Italy: Venice

Welcome to Venice, the city that is basically on water. Technically it is a city of over 110 islands divided by canals and connected by tiny bridges.

Gondola Ride
Going on a gondola ride was a MUST on our to-do list for Venice. There are companies you can go through for the gondola ride and then there are individuals who run their own gondola; we chose an individual. We had a great experience and it was fun to see all the buildings from a different angle.

Rialto Bridge
The Rialto Bridge is one of the main bridges that stretches over the main canal; it is the oldest of all these bridges. The bridge houses lots of tiny shops.

Water Buses and Taxis
We mostly walked in Venice but we did have to take a few water buses and water taxis for long distances. We took a water bus from the train station to St. Mark's Square where our hotel was and we also took buses to Murano Island and back. We had to take a water taxi to the Venice airport unless we wanted to take a 2 hour bus ride; ha, no thanks. I am not one to get sea sick, I love boating and never get sick... I went through a hurricane on a cruise and didn't get sick, but oh my goodness I got so sick on all of our buses and the taxi I would just fall asleep to avoid the sickness. I never wanted to go on another ride in Venice again after the first day there; someone can just helicopter me in next time.

Here we are at one of the bus stops waiting for the boat

Piazza San Marco... umm it floods
Piazza San Marco, or more commonly known in the English language St. Mark's Square, is the principal public square in Venice. Our hotel was just one tiny bridge away from the square and so it made it very easy to find our hotel. Now Venice is slowly sinking and every night during high tide St. Mark's Square floods.

We knew the square flooded and we would even see shop owners sweep water out of their stores in the morning but we didn't realize how high it flooded until it was time for us to leave Venice. We had a 6am flight which meant we needed to leave at 4am to catch a water taxi to the airport. The day before we needed to leave we booked a taxi with our hotel front desk for 4am and it was easy as could be and they did not even question the time. When 4am came we went down to the front desk to check out and the front desk manger looked at us like we were crazy. He asked if we had boots and we said no and then he just grumbled, "Well you're going to get wet, good luck." He was not kind or helpful and acted like we were idiots (well if your hotel had taken a moment to think about what time we were booking the taxi for, maybe they would have suggested we left earlier). We thought maybe he was being a little over dramatic because he was just in a bad mood until we walked up the little bridge, that led to St. Mark's Square and our only way to get to our water taxi, and then started down the steps only to see it was flooded in 2 feet of water. WHAT?! Long story a little shorter, we rolled up our pants the best we could, picked up our bags and luggage and waded across the square. The whole situation was hilarious to me and I could not stop laughing. At the airport I threw away my shoes (we just waded through murky pigeon poop waters) and changed my pants. We then all washed our feet in the sink in the bathroom and wiped them down with baby wipes.

Vizio Virtu
Paige had read about a "must visit" chocolate shop, Vizio Virtu, in Venice and so we decided to go and find it. The shop was filled with over 50 different kinds of chocolates to choose from, each kind with its own artistic design, and then hot chocolate. We all got some chocolates and some hot chocolate to go and we ate it as we walked through Venice.

The hot chocolate looked like a melted chocolate bar it was so think but of course an amazingly delicious chocolate bar and then topped with high end whipped cream and then more chocolate pieces sprinkled on top. This hot chocolate was so great but also so rich, I could only drink half of this tiny little cup.

Murano Island

Murano Island is an island near Venice (it's about a 40 minute water bus ride away from St. Mark's Square) and it is known mainly for glass making. We visited the island to go to the glass museum but it closed before we got there. I still enjoyed walking around there because the buildings were colorful and beautiful and the canals were wider than the ones in Venice and so it did not feel as claustrophobic.

This and That

By the end of the trip we had eaten so much pasta and had very little in the protein area; we were craving meat... BAD. We found a Hard Rock Cafe in Venice and everyone got nice big burgers and I tackled these ribs.

Venetian masque ball masks shops were everywhere and so fun to look at

Our last gelato run before it was time to head home.

Goodbye Venice AND ITALY

We made it home pic
After many hours of traveling - flying from Venice to Paris to Chicago, watching a long list of movies, going through customs and trying to get the guards to crack a smile (it did not work), satisfying food cravings in Chicago with sushi and soft pretzels and then flying to Salt Lake on the world's coldest flight - we made it home. Here is our final selfie of the trip.

Ciao!

Florence
Amalfi
Rome

Italy: Florence

Florence was our most favorite city out of all the cities we visited and stayed in. It wasn't as busy and dirty as Rome, it felt like Italy, it was beautiful, everything was in walking distance from our hotel, and we did some fun activities while we visited the city.

Boboli Gardens
The Boboli Gardens are found at the Pitti Palace in Florence. There are two entrance tickets when you arrive at the Pitti Palace; one for the Palace and the other for the garden. We only bought the ticket for the gardens but if we would have had more time I would have liked to have gone back to visit the museum within the palace.

