Category: Italy

Rome

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We just got back to the hotel after about 7 hours of walking around the city.  We are resting before heading out to dinner.  Our favorite experience today was sitting in front of the Pantheon eating McDonalds fries and a Big Mac.  It seemed so wrong.  Both Venice and Florence had McDonalds, but today we saw at least half a dozen around the city.  The only other American fast food we’ve seen is a Burger King a few blocks from our hotel.  Today’s fries and Big Mac were was our first non-Italian food in almost a week.  I must admit it was a nice change of pace.

There are massive beautiful churches everywhere and we walked into everyone we came across.  We also went to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.  Rome is quite a bit of a walk because it is not even – you walk up and up only to walk back down the next block before walking up again.

We happened into a piazza where a political rally was being held.  We had no idea what was going on, so we moved along pretty quickly.  There is also a big police presence around the city.  Some of them are just standing on a side street with their hand on their guns ready to shoot.  It was weird. 

So far we have had fun.  We certainly won’t run out of things to do here.  There are tourist everywhere.  The car/scooter/pedestrian war is crazier then in Florence.  Everyone seems to think they have the right of way.  We just follow someone who looks like he knows what he’s doing.

Rome

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Our train made it to Rome in an hour and a half!  We are getting ready to head out to the Spanish Steps and other fun stuff.  Rome is enormous! 

 

On to Rome

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We are leaving beautiful Florence behind to travel to Rome.  I’m not sure how good our internet access will be at the hotel, so we’ll see if I can keep up.  I’m sad to be leaving our great hotel.  We have 2 1/2 hours on the train.

Yesterday I watched the Simpsons in Italian.  It was fun 🙂

Florence, day 3

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This morning we started at the Bargello museum, which houses wonderful Renaissance sculptures.  Jason & I agree that the sculptures we have seen around the city has been our favorite art pieces.  The coolest thing in the museum was the restoration of David by Donatello.  They had it laid out on an operating table with lights and instruments all around him.  There were women there working on him and it will take the rest of the year to complete.  It was interesting to watch them work.

We then headed to Santa Croce, a 13th century Gothic church that is home to many famous tombs.  The place was massive inside with two large courtyards and a small museum in the middle.  We saw the large tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Machiavello.  There were other tombs, but since we can’t read Italian and we didn’t recognize the names I cannot say much about them.  We were both fascinated by all of the people buried under the floor of the church where you could just walk over their marble ‘caskets’.  It was a little eerie.

After the church I came back to the room because I needed a rest.  Jason continued across the river to Michelangelo Piazza and Fort Belvedere which both had stunning views of the city.  He claims he took enough photos that it will seem like I was there myself.  We’ll see.

There are people arriving at the hotel that drove here.  After being here for a few days I can say without hesitation that I am so glad that we did not rent a car to drive here.  I do not know how there are not more pedestrian/car/bus accidents.  Not a lot of people drive cars, but those that do buzz past you pretty close.  I love seeing the little mini cars that seat two people, but Jason couldn’t fit into.  They are cute 🙂

Jason is taking a siesta before our evening drink at the hotel.  We have really enjoyed our time here.  There is so much to see that it would take at least a week to come close.  Tonight we’ll walk over to the train station to get our tickets to Rome tomorrow.  I think the progression of cities was a good one.  Venice was small, Florence is over 400,000, but it feels a bit smaller because it is another great walking city where everything you want to see you can reach without a car.  And our last stop, Rome I think will be big and feel big.

Ciao!

Florence, day 2

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Today has been a busy day and we are back at the hotel to rest our tired feet for an hour.  This morning we visited the Campanile.  It is a bell tower directly next to the Duomo.  It is 414 steps.  That’s right, 414 STEPS!  Once at the top you have breathtaking view of the city on all sides.  You should have heard all of the huffing and puffing when a new tourist reached the top.  There was a guy who worked at the top and I imagine he is in pretty good shape.

We spent the afternoon at the Uffizi Gallery, Europe’s first modern museum.  It was first opened to the public in 1591.  Some of the beautiful Renaissance art had been there since then.  It was so big with so much to take it we could have spent all day, but our feet said no.

