Tag: Florence

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Blog

Pisa, Florence and All Around the World

What a great Monday!

After an amazing Sunday in my NASCAR sportswriter hat — blogging about the Daytona 500 for Fast Machines — I awoke to make sure that the first Carnival of Cities blog carnival (featuring one of my most popular posts, Pisa and Florence with kids) had posted OK over on Home Turf Media, a worldwide network of city-based blogs.

I started working with Jon at Home Turf Media a few weeks back after Liz Strauss at Successful Blog put a bug in his ear about me. He’s in Edmonton, Canada and I’m in Austin, Texas, but miles are no matter to those with ‘net connections. What fun it has been to pull together my first carnival, called All Around the World. Go take a look at these offerings:

IntrovertGirl in literary Toronto, Jen Miner with the best brunches in New York City, Andrea Dickson interviews seamstress sui generis/designer Amy Doan, aka Shrinkle, Local Girl takes her young daughter to Ko Olina Beach, Brad is tracking the progress of a North Bank condo, Kathy Maister offers a mouth-watering tour of the Copley Square Farmer’s Market, Carole talks about how San Diego football coach Schottenheimer was fired and Alli writes about Chattanooga’s Walnut Street Bridge.

But wait, there’s more! (Sorry, no Ginsu knives.)

David photoblogged Australia Day at Brisbane’s Southbank, Rajesh P.I. says India’s city of Kochi needs a Pied Piper, Wes has some great pictures of the famed Story Bridge, Liz Lewis tells us the top 8 things to do when visiting Christchurch, the Traveling Mum climbs the pagoda in Nanning, China, CJCM is alarmed that Malaysian bloggers were sued for defamation, Andrew Bartlett, a Democrat Senator from Queensland, shares some poignant thoughts about Oriel Park, Ruth recommends the Rib Room and Bar at the Landmark Bangkok and David follows local antiwar political activists who talk about “how Pakistan tortured my brother.”

Sure, there is one from Europe besides my Pisa/Florence post: Jon Tillman tells us the interesting history of London’s “Beckton Alps”.

After enjoying the whirlwind worldwide tour, I then found that my freelance writing business was featured by Joe on his site, Working at Home on the Internet. Thanks, Joe!! If you have a home-based business that depends a lot on the Internet, check out Joe’s site. He runs a great blog carnival, too.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, those SOBs are at it again — Successful and Outstanding Bloggers, that is. The SOBCon 07 conference for bloggers was just announced yesterday. It’s in Chicago May 11-12 2007 and I’ve just got to go!

(And if I was just a little swifter with HTML I could figure out how to make the doggone button below a live link, like it’s supposed to be. Grrrr.) Update — thanks to Joe’s comment below, I’m somewhat more swift — it’s live. Sheesh, that only took an hour….)

SOBCon 2007

SOBCon has an exciting roster of speakers and teachers like Liz and Phil from Make It Great; sparkplugs who specialize in building strong relationships and networks across the blogging community.

Anyone who has ever enjoyed the Liz Strauss free-for-all Tuesday Open Mic Nights will be thrilled to know that this conference features, in Liz’s words, “actual microphones!”

Even though I’m also planning to attend a stupendous BlogHer conference in July 2007, that one’s going to be a little more “sprawling,” and I want to go to SOBCon 07 for a different type of focus and attendee list.

Whew, I’m linked out. Time to put on yet another hat — Mom with sick kid who is home from school. Happy surfing….

Categories
Europe

Pisa & Florence With Kids.

Giotto's Tower, Florence, Italy (Scarborough photo)The Leaning Tower of Pisa is recognized by children and parents everywhere, mostly because it’s pictured on almost every take-out pizza box in the world. If you’re looking for a good stop in Italy with your family, consider a visit to Pisa either on its own or as a side trip from Florence.

We flew Ryanair into Pisa (we were living in Europe at the time) and were pleased that the Galileo Galilei airport was not far away from city center, as Ryanair airports often are (for example, Frankfurt Hahn is hours away from Frankfurt, although they do run an efficient motorcoach link service.)

We stayed at the Hotel Royal Victoria. Our room was comfortable, breakfast was good and our view of the Arno River was lovely, but we did run into a mosquito problem overnight.

It was too hot to close the windows but there were no screens on them (pretty standard in Europe I’m afraid.) Being eaten alive made us a bit cranky.

The town itself was very walkable and full of lively students from the Università degli Studi di Pisa….somehow everything sounds more elegant in Italian, including plain old “University of Pisa.” The Leaning Tower is only one of many gorgeous, ornate buildings on the Campo dei Miracoli, a large grassy area that invites a picnic or even a quick Frisbee toss in front of history.

What’s funny is that once you finally get there, you inanely say what everyone else says; “Wow, it really DOES lean!”

Campo dei Miracoli, Pisa, Italy (Scarborough photo)

You can buy tickets online ahead of time, but children under 8 are not allowed into the Leaning Tower.

The streets around the Campo are full of overpriced restaurants and shops selling T-shirts and leaning towers in resin.

I must confess that my young son adores his Leaning Tower T-shirts with Pikachu and Snoopy on them, and I turned one of those resin towers into a nightlight.

It was too marvelously kitschy to pass up — Pokemon in Pisa!

Obligatory Dorky Hold-Up-The-Tower Photo, Pisa, Italy (Scarborough photo) Pop Culture T-Shirts in Pisa (Scarborough photo)

We took the train to Florence from Pisa, and despite its deserved reputation for tons of art & atmosphere per square mile (not always what kids are interested in seeing) we had a lovely time.

I’ve talked about the Hotel Casci in a previous post, and want to commend it to you again as a very family-friendly and well-located place to stay.

This UK mother’s assessment is quite accurate; how can you miss with kids when there’s pizza and ice cream/gelato everywhere? It’s so blessedly difficult to get bad food or a bad cup of coffee in Italy.

We did go to the Uffizi Gallery with our children, and it was a pretty successful visit.

Everyone OD’d on Madonnas and cherubs after awhile, but my son had a great time giggling at all of the nudes (hey, as a parent you take whatever art appreciation you can get.)

We climbed Giotto’s Tower near the Duomo and were rewarded with some expansive views, but mostly we enjoyed wandering the city’s piazzas, listening to the occasional street musician and enjoying the famous Tuscan sun.

Categories
Europe

Good Family Hotel in Florence

Here’s a recent TripAdvisor review of the Hotel Casci in Florence; I’m happy to see that it’s still the same great place where I stayed with my family.

The staff is super-friendly, the location is good, the rooms are family-sized (by the standards of metro Europe) and the price is right for a central hotel in a major tourist city.

Related Family Travel post: Pisa & Florence with kids