Venezia the showstopper

We arrived very late to our hotel on the mainland of Venizia; The hotel was the best we have had so far, something you would find in LA for maybe $200 per night or more. We woke up and headed to the metro with our group it's like a light rail or trolley. We arrived at the terminal and saw our first river and a large bridge. So far it didn't look too spectacular and Sergio and I even commented to each other that perhaps it was hyped up because it looked like any other place.

We made our way up the large bridge and down to a dock where we were picked up by our private motorskiff.  We slowly made our way towards the famous Piazza San Marco.  It was like when Dorothy opens the door to her home and says to Toto that she's not in Kansas anymore. The buildings that line the outer parts of the island, as well as the Grand Canal, are the most lavish of all the homes that were ever built in Venice.  So the first views you get are of the most magnificent structures.
We were dropped off and after instructions from our tour manager we were introduced to our local tour guide. We had a brief explanation as to how Venice came to be and she explained the symbol of Venice which is a lion with wings, which is everywhere you turn. Then we began walking and we realized that it could be very easy to get lost here. The streets are very narrow and there are many small bridges that must be crossed over. It's a beautiful maze that I would have loved to wonder around in.

After our tour we headed to our glass demonstration by a master glass blower.  He made a vase with a beautiful and delicate handle in a few minutes.  Then we we were shown the different colors available and we learned about the order in which they were discovered and the element used to make the glass that color.  For example, the red glass is made by adding gold and another element, making the most expensive colored glass available.   Sergio bought for me a beautiful necklace and earrings made of tiny glass beads.  Thank you baby! 

After that we were shown a lace making demonstration, which emphasized on the method developed on a small island off Venice, called needle point lace.  There are 7 different types of stitches and one item is made with a group of experts, each one an expert in one type of stitch, it can take 6 months to create one coffee table sized doily, crazy!!  So this stuff is rare and expensive.
After our demos we headed to the Piazza San Marco, which was beginning to flood and got in line to enter Basilica of Saint Mark.  It took 500 years to complete the decor.  The interior is completely covered with gold leaf and mosaics.   All of the floor is also made up of mosaics.The floor is warped because of the soggy foundation it sits on, I suppose.  It was pretty wild.  After this we headed to the Academia Museum of Venice (which we found only due to Sergio's great navigation skills).  If you like art you will LOVE this museum.  It has some Bernini, Caravaggio, and more.

Finally came the moment we had been waiting for, the gondolas.  We were to be seated with Jon, Jenise, Jax, and Matt.  We had earlier stopped at a small grocer and got some salami and pecorino cheese because we had agreed to buy 3 bottles of Bellini from the gondola company.  But they switched gondola companies on us and we had 2 bottles of prosseco instead. It doesn't matter if it would have been Bud Light, this was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.  It was beautiful, just perfect.

I forget if I mentioned this already or not.  The day of our Tuscan dinner in Florence, our tour manager Laura gave the 3 couples on a honeymoon a lock and key with their names written on it.  We were really surprised because we had just asked the tour guide that day about the locks we kept seeing. So, when we got off Sergio noticed a covered well with a few of those locks and he asked me if I had the lock on me, and I did.  So we decided to go ahead and place our lock on this well cover, everyone was snapping pictures it was really cute.  Then we took a couple steps and tossed our keys into the river we had just finished cruising on our first gondola ride ever.  Now that was a super romantic ending to a great day but it wasn't over yet! 

We headed to our last group dinner, which was right at the water front.  We had a pasta marinara and a lasagna canole stuffed with spinach and cheese.  Then we had a beef and mushroom dish and finally a yogurt flavored dessert.  When we got back to the hotel the reality of having to say goodbye to our new friends kicked in.  We went on a mission to get a beer and then said goodbye to those we wouldn't see in the morning.

Goodbye Venezia!

Verona

After leaving Pisa we headed to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet.  There is no hard proof that they existed but there is Juliet's home and the balcony and a her grave as well a bronze statue of Juliet.  If you rub her right boob it will bring you luck in love even though we know she didn't have any. In the courtyard of the supposed balcony, you can also write a letter to Juliet, but they took the wall of notes down and I was disappointed that I couldn't leave a note there. 

After paying homage to the Juliet's statue we headed to a pharmacy where I picked up some cold and flu medicine.  I couldn't have done it without my Rick Steve's Phrase Book.  Then we headed to the Pietra Bridge for a great view of the Adige River and large museum on a hillside.   Then we walked back towards a huge medieval castle that even had a moat around it.  It was cool looking.  The entire group then met up in front of a giant arena called the L'anfiteatro Arena that predates the Colosseum making it over 2000 years old. 

Finally we headed to a group dinner where I had my first ever gnocchi experience,  I wasn't too impressed unfortunately.   But all the group dinners were fun more for the people than for the food.  The town is very beautiful, it had that very quaint feeling but the people were trendy looking.  I guess it was a great combination of of old and new.  This was Sergio's favorite Italian town.

Ciao!

