Vaporettis in Paradise

Today
After breakfast we decided to walk around a bit. The sun was out, although, I would say it was around 40 degrees, 50 in the sun. We walked around the tip of Dorsoduro which is our little suburb.

Another Gondola
Along the way, we found a nice little Gondola. We told the guy that we only had 30 euro. He said that he normally charges 80-100 euro for an hour trip, but that he would take us on a mini trip for 30. We agreed and took a nice trip around part of the island, by ourselves. It was much more enjoyable than last time. Three things. One, never talk to the Gondoleri's that are located on the Grand Canal. We found this guy off of the main drag just getting started for the day. Two, tell them you only have a certain amount of money and let them decide if they want to take you and agree to the price. Three, don't pay until the end.

It was much more romantic this time around and we didn't have to worry about getting screwed.

Vaporetti
After our gondola ride, we walked around town a bit and decided to hop on a vaporetti (Water Bus) to the bus station. We figured it would be a dry run to check out how we would get to the airport. We ended up taking a vaporetti to the bus station, and then walked back through the city. We weren't trying to go back to the hotel, but ended up going back there anyway. We found a nice little tavern down the street for lunch.

Murano
After lunch, we hopped on another vaporetti going the other way around the north end of the island to Morano. We ended up hopping off and walking around a bit. It was very quiet and peaceful as there really weren't that many people on the streets. We took a short tour of a very beautiful church.

We hopped back onto another vaporetti for the trip back. It was a great way to see the island from a different perspective. Although, because we were sitting in the back seats, that were not covered, we got our share of diesel fumes. By the time we got off, we felt a bit queasy but recovered after a couple blocks of walking.

15930
steps today. Although, I'm typing this at 6PM so we'll probably walk a bit more tonight. Not much though as we want to stay fresh for our 11AM flight tomorrow.

Choco-Swing
We got some great chocolate bars in Italy. I looked them up on the net.
http://www.hollandwinkel.nl/product_info_c2_38p1660.php

Smokers
Everyone smokes here! There is always the smell of smoke in the outside air. There were even several times where people were smoking in the restaurants. I can't imagine what the place was like before the indoor smoking ban was put into place.


Tomorrow
We come home! We are both very excited to go home. We both agree that 12 days was a bit much and that 10 would have been perfect. Next time we'll bring the girls so maybe we'll stay for longer. But then again, how much museums can you really absorb.

Gondolas in Venice

Favorite City
The city is truly gorgeous. Keri keeps saying how she can't believe that we are here. The history and the beauty make it our favorite city. Much more so than Florence or Rome. It was sunny and crisp today which made the siteseeing much better.


St. Marks Square and the Pigeons
After having the hotel breakfast, we decided to take a walk through the city. We headed out to St. Marks Square which was a 15 minute walk through squares and alleys. The square is fairly large with offices on three sides and the tower and cathedral on the east.


In the middle were hundreds of pigeons some of them perched on tourists. We decided to get in on some of the action, just for pictures sake. I went in first, but only until I purchased some birdseed did they find me attractive. As soon as they saw the white bag, they mobbed me. At one point I had 10 of them on me. I thought they were going to peck my eyes out if I didn't open up the bag quickly. I yelled for Keri to hurry up and take a picture. After the birdseed was gone, several still wanted to hang out on my head. But at that point, I was worried about any stray poop and shooed them away.


Also, at one point, I took the bag and put it on Keri's back. She didn't know why the birds were attacking her.


Rialto Bridge
Walking from St. Marks to the Rialto bridge consists of many small walkways with shops on both sides. The walkways are maybe four people wide so it was one big traffic jam when people stopped to window shop.


Finally, we made it to the Rialto bridge and took some nice pictures at the top.



We also shopped at a grumpy little store of glass where the owners wouldn't let you touch anything. Even the leather bound book that Keri wanted to open was quickly grabbed away by the owner. At one point the owner wouldn't let me see some of the glass hearts up close and wanted to take them away before I had a chance to buy them. We did buy several things from the store and laughed when we got out.

Gondola

We walked around a bit before finding a Gondola. Another couple was nearby and asked us if we wanted to share a ride with them. We hopped on and rode around for maybe 20 minutes.

I have to admit, it would have been much more romantic if we would have taken one ourselves. Also, it would have helped to be a bit more pushy in demanding that he take us for a certain amount of time.

They are all over the place and the Rick Steves book says that when one of them dies, the ownership goes to the widow. So it is a privileged profession, or racket, depending on your perspective.

Walk through the city
Afterwards, we decided to walk through the city to get back to our hotel. There were many beautiful alleys and squares all over the place. We had to take many turns through small walkways, and over bridges. It was the most enjoyable walk we have taken in Italy so far.