Outside the Uffizi Gallery is the Piazza della Signoria, which is the most well known of Florence’s squares.  It was where the famous bonfire of the vanities took place in 1497. 

On our way back to the hotel we enjoyed our first gelato, which we both loved of course!  The shopping in Florence is full of jewelry and leather.  We almost bought leather jackets today, but decided to look around a bit more.  It started raining as soon as we got back to the hotel.  We have been lucky that this has been the only bad weather of the trip.  I think it may have stopped already. 

Tomorrow we are going to see the David.  And we plan to climb more steps than we did today to get to the top of the Duomo.  Ciao.

Florence

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It took us 2 1/2 hours on the train from Venice to Florence.  I was actually sad to leave Venice.  We had some apprehension about the train, but everything worked out perfectly.  This is a weird sidenote, but worth mentioning I think.  We had assigned seats on the train, but we didn’t know that.  Our train was about 15 cars long with 75 or more seats on each car.  We walked onto a random car and sat in random seats and Jason realized about ten minutes later that we were in the exact right seats!  I might have thought he was playing a joke in me except that I chose the car myself.  Very weird.  Apparently we are in tune with the universe 🙂

Anyway, we are in awe of the Duomo.  It is massive and stunning.  We did not go to the top-that is our morning trip.  But we did walk in and I was so impressed. 

Florence was a bit of a culture shock after the quiet streets of Venice.  We are back into a real city!  There are lots of bikes and scooters and a few cars and buses.  We decided to walk off the beaten path tonight, but we ended up right back where we started. 

We love our hotel so I will mention it.  We are staying at Hotel Perseo and the people and room are wonderful.  We are one block from the Duomo and a few blocks from the train station.  Every evening for two hours they have a ‘Fun Drink’ time where you can get a free glass of wine or cappuccino if you are named Jason.  The man hosting it gave us a map of the city and marked the best places to eat and visit.  We would definitely recommend this hotel.

As far as our first impressions of Europe and the people, it is hard to say.  Venice has 65,000 residents and up to 500,000 tourists on a given day so you see more tourists than actual residents.  I don’t feel that way here in Florence, so maybe I’ll have a better opinion in a day or so.

I do not like the Italian coffee (it’s like espresso), but Jason LOVES the cappuccino if you haven’t been able to tell that already 🙂  The food is great, of course.  If we were not doing so much walking I’d have gained 5 pounds already.

Venice & Florence

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We have just arrived in Florence and are just leaving for the Duomo.  We have unrestricted access to the internet now, so I should be able to blog with a little more detail later. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE LARRY!

Our hotel is GREAT and they had a bottle of bubbly waiting for us in out room for Jason’s birthday.  He even drank a glass 🙂  Off to the Duomo.  I’ll blog more tonight.

venice, day 3

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Happy Birthday, Ed!

Venice is a city of walkers.  There are many wonderful aspects to the city, but there being no cars is my favorite.  Because of this it is quiet and all the miles that you normally put on your car go on your feet.  Those miles have finally caught up with my feet.  We are averaging about 10 miles a day!

Today we went on our gondola ride and it was a fun way to see the city.  Our gondolier, Franco, gave us a sense of the history of the city.  We went to Doge’s Palace, where Casanova became famous.  He and his accomplice were the only two people to ever escape. 

Now that siesta is over we are headed out for cappuccino and to try to find the casino.  Tomorrow we head for Florence by train.

Venice, day 2

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We are enjoying Venice very much.  It is a wonderful place to get lost and explore, which we have done.  We visited the Basilica this morning and are moving on to Doges Palace this afternoon.  It is such a charming city and the food is delicious of course.  Jason is happy that there is pizza at every turn.  The city is a maze and it is fun to see what you might happen upon next.  More details later.

Venice

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We are in Venice and having fun getting lost.  Only two minutes left, so more in a day or two.  We did fly over the Alps this morning on the way here and it was beautiful.  Til later.