Somehow I accidentally deleted a chunk of that last day I wrote about, toward the end of it. I fixed that, along with some of the grammar lol....that's what I get for not proof reading it.
Tonight I will update notes and picture from Salzburg and some of Vienna.
Thanks!
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
This is the car we rented in Garmisch, Brooke is taking care of the videography over there.
Here is a picture of a picture of the Neuschwanstein Castle we visited. Sorry I didn't have a helicopter to get this shot ;)
The view out of the castle! We drove through that to get here!
This one is mine of the castle.
A picture I took while driving to Austria, out of my window. That's a golf course in the foreground.
Another picture of our Puegeot but top down!
Thoroughly enjoying myself behind the wheel. 6 hours of European driving, parts of it on the Autobahn! Dream come true.
Train stop on the way to Switzerland.
The Jungfrau, highest point in Europe. This was from front of our hotel.
Brooke's reaction to the "Stinky Cheese Fondue"
No this is not us but we vowed to do this when we go back someday.
Another view from near the front of our hotel. I will be contacting Hallmark when I get back ;)
Here is Lauterbrunnen Valley, further up into the Alps from Interlaken. This shows one of the waterfalls cascading into the valley.
That same waterfall
Taken from the window of the train that took us up to the Jungfrau. This is Lauterbrunnen Valley but from above it this time.
Typical Swiss house
Glacier coming off the Jungfraujoch. This is at the train station there, the highest station in Europe.
To put the size of this landscape in perspective, the dots in the red circle are skiers!!! Be sure to click on these pictures to enlarge them so you can see.
Here is the same picture but zoomed in 100%. This is funny to me....In the red circle on the right is SPECK of dust on my lens, just about the size of one of those people.
Awesome train station in Milan
Commercial Milan
This really isn't that great of a picture but I couldn't stop thinking about how it looks each one of those birds have somewhere to go but the people look clueless.
Brooke at the Alla Scalla Opera house.
Cathedral in Milan with the stirrings of May Day going on.
A girl with one of the religious groups dancing to music. It was weird because I just flipped into "photographer mode" and started documenting this group just like I do when I'm shooting a wedding.
Drummers that made that music.
Socialist group, nice guys actually.
These last two are the essence of Milan.
Update of the last 5 of 6 days
Here are a ton of notes but sorry no pictures yet...there are about 25 I will be putting up later but we have to kinda rush and get checked out of our hotel in Salzburg right now.
5.5.08
Today started out to be a bad Monday but turned in to THE BEST AND LONGEST Monday I've EVER had. *Warning this is a long post ;)
This was our only day in Garmisch and was meant to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle "just outside" the city. We were told it was only 20 minutes away by bus but this morning we found out it takes 2 hours each way. This presented a problem because we were supposed to leave this evening for Salzburg Austria and that didn't allow enough time. Riding the bus to the castle, exploring it, and and riding the bus back would have put us in too late to catch the train. It wasn't looking like we couldn't do it. I wanted to see the castle but was prepared to except not seeing it. Brooke really really wanted to see it, and pushed for an alternative. I'm glad she did too! So what did we do?
Yep, we rented a car in Germany! We had to talk it over and weigh it out for about 10 minutes, but decided to go for it. The plan was to drive east to Fussen where the castle is, explore for a couple of hours, then drive back west all the way into Salzburg where we would turn the car in the next morning.
I have never driven outside of the USA but have always dreamed of driving on the AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was everything I dreamed it to be, and to my amazement all the rental company asked for was my passport and my driver's license. We got a French made Peugeot 207cc (convertible!), that is not sold in the States. So cool. We packed that little car to the brim with luggage, even with things IN the floor boards behind our seats.
Without any research or training on what the road signs mean, we ventured off. It took us about 30 minutes of wrong turns before we got out of Garmisch and pointed the right direction. As it turned out we started on correct roads the first try, but doubted ourselves and made a few u-turns. It really didn't take that long to get acquainted with the road signs and flow of traffic. Signs are much smaller here so you have to really pay attention. The stop lights are neat too. When you are at a red light, it goes to yellow, then to green giving you a chance to be rolling when it turns green. For me it's kind of like a drag strip starting line with multiple lights going off before the green. Also the green lights start to blink when they are about to go yellow, then to red again.!
