Courtney Love and Horse Meat......our last night in Venice

So I had to blog one last time......first. Always, always, and I do mean always ask what is being served in the executive lounge of any hotel. Today, I made my way to the executive loung for a small snack and soda. I noticed from very nice sandwiches just being placed into the serving area. I decided to take a few....tomatoes, cheese, mayonnaise etc....then the very lovely looking roast beef cuts. I ate away. After eating most of the small cuts, a British couple that we have been interacting with throughout our stay in Venice entered the lounge. The lady is very upfront and has insisted on a couple of days that new food be brought out when Steven, her, her husband, or I have not liked what was being served. She has been polite, but always gets her way. Well come to find out she spends a lot of time in this hotel and has an apartment in Rome. Her husband retired last week. In short....very lovely couple that we have enjoyed talking with in the lounge.

Well she walks up to the sandwiches and immediately ask the hotel staff what kind of sandwich. Of which he replied back "meat of the horse." I catch this out of the corner of my ear and then hear her state loudly " are you saying horse meat." I look at my plate, look at her, look at the server and notice there is a partially eaten what I thought to be "roast beef" sandwich on my plate. The nice lady grabed her mouth and let out a yell, I jumped up and said "oh lord did you say horse meat" and handed the server my plate and asked him to get it away. The husband then stated "poor horse." it was a comedy at best.

The final story of Venice....we went to get gelato one final and I do mean final time. After ordering, Steven comes running over and said Cortney Love was the lady behind us and is ordering now. We walk back up and sure enough, bare feet and standing there ordering her gelato was Courtney Love.

One Bottle of Wine, One Pizza, Lasagna, and Spaghetti = ONE DINNER

We are miserable. First to think we have to leave this great country and Venice. Second, we cannot stop the madness. We are continuing to eat, and eat, and eat. The day was overcast, the first such day on our trip. We hung out at the hotel during the day and relaxed. Venice really is a city in which you enjoy the nights better. So, we made our way out to the city around 5pm. First on the stop today was a gondola ride. Yes, before you ask, we did have the serenade. It was so nice to wind down the canals of Venice with the music and just take in this wonderful city. We passed by the Opera House and the house of Mozart. There were four or five gondolas with the group and a guy was serenading the group. It was wonderful.

After the gondola ride, we made our way walking through the city and took in some small shopping for gifts. Needless to say, you can spend a small fortune here. Then off to dinner. This is where the night turned bad.

We ordered a pizza for an appetizer, a bottle of white wine (I love wine now), lasagna for me, and spaghetti for Steven. The pizza came and once again I made fool out of myself. I did not realize a lady from the next table was watching. Obviously they had just arrived in Venice and had not tried pizza yet. Steven and I cut a piece and as I took a bite, I once again let out this sigh and professed to the taste of the pizza. It was the BEST pizza we have eaten since being here. We were right on the Grand Canal and having dinner. Who could ask for more? The lady busted out laughing and therefore I noticed her. Of course, I could not help but talk to her and tell her how wonderful the pizza was. After a short conversation we found out her husband and her are from Nova Scotia. A very nice couple...so how do we prove to them the Pizza was wonderful....we cut of a quarter (using clean utensils of course) and send it over to their table. The waiter was laughing about sharing the food. We made our way through the wine, lasagna, and spaghetti. Walked our swollen bodies to the water bus and back to the hotel....only to enter the executive lounge and have dessert and sodas. Someone please ship some insulin. WE ARE IN NEED.

Tomorrow is our last day in Venice and we are sad. What a wonderful trip this has turned out to be. Great people, great tours, site seeing, and more importantly a time that Steven and I enjoyed each other. With Steven and I living apart, it really has been nice to get past everyday life and just spend several days together. To appreciate all the things that made us fall in love and continue to hold us together. It is not doubt that I have an amazing person in my life. I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life together with him and hopefully one day sitting beside him on a bench old as dirt and with white hair and having the honor of telling him how much I love him.

With that being said, tomorrow we will spend the time just wondering around Venice and enjoying each other. Friday we are off to Rome and then home. I do not anticipate blogging over the next couple of days. So to our parents and Aunt B...don't worry we are fine and we are taking care of each other. We love you!!!

