[Idyllchat] Montalcino

[Lynanne]

Hi,

To address your driving concerns and seeing lots of art, I highly
recommend an Untour in Venice.

No cars allowed, just the vaporetti (water buses).  The land bus will
take you to Padua for the Basilica and the Sgrovigny (sp) Chapel (art).
The trains leaving Venice are great.  They take you to Verona (the
2000-year-old arena in the summer has opera), Florence (LOTS of art),
and Vicenza (again, lots of art and architecture), and many other
places.

Venice itself is teeming with art.  All the many churches, big and
little, have art on their walls and usually the ceilings.  There's the
Correr Museum, the Accademia, the Doges Palace, San Marco Basilica, the
church of the Frari, Scuola San Rocco - all have outstanding art,
sculpture, architecture, etc.

In the summer of odd numbered years Venice holds the Bienalle, an Avant
Garde art exibition in the eastern end, and all over other sites in the
city.

If you like glass art, the island of Murano is the place to go.  Your
water bus pass takes you there.  It also takes you to Burano, where the
painted houses are an art form in itself.

Hope this helps.

Lynanne
-------------
Visit my new online journal, or web log (blog) (updated with posts from
me while in Venice) at: www.lynanneg.blogspot.com
-------------
 
On Thu, Jul 13, 2006, 2:49pm j.gill wrote:

Dear idylltourists,  We are notg  particularly experienced
travellers (England, France, Greece) and  are initmidated by the
thought of driving around northern Italy.  We are interested in art
particularly and wnat to visit the usual art destinations for tourists
plus some that are  off the beaten tour track--e.g. Piero's "Legend"
in Arezzo.  

Our question is this:  Has anyone combined a "regular"  escourted
tour, say of Tuscany and perhaps Venice, with an Untour experience of,
say, five days?  Is the driving  in Italy difficult?  Is a plan
like this one practical?  Does anyone know of flexible tour plans that
might fit our wishes?
Any and all advice will be much appreciated.
Daddo500@aol.com  (j.gill)