Our Last Day...So Sad

Last night, we spent some time at 2 of the most romantic places in Rome.

First we went to the Spanish Steps, so named for being close to the Spanish Embassy. It was a perfect time to go, mid evening, after sundown and the lights were on and the people were out. It is customary for Romans to linger in the square and chat with friends or to hold the one they love. So, we did the latter. I mean hey, when in Rome....

After taking several beautiful pictures of the Spanish Steps (sorry the internet spot we are at right now doesn't allow for picture uploading, you'll have to wait until we get home), we headed for the Fontana di Trevi, or Trevi Fountain. Walking through the streets of Rome on our way was quite splendid. We turned a corner and BAM, there it was. The Trevi Fountain is a very large (we're talking Vegas large) fountain with beautiful sculptures and water flowing everywhere. What is interesting is that it is actually the end of an ancient Roman aqueduct, which is still working today. At night, when they light it the scene is very romantic.

There is a custom for visitors to throw a coin over their shoulder into the fountain which would guarantee a return to Rome. We did and we wished our return trip would be soon.

After lingering for a while to soak in the atmosphere, we went to dinner. We dined at a lovely restaurant on a tiny street (all the best restaurants are on little streets here). Eventually, we called it a night and said a fond goodbye to Rome.

We woke up this morning and took a train to Milan, our in and out city. Because we have an early flight tomorrow, we are staying here in Milan tonight. It is not a city that is big on sights but we saw the 2 it has.

First, we saw Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, made famous by Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code. Unlike other museums, it is the only work to see so it was a quick excursion but it was very neat to see it in person. The work covers an entire wall, and was much bigger than either of us expected (we thought it was a painting that is framed or something). It was interesting to see the work which has stirred up so much recent controversy. It was also interesting that none of the guides pointed out anything in the Da Vinci Code or even made reference to it.

Then we took a stroll, picking up some gelato on the way of course, towards Milan's cathedral, Il Duomo (the same name that like 512 cities in Italy have for their cathedral, including Florence). This building was the most ornately decorated structure we had ever seen. There are hundreds of spires, statues, and even 96 gargoyles (you would have loved it mom!). The inside was immense, the 4th largest church in Europe, we have seen 3 of 4 on this trip, the last being St. Paul's in London. There were several large stained glass windows all throughout the building.

Tonight we will have our own Last Supper, here in Italy that is, before turning in to bed in preparation for our journey home tomorrow.

To all of our faithful readers, we raise a large glass of Vino and say "saluté" and thanks for the posts. They were great to read.

We WILL be posting one final post about this trip, a recap post from home. Look for it on Sunday. As for us, Ciao and Arrivaderci!!!

Matty and Sav

Wolachus Caesar

**Past pictures posted on posts below.**

Today we took some steps forward and went back in time. We woke up and took the subway to the Colosseum metro stop to meet up with a walking tour of Ancient Rome.

Our tour guide, Sarah (like you, Mom!) was an Italian archaeologist who has done some work in the Forum. We walked to the roman Forum to begin our tour but it was closed due to a strike until 11am so Sarah made a half time adjustment and started us with the Colosseum. Apparently, strikes in Italy are fairly routine but they are never devastating, just a few hours at a time.

So we walked a little ways to get to the Colosseum (just what we needed, more walking). After a brief introduction, we went inside. Now, it should be said that Matty is a HUGE Ancient Rome fan and loves to learn more and more about their advanced society, as well as their amazing engineering skills. Needless to say, he was very excited for the day. Matty even talked about movies like Gladiator, Spartacus, and Ben Hur several times. If you haven't seen them, make it happen.

We entered the building (it is not much smaller than an American NFL stadium of today, it is that big). We went right up to the middle level so that we could look out at the structure. When we came through the portico to see the stadium it was incredible. All of the TV footage we had seen did not prepare us for the sight. Our minds wandered back to the time to try to recreate how it must have felt to sit in the stands, hear the roar of the crowd and feel the excitement.

Sarah had a book that showed re-creations of the ruins to show us what it looked like back in the day. It was all marble and even had a "retractable roof" that a group of sailors would collapse or expand depending on the weather conditions that day.

After the fall of Rome, the Christians looted the building for its marble to build their churches and that is why we see only the base structure today. Quite unfortunate.