Pisa and its Tower

We left Florence feeling sort of crappy, I had a full on cold with sneezing, soar throat, itchy eyes, & runny nose.  Plus we were sad to see it go so fast, we new we would be at our final tour destination...Venice by the end of the night.  So several hours and an Autogrill stop later, we were in the city of Pisa.  Our trip manager Laura asked us try and get the most creative Pisa picture we could think of for a prize.  After looking in vain for a pharmacy we took our silly hanging on to the tower picture and then I sat in the shade of the tower while Sergio ran around taking pictures of tower.  I have to admit that was underwhelmed by the whole experience but I'm not sure if it was the tower, which deserves some recognition or my cold that was keeping me from being more enthusiastic.  

Ciao!

San Gimignano & Wine Tasting in Tuscany

On our 6th tour day we headed through the Chianti wine region and stopped in medieval town of San Gimignano, famous for its surving towers.  It has 13 but once had as many as 72.  There was great views of rolling hillsides and vineyards as far as one could see.  It also has the world champion gelato shop that in fact had some really fantastic gelato. 
After our stop in San Gimignano we headed to the Fattoria Castello Il Palagio in between Florence and Siena. This place is a vineyard that is allowed to call their wine Chianti Classico and Chianti Reserve, it comes only from this particular region in Tuscany and is under the label of black rooster.   They showed us the wine cellar with huge barrels bigger than a large van and then we had our wine and olive oil tasting.  The olive oil is also produced there as well as some other products, that  I may have to declare when we go through customs, including: olive oil preserves, and balsamic vinegar.  It was such a gorgeous day there,  I wished I could have stayed there for a week and help pick grapes for a few hours per day LOL.  Our tour guide at the vineyard said that it used to be the thing to do in the 70's and 80's but now everything wills have to go to machinery because they're are enough people going to the vineyards to pick.  Oh well, there was also a castle which we got to see, but only from the courtyard, it was very well kept because they have been holding weddings there.

When we returned to Florence we cleaned up and met up with our new found friends: newlyweds Jackie and Matt and celebrating their 6 year anniversary Jenice and Jon.  Our tour manager Laura made reservations for us at Osteria dei Baroncelli where they specialize in Florentine Steak.  It is a big hunk of beef quickly seared and both sides and served with potatoes.  They sell this beauty by the kilo, uh yeah. I'm salivating just remembering the explosion of beef goodness in my mouth.  They have a website in case you're interested www.osteriadeibaroncelli.it.  An  interesting thing happened on our way there (we didn't have an exact address but just a description) we were all a little confused and then out no where we see a Antonio Banderas' look alike and we asked him if he knew where the restaurant was and he ever so kindly walked us to the restaurant.

No one wanted our night in Florence to end so we walked over to the famous bronze boar and as is the tradition, we rubbed his snout for luck to return us to Florence again soon.  Then we found a highly recommended gelato shop called Per Que No? translates to Why Not? And got some really great gelato there.  Slowly we made our way to a large piazza were a live band was playing and we paid the price to enjoy the beautiful night al fresco with an espresso and jazz playing to bring our Fiorenze experience to its conclusion. 

Ciao!

Florence...

Nice view of Florence and my stunning wife.

Rome...

Just one pic on the phone. A little church near the Colossium. Supposedly houses chains used to chain up Peter. So its called St. Peter in Chains.  What is true is that it houses Michelangelo's Moses.

Firenze aka Florence

We arrived in Firenze, and checked into our very much centrally located hotel.  It was only a few steps away from the famous green and white marbled Duomo with it's outer babtistry famous for it's beautifully carved bronze doors.  We had dinner as a group at local place, they served Spaghetti and meatballs, they were delicious. Then we roamed around and snapped pictures of the Santa Croce Church.  It was founded in 1294 and is the final resting place of Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and a monument to Enrico Fermi.  We were able to go in the following afternoon and explore better with an audio self-guided tour. 

The first morning there we headed out to our included leather demonstration which was then followed by a walking tour of Flornece.  Our guide is a Florence native and she took us to the Piazza de la Signoria to explain the many statues there including the famous David by Michaelangelo.  Now a replica is there and the original is at the Museum Academia.   FYI if you want to see him make a reservation by phone about 1 or 2 months in advance. 

We walked to the Ponte Vecchio were we asked our guide about the locks on the bridge and she said that they are love locks, the keys are to be thrown into a body of water. BUT that if you are caught doing it you could be fined because now it is considered vandalism.  Finally we made our way back tot the baptistery near our hotel and she explained that it was built because you had to be baptized before being allowed into a church. 

Once the tour was done we had freetime which allowed us to make the trek to the Boboli Gardens, which turned out be simply and over priced viewpoint area in my opinion.  But it was fun, then we went into the Basilica di Santa Croce so Sergio could pay homage to Galileo.  It was as beautiful inside as it was outside.  People wanted yo be buried inside the church to humble themselves because they knew their graves would be stepped on,  so the floor is covered in grave stones.  It was cool but eerie.  

After that we went back to the hotel and washed up for our group photo and the best meal of the tour in the hills of Tuscany.   We had a typical, yet lavish, 6 course meal.  The grand finally and my favorite thing was the roasted pig leg, WOW it was so delicious!  After that the bus dropped us off at Club Space were we danced with our new friends.  Finally we called it a night and looked forward to our day trip to the winery and San Gimignano.

Ciao!