Well, it’s Chinese New Year time again and even though you’d think we’d be used to it by now, something always surprises us anew. We’re used to the incessant small incendiary devices being exploded at all hours of the day and night, some sounding like they’re just outside our window, the explosive force shaking us from our slumber.

We’re used to the curious customs that we seem increasingly to be taking on board, quite bizarrely, as we don’t have any belief system to back these behaviours up. For example, I’ve found myself hesitating to use scissors (cuts bad luck away) yesterday and today. I’ve also found myself not cleaning up stuff and taking it easy, but I can’t really tell if this is for Chinese New Year or just my usual built-in laziness!

We’re also used to the bone chilling cold, although it seems especially intense this year. It has only just dipped into single figures, yet just feels so much colder than the Italian winter temps we just experienced. How could this be? Apart from the high humidity, which makes it feel so much colder, it may also be a stubborn refusal by the locals to acknowledge that a cold (albeit fairly brief) winter actually does exist in Taiwan. The apartments are made to stay cool and don’t retain heat, the only heaters we can get are little blowy heaters, and people just pretend it isn’t really happening!

The one surprise we got this year was enjoying, to a certain extent, our third Chinese New Year family dinner. We received this very special invitation to join one of our neighbour’s families for this family only feast. Bessy cuts Cassy’s hair in her little back alley salon and she was keen for us to join them. We dragged ourselves out last evening (hence the slightly late blog) and made our way over with a bottle of Australian red and a little Murano glass picture frame from Venice as our small gifts. Bessy’s young adult kids, Eric and Nicole were good English speakers, but we found ourselves in quite a surreal situation at times, language wise. Abe was Eric’s Japanese friend, so I found my self speaking to him in Japanese, then translating bits (only little bits!) into Chinese for Bessy’s husband and his elderly Mum and then into English for Cass and the kids. It certainly kept me on my toes! Abe was a very interesting young artist currently staying as an artist in residence at Taipei Artists’ village. He showed us his portfolio with photos of his super sized wooden sculptures, many of which are self portraits of his representations of his childhood. The elongated limbs prompted me to tell him about Cassy’s dad’s long arms (so Chris reckons!) and he thought this was terrifically funny for some reason, but he could also have just drunk a lot of beer.

The “special and delicious” foods presented to us at Mr. Lee’s place a few years ago were actually a little less special and a little more delicious than we remembered, and we didn’t have any trouble selecting some items to fill us up, while remembering to leave the fish (another tradition) and trying to serve everyone else, even though we were the guests (yet another). After a while sitting around drinking Oolong tea and hearing about Bessy’s husband’s love for a Taiwanese style of Tai Chi, which he practices at some length every day, we wandered off down the lane home feeling extremely “local”!

Somehow, I managed to drag myself out of bed to tend to my annoyingly insistent alarm at 5 am on Saturday morning. This was an unusually heroic feat I’ve decided, as it was bitterly cold and also just a few short hours after I’d gone to bed. A group of us had celebrated the coming of our Chinese New Year break under the light and warmth of the space heaters at Wendel’s, our Erdingers somehow reducing us to a hypnotic state as we gazed into their amber depths… (or more likely, just like Abe, we’d drunk too much beer!). Anyway, the alarm signified a call to drive east for surf. I got to the coast after going through the 13 km tunnel and along various expressways, just as the light arrived and we ended up getting some really fantastic waves at the “Taj Mahal”, as we call it, a spot just up from Wushi Harbour. It was great to have a surf and a chat and some shared waves with Tobes, Danno, Andrew and Gary.

I managed to do the steps today after watching the Aussies struggle big time in the cricket one dayer and Cass exercised by ripping into a big clean of the house (against all sorts of Chinese New Year rules, I might add… “I’m not Chinese!” she said). Cassy has also continued a growing tradition we have here at CNY: she has cooked a massive pot of Mum’s famous chicken soup…best ever I reckon, after sampling some for lunch. Not resting there, she has also made a big batch of lemon butter which we’re slathering over fresh hot white toast in the frosty mornings: this holiday is already fantastic! Lots of book reading and TV series watching has been done and more of the same is planned, along with some surfing, steps, cinemas and restaurants as the week progresses. Photos: a rare visit to my lap by Virgil (there’s a lot to be said for this cold weather!), the surfer boys, Cass with all the family at our CNY dinner.

