4.30.08
We had planned on taking a day trip to see the Ferrari Museum today but didn't after all. It is basically 2 hours each way and we can't get into the actually factory only the museum because we don't own a Ferrari. We had many errands to run so we used the time for that. There where several people we needed to find gifts for and we had to ship some stuff/gifts back home via Fedex because of space and weight issues. We also needed to find another power converter, but never did.
We had our last Italian meal and gelato in Italy this evening. Tomorrow we head out to Interlaken, Switzerland!
4.29.08
Brooke and I had a general tour of Milan today, including the Santa Maria delle Grazie church that holds The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Milan nowadays is renowned for the capital of design and fashion, when it actually took off as a military town. It also served as the capital for the Western Roman empire for a time and is now very metropolitan and commercial.
Our tour started by going through the Castello Sforzesco in the center of Milan. It is from the 14th century and has been restored many times, including a restoration after allied bombing in 1943. After that we visited Teatro alla Scala, where many of the most famous operas by the greatest nineteenth-century composers were first performed.
Then it was on to the Santa Maria to see The Last Supper by Da Vinci. The painting is very large, much larger than we anticipated. To get into the room where the painting is we had to go through a series of opening and shutting of air tight doors. The purpose is for security and to control temperature and humidity. Because it was not frescoed, it is much more fragile and susceptible to degradation.
As we all know by now, the scene portrays the moment in which Jesus tells his disciples that one of them is about to betray him. Our guide named off each disciple in the painting, also touching on the controversy surrounding them. After gazing at it for about 10 minutes a loud voice came over a speaker system saying "PLEASE EXIT"....and that was it. Once again, it was a surreal moment seeing another famous work in person.
After the tour we ate lunch, then I followed Brooke around through all of the top designer shops (this is fashion capital, i had to do it :) We have some of the same shops in Dallas but here they are much much bigger and more attention is given to the presentation of the store. There are entirely separate stores for certain things within a label. There is a Chanel purse store, a Chanel jewelry store, Chanel dress store, etc...That goes for many other big labels as well (Prada, Gucci, etc, etc). The employees in these stores were SO bitchy and stuffy. They followed us throughout the store, eyeballing us the whole time. BLAAAAAA
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
The Doge's Palace in Venice. This is where Casanova escaped prison. We even saw the prison cell he escaped from!
Here's the front of our hotel.
The Grand Canal in Venice!
Gondolier navigating the "streets"
Do you think they get tired of the hats?
This is our Gondolier.
Picture from our gondola ride
Going under the Rialto Bridge. Notice the painting toward the front of our gondola.
Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge
Older part of Venice
4.28.08 - A more difficult day.
We got up early to catch a water bus to the train station for our trip to Milan (or "Milano" according the train ticket guy that corrected me after pretending he didn't know what I said the first time.....Milan???? What's that??? You mean Milano??) This guy made VERY little effort to work with me in English. I tried the best I could, apparently not good enough for him.
On the water bus some guy literally pushed Brooke forward over her suitcase to get around her. He then complained to one of the bus employees about Brooke as he got off the bus boat. I just barely saw the incident and Brooke told me about it after the fact. Otherwise, I would have shoved the guy back. You KNOW if it was a guy in front of him, her wouldn't have done that. It was because shes a woman, and an easy target.
We got on our train for MilanO, which is about 3 hours from Venice, but since it was one of the regional trains it was a pleasant ride. We found the taxi line, took one to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and went on a search for lunch. Italian food is all we have had for the last two weeks so when we saw Burger King, we gave in.
Keep in mind the entire menu is in English.....because it's predominately an American fast food place.....
I walk up and say "Mozzarella Sticks..." She just gives me a confused look....and I point at the enormous lit up sign of mozzarella sticks over her shoulder and we move forward.....
Then I say "whopper with cheese" .....same thing, nothing. Brooke even says the word cheese in Italian, "formaggio" She throws her hands up in frustration and calls for a co-worker yelling "ENGLISH".
A guy walks up and we place the order again, which ends up wrong anyways! If you work for Burger King you need to know what the words on the menu are above your head, that are in English (Cheese, Whopper, Mustard, etc.)