The roads here are everything I could've asked for. They are smooth and winding. People are MUCH more educated on how to drive (to get an actual license here you have to pass a test that is so much harder). In Texas, the computer you take the test on just SHUTS OFF when you get a "sufficient" amount of the test correct.....horrible standard. On top of that, people here in Europe treat driving with a greater respect and awareness. You don't see idiots on cell phones or bimbo soccer moms in suburbans doing their make-up. I'm sure it's against the law to do so, but people actually follow the law on the road here.
Once we got out of Garmisch we drove through the countryside of southern Germany and parts of northern Austria. At this point we weren't on the "Autobahn" (which literally just means highway), we were on small country roads with speed limits.
The drive was fantastic and without doubt the coolest place I have ever driven. We wound through little German villages where there are no tourist, just real German life. We made it into Fussen, were the castle is, without a hitch thanks to Brooke navigating with the little map the rental place gave us. For lunch we HAD to have traditional German food after the Asian dinner the night before. We both had bratwurst, potatoes, and beer for lunch at a German cafe in Fussen. It was really really good too! MUCH better than anything we had in Switzerland.
The castle is up on the side of a mountain available either by horse carriage or by a 40 minute hike on foot. For some reason we decided to hike it.....We made it but about collapsed at the top :) This castle was the inspiration for the castle in Disneyworld but SO much more impressive being in the Alps rather than Florida. Everybody has to join a tour with a group of people and a guide to get in the castle, costing around 8 euro each. The guide we had is very hard to describe to do him justice.....
Picture a very thin and boney person, with a blonde boyish haircut, hollow eyes, stood feet together and a little hunched over. We walked up TOTALLY thinking it was a woman with a bad haircut and posture.... We were greeted with high pitched, " Haallow" in a thick German accent. Not until the tour actually started did we see his name tag......Benjamin and realize it was a guy. I was in disbelief.
Benjamin had really funny mannerisms. Slowly turning his head to the right, closing his eyes while bringing one hand close to his mouth point toward the ceiling - just like he always did before speaking - and said, " Now, ve vill start zee tour". I bit my lip to fight laughter and just looked down. Benjamin never turned his head, only his entire body when he went left or right with that hand close to his mound pointed at the ceiling. He was the strangest, nerdiest, little German guy ever and it was perfect for a tour of a castle haha! We were not the only ones fighting laughter. I noticed several others, so I don't feel so bad.
The hike down was much easier and when we got to the car, we decided to put the top down for the cruise to Salzburg because it was a gorgeous day. This is when I found the best driving roads. We headed back west but further north of Garmisch this time, into more country roads. It was the most picturesque, smooth, winding roads. The only thing I could have asked for was say, a Porsche 911 without 200 lbs of luggage haha! But hey, can I really complain? No. I even called home to rub in the fact that I was spending my Monday driving through the Alps in a convertible and they weren't. I just had to do it.
I pulled over and re-taught Brooke how to drive a standard transmission because my next car will probably be a smaller standard trans car, plus she has been wanting to re-learn anyways. She has it on her mind I'm going going to let her drive my future sports cars........Her performance gave me hope. She did pretty well!
Then it was back on the open road with the top down. We eventually hit a major highway, the Autobahn!!!!!! One of my fantasies was coming true. As soon as I drove onto the on-ramp, cars were BLOWING by me at well over 100 mph.....so I nailed it, rowing through the gears!
People on the Autobahn are very aware and always move to the right lane unless they are passing. It is strictly forbidden to pass on the right. This makes high speeds much safer. I was cruising at 150 kph(93 mph) - 190 kph(118 mph ). I WAS FREQUENTLY GETTING PASSED AT THESE SPEEDS < COOL ! I did have the top up and the car would not have gone much, if any faster than about 195 kph. It was such a small car it felt alot faster than 118 mph....Brooke never got freaked out either. We can thank Adolf Hitler for the Autobahn, he was the one who pushed for the completion of it. There really aren't speed limits, only suggestions.
