September 26, 2008 – Venice / London

We started our morning early as we had to walk our bags to the Rialto Bridge pier to meet our private boat that would then take us to a private car to get to the airport. We gave ourselves 30 minutes which worked out beautifully – we were able to view all of the produce, laundry and similar boats going down the Grand Canal. And then there were the water buses that were packed to capacity with people going to work, etc. Our boat was a bit early – there was to be a taxi strike starting at 9am so we got underway at 8am in order to avoid it. We had to wait a bit for our private car but it was worth it – we were driven to the Marco Polo airport in a Mercedes Benz. The scenery wasn’t as impressive as those along the canals but it was interesting nonetheless. We had a long wait at the airport. We had some breakfast, including freshly squeezed orange juice, while we waited for our ticket counter to be opened. When it did we had a long wait in line to check in. Once we got past security we relaxed until our flight as announced. We were on a smaller plane so we had to board a bus and then boarded the plane on the tarmac. The flight was quick. We got to see Venice from the air then Switzerland, Germany and Belgium and eventually we even got to see us leaving the Belgian/French coast and flying towards the English coastline. Aidan was able to point out Dover, Folkestone and Romney Marsh as we flew over them. Once we landed we got our bags and caught the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station.Our favorite hotel, the Thistle Victoria, is now simply renamed ‘The Grosvenor’. We checked in and were more than a little stunned when we walked into our room! It is wonderful! It is one floor above Buckingham Palace Road with large windows and even a balcony (we can’t use it for security reasons though). All I can say is that I am grateful to be able to enjoy this lovely room. We set up our wireless internet access and then headed out for lunch. After lunch at Top of the Town in China Town and a walk around Charing Cross (we needed schedules for tomorrow’s trip to Dover), we headed back to the hotel to do a little shopping (I had to visit a NEXT store and get something from LUSH). We met up with everyone (Roz, Alan, Josh & Kerry) a little after 6pm. We took the underground to Embankment station and walked to Chinatown for dinner. After a lovely meal we headed to the Noel Coward Theatre to see Avenue Q. It was absolutely insane – we really enjoyed it. We then started back to the hotel but discovered that Victoria Station was closed. We had to get off at St. James’ station and walk to the hotel. When we neared Victoria we could see all of the emergency vehicles. They have the whole area cordoned off – thankfully, they have not evacuated the hotel.

September 25, 2008 – Venice

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AIDAN!!!!!For some reason we had an early morning. Perhaps we wanted to see what breakfast was like in Venice (it was pretty much the same as it as in Rome). Then again, we also did not know where we were supposed to meet for our City Tour (it turned out that there were two tourist offices near St. Marks Square). Either way, I was ready to go back to sleep at about 2pm this afternoon. We actually took about 30 minutes to figure out where our city tour was to begin. It was quite cool so we walked around the alleys and window shopped until 9am. The tour did not begin until 9.30 so we were pretty cold when the guide took us into the sun to explain the morning’s activities. We started at St. Mark’s Basilica. We were among the first to enter and it was an amazing site. First of all, the floor was very uneven due to the increasing water level and what t is doing to Venice – St. Mark’s is one of the lowest lying points in Venice and it floods more than 200 days per year!. Second, the artistry in the basilica was amazing. It was like stepping back in time. We moved through it so quickly though and the lines behind us were ridiculous! We then went around the corner to the Doge’s Palace. We found this tour quite fascinating for both its artistic content (we learned about certain Venetian artists) and the visit to the Bridge of Sighs prison (we were actually inside of the bridge). After those two most informative visits, we hopped on a boat to Murano. Our guide was excellent in leading us on a leisurely stroll to the boat while talking on his cell phone (he looked very chic though so we gave him the benefit of the doubt). The boat ride took u through the Venetian lagoon from the southern to the northern part of Venice. We had wonderful views from the water of Venice and the surrounding islands. Murano was lovely. We immediately went to a glass blowing exhibit. One artist made a glass aquarium – when the molten glass was poured onto the glass fish and such one couldn’t help but hold their breath at the sight of the glowing goo. The master glass blower made two items within a 15 minute period. The first was a highly stylized rose-coloured flower vase; while the second was a horse. The horse was the most interesting to watch as he literally formed it in seconds. We couldn’t help but applaud when he finished the piece. We then went upstairs to the gallery and were awed by the chandeliers, wine sets and other sculptures. Of course, we had to add something to our collection.We headed back to Venice and after walking through crowds and crowds of tourists, we had lunch at a café near the Rialto bridge (the food was ok but the service was lacking). We returned to the Rialto market for fresh fruit (amazing, as before) and then did some window shopping. We found the square that our gondolier trip was to depart from and kept close by, shopping and enjoying afternoon tea in the area. At 6.15 we began to board our group gondolier ride. There were 5 boats with 4 to 6 people in each boat. One boat had an accordion player and a wonderful singer. They played us over most of the Grand Canal (almost to the Rialto Bridge) and through various canals back to the beginning of our trip. We heard most of our favorite Italian songs and many others as the sun went down. Even with another couple in the boat with us, it was easily the most romantic way to experience the true feel of Venice (and it wasn’t that expensive – thanks Viator.com). After our trip we went to Trattoria de Bruno for dinner. It is literally under our hotel and we were spoiled. We were treated to a complimentary sherry as we read through the menu. I opted for cured beef and grilled shrimp while Aidan decided to have vegetable soup and scaloppini. We enjoyed the house red with fresh bread with delicate olive oil and a fragrant balsamic vinegar. Aidan loved the vegetable soup (talk about fresh ingredients) while I savored the Bresola with reggiano. The main course was presented with a flourish. Aidan’s scaloppini was smothered in fresh mushrooms while my grilled shrimp were served whole, split in half and grilled. We followed this with crème caramel for Aidan and cappuccino for me. The restaurant then gave us a lemon flavored aperitif when we had finished. We then decided to visit the Rialto Bridge to enjoy the warm and relaxing evening.

