Florence

Day 4 we spent in Florence.  We woke up early and headed out to get in line at Galleria degli Uffizi, the main museum in Florence.  We were there before it opened, so once they opened the doors we didn’t have a long wait.  This museum showcases art from Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raphael and many others.  It was interesting walking through the museum and seeing such amazing artwork from so long ago.  They didn’t allow pictures to be taken inside the museum, so I have no pictures to post.  We did pass this going to the Duomo.  It’s a replica statue of David, this is where the original once stood, but it is now in a museum.

After the museum we headed over to the Duomo and got in line to get into the church.  It looked long, but only took about 5-10 minutes to get in.  Here are some photo’s.

After we checked out the Duomo we walked outside and saw that there was a line to climb up the Dome, but not the bell tower right next to it.  So, we decided to pay and walk 414 steps of the bell tower to see Florence from another view, it was totally worth it! 

This was from the first platform, so 1/4 of the way up there. 

At the top

We found a place to eat lunch and hang out for a while resting our tired legs after climbing.  We hit the huge leather market there and went through an indoor food market as well before heading over to another church.  This church was called Santa Croce, it is known for having the tombs of Michelangelo, Donte and Galileo.

Donte’s tomb

Michelangelo’s tomb

Galileo’s tomb

Later that night after dinner we ventured back out up to a park about 20 minutes from where we were staying.  Dan read about it somewhere online and it said it had the best views of Florence. 

That ended our time in Florence and the next morning we headed to Rome.  Rome was most definitely my favorite place out of all the places we had been to.  So amazing, I will post about it very soon! 

Pisa, Pisa

On day three we left for Florence.  It took us about 3 hours or so to get to our B&B and took some time to find parking.  That city is nuts, after (Dan) driving there I was really nervous for what Rome was going to have in store for us.  We checked in to our hotel and then set back out to head to Pisa, which was a little over an hour away.  It was nice checking out all the scenery on the way, especially because we haven’t been down that way yet.  I have to admit though, Pisa was shady….and I don’t mean no sun shady. There were some scary looking people in the main parking area trying to illegally sell fake bags/sunglasses.  You see these guys everywhere, they come from Africa, some are even here illegally, and they sell knock off purses and sunglasses.  When the cops come to bust them, they pick up their items so fast and are gone, but as soon as the police leave, they come back.  Once we got into the main area of where Pisa was, it was much better.  Here are some pictures!

That is one leaning tower!

Had to do it!

My Italian neighbor was tickled that I was wearing my Sarone t-shirt.  Sarone is the town we live in. She reposted this picture below as her status on Facebook and said how she loved that I wore my Sarone T-Shirt. I should start getting a t-shirt everywhere we go…I don’t think Dan would think that’s a good idea.

My sweet Dan.  He was so embarrassed of us doing the “holding up the tower” poses, but he was a trooper at taking our pictures.

As we were checking out the market they had going on there we were also walking back towards the car.  I pulled out my little point and shoot and got some photo’s of Dan.  I told him to stick out his tongue like he was holding up the tower with his tongue, he did, but it looked more like he was licking an ice cream cone (the tower).

After Pisa we drove a little bit to the coast to see the water on that side of Italy.  Most of the beaches were private, so we stopped in a restaurants parking lot, jumped out and snapped a few photo’s and went on our way.  Here are some photo’s of the Mediterranean Sea.

Debbi on the beach

We went back to the hotel, relaxed for a bit and walked around to find a place for dinner.  That was our summary for day 3, day 4 = big day in Florence, will post about that tomorrow.

Close to Home

The past few weeks Dan and I have had some company, his Mother, Debbi, and her friend, Wanda, came to visit.  The first few days we hung around here, showed them the local sites and took them to Venice and Verona.  We love that Venice is so close because that is one of the places most visitors would love to see.

One their first day here is when we went to Venice. It was more crowded than we thought it would be, it was Easter, so we thought that nothing would be open and it would be empty. Wrong.  It was packed and everything was open. Before we got on the train we took them around Polcenigo and Gorgazzo, just to check out the area.

Polcinego

We walked up to the old castle

Dan walking up

The old Castle at the top, not very castle looking

Beautiful views though

I took this picture when we were coming back down the hill

Wanda and Debbi on the train, on our way to Venice

Bridge of sighs (under construction)

Debbi’s Lunch

Leaning Bell tower in Venice

Funny thing we saw…His underwear say “Love MY Italy”

This was too funny not to take a picture of. SO true here in Italy. At least they’re honest

Wanda and Debbi

I love seeing older gentlemen walking and talking or biking and talking.  I love how they both were walking the same way

Relaxing for a minute.  Not many places to sit in Venice, so you sit where you can. Beautiful church behind Debbi

Street Artist. He was siting there with a wall in front of him, so he was drawing from memory, amazing.

San Marco Square

Canals of Venice

While we were waiting for the train, we did some more people watching (It was just so much fun the last time).  We didn’t see as many “cool” people but this one guy made up for it all.  We are sitting there and Dan says, “Here comes Bam Bam.”  I look up and we see this.  Whhhhaaaaat?  Haha

On day 2 we went to Verona.  It’s about 2-2.5 hours from here.  We love Verona, it’s a neat town, always amazing to see.  Wanda and Debbi went inside the Arena while Dan and I wandered around. We’ve already been inside of it, so we decided to hang out outside while they went in. 

Debbi and her gladiator

We then went down the main shopping street and headed to Juliet’s house, then ate some lunch.  After lunch we headed towards the river and went over the Ponte Pietra Bridge to climb the stairs and head up to the church and castle on the other side. 

Juliet’s house

Dan and I by the river, the building we went over to is on the hill above us

The Ponte Pietra Bridge that we crossed.  People like to put padlocks on the bridge to “lock in their love”

While climbing stairs to get to the top of the hill, we got a great view of an old Roman Amphitheatre

Views of Verona from the top

On both days we had wonderful weather, so we were lucky.  Tomorrow I will write about Day 3, which is when we left for Florence, checked into our B&B and headed to Pisa!