After lunch we went back to the hotel and checked my email. Our travel agent emailed saying the orignal hotel we booked for Venice, that he had since canceled and switched to this other hotel, is trying to charge us a no show penalty of the FULL 3 NIGHTS. Travel agent says he canceled the reservation back in November, they say he didn't and will charge my Amex credit card. Funny thing is they don't even take Amex, so they there never should have been a booking in the first place. So now I have to watch out for a charge so I can dispute it.
I'm writing this before dinner so who knows what the rest of the day holds.....Tomorrow we get to see The Last Supper by Da Vinci!
4.27.08
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, and what a place to be on my birthday! I turned 25 today and I decided that I will stop counting from here on out.
This morning we took a 'secret' tour of the Doge's Palace, the residence of each Venetian ruler. It was founded in the 9th century and is lined with marble all over the outside. The 'secret' part of this tour consisted of walking through the private apartments of the rulers, interrogation and planning rooms, torture chambers, and secret holding cells (including Casanova's). There are hidden passage ways all over this palace, some even through bookcases on the wall. The rest of the palace has vast hallways and rooms decorated with 24 carat gold, sculptures, and paintings. We also walked over The Bridge of Sighs (1600), built as a passage way for prisoners being led to trial.
After the palace, we at lunch at the American Bar. Ernest Hemingway used to frequent the place!
This evening we had a private gondola ride through the canals of Venice. It was incredible, floating through Venice pretty much the way it was for the last 300-400 years. The government made it a law that no one can build new structures, only renovate the existing ones. We got to see Marco Polo's old house!
After our romantic gondola ride, we had dinner next to The Grand Canal.
What a birthday!
4.26.08
This morning we were supposed to have a general city tour starting at 9:30, meeting point Piazza San Marco. We got there 45 minutes early and waited and waited. Well the tour guide never showed up. I called the company and they apologized up and down promising to give a full refund.
We explored on our own, had some lunch, went back to the hotel for a break, then went back out for the evening. I had read about an older section of Venice and wanted to check it out. We ended up having walking around and having dinner in another super cool outdoor cafe.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Here are our notes and pictures from the last three days:
4.25.08
Getting to Venice was our adventure today. Our stupid heavy bags and huge crowds made it difficult to navigate Venice.
LOOK UP THE DEFINITION OF OVERPACKED IN THE DICTIONARY AND YOU WILL SEE OUR FACES. Brooke makes a good arguments though.....We are gone for 32 days across different climates, which involves more clothing, that is heavier and bulkier.
The train ride to Venice was two and half hours and pretty nice too. Getting on and off the train was the hard part. Traffic to Venice was so busy today all the trains where booked until 12:30, putting us in at 3. Local trains are dirty, but the regional trains are really comfy. The regional trains have drink service, a regular Euro power plug in at each seat, overhead storage, and even an electric window sun shade!
Because it was the weekend and a local holiday, Venice was crazy busy today making it even harder to figure out a city with water for roads. There are water taxis and water buses/ferrys. Water taxis are really expensive so we opted for the water bus which carries about 75 people. It was really confusing trying to figure out which one to take and in which direction. The language barrier didn't help either. We have found that Italian streets are poorly marked...compared to say, Frisco with huge illuminated signs at intersections.
Anyways, we made it off the jam packed water bus and found our hotel pretty easily (other than lugging around our kitchen sinks).
After dropping off our stuff we ventured out to find dinner. We found a place with reasonable pricing and cover/table/bread fee, we sat down and ordered some water. The waiter came back after we starting drinking and mumbled something in Italian and then "5 Euro". We said we wanted to order dinner and he mumbled something about no chef.......no dinner...... So we had 2 bottles of water to finish for 5 Euro with no dinner. We finished them and found a place that had a chef.....and served food.... That pissed me off, but hey where in Venice so I got over it fast.
4.24.08
Today we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. The weather was perfect to take the trip, and only about an hour from Florence. It was kind of strange being there in person after seeing so many pictures of it.
We took the local bus to get to the Tower since there is no subway. Good news is that it only cost us .95 Euro each.