Getting into Salzburg Austria was not too hard at all. We did have a problem with out hotel room. It smelled like total vomit, it was gross! It was also on the 3rd floor and there is no elevator. Brooke was NOT thrilled about smell. I was so tired and happy from the drive I didn't care. The guy that showed us to the room left to check if there was another room but never came back! I later called the front desk and he said he checked and there wasn't another room open. Then he told me to go park my car......nice..... We used their parking garage, aired out the room best we could and went to sleep.
It didn't ruin my day, it was the best Monday ever! I did a total of 6 awesome hours of driving in Europe today........I WILL be back to the Autobahn.
5.4.08
This was the 8 hr train ride day I briefly described from my phone on the train. We traveled from Interlaken to Garmisch Germany. That post from my phone was towards the beginning of the train trip, so I was pretty happy-go-lucky about it....
At about the 5-6th hour ,when we got on a low-end local train that had an air-conditioner that barely worked, with locked windows , and was packed, that when the trip started to DRAG. The 2 little screaming babies didn't help either. We had a little stretch there of bad luck with crying babies on the trains.
We switched trains in Basel, Olm(this was the bad train), Munich, then to Garmisch.
Checked into our little German hotel where the staff wears traditional German clothing and were very nice.
Wandered in the dark to find some German food......accidentally ended up in an Asian/eccletic restaurant! It was actually good though.
5.3.08
Took an hour and a half train to the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfroughjoch at 11,782 feet.
We rode through Wengen, a very cool little village at the top of the cliffs looking over down over Lauterbrunnen Valley. We tried to stay their but most hotels were closed because its the low season.
The train ride up was miserable. There were a ton of a certain race of people that all desperately needed to take a shower and buy deodorant. They would't let us open the window, it was DISGUSTINGLY over powering. Again, there were screaming babies on this train ride too.
We gazed at the mountains and glaciers on top of the Jungfroughjoch center who guarantees snow year round at their station. It was kinda hazy but still had incredible views! We then came back through Grindelwald and look around a bit and went back to Interlaken.
We made the mistake of going into a Swiss chocolate store when we were hungry.....we bought like 4 pounds of chocolate! It made from a little shop outside of Zurich they aren't a reseller of the big name brands like Lindt Chocolate. It's amazing stuff!
Side note: we were on the top floor our hotel and there was something strange going on down the hallway...... There were 50 or so boxes with Arabic writing all over them outside of the rooms, with gaurds 24/7, with walkie talkies (and probably guns) watching over them. It was really strange, who knows.
5.2.08
Got up late, walked around Interlaken for a while. Relaxed, quite town with great views!
Went to a tiny town called Lauterbrunnen about 30 minutes away. It's at the bottom of an enormous valley that has water falls coming down the sides! Stopped at a local pub for a coke. sat outside with the sad pub dog.
Had dinner in one of our hotel's resteraunts, that is traditional Swiss cuisine. I had some kind veal dish and brooke had fish that had the "green fairy" in it....ABSINTHE haha. We have never had that so I'm not sure you could even taste it i the food. This was the only Swiss meal we liked, but not loved. I am not impressed with Swiss food. They are surrounded by countries with great food and what they have come up with pales in comparison. Sorry.
5.1.08
This morning we went inside the duomo in Milan, it has a very gothic style which wasn't characteristic of the time it was built. Being gothic, it was really dark inside and kinda erie, but thats what made it interesting.
There was a May Day rally going on in the square in front of the duomo with some political leader speaking,religious groups celebrating and putting on demonstrations.
We headed out to Interlaken Switzerland after that. Swiss trains are really nice, I think they are newer. We ended up talking to 2 american guys on the train and that was nice to talk to someone who speaks english. They are covering more countries in a shorter amount of time that us, in 3 weeks, not staying in one place more than 1 or 2 nights in hostels.
After train switches in Brig and Speiz, we made it into Switzerland and got to our hotel just fine. We splurged a little on this hotel, it's super nice. It's called the Victoria Jungfrau, a 5 star hotel. Brooke actually found a half price deal online, so it was the price of a nice 3 star.
