Vet Judy

This is a must see! It is fantastic. Look closely at each square within the mosaic. I especially like the horses eye, so click there.

http://www.muralmosaic.com/Cochrane.html

For those of you not living out in the west, Cochrane is in the foothills of Alberta, east of Banff. The mosaic was unveiled last week at the Cochrane Ranch House.

What is so fantastic about this art work is that each tile is 1 foot square and is a unique picture on its own and is done by a different artist.

All of them together form this huge mural. Check out the horses eye or click on any given square. It is competely fascinating and amazing, what an accomplishment. Absolutely grand.

After Rome, I went south to Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

Sorrento was a nice quiet town. This entire coastal region is covered in terraced fruit and olive orchards. The rocks are steep, the roads are narrow, and riding along the coast in a bus is similar to an amusement park ride. The buses honk going around the corners as there is not enough room for two vehicles.

When the road is wide enough for two vehicles, then scooters feel obligated to squeeze beside and in between.

In some small towns along the coast I am sure the bus window was close enough to the entry of a café, I could have gotten coffee handed to me through the window. That is how narrow the road is.

It fascinates me, how much effort goes into making the land productive through the use of terracing. It also cuts down the avalanche risk by keeping the soil stable. The food was average when compared to the north. I felt that way about the food in all of these locations.

I took a boat ride between Amalfi and Sorrento in the evening. It was beautiful and a nice way to end up the trip.

After Sorrento and area, I had to head back to Rome for the flight home. I flew from Rome to Amsterdam, then Minneapolis and home to Edmonton.

The trip was long but uneventful.

The time spent in Italy went fast but I was glad to be home.

I took the super fast train from Venice to Rome. I still spent most of the day on the train.

These trains are super fast, stop at very few stops, have almost no graffiti on the outside and are immaculately clean on the inside. I decided to eat on the train due to time constraints. The waiter was nice, the meal was ok, but the wine was excellent. It was nice just to sit and watch the variation in the countryside as I went by.

The train went through from the ocean, through the Alps and then onto the prairie version of Italy and flat country. What I noticed is I have yet to see a beef cow herd here? I have seen a few dairy cattle in the hills with bells on, sheep, goats and the like, a ton of dogs, all kinds of stray cats…but no beef cows. They must be hiding them, or they import, I haven’t figured out which.

Rome is a very big and busy city. It was fascinating to visit. I was glad I had lived in Toronto before for several years as this made it easier to get around the buses and subways even though the signs are almost exclusively in Italian.

I went to the Colosseum today and did the self guided audio tour. This was fascinating stuff. There is a lot of interesting history to be told here. There were 450 years of gladiatorial contest and wild beast hunts. Within 100 days of the 80 AD opening, some 5000 beasts perished there. There was obviously a different social standard when it came to the use of animals in live shows.

There was a main floor and underneath a labyrinth of cells, ramps and elevators with pulley systems used to bring animals, scenery and trees, as well as people and animals to the top. There were entire forests present for which to perform a hunt. From what I understand, it may have been able to compete with some of our current stage shows for presentation.

Man was pitted against man and there were also fights between gladiators. Contrary to popular myth, these didn’t always end in death. There was a lot of money and training put into gladiators and they didn’t see it fit to having their investments squandered after only one fight.

There was usually an event every holiday and in some years this may have exceeded 70 separate events. It is suprising what this era of people managed to accomplish in such a so called primitive time.

I strolled past several amazing fountains and bridges, explored the ruins and sat around with a Cappuccino when my legs got tired of climbing up and down steps along the way.

I had a chance to spend a few hours in the Vatican. There are reported to be 7 miles of galleries which make up the Vatican Museums. Needless to say, you could spend hours to days depending on your need for detail and observation. I did the audio tour there also. This is a trip worth doing, even if you don’t like too much detail. It is fascinating how much sculpture and art work and precious finds from prior civilizations are found here. Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel were the highlights for me.

The Pantheon came a close second. This is considered to be one of the best buildings in Rome to see the elegance of Roman Architecture. It was a 2^nd century AD Pagan Temple to all of the gods and was consecrated as a church in 608AD.

Here goes Venice and the train trip there. Once again through Milan train station, I am getting familiar with the set up in this train station.

