It's been a while since any or all of the three amigos ride again but I have to say that this past vacation was truly a trip of a lifetime. I have said so many times here that over the years my longest and strongest friendships have been kindled through the love of music. Most of my friendships have started over the years meeting audiophiles throughout the world and it is always wonderful to spend vacations with such people. This last vacation was no different. I have been close friends with marty for close to 15 years having met him through an Audiogon Ad where I bought his pair of Wilson MAXX series l speakers and strangely enough at the same time happened to sell my existing pair of Wilson Watt Puppy 6's to marty's brother also from an Audiogon ad. It is certainly a small world. Over the years marty, his wife Lisa and me and my wife Cathy have spent many great times together even though Marty lives in New Jersey and me in Southern California.Some 18 months ago marty asked me if Cathy and I might be interested in a monumental 2 week vacation that he was planning in June 2017 which would include one week in St Petersburg Russia which would coincide with the June White Nights and highlighted by the Scarlet Sails which sail in the harbor to commemorate the graduation of all the students both high school and university. It was marty's intent that we visit and see all of the great museums of St Petersburg as well immerse ourselves in some of the local culture and music. The second week of the journey was based on rest and relaxation in the northern part of Italy in the Piedmont region which is the heart of wine country in Italy. Marty and several others who were traveling with us are ardent wine lovers with huge personal wine cellars and very expensive wine collections. Suffice it to say I am not a drinker and rarely if ever will participate. The only times I have in the past few years were vacations with marty and Lisa where marty opened some incredible bottles of wine from deep in his wine collection I remember commenting last year to my wife that if I were to drink only this kind of wine on a daily basis it would become very easy for me to find myself a wine lover. So even though I don't drink the trip sounded so fantastic from the get go that we were all in.
There is a saying, "Jack of all trades but master of none". Suffice it to say this does not apply to marty because in the years that I have known him he is truly a master of everything and anything he sets his mind to. Here now marty had set out to be a travel agent and a tour guide and invited a small group of friends to tag along. In all there were 6 married couples on the Russian leg of the trip and of these 12, 8 of us were in for the Italy part of the trip which not only included Piedmont with 2 memorable wine tastings, one in Barolo and the other in Barbaresco (where I got totally ripped from slipping on the wines we tasted).....but I digress and more of this later. Marty in essence planned the entire trip, including where we went, where we stayed, what we saw, and what we ate, including 2 Michelin rated restaurants in Italy. During the planning marty petitioned people for their input along the way but in the end the trip was all marty's concoction including transportation throughout Italy right down to the amount of each tip. Suffice to say we all went to school on marty's putt. It was the trip of a lifetime
The trip included 6 different airline flights and almost 15,000 miles for Cathy and I. I did do one thing however and that was to plan an afternoon visiting two members of WBF and hearing their great systems. This happened on the 2nd to last day of our Italy trip when marty and I were picked up at our hotel in Stresa on Lake Maggiore by Gianluigi (gian60) who lives 20 minutes from where we were staying and then off to hear the system of Marco who lives 5 minutes from Gianluigi.
The things that we saw in St. Petersburg were all unforgettable. The palaces and the opulence in which the royal families lived (and died) was like nothing I have ever seen. The Hermitage museum was like none other. It was fascinating. In fact we were told that of all of the artifacts the Hermitage had in its possession, only 3 % is ever on display at any one time. They also added that if we were to look at each artifact in the Hermitage for one minute it would take 30 years to see everything.
I took countless photos of the highlights, the best of which I would like to share as a film odyssey of our travels along with a separate review of our brief stop at the homes of Gian and Marco
I hope the pictures won't bore everyone but rather show everyone what we saw along the way
BTW as an aside, even though it was June 21-27 that we were in St Petersburg, the weather was a factor usually between 58-64 during the days and down in the 40's at night. When we were there the sun didn't set until after midnight and rose around 0300. St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the north as it consists of 42 islands all separated by water
There is a saying, "Jack of all trades but master of none". Suffice it to say this does not apply to marty because in the years that I have known him he is truly a master of everything and anything he sets his mind to. Here now marty had set out to be a travel agent and a tour guide and invited a small group of friends to tag along. In all there were 6 married couples on the Russian leg of the trip and of these 12, 8 of us were in for the Italy part of the trip which not only included Piedmont with 2 memorable wine tastings, one in Barolo and the other in Barbaresco (where I got totally ripped from slipping on the wines we tasted).....but I digress and more of this later. Marty in essence planned the entire trip, including where we went, where we stayed, what we saw, and what we ate, including 2 Michelin rated restaurants in Italy. During the planning marty petitioned people for their input along the way but in the end the trip was all marty's concoction including transportation throughout Italy right down to the amount of each tip. Suffice to say we all went to school on marty's putt. It was the trip of a lifetime
The trip included 6 different airline flights and almost 15,000 miles for Cathy and I. I did do one thing however and that was to plan an afternoon visiting two members of WBF and hearing their great systems. This happened on the 2nd to last day of our Italy trip when marty and I were picked up at our hotel in Stresa on Lake Maggiore by Gianluigi (gian60) who lives 20 minutes from where we were staying and then off to hear the system of Marco who lives 5 minutes from Gianluigi.
The things that we saw in St. Petersburg were all unforgettable. The palaces and the opulence in which the royal families lived (and died) was like nothing I have ever seen. The Hermitage museum was like none other. It was fascinating. In fact we were told that of all of the artifacts the Hermitage had in its possession, only 3 % is ever on display at any one time. They also added that if we were to look at each artifact in the Hermitage for one minute it would take 30 years to see everything.
I took countless photos of the highlights, the best of which I would like to share as a film odyssey of our travels along with a separate review of our brief stop at the homes of Gian and Marco
I hope the pictures won't bore everyone but rather show everyone what we saw along the way
BTW as an aside, even though it was June 21-27 that we were in St Petersburg, the weather was a factor usually between 58-64 during the days and down in the 40's at night. When we were there the sun didn't set until after midnight and rose around 0300. St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the north as it consists of 42 islands all separated by water
