Italy Day 9 - Arrivederci Italy

Well, it's been real and it's been fun. And it's been real fun! Tomorrow we're heading back to the U.S. and reality. Eva starts her new job the day after we get back and I have lots to do at my job. Three days isn't nearly enough time to see Rome, Florence or Venice, but we saw a lot and had a great time. Florence was probably my favorite, though Rome was fascinating with the ancient ruins in the middle of a modern city. And Venice is like no other city in the world.

I'm really glad Eva graduated from college so I had an excuse to bring her here! I couldn't be a more proud papa.

Italy Day 9 - Burano

Our last day in Italy. We took a tour to the island of Burano in Venice. Our host in Venice, Egor (a nice Italian name!), told us this tour was worth it just for the lunch, but since I don't want to be like all the other bloggers and write about mundane stuff like what I had for lunch I'm not going to tell you how delicious the seafood risotto, spaghetti with clams, two varieties of sautéed local fish, and calamari with shrimp were. Maybe I can tell you about the carafes of house white wine that kept coming and coming. Mmmm, they were good!


We didn't get to Pisa, but we did get to see the leaning tower of Burano and Eva did her best to try to straighten it.

Italy Day 8 - Gondola to Concert

I really wanted to do a Gondola ride, but Eva wasn't too interested in a romantic tour of the city, so I arranged a gondola to take us from our hotel to the Scuola Grande San Rocco to hear some Vivaldi and Mozart performed by Interpreti Veneziani (violins, viola, cello, bass, harpsicord and flute). Was a great ride over there. We went with our friends, Larry, Carrie and Mickey. Okay, here's one pic of us in the gondola.The concert was great. I'd tell you what the pieces were, but the program is all in Italian. Anyway, it was great. And in a gorgeous room.

Shutterbugs!

Just in case you were wondering what Eva and I saw of each other most of the time, this about captures it. I got some comments about taking pictures with a crappy camera phone, but it's so easy and convenient. Can you even tell which blog photos were from my iPhone and which were from Eva's Canon Powershot A620?

Italy Day 8 - Venice Tour

Yesterday morning we had our Venice tour. Since our tour was on Sunday St. Mark's Basilica was closed for mass so we weren't able to get in to tour it. St. Mark's Square is so crowded. They have 3 or 4 cruise ships a day disgorging 4,000 tourists each. By 2:30 when St. Mark's Basilica opened the line stretched all the way to Padua.

We also toured the Doges' Palace where the head dude of Venice lived. Venice was supposedly the birthplace of democracy. The Doges was elected, it was not a position inherited at birth. Nice palace, but we couldn't take pictures.

Just amazing that they could build a city on top of a swamp 1,000 years ago. They just drove trees down into the marsh to create foundations for the buildings, but naturally things sank over time. Pisa is a joke to these Venetians. Pisa only has one leaning tower, but Venice has a dozen or more.

We also toured the Bridge of Sighs named because of the sighs of the prisoners that walked over it to and from the jail. But the jail was permanently closed in 1922. (I hope they took the last prisoners out first!) Now they say the name refers to the sighs of lovers floating under the bridge in their gondolas. Yeah, whatever. Sigh.

Pigeons Take Two

Hello all! This is Eva writing now...here's my first and maybe last attempt at a blog entry, but I just had to post this picture of Jeff with the pigeons. He was brave enough to pick a cracker off the ground, crumble it and let a pigeon eat out of his hand! I was surprised...

Pigeons in St. Marks Square

We noticed that the pigeons have the tourists well trained in St. Mark's Square.


You can click on the picture to get a slightly larger version.

Italy Day 7 - Arrival in Venice

We arrived in Venice by train and took a water taxi to our hotel. No cars in Venice. No insane motor scooter riders either!


Our luggage got it's own boat.

Down the grand canal towards our hotel.

And here we are just one bridge away from our home for the next three days. And this is the nicest hotel yet! A walk-in closet, long hallway, and two little balconies looking out over a tiny street.

Italy Day 6 - Siena Streets and Square

The rain let up and we walked through the old part of Siena up and down cool streets like this one.


Here's the Piazza del Campo where we dined alfresco looking out at the people and the buildings. Turned out to be a lovely afternoon when the rain stopped and the sun came out and we had a wonderful dinner.

Siena Jazz

We were in need of a restroom (or two!) and wandered into a nearby building and it turned out to be the Sienna Jazz Institute. We heard some swinging stuff coming from some of the practice rooms. We had to go upstairs to find the bathroom and just happened to walk by some practice rooms.
I think the joke in Siena is that they only have jazz once a year--from October to March. The last bus back was 8:45pm, so we didn't have time to check out any music. Next time!

Rain

Our first day of rain. I'd heard it was raining since 8am, but I didn't get up until 10am, so I can't verify if that is really true. Love these at leisure days!

It was still raining when got to Siena. Eva wasn't too happy about it.

But I found a slug and felt right at home. Hadn't realized I'd been getting home sick for Seattle until I saw that slug.

Italy Day 6- Side trip to Siena

We decided to do our own tour to Siena.

Here's our bus arriving. We talked our new friend, Mickey, into coming with us and even pressed him into playing tour guide. We "learned" that the Irish helped build Siena. Hard to believe and even though Mickey's Irish we're sure he's telling the truth.

We got off the bus and Mickey saw an Irish pub, so we had to start our tour there. I learned that you can walk into an Irish pub anywhere in the world and order a whiskey and suddenly the bartender is your friend and will help you figure out local sights you should see in town. Of course I had to have a Guinness.

But Eva wanted a lighter beer.

Italy Day 5 - Two-wheeled fun in Florence

We rented bikes with our friend Mickey and rode around Florence.