Florian Cafe
After dinner, we decided to go to a small cafe and have a latte and dessert. We walked around a bit through St. Marks square. After consulting with the Rick Steves book, we found a little place called the Florian Cafe right off of St. Marks. The desserts on display looked fantastic so we decided to go in. We found a nice little table way in the back. The cafe was founded in 1720 and had many beautiful paintings from floor to ceiling. It was a beautiful cafe and was an experience just to sit there and take it all in.

We sat down and waited for about 5 minutes before going up to the front and finding a waiter. He told us to sit in another part of the cafe, so we grabbed our stuff and sat down again. This time we waited another 5 minutes and were about to walk out the door when a waiter finally stopped by. We ordered two chocolate cakes and lattes. He brought them quickly, along with the tab. The lattes were 7.50euro each and the cakes were 11euro each. Our bill for coffee and dessert with tip ended up being 41euro. Once again, another expensive funny story that we'll always remember. I'm thinking about writing to Rick Steves to tell him to take it out of his book.

25499
steps today. It didn't feel like it but we did walk to St. Mark's square several times and around the Rialto bridge. The walking is getting easier.

Tomorrow
Another day of discovering Venice. We don't really have any plans and kind of like it that way. I was thinking we might hop on a valporetti (Water Bus) and look at some of the other islands. It will depend on the weather.

Travel to Venice

Morning in Florence
We have really enjoyed our stay in Florence. The town is beautiful. The hotel breakfast has been a bit stale, but then it forces us to get out and have a lattè around the town. After breakfast, we walked around a bit as our train for Venice didn't leave until 10:40AM.

Train to Venice
We walked a bit to the bus stop and then took the bus down to the stazionè. We're starting to feel like pros at the whole train thing. We broke down and had McDonalds at the train station. Egg McMuffin, hash browns and orange juice.

We got on the train and settled in for the 3 hour trip. We stopped at Bologna, Ferrara, and Padua before coming into the main train station at Venice. You could probabaly pick us out as tourists because we were staring out the window at every little town that went by.

Water Bus
When we got into Venice, there are water bus stops in front of the terminal. Because our hotel is so far from the terminal, we decided to take a water bus to a stop closer to our hotel. We bought a 3 day pass that allows us to hope on and off as we like. We've already used it four times so it was worth the 50euro price.
This is a picture standing in front of the train station.


And this is a picture across from the train station.

More pictures from the train station. I couldn't stop taking pictures from the moment that I came into town. It was so beautiful.


Venice
We were both very amazed by Venice. It is very different to experience it in person. I was suprised to see how much the buildings had sank under the water level. There were many old doorways and windows that were half under water. Another thing that amazed us is how the city can survive when it floods 100 times per year. You basically can't put anything on your first floor because of the floods.

Hotel
Our hotel is very beautiful. Our first choice of hotel was full, so they recommended the Hotel American-Dinesen. We have a very nice room that overlooks the canal. I would say it is our nicest room so far. The host is very nice and has been very helpful. Keri and I both agree that having a nice host is important. We also had a view of a canal. This is Keri standing on the balcony.

And this is a view from the balcony.


Cold, Wet and Windy
Around 5PM the wind started to pick up. We had taken a water bus to the small island of San Giorgio just to check it out. By the time we were done, the winds were blowing, it was raining, and the wind chill was unbearable. We tried to visit St Mark's Square but walked about 100 yards and turned back around for the bus terminal. This was much colder then our cold day in Rome and we were stuck about half a mile from our hotel. It was a long cold trip back.


Dinner
Our hotel host recommended a small tavern just a couple of blocks from our hotel.

15917
steps today. Not as much as usual, but then most of our day was spent either on the train or in a water bus.

Tomorrow
Rialto bridge, St. Mark's square, more water bus. We're touristed out at this point and will probably just wing it. I think some of the museums are closed anyway so it will give us a good chance to walk around and do nothing.

Accademia and short trip to Pisa

Morning Routine
Although the hotel is great, the breakfast here is stale. I think it is because it is the time of year where the hotel doesn't have many guests. We're getting the place for 105Euros a night. The advertised rate on the placard in the room says 165. I'm sure it's a seasonal thing. On a positive note, the hotel hosts are very nice. They give us tips on what to do and also ask us how our day went. It doesn't make the coffee any better. Keri thinks the coffee in Rome was much better. We both agree that the food in Rome was better.