September 24, 2008 – Florence / Venice

Aidan’s Morning: I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose – GREAT! Left the hotel at about 8:30 to do some “secret” shopping. Had to hang around for an hour for the shop to open, but got what I was looking for – SUCCESS! Walked back to the hotel, completed packing and walked to the train station. Marisa’s Morning: Aidan’s sick! We still decided to split up to do shopping on our own. It probably was worse for Aidan since he’s blowing his nose so much. I am thankfully unaffected (knock on wood). After Aidan left I headed around the corner to the market. The vendors were just setting up so I walked around admiring the tapestries, lace, glass, paper, wool and leather goods. I was a bit peckish so I also visited the farmer’s market. They had everything – olive oil, fruits, vegetables and even pig snouts… I really mean they had everything!!! I could not decide what to eat so I went back out and got some paper, glass and a mask. I headed back to the main street for breakfast and opted for a café across the street from the hotel. I had a lovely fruit salad with nectarines, apples, kiwi, pineapple and strawberries. It was refreshing and filled the void. I then headed back to the hotel instead of visiting the leather shops as I had planned (big mistake). I watched Starsky and Hutch and Knight Rider in Italian while I waited for Aidan. When he came back we finished packing and headed out to the train station.Rest of the day:Ate McDonald’s at the station, not particularly inspiring. The train left 10 minutes late. The ride wasn’t as nice as the Rome to Florence leg. The car we were in seemed smaller. There were also tons of tourists in our car whereas we had an equal number of business people on the train to Florence. We arrived in Venice at about 2:30pm. We were met as promised at the station and travelled to the launch. We caught the taxi to the Rialto Bridge. The ride was luxurious, to say the least. The Rialto bridge was busy when we landed. We then walked the rest of the way to the hotel, which was an experience in itself. Venice is CROWDED. We checked in, dropped off our stuff and went for a walk. We walked to the Piazza San Marco, which was also crowded. We were a bit concerned that all we would see of Venice was crowds and crowds of people. Thankfully, that is only the case in tourist spots! We then continued wandering around. The smaller streets were more bearable. After having a piece of Pizza and doing some shopping etc. we came back to the hotel to do a couple of things (we have Internet access, yea!). Then we went to dinner, close to the hotel in a vine garden. The food was very nice indeed. Marisa had the pasta in the squid ink and said that it was excellent. We also had amazing desserts and a wonderful local Cabernet. After this we went for a walk around, Piazza San Marco was much less crowded and there were three groups playing classical music. We also picked up a few knick knacks and then headed back to the hotel.

