The train arrived at Nice early in the morning. There had been no customs formalities (this was in the days before the EU). I was a bit surprised and asked a station official if I had to present my passport to someone. They were not fussed.
The hostel was in Parc Forestier du Mont Boron (see photo) above the city, was very breezy, and had great views of the Baie des Anges. There was only one bus service there. The last bus was early in the evening so you couldn't have an evening out.
I found Nice pleasant to wander around. I liked the shops and the markets. I might have had my first taste of really good Mediterranean strawberries here. I liked the people too; I remember thanking the American Express exchange office cashier with merci beaucoup and getting de rien with a smile. I think Parisians unduly affect the stereotypes of the French.
It was still pretty much like this the next time I passed through in 1997.
This would be Place Masséna (page in French) at the Fontaine de Soleil with a statue of Apollo. It looks like they have a tramway there now.
It might have been my second or third day in Nice that I took a side trip to Monaco. A French-Canadian hosteller was also on the bus. She wanted to go to the gare routiere (regional bus station). I said I was going there too so she could come with me but we got lost at first. She was upset and was voluble about this. But seeing that I was contrite, she smiled and winked at me. Ah, temperamental Gallic women.
Despite the fact that I had a railpass, I paid for a bus journey to Monaco because the scenery on the Moyenne Corniche is spectacular. A few months after I visited Monaco, Grace of Monaco would suffer a fatal stroke and drive her car off a road near the Moyenne Corniche.
The Grimaldi Palace at Monaco. Monaco was the second tiny country I had visited, the first being Vatican City.
Like the other tourists, I had come to view the changing of the guard.
Monte Carlo's harbour with the watercraft of the rich.
Back in Nice, the Musée Marc Chagall has some beautiful pieces of art. You may recognise the biblical themes.
Huge mural over a pool of prophet Elijah surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.
Beautiful stained glass window.
Another visual gem in Nice is this Russian Orthodox Cathedral.
This is a view of the the beachfront (pebbly though) and the Promenade des Anglais taken from the Colline du Château (page in French).
On my last evening in Nice, I stayed on the bus past the youth hostel stop, puzzling some of my fellow hostellers, including Päivi, a Finnish girl I would visit in Helsinki later on. I was headed to the top of the hill to take a panorama at sunset, then walk back to the hostel.
After Venice I turned west to take in Milan and eventually the south coast of France. But first an afternoon stopover in Verona. The reason was of course that this was the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and I was curious about the city. This is the Portoni della Brà (page in Italian). The eponymous piazza is on the other side. Aside from brighter paint on the building, it hasn't changed much, looking at a recent photo.
This is the Verona Arena, one of the best preserved structures of its kind and still in use today.
The guide book mentioned Juliet's tomb. I couldn't find it and asked an Italian family for directions. I made a guess at the Italian: La tomba di Giulietta. Bravo, said the father, and in his slow answer, I caught: ottocentro metri.
So it was a fair walk but I got there. It was closed for the lunch hour though. I wondered if the characters had existed. In the end I concluded that Shakespeare must have embellished an older story and the city, glad to have another tourism attraction, designated a place for it. There's is even a house of Juliet with the famous balcony.
La Scala in Milan looks drab from the outside but of course people come for the performances.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world's oldest shopping malls.
It's just next to the Piazza del Duomo and Milan Cathedral. It's second only to St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican in size for churches in the Italian peninsula.
The Last Supper is in Santa Maria delle Grazie, a minor convent. Being a mural, it can't be moved into a museum, of course. More on that later in Paris. They were restoring it (again) when I was there. It narrowly escaped Allied bomb damage during WWII.
There was an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches in the Sforza Castle which I viewed. The works were under dim light to protect them from light damage.
In the night I waited in Milan Central for an overnight train to Nice. It was not a long distance to go so the train left around midnight so as to arrive at dawn. So I missed all of Liguria, but I visited that region some 20 years later. I made sure to spend all my lire and was down to my last 100 lire coin. I asked at a kiosk if it could buy anything with it but the lady shook her head.
So it was arriverderci Italia, and bonjour France.
Next must see city on my list was La Serenissima. Who would not think a city built on water special? It's the prototype, other cities with significant water courses are called Venice of the something or other. This is the Grand Canal, the major artery, looking out to sea so probably taken from the Rialto Bridge.
Gondoliers waiting for tourists. Behind them is the Rialto Bridge. Note the communist flavoured banner on the bridge. More on this later.
