Italy 2012. Bellagio, Venice, Cervia and Florence

My family and I spent some time in Italy last month for what was (at least for me) a seriously amazing adventure. There was no shortage of sights, as we spent our time driving (and ferrying) our way accross the inspiring and amazing country that means so much to me. We picked up our 10 passenger van (which we named Rocco) and set out from Milan to Bellagio, Venice, Cervia, Ravenna, Florence, Sorrento, The Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Naples, Isola di Panarea (that's where the ferry came in handy), Rome, Siena, and the Cinque Terre. It was simply an amazing trip with amazing people. Add delicious pasta and Campari and Soda's to the mix and the outcome is a vault of memories that will stay with me for life. Thank you to my Mother Eleanor, my Aunt Ida, My sisters Nina and Lisa, my Nieces Amelia and Dana, and my Nephew Nick... you are all amazing travel companions.

There will be serveral posts here from this trip, so keep checking back for updates if you are interested.

I hope these photos both do justice to a country full of geopraphic/architechural/artistic/historic spleandor, and to the people I was lucky enough to travel it with. 

Stockholm, Sweden

Yet another trip to Stockholm (amazing as always) this January. This was my first trip during the heart of winter and I am now well aware why vodka is so popular in this part of the world. I also included a side trip to Helsinki, Finland, which I will post pictures from in my next update. It snowed from the moment I landed and didnt let up. It was still snowing as the plane took off for JFK, and for all I know it is still snowing. It is all part of the Scandinavian experience so I went with it. Just call me Nanook. 

My time in Stockholm, with only 5 to 6 hours of daylight, included a visit to the Vasamuseet, Skansen, a walking tours through Södermalm, Gamla Stan, and Norrmalm...with multiple stops to have a fika and warm up of course. 

Additionally, I was directed to this amazing blog on life is Stockholm. It truly gives a great modern opinion of what it means to be a metropolitan Swede. And the writing is just dry and brilliant.

Paris, France.

It has been a while. Sorry for that my loyal followers, but hopefully photos from Paris will satiate your appetite. I was lucky enough to have an extended layover in Paris this month, so I was able to put aside my jet lag, grab my camera and get out and about for a bit.

Musée des Art Décoratifs is currently showing a retrospective of John-Paul Goude. It's stunning, so if you happen to be traveling to (or living in) Paris sometime between now and March 18, 2012, then it is certainly worth checking out. One of the amazing things about this man was his ability to manipulate a photo negative by cutting it into pieces in order to stretch and alter the images appearance. like 30 years before Photoshop. One of his big muses in life was Grace Jones, so that may give some idea of what sort of visuals to expect. There was neon, there was Björk, there was a woman dressed in white who had balls on her neck and who appeared to be floating. See photo below as evidence. #totesamazeballs.

This rest of my trip was complete with a 3 hour lunch with a bottle of rosé (as one does), meandering through the winding streets, dinner in the Les Marais, drinks with friends at the Open Cafe and an invite to Victor Hugo's apartment. He was not there of course, but did you know he had a daughter named Léopoldine? 

Provincetown, Massachusetts

There is nothing quite like a quick Indian Summer jaunt up to Ptown now is there? The seashore here is just amazing, with sweeping dunes and bike and walking paths for miles. Ptown is of course many things to many people - gay mecca with theme weekends from Bears to Baby Dykes, sleepy off season oceanside retreat, home for arists and writers... the list is endless. The one thing I suppose everyone falls in love with when they come here though, is the landscape.