Bonjour…Buon giorno!

Finally uploaded pictures from vacation. Loved Paris…most impressed with Notre Dame (although indoor pictures of most buildings we took on vacation did not turn out).  Also got to see Mona and Venus at the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph.  We definitely wished we had more time, three days is not enough (especially when we had very bad rain one evening).

Geneva was more relaxed. Steve’s class (on cultural relationships) was a week long. It gave me time to go out and about on my own. We know a couple from HSBC who live there, so the wife showed me around one day. I know Geneva’s public transportation system better than Chicago’s. One evening I was the tour guide for a group of Steve’s co-workers.

Than, three days in Italy. Much too short! We took the train from Geneva to Milan, then Milan to Genoa. We stayed in Genoa, at the Hotel Bristol Palace. The spiral staircase is rumored to be the inspiration to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. We crammed in Pisa and then two days visiting Cinque Terre (fives lands). The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the surrounding “Field of Miracles” was fascinating (again though, several of my pictures did not turn out). There is a domed Baptistery with amazing acoustics. You can hear an echo for ten seconds…enabling a person to harmonize with himself. A security guard sings every half hour to demonstrate. It’s pretty neat!

Cinque Terre was the best. We decided to go there on the recommendation of a friend of Shannon. There are five adorable villages built on the cliffs of the Italian Riviera. They’re connected by hiking paths through the cliffs (trust me, we took the simple trails). We hiked from the first to the fourth village. Unfortunately our train was 1 1/2 hours late, so our schedule got a little fouled up. We got to the fourth village at 8PM and decided not to attempt the fifth in the dark. We then sat outside along a bay and had a wonderful Italian dinner.