Florence, Italy - The Conclusion To Our Italy Trip

Day 6

So our final chapter in our Italy trip was based in Florence, Italy. We arrived in Florence and were extremely tired so we decided to take a nap. Our hotel room was gorgeous… the best one yet. After sleeping for a few hours, we woke up and got moving. It was around 5 p.m. so when we finally got outside, the city was pretty empty (most of the museums/churches close at 5 p.m. so that’s normal). We were a little disappointed that the city was so empty and didn’t think any city could compare to how much fun we had in Rome and Venice, so we decided that Florence wasn’t going to be as fun as the other cities right away… we were wrong : )

We decided to get some gelato and we found our favorite gelato flavors of the trip… Scott’s favorite was the coffee and chocolate mixed together and mine was tiramisu (the next day I got banana and that became my new favorite ) ; ) It seemed like the gelato tasted better in Florence… more authentic or something. We decided to walk around the Duomo and look at the Ghiberti doors while there weren’t very many tourists. We then decided to go to dinner near the Duomo. Right when we figured out what restaurant we wanted to go to, Scott looked over and Sammy and Dena from Jersey Shore were in the restaurant on camera filming the show. I quickly took a picture and we decided to eat at the restaurant next door so we could look at the reactions of people when they saw the Jersey Shore being filmed. Pretty random running into the Jersey Shore in the middle of Italy eh? The food was the best we had tasted in Italy yet. Not complicated - just spaghetti or pizza with a caprese salad, but maybe we just enjoyed it more because we started to finally relax and enjoy ourselves and take things slow.

Day 7

We woke up the next day to a beautiful view from our hotel room. The complementary breakfast at our hotel was amazing. It had the most beautiful view of all of Florence from the roof top. I highly recommend you stay at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence if you go. After breakfast we decided to head out to the city and walk through the main art museums and churches (lots of walking again – and it was HOT outside!).

First, we decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo to go to the top of the basilica. It was quite the workout! You have to climb a bunch of stairs that are going in a circle in a really small space… so you are exhausted, claustrophobic and dizzy the whole way up, but it’s beautiful when you get there because you can see all of Florence (which has some mountainside – Tuscany area) and you can see the painting on the basilica up close. According to Wikipedia, the basilica and church construction began in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

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We heard that we HAD to see The David statue so we walked to The Galleria de Academia and waited in line (since we didn’t have reservations). We only waited about 45 minutes, but it was worth it. The David is amazing…. You just sit there in aw of how beautiful the sculpture is, how perfect it is. I can’t help but think that Scott looks like The David… they have the same body type and the same hair!

We were tired, but decided to continue to the Uffizi museum to see more Byzantine art, Da Vinci, Caravaggio and the famous Botticelli painting - The Birth of Venus. I would highly recommend that you eat lunch and get hydrated before you go into this museum because it is huge and there is a lot to look at. The Birth of Venus painting was amazing.

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When we left the Uffizi it started to rain (like it did in the afternoon at the same time everyday). We got some more Tiramisu Gelato and ran back to our hotel in the rain.

Day 8

We decided to go on a tour of the countryside near Florence (The Tuscany region) so we went to this cute little town called Shianti. I tried some blackberry gelato before we got on the bus and it wasn’t my favorite flavor… (we did eat a new flavor each day though!)…. I wish we had more gelato in the U.S.

Anyway, the tour included a tour of some small town countryside churches, a tour of a medieval castle, a tour showing how to make wine and how to make olive oil, and a wine tasting with hors d'œuvres. It was extremely relaxing and romantic which was just what the doctor ordered. We met some cute couples from Mesa, Arizona that told us they had a lot of trouble on their vacation (with taxis overcharging them, losing luggage and taxis bringing them to bad parts of town) so we felt very blessed that everything went smoothly for us. We tasted three different wines after we learned how they brewed them. One that was aged 1 – 3 years, one that was aged 5 – 10 years, and a desert wine that was aged for about five years that was a specialty wine where they had to first make the wine into raisins THEN squeeze it. Apparently they serve this wine in the churches as part of sacrament in their town.

A cool story about the medieval castle (Castello Del Trebbio) where we did the wine tasting before I conclude – The castle was built in the 1300’s and inhabited by the Pazzi family who was the second richest family in town. Obviously the richest family town was the Medici family who commissioned the artists to make Florence (and other cities) beautiful with their art. The Pazzi family was jealous of the Medici family and wanted to kill them so they could be the number one family so they conspired with the Pope at the time to kill the Medici family in this castle. The Pazzi family was successful in killing one of the Medici brothers, but not the most powerful brother – Lorenzo. Lorenzo found out about the conspiracy and killed everyone in the Pazzi family and seized their property (including the castle we were in).

For years the castle was empty, but they told us a cute story that an older man met a woman from Belgium on a train and immediately fell in love with her. She wanted to move to the castle even though it was cold ( you literally have to burn wood to get any heat in the place ), but she loved it. They had five kids in six years and raise their family in the castle. They revived the wine vineyards and olive trees and brought the place back to life. When the boys turned 20ish their father passed away and soon after their mother died in a car crash. The boys had to sell the castle because they couldn’t afford to pay for it. There is a modern day family that lives in the castle with a beautiful original Raphael painting in the living room. They cook in a wood burning stove, make wine and olive oil, and live in the most beautiful countryside of Italy. What a life!!!

