Sick day

Today we took half a sick day, slept through breakfast and had a slow morning. We had plenty of slow days in SEA but few in Italy because there is always so much to see we are squeezing in a lot of cities. We feel like we are wasting this opportunity if our day isn't action packed but we finally realized that we needed a break. I know people say you can't complain when you are on vacation but I think when you travel for this long it's not considered a vacation. Are we clocking into a boss everyday no, but we still have to-do lists, we are packing and traveling every two-three days and then running around trying to see every sight possible, it's taxing on the body.
After our sleep in, we ate and headed to the Uffizi Gallery since our guidebook said we'd been in line for hours if we didn't make reservations and it was at the top of Michael's list of sights. 45 minutes later we were standing amongst the best collection of Italian Renaissance art. I'm no art buff but it was cool to see how art changed through time from 2 dimensional to 3 dimensional and the phases in between. Most paintings we've seen here have been of The Virgin Mary but today we saw painting of Venus which was nice change. Especially since Mary never looks happy, Venus on the other hand always has a coy smile depending on how she is being depicted.
From there it was off to the Plazzo Vecchio where there is a nice replica of Michelango's David which was enough for us to skip the real deal. Then to the Pontes Vecchio which is a bridge that was turned into a mall, full of gold jewelry which means its a happening place for these window shop loving Italians! We crossed the bridge and walked along the river watching the crew teams practice and headed to dinner. Finished off the night with gelato and a stroll around town.

Pics:
- Ponte Vecchio - you can see the shops and the secret passage way (near right) that lead from their home to another Palace.
- Me on the Ponte Vecchio
- David

Kamikaze tourism

5/17/12:

Today's timeline:
0830: Wake up (Carolyn).
0855: Carolyn tries to wake Michael up.
0900: Carolyn tries again to get Michael up.
0901: Michael wonders to himself why he drank 1/2 a liter of wine after having 5 pre-dinner beers
0903: Carolyn threatens Michael with bodily harm and to take away all his ketchup privileges if he doesn't get up.
(30 seconds later): Michael is brushing his teeth.
1000: Our host picks us up from our fabulous apartment to take us to the train station.
1020: Train departs La Spezia for Pisa.
1200: Arrive Pisa.
1206: Drop bags off at storage.
1210: Begin 'Pisa walking tour'.
1314: See the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
1530: Return to train station.
1554: Depart Pisa for Florence.
1700: Arrive Florence.
1711: Get map from Tourist Info point.
1725: Check in to our hotel (hotel Romagna).
1802: Go to dinner.
1934: Leave dinner.
2000: See Duomo for first time.
2034: Have 2nd-Gelato.
2100: Return to hotel.
2101: Exhausted.

Eventful day fo sho! Our side trip to Pisa was a last minute idea and really worked out great! We walked around and saw some great sights and of course saw the leaning tower. What a place. The tower is in an area called the 'Field of Miracles' and is surrounded by a fabulous duomo, baptistery, museum, cemetery, etc etc etc. The tower itself is pretty impressive but we didn't think it was worth the €15 fee / person to climb to the top. So we took about 200 pictures and lounged on the wonderful grass field (field of miracles). Looked at some souvenirs and eventually made our way into the Duomo. It was amazing. Not St Peters basilica amazing but grand none the less. Saw the body of St Raminieri who has a crazy cool silver face mask. A bone from another random saint and the tomb of Henry VII, holy roman emperor and the lamp that inspired Galileo! Not a bad day at all.

By the time we got to Florence we were wiped out. We grabbed a bite to eat and went to see the Duomo since its late and that means the tourist hoards are all gone.

Tomorrow we'll blitz through the big sights and figure out our next couple days.

Pics:
1) Carolyn framing the tower
2) Me holding the tower up.
3) Carolyn and the tower.
4) Florence - Duomo.
5) Us and the Pisa-Duomo.
6) Me and the skeleton key!
7) Geovanni's pulpit - Pisa-duomo.
8) St Ranieri.

