Florencia of the Renaissance

I had never expected to fall in love with Florence. I was never the one to indulge in history though I do find story telling fascinating. Florence turned out to be the place I love the most in all of Italy. The renaissance architecture, the stories of the people in power, the stories behind the art, the marvellous sculptures, the Tuscan countryside and the wine and the music, it all came together to make me enjoy my time in Florence, called as Firenze in Italian.

We went on a walking tour as soon as we touched ground. This helped us get rapidly familiar with the places that we would be visiting over the next 2 days. The next day was so packed that we could not afford to go searching for the meeting points; there wouldn’t be time. This was a free walking tour and as such, the tour guide, even though a Florentino, spoke with a Spanish accent. As such, we had difficulty understanding and had to strain to comprehend him. So, even though we weren’t able to catch everything he said, we had a good understanding of where he was taking us and the best part was that he showed us where we could get the best local food like the Cannoli and cecineria. However, we ended up revisiting most of the places he took us to!

Cannoli

Day 2 started quite smoothly, we were able to easily find our way to 1^st starting point, the academia, thanks to the walking tour we took the previous day. The crowd was massive! On checking with 2-3 groups, we found our group! We realized, on hindsight, that despite booking for the tours in advance, we still got to wait for a while in the queue at the entrance. There were separate groups for the group tours and these moved faster but since there were a lot of group tours, we still had to wait for our turn! But it wasn’t so bad when we saw the other line for the individual tourists. Despite standing in the queue for a while, we still end up saving lots of time comparatively! Academia was mostly about David, although interesting, it was a short tour that got over within a little more than an hour.

Florence was called Florencia, Gallery was called Galleria, and Pizza place was called Pizzeria. That’s how things sort of worked here, I guess. This middle-of-the-day walking tour was so good that we ending up falling further under the Florence spell with this wonderful guide telling us all the stories of Florence. Florencia, former Florence, was named after Flora. We even saw a painting of her in the Uffizi gallery. I’m starting to love these walking tours. The guide was a very good story teller. She told us about the city, the Renaissance period, about Dante, so respected because he translated the Divine Comedy from Latin to Florentine language making to accessible to the locals. Earlier, all of the area was Latin speaking, most of the influential class spoke Latin. People were called barbarians not because their manners were unruly but because they did not know Latin. Latin was for the cultured and the elite. Dante changed that.  We got to know the Medici’s, saw their old palace. The guide gave us her take on how they came into power and eventually ruled Florence. How the bridge come about on the Arno River. The Medici king, Cosimo, was married to a Spanish lady who wasn’t well liked by Florentines because she did not seem at all interested in learning their language. She only spoke Spanish. She was a big fan of gardens and had a new palace built because the palace, when she turned queen, had not enough garden area. The palace houses the famous Boboli gardens. We saw the brilliance of Michelangelo, not only David but also his other masterpieces. How he weaved a story in every one of his works and how he liked to sculpt more than paint. Not that my untrained eyes could ever know that by myself! Who decided a painter was good or not, who made a great painter famous and another great painter not-so-famous? We learnt that it was Vasari who made those judgements. We saw the works of a painter who was superb but was not deemed great by Vasari so he was reduced to painting portraits of the Medici family. We were then introduced to the early life of Leonardo Da Vinci, how he was foretold to be a great artist by Filippo Brunelleschi, who designed the great dome on Florence's Cathedral. We saw in his early works, his passion to create a flying machine. He used incorporate those elements in is paints such as the wings of the angels were amazing like that of a bird with a great amount of detailing. After soaking up all this history, we went on a gourmet tour. This was our most relaxed time of the day. We had a small group of 6 (after being in groups of around 30, this was indeed small) and we ate and drank heartily. We ate Tuscan bread which was made without salt. This was how Florentines ate bread because at some point there was a feud with Pisa and Pisa stopped trading salt with them. We had another speciality called Ribollita which sort of meant reboiled bread. We continued to another place to have crostini and yet another place for cantuccini, which is almond biscuits dipped into the local desert wine. We went back replete with food, sweets and wine! We ended the day on a high note!

