6/26 - Florence to Rome

I forgot it was my birthday today and we almost missed the hotel shuttle to the train station.

It's funny how a day that started out kinda iffy can turn into one that goes down in memory lane as one of the most perfect days.

The hotel shuttle was leaving at 8:30am. Girard was still checking out so I ran to the shuttle to "hold it" and it almost took off with just me.

6/25 - Florence Day 3

It sounded like a good plan at the time...

The plan, the infamous plan.  How many empires have fallen because "it sounded like a good plan at the time?"

6/24 - Florence Day 2

Pisa!!!  Yes it's touristy, but how can I not see the leaning tower and take the requisite "holding up the tower" photo?!!!  

The alarm went off at 6am, ugh.  We wanted to catch an early train to Pisa so that we still had time to get in a few museums before they closed. We caught the 8:30 hotel shuttle to the train station. The Eurail pass was definitely coming in handy as there are no tickets to buy, no reservations to make (except for long ones like Venice to Florence or Florence to Rome), you just jump on the train and go.  We found the next train to Pisa which happened to be in 20 min and hopped on.

6/23 - Florence Day 1

Museum day.

The goal was to hit as many museums as possible, we ended up with three. Hey, it's still good to have goals!

Breakfast kicked off at 7:30 and we took a cab that dropped us off right at Ponte Vecchio. Ahhhh the streets of Florence were so familiar and I couldn't help the grin that lit my face.  I gave Girard a mini tour of the bridge and I revisited the jewelry store where I had purchased my rings in February.

6/22 - Venice to Florence

The last breakfast.

I find myself filled with an excitement and eagerness to explore Florence again as I finish packing this morning. I contemplate the coming day while sipping on my coffee, taking in my last view of the canal the cool breeze a welcome change from the humidity of the previous days. A huge cruise ship taller than the hotel carefully navigates the narrow water ways with the aid of two tug boats. The passing of the ship seemed to signal it was time to go.  I take some pics of my room to remember the luxury that was mine for such a short time.

Yes, I even had my very own bidet.

Everet had used his points for the stay so the bill should have been pretty lean. I notice internet charges on the bill so made sure they took them off since they were supposed to be included. As he was about to settle the bill, Girard turned around and said “$103 Euro for breakfast...each day!” What?!!! Are you kidding me?!!! You mean to tell me it was almost $70 per person for BREAKFAST?!!! I remembered during check-in that they had given us the option of benefits and we selected breakfast so there should be no charge much less that amount. The receptionist double checked the account and to our relief, confirmed that it was indeed supposed to be included and took $315 Euro off the bill. Oh...my...god. I had no idea it was so expensive.  What if I had elected for a bottle of wine or something?!!! Wow...just wow. I'm still in shock. For that amount of money, I expect breakfast to give me directions and provide concierge service, maybe even give a hot stone massage while I'm eating.

We head out to the water boat loading area for the ride to the train station only to find that not all the boats were running. That's right! There was a public transportation strike going on today! We were told that yesterday while reserving the train to Florence but didn't realize it affected all the water boats too. Hmmm...how are we supposed to catch our train? The boat workers mentioned we could catch another boat over at the Rialto stop but that would mean dragging our luggage about a mile all the while fighting tourists and canal bridges. I suggested we take a water taxi which ran about $60 Euro. Even the water taxis were scarce as many people leaving were opting for the same. We lucked out and were able to flag down a water taxi in about 5 min. It was around 10am and our train was scheduled to depart at 11:32. I was silently patting myself on the back for suggesting we give ourselves a good two hours to get to the train station in anticipation of delays from the strike.

The water taxi was fun and wound through the canals that we had not been through since the public water boats were too big to get through. 

 We zip to St. Lucia in no time and I had plenty of time to top and sip on a cafe latte in the train station cafe. It's amazing, even crappy train and bus station cafe's have mouth watering coffee.  We jump on the Eurostar and settle in for the ride.  It was a clean comfy train, so very different than the one we road in on. We had a/c yay!!! It'd been ridiculously hot and humid until today. I dozed for most of the ride and in a few short hours, I heard “Firenze!”

