Allans Abroad: October 2017

Saturday 28 October 2017

Italy et al

From Venice we ill jump on a cruise ship and sail on down to Bari.

I am looking forward to wondering the tangle of narrow lanes in Vecchia Bari - the old town - which is said to have been inhabited for millennia. Perhaps we'll see the Romanesque architecture like Cattedrale di San Sabino of the 11thC Basilica di San Nicola dedicated to St Nic (aka Santa). If there are going to be Christmas markets anywhere you'd think this would be a good starting point.

My fellow abroader, also named Wendy (as only the best abroaders are) and I are on a mission to see Christmas markets, 8/10 for any Christmas market, 9/10 for Christmas markets in the snowy scenery, 10/10 would be Christmas markets while it's snowing. 10/10 not in Bari but we do have 4 days in the Italian alps - i have high hopes for 10/10 then.

we will cruise on to

Pireaus, harbour city for Athens

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Athens ... yes ... oh my goodness all-the-history! - that Athens

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Katakolon, the port from which we will visit ... Olympia

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we will call into Kotor in Montenegro

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& Split, in Croatia

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Before returning to Venice, to then travel to Madonnna di Campiglio in the Italian alps.

So the iTour it is actually better described as the iTour+ and I am totally okay with that.

Sunday 8 October 2017

Announcing the I-tour

Hello my lovelies, the Allans are about to be abroad again!

We will be launching the I-tour to Italy, Iceland and Ireland on the 21st of November 2017 in the meantime I will be posting on things we hope to see on this trip. So to start at the beginning (a very good place to start) we will arrive in Venice via Dubai on the 22nd November and stay here ...

the Hotel Concordia (it's the yellow building)

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Right near St Mark's Basilica! I can't tell you how excited I am by this. We're lucky enough to have been to Venice a couple of times and we love it. Roaming the scenic lane ways, visiting the amazing buildings and reveling in the epicurean delights never gets old. We'll have 3 days to enjoy the sights like ...

the amazing gold mosaic'd St Mark's Basilica Basilica di San Marco.

I can't help but wonder which part will be covered in scaffolding this time. We travel in the Northern winter and we accept scaffolding as a normal part of low-season touring. I figure if I take a pic from this spot each time I visit (this photo was taken in 2011) and if I go back enough ...eventually I'll be able to photoshop my own scaffold-free photo of this beautiful Byzantine basilica. I'll probably have to go back to Venice many more times ... oh dear how will I cope ;)

St Mark's was originally built as the Doge's chapel and it adjoins the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the ruler in Venice until sometime in the 1700s. They were powerful elected officials who ruled for life and must have tickets on themselves if they could build St Mark's as their chapel!