Warm 2024 Winter Holiday Wishes

**Timmy The Snowman** In front of the **Berliner Fernsehturm (TV Tower) at Alexanderplatz**

Happy holidays! As you can see, I’ve sent out my holiday card REALLY early! The reason why is because since last year, I’ve started a new annual tradition (for myself) where every December, I will spend some time in Italy. Last year, it was 16 days in Rome, but this year, I’ve decided to discover other Italian cities I have not visited and will revisit a couple of my favorite cities. But the reason why it’s important for this holiday is that I will be adding new photos as I travel through Italy, and you are welcome to come on back to see the photos. So bookmark this page or scan the QR code (how tech nerd am I right?? Haha) and join me on my December Italian venture!

I just wanted to lay out the context, so you know there’s much more to come on this page!

Back to the main purpose of this page. I want to wish you and your family a wonderful winter holiday season. I hope you make a point of spending some quality time with your family and closest friends. AND, I hope you do think about reconnecting with some people who you have not chatted with in a long time because (as you’ll read below), it will be absolutely wonderful for your mental health. Spend more time with family you’re most connected to, have thoughtful conversations with friends who are closest to you, and reconnect with those who were meaningful in your life in the past to help improve your mental health; and theirs! I promise that you will not regret it!

Warm wishes,

Robert

P.S. I adopted a new travel companion who you will meet as I post images below. Timmy, the Snowman, and I are happy to have a new travel companion joining us on our global adventures. And a HUGE thank you to Stacey (Petee Penguin’s mom) for making this adoption to happen over the summer; I want you to know Petee is now a part of a loving global trotting family.

Petee Penguin’s Adoption Photo - location: SF Loft

Here’s a brief recap of my 2024, my year of re-connection & connection:

Reconnecting with friends I haven’t seen in over 15-20 years!

Spent some time farming with Rick on his farm in Montana (see photo below)
Opened our 2000 time capsule with Tara, Stacey, Karin, Jamie & Shun (see photo below)

Connecting with Master Artists or historical Leaders

Walked the streets of Rome where Julius Caesar walked
Hung out in the bedroom of Vincent Van Gogh
Walked through the home & art studio of Rembrandt
Spent time photographing the waterlilies of Monet’s pond and walked through his the many rooms of his home.
Photographed the same Grand Teton Wall scene that Ansel Adams photographed way back in 1942
Walked through the Christopher Columbus family home in Genoa, Italy
Explored the family home of Michelangelo in Florence, Italy

Here’s a list of the cities I visited in 2024

Rome, Italy
Naples, Italy
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Brussels, Belgium
Berlin, Germany
Colmar, France
Strasbourg, France
Paris (my 3rd home, thx to my cousin)
Whitehall, Montana USA
Butte, Montana
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Sacramento, CA
Florence, Italy
Cinqueterre, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Sanremo, Italy
Aix-en-Provence, France
Dijon, France
Arles, France

As you can see, this has been a pretty big year of reconnection and global trotting. It’s a continuation of my an “extreme work from home” experience; in reality, it’s more like work from anywhere as long as I have my laptop and an internet connection. My goal is to prioritize life and de-prioritize the concept we call ‘work’. Live, laugh & love life; see the world and live happy.

Farming at Rick’s family farm in Whitehall Montana (haven’t seen him in over 20 years!

Stacey, me, Tara & Karin in Sacramento (at the Nye mansion) just before opening our time capsule created in 2000. We were supposed to open it in 2010, but finally made a point of getting together to open it this summer. We hope to create another time capsule in 2025, 25 years later! Wow! We’re OLD!

Petee Penguin’s New York City Adventure

Petee Penguin’s first adventure around New York City (NYC). He was in his element in Time Square (left) and spent hours looking at all the NYC postcards and didn’t buy a single postcard! (2nd from the left). Petee just really loved the double Empire State Building (3rd image) but was a bit nervous about going to the top so we stopped by the best Halal Guys street food vendors for a nice combo platter for only $11.00 (USD).

Stepping out of the Port Authority bus terminal, Petee wanted to pose for a photo in front of The New York Times building because for some reason, Petee just love reading news papers! He just loves getting the ink smudges on the tips of his flippers. Such a smart kid, he just enjoys reading news all day, every day. Petee was bobbing and weaving down 42nd street, but had a second to take a quick snappy just outside the exit of the subway. We strolled down to 42nd and 5th Ave so Petee can look at a couple of books in the NYC public library. He didn’t check any books out this time, but was so tempted! After that, we walked up 6th Ave and shot a photo in front of the famous Radio City Music Hall; one of these days, we’ll check out the Rockets! Maybe for his 1st birthday in 2025.

Petee Penguin in Paris

Bonjour Paris! I want croissants now s'il te plaît (please)!