Cinque Terre = Tre amici

There are 5 towns (cinque) and we planned on hitting all 5 today, starting at the furthest and working our way back towards La Spezia where we are staying. Normally you can hike between all five towns but due to a land slide in 2011 two routes are off limits. We started our morning at Monterosso and started a two hour hike to the next town, Vernazza. It seemed more like the line to get to Ho Chi Mihn's mausoleum than a hike because there were soooo many people, especially older folks with hiking boots and sticks which was a little intimidating at first but we soon realized they were just over prepared. We stopped briefly to eat some yummy focaccia bread and had a chance encounter with a group of people who we took a picture of. We started back up and ran into the group again, it was an American couple and their adult son who now lives in Geneva, Switzerland. We ended up spending the rest of the day with them.

Before I get into that let me talk about the Cinque Terra. It is absolutely gorgeous, it's like fairies are flying around sprinkling dust on the crystal clear water. The towns are aligned so you can see all of them from our start point. Why anyone would want to live anywhere but here is beyond me because it's down right beautiful. Our last host told us that's it's where people go on their honeymoon and I can absolutely see why. Green hillsides covered in grapes and lemons, clear blue water, a speciality wine in every town. A must see if you are traveling to Italy.
Our hike dropped us off in Vernazza, where we ate lunch with our new friends right on the water. Holy moly it was windy, trash, food, napkins and hats were flying every which way but we all made it out unscathed. From there we took the train to Corniglia grabbed some gelato, took in the beauty and caught a train to Manarola. From there we walked up a few hills to some extravagant view points before starting the 20 minute hike along the coast to the last town, Riomaggiore. Our new friends were staying in Riomaggiore and had a place picked out to have drinks and enjoy the view. Apparently the wind wasn't working in our favor because the place they wanted to take us to was inaccessible due to the wind. We settled on a place slightly up the road but still in view of the ocean hitting the large outlying rocks. After many beers and glasses of wine we skipped up the road for dinner. The conversation and alcohol flowed and before we knew it was was time to go. Dan dropped us off at the train station which was great because I don't know that we would have found it in the state are were in.
It was another wonderful day in Italy! We've said before that meeting people generally makes it a better experience and this was no exception. Jill and Tim were like parents we picked up along the way, buying us drinks and meals and offering advice. Dan was someone our own age to talk to and I think he threw another wench in our already full barrel. He works in the finance world (his parents are accountants as well) and seems to really like it, Michael just got accepted to another school but for a masters in Financial engineering which he was kind of blowing off until today... They all thought he should go for it and the prospect of a 1 year and half instead of 4-5 years is really nice but it's a complete career change.
After arriving back in La Spezia we found a wonder dessert bar where we got yogurt with strawberries. There were two policeman at the stand so we finally go to ask one of our burning questions...what's the difference between police and the Carabinieri (military police). Michael and I both had Carabinieri with us in our deployed locations but they seem to be everywhere here as well as regular police. He said police are like our state troopers. One thing I love about Italy is that we also see the police and Carabinieri talking with the locals. At least from an outsiders point of view they are more friendly then American police.

Pics:
- Overlooking the water in Monterosso before we started the hike
- view of Vernazza from the trail
- Michael in geek mode at the train station after a long day
- ocean view
- me in Riomaggiore

La Spezia: Welcome to the good life

5/16/12:

Another travel day in fabulous Italy! We narrowly avoided certain disaster with our train this AM. We both thought our train left at 1245 and were 1/2 a heartbeat away from getting off our bus to enjoy some of the best gelato we've had. Luckily (though we didn't know it at the time) the place (Funivia) was closed so we pushed on to the train station. We still managed to walked into the station at about 1219 and almost pooped ourselves when we saw our train was leaving in 5 minutes!!!! Crisis averted though, no worries.

We had to change trains in Parma though and a few stops later witnessed a passenger getting a little spunky with the conductor. We couldn't understand what was going on but it clearly wasn't good.

So we're staying at another airbnb.com place and through messages we were told by the host that she'd pick us up (winning!). Long story short we were picked up by a nice young girl and her mother in a MERCEDES!!!! They drive us around a bit and then dropped us off at our fabulous 1 BR Apt 1 block from the water.

