From the Inside Out

Israel! Yes, I will be visiting the Holy Land, the place of our Lord’s birth, later this year! I am so freakishly excited. Our church is sponsoring a 9-day trip in the Fall of 2010. The tour will start in Tel Aviv and end in Jerusalem. Highlights include:

• Mediterranean Sea and Joppa, where Jonah took his famous sea voyage
• Mt. Carmel, where Elijah had his contest with the prophets of Baal
• Sea of Galilee and Mt. of Beatitudes
• Baptisms at the Jordon river
• Cana, where Jesus performed His first miracle
• The plain of Armageddon
• Nazareth
• Jerusalem, including Mt. Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, Old City, Wailing Wall, the Upper Room, and Garden Tomb
• Bethlehem, including the church of the nativity and the cave stable of Jesus’ birth
• The Dead Sea

It will be so amazing to walk in the land that I’ve heard about my entire life. The land where Jesus lived, died, and rose again! The more I think about it, the more excited I get. I can’t wait!! Jerusalem has been on my list of “must visit” places for a long time (see my previous “My Top 5; Places To Visit” blog post), but because of safety concerns, I’ve always been reluctant to travel there.

I don’t think the risk will be any less in 2010, but I do believe there is safety in numbers and safety in going with an experienced tour company that has been successfully hosting visitors in the Holy Land for a number of years. Plus, if you have to travel with a group, what better group to go with than your church family? It’s much better than a group of strangers.

Normally, I’m not a fan of organized travel. I usually avoid it like the plague because I relish my freedom while on vacation. I want to choose where to stay, when and where to eat, and I don’t like having a pre-planned agenda every day. However, I’m hoping the benefits of group travel will outweigh those annoyances for this trip, especially considering the fact that I probably would never travel there on my own.

So, I’m overlooking my disgust for organized travel and focusing on the incredible opportunity that it offers me: the opportunity to visit the Holy Land, the opportunity to visit the most historic sites from the Bible, and the opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream.

Did I mention I was excited? Oh yeah, I can’t wait!!

We left Bellagio yesterday morning and caught a train to Milan. On the way there, we met three women — all from Texas — traveling together. I think it’s funny how you can go across the globe and still meet people who live in your own backyard. One of the ladies was from Flower Mound and another had a daughter who lives in Plano — go figure.

Anway, we arrived into Milan in the afternoon, took a cab to the hotel, and then went out to explore the city. It was a shock to our systems after the peaceful, slow pace of Bellagio. Milan is a lively, busy city, and it’s fashion week. Still, we had a good time walking around the streets, checking out the sights, and window shopping at all of the high-end designer stores. It’s a girl’s dream world — every major designer you can think of has a boutique here — and it’s all within walking distance to our hotel!

We had more time today to check out the key sites in the historic city center of Milan. We toured through the Milan Duomo (amazing), Galleria, and the Castle Sforza and gardens.

Here are a few highlights. For more, check out the Milan photo album.

Milan Duamo — 4th largest church in the world (seats 40K people) and it took over four centuries to build

Old meets new - view from the roof of the Duomo

On the roof - spectacular views here of Milan and the marble Duomo

Castle Sforza

The galleria, built in the 1800s

We got up early today, caught a boat and then a bus, for our journey across the border into Switzerland. Lugano is another town situated on a large lake that runs across both Italy and Switzerland.

At first I was concerned that it would be too similar to the towns we had already visited on Lake Como, but it wasn’t. Lugano had a flair all its own — it was a mixture of modern and historic. And it was sizably larger than any of the towns on Lake Como. It’s one of the largest towns in Switzerland in surface area.

First view of the city

The mountains, town, and lake of Lugano

Markets on the streets of Lugano

Bell tower of San Lorenzo and curvy streets

The funicolare, cable cars that take you up the mountains

Gorgeous day — we took the funicolare up to the top of Mt. Bre (on the right)

View from the top of Mt. Bre — amazing, huh?

Another view from the top

To see all of our fun photos from today’s adventure, look at the Lugano album.

Tomorrow: Milan!

Quick update today because I’ve got to get up early tomorrow morning for our day trip to Switerland (whoohoo)!

I woke up this morning and was greeted with a card and a few presents from Gary for my birthday. I opened most of the gifts before we left, but he saved a couple of the smaller ones for me to open today. It helps make the day more special, as if being in Italy isn’t enough (haha!).

We spent the day back in Varenna, exploring the Castello di Velzio and Villa Monastery. Below are a few pictures. For all the pictures from our adventure today, check out the Varenna photo album.

Castello di Velzio

Lovely Varenna - you can see the Castle on top of the hill. We climbed all the way up there today!

Having fun with the mirrors at Villa Monastery

The Villa Monastery — used to be an old monastery years ago

Streets of Varenna. You can still see the medieval influences all over this town. It’s so cool.

Back in Bellagio for my birthday dinner at an outdoor ristorante

Two major highlights from today’s excursion were Villa Balbianello and Villa Melzi. Villa Balbianello is located near the quiet town of Lenno on Lake Como. In days past, the only way you could access it was from the water, but now you can get there by taking a short hike through the wooded area that surrounds it. Once you get there, you are rewarded with amazing views and an exquisite villa with an interesting past.

View from the gardens at Balbianello

Posing with the statues

The Villa Balbianello

You may recognize some of the areas if you watched Star Wars II — they filmed a few scenes on the property

Remains of an old church that was originally on this land. A Cardinal bought the property, kept the facade of the church and built his villa behind it. It’s five stories tall and has 16 rooms!

Look familiar? They filmed the hospital scene from Casino Royale under this tree

After touring the Villa Balbianello, we stayed in the town of Lenno and ate a late lunch at one of the outdoor lakeside cafes. Leaving Lenno, we caught a boat back to Bellagio. From there, we walked to the Villa Melzi. Here’s a picture I caught on the way there. I accidentally hit the black and white setting on the camera, but it turned out pretty cool!

Another B&W picture in the gardens of Villa Melzi

The lake entrance to the villa

Villa Melzi

After the Villa Melzi, we walked to the other side of Bellagio to the point (or punta). From here, you can get some great views of the mountains and villages across the lake, especially when the sun is setting. We just hung out for a while enjoying the beautiful evening and the picture that God was painting in the sky.

Back in central Bellagio, we had dinner at one of the ristorantes in the village. The food was great, but the most memorable moment was when Gary got his pizza — cheese with french fries! I’m not sure if this is an authentic Italian dish or just something they cooked up for the tourists, but he loved it…haha!

More new pictures from today are uploaded to the Bellagio Photo Album. Check them out if you’re bored.