{"id":3875,"date":"2011-01-08T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-08T16:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zmetro.com\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2013-05-09T15:41:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T21:41:29","slug":"christmas_lyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=3875","title":{"rendered":"Christmas: Lyon &#8211; Turin &#8211; Parma &#8211; Florence &#8211; Bologna &#8211; Venice; a Few Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/photos\/2011\/01\/lyon122010jimzellmerc.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" border=\"1\" TITLE=\"Lyon France by Jim Zellmer December 2010\" class=\"alignnone size-large\"><Br><Br>Lodging recommendations &#038; comments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lyon, France: <a href=\" http:\/\/www.dormiralyon.com\/\">Artelit<\/a>. A superb location with a fabulous proprietor.  Frederic Jean&#8217;s friendship and professionalism was a joy to experience, particularly when facing a very difficult parking situation!  Highly recommended.\n<li>Turin: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hotelpiemontese.it\/\">Best Western Hotel Piemontese<\/a>.  A surprisingly spacious facility, conveniently located near the rail station, bus stops and a number of Turin destinations.   Great service and a surprisingly extensive breakfast.\n<li>Parma: A number of hotels were closed over Christmas.  We stayed here: <a href=\"www.palazzodallarosaprati.it\">Vittorio Dalla Rosa Prati<\/a>.   Friendly service and a fabulous location adjacent to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/search\/?q=Parma+Baptistery&#038;w=all&#038;m=&#038;s=int&#038;mt=&#038;referer_searched=\">Baptistry<\/a>.  Rooms include a refrigerator, sink and range so one can shop at the nearby markets and prepare meals.\n<li>Florence: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.relaisuffizi.it\">Relais Uffizi<\/a>.  A charming, small find next to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.firenzemusei.it\">Uffizi Gallery Musuem<\/a>.  Close to everything with very helpful staff.\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/2\/069271c4-ba9a-11df-b73d-00144feab49a.html\">Bologna<\/a>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.albergocentralebologna.it\/\">Albergo Centrale<\/a>.  Tremendous location in a fascinating city.  Don&#8217;t forget the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasorbetteria.it\/\">gelato, which was poetic<\/a>.\n<li>Venice: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anticodoge.\">Hotel Antico Doge<\/a>.  Very helpful staff with superb restaurant recommendations.  Well located, but smoke seemed to be present in the room, unfortunately.   <\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/photos\/2011\/01\/venice112011earlyjimzellmerc.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" border=\"1\" TITLE=\"Venice, Italy by Jim Zellmer January 1, 2011\" class=\"alignnone size-large\"><Br><Br>I am very thankful to have &#8220;met&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.italyfaves.typepad.com\/\">Madeline Jhawar<\/a>, who suggested the stops in Turin, Parma and Bologna.  I am grateful for her assistance and intelligence.  I also took a look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lonelyplanet.com\">Lonely Planet&#8217;s suggestions<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/travel.nytimes.com\">New York Times travel section<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karenbrown.com\">Karen Brown<\/a>.<Br><Br>We rented a car from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.europcar.com\">Europca<\/a>r, flew via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lh.com\">Lufthansa<\/a> (insufferable coach seats in my experience but very friendly staff) and used buses, trams, water buses, gondolas and most of all our feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/photos\/2011\/01\/lyon122010jimzellmerc.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" border=\"1\" TITLE=\"Lyon France by Jim Zellmer December 2010\"><Br><Br>Lodging recommendations &#038; comments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lyon, France: <a href=\" http:\/\/www.dormiralyon.com\/\">Artelit<\/a>. A superb location with a fabulous proprietor.  Frederic Jean&#8217;s friendship and professionalism was a joy to experience, particularly when facing a very difficult parking situation!  Highly recommended.\n<li>Turin: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hotelpiemontese.it\/\">Best Western Hotel Piemontese<\/a>.  A surprisingly spacious facility, conveniently located near the rail station, bus stops and a number of Turin destinations.   Great service and a surprisingly extensive breakfast.\n<li>Parma: A number of hotels were closed over Christmas.  We stayed here: <a href=\"www.palazzodallarosaprati.it\">Vittorio Dalla Rosa Prati<\/a>.   Friendly service and a fabulous location adjacent to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/search\/?q=Parma+Baptistery&#038;w=all&#038;m=&#038;s=int&#038;mt=&#038;referer_searched=\">Baptistry<\/a>.  Rooms include a refrigerator, sink and range so one can shop at the nearby markets and prepare meals.\n<li>Florence: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.relaisuffizi.it\">Relais Uffizi<\/a>.  A charming, small find next to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uffizi.com\/\">Uffizi Gallery<\/a>.  Close to everything with very helpful staff.\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/2\/069271c4-ba9a-11df-b73d-00144feab49a.html\">Bologna<\/a>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.albergocentralebologna.it\/\">Albergo Centrale<\/a>.  Tremendous location in a fascinating city.  Don&#8217;t forget the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasorbetteria.it\/\">gelato, which was poetic<\/a>.\n<li>Venice: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anticodoge.\">Hotel Antico Doge<\/a>.  Very helpful staff with superb restaurant recommendations.  Well located, but smoke seemed to be present in the room, unfortunately.   <\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/photos\/2011\/01\/venice112011earlyjimzellmerc.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" border=\"1\" TITLE=\"Venice, Italy by Jim Zellmer January 1, 2011\"><Br><Br>I am very thankful to have &#8220;met&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.italyfaves.typepad.com\/\">Madeline Jhawar<\/a>, who suggested the stops in Turin, Parma and Bologna.  I am grateful for her assistance and intelligence.  I also took a look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lonelyplanet.com\">Lonely Planet&#8217;s suggestions<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/travel.nytimes.com\">New York Times travel section<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karenbrown.com\">Karen Brown<\/a>.<Br><Br>We rented a car from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.europcar.com\">Europca<\/a>r, flew via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lh.com\">Lufthansa<\/a> (insufferable coach seats in my experience but very friendly staff) and used buses, trams, water buses, gondolas and most of all our feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13,41,36,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5110,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions\/5110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}