I arrived early evening into Venice and caught the traditional boat bus from the train station to the pensione I was staying at. The name of the place was Wildner, and it was pretty close to the Piazza San Marco ( the main tourist attraction). It was by far the nicest place I stayed at for 80 Euro a night since I left home. They had a nice restaurant attached also for breakfast and if you had enough Euro, they had a very nice dinner menu.

I spent the late afternoon walking along the Grand Canal and into a park used by locals walking and playing with their dogs. It was very beautiful and the fall leaves were at their peak.

The following day I had a few hours to use in the middle of the afternoon and I spent time looking in the glass blowing furnaces and shops. I am not sure why, but there were a few shops where I must have looked worthy of their time, because they took me in the so called back rooms or 3^rd floors where the “real collector” pieces were kept. I saw a turtle worth 10,000 Euro there, and many items that were in the same price range. It is hard to imagine the degree of talent and expertise that goes into a piece of that magnitude. After I spent some time in the back room, I could walk through a lot of the stores on the main street and spot lesser quality stuff. I am not so sure that helped me, because now I have to save my money and go back to get a magnificent piece of artwork instead of just settling for a glass souvenir.

While boating down the canal it was interesting to see how life is adapted to having to do everything via the water. There were police boats, postal boats, ambulance boats, garbage boats etc. The grocery and wine delivery was most interesting. There must be thousands of boats in the morning taking small boxes to shops all over the place.

It took a full day for transportation from Santa Margherita Ligure to Lake Maggiore and a town called Stresa.

Now the walk to the hotel was no easy feat either. It had to be a mere 1 ½ miles from the train station, the only blessing was that most of that was level or downhill. I must say my backpack must be getting heavier as I go along, as this flat walk seemed like a life time. The other interesting thing I have noticed is you will find a big sign saying B&B such and such with an arrow. So you follow the arrow and then there are no more signs? What is with that? Not like there is no choice of roads to take either. As luck would have it some gentleman walking his little dog was next to me on a corner and my gosh he spoke broken English. I must have looked a little dense or confused or both so he directed me, or should I say walked in front of me most of the way, until he was sure I would find the place.

What a treasure this little B&B was. Albergo Luina. The best part was great home cooked meals and clean beds and Renata the proprietress speaks several languages and acts very well for directions, recommendations, tours etc. I think her husband is the quiet type or he only speaks Italian. I think the only two phrases I heard him say in Italian were good morning and bye.

The only downside was the middle of my bed had a bit of a sag in it, probably due to years of travelers, but I managed to fix that by propping two tour books underneath the mattress and all was well. They even turned the heat on in the room at night which was great, as the extra blankets were not quite cutting it in the previous locations.

I met another veterinarian from Australia while at dinner one night. It turns out he and his wife both know a lot of the same people I have crossed paths with at one time or another in our careers! What a small world. After several glasses of wine, Renata looked liked she would prefer if we closed up shop, so we quit talking and everyone went to their rooms. This whole seen reminded me of when you have sleep over and your mother says “Ok, it is time for bed, enough playing around.”

There are three islands off the shore of Lake Maggiore called Isola Bella, Isola Madre, and Isola Superiore Pescatori owned by the Borromeo family. They own not only the islands but the majority of the land around the lake. But as Renata put it, they are normal rich people not stuck up rich people. The locals like the family and the Islands.

I also managed to hop the ferry over to see a monastery called Santa Caterina del Sasso, and here is a place that looks like it was literally dropped into the sharp rocks at the edge of a cliff. You get there by boat and yes there are lots of stairs to get up to the main chapel. It is a fantastic little Church though and the whole island is quiet and peaceful. I was wondering what would possess someone to build in this location. If your main intent was privacy or protection this location would be ideal. Tomorrow, I am on the trek to Venice. This is another full day of travelling. I am taking the intercity train and still the trip is almost 6 hours long not including transfers etc.

There was a tram up to the highest point above Lake Maggiore. I went up here on the rainiest cold day I could have picked. The temperature difference between the top and the bottom was notable. Luckily for me, the restaurant at the top was still open and even had the heat on. I could see from the posters on the wall, that there was serious rock climbing options and downhill skiing on the winter. I also had more than 5 serious looking mountain bikes take the trip up on the tram. I noticed the breaking and suspension systems were nothing like I have ever seen. When I was in Lucca, renting a bike to go around the wall, the shop had a few of these bikes in there for sale. I didn’t see one price tag under 5000 Euro, so these bikers are serious about the sport.