Author: Christie

IT, Florence: The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers – Climbing the Dome

| Christie

Visiting a church after another church gave me the possibility to discover or rather to rediscover the sacral dimension of our humble existence in this world. This was a unique chance one can’t have pretty often in a life.

If the first 2 churches visited in Florence were big, impressive, majestic and representative in their own way for the renascence period, going to The Cathedral, named in honor of Santa Maria del Fiore was a real surprise. The simplicity was stunning, the size was incredulous, the richness of the outside decorations had nothing in common with the indoors modesty.

Cathedral outside Continue reading →

IT, Venice: Wandering through The Old City – St Mark’s Basilica – Doge’s Palace – Grand Canal

| Christie

Understanding the beauty is totally different than understanding the beast. Once you have a preconception, it is very hard to remove the inoculated idea from the back of your mind. Most of the time, these preconceptions are born from jealousy, or just simply as a reason of personal denial. One should not have any preconception until one’s own eyes and heart are giving the whole picture to the brain to process the reality. And even then, we still have no guarantee the brain will process correctly the information, but we should hope for better.

Rumors that the canals in Venice are actually stinking came to me from different directions, but my refusal to believe or to think about this drove me to the idea that probably the smell was from some other time, season, or even space. And so it was. I was actually amazed to notice that even though most of the walls at the contact with water were slimy, with more or less green hanging weed, the surroundings were not smelly at all, even with the heavy heat I felt on my head from the sunny, and a little bit too hot Italian Sun. Continue reading →

CA, Quebec: Tadoussac – The Whale Route – Sainte Anne Du Beaupre Basilica and Canyon – Chute Montmorency – Quebec City – Citadelle

| Christie

If one will search for a certain destination, we can call it planning, but if one will find a casual pamphlet about a destination, we might call it destiny.

This is the circumstance I have turned my fate to these places when I found this piece of paper with nice pictures and a seductive title: “Route des baleines”. Doesn’t this sound alluring, mysterious, and perhaps romantic? The only way for me was to search and find what this was about.

And so I found that from Tadoussac to Blanc-Sablon, Cote-Nord is a land of nature, where one can observe and study the wildlife, where, along the route of over 1000km of St Lawrence River, one can watch the whales even from the shore, where one can do lots of outdoor activities, enjoy the food, the nature, and the people. Continue reading →

US, Florida: Florida City – Everglades – Alligator Farm – Miami – Fort Lauderdale – Overseas Hwy

| Christie

Talking to the sea was never one of my interests. But one day I have simply sit in front or her and closed my eyes. Then I understood that I can listen. To the sea and her long story about all her troubles and anxieties she is having every day, about her day to day struggle, about her torment and her sorrow. And to the wind that was backing her up, whispering and mumbling all sorts of gossip.

And then I realized that also there are sunny days, cloudless skies and azure seas. Swimming with the dolphins, idling on the beach, floating with a tide, glowing sunsets, and silent moonlights.

sea Continue reading →

CA, Nova Scotia: Louisbourg – Digby – Annapolis Basin

| Christie

The following day, once in the tiny and cozy town of Louisbourg, we spent the early evening at the little hidden beach that reminded us of our merry times in our 20’s. When you can grab a blanket and a guitar, and your bunch of friends. When the laugh and the glee were the only care one can have.
After that we spent some time shopping in the little family stores full of crafts, and antique pieces of local art.
We saved the major destination: the fortress, where “The past is present”, as the city states itself, for the next day.fortress Continue reading →

CA, Nova Scotia: Cape Breton – Cabot Trail – Cheticamp

| Christie

Getting ready in an overcast morning for our next destination, we knew already that we have no way going back, but only one way going forward. When looking on the map, one can see that NS doesn’t seem too big, but heading to the north of the island, Cape Breton, took us quite a bit.

A shy sun with seldom boldness shining beyond the friendly clouds gave us the urge to get sooner to our final destination. Great traffic with an excellent driver helped us get in no time to our new place Cheticamp, where we found the coziest place and warmest host at the gate of Cape Breton National Park. Continue reading →

US, Vermont: Mount Snow – Green Mountain National Forest – West Dover

| Christie

There is absolutely no doubt this was the most colourful scenery I’ve ever seen!

After getting over my initial fear about the long drive to Vermont, I had no other thought than looking forward to a new experience and to a new place. The 7 hours’ drive through the rain and clouds didn’t discourage us, since we knew the sun will come over in the following days. We were already stunned at the beautiful landscaping through the curtain of clouds and the rain intermission, but still ignorant at the upcoming events.

As you might wonder, our destination was Mount Snow, located in the Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont. But how to recognize for a Green Mountain, when all kind of colours and shades of red, yellow and green are surrounding you?.. Following our trail through the hills and mountains, a great journey through the western side of Vermont, was, as you have realized, in the middle of the fall, one of the best seasons when one can visit these wonderful places.

pic 1 Continue reading →

CA, Prince Edward Island: Confederation Bridge – Cavendish – Red Sands

| Christie

Pondering over the idea to cross a long bridge got buried at the bottom of my thoughts. I stopped thinking at such thing a long time ago, when the chance to cross a real one (not only in my imagination) came suddenly; so I took it without even thinking.

I have never imagined or searched information about how long the Confederation Bridge is, not that I have heard before of that, the one that links New Brunswick to PEI. However, when I started crossing it, I almost forgot to breathe; I couldn’t believe that one could not see the actual island, and started wondering if the bridge even goes somewhere.

p5 Continue reading →

CA, New Brunswick: Moncton – Magnetic Hill – Shediac – Parlee Beach

| Christie

When looking back at our arrival in Moncton I start smiling at the repressed feeling I had when seeing the small and cozy airport. After getting our luggage and heading to the car rental desk, I have noticed the main waiting room: a little bigger than our own living room. Out of all people that came with us, only 5 or 6 could be seen anymore, and then they all disappeared quickly, like the ants under the ground.

Hmm.. where is everybody, where are the porters, the counters, security..?.. All a big emptiness.. After passing a big door, then we could see 2 counter desks, one of which was our man. Glad to see at least one person, waiting for some lost people like us, we headed towards the desk to make the final arrangements to pick up the car we rented a while ago. Continue reading →