Bonjour from Paris! Petee in Paris 2024 - Petee went hyper tourist in Paris, stopping by Montmartre to do a little shopping, and on day 2, he took a 1 hour 23 minute walk because he was really excited about seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time EVER!!! He did run into Mona Lisa while shopping. He really loved Mom’arte..

Can I sell this banana art for more than $6.2 MILLION dollars?!

Petee Roaming Around Rome

Petee found some new Italian designed electric tiny mobiles which is JUST about the right size for what he needs to cruz around Rome. He stopped by the Coliseum to see if he could find any modern day gladiators to get him hyped up about Gladiator II. And on the way to getting some gelato, Petee ran into Caesar, well, at least his statue. This was just a quick first day stroll around Rome. More to come…

Starting on the left, you can see Petee posing with the guards at the Altare della Patria (a pretty impressive monument in Rome, although most Romans do not like it.). And in the shadows, you can see Castel Sant'Angelo behind him in the second image. The sky was beautiful blue with lightly dramatic clouds; perfect for a day of photography around Rome. In the third image, Petee posed in front of a pretty old building to his left in a fairly typical Roman neighborhood. The destination was Vatican City for the day and you can see St. Peter's Basilica just behind Petee in the last image on the far right. Petee was really craving some Italian food, so we stopped by an outdoor restaurant to have some fettuccine al ragu bolognese, which was yum, yum good!

Here are a few images of Rome without Petee. He was taking a break from posing for photos, so I took a few snappies capturing some textures and beautiful overviews of Rome. Starting from the left, is the Pantheon with dramatic clouds. The second image captures a very narrow street in a neighborhood just near the Pantheon. The third image shows a nicely aged, weathered and torn poster along one of the main streets of Rome (sorry, I didn’t take note of the exact location). And the last image shows a nice rooftop level view of Rome, shot from one of the top levels of Altare della Patria, which has 196 steps! It’s a nice workout just to walk through the Altare della Patria, so I highly recommend it.

One of the first images of the Pantheon captured the first night after I arrived in Rome.

Petee continues his tour of Rome, the left image was shot at the top of the Altare della Patria. The second image gives you a sense of the worn out, texture of a Roman wall with mailboxes and cream panel (not sure what the panel is for). Petee saw that horse statue and wanted to take a photo with it as we continued up the stairs of Altare della Patria. The last shot is at one of the many shopping gallerias in Rome, and as you can see, there’s a huge Christmas tree because tis the season.

“Rusted Roma” is the title of the first pic on the left, I love the color combination between the rust and the green, there’s just something about it. The second image is of Petee in front of the Spanish Steps, he was stretching a bit before climbing the MANY steps up to the top! The third image is of the Castel Sant'Angelo and its reflection without Petee in the shor because it’s just beautiful. The last image is of Petee strolling along the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

Just to break up the color collection, I wanted to drop this black & white image I call “Reflection of the Cross” (do you see it?).

It’s a rainy day in Rome as you can see in these images; well, at least you can tell from the third and 4th images because of the umbrellas. I just love the texture and color pallet of the first image. In the second image, Petee posed in front of the Pantheon in front of the HUGE crowd! It was CROWDED!

You can see in the first image on the left, it is so crowded in front of the security entrance to the Spanish Steps. There was actually a religious event just below the Spanish Steps, but since they were speaking Italian (that’s my assumption), I had no idea what they were saying. The second image is of Petee in front of the Trevi Fountain, he’s a bit backlit, so you can barely tell it’s him, but I’m sure you can still see it. The last two images are of the Saint Peter’s Basilica & a shot of the Via dei Fori Imperiali looking towards the Colosseum.

Street art found near the Pantheon. It may have been sponsored by Nike (or not).

In this collection, you can see the Colosseum from multiple angles and an image of Petee in front of a busy typical narrow street in Rome. More crowds of tourists; but not TOO crowded.

Here’s a few more snappies from the last full day in Rome. Starting on the left, that must have been one of the very first Vespas which has seen it’s share of weathered days. As you can see, the clouds were dramatic and in the right places in the second and third images. Just behind the angel on St. Angelo Bridge, you can see the deep blue sky framed by dramatic clouds. And you can see the reflection of the drama in the Tiber river with St. Peter's Basilica seemingly as the source of inspiration for the drama. The last image is of Petee looking at the available Vespa scooters to rent, but was concerned about renting one of the bright red scooters because it’s a bit too flashy. But it is beautiful! And it goes well with Petee’s black & white color scheme. :)

This is a snappy I shot as I was strolling towards the Colosseum (you can see it in the center at the end of this road).

We found the college part of town where all the artsy graffiti was all over the walls of the shops and apartment buildings. It was literally just on the other side of the tracks (railroad tracks). And I felt like throwing in one of my favorite snapshots of the Pantheon with the bright moon to break up the graffiti images.