After walking around the Colosseum for several minutes and hearing Sarah's magnificent stories about the shows that took place, we left and headed for Palatine Hill, the Palace of the Emperor. Of course it was on a hill (why didn't the Romans install any escalators???) which overlooked the Colosseum and the Forum.

The palace was astoundingly large. We walked through ruins of large rooms and halls, as well as a VERY large play area for the kids, probably about 2 acres. Sarah painted pictures in our minds of what it may have looked like with marble, statues, and fountains everywhere. From a particularly advantageous location, we looked down into the Forum, which was much bigger than we expected. It was a great view and we can see why the emperor built the palace above the Times Square of ancient Rome.

We descended down to the Forum floor to walk the main street where greats like Julius Caesar and Cicero walked. We saw arches that were tributes to victories abroad. When the army would return home from battle, they would march triumphantly into Rome up the main street through the arches (3 of them) as the crowd and Senate cheered.

We passed a Roman temple that still had all of its columns standing because a Christian church was built inside of it (see picture). The picture does not show how large it really is. Quite impressive.

Sarah showed us where the Senate used to hold their meetings and their votes as they decided the course of action to take for the dominant civilization of their time. Their decisions that were made in the building we saw effected most of the known world.

After a few more words about ancient Rome, our tour was over and we bid arrivaderci to Sarah.

From the Forum, we climbed up several steps to the street level. Ancient Rome is several feet below the current street level because of the 1,500 years of earth settling.

We took a short walk to another ancient Rome building, the Pantheon. This building is known to be the most preserved ancient Roman building around because the Christians left it alone since they turned it into a church for their worship. The Pantheon is most notable for being a dome - something that no one else figured out how to do until Brunelleschi did it for the Duomo in Florence (see our previous post below). It has a hole in the center and there are many theories why but nobody truly knows the exact reason. What is truly amazing is that the floor is still the original floor so we walked on the marble of the Romans. Very cool.

By this time we were very tired and we decided to head back to the hotel to relax. After a nap, we headed to the Bosco hotel, one of Rome's nicest hotels, for our massage! Although Matty was a little nervous as it was his first professional massage ever, he ended up loving it. Savannah really enjoyed hers as well. After days of walking and climbing steps, it was soooo relaxing to have our massage. Sensational. We think Matty will be doing this again.

Tonight is our last night in Rome and tomorrow we head for Milan. Look for our post from Milan tomorrow.

And we walked...

Hello everyone!

Not much to tell you about from last night. We hit the hay right after we posted the blog; it had been a long and tiring day.

This morning we awoke with energy, found our way to breakfast and loaded up. We were preparing ourselves for the long tour through the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica and we knew we wouldn't be eating again for several hours. We made our way to the subway and traveled across town and then walked into another country. For those of you who don't know, Vatican City is in fact it's own country. We met our tour guide, Julia and made our way into St. Peter's Square.

It was a very special morning in St. Peter's Square. The Pope, Benedict XVI arrived at 10:30 and we got several great pictures of him as he motored around the square. As you can see in the picture on the right, he is clearly blessing Matty (click on the picture to get an enlarged view of the Pope). From there we walked around the exterior walls of Vatican City to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. Each member of our group received a headset and our tour guide had a microphone that she spoke into. It was very convenient to walk around and look at things and not have to 'huddle in' to hear her when she spoke.

We made our way from the entrance of the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who have been here, you'll know what we mean when we say it was a hike. However, the signs throughout the museum had 'Capella Sistina' pointing so we knew that we would run into it eventually, we just didn't realize that eventually actually meant 4 hours. It was kind of like Disneyland. Each time we would turn a corner we thought, 'Yes! This is it! We're here!' But...not so much. However, our guide was fantastic and we got to learn a lot about what we were looking at so the time actually went by quite quickly. Our guide also mentioned a little fact about the size of the museum. She said that if you took 30 seconds to look at each piece of work in the museum, without eating, sleeping, or pausing, it would take you SEVEN YEARS to get through the museum. Crazy...and we don't have that much time on our hands so we took the quick tour.

