First time in Italy for my parents...Venice, Murano, Burano, Arona, Milano, Bolzano, Verona, Bergamo....oh my!

My parents came to Italy for a 2 week visit at the end of May/beginning of June!  We covered quite a bit of ground in their time here even though the beginning of their trip was a little rocky.....flight delays due to New Jersey weather and united airlines put them in a very scary hotel overnight.  I think they want to put that part of their trip out of their mind so I will just skip right along to the good stuff!

Their first day started out with a trip to see the last supper in Milan.  Since my parents flight was 24 hours late, we rushed over to the train station to head into Milan proper for our prearranged tour and we made it just in time!  We couldn't take pictures of the Last Supper, but I am sure you know what it looks like.  We also took a walking tour of Milan along with a tour of Castle.

Milan Castle Entrance

Milan Castle

You can't take a trip to Arona without a trip on Lago Maggiore....(I feel quite biased, but I don't understand how Lake Como is so popular when Lago Maggiore looks like this).  

We decided to take a day trip to a little town called Bergamo.  This is where a funny reality hit me....you know you have been living in Italy too long when you start getting "judgy" on the piazzas! I have read that Bergamo is supposed to have the prettiest piazza in Europe and while I think it is pretty, it doesn't hold a candle to St. Mark's square and Brussels...sorry.....

View from the new portion looking up at the old portion

Bergamo's piazza

Mom and Dad

Since this was my fifth time in Venice/Murano/Burano I didn't take a lot of pictures and let my mom do the picture taking except I forgot to download the pictures from her camera before she left.

Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo? In Verona of course!  Verona was a great little city for a weekend trip.  We hopped onto a hop on/hop off bus and took in the whole city.

Roman Colosseum

inside the colosseum

We even went to see Juliet's house and apparently if you rub her breast it is good luck in love!

Juliet's house

Overview of Verona from above the city....

 

Santa Maria Church

 

 And of course the Dante statue.....

For quite some time I have really wanted to go see the famous iceman, Otzi, in Bolzano.  So we took off from Verona by train and headed into Bolzano.  We had great views of the Dolomites from the train:

Piazza and Church of Bolzano:

We could not take pictures at the archaeology museum of Otzi, but if you are in the area I recommend the museum if you are a science nerd like me.  It is fascinating what they have discovered about the 5,300 year old man.  My assessment of Bolzano was I would not stay overnight in Bolzano, I would just take a day trip to the museum and leave.  I honestly disliked the people and they made me feel like I was bothering them by being a tourist in their town (no it wasn't just me either and no I typically don't have this issue).