Italia !

-by Cristiano

We're back ! Where to begin? Italy was spectacular!
(feel free to click on the pics to see them in their original size)

Veni, Vidi Vici !

We came we saw we conquered !

We spent 7 days in Rome, 3 in Venice and 3 Florence..plus half days traveling in between

(St Peters Basilica, The Vatican, Rome)
We saw so many places, there are sure to be many blog posts to come...

Italy is as charming as you would expect, much different than many places we have been, yet somehow familiar.

(Campo de Furi morning market, Rome)
We spent every morning after breakfast seeing the sights, trying to see as much as possible before lunch. Lunch was always an event in itself..what can I say about the food in Italy...amazing !

K&C at the Trevi fountain, Rome

I think I have mastered my sister Alli's skill of taking our picture myself, as you will see.

One night we ate dinner at Piazza de Rotunda, overlooking the Pantheon. Dinner was always a 2-3 hour event with multiple courses of food and lots of wine. Oh so good.

Here we are at the Colosseum. This particular day we toured the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill...talk about history !

One of the more lively Piazzas, Piazza Navona. We stumbled across some sort of festival that happened to be going on. A very popular place in the evening for strolling and people watching.

At every major site you have the choice of renting an audio guide. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't. Here, at the Baths of Caracalla, it wasn't necessary, so we shared one.

The largest baths in Rome. It could hold up to 1600 people at a time in its baths, saunas, massage rooms etc...gigantic. See Kelly on the bench?

We traveled by High Speed train everywhere we went as opposed to the banged up regional trains....it cost a little more but it was well worth it.


old and busted
new hotness

We were supposed to go to Naples after Rome, but we got there during the current garbage strike...so we turned around and got right back on the train to Rome.

Napoli:
We Came. We saw. We left.


After Rome, we went to Venice...ahhh Venice

I think Venice was our favorite part of the trip, it is a really great place to visit. It is Europe's largest car free zone. 117 islands connected by 400+ bridges. You can wander around it's streets and alleys all day. That's exactly what we did...fantastic. It was nice and quite at night. Venice is a very safe and clean city.

(Rialto Bridge, Venice)
The weather was great for most of the trip. temperatures were in the 40-50 degree F range and some days it rained but it was no problem.

We did not take a gondola ride. The weather wasn't really ideal for that, but we did take the vaporetto (water bus) along the Grand Canal.

After Venice, Florence ! Us at the Ponte Vecchio

Florence was great too...more museums & churches. I think we saw 1000 or so churches on our trip. We toured the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the worlds largest and most complete collection of Florentine & Renaissance art.

More posts to come, stay tuned!

Florence !

Hello ! We took the ol high speed train to Florence yesterday, got here around 1pm.

We paid the extra money to ride in first class on the train, worth every penny ($40) Instead of a 2 1/2 hour ride potential plagued with crying children or smelly neighbors, we sat in power reclining seats next to a window with waiter service. We should have done it on the 5hr trip from Rome to Venice...oh well.

Anyway, now we are in Beckys old stomping ground ( i would put a link here to Beckys blog, but she stopped doing it because apparently shes too busy ) Some of you will remember Becky did a semester abroad last year here in Florence.

Upon arrival yesterday, Kelly & I checked into our hotel which is kinda swanky. I found it online, they market themselves as a internet hotel. There are computers in every room and the lobby and the whole place is wired for internet including wi-fi. Its very modern, just recently remodeled and you have to love a place that uses album cover artwork all around the common areas. They also have an mp3 totem so you can listen to music and hang out in the lounge. Our room is like an apartment, complete with kitchen (which we wont be here long enough to use). Breakfast is included and they have a bar in the lobby...all for $70 a night for a double room.
www.dellenazioni.it

After checking in to our hotel, we struck out for the center of town. We checked out the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and even climbed the 414 stairs of the Campanile (bell tower) and stayed up there for sunset...very nice.

Today we are going to explore some more, then tomorrow we have tickets to the Uffizi Gallery.

Wednesday we are heading back to Dublin and then we will start posting pictures etc.

Chris

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We're not coming back..sorry

We've decided to stay in Venice...it's just too cool...sorry

Venice is built on 117 islands, with 150+ canals and 409 foot bridges connecting them. No cars, no roads...

Just small streets, alleys, nooks and mysterious passageways.

Kelly and I wandered around for 7 hours today exploring, you can't really get lost like you need to be rescued, sooner or later you hit a major canal or the lagoon..its crazy. We havent taken a gondola ride as they are very expensive and its cold & foggy. We did take a vaporetto (water bus) ride from one end of the grand canal to the other though, very cool.

We crossed 51 bridges in our journeys today....isn't that crazy? They are everywhere !

It is a very charming city...only 60,000 people live here and its low season for tourists so its very quiet, no cars...very very nice.

Sorry no pics to post yet, i am ding these updates by email on a slow computer in the hotel lobby.

We leave for Florence on the morning of the 14th. We'll be back in Dublin on the 16th...

Kelly and I have gained 40+ pounds each and need to drink a bottle of wine every hour or we get cranky. We also speak an english/italian hybrid language now which we intend to use for many months to come.

Ciao !

-Cristiano

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Venice !

Wow !

We are on day 2 in Venice....holy moly is it cool here !

We are in an excellent hotel, great location. Its colder here than in Rome (30s-40s) but still nice.

There are thousands of little alleyways and passages to explore and hundreds of small foot bridges. No cars in Venice, so no roads !

There are boats of course, traghettos (ferrys), vaporettos (water bus) and water taxis....its realy cool.

The food here involves a lot more fish...you can even get Pasta in Octopus or Squid ink....iccccccckkkkk.

Ok more later !

Ciao!

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Woooohoooo Italy !

We got here on January 3rd and are having a great time. We will post pictures and stories when we get back to Dublin on the 16th.

We spent the first 4 days in Rome, then headed off to Naples via the high speed train. The Naples garbage collectors union is on strike as some of you might have seen on the news, so there is garbage all over the place. Waist high piles on every street corner, freakin disgusting. There are also riots in some neighborhoods near the garbage dumps and elsewhere. Our hotel (that i booked online) was impossible to find even though it was only 2 blocks from the train station. Why you ask? Well, because the area around the train station, besides being full of a weeks garbage, is also the worst neighborhood in Naples. It looked like a cross between the bad part of the Bronx, Tijuana and the movie "Escape from New York"...Kelly and I walked around the block one time, and went back to the train station. We boarded the next high speed train to Rome.

Total time in Naples: 45 minutes   Bye Bye Napoli

I'm sure its a very nice place to visit if you come in by air and go to the coast, but we were not going to stay in a slum like that and watch the garbage riots.

So we're back in Rome and having a great time. Today was sunny and about 60 degrees...very very nice.

We've seen all the sites you come to Rome for. Today we did the Vatican Museum including the Sistine Chapel. Tomorrow we're going to rent a vespa and zip around the lawless roads of Roma.

The Pope says hello.

More later,

Ciao !

-Chris
posted by email

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