Venice: July 8-10th

When we got into Venice we hopped on the Vaporetto to get to our hotel. There is not a single car in Venice nor a rail line throughout the city so, public transportation is the vaporetto which is like a mini ferry. We got off at Piazza San Marco, fought our way through the literally, 1000s of tourists and found our hotel.

We then headed off to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore to see the church and go up the bell tower. From the bell tower we had the most scenic view of Venice and all the little waterways that go through the city. It was breath taking. Later we went to a park and enjoyed one of the bottles of wine from Tuscany, had dinner and then I headed back to the hotel to go to sleep while the boys went on a walk. They were trying to go to Rialto bridge but kept getting turned around and ending back up in Piazza San Marco. There are so many streets and so many of them dead end at a waterway with no bridge. Add that to the fact that the street signs are lacking and the map is so small it is near impossible to tell where you are, it can be pretty difficult to get around. They did finally make it to the bridge and back to the hotel though.

Our second day in Florence we headed to San Marco's Basilica, right in San Marco Piazza. You walk in and your eyes go straight to the ceiling; 4,700 square yards of mosaic cover the entire ceiling. We also saw where Saint Mark's bones are buried. St. Mark's Basilica is also famous for these 4 bronze horses that are housed there. They are from 4th century BC and were made from a cast iron mold, which was uncommon at the time. The horses used to be attached to a chariot which symbolized the god Apollo. The horses are originally from Greece, were stolen by the Romans, then moved to Constantinople after the sacking of Rome, then they were in Venice for awhile, Napoleon took them to France and placed them on the Arc de Triumph, later they were taken back to Venice where they've been ever since. The doge, aka duke, would address the people of Venice from in between the horses atop the church.

After the basilica we went to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the only Gothic church in Venice. The two greatest Venetian artists are buried there. We had lunch on the pier by a fruit market and then went back to the hotel for a siesta. After siesta we went to the Palazzo Ducale where the doges used to live. Also in the palace we got to see the prison and the Bridge of Sighs, named so because it was the bridge that prisoners would cross before being executed and through tiny window slots they would see their last glimpse of Venice before death.

We had dinner at Trattoria NonoRisoto. We waited about an hour for the bill and when it finally came I went to use the bathroom. When I came back, Ben and Andrew were rushing me to leave and when we got out into the plaza I was trying to throw an airplane that Ben had made me with the place-mat. Ben and Andrew kept rushing me and I told them to leave me alone because I wanted to throw my plane. Ben finally came over and whispered in my ear that we needed to get going because they had short changed the restaurant by 8 cents. So I took my plane up and we jetted off to Piazza San Marco where we got some gelato and sat on a bench by the water and listened to the string quartets and jazz bands playing throughout the plaza.

Another interesting fact about Piazza San Marco, it has the world's first digital clock. It changes every 5 minutes.

On our last day in Venice, we slept in a bit, got lunch at the market and headed off to Milan.

The Tuscan Hills: July 7th

Today we drove into Tuscany. We had a bit of a rough start getting the car. We had reserved one with a company whose office was closed on Sunday. We tried to call the number but couldn't get a hold of them. We ended up going to another company across the street, got a car and we were off!

It is a beautiful drive through Tuscany! We saw so many vineyards stretching out for miles and miles over rolling hills. Our destination was Montepulciano, a little hill town south of Florence. Once we got there, we parked the car and began the walk up the steep hill to get to the main part of town. We explored the little town while we waited for the Contucci Cantina wine cellar to open up. We were able to tour the wine cellar and see the HUGE wine barrels with aging wine. It was pretty neat. After walking through the wine cellar we headed into the tasting room. The man didn't speak much English but he was super friendly and excited about us tasting his wine. After getting a couple of bottles we headed out.

As we were driving around, our goal was to try to find a vineyard and maybe get a tour. We turned into what we thought was a vineyard but ended up being a resort, Locanda dell Amorosa. It was absolutely beautiful! It used to be a little village a long time ago that was abandoned but then restored to a resort. The restaurant used to be the stable. After having a glass of delicious white wine we headed out to Siena.

When we got to Siena, we headed to their main plaza which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful plazas in Europe. However, it was hard to tell when we got there. It was jam packed, wall to wall with thousands of people. We had arrived at the end of the Palio festival. We found out that Siena has 17 neighborhoods and every year, at random drawing, 10 of the 17 participate in a horse race. They turn the plaza into a race track and it is a really big deal! There is celebrating two weeks before the race even starts and more celebrating after. I read that the horses are taken into the local neighborhood church for the priest to bless.

We were able to see the ceremony where they hang the flags of the winners. It was pretty exciting. After watching this for awhile we headed to the local duomo. The outside was beautiful! It had already closed for the day so we wandered around the outside and then headed back to Florence.

We had dinner at a little hole in the wall restaurant that had some yummy pasta and then we headed back to the hotel for a badly needed good night sleep.