Ok let me draw this out a bit. I'm going to be a doll and paint a picture of the luxury we currently find ourselves in. We enter the building through solid oak doors 10 feet high, hung with brass fittings and enough charm to make Greta Garbo swoon. The foyer was a tad worn but only in that 1930's Clark Gable meets Bugsy Malone sorta way. Anyway, we take the lift up to the 3rd floor where Deborah (our host) inserts a skeleton key (you read that right ... Another check on my 'finer things list' what what!!!!!) into a finely crafted door with a mirror finish. Entering the apt, we were greeted with the scent of many leather bound books with only the slightest hint of fresh roses in the air. Our eyes were treated with a carnival of beauty as we gazed upon the rich ma-HOG-any furniture. As if this palazzo couldn't get any better, we skipped into the bathroom to find the Cadillac of showers! Straight out of star-trek, the shower had a touch sensor temperature control, radio with a put-snoop-dog-to-shame sound system and about 16 different massaging shower spouts.

I'll just let your mind wander from there. Suffice it to say that we got all this opulence for about $80/night (our most expensive night in Italy!). Airbnb has been a gold mine so far!

We got a few logistical things sorted out for tomorrow and then went out for a quick bite to eat and of course, gelato!

Tomorrow we're heading out to the Cinque Terre for some hiking, eating and train riding.

Didn't take a whole lot of pics today so these will have to do:
1) La Spezia Harbor.
2) Carolyn holding our skeleton key.
3) dinner menu / placemat at dinner.
4) Carolyn in our living room.

Bologna the city of Gelato

We came to Bologna because it is supposedly the food capital of Italy but the locals we talked to brushed it off and made comments to fact that it's a thing of the past. We tripadvisored it and the top three restaurants were Gelateria's. Luckily we booked a BnB so we had a local brain to pick and she recommended a place we loved.
After arriving and settling in we hit the town. First stop gelato, as you may know we eat a lot of gelato, as in twice a day everyday. I think we have only missed our quota twice. Bologna hands down has the best gelato! We have 5 more cities to try but it's going to be hard to beat. The first place was Funivia and we tried to go back today but it's Monday which is like an extra holy day in Italy, everything is closed.
After gelato we roamed the piazzas where we saw some amazing street performers and joined the Italians in their favorite pastime: window shopping. The saying must come from here because everyone does it, ALL day and night. I think it's partly because stores are only open 5 days and for limited hours since they close in the afternoon for siesta. We then ventured to dinner. I graduated to a 1/2 liter of wine although it was nice at the time I was not feeling 100% this morning. Michael is a wine pro and was whining at tonight's dinner that one glass wasn't enough. We did however learn the difference between tortellini (meat filled) and tortelloni (no meat). Bologna is their birth place.

5/14/12:
Today we tried to take the bus to the city center after a lazy morning but there was sciopero, we had no idea what that was so we walked to the apartment and our host informed us that the buses were striking today until 1630 so she showed us how to get there via our legs which was good since we eat so much gelato :) We got a map from the TI and headed for the sights. There is some big religious event going on at one of the churches but we couldn't figure out what it was. We saw some basilicas a few with a ton of relics, hip bones, skulls, oh and of course we tried another highly rated gelateria it was delicious! We figured our second helping would come from the Funivia but when we arrived it was closed for the day.
Bologna has two famous towers, it's actually a tower and a half as one fell down. We risked our lives and climbed the 498 steps up, it did not seem safe but we came out unscathed. The city used to be filled with 100s of towers as every family felt the need to protect themselves from their neighbors but only about a 100 still stand today which is impressive if you think about how long they've lasted.
Bologna wasn't quite the culinary masterpiece we expected but had many unexpected treats. I'm glad we detoured off our original path for this stop! Tomorrow we move on.

*A very Happy Birthday 30th to Amanda, finally I'm not alone!!

Pics:
- view from the top of the tower, you can see a view of the other remaining towers
- we found Fred Flintstone's couch!
- graduated
- that's the tower we climbed, all 498 steps
- arrival in Bologna waiting for the bus

Romeo and Juliet

5/12/12:

After battling the demon hoards of tourists in Venice we decided on a change of pace. So we took a day trip over to the city of Verona. It's only a 1.5 hour train ride from here so it wasn't a big deal at all.