Prior to arriving at the Sistine Chapel our guide went through the entire body of work on a display board. It was so interesting to see the progression of Michelangelo's work during the four years it took him to paint the ceiling. It was also interesting to see how many self-portraits (hidden within the painting, drawn as a regular person in the scene) were typically done by artists in that age. It was also interesting to learn that Michelangelo had to have his arm twisted to do the work in the Sistine Chapel, because he really didn't want to do the work. He was a sculptor, not a painter or fresco artist.

When we arrived at the Sistine Chapel the guards there made sure that the room was quite and that no one took photos or video. We tried to soak it all in, but there was so much there and so many details that we could have sat there for hours.

From there we made the short walk to St. Peter's Basilica and saw the sculpture that started Michelangelo's career, the Pietà (thanks to Matty's mom for the heads up). It was simply magnificent. This piece is also the only piece of art that he ever signed.

The sheer size of the Basilica is breathtaking. The sculptures and interior were created to give the effect of the building being smaller. Words and sculptures that were placed higher up were bigger, thus making the building appear smaller. Our tour ended here and we thanked Julia for her time and knowledge.

By this point we were ravenous so we found a quick bite to eat and then set out on our next adventure: the 'Angels and Demons' tour. We had decided to do a self-guided tour so we did the 5 stops a little out of order so that it fit our route back to the hotel a little better. As we were already in St. Peter's Square we found the 'Air' symbol, the West Potente. It was tough to see because the chairs and railing were still set up from the Pope's visit earlier today, but we took a picture of it from afar.

From there we walked to Castel Sant Angelo. For those of you who have read the book this building is very close to the Vatican and is connected to the Pope's private library by a passageway called il passetto. Unfortunately, that wasn't part of our self-guided tour, but we did climb to the top (yes...more friggin' stairs) and got a great view of the Eternal City (the Vatican is in the background of this picture). We were even able to see a little storm rolling in. Time and weather were not on our side so we headed toward the next stop.

It was a 'short jaunt' (which by the way is a Matty-ism, as short should not be put with the word jaunt. Perhaps it means something different to someone that is 6'5 and has a much longer stride than someone who is 5'5...but maybe that's just me) to Santa Maria del Popolo. We saw 'Earth' in this church in the Chigi Chapel (pronounced kee-gee). The church also had two paintings by Caravaggio which we were fortunate enough to see as well.

We got to our fourth stop by way of the subway (we're pros now) and then took a short jaunt up a large hill to the church. On the way we stopped for some gelato. The delicious snack was a great diversion to the hill. The church is Santa Maria della Vittoria and we saw 'Fire' there. The marker for this church was the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, a sculpture by Bellini. We have decided that Bellini may be one of our favorite sculptors (he was really brilliant).

We were met with a light sprinkling of rain as we made our way back to the hotel where we enjoyed a brief sieste before heading out for dinner and the final stop on the 'Angels and Demons' tour. For those of you keeping track this was the 'Water' clue. However, our final stop was under construction. I guess that with a city this old, it's likely that things are going to be under renovation from time to time. We were able to catch just a glimpse of Bernini's fountain of 'Four Rivers' statue through the scaffolding. With water, we're certain that it would have been beautiful. It's ironic that the 'water' portion of our self-guided tour was missing its most important element...the water. Oh well, maybe next time we visit Rome.

We had a wonderful evening and enjoyed dinner outside on the Piazza Navona, one of Rome's most popular squares. The afternoon brought some rain showers, but they were cleared up by dinner and the city felt clean and cool.

We have tried to get used to eating late (between 9 and 10 p.m.), but it certainly does make for some long days. The vino was great, as was the food. We merrily strolled around the piazza picking up a few mini-paintings and then stopped for a caffe latte and a sambuca. We also enjoyed the nightlife (and people-watching). We've come to love seeing the culture here whereby everyone hangs out in the square, kind of like their own mall or bar. Young and old come to enjoy the evenings, the food, the music, and the company. We wonder if we can create some of these squares in Phoenix!?

Good night for now.

All Roads Lead to Rome

**We have added pictures to our post! Check them out below.**

And even our train tracks too...

This morning we woke up and caught a "Eurostar" Train to Rome. This type of train is the best Italy has to offer and they are slick. We cruised through some beautiful Tuscan hills on our way to Rome at almost 200 miles per hour.