Duomo
After getting our caffè lattès and walking around a bit in the morning. I wanted to go for a walk up the Duomo (Dome). Keri waited for me at the coffee shop on the corner and I walked the 425 steps to the top. The stairs to the inner dome were very cold and cramped. The spiral staircases went on for a dizzing amount of time.


At the first stop, the inside of the dome, I could hear someone singing at the floor of the church. The pictures on the inside of the dome reminded me of something from Dante's inferno. I took some more stairs to the top of the dome. Great view of all of Florence.




Accademia
Then we made the short walk to Accademia. This is where the statue of Michelangelo's David is. The museum was fairly small so we didn't spend as much time here as we had planned.

Daytrip to Pisa
After the Accademia, we walked to the train station and found a train to Pisa. The trip didn't take very long, less than an hour. Once in Pisa, we grabbed a bus that looked like it would go to the Field of Miracles, where the tower is. Instead, it took us to the airport and then around parts of the city. Finally, it dropped us of at the right place.

The leaning tower of Pisa isn't as tall as I had imagined. Although it was leaning more that I had expected.

I took a picture of Keri trying to hold up the tower that actually turned out quite well. Good stuff as all the other tourists were doing the same thing.

The entire place includes the Bapistry, Duomo, Tower and a 20 foot high wall around the entire thing.


Worth the trip, but I'm glad that we didn't spend the entire day here. You could probably see the entire place in several hours. We didn't go into any of the Museums or the Tower as we were a bit Museum'd out.



We walked around Pisa trying to find a toy store to buy something for the girls. The town is pretty small but very beautiful. Here are some of the pictures I took on our way back to the train station.




Great Dinner
We stopped by our hotel room and rested for an hour before heading back out for an early dinner. The Rick Steves book recommended a place on the other side of the Arno called Golden View Open Bar. Because we were early, we got a corner table next to a view of the river. It was a great table and we stayed there for several hours.


Look at that steak! Heavily salted and not as good as it looked. Not too crazy about the Tuscan food.

After that, we walked around a bit more and then went back to the hotel.

25709
steps today. I think we are finally getting used to the exercise as it wasn't as hard today walking as much as we did.

Tomorrow
We travel to Venice for three days and then head home. Florence is our favorite city so far but we can't wait to see Venice. Hopefully, it isn't raining as the dry days really help the siteseeing.

Allie and Kiki
Keri and I have missed the girls tremendously. We are ready to get back home to see the girls. Hi Allie and Kiki. We miss you very much and can't wait to get home to see you. We have some wonderful suprises for you when we get back.

Walking in Florence

Finding a Routine
Wake up early, have breakfast at the hotel, go have a caffè lattè, and then walk around. The lattè part is nice, although, I wish they had to-go cups. What I would do for a Starbucks! The hotel we are staying at has a lousy breakfast. Bad coffee and warm yogurt. Tomorrow, we'll get a pastry or something at one of the shops where we get our lattè.

The streets here are fantastic. Narrow cobblestone streets are everywhere. Walking around the city has been an experience. Here is a picture of one of the streets to our hotel.


In the morning, we went to look for a store that sold fuses for our voltage converter. We blew out our converter in Rome when Keri used it for her curling iron.

Uffizi gallery
We went to the Uffizi Gallery today. Cameras were not allowed so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the gallery. Too bad because they had some beautiful paintings. We purchased an audio guide for this gallery. The audio guide would describe several paintings in each room. It was great starting out, but near the end it was confusing as you could never tell what painting they were describing. The reservations worked out nicely as the line to get without reservations was very long, probably 100 people. We were a 5 minutes late getting our tickets, but that didn't seem to matter as they let us right in.

You can tell we are in Italy when the traffic cops are stylin. Even the men had to wear these white purses. We found out later, although not from experience, that the purses held their traffic tickets.

The Language
I love the sounds of the Italian language. Italians talk very passionately. We've noticed many instances when groups appear to be arguing when they talk to each other.

Laundry Day
This is the first time I have ever had to do laundry on a vacation. It was fairly easy and we ended up walking around while the clothes were washing and drying. The instructions were't too hard to follow, although we ended up loosing a couple of Euros when the vending machines didn't work.

This is the picture of one of the many arches around the neighborhood.

26847
steps today and no nap. By the end of the day, we could really feel it.

Tomorrow
We have a reservation at the Accedemia and then plan to hop a train to go to Pisa. The trip there takes about an hour. Our hotel operator tells us that it is best if we go on our own as the Leaning Tower is the only interesting site there. I've been pretty excited to go to Pisa.

Travel to Florence

Train trip
Left for Florence by train today. Went to a travel agent down the street and picked up two second class tickets for the express train to Florence. 1:30 hours on the express versus 2:30 on the normal train. I didn't ask why there was such a difference but I think the slower train made a stop in Orvietto. We took a bus about 2 blocks to the Termini and then waited 30 minutes for our train.

