Venetian memories

Venice is truly amazing.  This is the most beautiful city I have ever visited.  Our first night, we ventured to San Marco Square and found live music at Lavento, a restaurant that has been there since 1750.  According to the restaurant's menu,  Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner spent lots of time there, having coffee, etc. The violinist, bass, piano and accordion were spectacular and they played classical music as well as an entire medley from "The Sound of Music".  Fred tried to sing along but was quickly asked to be silent so the audience could hear the actual musicians.  Also, our hotel, Hotel Londra Palace, is known to have been frequented by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, there is even a room here named after him.  We have seen gondola's, St. Mark's remains, beautiful Byzantine artwork and had LOTS of gelato, it has been an unforgettable day! - Amy

I didn't know what to expect in Venice.  I just thought it would be a bunch of houses with venetian blinds.  Imagine a city with no buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.  You accessed everything walking or by boat.  The gondolas were nice and the boat taxis were a fun ride.  I had to go back and watch The Italian Job movie which was filmed here (along with James Bond in Casino Royal and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).   As bad as the hotel was in Florence, this hotel was magnificent.  Perhaps the nicest place I have ever stayed.  Despite what Amy said, I did not try to sing, but I did play my teeth upon request. (but there were actually no requests).  Long day tomorrow.  We will be traveling about 18 hours.  The only way to the airport from here is by boat by the way.

This is our last blog.  Thanks for keeping up with our adventures.

fred

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good - We began with a self tour of the Florence Cathedral called Santa Maria de Flore, or commonly referred to as the Duomo.  Built in the 12th century, it houses a comfy 20,000 for church services.  Beside the domed structure is a bell tower with 417 steps up and 417 steps down.  I counted them. But the view was worth it.  Then we went to the Uffizi and Academia museum, where I learned after carrying a camera for four hours that no pictures are allowed.  We saw works of Michelangelo and Da Vinci and many other famous artist.  The 18 foot sculpture of David is breath-taking.

The bad - We wanted to go to the rooftop lounge before dinner, but found the door locked.  So we decided to go to a restaurant recommended by the Nussmans.  The cab stand in front of our hotel had a cab but no driver.  We walked three blocks to the next cab stand and found three cabs without drivers.  We tipped a doorman at a hotel to find us a cab and arrived at the restaurant to discover it was reservations only.  We finally found another cab and returned to a restaurant near the hotel, only to find out that it was also reservations only.

The ugly - We eventually  found a place to eat and returned to the hotel at 10 pm. at 10:15, a band started playing outside our window.  Despite threats from both of us, the band played until 4:03 AM.  I need to learn to cuss better in Italian.   Off to Venice.

Ok, so Fred has told you about our unpleasant night in Florence.  Who knew this town was such a partying place!?!  At any rate, I tried to calm him down, but to no avail!!!  On another subject, the word "prego" as you may know, has multiple meanings here.  It can mean "hello", "thank you" or "you're welcome".  After 4 days in Italy, my new husband asked me, "why does everyone say 'spaghetti sauce' to us???  He thought the word "prego" only meant the brand of spaghetti sauce we use in the US!!  (This can be classified as the bad and the ugly!)  I have coined a new word here, the word "definitaly", it means "definitely, in Italy".  So we are off to Venice where adventure awaits, always with great artwork, wonderful food and superb wine.  Definitaly!!

Fast train to Florence

Took the fast train to Florence this morning.  We have a great hotel.  The room is two floors and the hotel has a rooftop bar that overlooks Florence.  We were here about 10 minutes before Amy started buying trinkets.  She is the negotiator!  Tomorrow we tour the museums and the rest of Florence.

We had fun on the train, Fred was amazed that it was much different than Tweetsie!  It was a smooth ride at 150 mph.  Florence is terrific, smaller than Rome and much more "walkable" for tourists.  The hotel is great and the weather is still hot, probably around 80 degrees here today.  We look forward to touring the museums tomorrow.  The Ponte Vecchio is the bridge with all the shops on it and we toured it today.  It is the only bridge that survived WWII and it's been standing since the 1300's.  Yes, I negotiated the price of my purchases, it was loads of fun!  stay tuned for more tomorrow!

The Vatican

Today we began our tour at the Bascilica of St. Peter.  This church was built over 18 centuries.  It is longer than two football lengths (715 feet). At the tallest point it is 450 feet high). It seats 60,000 people for a service.   St. Peter is buried there.  The Pope greets crowds from the balcony of the church.  It is impossible to describe the magnitude of the structure.

From there we went into the Vatican Museum.  It has 1400 rooms of paintings, tapestries and sculptures - mostly of naked people.  If you spent 1 minute on each exhibit it would take 12 years to tour the museum.

Seeing the Ruins

Last night we strolled to Trevi Fountain. It is a fountain that is 85 feet high and 65 feet wide.  It is still fed by an original aqueduct from the Roman Empire. It has been in numerous movies.  Supposedly, it brings you luck to toss a coin over your shoulder to bring you luck.  So obviously, Amy had to try it.

We then returned to the Pantheon for dinner and wine.

This morning we caught up with our guide (after I screwed up the meeting time) and toured the ancient ruins of Rome.  The size of the original structures is beyond belief.  Even now the Colosseum is much larger than the Panthers stadium, even though only a third of it remains.  It was large enough so that they could flood the bottom two levels and conduct battles with warships in the arena.  It had elevators and a retractable roof.  In one particular bloody 123 day festival, 10,000 animals and 5,000 gladiators died for the pleasure of the audience.  Tomorrow we see the Vatican.

We made it to Rome

We'll we are in Rome.  The first adventure was the first class seats on the airplane.  I've never been on a plane with this type of cocoon seats before and Amy was "country girl come to town."  The seats had electrical outlets, USB chargers, private TV with current movies, a gps screen to show your location and the seats reclined into full beds.  Add champagne, wine, four course meal and I think Amy would have been fine just to live on the plane for a while.

Our hotel is directly behind the Pantheon, which was a temple built for the Roman gods at the time of Christ and rebuilt by Augustus Caesar in 127 AD. It is truly amazing.  It is currently an active Catholic church. Compare the height of the folks in the pictures and you will get a sense of how big it is.

Maggie, Mallory and Emma, the fact that most people here only speak Italian has not prevented your mother from striking up conversations with people on the plane, the train, the taxi, the hotel, the restaurant, etc.  However, she is yet to find anyone from East Meck and her search continues.

It started with a wedding

Posting the  dance was not Fred's idea.