No, I did not take that hat! It was way too big for Petee, but it was worth taking a quick snapshot as the guy walked by in the background. I love all the graffiti in this area, it really adds character to this part of Rome, adding a modern vibe. And the Trevi Fountain image was to help add the Roman classical vibe to this set of images.

Petee wanted to hang out by the Mediterranean Sea

Cinque Terre, Italy

As we walked from the train station to the rented apartment, the sun was on it’s way down behind the mountains to the right. This set of images captures the dramatic clouds and the calming energy of that evening as we experienced our first evening in Monterosso, one of the five Cinque Terre towns nestled in the side of the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean see.

Continuing our walk to the rental and the third image from the left is a shot from the apartment out bedroom window. The wifi did not really work, which was great since it forced us to enjoy the quiet energy of the city instead of worrying about that ‘work stuff’. :) Any excuse to say, “sorry, I wasn’t able to work.” :). As a side note, Cinque Terre is usually VERY crowed, full of people, but since we went off season, there were VERY few tourists in town, so we pretty much had the entire town to ourselves! As you’ll see in the next few sets of images, Cinque Terre feels like what Disney wants to create at Disneyland, but REAL! If you decide to visit, we would highly recommend trying to go off season so you can truly enjoy the experience instead of fighting the crowd.

More dramatic cloud shots of the Mediterranean Sea.

Look! NO BODY! Just Petee and I strolling around Riomaggiore.

So Petee decided that we should do a two mile hike from Vernazza to Corniglia and it ended up taking over two hours! It was a very intense hike, so if you ever decide to do the hike, make sure you have water and hiking shoes! It was a HARD hike but SO worth it! You’ll see more of the snappies of Vernazza from higher ground later in the series below.

Random photo of the sea from behind a building without a second floor and on the right is a snapshot looking back towards the train station of Monterosso.

Here’s a shot of Petee overlooking the tiny merina of Vernazza and other random snappies from many vantage points.

The deep blue color of the Mediterranean sky and water are just inspirational, we hung out by the tiny port for some time to ponder and gaze out towards the sea. Petee REALLY wanted to pose in front of the tiny grocery store where the locals would buy their oranges and apples (not iPhone Apple, but the fruit! haha.. just kidding). And we didn’t capture it, but a local pulled out an octopus just behind the green boat a few minutes before that photo was taken.

Before taking the two hour hike from Vernazza to Corniglia, we sat down for a local pizza and limoncello spritz, because why not? :) it was 5:00 PM somewhere right? The image second from the left is the beginning of the path to Corniglia. But seriously, we had NO idea of how intense that hike was going to be, but again, it was SO worth it! Well, it’s easier to say that AFTER the fact, but as I was huffing heavily on the way up, I was NOT thinking that (if I have to be blatantly honest!) :)

Here are some beautiful snappies during the hike, on the right, you can see (if you look really closely) Corniglia. In the far right photo, you can see Vernazza and the images in between show you the trail and the view of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. As you can see, it was a very nice clear and relatively warm (for winter) day; definitely not a coat kind of day, but a long sleeve and maybe a hoodie kind of day, but definitely more than just a t-shirt type of day.

We found a high point in Corniglia and looked to the next town, Manarola and on the right, looking back to Vernazza. There’s NO way we were going to hike to Manarola! I don’t think we would have made to Manarola before the sunset; and I can’t imagine hiking in the dark! “Help, do you speak any English? Please call 9-1-1!” Maybe I need to lean how to say it in Italian. And of course, I need to learn what the Italian version of 9-1-1 is. :)

After a full day of visiting Vernazza and hiking all the way to Corniglia, it was nice to see a beautiful sunset from the train, heading back to Monterosso.

These are snappies shot the day after the hike and we felt entitled to a lobster pasta lunch! Because why not?! :) just kidding, I originally thought it was just going to be pieces of lobster on the pasta; I had NO idea that it was going to be a whole lobster, but it was a nice surprise. And the best part was, it was ONLY 21.00 Euros (that’s just under $22.00 USD)! As you can imagine, it was DELICIOUS! And as you can see in all the images, there was NO BODY around, it was nice but a little eerie. Monterosso is usually jam packed with tourist. I guess this is the benefit of being able to travel off season.

Here are the last few shots of Monterosso and a repeat of the view out the window from my rental. You can’t see it, but there’s a church bell just outside to the right of the window and for those who don’t know, church bells go off pretty much every hour! Even through the night! After a while, you get used to it.

Petee Exploring Port City Genoa

At one point in history, Genoa was one of the global port cities where all trade passed and other interesting fact is that Genoa is where Christopher Columbus was born and grew up! You’ll see some photos of his family home below.

Spaghetti with clams was my pasta of choice, accompanied with a lemon sprtiz.. now that’s Italian!

