See Us In Italy

Prague is very pretty and extremely crowded. So far it's nice though.

It took us awhile to get through customs, then we had to get Krowns to
buy bus tickets. We finally made it to the hotel to find out our quad
is really a spacious apartment complete with kitchen. It's odd though
the bedroom doors have large glass windows. Odd.

Great people watching here, lots of fake/odd shades if red hair. We
had dinner on our balcony trying to get people from the crowds to wave
at us :)

We have explored quite a bit but we are all exhausted to we are in bed
early. Tomorrow, Prague Castle and Wenseslas Square.

Today was very relaxed. We wandered a bit looking at churches near the
apartment, then hung out. Around 6 Fabio and Adrian came for us and we
went bowling, below is Fabio throwing a Spare. The crazy thing is it
was a Brunswick Alley! Also the balls are in pounds even though they
do kilograms. After bowling we went back to their place and Mom made
french toast which was tummy. We enjoyed conversation including a
debate about whether or not Astronauts really went to the moon and
their planned trip to the US this summer. Finally it got late and they
dropped us back.

We're all packed up and ready to go for our flights tomorrow. I think
we're sad to go because it's been so much fun, but we're tired and
miss our hubbies.

Dinner was amazing. We were too full for french toast so tomorrow we
will do that and maybe bowling! :) it was a fun night.

We are at Fabios with Internet so I uploaded more pictures to Flickr.
This one is of Adrian making us pasta for dinner right now, I'm
starving, we'll let you know how it turns out.

Later we will make French Toast for desert.

Today we slept in a bit for Easter and watched Italian services on TV.
Then we went to the Roman Forum as you can see in the photo. But first
we went to the Colloseum, all the way inside of it. Mom was impressed
by the size of it "it's huge" she said. We got a 'Roma Pass' that got
us in free and let us speed by the long ticket line like celebrities,
that was sweet.

Then we went to Palentino Hill and then on down to the Forum. I told
Mom what I remember from all the tours and followed a walking tour
Johnny found online. Mom says my tour was just as good as those she
heard around us, so that was nice. We even got to go into the Senate
House this time, very cool, same floor, doors, steps.

We have an unlimited Metro pass so we rode back to our apartment gor
some rest before going to Fabio & Adrians for dinner.

One more day :)

This view of the famous Sistine Chapel came at the end of our trip
through the Vatican Museum. Somethings you may not know about the
Chapel are:

- Michelangelo created this fresco reluctantly, his prefered medium
was sculpting
- The ceiling is one smooth surface the marbel and beams you see are
not real, they were painted into the fresco to give the illusion of
dimension.
- Later when Michelangelo was 60 years old, he also created the fresco
on the end wall (can be seen on Flickr) depicting the final judgement.

We only waited about an hour to enter the Vatican Museum and 30
minutes to enter the Basilica, both short waits considering the
throngs of people in Rome for Pasqua (Easter). The closed the Basilica
early, not long after we entered which allowed us to watch them set up
for Eater services without a crowd pushing us along. We noticed a boy
in jeans and a hoodie, standing, STANDING on the ALTER of the Most
important church in Catholicism! He seemed to be "helping", but all we
saw was texting.

We finished our day earlier than planned and to avoid the crowd ended
up back at our apartment eating left overs with plans to play peanut
and people watch at the coloseo later.

Last night we were picked up by Fabio in a borrowed car (that's a
story for later). He had Adrian with him and we all four went to
dinner outside of Rome. It was fantastic to see them again we always
have fun and laugh a lot.

This time Fabio chose a place in a village north of Rome in Sacrofano.
The restaurant was Al Grottino, it was quaint and quirky. You sit and
there is no waiter with questions, they just bring food to the table,
and they keep it coming through the whole meal. They made a few
exceptions for me being vegetariana, especially with beef, there was a
lot of wild boar instead. Our favorites were the fried zuccini with
mozzarella, ravioli filled with lemon ricotta, roasted rosemary
potatoes, salami, sausage and biscotti.

At desert we had sweet wine on top of the dinner wine so Mom was
already loosey goosey. To top it off we got Mom her first taste of
limoncello. It was a great dinner, though we gave no idea how pricey
because Fabio generously snuck away and settled the bill (thank you).

They drove us back to the apartment after some sweet talking to get us
back into the historic center. We parted ways at 1am with discussions
of a French Toast dinner at Fabios before we leave town.

You might recognizr this fountain from old movies, its Trevi Fountain.

We're on the 3rd city on our tour of Italy, the cities have gotten
progressivly bigger. Rome is big and beautiful and full of spring
blooms. It's also full of Easter tourists who are a bit annoying but
not taking away from my enjoyment of the amazing city.

Tonight at 9 the Pope, yes the actual Pope, is speaking at the Coloseo
which is down the street from our apartment. We are making sure to be
far away from that crowd.

I was kissed by my 3rd Italian man (don't worry John, strictly air
kisses), it was Mimmo, Sara's waiter friend at ZioCiro. Then instead
of returning to the apartment we went to the expansive Villa Borghese
park to rest on a blanket on the lawn.

See? :)

Today started with a visit to Santa Maria Novella, which I think has
the prettiest interior yet. No photos allowed but there's one on
Flickr of the exterior.

From there we killed some time and then went for our reservation at
the Ufizzi. Again, no photos, but the most noteable peice was "the
Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, it's the same image used by Adobe for
Illustrator. Not being art enthusiasts we didn't know all about the
art so we just admired for an hour or so.

After art gazing we were starving and stopped for lunch at Il Tocco di
Bacco which was not only cheap and tasty but we also made a friend,
Dominico. Once we knew he spoke English we started talking. He grew up
in Sicily, then moved to Miami and lived in Longwood for a bit, used
to work at Enzos and Antinios in Maitland. Small world huh? Now he's
part owner of a restaurant in Florence.