Righto, back into action. After a week off I can hardly get started again, it’s a good thing I don’t take many br5eaks I think! We celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary ion Friday, so I drove the car home from school and managed to find a space on Ker Qiang Lu till we were ready to leave about 6 o’clock. Cass was resplendent in her new Italian high boots and her “new” short skirt, which was an older high quality one she rarely wore and was taken up by the lady round the corner. She looked great, as usual, and I wondered why she hadn’t tried this look before…

The car drive down was smooth enough, but Taipei Friday night traffic meant that it took about an hour to get there, so I’m glad we left when we did as Lawry’s, the Prime Rib said they’d only hold our 7pm booking for 10 minutes. A U.S. restaurant chain which started in 1930 (which explains the waitresses and chefs attire: same as when it started) it only has a few outlets in the States and now a few more in Asia. It is on the 12th floor of the Core City Mall down in Hsin Yi that we frequented years ago as the then new and slick shopping plaza. The menu, décor, service is exactly modeled on the original and it was very classy. We had the famous Lawry’s spinning salad before our prime beef with creamed corn, spinach and Yorkshire pudding with a lobster tail on the side. Finishing with dessert (English trifle) and coffee, it was great celebration and exciting to be downtown on a weekend night in all the big city buzz.

On Saturday, I decided that enough was enough and we must find some pies! Jason’s supermarket has stopped importing Vili’s pies from South Australia for some reason, but I reasoned there just had to be a pie somewhere in a city this size trying to cater at the very least, for the expats increasingly loud voice in the culinary arena of the city. Sure enough, after some internet searching and some scouring of the local online versions of the English language newspapers, we found what we wanted. First stop way down south on the Nanshijiao line through Taipei Main then in a tunnel under the river to emerge in Yong He city. Can you believe we’d never made it to this interesting little offshoot of Taipei? Because of the natural barrier of the river, a lot of cool places are opening up as the locals seem to resent going “into town” for their restaurants and entertainment. This was all according to Frankie, of Frankie’s Pies ‘N More, an affable and interesting owner and manager from South Africa. We got his set menu of a salad and juice with a home made pie, Cass had the curry vegetable and I had the pepper steak. They were fantastic!! We had a great old chat with him and took a few cards and promised to spread the word back at school.

Next, back across the river, change trains to head east and find “Pie Boy” in a lane off Zhong Xiao East Rd. This place was set up by a young New Zealander called David (!) and his wife (a local girl). David wasn’t there, but his wife served us up a set of minced beef pie and salad and drink. Cass had the salad and drink and I managed to force down another very hearty and delicious meat pie. My head was really spinning: two different and excellent home made pies within an hour in Taipei? It was just too good. The verdict is still out as we have some takeaways to sample from each outlet over Chinese New Year (different flavours) and then we’ll decide. We did have an “apple crumble” pie for tea last night which was scrumptious, so that might be just tipping things in Pie Boy’s favour at the moment! Anyway, I’m sure the research will get all the Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans excited at school tomorrow…
Sunday and I was up, literally before the crack of dawn to drive over to the surf at 5.50am! I haven’t been for ages and didn’t expect much after reading the rather forlorn predictions of the swell charts but….you never know! Of course, it was flat as a tack, but the sunrise over the mountains and then the sea was a treat to behold and I drove back feeling very refreshed. After the two hour drive there and back, I got back just to get the start of the cricket and Cass and I settled in for the day, first with brekky, then with magazine (me) and marking (Cass, of course) to watch a great last gasp win by the Aussies. We streamed it over the internet, our new connection being outstanding. I’ll go into this more next week, but for techies out there, we now have a warp cable LAN of 10M! This tripled and more our previous speed which was a very fast 3M.
Photos: spinning salad and well dressed waitresses and chefs at Lawry’s, two old married folk, Cass posing outside our two new pie bar finds!

