This morning we visited the Coliseum.  It was very convenient to get to – just a few subway stops from our hotel.    You come out of the subway and the Coliseum is immediately across the street.  We had reserved tickets, so we didn’t have to wait in line.  We did learn, for anyone else considering visiting Rome, that if you go through to the audio guide line they can sell you tickets there, so that is a good way to buy tickets without waiting in line. 

We bought the guided tour for a few extra Euros and I’m glad we did.  It was nice to get some good information and we haven’t always had good luck with renting the audio guides.  A couple of them really sucked, actually. 

One interesting thing at the Coliseum was this large bronze cross that sits at the spot where the emperor’s throne used to be.  It was placed there in 2000 as part of celebrating 2,000 years of Christianity.  Also, apparently the Pope comes to the Coliseum every Good Friday to do a blessing in remembrance of Christians that were persecuted there.  Actually, though, the archaeologist who did our guided tour said that there is no actual historical proof that Christians were persecuted at the Coliseum, at least no more than any slave or criminal of any other religion was.   

After the Coliseum, we crossed the street and visited the Forum.  For the former center of Roman life it had a surprisingly narrow street.  It’s hard to visualize how great the buildings must’ve been since all that’s left of some of them is a column or two.  

From the Forum we took the subway to the Piazza del Popolo and saw the big obelisk there.  The church there was closed, so instead we headed over to the Borghese.  The gallery itself sits in a large park where there is also a zoo, amongst other things.  The park was very peaceful and had plenty of shade for us to wait in for our gallery reservation. 

We really enjoyed the Borghese gallery, particular the Bernini sculptures.  The museum is a former villa founded by an influential Catholic cardinal who used (or, you could argue, abused) his influence to fill the villa with art.  The villa is considered the first museum in Rome as the cardinal opened it up for the public to view.  The art inside has all been restored and is pristine.  Plus, the audio guide here was terrific.  It pointed out the highlights and the history behind them without going over the top.  We also like that the gallery is by reservation only.  The let 200 people in for two hour blocks of time, so it wasn’t crowded and there didn’t seem to be any guided tours.   So no yelling guides, which was a refreshing break. 

After the Borghese we took a bus/subway combo back to our hotel, which I’m still recovering from.  I’ll just say there was this totally gross, sweaty guy leaning on me in the very crowded mini-bus.  And the subway was pretty crowded, too. 

Tomorrow the Vatican museums and St. Peter’s Basilica, but first dinner!!

Ciao!

This morning we started out in Florence.  We made a visit to the Museum at the Duomo; it was nicely done, quiet and had a good flow to it.  A highlight was an unfinished sculpture by Michelangelo, a Pieta – we’ll see another Pieta by Michelangelo when we visit the Vatican Museums. 

We also visited another old church, San Lorenzo.  It was very nice and had some nice paintings and an interesting library with a staircase designed by Michelangelo.

After a lunch of McDonald’s at the train station (which was exactly the same as you would expect it to be) we boarded our train for Rome.  As coincidence would have it, our seats were right by some people we’d waited in the Accademia line with earlier in Florence, so it was funny to see them again.  About 10 minutes outside of the station our train slowed and stopped and then sat there for about an hour and ten minutes.  Engineers and other train personnel were going up and down the aisles, apparently trying to figure out what was going on.  When the train stopped, the power went out so there was also no air conditioning.  Jeff and I both agreed we each went through a few minutes of trying not to freak out because it was so hot and stuffy, but we dealt with it. 

We finally arrived in Rome a little after 4 pm and took the subway to our hotel.  We knew the stop to take, but not which way to go after that, so it was a little tricky figuring out where our hotel was.  Our rooms here are very nice; smaller than our room in Florence, but definitely more nicely decorated. 

We decided to go see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps since someone told us the Trevi fountain  was nice at night.  It was nice, but extremely crowded.  And I’ve never seen so many street peddlers in my life.  They just keep coming and coming.  The craziest thing was these guys stealing coins from the fountain with these extendable metal sticks – apparently 1 and 2 euro coins are magnetic???  Not sure how it worked, but there were 2 guys and they were just moving along peering into the water.  Then they’d see the coins they wanted and pull this antenna-like thing out and extend it and get the coin.  Here’s a picture of one:

It was really weird.