September 23, 2008 – Florence

It’s now Tuesday night and we still don’t have Internet access from our room even though both hotels have said that they have wireless or high speed access. In Rome the hotel provided access only via our television (it was murder to try to read the screen) and here in Florence we purchased a 5 euro card that only seems to work downstairs. I guess we’ll be sending our vacation log when we finally get some decent access (hopefully in Venice tomorrow).Today was all about exploring Florence and Fiesole. We started our day around 8.30 knowing that we had to meet our city tour group at 9am. We opted for a quick breakfast of pastries and juice from a little café as we were still somewhat stuffed from the previous evening’s cooking class. We signed in and got our tour sticker and eventually were led to our double decker bus. Thankfully, the top of the bus was covered as it was cool in the morning (and in the evening now that I think of it). .We started our trek up the Avenue of the Hills (we saw some amazing Villas) towards Piazzale Michelangelo. At the top we enjoyed amazing views of the city and saw a reproduction on Michelangelo’s ‘David’ (the first of three viewings of ‘David’ today). The Avenue of the Hills, while being the playground of the rich and famous also had the distinction of having certain stretches dedicated to Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli. We then headed back across the river to the Piazza della Repubblica for our walk to the Duomo. I loved looking at the small eclectic shops, the leather goods stores and the amazing architecture. Our guide was very knowledgeable and kept us engaged. When we arrived at the Duomo she shared with us stories about the competition to create the dome and the bible stories behind each panel on the most popular door of the Baptisery. We then went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia. I couldn’t remember what important work was located at the Accademia but once I turned the corner in to the main hall I was awestruck by Michelangelo’s ‘David’. The statue is breathtaking in person. The gallery allows you to walk around the statue and we were amazed by the detail – the veins in his hand for example. We then visited the musical instrument gallery before seeing ‘David’ one last time. We decided to have pasta for lunch and decided to look for a café on the sidewalk. During our search we ran into friends formerly from Bermuda (now from Ohio). We caught up a bit and then headed back to Piazza della Repubblica to have lunch in the café across from the carousel. After lunch we purchased tickets for the CitySightseeing Firenze bus that covered Florence (Firenze) and Fiesole. The bus was uncovered on the top but the sun was out so we were really comfortable. We plugged in our earphones and listened to commentary and classical music as we drove out of the valley towards Fiesole. The villas on this journey were beautiful as well and we commented that we may have to consider a Tuscan Villa once we secure an Irish cottage and a Boston brownstone!!! Fiesole was lovely – a small town with so much history. We walked up into the hills and enjoyed amazing views of the valley that contains Florence. We saw many olive groves and visited Etruscan tombs and Roman baths. We also visited the archeological zone that contained an amphitheatre and Etruscan, Medieval, Roman and even prehistoric archeological finds. Unfortunately the museum was closed so we were only able to see the amphitheatre and the Roman arches on the hill.The ride back to Florence seemed much faster. We got off at Santa Croche but the church and grounds had closed for the day. We visited a leather merchant and purchased a photo album for our Italy pictures. We then headed to Piazza della Signoria to see the reproduction of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ outside of the church (where the original ‘David’ had resided before being moved) and the original sculpture of the ‘Rape of the Sabine Women’ as we had seen the plaster version at the Accademia. We then walked to the Uffizi and looked at the statues of great Italians. We decided to visit Ponte Vecchio again to explore what styles of jewelry were unique to the region. I was also able to see a florin which was the old currency for Florence in the middle ages.We returned to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We decided to stay close to home and ate at a restaurant on our street. We had the house wine (superb) and local pizzas (I had the Florentine – Florentine salami and roast peppers – while Aidan had the Mercato – ham, 4 cheeses and mushrooms). We then took a walk through the market area where the vendors were selling everything from leather to paper to lace. We then decided to have gelato at Il Triangolo delle Bermude. Since we were from Bermuda, the server called the owner of the store who shared with us why he named it the Bermuda Triangle (he owns three gelato stores in Florence that form a triangle). He was really excited to meet us! I had ice cream while Aidan had sorbet. Now we pack as we’re off to Venice tomorrow!

September 22, 2008 – Rome/Florence

We got up this morning and prepared to leave for Florence. After another good breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and caught our limo to the train station. It was a bit of a waste as we literally drove to the other end of the street. Had I realized it was that close I would have caught a taxi. Anyway, the train to Florence was very nice. We had window seats in First Class. We arrived in Florence and walked up the street to our hotel, which was really close. He room is amazing. It’s like we’re at grandma’s villa for a visit – exposed beam ceiling, walk in closet with a chest of drawers where the top closes with a key and, of course, a flat panel tv screen! We then went for a walk around the town and saw the Duomo in the main square, which was architecturally very beautiful. We then went up via de Servi to go to the Leonardo Museum. It included many of his inventions and they welcomed you to experiment with many of them. A little while later we headed to the Piazza Santa Trinita and found the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. Of course somebody had to go and see it. We also walked to the Ponte Vecchio and window shopped. The jewelry was amazing, eclectic and beautiful.The highlight of the day was our Florentine cooking class and dinner. We made Gnocchi, Florentine stuffed zucchini, Chicken in a sauce and tiramisu. We took many pictures to record the stages of the meal. The instructors were great and the kitchen staff cleaned up after us – if only that happened in real life. The meal came out very nicely with a bottle of wine (2006 Chianti) to finish, was a very good night. I guess we cooked our own anniversary dinner this year! We walked back to the hotel via the River boardwalk before settling in.

