Monday, September 7, 2009
Moving to Florence
Today marks the 30th day since we arrived in Florence.
It is about time I write something about our journey so far, - time passes and I forget; pressure is on!
I decided to start this blog mainly to keep a daily or at least weekly casual journal for our family to remember this big trip. It certainly comes with moments of great joy, stress, sense of discovery, incertitude and a broad range of other emotions hard to describe. It will also allow relatives and friends and anybody else interested to follow our crazy adventure.
In addition, I will be posting information about all things Florence, places, events, historical points of personal interest and things to do in this incredible city, which may be useful to others already here or traveling here in future.
About a year ago Heleen and I, after many talks about moving to Europe, decided to take the plunge! Julian, our 11 year old son, was finishing elementary school at Escondido in Palo Alto, California and we thought it would be a perfect window to make this move. Later, we thought, would be much more difficult for him to make this transition. Stefan, our 3 1/2 year old, was finishing his first year of pre-school at Stanford's Bing school and it would be an easy adjustment for him.
We are both strong believers that one of the best schools of life is travel.
Any way we looked at it, pros and cons, in the end it would be a positive thing no matter what.
A long lasting gift for our boys and for us. One big sad note for me though: Michis, my beautiful grown up girl, living and working in San Francisco now, would not be coming with us. She will visit us in the spring and we can't wait.
So, committed and without looking back, we set about planning the trip. Looking back, much more daunting than we thought: move of my office to a smaller location in Palo alto, closing our home and putting everything in storage, moving inventory of our greeting card business to storage, organizing all this under one roof of storage. Insane to think about it now, but we did it! in 3 very busy and stressful months.
August 16th we were sitting inside a KLM 747, with with two highly spirited boys and our dog Lupi in a big crate in the haul of the plane, on our way to Amsterdam. Our first stop in Europe, for a much needed little vacation and visit with family.
For anybody interested in bringing a big dog to Europe from the US, it is a fairly smooth process, at least as KLM handled it, just make sure you land with the dog at your final destination in Europe, otherwise you have to transport the animal somehow within the continent and there are no airlines that accommodate a large pet. The aircraft most airlines use within Europe are 737s and they cannot take a big crate in their cargo. we found out the hard way.
There are special services "door to door" that will pick up your pet-and luggage sometimes- and drive it to your final destination, thus freeing you to fly light and stress free! Of course this comes at a hefty price. the two services we contacted were:
Danny at www.petrelocator.co.uk his estimate was about US$2,400. The other was called Dieren Transport : www.vck.nl
In the end, Lupi was driven door to door by Jeroen and his buddy Goran.
Jeroen is Heleen's childhood friend Sandra's brother. This came about when we were having dinner one night and we mentioned what we were going to pay the transport service and Sandra's husband Dennis said half jokingly: I'll do it for a thousand Euros, then Jeroen offered seriously to do it and that was it! two days later, on the seventh of September he was at our door bright and early to pick up Lupi and our luggage. 15 hours later Lupi was in Florence! They all spent the night at a hotel, we flew, stress free, the next day and arrived at our apartment at about 1 PM. It could not have worked better. Jeroen and Goran were angels from heaven! They saved the day!
Suzanne Pitcher, from Pitcher and Flaccomio, the agency that helped us with our living arrangements, was at the apartment to meet us, accompanied by Baron Franchetti and his wife Ana. very gracious couple. It felt great to finally be in Florence! The apartment we are renting is part of Torre di Bellosguardo, a hotel that sits in the hill of Bellosguardo, one of the most beautiful areas of Florence. The views are stunning! hard to match.
In the 13th century, the tower was built by Guido Cavalcanti, a close friend of Dante and illustrious poet, as a hunting lodge; later confiscated by Cosimo de Medici who later lost the property to the Michelozzi family. Most recently, in the 1930's, it became the property of Baroness Marion von Hornstein Franchetti who used the villa as a gathering place for her artistic friends. Giovanni Amerigo Franchetti, her grandson, is credited with converting the villa into a luxury hotel in the eighties. The grounds and location are magnificent!
Three Weeks in Holland
One of the principal cities of this area is Alkmaar, which dates back to the 13th century and it is best known for its cheese market and festivals. It is a beautiful old city, full of narrow cobblestone streets everywhere.
Since the sixties and mainly in the nineties, there has been a spurt of suburban sprawl which has linked adjacent towns and villages to the city. One of these towns is Heerhugowaard, where Heleen grew up.
The town with its "main street" called Middenweg which pretty much crosses town from one end to the other and functions as its main artery, really feels likes a neighborhood of Alkmaar.
We all love this place! We rented this house that belongs to Sandra's aunt Joke and her husband Aad. Great people. He is an architect and the house we stayed at is his home, he designed and built in the 60's. Great house with a beautiful lush garden surrounding it on 3 sides. Lots of light and room. Very comfortable, it feels great here! First morning we wake up to the sounds of bells from a church nearby, roosters and peacocks from an animal park that our house fronts. On the other side there is this this incredibly lush park with meandering canals, wood bridges and weeping willow trees all over.
It is totally fairy tale landscape. Cows look very happy-I think that is why milk products are so delicious here. There are biking paths nestled among all this lushness that criss-cross the entire town and for that matter link every city, town and village in this country. It is an amazing pleasure to ride a bike here. This town suits me!
Open, green, lush flat land everywhere. The beauty of this landscape does something special to my soul.
We spent most days resting, sleeping in, visiting with friends and family and taking some rode trips in the near towns. We went to the new Heritage Museum in Amsterdam. Perfectly stunning! The conversion job from an old folks home to state of the art modern museum is masterful. The modern interior architecture work by Luuk Kramer, blends beautifully with the classic 18th century exterior. Graphics are top notch!