Our cell phones lost reception at the train station in Florence so after many unsuccessful tries and finally cajoling a restaurant worker to help us, we used the public telephone to call the hotel. It was around 3pm and the hotel shuttle wouldn't be here until 5:30pm so we decided to grab a cab. The cab wound through the VERY narrow streets of downtown Florence and I excitedly pointed out the sites I recognized from my last trip. There's Ponte Veccio! There's the Duomo with 400+ steps I climbed with the girls! Ooooh, I remember driving on this street! Everything was so familiar, it felt like I was coming home.

We get to the Sheraton in about 20 minutes and walk in...to a blast of heat. It seemed the a/c at he hotel went on the fritz recently so only one out of the four a/c units were working. The rooms were a little better as there was some cool air but the lobby was stifling. We were down there getting some food since all the restaurants in the area are closed between 3-7pm and it was now around 4'ish. We chat with the bartender, planning out the next few days. The Sheraton was about 10 miles from city center.  The thought of taking a shuttle or taxi into downtown Florence after a long day was unappealing so decided to chill until dinner.

The hotel receptionist recommended a restaurant by the name of Osterio Di'Giogo, a quick ½ mile walk from the hotel. It seems “Osterio” referred to a family style restaurant and are known for their authenticate dishes. We headed down and sat in the outdoor covered patio surrounded by cute decor and .

The restaurant staff spoke little to no English which was a good sign. I had a cheese ravioli while Girard had his staple Spaghetti Bolognese. As I tasted cafe latte's across Italy, he tasted spaghetti bolognese.  The food was amazing and they were very understanding of my mosquito issues and lit some anti mosquito candles as well as brought some bug spray for me to use.  Even so, I had 4 'squito bites by the time dinner was over.

Full bellied and happy as clams, we shuffled back to the hotel which was still sans air conditioning. The rooms had some a/c but were still pretty warm. Hopefully they'll get this fixed tomorrow.  I took some pics of the room though it'd be tough to beat what we had in Venice.

6/21 - Venice Day 3

Today is my last day in Venice as tomorrow morning, we will be on a train to Florence. The three short days I've spent here have been incredible. I viewed Venice from the top of a bell tower, strolled through beautiful old alleyways full of history, met incredibly friendly Venetians who confirmed just how short Sylvester Stallone was, tasted the most amazing cuisines and saw art that I'd only read about in my art history classes. It's difficult to express the depth of impression this beautiful city has left on me.

6/20 - Venice Day 2

I will name today backtrack day.

Since my idea of sliding a piece of paper under the adjoining door didn't work, I asked Girard to call me when he woke up, but not before 7am.  I get a knock on the door at 7am ready to leave.  O.O  I shake off the weird dream that I couldn't remember and jump in the shower, ready to head out in about 30 minutes.

6/19 - Venice Day 1

13 hours of sleep later, I felt MUCH better. It's almost 8am.  Next stop, breakfast and coffee. The restaurant was on top of the hotel and had a breathtaking view of the grand canal.

6/18 - Milan to Venice

Three and a half movies, two fabulous meals and about 8 hours later, we arrived in Milan. Milan! I'm in Milan!! I take some photos by the :Welcome to Milan" sign as any decent tourist would do and I got to embarrass my travel partner in the process. Bonus!  I even got an eyeroll, heh!

6/17 - DFW - Milan via JFK

One of the few times I'll never complain about waking up early.

As I predicted, my excitement kept me up until around 3am.  The alarm buzzes at 6am, some quick last minute packing later, I shuttled off the airport.  Hmm...seems like Sunday morning is a very popular time to travel.

I got to experience my new Bose noise canceling headsets while chilling in first class.  That thing is pretty amazing.  It's ironic how quickly we get attached to gadgets that now "can't live without" that we never thought we wanted.

6/16 - Italy [Take 2]

Yes it's decadent, some would even say it's a bit insane...but I'm not feeling the least bit guilty about heading to Italy twice in one year, not even a teensy weensy bit.

I'm packing (ok not really since I'm blogging) for the flight tomorrow and I'm ridiculously giddy.  Two weeks of mouth watering Italian cuisine (anyone who knows me even a little knows it's all about the food) in one of the most beautiful countries I've ever visited second only to New Zealand.  When I first traveled to Italy earlier this year, I was stunned by the beauty of the food, the people and the countryside.  This time, it's the anticipation of knowing what I am about to experience again and being able to finally see the Vatican and the Coliseum (that I missed the first go around to due to the freak snow storm in early February that shut down the entire city of Rome) that has me so antsy.