@Runner77
Since you started this thread, care to share some of your most memorable travel destinations with the rest of us?
I'm not as well-traveled as most in this thread.
My best trips were to Italy, where I studied Italian culture and language for a couple of months. I stayed in Florence and can't say enough good things about it. Everywhere you look there is something that wows you. Could be an old statue, streets of cobblestone, ancient buildings, several with yellowed and orange faded facades that blend so well with nature.
In Florence, I particularly enjoyed Ponte Vecchio, an old bridge (medieval) as the name suggests that houses several small boutiques operating from structures from another time and whose state is remarkably in good order. During the day, it's about boutiques. And at night, there is a lot of music happening on the bridge well past midnight.
I was fortunate during my time on Ponte Vecchio where I witnessed a couple getting married in the middle of the Arno river, where the bride and groom each made their way just below the bridge in their own boats, and a priest then joined them from his own boat. And soon after, the wedding party arrived, in a series of boats that were attached to each other to witness the wedding ceremony smack dab in the middle of the river. And once the priest had declared them married, the bride and groom left in one of the boats and you could see them motoring all the way to shore, whereupon they both embarked on a motorcyle and sped off into the night. Stunningly beautiful.
There are also the Uffizi Galleries where you'll find some of the most prized paintings in the world and from the best Italian masters, well worth an afternoon.
And I spent many an evening at Piazza della Signoria, a ginormous open space where there would be a lot of music, dancing, artwork, artisinal products and just watching people go by. It remains lively until way past midnight and the beauty of it is when the noise level goes down in the evening, you have guitar players giving performances in the corridors about the Piazza and the sound is out of this world.
You can see the giant statue of Michelangelo in the above pic, it's a replica of the real one that Michelangelo sculpted and that is kept in a remote, enclosed location.
Couldn't get enough of Italian espressos and trattorias. Florence is part of the region of Tuscany, which is known for its gastronomy.
When you go, you'll find out that they don't allow cars to the city, only taxis have the privilege. If you're renting a car, you'll have to dump it at a 24-hour underground parking, located in the perimeter of Florence and then call a cab to get you in.
The neat part about Florence is its proximity to several other points of interest that you can do as one day trips. One of them is the town of San Gimignano, where there are a lot of 12th century structures that time has been kind to. I understand that it's maintained its original charm as it was one of the few old towns that wasn't destroyed by WW2 bombers. Everything about it is enchanting.
I remember asking directions to someone in Italy and at one point, his instructions became quite complicated. So, when I looked at him puzzled at the intricacy of his directions, he said something I never forgot: "Don't worry about it. If you get lost, the place that you'll end up in, is going to be even more beautiful than the place that you intended to get to."
Truer words were never spoken. Literally anywhere you end up at, is eye candy. I can't say enough about it. Or maybe I just did.