The Train Ride to Venice

I know we are a couple of days behind on the blog, but we have enjoyed Venice so much we just have not turned on the computer. We started our Tuesday morning by making out way to the train station in Florence. I must admit, we were a little sad to be leaving Florence and wondering if Venice could even come close to how much we liked Florence. After finding the train we settled in for the approximate three hour train ride. The couple sitting by us was from Singapore, so much of the ride was spent trading travel stories. They were heading to Venice and then to Switzerland. I tell you about this couple for a reason (yes...there is a story there). So as we made a couple of stops on the train, Steven and I noticed that there were actually two stops in Venice, one being a greater distance from where we needed to be. It seems that in the booking of the train tickets I made a tactical error. I was unaware that Venice had two stops and booked the wrong stop, which was 15 minutes outside Venice proper. So after discovering this (thanks to Steven's keen eye) I became a little worried about how to handle the situation at hand. Well as with any tourist in an unknown world we did the logical thing....we became stowaways. Yes I am telling the truth. As the train approached our stop, the nice couple from Singapore and Steven made the executive decision we would stay on the train and hope for the best. Me, I was ready to get off the train and find a driver. I just saw this going very bad. So we sat there for the remainder of the ride waiting and looking for the attendant to make his/her way to check the tickets (as they did at every stop). Every time the door opened, I was looking for the red uniform and the words "ticket please." I can report, with much luck the train attendant never made it to our train car and yes....we can now say we have jumped a train (well in theory) without having a ticket.
The arrival in Venice was amazing to say the least. To walk out of the train station and be right on the water then to find a water bus to take us to the hotel we as so much fun. However, I must admit it is nice that the Hilton has it's own private water bus for its guest. This makes things a lot easier for us to get to different areas of Venice. After arriving at the hotel, we spent a couple of hours relaxing and then made out way to the Piazza San Marco. We did nothing more than walk around and enjoy the city. Looking at the shops, buildings and just enjoying the sites.

Tuscany, Wine, and Pisa....In that Order

Let me start out by saying Steven and I have five days left in Italy. Both of us are reaching the sad state of mind about having to leave the country. We had the same reaction before leaving Greece. We made our way into Tuscany today. Visiting Siena and San Gimignano before making our way to Pisa and back to Florence. Each city was amazing in its own way. As we entered Siena, we were told about a long tradition in which there is a horse race in the main square in August and July. This is a BIG event. Each district in the city has its own flag and symbol and the people of Siena associate themselves with their district throughout their lives. As a point of interest, of which I did not know, Italy has only been unified for 150 years. Before the unification, the country was a series of "city states." This in theory would make the USA older than the country of Italy. Due to the geopolitical makeup Italians associate themselves with their city more so than Italy. In Siena the people have a deeper rooted association to their district. As we entered the city the "Dragon District" was walking around Siena in preparation for the horse race in July. Each Sunday until July and August a district will take each Sunday for walking around the city with their flags and drums getting the locals ready for the horse race. Another fact...Siena has the most beautiful square in all of Tuscany if not Italy. After Siena we made our way to a winery (organic winery at that). Here is where the fun began. We had a WONDERFUL lunch - pasta, bread, salad, cheese, etc. And the bottles of wine just kept coming. We met people from Hawaii that we had a blast with. By the end of lunch I was unable to tie my shoe or touch my nose, whichever you need to do for a sobriety test. I failed. We had white wines, red wines, and a dessert wine. I swear Steven kept filling my glasses, but he insists he only gave me one glass of each wine. However, it appears I kept pouring myself more wine. Upon getting to San Gimignano, I was feeling good. hahahahaha. As many of you know I get very friendly when I am drinking....so we made new friends. One couple we met came to Europe for the first time on this trip. They came over with no hotel rooms booked and no idea what they were going to do when they got here. It was amazing to hear how they worked their way through Europe. Back to San Gimignano, also known as the Medieval Manhattan. This city was our favorite stop. Everyone should visit here. We made our way from San Gimignano to Pisa. Here comes the story of the day. So we decided we would climb to the top of the leaning tower. First let me say, it was unreal to drive up and see the leaning tower. Once again I remember being in 9th grade and hearing my teachers talk about being at the tower. I was so excited to finally make a trip to Pisa. So we ascend up the tower steps....it was very odd because you could feel the slant of the tower. However, the oddest part...as we got to the first stop a security guard made us stop instead of going on up. We were told we need to rest (at least that is what I understood). After about 10 minutes they let us head up the remaining steps. As we started up, I noticed the steps were wet and called out to Steven and our new friends to be careful that there is pigeon pee all over the steps. They all laughed, but agreed the birds had urinated on the steps. OHHHHHH no....come to find out, someone had an accident on the top of the tower. The top was covered in blood and they were trying to clean it off. After walking to the top, Steven and others saw the steps covered in blood. The guard stated to Steven it was a blood bath as there had been two accidents, and then compared it to a horror film. All I know, when I got to the top of the tower.....I froze. It was so odd to feel the slant of the tower and see the height. I held on for dear life as I made my way around the rail. On the way out of Pisa, Steven was so excited. He proclaimed to me..."look honey, there is another leaning tower. Remember the guide said there is more than just the main one." I looked and did not exactly know how to handle the situation. Our new friends, were sitting in front of us. I looked at Steven and stated "ummm honey that IS the leaning tower of Pisa." He busted out laughing and tried to hide his head. Everyone thought it was so funny. Steven simply stated "pretty is a great characteristic to have sometimes." Tomorrow....we are on the train to Venice.