Anyway, construction on the Tower was started in 1173 and started leaning before they even finished the third story of it! Despite the bad foundation they continued, finishing it in 1350. Because they lacked money and the understanding on how to fix the leaning problem it took them almost 200 YEARS to build it!
The Tower has attracted many people, including Galileo. He visited to conduct his experiments on the velocity of falling objects.
We had dinner in Pisa and came back to re-pack our bags for our trip to Venice tomorrow.
4.23.08
Uffizi gallery was the first thing we checked out in Florence. It has a huge collection of art. It consisted of works from Michelangelo , Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Bernini, Carravagio, Botticelli, and more. I had taken some decongestant medicine that made me really drowsy so I was ready to go after about an hour.
Michelangelo's sculpture of David(1504) was another thing we saw. It was in a different, smaller museum called the Academia Gallery. We didn't have a pre-purchased ticket so we had to wait in line for an hour to get in. I almost suggested we skip this museum because it feels like we have already done so many museums but I'm glad we didn't skip it. In my opinion the Uffizi could be skipped over this one because I think sculptures are more interesting than paintings, at least in person. The David statue was really really impressive. It stands 17ft tall and took Michelangelo 3-4 years to complete. Other than the David, the other highlight would be his Four Prisoners which shows figures struggling to free themselves from the stone, also from Muchelangelo.
We took a walk to a church called the Santa Croce where Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, are buried. We also looked inside the nearby Duomo which was extremely ornate and enormous.
Florence is much more laid back than Rome. Not that people in Rome are bad, here they are more patient and happy. Brooke and I also noticed there are SO MANY more Americans in Florence. I don't have many pictures from Florence because we were mainly in museums where you can't take pictures.
Laundry finally got done this evening at a local Laundromat. It was pretty expensive....I think I pumped in 20 Euro. We ended up chatting with a guy from Canada basically doing the same thing we are but in the opposite direction.
We stayed 6 nights in Rome which was absolutely perfect and 3 nights in Florence. I think 2 full days in Florence would be fine, there isn't a ton to do.
We had to do it......
^ MMMM PISA TASTES GOOD!
Streets of Pisa
4.25.08
Getting to Venice was our adventure today. Our stupid heavy bags and huge crowds made it difficult to navigate Venice.
LOOK UP THE DEFINITION OF OVERPACKED IN THE DICTIONARY AND YOU WILL SEE OUR FACES. Brooke makes a good arguments though.....We are gone for 32 days across different climates, which involves more clothing, that is heavier and bulkier.
The train ride to Venice was two and half hours and pretty nice too. Getting on and off the train was the hard part. Traffic to Venice was so busy today all the trains where booked until 12:30, putting us in at 3. Local trains are dirty, but the regional trains are really comfy. The regional trains have drink service, a regular Euro power plug in at each seat, overhead storage, and even an electric window sun shade!
Because it was the weekend and a local holiday, Venice was crazy busy today making it even harder to figure out a city with water for roads. There are water taxis and water buses/ferrys. Water taxis are really expensive so we opted for the water bus which carries about 75 people. It was really confusing trying to figure out which one to take and in which direction. The language barrier didn't help either. We have found that Italian streets are poorly marked...compared to say, Frisco with huge illuminated signs at intersections.
Anyways, we made it off the jam packed water bus and found our hotel pretty easily (other than lugging around our kitchen sinks).
After dropping off our stuff we ventured out to find dinner. We found a place with reasonable pricing and cover/table/bread fee, we sat down and ordered some water. The waiter came back after we starting drinking and mumbled something in Italian and then "5 Euro". We said we wanted to order dinner and he mumbled something about no chef.......no dinner...... So we had 2 bottles of water to finish for 5 Euro with no dinner. We finished them and found a place that had a chef.....and served food.... That pissed me off, but hey where in Venice so I got over it fast.
4.24.08
Today we went to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. The weather was perfect to take the trip, and only about an hour from Florence. It was kind of strange being there in person after seeing so many pictures of it.
We took the local bus to get to the Tower since there is no subway. Good news is that it only cost us .95 Euro each.
Anyway, construction on the Tower was started in 1173 and started leaning before they even finished the third story of it! Despite the bad foundation they continued, finishing it in 1350. Because they lacked money and the understanding on how to fix the leaning problem it took them almost 200 YEARS to build it!
