Ancient Rome

When we arrived in Rome on the 22nd there wasn't much exploring due to down pour that was happening outside. Instead we hung around our hotel had warm drinks and lounged in the comfy seating area. Luckily the next day the rain had stopped. We walked down to the colosseum. Our tour began here at the colosseum where we had the opportunity to go inside and explore. Even with half of the upper part of the colosseum missing it was still overwhelmingly big. Back in its former glory it use to be able to seat 60-70 thousand people depending how many people they wanted to pack in there. Next we walked over to the ruins of ancient Rome, this was an area that had been excavated,where bits and pieces of buildings and structures had once stood. Next we headed to a place that was a little less ancient but very well known, the Trevino fountain. The fountain although only 300 years old is still a very popular site probably due to the story attached to it. If you turn away from the fountain and toss a coin over your back you will return to Rome some day, and according to our guide this is true, and we know that it was true for Jill! After the quick stop at the fountain we were headed towards the biggest dome in Rome. The pantheon use to have statues of all of the gods in it but as Christianity became the universal religion they were replaced. As I said earlier the dome of the pantheon is the biggest dome in Rome, it is even just slightly bigger than the dome of st. Peters basilica. Incredibly the pantheon is only one of tow remaining structures from the roman empire that is not in ruins. One of the most interesting things about the pantheon to me is that when it was built they left a hole right in the middle of the dome for light to get through and until this day try have not covered it up. This concluded our tour of ancient Rome and we also found ourselves on the other side o the city from our hotel. We got directions from our guide and began making our way back. However I misread te map and we turned the wrong way and ended up even further away from our hotel :) I guess you have to get lost at least once! But no worries we found our way back, the down side it took about an hour, yikes!

Piza/Tuscany/Siena

On our last official day in Florence (The 21st) we were scheduled for a 12 hour tour through Tuscany. We were picked up from the hotel before 8 and taken to the train station to get on our bus. Once everyone had arrived and was checked in we left for our first stop in Piza. When we arrived in Piza we had about an hour to explore the city. Mainly we had a chance to explore the leaning tower and the small area it was enclosed in. Although it was great to finally see the tower in person, the area was flooded with tourists and people taking their pictures pushing the tower. I'm glad we had the opportunity to see it, but now that I've seen it, one time is enough for me. Also it wasn't the greatest because our tour guide didn't really know much about Piza, so she didn't have many historical facts about the city. Once we were done in Piza we headed to Tuscany in the province of Siena. When we got to wine county it was an incredible site to see. Rolling hills of vineyards and beautiful homes. We headed to lunch next at a nice little restaurant that serviced us bruschetta, followed pasta and then a nice light pana cotta in a fruit sauce. Following lunch we headed to the walled city of San Gimignano. This city was extraordinary with four huge stone walls enclosing the city. Unfortunately due to others on the tour being late to get back to the group in Piza we only had a chance to spend 45 minutes in this city, which we wished we had  a whole day to spend here instead. We took some quick pictures of the country side and the city walls and then did a little shopping buying a couple of bottles of wine and some ceramics. The last place on our tour was the city of Siena. While in Siena we had a one hour walking tour of the city.  Here we had the opportunity to see their town square where twice a year they hold a horse race where all 16 districts of the city compete to win a hand painted banner. Although our time in each place was very limited I was happy we had a chance to see everything. If I could do it differently I would have loved to do a whole day tip to Tuscany because it truly was beautiful!

Florence-Firenze

Well today it was almost like we had never left Portland.... Aside from all of the amazingly beautiful architecture and art we saw today. However I'm sad to say that today we were forced to put on our rain jackets and bring out umbrellas because it started raining just like we were back in Oregon. Luckily today we started off early and missed most of the rain. We had the opportunity to start our tour on the oldest bring in Florence that has been able to withstand floods and WWII. After a history lesson on Florence we made our way to one of the most famous squares there that houses many well known statues that were created to symbolized Florence as a city state. There was the statue of Judith (a woman who had used her head to triumph over a man and save her city), to her is the famous statue of David (of the story David and Goliath) this one however is the replica the other is housed in Galleria dell Accademia. Although there were many statues the last one that was created to symbolize Florence was the statue of Prometheus killing Medusa. Once we left the square we headed to look at the incredible architecture of the Duomo. The Duomo is a church that took over 100 years and a number of architects to build. Following the Duomo we took a short break and were off to Galleria dell Accademia to see the original David. The Galleria dell Accademia is more well known for housing statues than paintings. Most of the famous paintings in Florence are located at the Galleria deli Uffizi, but there in Accademia was the original David (of course he has been restored quite a few times and most recently in 2004 on his 500 year anniversary). Also in Accademia are four of Michelangelo's "slaves" as they were called. These were 16 statues that had originally be created for the pope before the died. The 16 statues are spread across Europe but the four that are in Accademia all appeared to be unfinished. Our tour guide told us what some historians believe had been Michelangelo's idea behind them. He had wanted them to be able to transcend time, so left them unfinished so every generation would be able to interpret the statues differently. This is where our tour ended for us. We wondered around Accademia a little longer looking at some Contemporary art that was currently there (including a Pink version of David with blonde hair and blue eyes) and then headed out to shop and look around Florence. It was then as our day was winding down that the rain started to fall. We rushed back to our hotel and here we are now preparing for our 12 hour tour of Tuscany tomorrow!