Arriving in Rome we had heard about the mischievous types trolling the station looking for unfortunate tourists to swindle and pickpocket. The station was a madhouse with many people coming and going. Unlike our first Italian train station experience in Milan, this time we were aware of our surroundings and knew where we wanted to go. We are veterans now!

The streets were very busy and we were made aware that Rome is a giant city, not just a tourist mecca. Weaving through tight streets filled with crazy drivers of large buses, scooters, and tiny cars, we found our hotel after a 15 minute walk.

This hotel, Hotel Aberdeen, is the nicest so far. It is near the Piazza de Republica which is a gorgeous square with a huge fountain (see picture). The people are great, and the room is modern with a nice wardrobe, air conditioning, and the bathroom is sharp - it even has a shower WITH a door this time. Now we're talking!

After a quick break, we took a leisurely stroll to the Villa Borghese, Rome's "Central Park". On the way we walked through a very nice area which is the Beverly Hills of Rome. We passed upscale hotels, fine eateries, and chic shops. Eventually we passed through the old city walls to the park. The park was terrific. It was a beautiful day (we have been SOOOOO lucky with the weather) and the Romans were out to relax. We walked a while just enjoying ourselves before renting a "bike cart" which is a cart where we sat side by side and peddled like a bike. It allowed us to go all over the massive park in a short amount of time. The Villa Borghese is filled with sculptures and small renaissance and medieval structures. It was a very nice relaxing time after a few days of running around.

After returning the bike cart, we sat on a stone bench to watch the Romans in their moments of leisure.

Eventually, we strolled up to the Borghese Gallery, which is one of the best museums in Rome. This museum is famous for its sculptures and we saw some great works, especially by Bellini, the sculptor featured in "Angels and Demons." Savannah stated, and Matty agreed completely, that the new Wolach family prefers sculptures to paintings.

We left the museum and got on another double decker "hop-on hop-off" tour bus, similar to the one we took in Florence. We wanted to orient ourselves to the new city so we figured this would be the way (we also had several days of a busy itinerary and we wanted to sit back and relax).

It worked out well, we saw the major sights, and we were able to rest our weary legs. After a hour and a half or so on the bus, we departed and found a great spot for dinner.

We ate at Zeus, near our hotel, and we had a great time. We spent about 2 hours in the restaurant as we ate like the Italians: slowly without a care in the world. We also had about 3 glasses of wine EACH. Plus, we have had wine with every dinner and with most lunches as well so for all of you who say we're not drinking enough wine, we are...so there! Plus it is some of the best wine in the world.

Lastly, we went back to our hotel and relaxed in the room. We even found a bottle of champagne and a nice note from the hotel congratulating us on our honeymoon, a great surprise. A nice, peaceful day in the books.

In the Footsteps of Mike L. Angelo

Good evening friends!

After a wonderful dinner outside last night at a restaurant down the way, we enjoyed a leisurely strole back to our hotel by way of the surrounding piazza. We walked past our street chalk drawings (amazing art done in chalk on the street with a new picture each night) and we saw an artist create a work of art in less than 10 minutes using only spray paint (we bought one).

Today was our last day in Michelangelo's city of Firenze, and probably our longest and most tiring day so far. We started the day early and with great ambition. Today was the day we visited the Duomo. We had taken pictures of it, gazed at its beauty from the Tuscany hills, and read all about it, but today was the day we climbed to the top. That's right folks; 463 stairs to the top. The first 100 steps or so really burned and we were thinking twice about the trip, but after that we found our second wind and made it to the top. The stairs are actually in between the two domes. The structure is such that there is a dome inside of the dome and the stairs are in that space, thus making the stairwell a little tight. There were actually several spots that Matty had to crouch to get through. When we climbed the final steps and our heads peaked out into the fresh air, the view was breathtaking. We could see the entire Valley and the surrounding hills, as well as the town surrounding the Duomo. We didn't want to waste the time (and ridiculous amount of energy) we had just spent to get to the top, so we let ourselves linger on top for a while. Before long though, the crowd began to gather and we began our descent.

Both on the way up and on the way back down there were ledges that took us to the inside of the dome. The ledge was only about two feet wide and hundreds of feet above the floor of the church. It was actually more frightening on the ledge inside the church than it was on the roof outside. At that early morning hour, the church was closed to the public, but there was a service in one of the wings and the church was filled with beautiful chanting.

