Boboli Gardens, Florence

I used the beautiful papers from Club Scrap for this layout. Even though it is not to evident in this layout, the paper actually has a garden layout, which though perfect for this page, required a lot of hand wringing on my part because it felt like a crime to cover it up! But then I have this problem with all Club Scrap papers!

Excellent example of Renaissance style gardening, the Boboli gardens were laid out in 1549 for the Medici family, who then had bought the Palazzo Pitti. Starting from the palace, the gardens are laid out symmetrically uphill. It is very enjoyable, but hard work, walking along the cypress lined avenues, which lead to the top of the hill behind the palace. Ricky Singh commented that Boboli must have been a very athletic guy indeed! We climbed all the way to the top, where there is a museum of porcelains.

Florence, Italy

The Singh family was visiting with us. We took the train from Piacenza and our first stop was Florence. We were in a small but very nice hotel just behind the Duomo. Florence is, in my opinion, the most beautiful city in Italy. The first impact of the Duomo and the Baptistery leaves you speechless! The Baptistery, with its incredible bronze doors, is from the 4th century, the oldest building in Florence. Next time we will climb to the top of the famous dome, designed by Brunelleschi.

Florence was the home of the Medici family for many years. Between 1865 and 1871 Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Medici family was extremely rich and they patronized the Arts. Today many streets, churches and palaces in Florence are filled with examples of fine Renaissance work of the artists who flocked to Florence, and its wealthy patrons.

We walked into the Piazza della Signoria and immediately bought a famous Florentine ice cream. I winced at the price but this was an indulgence!! The line for the Uffizi was 4 hours long. So we visited the Palazzo Vecchio. We walked around this beautiful building with its amazing paintings, statues and frescos. We loved it! We walked towards the Ponte Vecchio. There were so many street entertainers, painters and other artists selling their wares, we almost could not walk. The Ponte Vecchio is a small covered bridge across the Arno River. It is lined on both sides with jeweler’s shops, famous for their work through the ages. We took a fun bus ride to see the city with microphones that were not working very well. But we managed to understand some things about the history of Florence.

We wanted to see the Palazzo Pitti but because it was Monday, it was closed and we settled for the Boboli gardens instead. A word of advice – avoid Florence on a Monday! I am so sad because I wanted to show you the ‘Madonna of the Chair’ by Raphael, my favorite painting of all time. The original is in this building! This is a beautiful city that needs to be visited many times to discover all its beautiful art and history.

Roman Forum & the Capitoline Museums, Roma

I copied the layout style from a publication. I liked the rounded edges - they are coming back in style! Who knows, soon we may be using our decorative edge scissors again!?!

Here we are at the entrance to the Capitoline museums. Among other interesting things we saw lots of statues with their penises cut off – on orders of some extremely holy Pope in the 15th century. We saw a huge statue of Marcus Aurelius on a horse. Also here are the famous Lupa or She-wolf of Rome and the Spinario, an exquisite statue from 1st century BC, of a little boy removing a thorn.

From the back of the Palazzo dei Conservatori w had a fabulous view of the Roman Forum, which we had already visited a day earlier.The Forum was the centre of Ancient Rome. Today one can see ruins of basilicas, temples, Arches, which the Emperors built to glorify themselves and other important buildings. The excavations are still going on at the Forum. As we walked around we could imagine how grand and important the city must have been two thousand years ago. The buildings are huge and the size of the columns makes one wonder how they managed to move these behemoths without any machinery. Ricky is standing in front of the Arch of Titus.

Piazza Navona, Roma

Keeping the layout really simple with Basic Grey and a sticker about travel.

Our hotel Raphael, all covered in ivy and full of antiques, was just off Piazza Navona. So we spent a lot of time there, especially while we waited for the Singh family to join us. The Piazza Navona is in a Baroque style.

The Piazza has Bernini’s famous Fountain of Four Rivers, among other beautiful fountains. I was amazed to see Ganges depicted as a male. There are many cafes around the piazza where is the food is really good. And there were many painters and street performers. Lively and colourful, it is the perfect place to spend a few hours.

Indian Dress

Ricky was dressed up in his Indian clothes for 'Indian Day' at school. Eshana looks so pretty and Jamie is simply adorable! I tried getting one photo of him and me together, but Ricky is always pulling faces! And of course, Joe had to stick his testa in from behind ... LOL! Not very pleased with the title fonts & style, but it'll have to do.

Scrapbooker Friend

A scrapbooker friend, who I have known on the internet for years, finally crosses the oceans and comes to Hong Kong! We had two dinners together before they continued on their trip to China. All papers and stickers are from Daisy D's. The sentiment stamp on the chipboard is from Club Scrap.

Hongkong Disneyland

Finally we all managed to visit Hong Kong Disneyland. It is pretty small and even with inclement weather we managed to see it all in one day. Two layouts using the same photos, one for DD's & the other DS's album.

Viguzzolo