Posts Tagged: Europe

After leaving Florence on my journey to Italy in June of 2008, my family and I drove to a small town in Umbria called Lerchi. About a 20 minute drive into the hills above Lerchi is an old farmhouse christened “La Dogana.” Nestled in the hills among the farms and forests of Umbria, La Dogana lies beneath the fortified town of Monte Santa Maria Tiberina. Monte Santa Maria dominates the horizon, its imposing silhouette overlooking the countryside in all directions.

I flew into Florence on a Wednesday afternoon in mid-June. Wrestling with jet lag, I went to bed early the first night after a delicious dinner at an osteria a few blocks north of the Arno River with my family. The next day, we strolled through the city and visited Santa Maria del Fiore, known as Il Duomo. We visited the baptistery outside the cathedral, and then walked into the church itself. Beneath the church we toured an ancient Roman town that had been on the site before the cathedral. Then we climbed the dome, which offered spectacular views of Florence’s rooftops.

Landlocked in central Europe, Switzerland is an eclectic mix of cultures. In the north, it is predominantly German-speaking, in the west, French. Parts of southeastern Switzerland are indistinguishable from Italy—they speak Italian, eat Italian food, and everything from the architecture to the landscape seems Italian. On my tour of Switzerland in the summer of 2006, I managed to see all three areas. Each had its uniquely unforgettable moments.

We flew into Bern. Though it’s Switzerland’s capital, Bern is a small city in the German-speaking region. The airport can’t handle jets, and the surrounding area is predominantly agricultural. We spent our first day exploring Bern and trying to combat jet lag.

During World War I, the northeastern Italian city of Cortina occupied a strategic region in the Dolomite Alps. A string of forts was built high in the mountains among extremely rugged terrain. To assist soldiers in reaching their posts, the army installed miles of iron cables and ladders through the rocky mountains above Cortina. Since then, the via ferrata (iron road) has been extended and opened to the public. I visited Cortina with my parents in September of 2006, when we spent three days exploring the via ferrata.