Florence

We left Sappada a day early for our impromptu trip to Florence. On our drive to Florence I estimate we drove through 25 tunnels. It was a beautiful drive, and when we got to Florence we were overwhelmed with the views. The city is tucked between the hills, which are covered in beautiful gardens, and the Arno flows through the middle. We drove into the city from the hilltops above, near Piazza San Michelangelo, and at my first glimpse of the city I gasped. Since it was a spontaneous stop we had to find a hotel, so that was our first mission. The streets were crowded, and we could hardly find a place to park, but finally we did and got the last room at a very nice hotel with... air conditioning! Our first lodging with air conditioning in Europe. However, the shower was just a curtain that I pulled around myself and a drain in the floor. In a very small bathroom. So we left our bags there, ate some lunch at a hole in the wall (best pizza we experienced in Italy) and walked up the hill to the Piazza San Michelangelo. The views were incredible. We saw Il Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and some beautiful gardens.

After that, we walked down to the Ponte Vecchio, saw some amazing gelato, piled about a foot high, and saw the many jewelry stores on the Ponte Vecchio. We wound our way to Il Duomo and went inside. It was beautiful, and really cool to see things that I'd read about in my Literary Walk in Tuscany class. We also saw one of the Medici palaces, and one of their churches, which was right next door. Convenient. We walked around the city quite a bit and found an old fort, the name of which I've forgotten, and apparently I didn't take any pictures of it either. We also saw San Croce and had a wonderful gyro with falafel. It was fabulous after all the pizza and pasta we'd had. I didn't like the gelato in Florence as well as in Venice, but it was definitely still good. All in all, I loved Florence, and would love to go back for longer.

The next morning we got up rather early, had breakfast at our hotel and headed for Rome.

Michael was excited about the air conditioning.


Florence skyline and me.


The Ponte Vecchio, from Piazza san Michelangelo


Outside Il Duomo, I don't know the names of the other buildings.


Inside Il Duomo. It was amazing.


A hillside garden


Gelato, piled high. Do you see the fresh cantalope on the melon gelato? It was beautiful.


A street artist. He was amazing.


The Medici church


Santa Croce


Me and the Arno


Florence skyline


The sunset over the Arno and Ponte Vecchio


We got a nice Korean girl to take our picture with the Arno


Some fresh fruit and sandwiches that looked delicious and colorful

Sappada

Sappada, Italy is located in the Italian Dolomites, aka: the Alps. We arrived at our resort Saturday evening around 7:00 and checked in. We were thrilled to pay for linens (sheets, towels, etc.). That was a new one. But we had a little kitchen, a living room area and bedroom and bathroom. We also got to do laundry, which, after the sweatiness of Venice was a very good thing. We walked the streets of Sappada, and it was a charming little town. The first time (and a couple other times) I was compelled to sing "The Hills Are Alive" because of the soaring mountain peaks and fields of wildflowers. Cows mooing. Small school children in cute hats. It was kind of shocking beauty. On one of our walks I saw the biggest snails ever. They were two inches tall. It was kind of cool and kind of gross. Sadly, I didn't have my camera to document their enormity. So most days we would go into the village and find an alimentari (like a miniature grocery store) and get some sustenance. We also found the fruiteria. All kinds of fruits and vegetables. And the pasticeria (bakery). And the gelateria. Actually, there were three gelaterias. We tried them all. There were some cute shops with American clothes and Italian shoes. They were really expensive. All the shops opened at eight and closed at noon, then reopened around 3:30 until seven. A weird system, which we did not figure out for a few days. It didn't align well with our sleeping till noon schedule. This is basically a ski village, so its busy season is winter and it was pretty calm while we were there. Okay, downright boring at times. We had two English channels: BBC and CNN World. Let me tell you, they repeat the same news alot. We got to enjoy the Italian sports network where there were volleyball games and Olympic tryouts.

One day we ventured over to Austria, which was about two hours away on roads with hairpin curves. It looked pretty much like Sappada. However, we did stumble upon this castle on a hill. We went and walked around it, but it was all locked up and there were no signs, so we don't know what it was or anything, but still. Ancient Austrian castle. Pretty cool.

So mostly our days in Sappada were marked by trying to find sustenance, watching news re-runs, and doing lots of crossword puzzles. We could have gone to the indoor pool, but we would have had to pay to use it. Also, we had to pay to use the internet. Strange European customs.

Sappada was beautiful, but boring, and we were glad to get out of there a day early and head to Florence. An impromptu side trip. So some pictures from Sappada and Austria:

Sappada, or a town like it


Sappada (The Hills Are Alive!)


Our hotel living room


The view from our bathroom window


There was a little wildlife park in Sappada where they kept deer. I didn't get to pet them.


A little backyard garden in Austria


The sign telling us we were entering Austria. It was basically in a lumberyard.