Now we're waiting till it's time to retrieve our bags and head to the
train station for our 6pm train to Rome.

Ciao ciao Firenze.

After the Duomo we rested a bit, then we had gelato before hitting the
San Lorenzo leather market (yes Chris, I got you a new belt). We had
fun negotiating, one stall owner said gave us discounts in exchange
for a kiss! While at the market we just happened to see another mom/
daughter that sat across from us on the train, small world.

Our hotel is in a great location, a block from both the leather market
and the Duomo. So after shopping we dropped our goods there before
heading out for more.

The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) is famous for the shops selling gold
jewelry that line it - even Hitler found it attractive, he ordered it
be spared in WWII. The picture included is for my friend Carolina in
Cordova Spain (sorry I haven't written lately, I am thinking of you
still) we both like going barefoot.

From the bridge we just wandered a bit, enjoyed a mime show and
window shopped. When our 423 step hike started to take it's toll we
stopped for food. Mom found Trattoria Accadi, it was great! Mostly
locals, all local dishes, like tripe, tongue and other non-vegetarian
frindly things. No matter though, we both ordered Ribollita, a Tuscan
veggy soup with bread, so yummy! It was like moist Thanksgiving
stuffing with only veggies The staff was great too, tried very hard
with their English. Would definitly recommend.

We made it back to our toiletless room early but exhausted. Tomorrow
we see the Uffizi more churches and then the train to Roma.

~Sara~

After a morning train ride full of peanut matches We arrived in
Florence and promptly found our hotel. It's in a very old looking
building and we had to climb 3 flights to check in but our room us
spacious and airy but unfortunatlt has a bidet but no toilet, we have
to walk down the hall.

We discovered that the only way to see the inside of the famous
Brunelleschi Duomo right now is to climb it. So, 423 steps later we
got our view, we were so close we could have touched the painting. In
the includef picture you can see the interior of the dome. I was
amazed at the vibrant colors and the detail portrayed in each scene.

Then we went to the outside of the dome for an amazing 360 view of
Florence and Tuscany. Pictures from this are amazing, you'll see. The
hike was totally worth the effort now, tomorrow morning we may feel
differently. Now we earned some gelato.

PS from Sara-I have claustrophobia and Mom has a history of cluziness
in foreign countries so I'm quite proud of us for making it through
856 steps! I'll send the iPhone pics if to my Flickr if you want to
see them.

Today was a bit of a chill day. Our Vaparetto passes expired around
noon so we went down to St. Marks and worked our way back on foot. The
church was amazing inside, all mosaics, all gold. No photos inside so
this picture is of the outside. Mom loved the floor too and did sneak
some pics of it.

From there we went to the Rialto market and then on to find lunch. We
wandered a bit, went over the glass bridge. Then we went to il
supermercado for some dinner items. Now we're just hanging at the
hotel. We're all packed up and ready for our 8:43am departure to
Florence. I've been struggling wild virtigo so I'll be glad to get
back to solid land, all the boatrides etc have not helped.

We just realized, don't think we told everyone that we cancelled our
roadtrip. For a multitude of reasons we decided to cancel the rental
car and take the train.

We also decided to stay in Venice one more night and skip Bologna. So
we have one more night at Hotel Caprera (90€ / night / double) ehich
has been pretty nice, great location. Then on Wednesday we take the
train straight from Venice to Florence (74€ for us both) where we
stay at Pensione Canada (70€ / night / double) for one night. From
there we'll take the train to Termini in Rome (52€ for us both) and
find our rental apartment (B&B Boschetto 15 - 80€ / night / double)
which is near the Cavour metro stop.

Then we'll have five nights in Rome before we try to fly home,
hopefully we don't end up in some random country again ^_-

First, please note : the earthquake was nowhere near us, so we are
fine. We didn't know it had happened. It was near Rome, but not along
our way. Thanks for your concern.

Now, you should know the book I read (City of Falling Angles) talks
about the theatre being destroyed in 1996 for the 3rd time in it's
history and the reconstruction challenges due to the Venetian
government. They reopened in 2006 "comera dovera" which is "as it was,
where it was". Learning about it got me really interested in seeing it
so seeing a show there was awesome.

Even though they don't have cars Venice has traffic, with the evening
Vaparettos full of people we had just enough time to return to the
hotel, beautify and return to the Fenice for the show.

Unlike on the tour, cameras were allowed, so we took lots pictures and
some video from our 3RD level PRIVATE box! We didn't have the ohone so
we'll post pictures later.

The concert was all strings. The first number was awkward, like the
modern art you see and say "this is supposed to be pretty?" (a good
example if discordant music Megan) after that the music started to
match the beautiful surroundings. The aucoustics were insane, during
the concert you could hear the old man across the way breathe with a
squeaky nose.

After the second set the lights came up and everyone left and we
figured we got a great deal and experience. But as we went to leave
Sara noticed it was still full and people we recognized were coming
back in smelling smoky, it was intermission!

We returned to our private box only to open the door to find seat
snatchers! A nice attrative young attendant (a guy) helped us to clear
things up, by asking the imposters to leave and we enjoyed another
half hour of music.

After the show we took in St. Marks square in the dark which was nice
and quiet. Then it was back to the Vaparetto to head 'home' for some
rest.

-Mary-

On the way to the Vaparetto MiniMama tripped for the first time, she's
had much better luck than in Greece. This time it wasn't even her
fault, there was a huge brick out of place. :)

Also, the commenting was all funky before but we made a change so the
comments should work okay now.

One more day in Venice Italy, then on to Florence, Italy for the night.

~Sara~