From there we made our way through the streets and had a post-breakfast snack. A waffle sandwich with caramel gelato as the center and chocolate sauce as the dressing. It was superb (by the way, that was our 2nd feeding out of a total of 6 for the day). Yup, we figure that with all of the walking (and stairmastering) that we're doing, we shouldn't gain too much weight...we hope.

As we mentioned early, this was the longest and most exhaustive of our days so far (or perhaps it's all just catching up with us). So, after our snack we headed back to Hotel Pendini for a sieste. We relaxed (and had a cat-nap) before we set off to join the 'Hop On Hop Off' double-decker tour bus.


This tour bus drives tourists around the city, with complimentary headphones that feed in tidbits about the sites as well as pleasant music as filler. The bus took us to the nearby hilltop town of Fiesole. We were able to see Florence from a new perspective, get some refreshing cooler air, and see the masses of cypress trees common in that area. There were lush flowers and greenery as we made our way up the hill. It was peaceful and relaxing and the perfect way to spend a few hours after such a busy few days rushing around.

The bus also took us across the Arno river to the 'laid back' side of town and we were able to get a few really great shots of the Ponte Vecchio bridge as well. At the conclusion of our bus tour we quickly peaked into the Duomo (at floor level) and were amazed at the interior, looking from the ground up this time.

This evening we enjoyed a 'night walk' tour that was sold as a 'ghost walk'. Our tour guide, Molly (no, she's not originally from Italy, but from California), showed us several sights on the south side of the Arno river. We saw the flood line from 1966, which was clear above our heads, several churches, Pitti Palace, and the church and hospital where Michelangelo first began his studies of the human anatomy, as he talked the hospital into letting him dissect several bodies. People believe that this lead him to his success in being able to so perfectly sculpt the human form. Molly has been studying in Italy for 7 years (working on her doctorate in history) and was a great guide. She even told us several tales about scandel, murders, and mistresses from centuries ago, thus giving their tour the name 'ghost walk'.

We ended our tour with a glass of wine and then made our way to dinner at Mamma Gina's. The friends that we made in Venice (the mother and daughter from Florida) recommended the restaurant and we just happened to walk past it during our tour. It seemed like fate, so we stopped in. The staff, the atmosphere, and most importantly, the food, were wonderful. Matty enjoyed a pasta with meat sauce and Savannah tried gnochi (knee-o-key) for the first time. Both dishes were rich and tasty.

The evening concluded with a trip to the best gelateria in town, the same place we visited just two nights ago. Hey, when you find something this good, you just have to go back. We sat on their patio (yes, everyone has a patio here) and enjoyed our treat. And yes, that was our 6th 'meal' of the day...

Our final night in Florence was relaxing. Tomorrow morning...on to Roma!

A Tuscan Journey

Last night we had a nice dinner in a trattoria as we dined outside near the famous Florence market. After dinner, we strolled towards the river where we found a gelateria that was recommended by our guide book.

It was right on the river and the gelato was amazing! Savannah had chocolate and black cherry and Matty had chocolate mousse and vanilla mousse. We slowly savored them as we stood looking over the serene Arno River near the Ponte Vecchio Bridge.

Walking on the bridge after we finished, there was a guitarist strumming an Italian tune of love. We gazed out over the river and the lights on the buildings created a magical scene.

This morning we had a nice breakfast in the hotel which, we have learned, does not include eggs and bacon and sausage like we know in America. Our first day here, Matty was jonesing for some chicken fried steak and eggs only to find they only do pastries and coffee in the morning. Boring.

But this morning you could tell our hotel was trying to please its American clientele. No eggs or sausage, but at least they had cereal and orange juice, to go along with some really good croissants.

After breakfast we went on a guided tour of some of the hill towns in Tuscany. We were excited for the day and we realized that the tour was capped at 8 people so that we could fit into a van. It was nice that it was a low number instead of a giant tour bus full of people. We were also lucky enough to sit in the front seat, Savannah in the middle and Matty by the window. This way we would have the best view of Italy's most famous region and we wouldn't get car sick sitting in the back!

