A Funny Thing Happened at the Forum...

Here are some more photos from our trip: Tuscanny, David, our first cup of capuccino, and the Colloseum

We arrived in Rome without incident this morning. The train ride was about an hour and a half.

After we checked in, we walked to the Colloseum. Oh my gosh, is it incredible! The photo above was taken with my cell phone and uploaded to this blog. Michelle has many more pictures from several angles.

The colloseum is a part of a larger area that includes the palatino and the forum. The entire area is the historic city center of Rome. A lot of the city has been excavated and is in bits and pieces. But one can easily imagine how impressive ancient Rome was. We spent 4 hours touring this entire area. It is a rocky area with lots of steps, you need to be in good shape with good balance.

We are tired! The temperatures are warm around 85 degrees and very sunny. Our first impressions of Rome are quite positive. Like any large city it is noisy but the views from the hills are spectacular.

Tomorrow we will visit the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain.

Believe it or not we had chinese for dinner, taking one night off from Italian.

Ciao!

PO BOX Chianti Tuscany

This morning we started off in an hour long line for the Uffizi gallery here in Florence. The gallery is home to several italian artists I have not heard of but there are works by Bottecelli, Rafael, and Davinci. Most of the art has a jesus theme of him on the cross or as a child. Some paintings were of italian noble families.

After dodging rain drops we boarded a tour bus for the chianti region of tuscany. Italy has 20 regions and florence is located in tuscany. We stopped at castello ill palagio for wine tasting and tour. To say tuscany is beautiful is an understatement. It looks like what you see on tv. It is rolling hills of olive trees, grape farms, and cyprus trees. Our photos will not do it justice. The wines and olive oil were delicious and we will order some asap from the US supplier. Shipping charges from Italy are over $100! That does not include the cost of the wine/oil.

After the tour and wine tasting, we drove to Greve, a small town nearby. It is a small, quiet town that is not touristy but with lots of shops and flats above the store. We visited a butcher where I bought a package of italian salami to eat as a snack for the train ride on saturday.

Tomorrow we are riding the train to Rome. We've been told to expect a crowded, noisy city. We'll see but we are excited.

We have learned first hand the italian train service is not the best but we are hoping for an early start so we can arrive in Rome by early afternoon.

One interesting side note: I have had NO acid reflux eating the italian food and Michelle's acid reflux is a lot less here. We cannot say enough about the quality of food at mid-priced restaurants and the service. Italians are a very friendly people so far on our trip.

That is all from here.

Arrivederche!

ouch our feet hurt!

Nearly every street in Florence is brick or stone. We must have walked 3-4 miles today.

In the last couple of days we saw michealangelo's David. The sculpture is unbelievable. His hands are enormous. The artist sculpted veins and intricate muscles.

We also visited the Duomo, a large church in the center of town. It was built starting in the 1200s or 1300s and took nearly 2 centuries to complete. The structure has green, pink and white tiles in a geometric forms.

Today we visited the city's only synagogue, a sephardic community of about 1000 lives here. The synagogue is moorish
In structure but has an organ inside. We learned that the city's jews lived in a ghetto for nearly 300 years, longer than the US has been a country! They were not given citizenship until the mid 1800s.

We spent the rest of the day walking around including the famous ponte vecchio bridge.

Tomorrow it is on to wine country on a tour. We were going to rent a car but it would be insane to try and try in this city, chaos reigns on the road.

We have some technical glitches with this blog that is why there are no pictures. But I am working on it. Stay tuned...you should also be able to post comments now.


Bono sera!

in focus

We have had a busy day!
After a salami and cheese based breakfast we went to the brera gallery for a couple of hours. A lot of the paintings are from italian artists.there were a few beautiful paintings by rafael.

The day then took us to the milan duomo,a gothic looking cathedral. It looks like a church out of batman! I have never seen such large stained glass. Michelle and I snapped lots of photos that we will try to post asap.

While not a major tourist destination, the people who live here are very friendly and helpful. There is a beautiful park near the u.s. Consulate.

the food has been outstanding. In 24 hours we have sampled octopus, salami, prosciutto, canolia, of course pizza! Not in that order :)

Tomorrow we leave for florence where we will stay for 3 days.

Ciao until tomorrow!

arrival in milan

We arrived safely at 10 am local time. We are tired but in good spirits! We walked about 2 miles after a 2 hour nap. For you seinfeld fans we crossed costanza street. We already had our first cup of capuccino. The people here are friendly. Tonight it's wine and gelatto for dinner!

6 Days and Counting...

T - 6 Days...

I got the Euros today so we are set for a couple of days to kick off our trip.

Not much new to add. We will start packing on Friday.

The next post will be from Milan next week Monday.

See you then!

The Final Week!

T-Minus 10 Days...

This weekend I need to get electrical converters and luggage tags.

Michelle wants to bring our dog Star but she doesn't bark in Italian. Also,
capuccino doesn't sit well with Star.