After dinner, we went to the Spanish Steps and ate gelato, and then went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it lit up.  I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it was even more crowded than it was earlier. 

We’d heard that the subway was closed late, so we took a taxi back to our hotel.  That was quite possibly the most harrowing, yet exhilarating, 10 minutes of my life!  Our driver took fast corners and sped along at crazy speeds, but it was kind of fun.  And I made it back alive, so it’s okay!

Tomorrow we’ll go to the Coliseum and the Forum and the Borghese gallery. 

Ciao!

Today we took a walk to the Arno River and walked over it on the Ponte Vecchio.  The Ponte Vecchio is lined on both sides with jewelry stores, with windows filled with gold, silver and jewels.  It is a pedestrian only bridge, so it’s a nice place to walk and browse without worrying about some lunatic in a Fiat coming and running you over.

On the other side of the Ponte Vecchio we visited the Pitti Palace.  There we walked through the rooms where the Medici family once lived and saw how lavish their lifestyle was.  The walls and ceilings were covered with paintings and frescoes and the rooms were filled with incredible furniture. 

We also visited the Pitti Palace’s Gallery of Modern Art, which there means pretty much anything from the 19^th century on.  We didn’t tour the Boboli Gardens, but they were viewable from parts of the palazzo. 

As we’ve learned, any visit to a museum is going to be filled with some goofy people and tour groups.  For the most part, though, the Pitti Palace was remarkably low on both.  The only goofy people were this small group of Asian folks who kept setting off the alarms on the paintings.  I witnessed the one lady do it twice; she would stop in front of a painting, back up further and further to get a better view and back up so far she would run into a painting behind her and set off the alarm. 

Also, the Pitti Palace has my vote for worst bathrooms so far.  The toilets didn’t even have seats on them (men’s or women’s) and they smelled like pee. 

Oh, and just a quick message to those people whose job it is to sit in a chair and do nothing all day but make sure nobody messes with the art:  Please, don’t let me interrupt your phone call.  Feel free to just sit there all day with your John Grisham novel or your magazine and look surly.  I’m sorry your job is so hard.  

We also went back to the Duomo and visited the cathedral.  It was very big and airy inside – very different from the frescoed interior at the basilica at San Marco.

Today had an interesting vibe to it as it was Sunday and a lot of stores and restaurants were closed.  Still just as many illegal street vendors selling knock-off purses, watches and sunglasses, though.  And we saw some guys making crazy paintings with spray paint.  Plus there was a whole family of gypsies/beggars by the Duomo; one of the ladies was washing herself with bottled water.  There is definitely never a lack of things to see!

Tomorrow we’ll visit the museum at the Duomo in the morning, and then it’s on to Rome in the afternoon. 

Ciao!

We had a great dinner tonight at Il Latini.  We'd heard about it from several people and walked by it Friday night and saw there were a lot of people waiting outside (which we haven't seen anywhere else so far.)  So we decided we had to try it.

 We showed up early and got in what appeared to be a pretty manageable line - being Italy, however, that soon turned into a huge mob instead.  When they opened at 7:30 they were very organized, though, and the guy at the door was pretty good at keeping everyone in check.  He took the groups with reservations first (which we didn't have).  Those folks were crazy - even though they had reservations they were very tense and pushy (ugly Americans again.)

We were the first ones in after the reservations.  Seating was family style and we were seated with two other couples, one American the other British.  They were about our age and good company, so that definitely added to our experience. 

You don't get a menu, but they did offer us choices (pasta or soup, beef, chicken, veal or lamb).  And of course there was a giant bottle of chianti in the middle for us to share.  We ended up going through two of those! 

All in all we had four delicious courses and left very full and satisfied.  Our favorite meal so far!

6/30/07

Hello.

So I don’t know what else to add for today. Pisa was exactly what I expected:

• Get on train.

• Get off train.

• Taxi to leaning tower.

• Laugh at stupid people taking picture pretending to hold up the tower.

• Take Jeff’s picture pretending to hold up the tower.

• Eat pizza in Pisa; take photo to commemorate.

• Climb tower (Jeff did - 294 slippery, tilted marble steps with no handrail was not my thing.)

• Eat gelato.

• Taxi back to station.

• Get on train.