DAVID

The painting of Flora

Michealangelo's painting

Arno River Bridge

Next day was a day of travel; into the Tuscan we traversed. First things first, it was Pisa we stopped at!! We had our fill of taking pictures here. We then walked around in San Gimignano city. We did the mandatory, Tuscany wine tasting and lunched at a vineyard. We’ve not had to worry about being vegetarians yet! They served 3 courses and it was all delicious! Salad with cheese was the 1^st course, followed by pasta and finally a milk pudding!! All the pasta I’ve eaten so far has tomato in it. Veg pasta equals tomato pasta; veg pizza is tomato, cheese, sometimes eggplant and zucchini; veg salad is tomato, greens and cheese. What would happen to vegetarians without tomato in this country, I wonder! Our last stop was Siena which was once a competition to Florence to become the Tuscan capital. There still exists a rivalry of sorts. We had a walking tour in Siena and this was lovely as it was in the evening, the best time for a walking tour! We visited the square where they hold the famous Palio horse race. This race is held with much fanfare and is a part of Siena’s culture. We then saw the most beautiful church!! We ended the tour by visiting a local sweet shop to sample some of the stuff that our guide had recommended!

Leaning Tower of Pisa

San Gimignano

Siena Church

Merchants of Venice

I like to imagine myself as a merchant in the early days of Venice. Overseeing the trade at the port. Watching ships sail, travelling in my boat everywhere with my own personal gondolier. Splashing with all that my trading brings me, silks, precious jewels, and what not. But this wasn’t the feeling that I had when I landed in Venice, this was the feeling I left with!!
We arrived in Venice, the afternoon of 22nd and my first glimpse wasn’t of St. Mark’s square or of the colourful houses on water. It was of a dry patch of land out of water. I could image the patch floating away any minute but it just did not look like it was interesting in floating away. Nobody would welcome it.

We went looking for our bus that would take us to the bus stand near our hotel. Our hotel was remarkably easy to find! Right down the bus stand, opposite the water bus stand, right beside the water. We were at Piazzale Roma with the Santa Lucia train station right across the water!
It looked like we were at a bustling place and we couldn’t wait to drop our bags and check it out. We decided that jet lag was for old people and we wanted to run around right this minute. We did just that. We hunted around for a place that would give us SIM cards with standard data packs and went to have our phone fitted and working with them. We had a working Internet within a few mins and of course started playing with Google maps! We were on a quest to familiar ourselves with the land we were in. We then went to check out the train station and had our first pizza! We asked for vegetarian and saw that they immediately understand and gave us vegetation pizza. Nothing lost in translation! It was such an experience to have our first pizza in Italy. Something we’ve always discussed doing! But they put eggplant in our pizza!!! Eeks! We switched off pizza for the next day so that we’re aware of which one to order next. Meanwhile, we tried out pasta at many places and decided we had a thing for the Pomodoro – tomato sauce with pasta.

In front of Santa Lucia train station

We had 2 days and 6 tours to cover. We set out on our first big day in Italy! It did not disappoint. It was magical. We switched on our Maps and walked to our first point – the Doge’s palace on St. Mark’s Square - English for Piazza San Marco. Feeling very accomplished, we found our meeting point and waited for the secret itineries tour to start. This tour had a guide tell us all the secrets of the palace, how they had prisoners there, the condition of the prisons, the prison room of Casanova before he escaped and also the story of his escape. The guide brought it all to life. The guide narrated the story of the Doges; how they came into power and their duties. Venice was a Republic. We then rushed to our second tour – the tour of St. Mark’s Cathedral. When we see Venice, it’s always the St. Mark’s square, the most prominent in this square is the Cathedral, not the Doges Palace, mind. That in itself tells us of the power of the Pope over the Doge. The tour of the cathedral was amazing, we were just looking around enthralled. It was our first cathedral visit in Italy, so you can imagine our excitement and fascination. We could however, linger around much because we have a date with the clock tower, also on St. Mark’s square! So, up until now, we were able to find the entrances and the meeting points to start our tours easily. This one wasn’t so easy. This one got us questioning our booking tours independently. Google Maps wasn’t able to help us find the meeting point. We repeatedly passed by the entrance to the Clock Tower without knowing where it was. We went below the clock tower so many times trying to find out the meeting point. Exhausted, we decided to walk around the square, our 1 last effort. Lo behold, we found the meeting point at the entrance of the museum. Who would have thought?! Relieved, we climbed up with 10 mins to spare, it was time to pat our backs on our accomplishment. Before we could recover enough we started the tour! We heard the story of the families that used to lie in the clock tower so that they could make sure things were fine and the right time was told. They were after all an integral part of the St. Mark’s square. They had no chance to get it wrong. Can you imagine sleeping under a clock? We saw the parents and kids rooms and heard the story of the how the clock used to chime at midnight. How spooky was that? But it was also very fascinating to be seeing the inside of the clock tower. All in great condition! We then went up to the top and had a great view of the St. Mark’s cathedral which was a treat! We then had gelato, walked over the Rialto Bridge, stood over it just gazing at the bustling place around us. The atmosphere is so busy with tourists rushing about in the water taxis or Ferrovia. We slowly walked back to our hotel inside small roads, so small that you can’t even label them as roads, they were more like alleys but it was charming! Walking in Venice is the one thing we absolutely enjoyed! Take a gelato and walk about. Life was so beautiful. Grab a pizza and spritz on the way; eat, drink and walk along the water. We were content. We had our magical day in Venice.

