May
7 –24, 2008
PREFACE
In October 2007 we decided that our CATHEDRAL
QUEST for 2008 would be to return to Italy on our own. Our good friends Mike and
Mary had been to Florence a number of times and had stayed in a Villa outside of
Fiesole in Monteloro. They asked us to join them as there were two apartments.
They were able to secure the apartments for the second week in May.
As in the past we spent many months planning
where we wanted to go after our week in Florence. We had loved our two days in
Venice in 2004. It was a time to go
back because my wife fell in love with Venice besides there were twenty four
churches that I hadn’t seen.
Our original plan was to fly into Venice on May
9th, take the train to Ferrero, spend the night and pick up our rental car.
We booked a hotel and rental car. Then
we would drive to Fiesole on Saturday. Mike
and Mary would not arrive until Sunday. Three
months before the trip, Iberian Airlines, which we had booked, cancel our
flight. We had to book another flight three days earlier which necessitated a
six hour layover in Madrid and would get us in Venice in the late afternoon
instead of the morning on the original flight.
At that point we decided to go to Padua for those
three days and pick up our car there. I had been taking an Art History course at
Smithsonian on the Age of Faith. Dr.
Judith Feldman had spent a lot of time talking about Ravenna and the mosaics in
the churches. She really encouraged me
to spend some time there so we planned a whole day in Ravenna as a detour our
way to Tuscany.
As in the past I spent time researching churches
that we would visit, keeping a notebook with outlines of things to see.
My wife did a lot of research on other things we wanted to explore. Since we
had so much fun having an apartment in Paris, we decided to rent an apartment in
Venice rather than stay in a hotel. She
reserved a two bedroom apartment in the Cann a Regio area near the Ca’d’oro
vaporetto stop. She also
booked three restaurants in Venice, bought tickets for Arena Chapel in Padua,
the Uffizi and Academia in Florence, a secret tour of the Doge’s Palace in
Venice and a concert in Venice. All
of these attractions have very long lines. With
pre-purchased tickets, we went to the head of the line with almost no wait.
The internet and credit cards make these arrangements very easy. We would
encourage those who travel to purchase tickets and make reservations in advance.
This CATHEDRAL QUEST was more relaxing
than our other tours since we did not have to travel to a new city every couple
of days. We did need our car,
or at least one car, to get us from the villa in Montoloro to Fiesole where we
caught the bus to Florence. I
didn’t drive too often as Mike wanted to drive because thought he was a race
driver in one of those Italian movies. He
loved the narrow winding roads. I
had to close my eyes often and say a lot of prayers.
Click on the links below to visit the fun adventures that we had every day
of this trip.