Tomorrow we’ll go to the Ponte Vecchio and check out some real bling in the jewelry shops there and probably visit the Pitti Palace, too. We also need to get back to the Duomo at Santa Maria del Fiore and visit the inside of the church before we head out of Florence on Monday afternoon.

But in the meantime, there is food to be eaten – hopefully we can get into Il Latini for dinner tonight as it sounds fabulous.

Ciao!

Today we visited two famous museums:  the Accademia (home of Michelangelo's David) and the Uffizi (home of, amongst other things, Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera.)

We made reservations for both galleries a couple of months ago and were told to arrive 15 minutes early to pick up your tickets.  You then go in at your assigned time.  We arrived at the Accademia gallery at 9:45 for a 10:30 reservation to find the museum not yet opened.  This surprised us as we thought the ticket office opened at 8:15.  The sign on the pre-reserved door said that due to a staff meeting (?!?!) they were not opening until 10:20.  Some people in line had reservations that had been for 8:30, 8:45 and so on in 15 min. increments.  Well, as more people got there word came that a similar thing had occurred over at the Uffizi.  Apparently this was not a staff meeting, but a strike!  Once they opened at 10:20 they started calling out times for the different reservations, starting with 8:30, and letting people in accordingly. 

So for our 10:30 reservation we ended up getting in at 12:15.  We ended up having to wait 2 ½ hours instead of 45 minutes.  This of course meant we ended up waiting in line with some really stupid people.  Like the one guy behind us (ugly American, of course) who kept insisting he could really give them some good advice on how to run things.  And the people arriving at 11:45 for their 12:00 reservations who couldn’t comprehend what was going on and just kept saying to people “But we have reservations for 12:00!”.  The same people kept asking others how long in advance they’d made their reservations, as if that should matter somehow.

I should also say we met a couple of nice families who were friendly and gave us some good advice on restaurants and tours, both in Florence and Rome.  So it wasn’t a total waste of time!

Not a lot to say about the museums.   David was amazing to see, of course, as were the Botticelli’s at the Uffizi.  I don’t know about Jeff, but I was pretty worn out by the time we left the Uffizi about 4:00.  I was mostly tired of other people!!  The tour groups are the worst!  Imagine 20-25 tourists with headsets listening to the tour guide talk and walking all together in this crazy mindless way.  Think lemmings.  So if there is a tour group in front of the famous painting you want to see you have to wait until the guide moves on and that large group moves away. And time it so you don’t get stuck in another group!

The worst, though, were the smaller tour groups that didn’t have headsets, which were mostly English-speaking.  The guides would stand with 8-10 people in the middle of the room and basically shout in heavily-accented English about the paintings.  Like they were trying to make up for their accent by being louder!  Jeff and I had rented the audio guide, and if we came upon a room with too many of these kinds of tours then we could hardly hear our headset for all the shouting. 

Final thought – if I was a billionaire, one of the experiences I would try and buy with my money would be permission to touch the statue of David.  Standing there looking, I just kept wondering what it would be like to touch his face, hands and chest.  He’s so real looking! 

Tomorrow we go to Pisa by train to visit the leaning tower – cross your fingers that there’s not a train strike tomorrow!!

Ciao!

We bid farewell to Venice today and took a train to Florence.  The Eurostar train we took was very comfortable and relaxing. 

 We checked into our hotel in Florence, the Hotel Porta Rossa.  There are several distinctive differences between our rooms in Venice in Florence:

•  Overall, much larger than our Venetian room.
• The room is level, which means no more slanty bed!!
• There is an elevator.
• The bathroom is much larger and so is the shower.
• The shower is not so much a shower, as it's a large bathtub with handheld shower attachment and no shower curtain.  That ought to be interesting.
• The television doesn't get any English-language stations, not even BBC World (which was the only English-language station at our Venice hotel.)

The hotel is just as well-located as our hotel in Venice, if not more so.  After checking in Jeff and I went to do some laundry (about two blocks from our hotel) and while it was drying we walked about another two blocks over to the Farmacia at Santa Maria Novella.  Click the link to read more about it - it is quite possibly the best-smelling place on earth.  We didn't buy anything yet, but definitely plan on going back and making some souvenir purchases.

 Right now we are in an internet cafe across the street from the Mercato Nuovo (the straw market) which is a large open air market.  Right now the market is closed and is filled with musicians and guys selling knock-off purses.  And we've already rubbed the snout of il Porcellino for good luck!