We were old pros at this train taking business, but still really enjoyed a different journey through snow covered mountains and snowscapes straight from a picturebook. A stop in Bologna along the way and then to Venice, out of the station a few steps then the Grand Canal: freaky! After an inordinate amount of time figuring out which vaporetto to take, we opted for the number 1, all stops to San Marco job. It took a while, but allowed us time to acclimatize to all that water, all that beauty and all the fairytale romance that Venice just magically presents by being itself. It was almost too much to take in as we passed all manner of watercraft and palazzo after palazzo. Reality hit when we disembarked at San Zaccharia, just one stop past the square and I realized our hotel’s street wasn’t on the map I had! Off to buy another map, pinpointed canal and street, then we carted bags through a frigid late afternoon to our hotel. Ducking into one alley after another, crossing a few impossibly pretty little bridges and there we were at Locanda Canal.

During the 5 days we were there, we experienced some amazing things. After a walking archaeological dig and sculpture fest in Rome, a high end shopping and renaissance art romp in Florence, Venice turned out to be almost completely different again. While still Italian in every way, it had its own certain eccentricities. Was it the obvious, yet delightful total absence of cars in the entire city? Was it the absolute assumption at all times that you were, indeed, a tourist and in need of some service or product? Was it that the whole place had an almost surreal feel...Venice was almost its own theme park? We had a sense that not one local person was in the city except to run a shop or a restaurant, pilot a gondola or water taxi or secure a museum, basilica or gallery. It was a strange sense yet not an uncomfortable one: just really very different from anywhere else we’ve ever been. The almost indescribable beauty was overwhelming at times, like we’d been transported and plonked onto a fantasy movie set or into the pages of a romantic novel. The gondoliers pushing off walls with their feet as they negotiated tight turns on the back canals, water swishing and sparkling in a splintered yellow early morning or sunset light. The tiny arched pretty little bridges in the less traveled lanes and canals. Snow glistening on the roofs after a dunking on New Years Eve, chunky squares falling off as the chimneys heated up and started smoking. Tiny snowmen left by children outside the entrance to popular galleries and icy slushy snow crunching underfoot as we made our way through bustling squares, small knots of people breathing plumes of steam into the air as they read the outside menus of bustling trattorias. The endless parade of people in the maze of streets, ducking in and out of shops and bars, comparing goods and prices, most seemingly destination free just enjoying the ambiance. The ubiquitous displays of Murano glass, trinkets to fine art, all glistening under dispaly lighting, the overfow of which flowed onto the cobblestones to give a cozy trail to follow.

Even though suffering from "Basilica bulimia" (a recently coined phrase from Emma and Catherine that we loved!)), we did still manage to make our way through the incredible St. Marks. From the heavily golden mosaiced ceilings to the pre Roman four bronze horses, the museum of artifacts, and the Golden Wall behind the main altar, the treasures were a sight to behold. We climbed the gallery and enjoyed the views from the terrace before investigating the church proper. After this we made our way up the campanile for the views which were stupendous, but we were disappointed to be ushered into a very boring elevator instead of being left to negotiate our steps! The square itself was larger than we'd imagined and of course held the extra romance of being trod upon by the likes of Byron and Cassy’s literary hero, Henry James. We braved the outrageous prices to have morning tea in Jame's favourite "Florian", kept exactly the same as it was in his day. We wandered in and out of his lunch haunt, "Quadri", on the opposite side of the square and even tracked down the palazzo where he stayed on the Grand Canal, the Palazzo Barbaro. It is now private apartments, but Cass stood in the doorway to have her photo taken in her erudite mentor's shadow.

The Palazzo Grassi housed a grand selection of Italian contemporary art, some of which was astounding and thought provoking, other pieces we thought were very derivative or just plain rubbish! An installment of rubber bands lit by lasers that pulled and pressed against each other in a darkened room was quite clever and freaky, while a giant plush 8 foot tall purple spider that the artist danced around was just weird. One piece that really stood out were 9 life size bodies covered with sheets (as if they were corpses) but made entirely of white Carrara marble...brilliant!

The Venice version of the Accademia promised more renaissance treasures, many of a particular and parochial Venetian flavour, but that suite me as my favourite, Titian, was a Venice boy. One marvelous rendition that had been butchered near the bottom to provide a doorway (!) was the "Presentation of the Virgin to the temple". There were lots more through the rooms and hallways and we spent some very enjoyable hours in there.