This is a snapshot of Christopher Columbus’ dining table. Although they didn’t prepare dinner, they had jugs of wine ready for guests! :)

You can see the outside of the Columbus family home (second image from the left) and the others are images of the internal of the house. People were really short back then since we had to duck to walk through all the doorways.

Here are some more internal photos of the Columbus family home. The portrait of Christopher Columbus was from the museum close by and you see Petee posing in front of a marble rendering of the Santa Maria (the ship he sailed to discover the ‘new world’).

Even Petee had a tough time walking through the VERY narrow walkways between the VERY old buildings of Genoa. If I had to be honest, I felt a bit claustrophobic walking through those streets. I did find some fun vibrant texture/graffiti, and that last image on the right is a photo of a window in Christopher Columbus’ family home.

I didn’t do any research as to why this store had all these hot air balloons, but I just thought it was a nice fun & festive visual vibe.

Petee REALLY wanted a photo in front of all those hot air balloons. The second image is the courtyard just outside of the Columbus family home. The third image is of the Genoa Arch of Victory, victory of what, I’m not sure, but it was near the main train station. As for the last image, it’s a snappy of the central market’s fruits and veggies area.

Here’s a collection of local graffiti art from one of my meandering strolls through Genoa to find the visual nuggets which capture my attention. I’m not sure what it is, but I really like the style of this artists, to me, it feels a bit dystopian and very gritty. But with the yellowish/orange glow around the figures, there’s a warmth that seems to emanate from each figure. Whatever you take from this graffiti, it pretty much captures the vibe of Genoa.

Petee wanted to go see David (all 3 Davids)

Florence, Italy

Hello David! Well, this is awkward! haha… :)

For those who don’t have any plans on visiting David, here are all the possible angles. I was debating about covering Petee’s eyes, but I figured that he can learn about the naked body while we’re in Florence since nudity is pretty much all over the place in all the museums and even out in the streets! It’s art right? btw, this is the first of three David’s. We found ALL three of them!

Random snppies of Florence as we continue our walk around the city. These image nicely captures the essence and energy of Florence.

Here you go, David #2. This is actually the first replica of the David that is inside the museum, and as you can see, the weather has not changed his physique at all what so ever! He’s still the studly David you imagine David to be. :)

Petee just LOVED the Christmas tree in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and begged to take a quick photo. And the image on the far right, you’ll find Pinocchio, the entire art store was of Pinocchio. I didn’t know it before, but apparently Carlo Lorenzini, the author who created Pinocchio was born in Florence, so when you visit, you’ll see Pinocchios everywhere. Fun fact!

More images that captures the Florence vibe.

There you go! David #3, this is the second outside David and apparently with dramatic clouds.

Dramatic graffiti on the left and Petee in front of David #2 on the right.

Just a set of random detailed images of what I call “Florence Textures”, essentially, images which gives you a sense of the unadulterated details of Florence which you would probably never see in any travel guide, but captures the texture of the local expression. Artsy, what can I say. :)

We found an old photo booth! How cool is that! I’m curious if Michelangelo would have sat down for an instant photo in a photo booth if there were one back in his day. I think it would have blown his mind since it takes months and sometimes years to carve a portrait of someone out of marble! The second image is Petee after visiting David #3 overlooking ALL of Florence. That last photo on right is one of a series of stick figures with a red balloon (not sure if you can see the red in this dark image).

The first image is of Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci at the Uffizi Gallery. When you’re visiting Florence, you have to stop by to see the Birth of Venus by **Sandro Botticelli** (second image). The last image was a fun graffiti I found while walking to the museum that morning.

You can see some of the actual studies of Michelangelo in the first image. The second image is of a nice authentic Italian dinner I had at a nice quaint family restaurant I found after visiting the Uffizi Gallery. Petee really wanted to take a photo in front of the Leonardo da Vinci statue.

Here you’ll find a random bust of some noble (I didn’t get his name). The second image is a Michelangelo drawing of a local Florentine, one of his male models. The third image is of the crowd fighting to take a perfect photo of ***Bacchus,*** by Caravaggio; I don’t it, but hey, art is in the eye of the beholder. The last image is one of my favorite street art pieces I found on one of my walks around Florence, now that’s REAL art! It might be a bit reductive, but I like it!

Petee wanted to experience the south of France

Aix-en-Provence

Here are a few snappies I captured on Christmas day in Aix-en-Provence. As you can see, it was VERY empty! There were a handful of restaurants and shops open, but it was SO quiet, as you can imagine.

More random photos from around Aix. Even on Christmas day, you can see that people really wanted to hang out outside no matter how COLD it was! It was REALLY COLD!

Come on back and join me, Timmy the Snowman & Petee Penguin on our trip through Italy this month (December 2024). We’ll be posting photos as we trot from city to city. Happy Holidays!