My wife and I booked a cooking class in a private home in the outskirts of Florence. It was a highlight of our trip - such an enjoyable time, learning to make pasta in a 1,200 year old stone farmhouse.
Venice is awesome, like Disneyland for adults, but the most memorable thing we did there was an accident - we bumped into the wife of the Rabbi of the Venice Chabad, and she invited us to Sabbath dinner. It was incredible - a huge party spread along the banks of the canal. Neither my wife nor I are particularly observant (and she’s a Buddhist), but we both had a grand time.
We did the bike/train tour of Monet’s gardens at Giverny. Another 11 on a scale of 1-10. Stopped in a little town to buy bread and cheese to have a picnic lunch, biked a few k to Giverny, and toured the beautiful gardens.
This is going to sound insane, but we visited Venice, and missed the whole thing because of a family altercation. And partly because, by that time, we were exhausted. I can’t do something every day during a vacation, it just wears me out. But now I wish I’d been paying attention.
We took a wonderful tour of the Jewish history and ghettos of Venice with Lucia, and stayed in a former synagogue on the island of Geto, the very first ghetto and origin of the word.
Few things that I already knew of go above and beyond my pre-existing expectations. It’s usually things I stumble upon that have me gushing with awe.
The Prado in Madrid is sort of a mixture of both. I booked a flight to Madrid while I was otherwise going to be visiting Britain specifically to see the Prado, even more specifically, for its collection of Bosch and Goya paintings. It turns out that there was a specific temporary Hieronymus Bosch exhibit at the same time where showed a lot of his paintings from around the world. The paintings that were there permanently were quite excellent, and the additional ones were icing on the cake.
The Bosches are excellent to just view online and are even better in person where you can see the details up close. The Goyas, on the other hand, were disappointing to me, since they were not noticeably better than what you can see online. They were made up for, though, by the unexpected awesomeness of the Grecos, because online they are good but not great to look at, but digital pictures on a monitor don’t really do justice to the flamboyancy of El Greco’s style, and he may have even used colors that don’t even show up properly on a monitor.
Seconding (or thirding) Venice and Pompeii. I’ll also add Rome. Travel blogs and websites love to talk shit about the city for being overcrowded (it is), a haven of scams and pickpockets (it is), etc. But the majesty of the ancient city, and of course its Roman ruins, transcend all of that.
Not mentioned in this thread: Walt Disney World. You have to be in the right frame of mind to fully experience it, and you also have to plan to the most picayune of details (going at the wrong time of year can spell disaster in a number of ways), but if you do it right it can be a joy beyond measure. If you do it wrong it can and will be a disaster.
I get what you mean. For me it wasn’t even the obvious buildings. In the quieter streets you can wander into one of the buildings and find a random room with no indications as to what it was used for. But someone lived or worked there.
Yet the bits that are crowded are just as evocative. One must remember that those streets would have been just as busy in 79AD. Who knows, there may even have been a queue for the brothel then as well. As for Venice, Florence and Rome, the crowds are all part of the spectacle.
But, for me, the place where the past was most visceral has been the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Yes, its preservation was all rather contrived and parts of it are more nineteenth-century reconstruction. But nowhere do you get a stronger sense that the original workforce has just left the room.
Monument Valley.
We’ve traveled to many parks in the West. All have been beautiful, but I think that Monument Valley was one of the most enjoyable, maybe 2nd only to Yellowstone.
Angel’s Landing in Zion NP is a difficult climb, with nasty exposure and iron chains to help you along the narrow ridge. The vast crowds (now reduced by a lottery system) were daunting, so we went before dawn, climbing under headlamps. We had the chains to ourselves at sunrise, and no one else up top. A sublime experience.
Decades ago I visited Jamaica. I went to Bob Marley’s birthplace in Nine Mile and checked out the little museum there. I was stoned. At some point I met a guy who lived in the area. We hung out that afternoon and evening, sharing our weed. I bought a case of beer at some point and we drank that.
I don’t even remember the dude’s name now, but I remember being overwhelmed listening to the music and hearing the tales.