The castle we found and me


Castle and us


And once more from a distance

Venice

Venice started off badly. First of all, I wanted to stay in Paris. Then, the plane ride over the Alps was very bumpy and I thought we would crash and eat each other to stay Alive. Then, when we stepped off the plane it was hot and humid, as opposed to the perfect weather in Paris. Then, on the bus drive to the center of Venice, our bus got a flat tire. At this point, I started laughing, quietly, but uncontrollably. I thought we would probably soon be boarded by terrorists and I would be raped and killed. However, we did manage to get to the bus station, where we asked a man how to get to our hotel. He said to get on the number 2 bus. We got on said bus and drove for almost an hour before asking a lady who spoke very good English whether we were on the correct bus. We were not. And it was about 10:30 at night. So we waited for about a half hour at a bus stop for the next bus to come around. We took it back to the bus station. (A drunk man fell out of his seat two times during this ride.) Back at the bus station we met an American lady and her daughter. She had attended the same high school that Michael attended in Louisville. Small world, right? Anyway, she got us on the right bus - bus number five, and sure enough - two stops later we were at out luxurious hostel. Don't worry, it was really freaking hot, and hostels in Venice do not have air conditioning. I didn't get to sleep until about four in the morning, right before the construction on the hotel next door started.

The rest of Venice was good. When we made our way over to the floating city we had some really mediocre pizza and pasta and then some really fabulous gelato. The gelato in Venice was better than everywhere else (and cheaper), except for one little hole in the wall we found in Rome on our last night in town. Anyway, gondolas are freak expensive, so we took the public transport boat down the grand canal. You would have to try hard to take a bad picture in Venice. Everywhere there are flowers hanging from windows, little alley-waterways, paintings on the sides of buildings... It's beautiful. We found our way to St. Mark's Square and watched people feed the birds. Then we wound our way through the little alleys full of shops. There were lots of mask shops for Carnivale and lots of shops with glass from Murano, an island a little further out than Venice, famous for its glass making. People sold fresh cut fruit in cups with tiny forks. Of course, they also had really high end stores like Louis Vuitton, but we avoided those.

We spent the afternoon and evening there in Venice, sampling the gelato from several shops, and then went back to our hostel for another restless night. The next day we went and found the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, which is the oldest Jewish Ghetto in the world. It was Sabbath, so all the shops and museums were closed, but it was fun just to walk around and see things. We also happened upon some Jewish restaurants which were packed with all these Jews eating together and laughing. Looked like a fun time.

After a short afternoon in Venice we went to the airport to pick up our rental car and drove to our resort in Sappada, Italy. We had the worst time trying to find the highway that lead out of Venice. There would be signs pointing this way and we'd go the way it pointed and end up in the middle of town. Finally, after just wandering around for about an hour and a half, we found the highway and got the heck out of there. More on Sappada later, first, pictures of Venice!

Flying over the Alps. Scary.

Michael looking out at the Grand Canal, I think, from the Ponte Di Rialto

The Grand Canal

Some of the fresh fruit that we enjoyed immensely.

One of the very expensive gondolas.

A restaurant along the canal.

The Ponte di Rialto

Us on the public transit boat.

One of the little canals

Us at St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco)

I decided I could live in this little alley.

A dark and scary alley

In the Jewish ghetto

Also in the Venice ghetto

Michael with our little rental car

Paris

I loved Paris. This may seem obvious enough, but I had no expectations to like it. I even suggested we skip it altogether. But I got there and the weather was perfect. There were creperies on every other street corner. The streets were narrow and cobble-stoned. There were about a million scooters and little motorcycles, or tiny cars. Once you park there I don't know how you would get your car out. I think most people use public transit anyway.

So we flew to Paris, over the English channel. We took the train and subway to our hotel: no expensive taxis. Our hotel was in a cute neighborhood with little shops and cafes. The cafes were generally busy except in the evening when they were packed, at least until we went into our hotel at 11. We went to the Louvre and waited in line to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We ate some delightful crepes and an amazing raspberry pastry that had about fifteen layers. We went to the Eiffel Tower and walked up about 700 steps to the second tier. We wandered the streets and shopped and I loved every minute of it. Lots of people had their dogs, and took them shopping with them. Some of them weren't on leashes, they just followed their person. None of them jumped on people or barked. It was quite charming. We found this to be true throughout Europe. It was one whirlwind day in Paris, but it was wonderful. Oh, and I've used larger showers in third world countries than the one in our hotel in Paris.

Flying over the English channel

The Metro Station near our hotel, cute, no? It was about 6 flights of stairs under the ground to get to the train.

Us at the Louvre

The crowd to see the Mona Lisa

My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower

On the first tier

On the second tier

The Paris skyline from the Eiffel Tower

He's making that crepe for me. =)

A little fruit stand

A Paris street

A cute little store near our hotel