Re: Guided tour to Italy mid-September?

B Vaughan wrote:

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 11:36:23 -0700, "Ken Blake"
<kblake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

But the camera, on the other hand, is mine to
control. I can use it when *I* want to, and takes picture of things
*I* want pictures of--or not all if I choose.

I find that when I'm carrying a camera, I begin seeing things in terms
of how to frame them in a picture. I try to spend a good part of my
time without the camera.



I understand. I guess we're different in that regard.


A few years ago we
went on a tour of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome (you can get in only
with advance reservation and only with their tour guide). The tour
was given in French, and I know only a smattering of tourist
French--nowhere enough to understand her. But along with us on this
particular tour was a group of American college students and their
art professor. He translated the guide's comments for them, and we
were able to listen in. He also embellished her comments with some
of his own, and he was terrific. It was especially valuable in this
case because the Farnese is normally not open to visitors, so it was
difficult to get as much information in advance as we otherwise
might have.

My daughter wants to see the Farnese palazzo the next time she's in
Rome. It was for a time the residence of Queen Cristina of Sweden and
she's writing a book which is partly about her influence on early
opera. There's a frescoed ceiling in the Farnese that apparently
illustrates subjects found in operas that Queen Cristina was
associated with.

The trouble is that neither of us speaks any French worth mentioning.
I think it's odd that they wouldn't offer a tour in Italian at least.
It is their host country after all.


As I recall, when we arrived, we were given a choice of either French or
Italian. There were three groups on the tour, us, the American students
group, and a French couple. I think she was going to decide on either French
or Italian by vote, and since nobody had excellent Italian but the
professor, she catered to the French.

Interetsingly, even though she spoke excellent English, that language wasn't
a choice.

In this case it worked out fine. The professor was very helpful, but I would
have enjoyed seeing the palzzo even if had understood nothing of tour guide
said.

You know that you have to make advance reservations to get in? Do you know
how to do that? If you don't, let me know, and I'll see if I can find the
notes I had on it.

Also your dauther should note that you don't get to see all the rooms in the
palazzo--actually very few. I can't remember whether the one you mention can
be visited.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "National" Tours
    ... Giro: 11 Italian ... It's the Tour OF France, not the Tour BY French. ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Re: Vive la France!
    ... But no Frenchman ever tried to to such a thing in the Tour, not only in the last seven years, but never. ... While the Italian public tried more than once to obstruct foreign riders sometimes in a very dangerous way, in France it never happened. ... What's more, the direction has always done everything to convince the best foreign riders to participate to the Tour, even at the expense of the French champions. ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Re: Bicycle Tour Brussel to Genoa, Italy.
    ... If we cannot finish the tour in 7 ... On the Italian side, the rough equivalents are "agriturismi", and the ... the Po river basin. ... The Mediterranean coast should not yet be terribly busy with holiday ...
    (rec.bicycles.rides)
  • Re: PMD! - gets worse....... rasmussen booted out now.......
    ... out-of-competition doping tests since March 2006, ... Cassani, the Italian television commentator, stated that he had met the Dane ... Concerns over Rasmussen's failure to comply with out-of-competition doping ... harming a sport that I dearly love and it's harming the Tour de France." ...
    (uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool)
  • Re: French justice
    ... > The French justic acquitted him, it were the cops who were trying to frame ... I think you're wrong in thinking that the journalists of l'Equipe ... > have a great vested interest in finding fault with Armstrong. ... > hurting the Tour even more. ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)