Italy

My wife and I fell in love with Italy. The mountains, beaches, countryside, wine, food and mediteranean culture are incredible.  We went here as a young couple in 1999 and came back later with a baby in 2001.  That is about as romantic as it gets.  

View of Vernazza (Cinque Terra)  from the vineyard cliffs

We enjoyed the variety of things to do in northern Italy.  In a two week trip using a rental car, we found we had enough time to drive through the Alps, spend a day in Venice, a day in Florence, and then set up camp near Pisa.  From our campsite, we launched out in all directions in search of adventure.  By the way, rental cars in Europe are fairly cheap.  Your credit card probably covers the insurance, but if not, that is fairly cheap.  We rented our car through on of Europe's biggest agencies, Sixt (http://www.sixt.com/).

It was a beautiful drive through the Alps.  we saw some snowcapped mountain on the way and a neat train track running through a pass alongside the road.  We stopped for the night in Vicenza and rested up for a day in Venice.

Venice is all that you hear on travel channels.  Its touristy, and its beautiful.  Bring good shoes and a lot of energy, because getting around by gondola is not cheap.  The little alleyways are very quaint.

While Venice is beautiful and unlike any other city, its probably only worth one day unless you are there for a week-long art show, or just simply relaxing and enjoying the view from your hotel balcony.  But for those of us that aren't made of money, one day is enough.  Get in on the train, walk around and gawk at the beautiful city, and you MUST take a gondola ride, if you can get over the price.  Shop around off the main canals.  Prices can very by 40%. 


Happy we found a cheap gondola



We left Venice the same way we came in, on the train.  The Venice train station is the best way to get in and out of town.  In fact, I don't know any other way, although I'm sure there are ferries.  We spent the night in a town called Vicenza.  There is an American Army base in Vicenza.  After all the walking, we were glad to kick ff our shoes and fall asleep.  



San Marco Piazza.  If you have kids, they will love chasing the pigeons.



The next morning, we jumped into our rental car and headed to Florence.  Florence.  We don;t normally plan out our days in Europe.  We like to go to a city or area and roam around.  But Denise made it clear that we were going to see the Statue of David.  Immediately upon arrival, we found the museum and got in line.  I hat standing in lines, but his was not bad.  It was only a 45 minute wait, which was good.  Those that came afer us waited much longer. 

Statue of David

The museum was worth the wait.  My mom was an artist and we were forced to visit many art mueseums as kids.  About the only thing I liked about the museums in Cleveland were the dinosaurs, indians, suits of armor and mummies.  Luckily, the museum containing the statue of david was mostly statues and sculptures.

David is impressive.  He is larger than life, about 10 feet tall.  I have to admit, Denise is correct when she says he has a nice butt.  I say that because it is very similar to mine.  Honestly, it is a great statue...the best in the room.  But there are many others to see. 

After the museum, we roamed the streets and came across the leather market.  Here we found a wide variety of quality leather items.  We watche many peopl haggling over price and decided to play it the same way.  I saw a Sicilian style leather jacket that I loved.  But I made it seam that I was not really intersted after hearing the price...about $150.  I told him I could only pay $90. He stuck to his price, and I left the store.  Denise saw a leather handbag and had to have it.  She bought it on the spot. It is the nicest bag that I have seen. After shopping, but not buying the leather jacket, I left the shopkeeper to cool off, thinking I was not interested. 

We went to se some more sites.  We found a beautiful domed building.  Apparently the ceiling was also painted by Michaelangelo.  But you had tpo pay to go inside.  Seeing the building from outside was good enough for me.

It was getting hot, so we got our first taste of real Italian gelato.  There is nothing in the world that tastes as good as ice cream in Italy. 

Denise in Florence with her new bag.

One of our claims to fame is that we were on the set of the movie Hannibal.  If you remember when the investigator paid a bum to run into Hannibal Lechter to try and get his fingerprint on a silver bracelet.  He did it, but Hannibal cut his femeral artery in the process.  The arched hallway in this picture (left) is where that scene was filmed.  Oh, and look at the handbag Denise is carrying.  Is that Hannibal Lechter on the left?



After a day in Florence, we drove the remaining 1 hour and 45 minutes to our campground in the Pisa area.  the Pisa area is nothing special.  The beaches are average, the towns are not particularly pretty, but the food is good.  There is a lot of seafood.  Regardless it is just nice to be in another culture, so everything was at least interesting.