That evening we walked around town and looked for a Swiss restaurant to eat at. We found one and asked waitress for the best Swiss meal and she recommended the Cheese Fondue. He had noticed the putrid smell of what seemed like stinky feet when we walked in........well as it turns out that's the cheese fondue. She set it down in front of us, we dipped out bread in, and tried it.......VERY bitter! It was no good at all. Brooke took like 3 bites, but I kept eating because I felt bad leaving it. I mean I asked the lady for thier best and everything. So slang for that meal is the stinky cheese fondue.
Others couples came in after us, saw the fondue on our table and ordered it. We watched the grimaces on their faces when they tried it the first time. We laughed about it ;)
So we went back to the hotel and ordered room service. We had a club sandwich haha!
5.5.08
Today started out to be a bad Monday but turned in to THE BEST AND LONGEST Monday I've EVER had. *Warning this is a long post ;)
This was our only day in Garmisch and was meant to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle "just outside" the city. We were told it was only 20 minutes away by bus but this morning we found out it takes 2 hours each way. This presented a problem because we were supposed to leave this evening for Salzburg Austria and that didn't allow enough time. Riding the bus to the castle, exploring it, and and riding the bus back would have put us in too late to catch the train. It wasn't looking like we couldn't do it. I wanted to see the castle but was prepared to except not seeing it. Brooke really really wanted to see it, and pushed for an alternative. I'm glad she did too! So what did we do?
Yep, we rented a car in Germany! We had to talk it over and weigh it out for about 10 minutes, but decided to go for it. The plan was to drive east to Fussen where the castle is, explore for a couple of hours, then drive back west all the way into Salzburg where we would turn the car in the next morning.
I have never driven outside of the USA but have always dreamed of driving on the AUTOBAHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was everything I dreamed it to be, and to my amazement all the rental company asked for was my passport and my driver's license. We got a French made Peugeot 207cc (convertible!), that is not sold in the States. So cool. We packed that little car to the brim with luggage, even with things IN the floor boards behind our seats.
Without any research or training on what the road signs mean, we ventured off. It took us about 30 minutes of wrong turns before we got out of Garmisch and pointed the right direction. As it turned out we started on correct roads the first try, but doubted ourselves and made a few u-turns. It really didn't take that long to get acquainted with the road signs and flow of traffic. Signs are much smaller here so you have to really pay attention. The stop lights are neat too. When you are at a red light, it goes to yellow, then to green giving you a chance to be rolling when it turns green. For me it's kind of like a drag strip starting line with multiple lights going off before the green. Also the green lights start to blink when they are about to go yellow, then to red again.!
The roads here are everything I could've asked for. They are smooth and winding. People are MUCH more educated on how to drive (to get an actual license here you have to pass a test that is so much harder). In Texas, the computer you take the test on just SHUTS OFF when you get a "sufficient" amount of the test correct.....horrible standard. On top of that, people here in Europe treat driving with a greater respect and awareness. You don't see idiots on cell phones or bimbo soccer moms in suburbans doing their make-up. I'm sure it's against the law to do so, but people actually follow the law on the road here.
Once we got out of Garmisch we drove through the countryside of southern Germany and parts of northern Austria. At this point we weren't on the "Autobahn" (which literally just means highway), we were on small country roads with speed limits.
The drive was fantastic and without doubt the coolest place I have ever driven. We wound through little German villages where there are no tourist, just real German life. We made it into Fussen, were the castle is, without a hitch thanks to Brooke navigating with the little map the rental place gave us. For lunch we HAD to have traditional German food after the Asian dinner the night before. We both had bratwurst, potatoes, and beer for lunch at a German cafe in Fussen. It was really really good too! MUCH better than anything we had in Switzerland.
The castle is up on the side of a mountain available either by horse carriage or by a 40 minute hike on foot. For some reason we decided to hike it.....We made it but about collapsed at the top :) This castle was the inspiration for the castle in Disneyworld but SO much more impressive being in the Alps rather than Florida. Everybody has to join a tour with a group of people and a guide to get in the castle, costing around 8 euro each. The guide we had is very hard to describe to do him justice.....
Picture a very thin and boney person, with a blonde boyish haircut, hollow eyes, stood feet together and a little hunched over. We walked up TOTALLY thinking it was a woman with a bad haircut and posture.... We were greeted with high pitched, " Haallow" in a thick German accent. Not until the tour actually started did we see his name tag......Benjamin and realize it was a guy. I was in disbelief.
