Two weeks in France & Italy

I just got back from two weeks in europe. Business Obects, the company I work for until Aug 31 of this year, is offering to relocate those of us who want to continue our employment with them, to Paris. So they took all of us who are interested, and our spouses/significant others, to Paris for a week long "familiarization" trip. There were 11 of us who accepted the invitation.




Since I never get to see my spouse, I took an extra week off and Camila and I flew to Italy to backpack our way from Venice to Rome. We called it our honeymoon, since we never got one. I was very nervous about this, because I've never done anything like it. Camila has never traveled outside Brazil, so I would be soley responsible for all the planning, something widely acknowledged as NOT my strong point.




But I pulled it together and we had a GREAT time. During our first week, we fell in love with Paris. It was the cleanest, most efficient, beautiful city I've ever seen. And contrary to what I had heard, the french people were warm, friendly, and kind. We never got a cold shoulder from anyone. On the contrary, I had some very interpersonal experiences with total strangers. For example, one day as Camila and I were walking to our hotel, an elderly woman stumbled out of her smart car and grabbed me by the arm, asking me to please figure out how to make it go. She couldn't get it in gear, so she had me help her not only get it in gear, but get it out of the tiny parking space she was boxed into.






Even though we were there with Bobj, we had a lot of time to ourselves to roam and site-see as we pleased. We weren't as voracious as some of my collegues about the site-seeing, but we still saw a LOT of sites. I learned about myself that I am NOT a lover of art. Neither is Camila. We breezed through the Louvre in about 2.5 hours! It was all we could stand.






On the other hand, I LOVE the architecture in Paris. Italy too. It's old, strong, built to last, and invokes an emotional response (not the kind my front yard used to invoke..) I took a lot of pictures, many of them were of things not famous. Just things that looked cool and unique to me. In all, I took 937 pictures! I picked out my favorites though, and whittled the number down to a slim 348.

Paris is HUGELY expensive for housing. For example, a 1 bedroom flat with 670 square feet runs about $2300/month. Plus the euro right now is almost 1.6 with the dollar so living expenses are very high. This of course will all play a huge roll in our decision to move or not.






This is a video I took of a musician on the Paris metro. They would play for money. This guy was good, and in fact I found out that violins make my wife cry. See for yourself...









Italy was a whole different experience. The people were cold and in some cases rude. And because of all its many wars, its museums and cities reflect a lack of organization or a sense of self. Still beautiful though. We spent 3 nights in Venice, then took a train to Florence for the afternoon, then went on to Rome where we spent 2 nights. Rome was our favorite. We really got a sense of the greatness of the Roman empire, and its ferocious blood lust. We heard tons of stories by tourist guides and others about the brutality of the Roman empire. No surprise that it was the target of neighboring warmongers and looters.



Venice was romantic, with its winding streets and river canals. We didn't pony up the $120 you have to pay for a gondola ride, but still enjoyed plenty of romance. Our hotel upgraded us to their suite with a private terrace for free because it was our honeymoon. They also gave us a free trip to the island of Murano to see the glass factories and shops. Which my wife LOVED.

All in all we had a great time. Two weeks though is a LONG time to be gone. I actually think 2 weeks is too long for a vacation. But hey, I'm not complaining.







All 348 of my favorite pics are available on Picasa. Click here to see them.



Just a blurb about the camera I used on the trip, since I'm a huge fan of it now. It's the new Canon PowerShot Elph 1100. I had been stressing about which kind of camera to buy ever since I came back from diving in San Diego in Feb. I wanted something that could dive with me. So I was looking at digital SLRs but I didn't want something that bulky for everyday use. So I popped into Best Buy the night before I left and bought this one. It came out in January of this year, and seriously is the best investment I've made in a long time. I was initially worried that it wouldn't be worth spending an extra $100 (Currently $250 retail with a lot of other cameras selling at $150). But it didn't take me long to get over that worry. It gives you incredible control over so many aspects of the pics, it boots in under a second, and there is almost NO delay when you press the button. The quality of my pics speaks for itself. I am by no means a seasoned or talented photographer. Just a cam-ham with a good camera.