The trip was amazingly easy. Easier than I expected. The train was right on time and we found our seats and settled in for the trip.

Florence
We arrived in Florence to rain but by the time we were out of the terminal it had stopped. Since our hotel room seemed so close, we decided to take the bus. The bus ticket operator told us to take bus 23. When we got there, the bus operator told us it was bus 1, but everyone else was telling us in Italian that we could get there by bus 23. We decided to chance it. We ended up getting lost in Piazza Firenza. Fortunately, we had a small map with us and was able to find our way to our hotel. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to come out. The roads were so small and our hotel was in the pedestrian center of the city so the walk was nice.


Here is a picture of me in front of the famous ponte vecchio.

And here is a picture of ponte vecchio from the Uffizi gallery.




Plenty of shopping
There are so many little shops on each street. Keri is very excited to walk around and shop. They have several outside markets where they sell everything from food to purses to trinkets. Some of the streets are large enough for one car to fit through.

Also, it seems like every other street has a large church or monument. So far, I would say that Florence is our favorite town.

Here is a picture of one of the smaller domes at sunset.



Hotel Alessandra
Our hotel sits a bit back from the river Arno and you can see a small bit of it from our room. We are also next to a large church that rings a bell, right across from our room, every hour from 9AM to 9PM. Thank goodness for earplugs. We are a couple of blocks from the Uffizi gallery and the Duomo. We have reservations for both on the 3rd and 4th.

The hotel is on the third floor, although it is hard to tell by the stair count and with luggage, feels like 5 floors. Our room is very large and spacious and the bed is soft.
Here is the view from our room. The big building on the left is the clock tower.



Pisa
We were hoping to take a small day trip to Pisa. I really wanted to see the tower. But it looks like all of the tours are half-day trips so I'm not sure if we can fit it in our schedule.

Tomorrow
We plan to do the Uffizi gallery and then shop. I have a feeling that we will be doing more shopping than siteseeing.

14266
14266 steps for the day. I found my step counter in our luggage. Typically I get around 4000-6000. No wonder we need our nap. I wish I had the step counter for our Colosseum day. It had felt like we had easily doubled todays number of steps.

Colosseum and the Pantheon

Bright and Early
We finally made it to the Colosseum. 8:45AM and no lines. It was early enough in the day that there were maybe 30 people total inside. It was nice to not have to fight a crowd.


Gladiators
The Rick Steves book warned us about the Gladiators. I was able to experience it first hand. From a distance, I saw an Asian tourist take a picture with one of the Gladiators. Afterwards, the Gladiator asked him for money for the picture. When the tourist said no, the Gladiator followed him. After several minutes the poor tourist ended up running away, with the Gladiator in tow for a few more yards. We were able to get our picture with no hassle. It was the guy in the tan cape.


Palantine Hill
We decided to walk up to Palantine Hill as the ticket to the Colosseum covered both exhibits. Here is a picture looking back at the Colosseum from Palantine Hill.


Not knowing what to expect, we were very impressed with the ruins in Palentine hill. This was one of those experiences where we wished we had a tour guide. My particular favorite was Circus Maximus.

We were really impressed by Palantine Hill as we had no idea what to expect and it really wasn't on our itinerary.

We took so many wonderful pictures. This one was on a bluff overlooking Capitol Hill and some of the temples. We walked through all of this up to the white building in the upper left hand corner.


We walked through the "Forum walk" up to Capitol Hill just on the other side of the ruins.


Lost again but saved by the bus
Then we decided to get lunch over by the Pantheon since we wanted to see it during the day. Another Rick Steves recommended place which was fantastic. We got lost getting there, but ended up hopping on a bus for a few blocks. By this time we were getting tired. This was our walk through some of the back streets to get to our lunch spot.


Pantheon
We had lunch and then walked over to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was like a mini St. Peter's Basilica. A huge dome covering some beautiful monuments.


Tomorrow
Tomorrow we leave for Florence. We'll probably take the bus over to the Termini and then wait for a train to Florence. There are 12 a day so I don't think we'll wait that long. I had to say that I really enjoyed our stay at the Aberdeen. It was so easy to get to everything. And easy to get back when you don't feel like walking.

Crisis of the day
Left my credit card at il Gabriello's last night. Didn't find out about it until this AM. I had to wait until 7PM before I could call them to see if we had left it there. We weren't sure what we were going to do if we had to cancel the cards. We only brought one set. Next time we'll bring two sets of credit cards and leave one hidden in the luggage.