Ciao Firenze - going to Roma

I loved the Ponte Vecchio shops' 'closing up' - whom ever does woodwork in this city does a great business. Between this kind of stuff and the *HUGE* doors to every building...

Had a great time in this ancient city of Florence. So much we didn't get to, so much we did see and still want to see that we will definitely be back.

Luckily the weather was simply perfect - we hope to get this lucky in Roma, perhaps with not as much heat as I think we will find. This shot of the Ponte Vecchio was from the Uffizi gallery - we enjoyed it *somewhat*, a tad bit too much 'Madonna and Child' for my taste but several Michelangelo's worth seeing.

We highly recommend going to the Cappelle Medicee - first, for the several Michelangelo sculptures and second - to see a burial site you will *never* see the likes of anywhere else.

Simply beautiful.

As it was our last night here - and is my tradition to attempt - we went up to Piazzale Michelangelo after sunset to capture a few night-time city shots.

PS - Maddie also highly recommends the 'blood orange gelato' but it is very hard to find...

More Italy

This first photo is the restaurant Vinanzio on top of the 'road' - a wild ride up!

Fantastic day out with some new friends and a guide, Marco. We drove up into the mountains of Carrara and then even further after seeing the marble being extracted - went to Colonnata and had the *best* lunch @ Ristorante Vinanzio (a 2010 Mobil Guide choice, which if you saw just how far you have to go to 'find' this place, is a amazing feat unto itself!)

We past a road side of a quarry and 'souvenir' shop where they had all kinds of marble items for sale. The quarry

was actually working while we watched. Could not see down

into the 'hole' but could hear all the hammering and such and then the crane moved some slabs up.

After the ride to the top we ate wonderful home made pasta, drank some chianti (1990 Ruffino Reserva) and *then* we had a limon sorbet for desert. This was the lightest, fluffiest sorbet you can imagine. As Maddie said on her first bite: 'its like a melody in your mouth'!

Beautiful countryside, lovely company of Sandy and Kay and a great guide in Marco made this a lifetime memorable day here in Italy.

Che bella giornata! Thank you Sandy and Kay, glad we bumped into you at lunch yesterday.

London, Paris and now Venice - done

London (was work related) so skipping that - Paris was a weekend and we hit our normal spots (Cafe Deux Magots) and then some power shopping (shoes for Maddie - Louboutin, where else) - then Maddie started getting 'sick'. Some sort of dizzy-vertigo nausea inducing 'thing' that lasted all Sunday - air sickness (!) - on easyjet no less.

(Note Bene: Easyjet is the southwest airline of EU - even worse than Ryan air. I highly recommend paying for 'speedy boarding' as this alone will be worth every euro they charge. Otherwise you are getting on the plane with the entire 160++ folks - literally at the same time!)

I went into Venice (Venezia) alone Sunday evening - ate some pizza (about as good as Pizza my Heart) and learned the ins/outs. I highly recommend staying in Mestre - in fact, I *HIGHLY* recommend the Hotel Plaza, directly across from the train station in Mestre. Again, pay for the 'upgrade' to the executive room - 30euro more per night but a very nice room, highly worth the upgrade. I did compare it to the normal room and they simply don't compare. Our room was very recently upgraded - while the normal room was likely 15++ years old. Our room had a lovely sized bathroom, with lovely marble and limestone and great working everything. Even the door locks were extremely modern with proximity sensor to 'unlock' the door.

(taken *from* the train station - its close but clean/quiet inside!)

Ok, so 1euro and maybe 15 minutes train ride into Venice and you are *right there*. Get to an information center - buy the 2,50euro map which has all the 'street' names. Its a must. Using Fodor's "See it Italy" guide book, we followed its recommendation for 'shopping' @ Bevilacqua - (Fondamenta della Canonica, San Marco 337B) an ancient store that makes Venezia tapestries and fabric for the past few centuries ~1700. We ordered a custom table runner - can't wait to see how it turns out. Absolutely terribly hard to choose a fabric. All made on the same looms since 1700, many patters are obviously exclusive to them.

We also visited La Fenice Atelier (Calle dei Frati, San Marco 3537) - purchased some amazing table linens - literally tailored linens (100% Italian linen) for our future table. Let's see - first a custom runner, now some placemats and napkins - oh yeah, we need the table now for sure!

Also ate an incredible pizza prosciutto and lasagna and then later an amazing gelato - chocolate from another universe and coconut - both tasted like pure flavor, creamier than your tongue knows how to 'taste'. Look for a gelatario marked 'artigianale' - they make it there and is not some commercially made stuff.

So far - Italy is amazing - and that is from our view of the amusement park meets carnival town of Venice - can't wait for Parma tomorrow - fresh cheeses and parma ham - gonna be incredible!