The Tower has attracted many people, including Galileo. He visited to conduct his experiments on the velocity of falling objects.
We had dinner in Pisa and came back to re-pack our bags for our trip to Venice tomorrow.
4.23.08
Uffizi gallery was the first thing we checked out in Florence. It has a huge collection of art. It consisted of works from Michelangelo , Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Bernini, Carravagio, Botticelli, and more. I had taken some decongestant medicine that made me really drowsy so I was ready to go after about an hour.
Michelangelo's sculpture of David(1504) was another thing we saw. It was in a different, smaller museum called the Academia Gallery. We didn't have a pre-purchased ticket so we had to wait in line for an hour to get in. I almost suggested we skip this museum because it feels like we have already done so many museums but I'm glad we didn't skip it. In my opinion the Uffizi could be skipped over this one because I think sculptures are more interesting than paintings, at least in person. The David statue was really really impressive. It stands 17ft tall and took Michelangelo 3-4 years to complete. Other than the David, the other highlight would be his Four Prisoners which shows figures struggling to free themselves from the stone, also from Muchelangelo.
We took a walk to a church called the Santa Croce where Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, are buried. We also looked inside the nearby Duomo which was extremely ornate and enormous.
Florence is much more laid back than Rome. Not that people in Rome are bad, here they are more patient and happy. Brooke and I also noticed there are SO MANY more Americans in Florence. I don't have many pictures from Florence because we were mainly in museums where you can't take pictures.
Laundry finally got done this evening at a local Laundromat. It was pretty expensive....I think I pumped in 20 Euro. We ended up chatting with a guy from Canada basically doing the same thing we are but in the opposite direction.
We stayed 6 nights in Rome which was absolutely perfect and 3 nights in Florence. I think 2 full days in Florence would be fine, there isn't a ton to do.
We had to do it......
^ MMMM PISA TASTES GOOD!
Streets of Pisa
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
1 city down, 9 more to go.
Sorry for the brief or late posts, we have either been away from the hotel or dead tired. This few here are mainly to at least document what we did that day. In the post below are 3 days worth of notes and pictures.
4.22.08
We got up early to catch a train to Florence. A portion of the train ride was through parts of Tuscany. It looks like something out of a movie!
It rained all day here in Florence so we just got checked into hotel, got our bearings, had lunch then dinner. Hotel is....interesting. It's kinda like an old person's house. It smells funny and has random decorations throughout with no running theme or idea. The staff is super nice though and it seems clean.
Tomorrow we are going to the Uffizi Gallery, 'Accademia' Gallery
4.21.08
Pompeii Ruins in the city of Pompeii was the destination of the day. It was our first train ride in Europe. The metro in Rome doesn't really count because it only has 2 lines and only has like 10 stops. The trains however are much more complex, it's more like an airport terminal. We have Euro Rail passes, but for some trains you have to make reservations ahead of time for, some you don't. You have to make sure to have certain things signed, validated, stamped; and other things you leave blank.
We successfully made it to the Pompeii ruins via local metro, to train station, to connect with another train in Naples, train to Pompeii, then cab ride to ruins.
I was expecting a small area of ruins but the place is enormous. We spent around 4 hours exploring it and there was still quite a bit more to see. A self paced audio tour was available that was pretty good.
Here again I couldn't believe the close contact people have with the ruins. There were mosaics and frescos inside some of these houses that we touched and looked at up close.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying the town in 20 ft of pumice and ash. All of the serious excavations were done in 1748, revealing an entire city stopped in time.
We went inside homes, businesses, forums, a theatre, and bath houses. We also saw several casts of people that were dying. I will post those pictures soon.
The city was once painted with very bright colors, and decorated with marble. Also, there are quite a few counter tops and kitchens that have impressive marble inlays that are perfectly in tact. These countertops look amazing even up to today's standards.
The city of Pompeii was astonishingly advanced and growing rapidly. It makes me wonder if it would be as big or bigger than Rome is today if it wasn't for the volcanic eruption. They both are said to have started around the same time.
Our train was on time leaving Pompeii but late leaving Naples and then on top of that they had to stop the train to have someone escorted off by the police. I don't know for what reason. The trains are really nice though. Long day.