Santa Croce & Uffizi - A Day of Art

We had a great day starting out at the Baregello Museum where we saw several Michelangelo sculptures then made out way to the Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross)which is the burial place of Michelangelo, Galileo, and Rossini (see picture of Michelangelo's tomb). The three sculptures on the tomb represent painting, sculpture, and architecture. All the sculptures were weeping at the loss of Michelangelo. I know it sounds odd, but you really could feel the pain in their eyes.
A beautiful church, but more importantly to walk around and see some of the greatest artist and thinkers of Italy buried in one place was mind blowing. It reminded me of Westminster Abbey, just a lot less "famous people" entombed. As we walked around the church, Steven stated he saw the "Statue of Liberty." Well sure enough, the statue Steven pointed to was the statue that was used as a reference point for the Statue of Liberty. The literature referred to the Statue of Liberty as "the sister" statue.

After spending about 2 hours in Santa Croce, we made our way to lunch...guess what we had...wait, wait, almost there....you may get it...PIZZA. I mean we have eaten our way through Rome. Steven and I have weighed. He has gained 6 pounds and two ton Tilda (me) has now gained 10lbs. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Stop the madness. There is one true statement "it really is okay to push the plate away."

After Pizza, we made our way to the Uffizi. We were a little early, so we sat and watched all the tourist and Italian's in the piazza. We actually saw the first piazza in Italy. It is at the center of the Baregello Museum. We listed to our podcast by Rick Steve's that took us around the Uffizi and pointed out all the major paintings and other forms of art (for example the Birth of Venus and works by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael). How do you keep saying "amazing, beautiful, etc?" I will say multiple people approached us about our iPads and the podcast we were using. It really is a great way to travel. The audio tours were free and covered the great works in the museum.

We finished out or day with....gelato (now doesn't that just make you want to hurl? I went from two ton Tilda to three tone Tilda). It is all fun and games until someone has a blocked artery.

Tomorrow we are on our way for a day in Tuscany and Pisa. We are excited, but are very apprehensive as we continue to hear about getting your pockets picked near Pisa. The guard is up.

Ciao.

A night in Florence...Cast of Jersey Shores

We had a really relaxing day. We stayed at the hotel, after much debate, until around 6p. Then we made our way out and walked around Florence to take in some of the night life. It was beautiful to walk around the city and hear the music and see the sites.

As we walked down one street a camera crew rounded a corner and here here came some of the cast members of Jersey Shores. It was funny to see. However, we just took in a glance and headed to dinner. We had pizza, wine, and ended the night with gelato.

Although this is a short post, it was a perfect evening. Tomorrow we will go to the Uffizi Gallery and the Church of Santa Croce to see the graves of Michelangelo and Galileo.

Three blisters, Two cuts, One bum toe, One raw heel and One lost voice

As the title might suggest that is the sum total of the battle wounds from this trip to date. We have been walking so much and today, with the hike at Cinque Terre....you can imagine the scars of our travels continue. In all actuality, the trip today was beautiful. It was nice to find out that the total time included travel time from Florence to Cinque Terre...so we only hiked and walked for 8 of the 12 hours. Somehow, I think due to the smog in Rome, I have lost my voice....Steven must be loving the fact I can't talk as much (hahahaha). The blisters are shared among both of us and Steven has the bum toe.

We met some great people on the bus, had lunch with a couple from India, and hiked the foot paths from one village to the next. We tasted some of the best gelato we have had thus far in Italy. After hours of hiking and roaming the villages, Steven and I broke from the group for about an hour and walked up (yes I mean up to the top of a cliff) to the Monastery of the Capuchin Friars while the group went for wine. We sat in the monastery and listened to the monks chant. We could have sat there for hours and just listened. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. We made our way from the monastery down to the Mediterranean Sea, took our shoes of (well I did) and just sat on a dock with feet hanging in the water. The water was so clear. See the picture with this post.

After meeting back with the group, we boarded a boat and went along the coast off all the small villages. Since we saw the villages on land, it was so nice to get a different view from the boat. However, while on the boat there were some very loud Germans really being disruptive. It did not take Steven long before he broke out in German and telling them to shut up. Hehehehe. I was impressed with his command of the German language. I mean I was minding my own business and taking pictures and the next thing I know I hear Steven spouting German. He is such a smart man. I will say it again....I am lucky guy!

It is now just past midnight, Steven is showering and we are heading to bed. Tomorrow we are heading out in Florence to see some more sites. Let me say one more time....we are loving this trip. Italy is much like Greece, you hate the thoughts of leaving and know you want to come back.

On a final note, we did find out the Italian government is offering two hectors of land in Cinque Terre for free. They will provide the land to you for up to 20 years with the understanding you agree to work the land and grow the current crop. usually olives, grapes, or lemons. However a house is not provided....you have to buy a house.