Peggy Guggenheim's old home, the low slung and beautiful palace on the Grand Canal is now home to a carefully chosen selection of some of the world's primo modern art. The fact that many of the paintings are hung in situ where they were when Peggy lived there adds further zest to their viewing. What to do but drool over room after room of the most perfectly crafted Picassos, Chagalls, Pollocks, etc. etc. A magic treasure chest of everything we love: we both enjoyed our renaissance experience, more than we possibly imagined, but to feast on these more familiar artworks was a cleansing and uplifting experience.

We went further and further up the culinary ladder the longer we stayed in Italy and Venice provided a succession of sublime meals, culminating in a special lunch on our last day of three courses and wine at an "Italy's best restaurants, 2009" entry: multiple Michelin stars material, it was exquisite.

Sad to leave Italy, but a little exhausted too, we caught a 3 am ferry to the airport, transferred Venice to Rome, then Hong Kong, then back to Taipei, 26 hours door to door. I must be getting old: I've had my first bout of jet lag ever this week....now I know how shocking it can be! Cass has been fine but I've sprung up at 2 am in the morning 4 days in a row. Oh, I forgot: Cass bought some super duper patent knee length leather boots to match her Florence jacket...very snazzy! Back to reality now, we're ready to re-discover Taipei's own peculiar charms. I won't write a blog this Sunday after all this...it's been more of an epistle than I thought it would be: if you managed, thanks for sticking with it!!

A whisper quiet Eurostar train, jettisoned us in class all the way to Florence, passing through little villages and interesting countryside along the way. The internet ticketing worked a treat, the inspector giving the all clear on board after checking our booking number.
Just a hop, skip and a jump from the station and we’d walked to the Duomo square to be greeted by the beautiful green and pink marble of the Duomo itself and the Baptistery. Our hotel was in the street leading off the centre of the square and we expected it to be down the other end. It wasn’t, rather it was just two doors down, with a view of the baptistery dome. Centrally heated and recently revamped, the room was large, clean and very comfortable. A quick reconnaissance mission found us heading to the river and straight onto the Ponte Vecchio and Cassy straight into gold jewelry and designer shopping heaven! We wandered the bridge back and forth, got our bearings and found out where the major sights were, ready for visits in subsequent days. The inner city or centro storico was virtually a car free area during shopping hours (pretty much 10am till 11pm) and we quickly got used to our pedestrian privileges on the cobblestoned streets and lanes. Christmas Eve was abuzz with shoppers and the vibe was happy and exciting, large bags emblazoned with designer names being toted by stylish, beautiful people. If Italy is the style capital of the world, Florence is the style capital of Italy, and don’t the people know it! Even shop assistants and ticket collectors were wearing Prada and Ferragamo, although we must take pride in the fact that not a day went by without us being asked, at least once, directions or questions in Italian by Italian tourists! I’m certain my massive nose and current flowing locks helped the image and Cassy’s usual grace and style meant she looked nothing like the tracky dakked tourist hordes…it was a crack up!
Christmas day in Italy was always going to be a non-event gallery/museum/sight wise, so we worked out a little walking tour of the city taking in as many as 8 churches…they’d be open for sure! We wound our way to the other side of the river then worked our way back. Along the way we saw great frescoes, mighty painted ceilings and a golden wash of religious artefacts so dazzling that we were almost becoming immune to the majesty of it all. Mum, you’ll be pleased to know that I “attended” 5 more masses than I’ve attended in the last couple of decades as 5 of the churches were holding a service when we entered. Cassy was most impressed as I made the sign of the cross at the right moment a couple of times: even in Italian the intonations seemed to drone on in a very similar manner! We then wandered round the Duomo region after checking the excesses of the Medici clan’s churches and basilicas before lunching on veal and tortellini and the obligatory half litre of chianti. Gelatos delicious for afters before attacking the hills outside the city to see a view over the city and heading back via a dirty outdoor David copy (still stunning) and the Santa Croce area. We checked out the good luck boar and touched his golden snout to ensure our return to Florence, much as we threw some coins over our shoulder into the Trevi in Rome. The Uffizi was our prime destination the next day and our pre-booked tickets saw us whiz past the assembled queue and in and away. What a feast of Renaissance gold we had! Bronzino portraits, Raphaels, my favorite Titians, Lippis and some rare happy Madonna and child by various artists were wonderful to linger over. The true highlights were Botticelli’s Venus, which still seems so modern to us, Michelangelo’s Assumption and Caravaggio’s Young Bacchus which was sublime. The stunning highlight for me however, was Caravaggio’s Medusa shield: a supremely powerful image so captivating I bought a postcard and a print of it in the bookshop afterwards! Pretty shell shocked by the Uffizi, we had a late lunch before clearing our heads with a 2 ½ hour successful search for just the right red leather jacket for Cassy, then nearly literally flew up the 414 steps of the Campanile as a frigid strong wind tested my vertigo to the limit up top!