Cinque Terre Day 2

On our second day in Cinque Terre Kellie, Mom and I hiked from Corniglia to Volestra. There first part of was pretty steep up hill but still a lot of fun. When it leveled out we made our way through a string of vineyards all on the sides of these hills, it was incredible how they took care of it, there were thousands of grape vines all over the place. The views were amazing of all the colorful villages down below. If we had another day here I would have like to have hiked a different trail towards another village, so hopefully some day I'll be able to go back and get the opportunity. It really is a beautiful place and the people are so kind and helpful, if you've never been and your planning a trip to Italy, think about putting it on your itinerary! For the next three days we'll be in Florence and we have some fun ahead touring Florence, Tuscany, Piza and more....!

Cinque Terre Day 1

We had a long trip from Venice to Cinque Terre and there were three train changes along the way, all and all about a 6 hour trip. After a long day of carrying our suit cases up and down the stairways and onto the trains we were a bit tired but this we later found out had been the easy part of our trip. The village we were staying at in Cinque Terre was Corniglia, one of the smaller villages. Instead of staying in a hotel here Jill had booked us an apartment through an agency there. Well when we arrived she was directed to call the landlord so she could give us our key. One other thing was that the women she would be calling didn't speak a word of english. So we arrive by train around 6:20 pm and half to be in this at an ATM of all places to meet here and Jill has to call her by 7:00pm. As we get off the train and hike another set of stairs we are informed that the square is at the top of this rather large hill. Also we're told that either we can take the bus or walk up the hill. Well the bus is not really what you would call a bus it was more of a 16 passenger van with no place to store luggage. Since there was a very long line of people and we had four very large suit cases we decided to make the trip up the hill. Jill was a little worried about making it up the hill so Kellie offered to pull her suit case also. As we begin it is fairly warm outside and this hill we realize has quite a few twists and turns. Anyway 20 or so minutes later we arrive at the top of this hill covered in sweat and looking for an ATM machine. Finally we are directed toward the machine (which I believe to be the only ATM in village) and Jill proceeds to call the landlord  (Mrs. Monte). We get ahold of her just at 7:00 o'clock and says some things in Italian and then that she would be five minutes. At last we are shown to the apartments which were actually very nice and clean and had an amazing view. After some delicious dinner and crepes we headed to bed to rest for hiking the next day.

Verona

The next day we had planned a trip over to Verona,Italy the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Kellie and I thought it would be fun to go here after seeing the movie letters to Juliet. However Verona was not quite what we expected. When we got there by train it looked just like any other city. We got ahold of a map and made our towards "Juliet's house". On our way we Passed the arena there which was under a little construction but still looked very old and historic and so did the rest of this part of the city. As we continued down some very narrow streets we had finally found our way to Juliet's house. It wasn't quite what we were anticipating, it had writing All over the walls and it was very crowded with people taking pictures with statue of Juliet. We didn't do much else here and only stayed for 3 hours. If I could go back and re-do our itinerary I would have skipped the trip to Verona and went to cinque terre. The next morning we were off on a pretty long trip to cinque terre!

Venice Day 2

After getting some much needed sleep we started off our second day in Venice pretty well rested and ready to go. Today we had a walking tour of Venice which was very interesting and informative. We met at the Royal Gardens (just a small park) to meet up with our guide. After checking in we were given ear phones and device so we would be able to hear the guide while walking around the busy streets of Venice. For those who have never been to Venice or don't know much about it here is a little run down we got from our tour guide. Venice is a city that was built on a number of Islands and each Island is connected by a bridge. In the city of Venice I believe she said there are over 400 bridges. These are very small bridges that take about 5-10 seconds to walk over. No one drives in Venice because there is really no room for a car to go. The streets are small narrow walk ways that remind be of very small alley ways. On many of these streets there is just enough room for one person to walk each direction. Therefore instead of getting round via cars, people walk, take their own boats, a water taxi or the very popular water bus. Once she had given the group a quick over view of Venice we continued out walk toward San Marco Square. San Marco Square was one of the busiest places in all of Venice, that and Rialto which is where there are many many tourist shops. She described the history of Venice and how the winged lion that was present all over Venice is the symbol of the city. We then made our way to Basilica Di San Marco. This was is a very old and beautiful church that use to be the private church of the Doge of Venice. We then toured the church and it was extraordinary inside. There were pictures that depicted stories from the bible and the covered the ceilings of the church. Next we continued our tour to some more quite areas, where there weren't as many tourists rushing around. Our tour ended 2 hours later in Rialto. Then everyone went their separate ways and we headed to lunch where we had our first Italian Pizza. After eating probably too much pizza we shopped the rest of the day and ended the night with gelato and wine.