Italian Christmas lights, not your common mini bulbs....

The great Artists of Florence are seen in the wonderful street lights.

My contact in Florence just sent me some wonderful photos of Christmas street lights.
She explained to me while I was in Florence, that each neighborhood or street would sponsor the holiday lights each year.   photoprimopiano@gmail.com

All photos by Sheila Ford who will show you parts of Florence to photograph that you might never find.
                                                                                            
Sheila constantly tells me to LOOK UP!   And photos are all about the LIGHT!

On you next trip to Florence contact Sheila.  She will show you parts of Florence you have never seen.



www.florenceprimopiano.com/photo

Venice High Water, Acqua Alta

I have heard about the seasonal flooding in Venice that turns tourists into ‘children’ playing in the expansive puddle that is St. Marks Square and is only an inconvenience for the local Venicians, but I have never been in Venice when the event occurred.

During my visit this year acqua alta occurred on three days.   

The flooding is slow as water seeps in from all the canals and lagoon.   A signal is blasted in the morning to announce that the flooding had started.  I would be more than 6 hours until the water started to recede.     During this time the locals will pump out their first floor stores, walk to work or begin their shopping with knee high boots and think little of the event.

But travelers and visitors embrace the novelty.   Local vendors sell inexpensive plastic boots in bright colors.   Your options are plastic foot covers, wet shoes or waiting out the flooding.   Not all streets are flooded but many of the main routes will have portions with more than 4 inches of water.     Some of the vaporetto routes were closed until the water level under the bridges lowered enough to allow the boats to pass.

Rome at Christmas: what surprised me

15 Impression from my Solo Christmas trip to Rome: 

Although I travel solo to Italy every year and try to stay as long as possible I have never been Home To Italy during the winter.   Usually by November I head back to the southern part of the USA to wait out the ice and cold across the Northern Hemisphere.

An additional thrill was an invitation from the author of Browsing Rome to write about any insights on Rome from my solo my solo trip.    Since I no longer travel as a tourist but as a traveler, my trips will not appeal to anyone who spends every day following a tour book. 

My December trip was devoted entirely to finding what xmas traditions Italians practice that Italian Americans also observe.    Therefore my visit did not include museums this year or monuments but rather the seasonal foods, street festivals and markets where Italians were enjoying the holidays. 

This theme proved to be perfect.     It was easy to do a visual inspection of holiday decorations as I progressed from Zurich to Como and down to Rome, but also the tourists were minimal, locals were more available to chat and the topic of Natale was universal to all.   

By the time I had arrived in Rome for the first visit (I returned at the end of my trip as well) I had already been through snow, a train strike, VERY COLD weather and had contracted the flu.   But when you only have one month a year to visit Italia, none of this stops a true traveler.   You just keep going!

Rome:

1.      Street lighting:    In every town and city I visited the streets were blazing with Christmas lights.  No plastic snowmen, candy canes or Rudolf but street after street had displays of white lights.  Each street was different.   Some designs, such as the ‘jellyfish look’ were very unique.   I could not find anyone to ask if each neighborhood decides what lights they used nor do I think that question ever came up!

2.       The Christmas Markets

I left the USA with a list of markets that would be featured in each of the towns I planned to visit.

Apparently an outside Christmas market can be found in most Italian towns.   In Florence it was a German market, in Prato they had a Chocolate fair.   Rome has a huge market in Piazza Narvone that goes on for weeks.   I visited several times to try to see everything.

In addition to the stands offering sweets and snacks the popular items were something like an oversized donut and crepes filled with Nutella.    I enjoyed watching children eating cotton candy for the first time and learning how to eat it!

              

Since an outdoor market is a perfect location for a solo traveler to spend time, observe, interact and not become the object of everyone’s attention I found lots to keep me interested and except for the biting cold, would have spent more time there.                                                                                                                       The puppet stand had me transfixed.   Who can you identify?