September 21, 2008 – Rome

We started our day at 7am because the City Tour was to begin at 8.15. We had the hotel breakfast – had to wait for a seat but it was worth it. The tour company picked us up and we were delivered to our bus. Our first stop was to see the Trevi Fountain. It was lovely to see it in person. We both threw a coin into the fountain – from our right hand over our left shoulders. We then went to the parliament building on our way to the Pantheon. The Pantheon is even more amazing in person due to its sheer size and the detail within it. We got to see the tomb of Raphael while we were there. We then walked past the senate building on the way to the Piazza Navona. It was early in the morning so it wasn’t as busy as it would be in the afternoon or evening. Still, the vendors were out and the restaurants were setting up their outside seating for lunch.We then headed to Vatican City. Aidan purchased a Peace Cross for me before we entered the Vatican for the 2nd time in 2 days. This time we went to the catacombs and got to see where past Popes were buried. The tomb with the most people standing in front of it was for Pope John Paul II. The area where the relics of St. Peter are kept was so beautifully decorated! We then went back to St. Peter’s Basilica and walked around the areas that we missed yesterday. We saw the baptismal font were there were a few baptisms taking place (could you imaging being baptized in St. Peters’s Basilica!!!). We also witnessed the end of mass and left the Vatican just as the Pope was giving the blessing from his Summer residence.We started the afternoon at the Spanish steps. We sat and relaxed and people watched a bit. Then we began our 2 mile walk down the Via del Corso. We stopped down a side street for lunch at a café followed by gelato (OMG, it was so good). We ended up at the Coliseum and only had to wait 30 minutes to get in. We got the audio tour and it was the perfect pace for us. We then walked to the Domus Aurea and got some great views of the Coliseum. We strolled back to our hotel, walking through the Roma Termini in preparation for tomorrow. We had an early evening as we were still recovering from the flights etc. We watched a few movies including Roman Holiday, Alvin & the Chipmunks, the Other Boleyn Girl and National Treasure 2.

September 19-20, 2008 – Bermuda, London, Rome

After dinner at the airport and a relaxing wait in the lounge, we boarded BA for London. We commented to each other how nice it was to fly on a larger plane. We settled in for the night to a movie (Kung Fu Panda for Aidan and the Helen Hunt/Colin Firth movie for me). Dinner wasn’t as good as it could have been but since we ate before hand it wasn’t that bad. Thankfully we did sleep for a few hours because before you knew it we were landing in London. Since we landed at 6.20am and our flight to Rome was at 8pm, we were able to rest a bit and pick up some stuff at Boots. The Rome flight was packed. We left late due to the fog at the airport earlier, which had delayed everything by about 40 minutes. We ate cheese sandwiches and ended up napping until we landed. The airport was a madhouse. We managed to get our bags easily though because the baggage claim area was timed – it told us when the bags would be loaded onto the carousel and when it would stop. And you know what, that’s exactly how it happened. Finding an ATM and our driver was more difficult. Eventually we were loaded into our private car and headed into Rome.The drive in was crazy because the drivers were… well, crazy. There were many times when we were surprised that we weren’t hit by other drivers. Even in the midst of this we enjoyed the mix of eclectic architecture and old ruins as we neared the city. And then we entered Rome and were not disappointed by what we saw. Perhaps the most amazing site was the Colosseum. It was breathtaking as we approached and drove past it. We decided then that we must visit it in person!Our hotel is located in a small residential area. We have a spacious room by European standards. We freshened up before catching a taxi to Vatican City. Our tour was to begin on the steps outside of the Vatican Museum. I grabbed us some lunch while Aidan waited in line to check us in. Our guide was an Italian historian who had a passion for Michelangelo and Raphael. He took us through the Vatican Museum and gave us detailed descriptions of many of the frescos and artifacts. We were really impressed by Raphael’s frescos in the Papal apartments. We got to the Sistine Chapel about 2 hours into the tour. Talk about blown away! We sat in a corner and just marveled at the magnitude of what Michelangelo created. We then went to St. Peter’s Basilica. I don’t even have words for the beauty and artistry of the place. We wandered in awe and witnessed a portion of the mass. We didn’t stay long as we wanted to send some post cards from Vatican City before heading back to the hotel.We dined at a little restaurant around the corner from our hotel. We started with fresh made pasta – I had spaghetti and Aidan had lasagna – and it was unlike anything we’ve had before. Aidan then had roast chicken and potatoes and I had scaloppini in wine sauce. We didn’t stay out long as the last few days caught up with us. I think we were asleep by 9.30pm.