Doge's Palace courtyard

Every Doge had their own crest

The famous St. Mark's Square!

Crest of St. Marks

Day 2 brought us bright and early to the train station to meet with the Alilaguna people who would take us on a tour of the famous Islands of Venice – Murano and Burano. We started out in a ferry and it started to rain. The winds were high and the rain was harsh. We were thankfully rushed into a glass factory as soon as we got to Murano. We saw a great demo of how a glass horse is made! We were then, of course, encouraged to buy those horses and more. Oh well, which good tourist would buy at the first place they saw? We didn’t. Being good tourists, we resisted the temptation, walked about the Island and checked out many stores that sell glass showpieces and bot a souvenir at one of those places! At a price much cheaper than the glass factory! We then walked up the cathedral there and sat in it until it was time to leave. We then went to Burano which had those famous colourful houses. We took pictures until we were satisfied and walked around more. We bought some Burano biscuits since they said it was famous. It was okay, nothing to tell home about. We were able to cover each of these Islands within the hour so were quite happy we chose this tour. We were then dropped off at Torcello which was really a waste of our time. But we utilised it by having lunch! I guess that was the only thing to do and they designed it in such a way that it would coincide with our lunch time. There were many restaurants there.

Those colourful houses!

We got dropped off near the St. Mark’s square from where we walked to our next meeting point. It was still raining on and off. We were hoping that this would not rise the water levels in the city, we had a gondola ride scheduled and didn’t want the rain ruining our plans. We had the walking tour. The first significant thing our walking guide told us was that Venice was basically a swamp. She then proceeded to show us how the merchants made the swamp not only livable but also beautiful and prominent. She gave us a glimpse into the life of the merchants of Venice and Venetians. She was a native Venetian herself and told us how the locals were grumpy because we, tourists, take over their entire city and with those narrow alleys, they literally have no space to walk. They take out their grumpiness on us in case we ever, foolishly block the alleys. Rain makes it harder not to block because we walk around with our umbrellas. I did it one time and got pushed rudely out of the way. It had happened. She told us how more and more Venetians are leaving Venice to settle outside because of the increase in the cost of living, especially real estate. Venice is a made up of tiny Islands connected together with bridges. They have about 400 bridges. However, one can walk the length of Venice inside of an hour which is brilliant! We then had our gondola ride and imagined the merchants travelling on these exact waterways. We had managed to find our magic in between the rains. 

Water roads

We then had our last tour of the St. Mark’s bell tower. We took the elevator to the top to be subject to a super awesome 360 degree view of Venice and it was a breath taking! The 360 degree view was open in the sides and the cold winds were having a field day. I think I’ll always remember the feeling of those cold winds blowing when we were already drenched and that view!! 

Venice view

Bekal Backwater + Arabian Sea = Peace

 What do I search within me? What abandons me when I need it the most? What brings me immense joy? The answers to all these questions lie within a single word - Peace. Why should I find peace in a place that's not my own? Travelling is such a big part of my life; I believe it feeds my soul and brings me joy. So much introspection, I think it's this place and all the yoga I have been practising here!

Where the backwater meets the Arabian Sea

I find that the sound of flowing water most soothing, like soul soothing, be it a river or the sea. Kasaragod has both. Located at the edge of Kerala just outside the Karnataka border is this little place that has pristine beaches along the Arabian Sea and backwaters that's distinctly Kerala. Kasaragod is usually a stop for the tourists if they happen to be going that way; it's seldom a destination. It was mine and I was happy to spend a few days there. By few, I mean 3! The resort I stayed at was the main attraction for me. Surrounded by both the backwater river and the Arabian Sea, this resort leaves no stone upturned in getting you relaxed and de-stressed, the hospitality ensures that you stay that way! 

Backwater

Why do I talk so much about serenity? I think I realized that it's so precious only when I experienced it. Sitting by the river watching birds, this cannot happen in Bangalore. I love Bangalore but I do miss not having a nice, clean water body nearby!! The beach has always been my scene but Kerala makes me sit by the river. 

The route that we chose to drive was - Bangalore-Kunigal-Yediyur-Channarayapatna-Kushalnagar-Madikeri-Kasaragod. We deliberately chose not to drive via Mysore or Mangalore since these 2 routes have grown increasingly busy and there's no pleasure in driving them. This route got us to our resort in 8 hours with sufficient breaks!