 Tomorrow it's on to both the Uffizi and Accademia galleries for amazing art.  More on that tomorrow!

 Ciao!

So we made an earlier start of it today and got in line early for St. Mark's Basilica.  The Basilica opens at 9:30 (after a 6:45 mass) and we arrived about 9:15.  There was already a decent sized line, but it looked manageable.  Then a lady  came along offering a guided tour for 10 euros per person starting at 9:45, so we took her up on it.  The tour guide was knowledgeable and took us up into the Museum upstairs in the Basilica where we could go out the balcony which runs along the front and look down at the piazza.  The museum also housed the original four hourses that were on the front of the Basilica (the ones currently on the exterior are copies); they are large bronze statues that are more than 2,000 years old and made by an unknown artist.  Their detail is amazing.  They briefly resided on the Arc di Triomphe in Paris; spoils of war put there by Napoleon.  They were brought back to Venice following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.  It also included some of the original mosaics from the Basilica - some from as early as the 12th century.

The rest of the Basilica was amazing.  The mosaics that cover the ceilings are incredibly intricate.  While inside we also paid a few euro extra to visit the Pala d'Oro and the Tesoro (Treasures).  The Pala d'Oro is a magnificent gold and jewelled altar and the Tesoro consists of holy relics, including bones, fragments of bones and teeth of saints and other religious icons.  One reliquary even included a shrivelled hand!

After the Basilica we took the vaporetto to Murano, which is famous for it's glass-making.  However, there was no actual glass-making to be found on the island.  We were hoping we would be able to find a tour or demonstration, but mostly we just found a lot of shops selling glass that was most likely not even made in Murano (probably made in China).  Our impression of Murano is that it is primarily a tourist trap now.  The main canal/street was pretty picturesque, though:

Tonight we are headed back over to the Campo San Angelo to find dinner and, of course, gelato. Tomorrow we leave Venice behind and take the train to Florence for a look at the lovely David. 

Ciao!

So, another post for today (what I call day 2 and Jeff calls day 3; there's a little dispute on how to number what day we're on.  I count full days and Jeff includes all travel days.  From here on out I will just list posts by the date!)  

We're back at the hotel after dinner and gelato.  We posted earlier around 4:30 then went back to our hotel for a rest. 

I haven't said much about the hotel;  the location is great and the room is very clean.  There are definitely some very quirky things, too.  Our room is on the top floor and of course there is no elevator, so it's a bit of a trek up to the room. Which in and of itself is not bad (lord knows I can use the workout); however, the building is old and most of the stairs are not level.  Each flight is different and tilts at a different degree. 

Also, the bathroom is quite small (which we expected), but it's the smallness of the shower stall we weren't prepared for.  It is maybe 3 feet by 3 feet square.  I dropped the soap yesterday and it was an adventure to pick it back up!

The last goofy thing is the floor in our room is also not level.  Which means the bed (which consists of two twin beds pushed together) is very crooked.  I'm on the slanty side (Jeff did offer to switch with me but I declined) and it's a little strange.  Not too bad though - I still managed to sleep just fine. 
I do like our hotel, though; for the location it is great and it's part of the European experience for us not to stay in a predictable chain hotel. And our room price includes a daily continental breakfast. The breakfast is served in a nice breakfast room on the first floor and is made up of a decent selection of pastries, meats, cheese, yogurt, cereal and coffee/tea/juice. 

I also wanted to mention the language issue.  I think Jeff and I both are a little more willing today to talk to people in (very stilted) Italian. How else would we get 2 or 3 scoops of gelato a day?!?!  Still, most people have at least a little English and the only person who kind of acted like we were retarded was the guy who worked on the vaporetto this morning. 

I had read before we came about the possibility of anti-American sentiment here.  We've not experienced any at all, the exception being a very good-looking Italian man walking through Campo San Angelo shouting "No more tourists!  Tourists go home!"  Which is more anti-tourist than anything.  The only other thing was a flyer taped to a public phone with a picture of President Bush with and "X" over his mouth.  There are many Americans here in Venice, too, along with a wide variety of Europeans. 

That's enough for tonight - Jeff is snoozing next to me and I want to get a good night's rest so we can queue up for St. Mark's Basilica first thing in the morning. 

Ciao!

