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africa to italy The film Nowhere in Africa showed me another side of World War II. Before I saw it, I knew that some Jews had escaped Germany before the Nazis started to move them into ghettos, but I had no idea that some of them went to Africa. This may have been something of a minority, but that didn't take away from the story for me. Watching a family of three, a father, a mother and their daughter adjusting to a whole new life was interesting if not completely new to me. I've always loved Out of Africa and the Isak Dinesen books that provided the source material for the movie. Seeing Nowhere in Africa, I saw some of the same things that Karen described and experienced when she was there. ... On tonight's episode of Globe Trekker, Ian Wright made his way around the Tuscany region of Italy. Since I've only been to Venice, I had to watch and see what he had to say about that part of the country. According to the official web site, here is where he goes and what he sees in the episode. He starts his trip in the birthplace of the Renaissance, the stunning city of Florence, where he marvels at its wealth of art and architecture before journeying north to the small town of Carrara. It's here that Italy's best quality marble is quarried and it's been a magnet for sculptors for centuries. Then it's south to Vinci, birthplace of the ultimate Renaissance men, Leonardo da Vinci, to take a look at the designs of one of history's greatest minds. Then it's off to the Chianti region for wine sampling and a stay in an agritourismo farmhouse before a visit to one of Tuscany's biggest tourist draws, the Medieval hilltop town of San Gimignano. He takes the train south to the wonderful Medieval city of Siena where he witnesses the amazing Palio horserace around the main square. Then it's south again to the wild region of Maremma, across the water to the popular island resort of Elba and north on the final leg of his trip to Pisa where he finds leaning towers, regattas and chariot-tugging locals. Out of all those places, I think that the one that impressed me the most was San Gimignano. All of those towers were amazing and I can't say that I have ever sen anything like it in Europe. If I do ever make it back to Italy, that place would be near the top of my list of places to visit. |