4.20.08
Brooke and I took a tour with the same guide as yesterday but for the Colosseum, the ruins of Roman Forum, and ruins of Palatine Hill today.
In it's day the Colosseum could seat 55,000 people (some say as many as 80,000) and was commissioned by the Emperor in AD 72. They held Gladiator fights (normally male prisoners from areas Rome conquered), animal fights, and executions. There was no charge to get into the arena for the citizens either. What a deal huh? At the inaugural games in AD 80, over 9,000 wild animals were killed.
We happened to see a bunch of guys dressed up like Roman Soldiers and Gladiators marching around the Colosseum to drums. Rome's birthday is on 4/21 and claim Rome dates back 2700 years or so.
Palatine Hill was once the residence of emperors (including Augustus!) and aristocrats. Archaeological evidence claims people were settled there back in the 8th & 9th century BC.
The Roman Forum started as a chaotic places but was later turned into business centers and law courts in the 2nd century BC.
I could not believe that we basically had free range around these sights. At one point I was listening to our guide while sitting on an ancient column. Back in the States this would all be blocked off behind ropes and glass. I believe there is a different level of respect for the Arts and History here, as there should be.
We also took a side excursion as a time filler until lunch. There is old church that you can't get into but has a huge marble/stone face with a big keyhole in it that you can look through to see a road lined with cypress trees and St. Peter's basilica in the middle. It sounded kinda neat and it was walking distance away. HUGE mistake. We got lost and ended up walking for hours. We did make it there and by that time the excitement had more than worn off. Our legs and feet were throbbing and we couldn't find a place to eat. Lunch finally came around 4, we gathered enough energy to make it back to the metro which was realistically about 1.5 miles away, and went home for a nap.
I caught a rare moment of a inside of the Coloseum with nobody walking by.
These are the pillars that I mentioned in the post above.
Cops here have Alfa Romero cars, BMW bikes, and machines guns on street patrol. Too cool...
This was the 'Keyhole' shot I mentioned.
There were stray dogs all over the place in Pompeii. This one thought he'd take a nap in a restricted area haha.
Pregnant woman
Dog
I guess he didn't die in an interesting enough position to be showcased like the others.....
Brooke took this one of me and it's actually a nicely composed cool picture!
Bath house
Fresco in one of the Pompeii houses.
Street in Florence
4.22.08
We got up early to catch a train to Florence. A portion of the train ride was through parts of Tuscany. It looks like something out of a movie!
It rained all day here in Florence so we just got checked into hotel, got our bearings, had lunch then dinner. Hotel is....interesting. It's kinda like an old person's house. It smells funny and has random decorations throughout with no running theme or idea. The staff is super nice though and it seems clean.
Tomorrow we are going to the Uffizi Gallery, 'Accademia' Gallery
4.21.08
Pompeii Ruins in the city of Pompeii was the destination of the day. It was our first train ride in Europe. The metro in Rome doesn't really count because it only has 2 lines and only has like 10 stops. The trains however are much more complex, it's more like an airport terminal. We have Euro Rail passes, but for some trains you have to make reservations ahead of time for, some you don't. You have to make sure to have certain things signed, validated, stamped; and other things you leave blank.
We successfully made it to the Pompeii ruins via local metro, to train station, to connect with another train in Naples, train to Pompeii, then cab ride to ruins.
I was expecting a small area of ruins but the place is enormous. We spent around 4 hours exploring it and there was still quite a bit more to see. A self paced audio tour was available that was pretty good.
Here again I couldn't believe the close contact people have with the ruins. There were mosaics and frescos inside some of these houses that we touched and looked at up close.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying the town in 20 ft of pumice and ash. All of the serious excavations were done in 1748, revealing an entire city stopped in time.
We went inside homes, businesses, forums, a theatre, and bath houses. We also saw several casts of people that were dying. I will post those pictures soon.
The city was once painted with very bright colors, and decorated with marble. Also, there are quite a few counter tops and kitchens that have impressive marble inlays that are perfectly in tact. These countertops look amazing even up to today's standards.