Benjamin had really funny mannerisms. Slowly turning his head to the right, closing his eyes while bringing one hand close to his mouth point toward the ceiling - just like he always did before speaking - and said, " Now, ve vill start zee tour". I bit my lip to fight laughter and just looked down. Benjamin never turned his head, only his entire body when he went left or right with that hand close to his mound pointed at the ceiling. He was the strangest, nerdiest, little German guy ever and it was perfect for a tour of a castle haha! We were not the only ones fighting laughter. I noticed several others, so I don't feel so bad.
The hike down was much easier and when we got to the car, we decided to put the top down for the cruise to Salzburg because it was a gorgeous day. This is when I found the best driving roads. We headed back west but further north of Garmisch this time, into more country roads. It was the most picturesque, smooth, winding roads. The only thing I could have asked for was say, a Porsche 911 without 200 lbs of luggage haha! But hey, can I really complain? No. I even called home to rub in the fact that I was spending my Monday driving through the Alps in a convertible and they weren't. I just had to do it.
I pulled over and re-taught Brooke how to drive a standard transmission because my next car will probably be a smaller standard trans car, plus she has been wanting to re-learn anyways. She has it on her mind I'm going going to let her drive my future sports cars........Her performance gave me hope. She did pretty well!
Then it was back on the open road with the top down. We eventually hit a major highway, the Autobahn!!!!!! One of my fantasies was coming true. As soon as I drove onto the on-ramp, cars were BLOWING by me at well over 100 mph.....so I nailed it, rowing through the gears!
People on the Autobahn are very aware and always move to the right lane unless they are passing. It is strictly forbidden to pass on the right. This makes high speeds much safer. I was cruising at 150 kph(93 mph) - 190 kph(118 mph ). I WAS FREQUENTLY GETTING PASSED AT THESE SPEEDS < COOL ! I did have the top up and the car would not have gone much, if any faster than about 195 kph. It was such a small car it felt alot faster than 118 mph....Brooke never got freaked out either. We can thank Adolf Hitler for the Autobahn, he was the one who pushed for the completion of it. There really aren't speed limits, only suggestions.
Getting into Salzburg Austria was not too hard at all. We did have a problem with out hotel room. It smelled like total vomit, it was gross! It was also on the 3rd floor and there is no elevator. Brooke was NOT thrilled about smell. I was so tired and happy from the drive I didn't care. The guy that showed us to the room left to check if there was another room but never came back! I later called the front desk and he said he checked and there wasn't another room open. Then he told me to go park my car......nice..... We used their parking garage, aired out the room best we could and went to sleep.
It didn't ruin my day, it was the best Monday ever! I did a total of 6 awesome hours of driving in Europe today........I WILL be back to the Autobahn.
5.4.08
This was the 8 hr train ride day I briefly described from my phone on the train. We traveled from Interlaken to Garmisch Germany. That post from my phone was towards the beginning of the train trip, so I was pretty happy-go-lucky about it....
At about the 5-6th hour ,when we got on a low-end local train that had an air-conditioner that barely worked, with locked windows , and was packed, that when the trip started to DRAG. The 2 little screaming babies didn't help either. We had a little stretch there of bad luck with crying babies on the trains.
We switched trains in Basel, Olm(this was the bad train), Munich, then to Garmisch.
Checked into our little German hotel where the staff wears traditional German clothing and were very nice.
Wandered in the dark to find some German food......accidentally ended up in an Asian/eccletic restaurant! It was actually good though.
5.3.08
Took an hour and a half train to the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfroughjoch at 11,782 feet.
We rode through Wengen, a very cool little village at the top of the cliffs looking over down over Lauterbrunnen Valley. We tried to stay their but most hotels were closed because its the low season.
The train ride up was miserable. There were a ton of a certain race of people that all desperately needed to take a shower and buy deodorant. They would't let us open the window, it was DISGUSTINGLY over powering. Again, there were screaming babies on this train ride too.
We gazed at the mountains and glaciers on top of the Jungfroughjoch center who guarantees snow year round at their station. It was kinda hazy but still had incredible views! We then came back through Grindelwald and look around a bit and went back to Interlaken.