Our driver and guide, Stefano, cheerily described the spots in the countryside as he drove. Our first stop was San Gimingnano, a town that is famous for its "skyscraper-esque" towers. The towers are amazing to see in person. Savannah and I decided to climb up one, and not just any one, the tallest one. Of course. 212 huffing and puffing steps later we reached the top to look out over the town and the beautiful countryside. It was a special site to behold.

When it was time to meet up again with our group, Matty said we needed to go to the St. Matthew's gate (probably because he thought it was named after him), but upon arriving, we realized we needed to be at the St. John's gate at the far side of town. Oops! We were going to make our tour late so we had to hustle all the way across town, up and down the steep hills. Luckily we were only 5 minutes late but everyone else was already there and loaded up in the van when we arrived. Oh well.

Next, we went to Sienna, which is one of the most visited stops in Tuscany. The city is constructed on 3 hills and it still has city walls. It is famous for its centerpiece piazza, Il Campo (the square) which is closed off (mostly) to cars and the entire thing is like an amphitheater looking at the town hall and clock tower. Several of the locals sit in the square and relax to soak in the beautiful day.

At the recommendation of Stefano, we went to a restaurant off the beaten path a bit called Trattoria Torre (Tower). The restaurant is quite small, only 11 tables and the kitchen is small as well. They had homemade pasta sitting out so that patrons could choose which they wanted. The owner came to our table and instead of giving us a menu, he listed off about 10 things, in italian of course. Matty heard one he recognized, so we ordered tortellini and Savannah pointed at another customer's dish of wide noodles with meat sauce. The food came quickly and was excellent. We also had a half carafe of vini rossi, which, we don't know what their large looks like if this was only the half. We finished it and quite merrily walked back to the main square.

We decided to get some gelato and relax. This time we split a cone of half strawberry and half cantelope. We have never had cantoloupe ice cream but here the flavor is very popular. Thus we decided to try it and it was pretty good. A nice palatte cleanser.

We met up with the group and went to our next town, Monterrigioni. This is a very small town (only 60 permanent residents) which was a strategic fortress in the middle ages. It is still in tact with a full circle wall and 14 guard towers. We walked all around the place including up on top of the wall. It was intersting to look out and imagine being attacked by a rival army.

We left and headed back for Florence. Upon, returning, we asked Stefano for one last stop. He liked us so he took us up to the Michalengelo's plaza (we asked him after Sheila recommended it in an earlier comment). Sheila, thanks for the recommendation because it was sensational. We had a picturesque view of the entire city. The Duomo, in all of its glory looms over the city. It is astounding how large it is.

After a quick picture, Stefano took us back and our tour of Tuscany was complete. We had a great time and we can't wait to bore you all with the thousands of pictures we have (only kinda kidding).

Another Day, Another City...

Last night was our last in Venice, and we made the most of it. We dined at a ristorante near our hotel on the patio outside in a small square. The seating was all very close together and we soon realized we were sitting next to fellow Americans.

Denise and Sage, a mother and daughter from Florida, were on a whirlwind European vacation as they were half way through their 33 day trip that included, France, Switzerland, Italy, and eventually Spain. Savannah was excited to learn the daughter's name, Sage, as it is her close friend Summer's daughter's name as well. The trip was to commemorate Sage's college graduation. We had a nice conversation and they were the first Americans we met here.

Savannah and I really enjoyed our meals as well. Savannah had a terrific Chicken and Mushroom dish in a tomato cream sauce and Matty had the meat lasagna. We capped it off with Tiramasù for desert.

After dinner (which was about 11:00pm - dinners take a long time here) we headed for St. Mark's Square. Folks, the Square is ten times as amazing at night as it is during the day. Many reasons why this is so: no pigeons (we wondered where they all went to sleep), no annoying tour groups, no noise, the square is all lit up majestically, and of course, no pigeons. Yes, it's worth saying it twice because they certainly suck during the day.

We had after dinner drinks at a café on the square called Quadri, which has only been serving meals and drinks since 1632. Older than our country ladies and gentlemen. An orchestra serenaded us during a perfectly delightful evening (see photo). It all ended with the bell tower chiming midnight letting us know that our evening was about to conclude and we needed to say arrividerci a Venezia.