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We came back to the city and went to dinner at the same café we dined at the first night in Florence (because the food was so good). When we were done, we saw three more Jersey Shore characters being filmed – Mike, Vinny and Pauly… MVP. It was surreal to see them in person… and in Italy no less?

The trip was absolutely fabulous and we hope to go back to Italy one day.

Venice, Italy - The Orange Full Moon

Day 4 – Venice, Italy

We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.

We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.

We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).

We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.

After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )

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We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )

We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.

We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!

We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.

Day 5 – Venice, Italy

We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.

There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!

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We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.

We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.

We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.

After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.

Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.

Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.

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Carpe Diem - Rome, Day 1

We started out the day by taking a train from the airport to the Termini Station in Rome. When we got off the train we had assumed we’d be able to use our GPS to find everything we were looking to find, but the GPS wasn’t picking up a signal so we were o our own. No electronics reliance for us! So we went “old school” and got a map. It took us a minute, but we finally figured out where our hotel was on the map and started walking. On our way to the hotel, we were stopped by a cute old woman. She welcomed us in Rome and told us her story. She said she had lived in San Francisco for 15 years with her husband, but he had passed on so she came back to her home – Rome. She reached in her purse and pulled out a bunch of pictures of her past – when she was young, her house in San Francisco, her family… then she asked if I wanted a piece of candy. I know… you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but I did : ) I am such a rebel! Then she says… “I don’t have a second piece of candy for your husband, but wait here and I will run to the grocery store to get one.” And we politely said “that’s okay, it was nice to meet you! Thanks for telling us your story!”

What a way to welcome us in Rome eh?

So we started the journey to our hotel and got there in about 15 minutes (after learning to read a map again). I feel so dependent on Google Maps and GPS systems these days.

Our hotel room is similar to what we stayed in in Amsterdam and Prague… small, but a place to sleep : ) The view outside is amazing, though, and we hear beautiful Italian bells all day long.

We were exhausted from the long flight, but eager to get out and see the city. We figured that we should not sleep when we got to Rome because we had to adjust to the time change – even though we REALLY wanted too : ) So we looked at the map and set out on our adventures.

We started walking and soon realized we would not need a map to see all the beautiful things in Rome. There are beautiful things everywhere…. Fountains, statues, beautiful architecture. The first thing we came across was an amazing fountain with four huge beautiful statues coming out of it. We decided to get some gelato and sit next to the fountain. My sister’s fiancé Sam went on his mission in Italy and he said the No. 1 thing to do is eat A LOT of gelato. So no need to hesitate, right? I had the strawberry gelato and Scott had the chocolate and I can tell you that I have eaten gelato in a lot of places in this world, but the gelato in Italy is by far the best.

We then headed to the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain). If you don’t know what the Trevi Fountain is, let me tell you… It is a slice of heaven placed on the earth. In fact, I would say that about Rome in general, with its Byzantine art (known for the golden halo around the head in artwork), and renaissance architecture. Scotty and I sat next to the fountain for quite a while and just inhaled the beauty. The Trevi Fountain was one of the major aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. There is legend that if you turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain that you will come back to Rome one day. You are also supposed to drink the water from the fountain (not from the actual fountain, but from the right side above the steps). We tried both : ) We were told that you shouldn’t have people take pictures of you because there are a lot of people that will steal your camera, but we just find people who speak English (mainly couples) and offer to take their picture first then have them take one of us. It’s working out well.

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We then decided to try to find the Pantheon and in doing so ran into a bunch of other famous architecture/artwork. I wish I could have brought my 20 pound art history book with me so that I could dissect all the amazing things we are seeing.

As soon as we walked into the Pantheon we got chills. There is a hole in the top of the Pantheon because the creator was trying to make the dome perfectly spherical (and using the Pythagorean Theorem and other mathematical calculations to do so). Everything here is mathematically perfect in proportion. I think that this hole which the creator considered a “flaw” makes it SO much better because there is sunlight that comes in and hits a new piece of art in the building at different times of day. Also – it feels like the rays of God are shining in on you and on the artwork. It is simply breathtaking. It is the only pagan temple in classical style still almost intact in Rome and was commissioned to be built in 27 BC and dedicated to the guardian deities of the Emperor’s family. After the fire the temple was rebuilt between 118 and 125 A.D. Today it hosts the tombs of famous people, like the artist Raphael (who Scott mentioned is his favorite ninja turtle haha!) and the kings of Italy. Scott said this was his favorite thing we saw all day because he was in aw of the sheer size of the building and the fact that it was still standing after 2000 years. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be capable of building it.

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We decided to get lunch in a cute little café by the Trevi Fountain and needed to rest our feet… us two overachievers had probably walked ten miles at that point. We enjoyed the people watching and relaxation. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One other thing that I wanted to mention about our first day – We were looking at another gorgeous monument when we noticed a bunch of police/swat teams swarming in and not allowing people to go in to the monument. We were scared that we were in the middle of a terrorist attack of some kind because traffic was stopped and helicopters were overhead. Then, out of nowhere, we were in the middle of a “Free Palestine” political rally. There were thousands of people marching on behalf of the cause, and a leader yelling through a microphone to “Free Palestine” – we felt like we were in the middle of a 1960s political rally in the U.S.

After the long flight and long day, we both enjoyed a long 11 hours of sleep and are ready for day 2!

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