Here's Eva imitating Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday".


And here I am trying not to fall over.


We rode across the river and found a great place for dinner. Then we rode to Signoria Square and there was live music at midnight. A guitar player/singer and singer duet covering Simon and Garfunkle tunes. I'd forgotten how cool those harmonies were.

Italy Day 5 - Street Musician

We heard this beautiful classical guitar music in Signoria Square. We listened a bit and I bought a CD for 15 euro. His name is Tadeusz Machalski. Great music to blog by (what I'm doing now) or to nap by (what Eva's doing now).

Prego

Italian Quiz:

What does "Prego" mean?

A) You're welcome
B) Thank you
C) Go ahead
D) I pray
E) All of the above

Turn your computer upside down to read the answer.

The Office

You have to pay to watch TV in the room, but no, we didn't pay to watch reruns of The Office. We went to the Office. It's quite famous! Never heard of it? Okay I'll tell you the Italian name, Uffitzi. They have one of the few paintings done by Michaelangelo. He mostly made statues and painted frescoes.

This is the only part of the Uffitzi where you are allowed to take pictures. Isn't that a great view of Ponte Vecchio?Oops, not close enough to the window. Ah, there's Ponte Vecchio.
We saw paintings by Leonardo also, but my favorites were the Botticelli paintings, "Spring" and "Birth of Venus". Incredible!

Italy Day 5 - Will The Real David Please Stand Up?

Can you guess which is the real David statue by Michaelangelo?
One of these is a marble copy and one is a bronze copy. All three
are in Florence.




Send your answer on the back of a 20 euro note to:

David Contest
Brennan/Thomas
Room 124
Albani Hotel
Via Fiume 12
Florence, I- 50123
Italy

The lucky winner, chosen at random from the correct answers, will receive a copy of the bronze fig leaf used to cover David's private parts during the 1700's when the pope briefly bit from the apple of the tree of knowledge and was suddenly bothered by his nudity.

Holly Door

I forgot to tell you about the holly door. When we toured St. Peter's our guide told us all about the holly door and how it is only open every 25 years. We decided not to wait 17 years for it to open, so we had to walk 6 meters (English translation: forever!) to go in another door.

But we couldn't figure out what the guide meant. He had a slight accent. Maybe he meant holidore, but that sounded like something out of Star Trek.

Now, in Florence, our guide today pointed out a holly cross to us. Yeah, they must have used wood from holly trees for doors and crosses. That must be it.

La Giostra & Ponterutili Chianti Classico 2006

Finally some wine worth remarking about! This bottle of 2006 Chianti Classico from Ponterutili was divine. One sip and you feel like you are transported to Italy to some small restaurant off a back alley in Florence. And the second bottle tastes just as good as the first!

And if you ever are in Florence, check out La Giostra. We had dinner with our new friends, Larry and Carrie from upstate New York. I'd tell you how good it was except I hate those blogs where people write about what they had for lunch or dinner. Snore.

And our new friend, Mickey, from New York City, also joined us for dinner. Or did we join him? I can't remember. Sorry about that pic, we'd finished the second bottle by the time I tried to take this picture.

Italy Day 4 - Piazzale Michaelangelo

We decided to cross the Arno River and hike up to Michaelangelo Park to check out the view of Florence. We got halfway up the hill and encountered some steps.

Not much further now. We heard that it's quicker to walk up than take the bus because you can walk straight up and the bus has to zig-zag back and forth. Not so sure I see the value in that approach now that I'm halfway up the hill.


But, ah, the view is worth it.


And it's not just a postcard. Here's the record shot showing we are really here!


And on the way back down we ran into this Italian cat. It has a very strange way of meowing, but we're pretty sure it said "meow" in Italian.

Old Bridge

No, not Old Bridge, New Jersey! Perhaps I should use the Italian name, Ponte Vecchio. Doesn't that sound way cooler than Old Bridge?

So believe it or not, this picture is not a street, but a bridge. This is the only bridge that survived the bombings of World War II. War is sure hell on bridges.

The shops are all gold and jewelry. And while the gold is all 18k, it's all twice as expensive as in the states. So, sorry, we won't be bringing back jewelry for any of you.

Italy Day 4 - Welcome to Firenze (Florence)

I think I'm going to like this hotel. It's got my initials on a gold plaque outside the door!

Another beautiful day here, sunny and warm. We took the Eurostar train up from Rome. It travels up to 120 mph! Took 90 minutes to get here. You can tell the train is moving fast because we're moving faster than the cars. And the Italians speed like crazy!

And look at our room.
And the view from the window. We had lunch under those white umbrellas over there. In Rome they have lunch "hour" every day from 1pm to 3pm. So we had our 2pm lunch. The banks and many of the stores are closed for two hours every afternoon! Our dinner tonight will be 9pm or so.

Unremarkable Wine

Astute readers may have noticed that I've mentioned cappuccino quite a few times and haven't mentioned wine at all. It's not that I'm trying to set a good example for Eva by not drinking. Quite the opposite, I'm trying to set a good example of how to enjoy life by drinking wine with every meal!

It's just that the wines we had in Rome weren't worth remarking about. Nothing bad about them all at, but nothing special either. But I'm going to keep trying.

The Angel and the Cherub

They say life imitates art, so we thought we'd have a go at that. These gold statues in St. Maria's Cathedral just reminded us of, well, us.


I should have photoshopped out those glasses, or maybe photoshopped in some glasses on the statue.

Due Cappaccino Giorni

Okay, I'm really feeling at home now. Here I am just after noon having my first cappuchino before we visit St. Mary's and then again having another after we leave St. John's.



It was also a two gelato day for Eva, but you'll have to take my word for second one. This one is raspberry and second one was lemon!