This morning we woke up at 6:30am to catch an early bus boat to the train station where we would board a train bound for Firenze. Which made me wonder: why do the Italians call it Firenze and we call it Florence? We imagined how that initial conversation must have gone:

"Welcome to our city!"
"Thanks. It is quite beautiful, what do you call it?"
"It is called Firenze."
"Hmmm....no, I think we'll call it Florence."
"But Signori, it is Firenze."
"Actually, we already like the name Florence, but thanks for the suggestion."

I mean, it is their city, why do we call it something different??? But I digress...

Our train ride was beautiful as we rode through some gorgeous mountains and some quaint towns along the way. Upon arrival in Florence, a taxi whisked us to our hotel, Hotel Pendini. We had to take the world's smallest elevator (a sign reads "maximum occupancy 3 people") to get to the 5th floor registration desk. We could also take the stairs, but seriously, it's 5 floors.

Or room is nice, overlooking a small interior courtyard, which is good since we don't have to endure the sounds of the Piazza Della Republica outside. Our shower actually has a door this time as well...well, a half door anyway but baby steps, baby steps.

We rested quickly before heading out to our first stop, The Accademia Museum and it's crowning glory, Michelangelo's David. As we turned the corner and saw the masterpiece we were in awe. It is much bigger (17 feet tall) and more inspiring than we could have ever thought. It is so well done that it seems at any moment David will just step off his pedestal and walk out of the room. Savannah said she could have stood there all day looking at him. As it was, we lingered for about 20 minutes encircling the statue. Unfortunately they do not allow photos so you will just half to see him for yourself one day.

After that, we went to the Uffizi Museum which houses the best collection of Italian renaissance work in the world. As it turns out, Savannah and I found out that we are not huge fans of the period, but it was an interesting hour and a half nonetheless and now we can say we have been there.

We were able to spare a few moments to stop for some gelato, and unfortunately, it was not as good as in Venice, even though Florence is said to have the best gelato in Italy. We think we were just unlucky in the place we chose so we will try and try again!

We then relaxed in the hotel for a while and now we are headed to dinner. Buonasera!

Can you just put me in the backpack...and carry me?!

Good evening friends!

Last night we ventured out to a spot that we saw on television. Before we left home we saw several shows on the Discovery Channel with our favorite hostess, Ms. Samantha Brown. During her travels to Venice she found a ristorante that we just had to try.

After our delightful hotel host, Diego, pointed us in the right direction, we began navigating the back alleyways of Venice. The city in the evening is so peaceful; try to imagine a city without cars, no noise, just peace. All of the day tourists had found their way home, so the city was ours. We made great time and found our little spot, Cantina Canaletto. This ristorante is famous for it's HUGE wine glasses (see picture). The wine glasses are bigger than our head; Matty took the first sip of wine and his face actually disappeared in the glass. They made the glass that big so the wine could breathe quickly and so that their patrons could enjoy their wine that much sooner. We think that it's just so that we can tell you that we only had one glass of wine with dinner (even though one glass is big enough for an entire bottle). Dinner was also fantastic, with homemade sauce and hand-rolled ziti.

This morning we woke up to the sound of birds chirping in the courtyard below our room. However, they woke up at 5:00 a.m. and we weren't quite ready to rise with them. Let me just take a sidebar. Matty made a cute joke about how the Italian songbirds sing their song with their wings (similar to how Italians use their hands when they speak). He thought it was hilarious...cricket, cricket...

When we did get out of bed we enjoyed a quick croissant on the way to St. Mark's Square to meet our group for a 2-hour walking tour (the one we missed yesterday). The tour-guide could not have been more perfect. She was Italian, but spoke English for the tour. She annunciated each word very carefully. We thought that her speech and her corny jokes would have been perfect for a skit on Saturday Night Live.

On our walking tour we saw St. Mark's Basilica. Each "painting" that we saw was actually a mosaic. A mosaic is made with thousands of tiny pieces of colored stone. Our guide told us that each "yellow" piece was actually gold. Inside the Basilica was absolultely breathtaking. We would not do it justice by trying to describe it, nor can we show you pictures, as cameras are not allowed inside. It was one of the most awe-inspiring sights we've had. From there our tour saw the outside of Doge's (Dough-jay's) Palace, Marco Polo's house, and several other cool sites.

