I know it is not so long since you heard from us, however we had so many pictures of Italy that we really had to break it up to keep from breaking the blog with a photo overload.
After seeing the wonders of the Vatican we hopped on the train and headed towards Tuscany. We stayed in a the little medieval hill town of Siena just a short train ride from the center of Florence. we arrived late, but thankfully the local taxi driver (yes there was just one and his name was Fabrizio) was able to pick us up. Here is a view of the town from the train station:
We got to our hotel and were welcomed by a very helpful staff and a warm and cheery room.
The Villa we were staying it was about a 2 mile walk from the train station, but worth every step.
We went and grabbed some dinner at the hotel's restaurant that was in the big villa on the top of the hill.
We got some amazing food and amazing wine in a beautiful restaurant. Welcome to Tuscany.
The next day we hoofed it down to the train station, but the walk was beautiful so we didn't mind it too much. Plus, after Nepal what is 2 miles?
We made it safe to Florence and checked out the main cathedral in Florence, which is made out of multicolored marble which I have never seen on the outside of a cathedral before. Very unusual.
It was pretty inside too.
We also went to the gallery where a lot of Michelangelo's work is, including his statue of David.
The next day it had turned kind of rainy but the hotel loaned us some umbrellas which made us feel quite fancy. Here I am like a million dollar trooper, trying hard to look like Gary Cooper. I don't think it worked; maybe if I had some spats.
We found this tower, but it was falling down! Don't worry, I was there to hold it up.
I also reserved a museum and factory tour at the Ducati plant in Bologna, and Grace was very supportive as I geeked my way through it. I took way too many pictures, but I wont bore you with too many.
They had several MotoGP bikes that raced in the Grand Prix over the years. Each bike is worth about $500,000 if you don't count all the research and development that went into them. VERY COOL.
Then with our time in Tuscany drawing to a close, we packed up and took one last jaunt through the countryside.
I will certainly miss the views of rolling hills covered in vineyards and olive groves.
We caught the train and headed north to Venice. Its only about 2 hours via train from Florence S.M.N. (Santa Maria Novella) train station to Venice. I am really gonna miss the trains when we get back to the States.
We took the water bus to our hotel. The view was only so so. ;)
This was our hotel, about 5 min from the Grand Canal and Saint Mark's square
We walked around as it got dark. It really is a pretty city.
Grace did some window shopping. The streets were all quiet, without cars and scooters and buses. Just the chatter of people walking by and the hum of boats in the canals. It was like walking on a movie set.
The next day we walked around the city. The canals...
The narrow streets and bridges..
We also toured the Doge's Palace, armory, and prison. Not sure what this guy's problem was...
The word of the day was: Opulence
Everything was very ornate and almost every space was used for some sort of decoration.
There was an extensive collection of documents, maps, and treaties on display which were very interesting. This is a extremely detailed hand-drawn map of Europe, complete with minute city names.
Also I just want to point out that we have been lied to all these years. Here is solid proof that unicorns DID get on the ark. What happened after that?! Did Voldemort finish off the last of them? Will we ever know?
Then we went to the armory, which was mind blowing with the collection of actual weapons created way back when. It was amazing to see the workmanship and sometimes the lack of it.
They were displayed in a very impressive way. The sword smiths had their work cut out for them with all these weapons.
There were SO MANY swords and pikes and war hammers etc etc...
And there were some rather... unexpected things. This is a wheel-lock action multi barrel revolving "machine" gun. The barrels are all twist damascus.
A close up of different gun. The machine gun was almost impossible to photograph due to the glare on the case.
Then we went down to see the prisons. Sadly I took a wrong turn and got thrown in...
The doors were so short!
Then we escaped into the sweet sweet sunlight of freedom. We exercised our freedom to roam the city once more.
The basilica was beautiful as the sun went down, captured against the cloudless sky.
Also this is the look of resignation and long suffering. I guess having a seagull sit on your head will do that to you. By the way, the seagulls in Venice are evil.
We loved our time in Venice but it was quite expensive and so we caught the water bus back to the train station, then the train to Trieste, then a bus through Slovenia to Rijeka Croatia, where we would take the train to Split, but that will have to wait till next time.
Take care everyone!
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