Northern Italy - Lakes Como and Maggiore

Welcome to Nature Friday where we get to meet new friends and share a picture or two of what nature looks like around Blogville. Mama is back in Italy this week for Nature Friday. 

She promised me extra cheese this week for letting her borrow the blog.

I'm pretty sure I said, "I'm going to sneeze", but I'll see what I can do about the cheese, Rosy!

Today we're exploring the Lake Region of Northern Italy, just south of the Swiss Alps. I have gone light on the pictures because...you know, it's Friday.  Buuuttttt, there are 2 full videos to watch at your leisure.

One of our excursions was a beautiful boat ride around Lake Como.

We saw so many beautiful houses nestled in the mountains. George Clooney and Madonna both have Villas on Lake Como...

Unfortunately, George was busy and didn't come and say hello ;-).

Lake Como is the deepest lake in Italy, with a maximum depth of 1,345 feet (410 meters). Regardless of how deep, this was probably the most beautiful lake I have seen!

Here is a video of  both our time on Lake Como and a walk around the town Como:

After our morning in Como, we headed back to our hotel.

During our time in the lake region, we stayed in the small town of Baveno on the shore of Lake Maggiore. 

The Grand Hotel Dino, where we stayed, was the most luxurious of all the hotels we visited. 

They had gardens, waterfalls and even a few topiaries! 

Our other lake excursion was to visit a beautiful palace along with its gardens. In the interest of time, and Rosy's birthday week, I am going to save that visit for later this Summer.

Here is the video of our stay at Lake Maggiore:

Thanks for putting up with Mama's Italy hijinks, she'll be back in a couple of weeks with her visit to Milan and the leaning Tower of Pizza...

More importantly, stayed tuned Monday as we begin my Birthday week!!

We hope our friends get out an experience some nature this weekend!

Show us your nature! It can be flowers, your current weather, a scene out of your window, or maybe a picture from a vacation, walk or other journey! Any kind of nature picture will do! If you don't see a link below, click HERE  to go to our Hoppity Page.

It's the Little Things....

I am thankful for the little things today. 

     

Like pretty flowers....

....on my morning walkie.

Thank you to Maxwell and Angel Brian for hosting the

Thankful Thursday Blog Hop

Fountain Quail

Guess who is back at the fountains.....those darn Quails!! It doesn't matter how many times I chase them, they always come back:

Yeah, yeah...I guess they are kkkiiinnnndddaaaa cute!

We are joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the 

Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop this week!

Italy Adventures - Murano and Burano (Venice Pt 3)

Happy Italy Tuesday! Thank you for joining me as I re-cap our trip to Italy.  Rounding off our trip to Venice was a visit to view a demonstration of creating hand blown glass in Murano, and, later in the afternoon, to see all the colorful houses of Burano.

Our first stop of the morning was to the CAM glass studio, a beautiful shop featuring certified Murano blown glass products hand crafted by their glass masters.

One of their glass masters gave us a beautiful demonstration of how he went about making his beautful creations. Here he is shaping a Unicorn.

This is the finished product!

(Today's video, at the bottom of the post) will give you a better idea of his process)

Later that day, we visited the island of Burano.

Know for its colorful houses, I may have been a bit crazy with my picture taking. 

Luckily I have a patient assistant.

We had beautiful blue skies as a backgroud

How awesome to see this home's laundry blends right in with its coloring

Like most of Venice, there were no cars on the island, but they did have quite a collection of boats.

All the islands of Venice were so beautiful, but Burano was definitely the most colorful!

Below is more video of taxi rides, glass blowing in Murano, and Burano:

Thanks again for reading, I'll be back Friday with a look at the Italy's Northern Lake Region.

We are joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the 

Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!

Sisterly Couching

 SQUEEEEE!!!

"What's the big deal Mama?"

Mama always acts like it's something to celebrate when we are voluntarily sitting next to each other on the couch....

Silly Mama, we sit next to each other all the time during photo shoots!

We're also joining Comedy Plus for the 

Awww Monday Blog Hop!

Italy Adventures - The Quieter Side of Venice

Welcome to Nature Friday where we get to meet new friends and share a picture or two of what nature looks like around Blogville. This Friday Mama is back with some of her Italy stuff. I'm hoping that, in return for sharing my Nature Fridays with her, she'll get me a real pizza instead of the squeeky one!

Thanks again for being so understanding Rosy, how about we compromise and make sure you get the bones next time we order pizza??

 Today, we're gong to take a little stroll around the quiet island of Lido, where we stayed while visiting Venice.

During our travels, we were lucky enough to stay in a few family owned boutique hotels. These hotels were small and usually our group of 39 were the only guests. This was the case during our stay in Lido di Venezia, one of the islands of Venice.

We woke up to the most colorful sunrises....

The hotel itself was nestled in a residential neighborhood and featured a lush garden terrace.

 

They had an array of flowers including these beautiful daisies!

It was a beautiful place to linger over breakfast.

Our hotel was within walking distance of the local beach, Ed and I took advantage of an evening free of plans to check another body of water off of our bucket list!

We strolled past some of Lido's beautiful canals.

The one mile jaunt was filled with the, almost orange blossom, scented Japanese Pittosporum.

We passed this literal "party bus". It was filled with youngsters enjoying an evening cocktail (or 2 or 3 :-).

Before we knew it there we were, looking out over the Adriatic Sea!

Here is my complete video/photo collection, this also includes footage of our ferry ride back to the mainland (This is one of my shorter videos coming in at under 3 minutes ;-))

....and here is a typical view of the tired and happy looks on our faces after a long day of walking and sightseeing! Stay tuned next Tuesday as we wrap up Venice with a look at Murano and Burano!

Those sure were some pretty flowers and waters Mama. Not quite as pretty as this pizza tho. When did you say we were getting takeout??

We hope all our friends get out and see some nature this weekend!

Show us your nature! It can be flowers, your current weather, a scene out of your window, or maybe a picture from a vacation, walk or other journey! Any kind of nature picture will do! If you don't see a link below, click HERE  to go to our Hoppity Page.

July Thankfuls

 Happy July (well July 2nd)!

July is my most favorite month with so much to be thankful for.

First up is Independence Day, I am not too fond of the fireworks, but we do get the chance to taste yummy burgers and maybe a french fry or two! Gotta be thankful for those french fries!

Next up, Shark Week! Yes we do have to dress in silly shark costumes, but it is the one week during the Summer that Mama sits on the couch and watches the sharkies during the day. Guess who is thankful she gets the prime snuggling pawsition? 

Yep....ME!

Then there my MAIN reason that July is the month I am most thankful for.....

 It is my birthday month!!

This year, on July 20th, I'll be turning the big OH NINE! 

Let's get this pawty month started!!

Thank you to Maxwell and Angel Brian for hosting the

Thankful Thursday Blog Hop