The Piazza San Marco, with tourists and lots of feathered residents.
Other sides of the square.
St. Mark's Basilica with the domes and its Campanile.
Closer to the sea is Doge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, from a fanciful idea of Byron.
A view of the bridge on the front and right of the Doge's Palace. Cartoline is Italian for postcards. 800 lire was about a dollar then.
Glass work is an important industry. There are many shops like this in the tourist district. Well, all of Venice is a tourist district.
These photos of a glass craftsman at work were taken later than the previous photo so I may have taken a boat trip out to Murano, where most of the industry resides.
An assistant helps attach a blob of glass.
Back into the furnace to fuse the glass.
A few finishing touches, è finito, another thing of beauty.
Then again, given this shop display, I may have simply attended a demonstration in a workshop on the main island, and not Murano. I bought a tiny glass bird as a souvenir, not wanting to be weighed down for the rest of my trip, and not rich enough to afford bigger pieces anyway. I don't know what happened to that souvenir since.
I stayed at the youth hostel on the island of Giudecca, so took ferries to the main sights. On one trip the ferry passed a festival organised by the Italian Communist Party. This seemed to me incongruous with the idea of dour communists. But then the views were magical around dusk so any party would have looked good.
Another episode from the hostel was about an uninhibited Swedish teenage couple. In the men's showers, the girl quickly stripped to her panties and joined her boyfriend in the shower. They were obviously having fun, from the laughter emerging from the cubicle. Another hosteller who had just come onto the scene asked me in confusion: Is this the men's?
A couple of last vignettes of Venice: There were persistent rumours that Venice was sinking, so the city was at pains to explain with this information poster that it wasn't that serious, yes there is subsidence, and yes water levels rise sometimes, depending on wind and tide, but no it isn't sinking. But 32 years on, with global warming, it quite likely is.
Some furry locals who didn't have to live outside the city, due to rising property prices from visitor demand. They are feral of course.
I think I did take a trip out to the affluent Lido, the famous sandbar, and the setting of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, but didn't take any pictures.
Of course, besides Rome, a visit to Florence for its art and architectural treasures is de rigueur. Here is the Ponte Vecchio across the Arno, the only bridge that is original. This picture was probably taken from the Uffizi.
Some of its treasures. I was quite observant in visiting all the famous museums on my first time. On later trips I was more selective.
This model of the solar system is probably from the Museo Galileo. How could I resist visiting a museum with artefacts from the beginnings of modern astronomy?
The Ponte Vecchio has shops selling handicraft and artisan products.
A (lunch?) break in a garden.
Another pretty specimen.
Pisa is a short journey away by rail. I remember walking through the town to reach Piazza dei Miracoli.
You saw this coming up. Everybody comes to see this. The tilt is due to soft ground on one side being unable to support the weight. Currently it is stable. The architects who added the upper floors made the pillars taller on one side in an attempt to compensate for the tilt. This means that the tower is actually slightly curved.
The story that Galileo dropped two balls of different weights to show that the acceleration due to gravity is independent of mass is probably apocryphal.
From Pisa I went to Siena, in a triangular itinerary. Recall that I had a railpass with unlimited travel. This is the Basilica of San Domenico. I don't think I had a special reason to visit it, it just happened to be convenient.
Closer view of stained glass window. Maybe the guide book had said that the windows were notable.
The exterior of the Basilica. I remember that it was a warm day.
Streets this old were still novelties to me at that time in my life.
Back in Florence again, and most likely early the next day, to beat the crowds, but still there were plenty of people. This is Michaelangelo's David of course, in the Galleria dell'Accademia.
This is the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria. You can see the Fountain of Neptune at the left edge. A plaque marks the spot where Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and burnt. I thought it was Giordano Bruno, but that was in Rome.
I think this is the gardens of the Palazzo Pitti given that the next picture was taken from the south bank of the Arno (most of the sights are on the north side).
The Arno is fairly wide here. Ponte Vecchio is where it's narrowest. Floods do afflict Florence.
And finally the facade of the cathedral, colloquially called Il Duomo. Unfortunately you can't see the famed dome in this view.
The hostel I stayed at is a villa several km outside Florence, requiring a bus journey. Despite the dilapidated look, I remember it was quite comfy due to its bucolic setting. It was popular and filled up with backpackers quickly. I remember turning up early to secure a spot.
The garden was in scruffy Italian style. There were the last two shots in the roll to finish it off. The next day I left for Venice. New city, new film.
