Cirque du Soleil, Florence and Spring

It's been a while since I wrote here. I've been busy going places and seeing things.


Now that spring is here, the days are getting warmer and nicer and the trees have started to bloom, things are looking up. It's amazing how different things can be when the trees start blossoming. I remember the first winter after I came back from Hungary - how lovely it was in Israel that things were green during the winter and the skies blue. I was a bit surprised here in Milan by how European the climate is, not as cold but definitely European - grey, cold, and bare trees. It was warmer here for a while during the beginning of March but these last few days have been cooler. The Italians call it - pazzo Marzo - crazy March, because the weather is unpredictable but like a friend said - these are the last hiccups of winter. Here is a picture taken today - to show you just how lovely spring is, even in Milan.

Last week I went to Florence. I haven't been there for a very long time (11 years, not counting going through the train station there last Oct.). Florence is still lovely, even when the weather isn't the best. Much prettier than Milan (which aside from the Duomo area, Brera and the Navigli, really isn't very beautiful). I visited there a friend who has a small apartment there, right in the center. We had some great ice cream there (a place called Vivoli - one of the best ice cream places I've ever been to, anywhere - http://www.vivoli.it/vivoli-en.html when I was studying Italian in Florence, we used to go there every day after the lessons to have some ice cream, it doesn't get much better than this). It was a good time to visit, the place isn't packed with too many tourists this time of the year. Aside from being prettier, I somehow felt it to be much friendlier than Milan. We went also to a restaurant outside of the city where we had the Florentine Steak, thick chunks of meat still pretty red.... Great stuff. We also went to visit Petra and Renato again and had a great lunch with them at the their place in Loro Ciuffenna. and finally, I got to see the lovely town of San Gimignano. 17 years ago when I visited Italy for the first time, Hagit F. and I took a bus from Florence to San Gimignano. We asked the driver to tell us when we get to S. G. He forgot. When did we discover that we missed it? As we were driving out on the highway and looked back - we could see the famous towers of the little town... It was too late to go back that day. So 17 years later, I finally got to see it. San Gimignano is a beautiful little place. Much more so than Bergamo. Here are some pictures from Florence and S.G.

On the left you can see me in Loro Ciuffenna, and on the right - electric cars and an electric motorcycle being recharged on the street in Florence. It seems that you don't need a license to drive one of these electric cars. Why? I have no idea.

On the left - the view from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence down the Arno and on the right - a square in San Gimignano. As you can see the day was a bit grey, but still - there is nothing like the cities and towns in Tuscany.

And finally, thanks to a recommendation of Hagit K. I went to see the Canadian Circus - Cirque du Soleil. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/default.htm No animals, not to worry, only acrobats (and VERY loud music). The acrobats and the whole show is outstanding. We (Gili and I) saw "Delirium" - someone's dreams. Singing, costumes, props, the works. At one point a woman performer was using 7-8 hoops together spinning them around her body, amazing, and another woman seemed to be made of rubber, I tried explaining what she did - with my leg, but it just didn't go.... Anyway, if you get a chance - do go and see it (I understand from Hagit that they don't appear in Israel, though). Try to sit close too, it's worth the extra money. The only problem we had was that the seats were uncomfortable (some sport arena outside of Milan) and the place in general really looked a bit run down.

Next week my parents are coming over. I managed to get tickets for La Scala - we're going to see/hear "Macbeth". I've been told that there's nothing like seeing an opera at La Scala. I've already been there for a chamber music performance. The place is magnificant.

Well, this is all for this edition of my blog. Take care, Happy Purim and Happy Easter.

Como, bathrooms and a picture from the past

Looks like spring is seriously making an appearance here in the north of Italy. Today, I was actually sorry I had taken a warm coat with me.... It was a beautiful, clear day. A wind finally blew yesterday and cleared the smog filled air over Milan and the blue skies appeared. Milan sits in this kind of flat basin and the air has a tendency not to move very much (Paola told me that her father says that the leaves here fall off the trees only when the new ones push them off, because there's no wind to blow the old ones off the trees...). Since the pollution here is quite considerable this turns the sky into this murky grey stuff. Most days, you can't see the mountains, which are really not that far from here. But, as I said, yesterday it suddenly became nice and clear and this meant that today I headed out to the mountains - I went to Como which is about an hour away from here by train.

I visited Como many years ago - almost 18 years ago to be exact with Hagit F. It rained like nothing you can imagine and the beauty of Como was a bit lost. We even tried going on the lake that time but the lake is a bit depressing when it rains... Anyway, today the lake was really magnificant. I took a funicular up to a little village called Brunate and from there hiked (a pretty steep hike, especially for someone who's been walking the flat streets of Milan for months now...) up to a place called San Maurizio. There's a light house there and a magnificant view down to the lake and across to the snow covered mountains around. I climbed up the lighthouse (of course...) and sat for a while in the sun which was nice. I think that in a week or so - the place will be even more beautiful - since now most of the trees still don't have any leaves on them and therefore the mountains looks sort of greyish. A few, what seemed to be almond trees had started to bloom but all the rest still haven't received the message that spring is here.

Coming down from the village on the mountain - there were a million people walking around the lake, motorcycles, cars, what have you. I can't even begin to imagine what this place is like in the summer...


I've added some pictures from this glorious day (the pictures above are views from the top of the mountain down to Lake Como). Definitely worth the trip....








This is a view from the top of the lighthouse at San Maurizio down (for those who don't believed I actually climbed to the top...).

I asked someone to take my picture here, under the lighthouse. Notice the color of the mountains behind, as I said, the trees will start getting green soon and then it would be even prettier.



and now due to public demand and since my brother got me a book about the architecture of toilets around the world to which special thought was given (not your hole in the ground kind of places...) and because some felt they didn't get a complete view of my apartment - since the bathrooms were not included in the pictures - here they are in all their glory:


On the left is the blue bathroom - mostly for guests and
on the right - the pink bathroom, which I use

(I like the color....)

and finally for this edition of my blog, a look at my past, very far past.... When I was at the exhibition in Barcelona, at some point I was introduced to an Israeli businessman, and the guy introducing said - this is... and I said his name. They asked me, do you know him? and I said - we were in the same class during 2nd grade in elemantry school. After the show he surprised me by sending me the following picture:

and the riddle for this edition of my blog - where am I in this picture? and the bonus question is - who else that some of you know is in this picture? The guy whom I met at the exhibition is right in front of me. By the way, if memory serves my friend who's also in this picture - it was her mother who took this picture many many years ago....