Florence

I feel bad saying this even as I write it, but I just plainly didn't care for Florence or maybe I have been so enchanted with Italian culture that Florence didn't feel like Italy.  Was it the 97F temperatures? Maybe.  Was it the very rude people I kept encountering? Maybe.  Was it the extreme crowds that are always drawn to Florence in June? Maybe.  Or maybe just a combo of all of the above.  I wanted to fall in love with Florence.  I fell in love with Umbria and other cities in Tuscany so why not Florence?  I was with an awesome group and Florence had so much potential.  After all, they have the David (which I was beyond extremely impressed with), the beautiful Duomo and all of the other well known sites.

Everywhere I go I always tell Italians that I am from the USA, honestly Italians are very curious and want to inquire and they love, love Americans!  Every time I tell them I was born near Chicago they mention their love for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and they have to tell me about the time they visited New York or California or wherever their travels had taken them.  That is why I was surprised when I had to embarrass a taxi cab driver in Florence.  My sister in law, her boyfriend, and I were getting into a taxi with a gelato (who says you can't have gelato before dinner?) and we were well dressed.  The taxi driver told us we could not eat in the Taxi and when the hotel doorman asked him why (btw this was all in Italian) the driver told him we were babies and may spill.  Well mr. taxi driver didn't know that one of these foreigners can speak enough Italian to understand what he said.  So I politely threw away the previous gelato (and it was oh so good) and as I got in the taxi I asked him in Italian "So we are babies, huh?"  The look of horror on his face was actually pretty funny.  Also in Florence they were really pushy about tipping at the dinner table and that just isn't common in Italy.

Enough with that, let me show you some beautiful pictures! We started out with the Duomo and climbed the stairs to the top of the dome (yes it really is 463 stairs to the top)!

Duomo

view from the top

Stacey and me

Dan and me

Next we saw the famous doors....

And I had to save a little time for my man Leonardo.  They have a museum where you can see many of the items he either created or imagined and you can touch and play. Yup, it is a real nerd's dream and I loved it.

Leonardo museum

We took a nice evening stroll to the Piazza Michelangelo.  I am really surprised this wasn't high on the list of things to do in Rick Steve's book!  It was beautiful and a perfect spot for the sunset.  On our walk we noticed they had a cat protection area where they had a bunch of cat houses, food, etc. for the furry friends.

view from Piazza Michelangelo

Enjoying a little white wine while the sun was setting

We of course had to go see David.  I wish I could have captured how fantastic and impressive this sculpture was!  Amazing it was created from one solid piece.

Brie and me

Brie, Brian, and me

I have seen this before and I can't believe I was talked into it......No it does not hurt, it made me feel very ticklish!

yes those are little fish!

 

My last morning I was awake early and so I took a nice stroll through town and listed to the Rick Steve's podcast walk through Florence (which I highly recommend!).  This was one of my favorite moments, it was cool outside, no one in sight!

Maybe I will try Florence again......

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).