Exploring Europe

[/b]Ok, so again, it´s been a while since the last update. For that I apologize, but to my credit, I did spend 25 hours on the train on Wednesday through Saturday, so it wasn´t like I had much free time. I think I left off after Venice... So I´ll pick up with our subsequent destination: Florence, better known in Europe as "Firenze."

• After checking into the hostel, we saw Michelangelo´s "David" at La Accademmia
  
• We took a stroll down the riverbank toward Ponte Vecchio with all the gold and silver jewelry shops on the bridge over the river. Obviously couldn´t afford anything but the view.
  

• Musei dell´ Uffizi
  
• Palazzo Vecchio and Musei Fiorentino
  
• Santa Croce Cathedral
  
• Duomo: we didn´t have to wait more than an hour to get in, which was nice -- and the interior was absolutely amazing (again, pictures will help describe)
  
• We took another CitySightseeing bus tour, which took us about 25 minutes outside the city up to Fiesole -- an expensive sort of resort town in the hills with a fabulous view of Florence and even better food! We had dinner at the Etrusca Bar -- probably the best meal so far.
  

• Piazza Michelangelo: on Sunday morning, Jenny dragged me across town, across the river, and uphill for 20 minutes to reach the plaza -- the view made the work worthwhile, we had an awesome panoramic of Florence and the Duomo stuck out like a sore thumb atop all the other rather level rooftops
  
• After we wrapped up in Florence, we hopped on a train to Pisa. I do have to say, that had they not built the tower so crooked, then there would be nobody visiting that town, ever. It was rather humorous to see the failed engineering and the attempt to build a large structure atop marshland -- hopefully they´ve learned their lesson in that town
  
• We then went back to the station and spent an inordinate amount of time to get to Rome -- something like 6 hours -- ridiculous
  

• First up on the agenda was the Vatican Museum and Sisteen Chapel -- despite battling a line 5 city blocks long, and too many tour groups to count, we made it in to see the fabulous frescoes on the ceiling -- it was worth the hassle
  
• We then made the short walk over from outside the wall of the city into the Piazza and Basilica de San Pietro, where, of course, it started to downpour as we waited to get in. We did get to see the enormous basilica, and even went down to the crypt (morbid, I know) to see the late Pope John Paul´s tomb -- it was busy down there
  

• Last day in Rome we spent checking out the ancient ruins and stuff. We started with a guided tour of the Colosseum (inside) which was pretty neat -- glad we got some of the historical background and information. Made things more meaningful I think. We then headed over to the actual Palentine Hill and walked around the ruins and took some pictures, making sure to dodge the huge groups of Chinese school kids everywhere.
  
• After another short bout of rain, we hiked over to the historic Circo Massimo to see where they used to have the epic chariot races -- the site was totally overrated -- I think that my backyard at home was more interesting, and at least the grass there is greener.
  
• We ended up doing another Pub Crawl (don´t tell Grandma), this time with a much bigger group of people, and I met a couple fellow Minnesotans: Austin from Hopkins and Robin from Red Wing -- fun times with them.

The next day, Jenny left me and I had to strike out on my own to get to Madrid and spent about 25 hours on trains the rest of the week to get to Madrid.[/u][/u]

So we did make it to Venice, thankfully. Though our train arrived promptly in the afternoon, we did have to wait for the Actv Ticket Booth (public transportation via boat-bus) to reopen to get our tickets and be on our way. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous -- sunny and at least 80 degrees. It was a welcome chnage from our last couple of countries.
We made it to the "hotel" without problem -- though we had to dodge plenty of tourists near between Rialto and San Marcos Piazza -- but the digs weren't too bad. We had a nice balcony one floor up with a nice view of a (usually) quiet canal.
Thursday August 18
First up on the agenda was the Palazzo Ducale (or Doge's Palace) in San Marcos Piazza. It comprised the Doge's family apartments in earlier centuries, as well as gathering rooms for the senate and wealthy community leaders. We also walked across the "Bridge of Sighs," crossing a canal from the Palace to the Prison -- where the incarcerated would get their "last view of freedom." It was a bit eerie, but pretty cool.
After that we went next door to stand in line for Catedral San Marcos. The wait was only about an hour or so, but in the blazing hot sun out on the square it seemed like forever. Once inside the cathedral, with sparkly gold mosaics decorating the inside, we walked up to the top to get a better view of the mosaics outside and the piazza below. It was really pretty inside, and there must have been millions of tiny little tiles comprising all the mosaics both inside and out.
After a lunch break, we took a private boat out to Isola Murano, which was sponsored by a private glass blowing factory. Once we got to Murano, we got to see a demonstration (which was neat), and toured the family's shop. The work was gorgeous, but was totally out of our price range.
Later that evening we took a "romantic gondola ride" (ok not so romantic because it was just Jenny and me with 3 other passengers, plus 5 other full gondolas) through the Grand Canal and some smaller canals -- serenaded in Italian with a real live accordion player too! It was a bit toursity, but fun (except for when I spotted a rat, but I won't go into that).
We had a nice dinner after that and called it an "early night" to catch another train to Florence the next morning.