We made the mistake of going into a Swiss chocolate store when we were hungry.....we bought like 4 pounds of chocolate! It made from a little shop outside of Zurich they aren't a reseller of the big name brands like Lindt Chocolate. It's amazing stuff!
Side note: we were on the top floor our hotel and there was something strange going on down the hallway...... There were 50 or so boxes with Arabic writing all over them outside of the rooms, with gaurds 24/7, with walkie talkies (and probably guns) watching over them. It was really strange, who knows.
5.2.08
Got up late, walked around Interlaken for a while. Relaxed, quite town with great views!
Went to a tiny town called Lauterbrunnen about 30 minutes away. It's at the bottom of an enormous valley that has water falls coming down the sides! Stopped at a local pub for a coke. sat outside with the sad pub dog.
Had dinner in one of our hotel's resteraunts, that is traditional Swiss cuisine. I had some kind veal dish and brooke had fish that had the "green fairy" in it....ABSINTHE haha. We have never had that so I'm not sure you could even taste it i the food. This was the only Swiss meal we liked, but not loved. I am not impressed with Swiss food. They are surrounded by countries with great food and what they have come up with pales in comparison. Sorry.
5.1.08
This morning we went inside the duomo in Milan, it has a very gothic style which wasn't characteristic of the time it was built. Being gothic, it was really dark inside and kinda erie, but thats what made it interesting.
There was a May Day rally going on in the square in front of the duomo with some political leader speaking,religious groups celebrating and putting on demonstrations.
We headed out to Interlaken Switzerland after that. Swiss trains are really nice, I think they are newer. We ended up talking to 2 american guys on the train and that was nice to talk to someone who speaks english. They are covering more countries in a shorter amount of time that us, in 3 weeks, not staying in one place more than 1 or 2 nights in hostels.
After train switches in Brig and Speiz, we made it into Switzerland and got to our hotel just fine. We splurged a little on this hotel, it's super nice. It's called the Victoria Jungfrau, a 5 star hotel. Brooke actually found a half price deal online, so it was the price of a nice 3 star.
That evening we walked around town and looked for a Swiss restaurant to eat at. We found one and asked waitress for the best Swiss meal and she recommended the Cheese Fondue. He had noticed the putrid smell of what seemed like stinky feet when we walked in........well as it turns out that's the cheese fondue. She set it down in front of us, we dipped out bread in, and tried it.......VERY bitter! It was no good at all. Brooke took like 3 bites, but I kept eating because I felt bad leaving it. I mean I asked the lady for thier best and everything. So slang for that meal is the stinky cheese fondue.
Others couples came in after us, saw the fondue on our table and ordered it. We watched the grimaces on their faces when they tried it the first time. We laughed about it ;)
So we went back to the hotel and ordered room service. We had a club sandwich haha!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Hang On!
We are in Austria now and loving it. I PROMISE I will update with details and pictures tomorrow morning. We have unlimited Internet access here. Thanks for reading everyone!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
"road trip"
I'm blogging from a train on my beloved iPhone right now, just enjoying our long journey to Germany. I know I haven't posted about Switzerland yet, and that's coming but I just wanted to give a brief update. Interlaken was very nice and refreshing....details and pictures coming soon.
We have 8 hrs of train riding today, with 3 train changes. Bern, Basel, Ulm, and Munich are some of the towns we ride through. Swiss trains are by far the cleanest and nicest trains we have been on.
Once you make it on, long train rides are relaxing and alot like a road trips. They are usually quite spacious allowing you to stretch out with your magazines, music, computer, and food... I like kickin back listening to music looking at all of the European landscape.
If our hotel in Garmisch has access I'll upload some pictures. Cya!
We have 8 hrs of train riding today, with 3 train changes. Bern, Basel, Ulm, and Munich are some of the towns we ride through. Swiss trains are by far the cleanest and nicest trains we have been on.
Once you make it on, long train rides are relaxing and alot like a road trips. They are usually quite spacious allowing you to stretch out with your magazines, music, computer, and food... I like kickin back listening to music looking at all of the European landscape.
If our hotel in Garmisch has access I'll upload some pictures. Cya!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Switzerland is next!
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
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
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)