(no subject)
So, here we are.
On Friday the 13th, Robin and I punched in and out of our respective jobs for the final time. In my case that meant that we went to a 3 hour lunch at the Easton Pub, and then I went home early because I no longer had a single piece of work to do. That night we went out to SoHo and had a going away dinner for Robin with her work mates. After several good byes and hugs and email exchanges we made it back to our apartment. The weekend was spent shoving our lives back into our Army-issue duffel bags and cleaning our flat. We learned on the Monday at our official checkout that our cleaning was not up to professional standards, as there was dust inside the dresser drawers. Whatever. We eventually got our deposit back.
Monday afternoon we finished tying up loose ends and made our way to Gatwick Airport. From there we flew out of London and down to Venice to start our whirlwind Italy tour. It was dark, and late by the time we touched down in Italy, so the first night was just spent trying to locate our hostel in the dark on the mainland just outside the city, in Mestre. In the morning we got the bus again and made our way into the city proper. Our day began with a water bus from the north all the way down the Grand Canal to San Marco square.
View from the waterbus
Piazza di San Marco
After venturing inside the cathedral and wandering around the square we wandered around to some different art museums. After a couple of hours of nothing but Italian Catholic art... whew... we continued to wander, this time aimlessly, through the back alleys and sidewalks. It is fairly futile to plan to go somewhere, as the streets are difficult to decipher and the maps do not really explain which streets dead end into a canal and where the bridges are that cross these canals. But our first gelati helped to ease the confusion. If I could pay to have that Nutella flavored ice cream imported from Venice, I would. Anyway, we napped on a gondola dock, we had some pannini, and we shopped for carnival masks.
Carnival
Gondole
Spaghetti and maccheroni were had for dinner with our first Italian wine in Italy. It was a very relaxing time in Venice, with probably the best weather we would see for the whole trip. At the train station that evening we went to buy our Eurail Italy passes. I had been researching these passes for about 3 months, and after having the price and the details confirmed even by Tren Italia representatives over the phone, we were sure we knew what we wanted. It was only then, at the train station, that we discovered that those passes had been discontinued. As of the previous week. But it worked out for the best because we got the attendant to sell us the European-resident passes instead. Which was good because the next morning we were off to Florence...
Florence/Firenze
David
Florence was our second shortest stop on the trip; we were only there for part of a day, after the train ride in the morning. We went to the Galleria d'Accademia to see David. There wasn't much else in that gallery. We also went down to see the Duomo and went inside. It was alarming at how empty it was. I think it was probably the first cathedral (of many, many cathedrals) that we've visited that had no seats, no choir stalls, no anything. The dome was, of course, being cleaned which meant that half of it was covered with scaffolding. But that's okay.
We had more ice cream, more pizza, more pannini. This will be a reoccurring theme. We went to the Palazzo Vecchio and saw the several statues out front and sandwiched between it and the Uffizi gallery. These statues included the one of Perseus with Medusa below. We climbed a bit up to a look out across from the River Arno to catch the sights, and take the above photo. Here there is a replica of David in bronze, and several vendors selling overpriced drinks and souvenirs. It was a nice vantage point at dusk, however.
Perseus
Duomo Clock Tower
As a whole I don't think either of us were that impressed with Florence. I blame this on our exhaustion from the day before... but also on Florence. We couldn't even go to the Uffizi gallery because they said the wait would be 3 hours, despite the fact that we went 30 minutes before it opened and there were only maybe 50 people in front of us. That is, unless we bought the special tickets for more than twice the price, and then the wait time would be 2 hours. Right. The city just seemed more dirty than rustic, and much more packed together than most of the places we had been before that. And the gelato was just not quite as good.
More Italy coming soon. If you couldn't tell, we're back in KY. And if we haven't seen you yet, we hope to soon.
-BCV
On Friday the 13th, Robin and I punched in and out of our respective jobs for the final time. In my case that meant that we went to a 3 hour lunch at the Easton Pub, and then I went home early because I no longer had a single piece of work to do. That night we went out to SoHo and had a going away dinner for Robin with her work mates. After several good byes and hugs and email exchanges we made it back to our apartment. The weekend was spent shoving our lives back into our Army-issue duffel bags and cleaning our flat. We learned on the Monday at our official checkout that our cleaning was not up to professional standards, as there was dust inside the dresser drawers. Whatever. We eventually got our deposit back.
Monday afternoon we finished tying up loose ends and made our way to Gatwick Airport. From there we flew out of London and down to Venice to start our whirlwind Italy tour. It was dark, and late by the time we touched down in Italy, so the first night was just spent trying to locate our hostel in the dark on the mainland just outside the city, in Mestre. In the morning we got the bus again and made our way into the city proper. Our day began with a water bus from the north all the way down the Grand Canal to San Marco square.
View from the waterbus
Piazza di San Marco
After venturing inside the cathedral and wandering around the square we wandered around to some different art museums. After a couple of hours of nothing but Italian Catholic art... whew... we continued to wander, this time aimlessly, through the back alleys and sidewalks. It is fairly futile to plan to go somewhere, as the streets are difficult to decipher and the maps do not really explain which streets dead end into a canal and where the bridges are that cross these canals. But our first gelati helped to ease the confusion. If I could pay to have that Nutella flavored ice cream imported from Venice, I would. Anyway, we napped on a gondola dock, we had some pannini, and we shopped for carnival masks.
Carnival
Gondole
Spaghetti and maccheroni were had for dinner with our first Italian wine in Italy. It was a very relaxing time in Venice, with probably the best weather we would see for the whole trip. At the train station that evening we went to buy our Eurail Italy passes. I had been researching these passes for about 3 months, and after having the price and the details confirmed even by Tren Italia representatives over the phone, we were sure we knew what we wanted. It was only then, at the train station, that we discovered that those passes had been discontinued. As of the previous week. But it worked out for the best because we got the attendant to sell us the European-resident passes instead. Which was good because the next morning we were off to Florence...
Florence/Firenze
David
Florence was our second shortest stop on the trip; we were only there for part of a day, after the train ride in the morning. We went to the Galleria d'Accademia to see David. There wasn't much else in that gallery. We also went down to see the Duomo and went inside. It was alarming at how empty it was. I think it was probably the first cathedral (of many, many cathedrals) that we've visited that had no seats, no choir stalls, no anything. The dome was, of course, being cleaned which meant that half of it was covered with scaffolding. But that's okay.
We had more ice cream, more pizza, more pannini. This will be a reoccurring theme. We went to the Palazzo Vecchio and saw the several statues out front and sandwiched between it and the Uffizi gallery. These statues included the one of Perseus with Medusa below. We climbed a bit up to a look out across from the River Arno to catch the sights, and take the above photo. Here there is a replica of David in bronze, and several vendors selling overpriced drinks and souvenirs. It was a nice vantage point at dusk, however.
Perseus
Duomo Clock Tower
As a whole I don't think either of us were that impressed with Florence. I blame this on our exhaustion from the day before... but also on Florence. We couldn't even go to the Uffizi gallery because they said the wait would be 3 hours, despite the fact that we went 30 minutes before it opened and there were only maybe 50 people in front of us. That is, unless we bought the special tickets for more than twice the price, and then the wait time would be 2 hours. Right. The city just seemed more dirty than rustic, and much more packed together than most of the places we had been before that. And the gelato was just not quite as good.
More Italy coming soon. If you couldn't tell, we're back in KY. And if we haven't seen you yet, we hope to soon.
-BCV