Once our tour concluded it was time for lunch! We ended our tour near the Rialto Bridge and began our ascent up it's stairs (the picture above was taken from the top of the Bridge). We had lunch on the other side of the bridge in a garden shaded by beautiful hanging purple flowers. We each had our first Italian pizza. It came out un-sliced, which means that we had to use a knife and fork to eat it. For those of you who know Matty, he was in heaven. Finally, he can use the excuse that he eats his pizza like the Italians do.

From there we decided to find gelatto. On our way we were approached by the best gondolier/salesman in Venice. Danieli was our gondolier and told us that he had been in the business since he was 15. Much to Savannah's disappointment, he didn't sing; but the peaceful trip down the little canals was very relaxing. Now...it was on to find our gelatto! Let us say that gelatto is to-die-for. We plan to have it at least once a day, if not twice for the remainder of our trip. After all, we ARE the dessert couple, aren't we?!

The remainder of our afternoon was spent touring through Doge's Palace, crossing the Bridge of Sighs, visiting the Correr Museum, and finally with a trip to the top of the infamous bell tower. Doge's Palace was the highlight with a viewing of the largest oil painting in the world, which was 57 meters (about 160 feet) long.

By this point, the comfortable walking shoes that we brought were no longer comfortable. We headed back to Hotel Fontana for a quick sieste before dinner.

We are off to eat now. By the way, our local gelatto server is open until 22:30 tonight, which means we will be enjoying two servings today.

Caio (and thanks for the comments; we loved them!)

Ah, Venezia!

What a day it has been, friends. We started off Wednesday morning in Phoenix at 4:15am, and our flight to Philadelphia went well. Our next flight from Philadelphia was delayed by an hour leaving for Milan because the Navigation light was out. I guess you kinda need that to work when you fly over a giant body of water such as the Atlantic.

However, we did not mind as our first class seats were exactly that. Matty had to reach his legs as far as he could stretch just to touch the seat in front of him. They gave us eye covers to help us sleep, upgraded pillows, snuggly socks, and the seats reclined ALL the way back. It was terrific.

"I don't mind that we're late," said Savannah. "I love this first class thing."

Both of us managed to sleep and when we awoke, we were descending over another continent above the majestic Swiss Alps. It was a georgeous sight.

After landing in Milan, late, customs and getting our bags was a breeze. We even found the bus that would take us to the Milan Central Train Station rather quickly. However, because we were late, we hit Milan rush hour traffic which compares to something like LA's apparently. Who would've guessed?

So the standard 50 minute bus trip took an hour and 45 minutes. Thus we missed the train we wanted to take and had to wait an hour and a half for the next train to Venice. Because of this, we missed our first tour, a walking tour of the island city.

It worked out in the end, however, as we still made the boat tour in time. A trip up the Grand Canal with a native guide and a bottle of champagne was sensational. We saw a vast array of palazzas (palaces) and chiesas (churches) along the route. One of the palazzas we saw was the first one ever built on the Grand Canal, in the 1200's! The weather is perfect at 73 degrees and sunny and a leisurely trip on the canal was just what the doctor ordered.

Our residence for our 2 days here, Hotel Fontana, is special. We were greeted warmly by the owner, Diego, as he welcomed us to his city. As it was our honeymoon, Diego had reserved his most special room (of the 14 rooms total in the quaint inn) which has a terrace that overlooks a small courtyard and the Church of San Zaccaria. Diego even called the people from the tour we missed and negotiated with them to accept us for tomorrow.

Now we are going to relax and have our own sieste (midday nap) before we head out to dinner and a gelato.

Ciao and we'll post again soon!

And they're off!

Today is the day our journey begins. It's 4:45am and we're in pain from lack of sleep. Yet we are quite excited. Last night while trying to sleep we felt like children who couldn't catch a wink on Christmas Eve because they knew what was coming the next morning.

We figured it would be a good idea to stay awake really late last night so that we would be able to sleep on our 2nd leg of the trip, from Philly to Milan. We will leave Philly at 4:30pm and land in Milan at 6:30am tomorrow morning. Yet it will be 9:30pm Wednesday night our time. So sleep is indeed needed on the flight.

Right now we're not liking that strategy that much as we miss our sleep and the two of us are rather groggy from a mere 3 hours of shuteye. But hopefully our plan will pay off later today.

As for now, we're off to the airport.