Today we passed through the small town of Sabbioneta. It is completely enclosed within Renaissance walls, and has UNESCO status in conjunction with the city of Mantova (Mantua). Both places were ruled by the Gonzaga family, who produced a saint and a shocking number of bishops and cardinals.I have lost track of the number of UNESCO sites that we have visited on this trip. Every ...
Before we departed for this Camino I had a casual look at our route across Italy on our mapping app. Zooming into one of the many undulations on the track, I was surprised to see a perfectly symmetrical nine pointed star. This is the town of Palmanova, which we passed through this morning.Palmanova has an interesting history. It is a city fortress founded by Venice ...
Gordon: Have you ever heard of the city of Aquileia? Neither had I, but in the second century AD it was the second largest city in Roman Italy. Attila the Hun gave it pride of place in his depredations in Italy, almost completely destroying the city in the middle of the fifth century. It never recovered as more than a small city thereafter. What has ...
Gordon: We met Maja, a Slovenian pilgrim, on the Camino Francés in 2011. In the intervening years I have accumulated wrinkles and Arctic blonde hair (to use Mary’s euphemism) but Maja has been considerably more busy. She has acquired a charming Spanish husband, José, and three energetic and affectionate sons. Ruth has maintained Facebook contact with Maja and when Maja learned that we would be ...
Gordon: We are spending a couple of nights in our second capital city of this pilgrimage: Ljubljana. It’s hard not to like, particularly as we are staying in a palace. No, really, it is an upper suite in a palace built for a count in 1755. Of course it’s not cheap, but as in all European capitals, nothing is. In fact, it was only about ...
The locals we have met in Slovenia are invariably unhappy with their Spring. It is reputedly the wettest and coolest they have had in recent memory. Despite it’s proximity, it wasn’t as bad in Hungary, though we did stay two nights at our last (spa) hotel before entering Slovenia to avoid travel during an exceptionally wet, windy day. As I was walking the last few ...
We are now approaching the border of Slovenia, having walked or cycled about 400 kms from Budapest over a two week period. We would like to provide a summary of our experiences in this country to assist future pilgrims. Note that the Via Pannonia is not one of the Camino routes supported by the official organization in Hungary; those routes go up the Danube to ...
I would like to thank our friends who expressed concern over my bout of Lyme disease. The antibiotic is working its wonders and after two rest days we were back on the Camino today. We will be doing several shorter days. We are now in the far west of Hungary, close to the borders of both Slovenia and Croatia. It appears to be a more traditional ...
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text] This morning I spotted a toasted sesame seed on my ankle that revealed itself to be a tick. Further examination disclosed three more, and yet another this afternoon. Ruth bravely removed all of them with tweezers. The Internet tells us that ticks in Hungary can carry Lyme disease and encephalitis, so I am under observation for a bulls eye rash pattern and signs ...
When we were travelling in Cuba twenty years ago all of the hosts at our various accommodations voiced support for the government. The Special Period, a time of economic hardship after the USSR dissolved and Cuba lost its sponsor, had ended and there was optimism for the future. There are indications that the following years were in fact better, as building standards appear to have ...