 Happy to report no breakdowns today!!!  Today's weather was quite different  - still pretty warm, but way less humid. I guess I'm a true Phoenician.  I can take the heat, but not the humidity. 

 Jeff is busy posting photos from yesterday's trip to the Piazza San Marco and our Gondola ride.  The gondola ride was very nice - it was at dusk and we were in a grouping with other gondolas that included a singing gondolieri. 

After a good night's sleep, we took a water bus (vaporetto) to the old Jewish ghetto, where we stood and said "wow look, a ghetto".  It was that exciting!!  Afterward we took the vaporetto to the Rialto market and bought some fruit and tried to avoid the smells of the fish market.  There were a lot of touristy booths there with trinkets and shirts (mostly saying Made in China).  Plus some interesting shorts and aprons for men - let me just say they mimicked a certain piece of the anatomy of the famous statue of David.  Kind of like those t-shirts that look like you're wearing a bikini, but for men. 

 After the Rialto market we trudged over the Rialto bridge (which has the best view looking up and down the Grand Canal) and hopped on another vaporetto back to San Marco.  Jeff had a quick siesta in the park, then we used our combo ticket from the Doge's Palace and visited the Correr (and no Lisa, we didn't go to the Sargent exhibit.  We didn't realize it was a separate admission until we had gone all the way through the Correr.  We'll go back tomorrow).  The Correr was nice - lots of Roman copies of Greek sculptures, plus very old coins, books, maps and globes.  Plus it was air conditioned and not at all crowded, which is a big difference from most everywhere else we've been.  

Then 4€ fora pizza lunch on the fly, and then onto the internet cafe where I learned Paris Hilton got out of jail.  And I fully intend to Google "how to use a bidet" when I'm done posting.

Still left on our agenda for Venice is a visit to St. Mark's Basilica, the island of Murano, a ride to the top of the bell-tower at St. Mark's and a return trip to the Correr.  We'll see what we get done tomorrow! 

All in all, a good day.  Time now for a siesta before we get out to dinner.

Ciao! 

 Jeff is posting about our troubles with our Delta flight.  All I'll say is all told our travel took from 6:00 am Saturday to to 9:00 am Sunday (Seattle time) - 27 of the longest hours!!

 So jet lag/hysteria/anxiety/whatever kicked my rear today - we visited the Piazza San Marco and fed the pigeons and then toured the Doges Palace, including the prisons (a really dismal place - I shuddered to think of all the people who had died there!).  Beautiful stuff, and pictures are to come, but being tired and the heat and humidity all combined to make me something of a blubbering mess!  We had a lovely siesta this afternoon, though, and got some good rest and soon we're off to dinner and a gondola ride for our anniversary.

 As for speaking Italian, so far we've not really needed to.  They've spoken English well wherever we've been.  Lots of Buon Giornos and Grazie's, but not much else.  Anyway, all you need to know is 'chocolato' and 'due' to get a lovely two-scoop gelato!!  And I also learned they look at you funny if you just order soup for lunch - apparently that's not a complete meal.  This was before my lovely siesta, though, so I wasn't completely up to snuff and that was all I wanted!! 

We think tomorrow we will visit the markets on the Rialto bridge and maybe visit the Correr museum.  We are also planning to visit the old Jewish ghetto and  Murano before our time comes to an end in Venice and we head on to Florence on Thursday.  We would like to see as much as possible without being completely exhausted!!  We will try and post another time before we leave here and add pictures. 

Ciao! 

So the kids are off to Phoenix - just got back from dropping them off.  They're such big kids now that it makes me a little sad.  Ryan gave me a hug and then didn't look back as he walked down the jetway.  Allie, on the other hand, gave me a long, hard hug and turned back several times to flash me "I love you" in sign language. 

When they were safely on the plane, I turned around to find a seat (the airline wants you to wait around until the plane takes off) and I saw a man looking at me funny.  Then it occurred to me he was looking to see if I was crying!  I had to decide if I would let myself be teary, which is kind of where I was headed, or force myself to suck it up and stare him down. Well, I'm happy to report I am currently undefeated in airport staring contests.  And the guy even had the gall to look a little disappointed that I didn't cry. 

We're off tomorrow morning, bright and early - we'll come up for air sometime around 3:00 in the morning Seattle time, noon Italy time.  We'll post pics and flight updates as soon as we can.