The city is almost the total opposite of Venice. Venice is actually quite large but the pedestrian avenues and canals are super claustrophobic. Verona is smaller but the avenues are wide and long and wonderfully devoid of tourists.

Our guide book has a few things about Verona so we just zeroed in in those and did a semi-guided walk outlined in the book. Ancient (1st century AD) arena, elusive column, ancient city gate, gelato, towers ... We saw it all. Even got to see Juliet's house! Well I'm not so sure if any Juliet ever lived in this house but the courtyard and balcony certainly fit the bill from the story. This was the only place we encountered hoards of people. People were jammed in there trying to get pictures and put expensive lockers on some iron grates and write graffiti on the walls. There's a statue of Juliet in the courtyard where people rub her breasts for good luck as we are already in love and blessed with good luck we did not partake in this activity but witnessed a host of older men rubbing and kissing her bronze boob. Pervs :)

We could have paid the astronomical €6 fee to go in the 'museum' and then up to the balcony but figured that was 2 servings of gelato which is a much better deal.

Oh, almost forgot. We did pay the €6 fee to get into the ancient roman arena but it wasn't even close to worth it. Cool to see the inside but there wasn't anything to really look at especially since its set up as a concert venue (complete with stage, lighting and loads of seating). We did get to use the bathroom which is always a win.

Later in the day we walked around a city sponsored mothers day festival eating gelato and ended up watching a small concert. The fact that we had sweat stache all day with it being 84 made us realize how much we love San Diego All in all a grand day!

Back in Venice we walked around our hotel looking for something to eat. Found the only eatery open, had wine, pizza and dessert then enjoyed the night in our ritzy hotel!

Tomorrow we head to Bologna and hopefully some fabulous food! My goal there is not to eat any pizza. Bologna is known for its great food so I want to make sure I taste it all!!!!

Pics:
1) Roman arena
2) Me by the river.
3) Carolyn trying to decide what to drink.
4) Us at a fountain in Piazza Erbe.
5) Piazza Erbe.
6) Another instance of Carolyn trying to decide what to drink :)
7) Juliet's balcony.
8) Alps fountain in Piazza Bra.

Tourist Mecca

5/11

I think Venice might have more tourists them Siem Reap. Vencitians are few and far between and the ones that are here work in tourism.
After an A+ breakfast at the hotel we headed to the islands where we opted for a 24 hour vaporetto pass (water bus). For 20€ you can ride as much as you want. We had an audio tour that took us from the train station to St. Marks Square, perfect! From there we toured St. Marks basilica, St. Mark's museum and Doge's Palace before taking a break. I remained positive and try to seem interested but touring museums with Michael is taxing, he needs to look at everything. Personally I'll live a happy life without seeing the wallpaper that they think was on the Doge's walls in the 1500's. We did run into an older couple from NY who were high rollers. It was entertaining to hear their impressions of Rick Steve's book (they think he's cheap, ha ha we think he's expensive) and Venice in general. Just goes to show you can vacation with a wide range of funds.
We went in search of gelato and passed Frari Church which was on our tour list and it was open even though it was long past it's operating hours, bonus! After that we decided dinner might be a better pick, finding a place that didn't charge a service charge and cover charge wasn't easy but we finally settled on a place before Michael died of starvation.
Since it doesn't get dark until 2100 we decided to take the vaporetta to the end of the line and then back towards the train so that we could take in Venice with it's glowing lights and famous canals. We opted to skip the touristy $115, 40 minute gondola rides. I know it's what everyone thinks of when they think of Venice but when you're actually here seeing it, it's not so romantic being on a canal in gondola traffic with 100s of tourists on bridges gawking, yelling and taking pictures of you, plus $115 is sometimes what we spend in an entire day. There were a few ginormous yachts on the water that were amazing but I wonder why someone would need something so big? We had yet to meet our 2 a day gelato requirement so we got off at a stop walked to St. Marks Square, caught some music, grabbed a gelato and headed back to the vaporetto, then took a quick train and ended at our posh hotel at 2330, another late night.

Pics:
- St. Marks Square
- us on the roof of St. Marks
- these people spent a fortune on a gondola ride with musicians but we all to benefit from it!
- we are on the Sighs bridge on our way to the prison
- after a gelato incident I had to rinse off in the canal :-)