The city of Pompeii was astonishingly advanced and growing rapidly. It makes me wonder if it would be as big or bigger than Rome is today if it wasn't for the volcanic eruption. They both are said to have started around the same time.
Our train was on time leaving Pompeii but late leaving Naples and then on top of that they had to stop the train to have someone escorted off by the police. I don't know for what reason. The trains are really nice though. Long day.
4.20.08
Brooke and I took a tour with the same guide as yesterday but for the Colosseum, the ruins of Roman Forum, and ruins of Palatine Hill today.
In it's day the Colosseum could seat 55,000 people (some say as many as 80,000) and was commissioned by the Emperor in AD 72. They held Gladiator fights (normally male prisoners from areas Rome conquered), animal fights, and executions. There was no charge to get into the arena for the citizens either. What a deal huh? At the inaugural games in AD 80, over 9,000 wild animals were killed.
We happened to see a bunch of guys dressed up like Roman Soldiers and Gladiators marching around the Colosseum to drums. Rome's birthday is on 4/21 and claim Rome dates back 2700 years or so.
Palatine Hill was once the residence of emperors (including Augustus!) and aristocrats. Archaeological evidence claims people were settled there back in the 8th & 9th century BC.
The Roman Forum started as a chaotic places but was later turned into business centers and law courts in the 2nd century BC.
I could not believe that we basically had free range around these sights. At one point I was listening to our guide while sitting on an ancient column. Back in the States this would all be blocked off behind ropes and glass. I believe there is a different level of respect for the Arts and History here, as there should be.
We also took a side excursion as a time filler until lunch. There is old church that you can't get into but has a huge marble/stone face with a big keyhole in it that you can look through to see a road lined with cypress trees and St. Peter's basilica in the middle. It sounded kinda neat and it was walking distance away. HUGE mistake. We got lost and ended up walking for hours. We did make it there and by that time the excitement had more than worn off. Our legs and feet were throbbing and we couldn't find a place to eat. Lunch finally came around 4, we gathered enough energy to make it back to the metro which was realistically about 1.5 miles away, and went home for a nap.
I caught a rare moment of a inside of the Coloseum with nobody walking by.
These are the pillars that I mentioned in the post above.
Cops here have Alfa Romero cars, BMW bikes, and machines guns on street patrol. Too cool...
This was the 'Keyhole' shot I mentioned.
There were stray dogs all over the place in Pompeii. This one thought he'd take a nap in a restricted area haha.
Pregnant woman
Dog
I guess he didn't die in an interesting enough position to be showcased like the others.....
Brooke took this one of me and it's actually a nicely composed cool picture!
Bath house
Fresco in one of the Pompeii houses.
Street in Florence
Our hotel In Florence.
Monday, April 21, 2008
exhausted...
We are sitting in Naples on a train layover from Pompeii back to Rome. I will try to update the blog tonight with details and pictures if i can. Brooke and I have to go do some laundry when we get into Rome. Yesterdays tour of the Coloseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill was awesome. Today we explored Pompeii ruins and was totally blown away by walking around a neighborhood that was started 200 YEARS BEFORE JESUS.
Oh yeah and we have had Italian food for a week straight and we broke down and got some fries from McDonalds here in the Naples train station.....and yes Naples was the birthplace of pizza....we are bad I know.
Tomorrow we head out to Florence.
Oh yeah and we have had Italian food for a week straight and we broke down and got some fries from McDonalds here in the Naples train station.....and yes Naples was the birthplace of pizza....we are bad I know.
Tomorrow we head out to Florence.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Where we ate our first meal in Italy!
Near our hotel.
Trevi Fountain
This does NOT do the Sistine Chapel justice. You have to see it in person.
Actual dead pope dipped in wax. TRUE STORY.
Ceiling of St. Peters@Vatican. The little letters within the gold strip at the bottom of the circle dome are actually 5 feet tall each. That's how huge the place is.
I couldn't get a good picture of Peters tomb. Its kinda hidden.
Sup.
They are EVERYWHERE.
Cool buildings
Brooke planning our next move.
Place we ate in Piazza Navona.
YES thats an MP5 fully automatic!
Really cool cop car.
Borghese Gallery
Entrance into Pantheon.
My spin on it.
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