Cindybelle's Bella Notte TR COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 10/19 With Prices! - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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OK, Cindy, I finally found time to enjoy your TR, and it's been a wonderful time doing so. I am planning a trip to Italy (really!), so I was excited to see so much. I think I may just print out your TR and make notes on it for when I go! Keep it coming, I'm loving every word!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
did you bring me one of those handbags? no? oh, well, i guess you will just have to take me over there and show me where to get one for myself...ha ha ha
OK, Cindy, I finally found time to enjoy your TR, and it's been a wonderful time doing so. I am planning a trip to Italy (really!), so I was excited to see so much. I think I may just print out your TR and make notes on it for when I go! Keep it coming, I'm loving every word!
Sharon, I'm shocked to hear I've been somewhere you haven't been! Delighted to share lots of details with you. I have become a real Rick Steves believer in planning trips to Europe myself -- at least to Italy. It is SO tourist-friendly, you'll be blown away.
did you bring me one of those handbags? no? oh, well, i guess you will just have to take me over there and show me where to get one for myself...ha ha ha
The price on my handbag was 110 Euros (about $165) -- and while I you, Sheri, let's face it -- not THAT much
Of course, there were no price tags easily seen from the doorway, but since it was love at first sight, I would have probably paid $265. As it was, I told Robbie we were getting a good deal here -- we saw handbags for a ton more money than that!
Yes, I'll be happy to take you over there and show you. In fact, here's the shop where we made our purchases:
"Our" shelf is on the right, third one from the top. That shop had a lot of good stuff in it.
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The price on my handbag was 110 Euros (about $165) -- and while I you, Sheri, let's face it -- not THAT much
Of course, there were no price tags easily seen from the doorway, but since it was love at first sight, I would have probably paid $265. As it was, I told Robbie we were getting a good deal here -- we saw handbags for a ton more money than that! .
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One of our favorite days from the trip was Monday, September 7. Back in the U.S., that was Labor Day. In Firenze, it's the Eve of the Virgin Mary's birthday -- but you'll have to wait until the END of our day to find out the significance of that.
Since many of the Firenze museums are closed on Mondays, we chose that day to spend in Pisa. Now, other travelers before us said, "You don't need to visit Pisa," or "Once you've seen the Leaning Tower, there's not much else there." We took a 1-hour train ride to Pisa that morning after breakfast -- and we're glad we didn't wait until later in the day, because we found LOTS of cool things in Pisa. We didn't go back to the train station until 18:00 (6:00 p.m.) because Pisa was so .
For one thing, the interior of the Cathedral next to the Leaning Tower is WAY more glorious, way more colorful, way more than the interior of our beloved Duomo in Firenze. Don't get me wrong -- we do love the Duomo in Firenze, both the colorful exterior and the much more austere (relatively speaking) interior. But the Cathedral in Pisa -- well, see for yourself.
By the way, I didn't make reservations for any of the Pisa attractions beforehand. We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and took a cab to the Leaning Tower, and then stood in a fairly short line to purchase tickets. My advice to anyone going is to buy the "everything" ticket -- I think it was only 2 Euros more per person to get admission to ALL the museums, the Cathedral, the Baptistry, and the Leaning Tower than it would have cost just to do one or two of those. And we are SO GLAD we saw all that we did.
Here are some of the dozens of interior shots we took of the "Chiesa Cattedrale di Pisa" that Monday. And there's no way to express the enormous scale of this building. You really do have to BE there.
Another gorgeous floor:
Robbie's favorite thing in there was this one enormous painting:
But there's really no "bad side" to this cathedral. Here's a portion of the ceiling:
Lot of catching up to do on my part Cindy, but I love the TR so far. I've been to Italy twice in 1995 and most recently in 2006. The former was my first trip to Europe. Well done with the reporting, decriptions, detail and photos. I'm surprised this never came up during the DOD tour while we were waiting in line for TOT or something.
In Rome I stayed at the Hotel Quirinale, which is a very Italian style hotel in Piazza Republicca. It is just down the street from yours.
