basilica – Chance Thoughts

Top 5 Cities (This Year)

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Marcus

Sail Away!

A friend said to me “Now that you’ve seen the world, tell me where to go.” The simple answer is everywhere. This year I’ve visited 30 cities outside the US. Most of them for the first time. None of them were terrible, not even Napoli. But some were definitely more amazing than others. Here are the top 5.

Köln
Sapporo
San Marino
Venezia
Prague
Firenze

(Yes, that’s actually 6. Read on to see which one stole it’s way into my heart and onto the list. Any city that repeatedly inspires that much delight can’t be denied a spot.)

Köln

“It’s even bigger on the inside!” (Not actually possible)

As your train crosses the Rhein and pulls up to the Hauptbahnhof (train station), an enormous monolith towers over you. It’s the Dom cathedral, it’s huge, and it’s so close you can’t see the top of it. It may not sparkle like Italian marble, but it dominates and amazes.

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An Italian in Paris

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Marcus

This blog post commemorates the Brill/Chance invasion of Paris in 2015…

I love visiting Paris. The three best parts are seeing the Eiffel Tower, speaking French, and looking at Monet’s paintings. I also really like the waiters. Ok, that’s four things. Cramming in Italian must be making me lose other skills. I mean, our brains have to get full at some point, right? Like when you can’t add any more songs to your iPhone?

So tall you can’t take a picture of the whole thing. (If you see one, it was photoshopped.)

It’s a joy to see the Eiffel tower. Not just up close. Everywhere you turn it pops up between buildings. (“Look, there’s the Eiffel Tower!”) The poor thing was supposed to be torn down after the world’s fair of 1890-something or other. Look, Italian has squeezed out my room for remembering dates.

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I Musei di Firenze

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Marcus

I hit 16 museums and attractions in the course of 4 days at the end of February. A friend came to visit for a week and that was a good excuse to overdose on culture. Which is exactly what we did, fueled by gelato and espresso.

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My Florence

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Marcus

Basilica Santa Croce (Holy Cross)

It only took a week for me to find my places in Florence.

In California I had my winery, my dance hall, and my pizza shop. Now I’m in Florence and I have my piazza (square), my cafe, and my pizza shop. Yes, good pizza is something I take great delight in.

I picked an apartment near the Piazza Santa Croce, whose basilica was begun in 1294 and finished in 1442. It’s huge and gorgeous, built with green, white, and pink marble. There’s a great big square in front of it, which is nice to hang out in when it’s sunny. I like to sit on a bench and study Italian grammar out in the fresh air. As an extrovert, the tourists milling around turn out to be very energizing.

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