Cindybelle's Bella Notte TR COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 10/19 With Prices! - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Great work Cindy. Love the photos. Keep them coming. Have never been to Pisa in my two trips to Italy. Not part of the tour itinerary. Would like to some day. Have been to Firenze and most recently Lucca of Tuscany in 2006. Another lovely small town in Italy. Great pedestrian areas, narrow streets and the cuisine, I'm sure I don't even need to mention. Great local specialties. Visited some of the exquisite villas here. Pretty amazing and lavish to say the least. Saw how the upper elite live in this region.
Lucca is also a great place for bike riding. Especially, on the old fortification wall where there is great bike route that runs for a good mile or so. Great experience!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-01-2009 at 08:26 PM..
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
As promised, we have finally reached the part of my story that involves us giving another tourist a magical moment. We enjoyed Pisa so much that it was after 5:30pm when we got back to the train station to purchase tickets for the 18:00 (6:00pm) train back to Firenze. The train was 30 minutes late in arriving, so by the time it got there, a lot of passengers had assembled. We grabbed four seats together in our crowded car, and then we sat -- and sat -- and sat as the engineer started the engine and then it died. And died. And died.
Finally, the engineer got off and didn't come back. Suddenly, another train official came aboard, shouted something in Italian, and left. Immediately, everyone started gathering their things and practically raced off the train. We did likewise, assuming that we were being diverted to another train.
I was the first of our group to exit. As Rick followed me, he noticed that some other passenger must have left a backpack behind in his haste. Rick pointed out the backpack to Paul, and the two stood for awhile, uncertain what to do. It was clear we needed to move fast to get to the awaiting train for Firenze. Paul grabbed the backpack, figuring we'd hand it to the first train official we saw.
Hence the problem: we didn't see any train officials. When we reached our new platform, the train was just about loaded and ready to go. We got on board and then wondered what we should do next. No official ever came into our car.
Rick went through the backpack, looking for I.D. (and also concerned that there might be drugs inside -- we sure didn't want to get blamed for THAT). He found an airline stub for a guy named Andrea, who apparently had flown to Pisa that morning from Amsterdam. We figured Andrea was young, based on the contents of the bag: a camera, a Playstation, and other electronic gear. I suggested looking at the photos, because maybe we'd recognize someone from the train. Most of the photos were of young men.
When we arrived at the Firenze train station, we again looked for an official or for any young man resembling anyone in the photos we'd seen. No luck. We were headed for the Tourist Office when Rick and I spotted the "Polizia" office. They had a glass door that was locked. A police officer saw us looking at him and buzzed us in.
Paul was holding the backpack, so the police officer asked him all the questions and took down his passport number. (We joked later that we could have left Paul literally holding the bag. ) While Paul was explaining how we got switched from one train to another and took the backpack along, a young Italian man suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass door -- looking extremely anxious. Then he spotted the backpack and broke into a huge smile.
The police officer buzzed him in, and the young man (who spoke little English) started shaking all our hands and crying, "Grazie! Grazie!"
I took this picture of Paul and Andrea -- I'm not sure which of them looks more relieved!
Then we walked back through Firenze from the train station. It was nearly 20:00 (8:00pm), which is the height of the dinner hour -- and we were all and in need of a celebratory after bestowing a magical moment on Andrea! We managed to grab the last available table at Coquinarius, a place recommended to us by Gabriella at B&B Il Bargello. The food was MOLTO BENE, but I'm going to gloss over that so I can get to another MAGICAL MOMENT.
Now, remember how I told you September 8 is celebrated in Firenze as the Virgin Mary's birthday? Well, they start celebrating the evening of September 7 with "Rificolone" (Festival of the Paper Lanterns). Rick had read about it online before we left the U.S., and we all agreed we'd keep an eye out for the parade of children with paper lanterns. By the time we finished dinner, we assumed we'd missed any parade, so we began our usual wanderings through town.
Suddenly we heard what sounded like a New Orleans Dixieland band, and we saw a crowd of people near an intersection. You guessed it -- we'd bumped smack into the Festival of the Paper Lanterns!
We immediately started snapping pictures -- many of which are blurry because our subjects were moving and we were being a bit jostled. But you get the idea:
That's not all -- here's how I KNEW it was a magical moment -- and all of you, dear PP friends, will understand my excitement when I saw this:
The Mouse is in the house!
What a great ending to our fabulous day -- from Firenze to Pisa and back again!
.
.
After the parade of children and their parents went by, we wandered the streets of Firenze some more and come upon some artists creating amazing chalk art of the Virgin Mary -- right in the streets! I quickly snapped some photos.
I'm showing you this one upside-down so you can look at the art:
And here's one that the artists were working on as we walked up:
Doesn't that all look amazing! My eyes are welling up, just looking at those and remembering those artists working.
WOW! Cindy - so much magic in one day! Good for you for being good samaritans and trying to get the backpack to the right owner. And a Mickey lantern! The chalk drawings are amazing!
More great pictures Cindy. Amazing how you bestowed some magic on Andrea with the back pack. "Disney Magic" will follow you no matter where you may be. You just never know when it will happen to you!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Last edited by SuperDave; 10-02-2009 at 07:15 PM..
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
We were headed for the Tourist Office when Rick and I spotted the "Polizia" office. They had a glass door that was locked. A police officer saw us looking at him and buzzed us in.
) While Paul was explaining how we got switched from one train to another and took the backpack along, a young Italian man suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass door -- looking extremely anxious. Then he spotted the backpack and broke into a huge smile. 
and in need of a celebratory 
after bestowing a magical moment on Andrea! We managed to grab the last available table at Coquinarius, a place recommended to us by Gabriella at B&B Il Bargello. The food was MOLTO BENE, but I'm going to gloss over that so I can get to another MAGICAL MOMENT. 
But you get the idea:
The chalk drawings are amazing!
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Linear Mode