Next day I was just so excited to see the David that I could barely concentrate on some of the other wonders we saw in the morning. We scaled the heights and narrow stairwells of the Duomo’s dome then crept into its crypt for frescoes and mosaics. The Museo Dell Opera was a revelation behind the Duomo as it had on display treasures unlimited including the “Gates of Paradise” (as described by Michelangelo), the original bronze doors made over 50 years for the baptistery by Ghiberti, his life’s work. Michelangelo’s tortured masterpiece, the self damaged Pieta, was Cassy’s favorite, the damage very well repaired. My quirky fav was John the Baptist’s finger of all things! A quick trip back downtown to see some carved and special Michelangelo "graffitti" scratched on the wall of the Pallazo Vecchio...exciting to think, "he woz 'ere"
Next to the Accademia for David. I was as excited as a little kid as we again used our booked tickets to wash past the lengthy line and enter. David has been washed down in the last few years and restored anew and of course was absolutely mind-blowing. Nothing really prepares you for this type of brilliance. We spent a long time admiring from every angle, and highly illegally, I even managed to click off a shot or two. We managed to tear ourselves away long enough to study and admire Michelangelo’s four other works in the lead up hall: the unfinished and powerful stagione series, unfinished as he was called away for a little job on the Sistine chapel! I can’t describe this David experience adequately, so won’t try to continue. The glitzy shops in the Tournbuoni and the Baptistery’s gilded mosaic ceilings were great, but not really in the same league after this…I had to go and have a good lie down!

An unexpected pleasure on December 28 came from a cultural and culinary perspective. The Palazzo Pitti provided a slew of some magnificent Titians and Raphaels, along with the odd Botticelli and the one creepy Caravaggio cupid. Cassy was fascinated with the intricate inlaid marble and precious stone tables in every room as well: so detailed and fine that they looked painted on. Amazing rooms in colour themes presented themselves for oohing and aahing all the way through the palace. We tried to find a recommended small restaurant nearby, couldn’t, yet stumbled on what must really be the best pizza in Italy, at least the very best we ate (and I ate a LOT!). Gusta pizza had no table service, no English, no plates (pizzas were served on a piece of cardboard), but the most salivatingly delicious fare one could imagine. Wow! A well kept little secret in the back streets over the river and the local buzzy crowd seemed very amused at our presence. A last walk across the Ponte Vecchio saw the purchase of some beautiful semi-precious stone and gold half hoop earrings for Cassy and we wandered around a bit at night bidding a fond farewell to another delightful city. Up early before we had to catch our train to check the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe museum. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to this, but I enjoyed it immensely: these shoes are works of art. Sofia Loren's, Audrey Hepburn's and Marilyn Monroe's featured, but all of them were interesting. You can imagine what a highlight this was for Cassy! Venice beckons…looks like yet another instalment.

I’m finding it rather daunting to begin this blog entry, my first for 2009, as there is just so much wonder to address. Italy revealed itself as a beautiful treasure trove of architectural beauty, artistic marvels and food and drink sublime. We were astonished at her beauty, helped by perfect weather and everything going without a hitch, including planes, trains and accommodation. Rather than timeline the trip though, I’ll try to paragraph the art/museums/galleries and the architecture/general sights/food for each city as I go. Ready? Here goes…