One type of place that seems more immediately like what it used to be than expected is ancient cave dwellings. The reason for me is that when I go out west to visit them, a lot of the days I am sleeping in a tent, and looking at the cave dwellings makes me feel awe for their oldness and their people and their beauty, but also makes me think “nice house, I bet that would be comfortable to sleep in tonight.” which of course is not allowed.
Ancient ruined buildings of the same construction and same culture that are not inside of rock overhangs and have their tops fallen off do not evoke the same visceral sense of being a dwelling to me, even though I still get a feeling of what they were used for.
I would have never, ever expected the Bob Marley museum to make this list. I went about 20 years ago. We were not stoned. Clearly this was our mistake. We had a half dozen Jamaican men literally throwing joints at us, pretty aggressively. The guide was so stoned that I am not entirely sure he knew he was in Jamaica. It was the biggest disappointment of an otherwise pretty fun trip.
In the military museum category: The Military Vehicle Technology Foundation – an awesome collection of over 200 vehicles and assorted hardware on a private estate in the foothills of Portola Valley. Sadly, the museum closed and the collection was sold off when the founder passed away.
In the roadside attraction category: House On The Rock – I’ve been road-tripping for almost 40 years and this place is the most amazing, overwhelming collection of stuff I’ve ever experienced. (“overwhelming” being a an understatement!)
In the natural wonder category: Uluru – Like Devils Tower in the USA, there’s a feeling of awe when you’re driving down the road and see the monolith appear on the horizon. And that feeling keeps growing as you get closer and it fills your field of view, especially in the early morning or late afternoon when it seems to glow. I have to confess that I did climb to the top (this was long before the trail was closed) and had the summit to myself for 10 minutes or so at sunrise. Seeing the shadow of the great rock stretching almost to the horizon was one of those perfect moments when all of the distractions and mundane concerns of the world faded away, something you hope for in your travels but can never really plan.
Damn. I bought a big bag of weed at the airport on arrival. A guy approached me and showed me 1 1/2 ounces (a heavy ounce I guess) and told me $200 American. I knew enough to look at him and act mildly offended. He immediately came down to $50 and I paid him.
As we did the deal I looked up and a cop armed with a mini machine gun weapon and I made eye contact. I guess I looked scared; he started laughing and shaking his head.
After I bought the bag, the guy offered to help me with my bags. But first I said I needed a beer. A kiosk was selling Red Stripe for 75 cents a bottle. I gave him a twenty and passed around bottles to my “dealer’s” buddies.
From there, my bag carrier and all his friend’s led the way to the taxi area and got me set up.
My visit to Jamaica was one fantastic event followed by another.
I actually found the cannabis scene to be unexpectedly subtle. At the Half Moon Resort where I stayed in Montego Bay, men with families would approach me and ask where I got my weed! They were nervous/afraid, so they’d give me $100 and I’d buy them a $50 bag and some papers.
We just could not have had a more different experience than what you’re describing. From the moment the car stopped at the museum, there were very aggressive hawkers yelling to us. When we said no thank you, they followed us around like we might change our minds. They were probably more aggressive than any street vendor I have ever encountered. We didn’t experience anything like it anywhere else we went in Jamaica.
I have to say that Death Valley was a total surprise. I was pretty skeptical, but I figured that even if it was boring and sucked, it was only a long weekend.
Boy was I wrong. It’s got its own brand of stark beauty, some really, really cool geological formations, and a sense of remoteness that I haven’t really had elsewhere, especially in the western half of the park past the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.
I’ll also second Rome. It was different than any other European city I’ve been to- I’m not sure it’s older, but it sure feels that way. Tons of really old Roman ruins, ecclesiastical stuff, and Renaissance stuff abounds pretty much everywhere you look. There doesn’t seem to be anything like a “regular church” in Rome- every one has a Caravaggio, or the relics of a saint you’ve heard of, or something similarly interesting.
We had the same experience. We were sure it would be nice, we love the desert southwest, but it really blew us away with it’s stark beauty and other-worldliness.