We stayed at the LaLit Resort and Spa and I'd recommend it to anyone anytime!! It’s primarily a spa resort and its serenity exceeds the other properties of LaLit that I've visited. 

LaLit Resort

We decided to break our journey back by staying a day at Madikeri. We picked Caffee Cadu estate stay since its still new and who does not like new things! We stayed at a charming little cottage in a coffee estate with friendly hosts. Long walks inside the estate and a lovely campfire made our day replete.

Built around 1650s, the Bekal fort has a great view of the surrounding towns. It is said to have been built for defence purposes and its location bears testimony to this theory. It’s good to walk the fort when the sun is low. However, since it closes around 5 pm we could not catch the sunset as we wanted to.

Bekal Fort with a grand view of the sea

Bekal Fort

Bhutan – the land of mountains, clear water and Dzongs

One can hear the music of the river and feel the serenity of the mountains in this land called Bhutan

Thimpu

This is the capital city and our 1^st stop in Bhutan. Landed in Paro city and drove to Thimpu. It felt like one just has to follow the river to reach the destination! Paro Chhu, the river from Paro led us to Wang Chhu, the river of Thimpu and that’s how we got there. Thimpu was a surprise! As the capital city, we expected it to be big and bustling. It was hardly that! The city seems to be the base of a mountain and the size of 3-4 blocks! I would say that it is the cultural capital having all the administrative houses and the King’s residence. I say residence rather than palace, because from a view point, the fortress looks bigger than the king’s residence and I heard that the king lives simple.

The fortresses in Bhutan are the most beautiful sight one can encounter! There is one fortress in every district. These fortresses are called as Dzongs. They can serve as monasteries or administrative or both together. Every Dzong is similar in architecture. In fact, every building in Bhutan is similar in architecture. Bhutan believes in preserving its architecture and does not allow for changes in style. All the dzongs have a courtyard, temple, administrative offices and accommodation for monks. Dzongs are the most interesting among all the sights in Bhutan. These dzongs serve as fotresses and each of of them is situated in a strategic location. Dzongs were established by Ngawang Namgyal, known as Zhabdrung Rinpoche. He and his successors built the fortresses in order to unify Bhutan. These fortresses are present in all the strategic locations of Bhutan. Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel is the most revered figure in Bhutan. He established religious unity through Buddhism. He is the 3 most important figure in Buddhism in Bhutan, after Gouthama Buddha and guru Padmasambava.

Bhutan has an interesting mix on power and spirituality. Observe the nation’s flag to recognise the duality in leadership.

Thimpu is also the place on Great Buddha Dordenma, said to be the world’s largest sitting Buddha with a height of a little more than 50 metres. Situated high on the mountains, this statue can be seen from anywhere in the city. The statue is made of bronze and gilded with gold.

Takin reserve holds the national animal of Bhutan, Takin. It is a protected species which looks like it has the head of a goat and the body of an ox!

Thimpu also has a textile museum which describes the history of weavers. Tradition attire for men is called Gho and for women it’s called a Kira. I went shopping for Kira and found that it’s quite costly, since its handwoven.

Punakha

Going out of Thimpu to Punakha needed a separate permit and our driver obtained it for us. It was around 4 hours by road. It was a bumpy ride owing to bad road condition. We stopped on the way to visit the fertility temple, Chimi L'hakhang Temple . We had to hike up to the temple in the hot sun and we felt it could have been skipped, especially on a hot afternoon! Evening found us at a river side resort in Punakha having a conversation with the river.

Punakha was the earlier capital on Bhutan and is now popularly called as the winter capital.

Located at the confluence of Phu Chhu and Mo Chhu rivers, this is the Punakha Dzong is the most beautiful Dzong in Bhutan.

We spent a day to travel to Phobhjikha valley, which is the home to the black necked cranes. However, we caught no sight of them since they migrate only in late October. Although the valley is beautiful, the roads were bad and the drive was not worth it without the sighting of the famous birds.

Paro

There is only 1 way between these 3 cities so we retraced our steps, Punakha - Thimpu - Paro. Paro is a sight filled with paddy fields and sounded by the Paro Chhu river. 

We reached in afternoon and went straight to the Dzong after lunch. By now, we could recognize a Dzong from a distance. This Dzong however, had more monks.

Next day, we decided to trek to Tigers nest locally known as Taksang - the most iconic spot in all of Bhutan. One does not experience Bhutan until you have hiked to this monastery!
It's a long and strenuous hike but the view is worth it! However, go only if you want to hike for about 2-3 hours up and 1.5 to 2 hours down. I struggled both uphill and downhill.