It took us a good 2-3 hours to walk through the Boboli Gardens because it is the size of a park and there is a lot to see. Besides the beautiful greens and buildings in the gardens, we also got to see many sculptures dating anywhere from 16th to 18th century. I absolutely loved the gardens and would make it a high priority stop for anyone visiting Florence.

By far the funniest statue we saw while in Italy.

"You sir, please fetch my turtle for me to sit on while you sculpt me."

Ponte Vecchio Golden Bridge
The Ponte Vecchio Golden Bridge is a medieval bridge over the Arno River. It is famous for a couple of reason. 1. it has shops built along it, as was once common. The shops are mostly filled with jewelers and art dealers. 2.  In 1593 the Medici Grand Dukes built a corridor above the bridge to create prestige for those who crossed above, typically royalty, those who had to cross the bridge on it's normal level. 3. The bridge was built to connect Florence's town hall with the Pitti Palace.

The David
Even though there are fake "The David's" around Florence none of them were as magnificent as the original. Michelangelo's statue of David, standing at 14 feet and 3 inches, was incredible. The details of the statue were perfectly lifelike. The David was sculpted to be part of a series of statues of prophets positioned along the roof line of the Florence Cathedral but instead it was placed in a public square outside of Florence's civic government building to symbolize the defense of civil liberties. Today The David is found in the Accademia Gallery in Florence.
Fun Fact: the top of the statue's head it slightly flat because Michelangelo ran out of marble.

The Duomo at the Florence Cathedral
The Florence Cathedral is the main church of Florence, Italy. The cathedral is Gothic style and for some reason at night, to us, it looked like a card board cut out. Access to the chapel of the cathedral was free but Alex, one of the girls I was traveling with, and I bought tickets to climb 463 steps in a narrow twisted corridor to the top of the dome. This was so worth it; it was wonderful to see the paintings in the dome, "The Duomo," up close but then to climb to the outside spire and see all of Florence from a bird's eye view was perfect.

Galileo Science Museum
When I think of going to Italy I think of food, art and architecture; science was not even on my radar but The Galileo Science Museum was great and I would recommend it to be on a to do list. We got to see the instruments Galileo invented, the things he discovered and what things he influenced. It was killing me not to get to look through one of his telescopes. It was inspiring to see all of the many things he did by just being curios and daring to think outside of the box.

Ummm... in that jar is Galileo's finger... kind of gross.

Cooking Class
For one of our evenings in Florence we took a cooking class and learned how to make pizza (the dough from scratch) and gelato. We had so much fun taking this class and it was a big highlight of our trip. We booked the class through Viatour.com but you can also find it at Florence Cooking Classes. It has great reviews on TripAdvsor. The cooking class was small enough that it was easy to ask the instructor questions as well as getting the chance to meet the other participants in the class, which was a blast. Besides our group, there were two groups from New York City, one group from Australia and one lady from Ukraine.

There was one guy from New York that figured out pretty quickly that we were all LDS (probably the fact that we are all from Utah and we all turned down the glass of wine offered by the instructor) and he instantly took an interested in us and spent the night teasing us (in a fun light-hearted way) and asking us questions. He was a fun/interesting fellow and getting to know him and joking around with him was a cherry on top to the class.

At the end of the course we received certificates of "professional" chefs.

Vespa Tour
We booked a Vespa Tour through the Tuscan Hills near Florence through Viator as well. This also was a fun activity but also a little terrifying. The description of the tour made it sound like it was going to be an easy going ride on country roads but it left out the fact that we started in Florence and had to drive on city streets with Italian drivers; eek! We had to sign a waiver that said we would abide by Italian driving laws as to which one of the girls said, "They have driving laws?!"

The tour included a home cooked meal at a vineyard up in the hills and far out in the distance you could see the city of Florence all lit up. The vineyard and the view were beautiful and quite romantic. Overall I would go on this tour again in a heart beat, I would just have to put on my big city driving pants and be ready to be aggressive because that's how I survived this tour.

The Markets
Markets are in an abundance in Florence and the perfect place to buy yourself, as well as others, some gifts. I loved all the colors and the lively-ness in the markets. Be ready to barter if you want to buy anything.

The Streets of Florence
Again, Florence was our favorite city and just walking around made the experience. It is still a city and so it is busy with people, but not so busy that you miss the character of the city.

Our Hotel
In Florence we stayed at Hotel De La Vile and it was only two blocks away from the Ponte Vecchio Bridge and perfect walking distance to all of our attractions. We had shared rooms for this hotel as well but when we went to check-in they asked if we would like to upgrade to the hotel suite for no extra charge. Umm... yeah! We all got to be together in one room with two bathrooms and TWO FLOORS... yeah, that's right, we had stairs in our room.

Amalfi Coast

Rome