This brings back so many great memories as I've been to all three Italian cities, although Firenze and Roma was back in 1995, but remember them well. The first time was an American Express tour. It was quite good with a great overview, but a bit touristy at times. In 2006, I took one of the best trips ever and that a Village Italy Tour, run by Europe Through The Back Door. That's Rick Steves' Tours. I'm a huge supporter of his programs and travel philosophy. It covered Northern Italy. Will tell you more at another time, but here's the link to it. Rick Steves' Europe 2010 Tours: Village Italy in 14 Days
Also, include me in the Official CindyBelle and Friends Passporter Extravaganza In Italia!
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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!
Ok, I'll grant you that - the interior of the cathedral is quite something. We went to Pisa as part of our daytrip from our Disney cruise and we only had an hour or so in Pisa, so we just did the photos by the Leaning Tower and some other photos, as we didn't have time for anything else. I have to confess I would've been one of the ones telling you not to spend much time there, as it didn't do much for us.
Ok, I'll grant you that - the interior of the cathedral is quite something. We went to Pisa as part of our daytrip from our Disney cruise and we only had an hour or so in Pisa, so we just did the photos by the Leaning Tower and some other photos, as we didn't have time for anything else. I have to confess I would've been one of the ones telling you not to spend much time there, as it didn't do much for us.
No apologies necessary, Cheryl -- in fact, what we've found since talking to the "Pisa nay-sayers" since our return is that ALL of them had just an hour or two in Pisa, so at most they climbed the Leaning Tower. (Which is worth climbing, and I'll share more about that later.) At first glance, this is a too-touristy town -- I mean, they've got that one claim to fame, right?
Maybe it's because we went at a time that wasn't as crowded, but we were pleasantly surprised that the souvenir stands, while fairly tacky with their Leaning-Tower coffee mugs, were pushed well away from the historic buildings.
So what ELSE is worth seeing in Pisa? Believe it or not, one of our favorite things was a Cemetery Museum! Yep, it's full of gravestones, sarcophogi, other sculptures, and amazing murals that are being slowly restored. (No one knew about the murals until WWII, when a bomb blasted away part of a wall, revealing incredible murals that had been covered over with all kinds of stuff for centuries.)
This headstone reminded me of Sheri (Skateycat) for some reason. Sheri, did you pose for this?
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I don't know if you can tell from my photos, but this is an open-air museum. It was lovely and cool inside because of the cross-breezes.
All these archways are open to the outside.
When we wanted to get off our feet, we sat on a bench and watched the painstaking restoration work. It was fascinating and fun -- hearing male and female voices chattering in Italian while working on their individual parts of the mural.
See the shoeless feet on the top right? She was swinging her legs while she worked, which the four of us up.
Now, this reminded me of the closing scene of Snow White:
In Rome I stayed at the Hotel Quirinale, which is a very Italian style hotel in Piazza Republicca. It is just down the street from yours.
In 2006, I took one of the best trips ever and that a Village Italy Tour, run by Europe Through The Back Door. That's Rick Steves' Tours.
Also, include me in the Official CindyBelle and Friends Passporter Extravaganza In Italia!
Dave, how wonderful to hear from you! As soon as I read "Hotel Quirinale," I thought, "Hey, didn't we walk past that every time we went from Hotel Nerva to the Colosseum?" That is TOO coincidental!
And be grateful I DIDN'T tell you about my plans for Italy when I met you in May -- I would have bugged you to death -- especially now that I know you've been on one of Rick Steves' "Through the Back Door" tours. I'm curious to hear more about that sometime.
And consider yourself "on board" if we ever get a PP group together for a trip to Italia!
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Delighted to share lots of details with you. I have become a real Rick Steves believer in planning trips to Europe myself -- at least to Italy. It is SO tourist-friendly, you'll be blown away.
you, Sheri, let's face it -- not THAT much
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than the interior of our beloved Duomo in Firenze. Don't get me wrong -- we do love the Duomo in Firenze, both the colorful exterior and the much more austere (relatively speaking) interior. But the Cathedral in Pisa -- well, see for yourself. 
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