Food at Bhutan!

We tried the famous Bhutanese dish, Ema Datshi. It’s made of green chillies and cheese!! It was fund trying this out with the local red rice. We also had Thupka which is a Tibetian noodle soup widely available here. Indian dishes are also easily available here! In every hotel we stayed we found the kitchen staff friendly and accommodating, much better than the staff at the lobby!

Veg Thupka

Ema Datshi

Some trivia collected!

• Chhu means clear water
• Ngultrum is the currency and is equivalent to Indian Rupees. Indian currency is widely accepted in Bhutan.
• Dzongkha is the language in Bhutan. However, most everyone speak English as it is part of their school curriculum.
• India has friendly relationship with Bhutan. An Indian would need just an entry permit, election ID card would be sufficient; you don’t need a passport to go to Bhutan!
• Bhutan economy is driven by hydroelectricity followed by tourism.
• Bhutan has opened up to foreigners only about 4 decades back.
• Roadways are still under development and would be in a good shape by 2020.

An evening in Calcutta

Yes, I was here for just 1 evening, during transit to Bhutan, but I still felt the urge to pen down this experience owing to the memories collected that had to be shared.

We reached late afternoon and I instantly felt that there was something in the air. As I do every time I go to a new city, I instantly consulted Google for temperature. It showed 33, feels like 44 degrees Celsius. I dint understand these feelings that Google states until my experience in this city, travelling in a cab, without AC. The air is thick enough to give you a solid dose of heat, but I see no sunshine, only an overcast sky.

We were staying at the Astoria Hotel located on Shakespeare Sarani Road and that’s when I realized the traffic situation here, it’s tough!!!

Our plan was to cover Victoria Memorial, Howrah Bridge and New Market. It was raining intermittently, but heavily throughout the evening and we managed to cover just Victoria Memorial and Howrah Bridge. We enjoyed the walk in the beautiful garden at Victoria Memorial. Howrah bridge turned us into looking and feeling like drowned cats! However, we manged to catch the sunset over the bridge and that made it all our effort worth it!

Victoria Memorial

Howrah Bridge

Ended the day with street food on Park street! Jhal muri, ragda patties, sandwiches and rabdi - can't ask for more here!

Calcutta as I prefer to call it, is a perfect blend of old and new. There was this one road near the Salt Lake stadium that had huts on 1 side, high rise apartments and malls on the other, and a metro rail line running above. Beat that!!

This city, with a touch of the English era, with flyovers and decent roads, with modern apartments and malls, has character! I will visit again to explore this city to my heart’s content.

Chilly cosy Ooty

Sitting back at home, pondering on what was the one thing that was most awesome in Ooty. Was it the combination of the chilly weather and our lack of preparedness for it? Was it the double deluxe valley facing room which gave us our isolated time with nature and our cosy-much-loved fireplace? Was it our long bike rides which resulted in our shoulders aching with all that break-holding? I think it was my best friend with whom I experienced it all. God bless friends, life would be so dull without them.

Ooty welcomed us with its chilly weather and sunshine, which resulted in a ferocious tan. We rented a bike at the very beginning of our stay and created our own schedule. First on our list, Avalache and emerald. This is about 30 kms from Ooty (everything worth seeing is about 30kms from Ooty!). Started off eager, after a Tamilian breakfast of Pongal and masala dosa. The ride was hard and the terrain beautiful. We encountered wonderful views and tiny hamlets. We encountered kind people who never hesitated to guide us. We did not use google maps and exclusively depended on sign boards and locals, brave us! Emerald is a dam, a little further to the dam leads to the waters, so beautiful. Avalanche is a forest offering safaris. Back to our hotel with the promise of a fire and hot chocolate. We got in before sunset, lest we lose our way.

Our hotel, Sherlock rested on top of a hill, was not easy to get to, the road was rustic. Our stay here was simply amazing! The cottage with its own private garden, the valley view and the hospitality, which was the one of the best I have experienced.

Next day we woke up at our leisure and decided to explore Pykara waterfalls. The ride again was hard with lots of hairpin bends and the view was a bit different from the previous day’s. The previous day had us hopping from one village to another, today it was just the highway and us and the beautiful tall trees lining the roads. We had to climb down to view the waterfalls, not the best waterfalls I have seen, but it was good to be among the tourists! On the way we caught a few viewpoints which made our trip fruitful.

Evening found us at Charing cross, the main city place of Ooty, hunting for chocolates! It was home-made chocolates in every other store! We made our way through them and finally ended our stay with a wood fired pizza at the sidewalk café, which earned my stamp of approval!