Rome’s iconic and well known ruins and semi ruins were a massive highlight. I had an awesome moment when we trekked out after settling in to our uber-chic, yet tiny Roman apartment on the first afternoon. Topping a rise in a side street and seeing the Colosseum in the golden afternoon sun was a sight I’ll never forget. We joined a tour on spec for the Colosseum and adjoining Palatine Hill and Roman Forum, run by a perky intelligent young Aussie girl! We even wandered in to the lightly opened Augustus’ house on Palatine, only opened for the first time 5 months ago, frescoed and beautiful. We were just blown away by the majesty of the Colosseum and the Forum and found ourselves making detours enroute to other attractions in the next 5 days just to catch another look or wander through again, soaking up the sun, checking the famous Roman ruins cats. The Pantheon was so old and intact we could barely wrap our minds around it. The famous hole in the roof was there and we were ushered out as a service was about to begin, lingering in the shadows for a few precious minutes just about alone in the space…an almost religious experience! Circus Maximus just a big park now still hinted at former glory in the shape of the terraces and you could just about still hear a 300,000 strong thundering crowd and the hooves of chariot pulling horses. Piazza Navona, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, Tiber Island with remains of a huge marble ship, Castel St. Angelo and even catching a train out of town to see Mussolini’s much loathed but strangely attractive “square Colosseum ” were other highlights. Campo de Fiori was bustling and the Roman market saw us donate money to help the stray cats who live there. We even visted the famous "talking" statue. St. Peters provide yet another “take your breath away” moment, the sheer size and majesty of the place astounding, let alone the first of many “walks” to the tops of domes and bell towers that we undertook! Everywhere we turned in the 5 days, there was something more to see. We quickly fell in to the Italian routine of ducking into trattoria, osteria or wine bars for a quick standup macchiato, maybe a croissant, Panini or calzone as well. We were treated to a list of special “local” eateries by our Roman apartment’s owner, Alessandro. The “best pizza in the world” at Paino in the golden circle near the Pantheon we discovered to be only 2nd best, but more about that later, Taverna Romana, the Mum and Pop restaurant where we had to queue to get in, had a succession of mouthwatering treats that made all other Italian style restaurants in foreign countries pale badly in comparison. We had no bad meals in Rome: some were sublime and some merely excellent. We estimated we walked up to 20 km a day criss crossing Rome (and the other cities), and we both actually lost a little weight over the 15 days…that’s one way to offset that rich Italian cooking!

Churches, galleries and museums all provided such a rich tapestry of sights and experiences. We used tips from our little guide books, tips from friends and colleagues, including our American Italian neighbours (straight upstairs) who own a villa in Tuscany, as well as some detailed and excellent tips from my cousin Catherine. She and Emma had recently returned, so we sought out all they recommended and were never disappointed. The Vatican and the Sistine chapel are obviously must see highlights. We are a little “guide averse” normally, but were pleased to team up again with our intelligent and articulate Aussie girl Hannah, who led us most expertly through the Vatican and on to St. Peter’s. Cassy was delighted to view Raphael’s famous “School of Athens” and the Sistine ceiling restoration, completed in 2000, meant the dark images available until recently are no more. As bright and fresh as when they were painted, Michelangelo’s masterpiece was a real spectacle and by some quirk of fate, the normally oppressive guards were allowing all and sundry to take non-flash photos…wow! Michelangelo’s masterful Pieta in St. Peter’s was just delicious in its representation and we had trouble peeling our eyes from it. It was so wonderful to take in these sights with just a few others (relatively speaking): we don’t think we could enjoy it half as much with the summer hordes. It seems sacrilegious to gloss over all the great art we saw with such scant attention, but I must. The Capotoline’s Caravaggios and Titians along with Marcus Aurelius in muscular bronze stunned us. The Crypta Balbi, San Clemente and the Trevi theatre excavations were akin to an archaeological dig as we wound our way down through 4 levels of living, current structures to Renaissance buildings to medieval lodgings, down to Roman chapels then further to pagan altars and living quarters on occasions….stunning stuff! Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme was a sleek and expensive display of some intricate mosaic work, sculptures of power (including my second all time fav of a resting boxer: of course “David” is number one!) and beautiful frescoes. Michaelangelo designed cloister over the road had an almost modern feel, while the gild dripped Galleria Doria Pamphilj housed, amongst other treasures, two Caravaggio par excellence and some rooms which Cassy would be very glad to live in! A tiny church near our apartment, St. Peter's in Chains, had Michelangelo's Moses, which we visited twice, the second time we had the whole church to ourselves!I could go on and on and on but (I already have!). Looks like this one will be in more than one installment: I’ll write about Florence and Venice in the next day or two…
Photos pretty much speak for themselves I think: these 15 are from more than 150 taken in Rome alone!