Miles and I were already there a month ago and you've already seen the pix. It was beautiful again, but this time it was more hazy and very few windsurfers since there wasn't much of a breeze.

Onward south along the lake, we stopped at a small village called Malcesine. What a sweet place, with very narrow alleys, cobblestone streets and fun shops.

Climbing up to the castle at Malcesine

Us with David and Debbie in Malcesine with Lago di Garda in the background

Next stop: Verona, about 1 hour south of Trento. What a charming and bustling city.

Welcome to Verona!

This is the setting of a few of Shakespeare's plays, so of course we had to explore where Romeo and Juliet lived. Sure enough, Juliet's balcony is a big tourist site.

"Oh Romeo, Romeo...where art thou?"

What are Miles and David doing, you ask? This is Juliet's statue and men (and women!) line up to touch Juliet's right breast for good luck. I must say, we were very lucky the rest of the day.

The real highlight of going to Verona was attending the opera in L'Arena di Verona. It is the 88th year of the Verona Summer Opera and we got tickets for Puccini's "Madama Butterfly". The arena is amazing. This is a 1st century a.d. arena much like the one in Rome, but this one is very intact. Really beautiful!

L'Arena by day...

...and by night

The arena holds about 25,000 people and there were probably about 10,000 at the opera.

Our seats were rather far from the stage, but we had binoculars.

Act I, scene i: A superb set, designed by Zefferelli with a cast of at least 75

Act I, scene ii: Pinkerton marrying Butterfly

Brava! Brava! The opera was superb! What a thrill to see one so grand!

After getting back to Trento at 2:30 am (zzzzz), we were off the next day by 10am to our old friends, the Dolomites. On the way, we couldn't help but stop and take a picture of something "only in Italy": a Lamborghini police car which is used to catch those Italian wannabee race car drivers on the autostrada (like Miles as a teenager).

Those Italian police have REAL style.

Back to the mountains. We drove about an hour to the Dolomites and took a cable car up to a hiking area called Alpe Siusi. We were in the another area of this mountain-top alpine meadow with our other visitors about a month ago. I mistakenly thought Alpe Siusi meant Swiss Alpine area, but it is a Tyrolean name that has nothing to do with Switzerland. Just a coincidence.

Another shot of those beautiful mountains in Alpe Siusi

Some Local Trento Stuff...

Some people ask me, "What do you do day-to-day while Miles is at work?" Well, I decided to volunteer my English-teaching services to university students. I put up a notice at the University Language Center and got 3 people that way, 2 people who's notices I saw on the message board looking for an English teacher and 2 via word of mouth. Most are students looking to study abroad and need extra practice for the English exam required for foreign study. I just love it! It's wonderful meeting these motivated young people and I learn a little more about Italy, too.

So this, plus having Miles' colleagues over for dinner, wandering around this fun city, having visitors from abroad (and taking care of our home needs) keeps me out of trouble.

Two weekends ago, we spent time seeing some local Trento sites. On June 19, we got a Trento Card for Euro 10 and good for 24 hours which entitles you to see all the museums, go bike riding, take a cable car ride up the mountain, etc. Boy, did we get our money's worth!

We hopped on the rental bikes and took a nice hour ride along the river. After returning the bikes, we took the cable car up the mountain and looked at the view. Unfortunately, it started raining, so we couldn't do too much walking. Back down we went and walked to the Castello del Buonconsiglio, a 14th century castle where the bishop lived.

Castello del Buonconsiglio, about 10 minutes from our apartment

We just loved it. We walked all around and took a special tour of the Eagle Tower which has frescos inside depicting the 4 seasons. No pictures were allowed here, unfortunately.

Beautiful Renaissance architecture

Interior ceiling with paintings of philosophers

View of the gardens from the tower

This was also the first weekend of the Feste Vigiliane, an annual June celebration honoring the patron saint of Trento, St. Vigiliane. The festival is 7 days, split over 2 long weekends. There were many activities including Medieval parades with costumed revelers, music, food/craft stalls and performances of many kinds. The first weekend was rainy and here's a picture of some drenched musicians:

Medieval drummers

On June 20, we used the remaining time with our Trento Card to hit 5 museums: one with many centuries of religious paintings, one with an underground Roman city, a science museum, a modern art museum and a gallery in a tower. Not only were the exhibits very interesting, but the buildings they are housed in are works of art themselves. There are many 300-400-year-old buildings here that have been beautifully restored to house museums. Just walking around inside and seeing frescos is so enchanting.

The next weekend was very sunny and we first took the cable car again and walked around some hill top villages.

View of Trento from the top of the cable car

After returning to the river, we walked up to a WWI memorial which is really a mausoleum for a WWI soldier.

Mausoleo Ceasare Battisti

The next day was sunnier still and we took a train to Lago di Levico, about 40 minutes east of Trento. We enjoyed walking around the lake and seeing all the families on a summer day. There's not much to do here except...relax. Ahhh...

Lago di Levico

One fearless swimmer cooling off