No one ever takes pictures in the train.

I decided to break the trend.



Here we are leaving Venice toward Austria (eventually to change trains and head to Slovenia)

Kittie in Italy

Thank you Martina for letting Joe pose with your Kitty.

Venice

We thought Venice was beautiful.







We passed on the whole Gondola experience. The going rate was 80 euro for a half hour.....no thanks.

San Giovanni with our host family

We spent some time with an italian family. They live in a small town outside of Bologna. Bologna reminds me of Minneapolis. You hit farms until you are practically in the center of the city. San Giovanni as a result was a small town where every one knows everyone else.

Simonetta and Leonardo spoke very good english. Martina was learning in school and Daniele had just a little exposure. After a scoop of Gilato at the local Gilataria with the family we went to a small museum which featured stamps the had the different Disney characters. I rate mickey mouse up there with CocaCola and McDonadls on total world wide understanding. We had a blast going through all the disney characters. They had different names for many of the characters. They just could not believe that someone would name the three ducks Hooey, Dooey and Louie.

That evening, Daniele was to sing in the chorus for a presentation of Mozart's "The Magic Flute". School events are the same everywhere. Every child was waving at mom and dad.

It felt like the whole town showed up to the concert. We sat in the fourth row and felt like we were part of the family cheering on Daniele.

Overall, we had an absolute blast with the family. Simonetta and Leonardo were wonderful hosts.

I also got a chance to help Martina with her English homework while Joe played a strange game with Daniele which involved special cards and action figures. I still do not understand how Joe figured out how to play.

I guess no matter how little you can communicate with someone, you can still figure out how to play games with children with patience and understanding.

Look what I found!!!

I accidently stumbled across the Malaga Cove Neptune statue's twin brother.

For the folks that live near Palos Verdes, I am sure you will be amused.

The Malaga Cove statue of Neptune in Palos Verdes Est is a replica of the Neptune statue in Bologna.

Money please?

It's only fitting that beggars bow down in a praying position when asking for money near the Vatican.

In France, they held their hands out. In Siena, they kneeled on the knees as put their hands out like they were trying to receive Eucharist. Then in Rome, we got the complete bow.

I am a big fat scrooge. They got nothing from me.

The Vatican on Republican Day

June 2 is the day that Italy declared itself a republic. So, all the police and milatary jumped into their fancy uniforms and paraded around Rome.

I was really impressed by how neat and unique each branch of the military's and law enforcement's uniforms were.

way more snazzy then the british (red coats) in my opinion:



These guys had really big guns earlier in the day. I guess the afternoon mellowed them out and they exchanged their guns for flags on long poles.

On to the Vatican:

The Vatican museum is a way to show off the church's loot. So you can imagine how many roman lawn ornaments they had lying around.



I look at this picture and I think star wars. I don't know why, but I do:



Michaelangelo only painted the chapel. Raphael painted a whole series of rooms, but no one ever says they want to go to the vatican to see his stuff. Poor guy.



Swiss Guard. They look like pansies, dont they? These were the colored guard, but the swiss guard in the museum didn't take to me kindly when they found my pocket knife in my back pack. Unlike the TSA, they held on to it for me until my visit was complete.




Finally...St. Peter's Bassilica. I had the opportunity to tour the church during a mass. The music and chanting echoed around the church. The experience was amazing, but I couldn't help but be a little bothered to see tourist talking loudly and sitting on the kneeler's in the chapel.



I unfortunately did not get any pics of Pope John Paul's tomb, but I did visit. I was deeply humbled.

Joe goes to the museam

When you dig around Rome, you are bound to find some cool stuff. Statues seem to be the big item. These were mostly lawn ornaments (think Pink Flamingo).

So on a hot day in Rome, we spent the afternoon looking at real real real old lawn ornaments.

Rome: Food

Here are some quick pictures of Food in Rome:



To my godson. Dont forget that your name is Italian too. In fact, there is an entire museum dedicated to you in Florence.



Thank god for Gilato. We have not stopped eating Gilato since we arrived in Italy.



The ultimate rip off beer. We learned our lesson on this one. Always ask for size and price before ordering items in a high tourist area.

If not you get this for 11 Euros:



We were not gonna walk away waisting 11 Euros.

Roman Empire: What's left

Its a shame to see the ruins from what was once a massive and beautiful empire.



(Colosseum)

Regrouping in Rome

The rain just wont stop falling and I am about to scream out of madness.

Our original plans were to spend a few days in Cinque Terre on the beach. After a disturbing weather report, we decided to head to Rome for some museum time. While we were at it, we might as well say a prayer at the vatican about all this damn rain. As I write this now 7 days after the fact, God did not answer my prayers.

Here is that fountain that Joanne loves so much.


Dont worry Joanne, we threw a penny in it for you:



The next day, it was sunny (go figure), but hot as heck. In rome, and Italy in general, they have these awesome awesome fountains. Think about the hottest and muggiest day in Pennsylvania and then think about these constantly running fountains shooting ice cold water at you. Pure heaven:

Washing it all down with a glass of Chanti

It has been a while since I updated this blog since I have not had a good strong internet connection. Tonight I am staying at a hostel with a blazing fast connection, so I will overwhelm you now with a series of posts.

It has rained solid since Paris and of course, our splurge tour of chianti was no better. So much or being under the tuscan sun!!!!! Regardless, we had a good time with our tour guide, Roberto who has a serious problem with Olive Garden.

We visited a few towns in Chianti and went through some history of the region.

Pretty.




Next, we sampled Chianto Classico at a smaller winery in the region.



If you have ever went wine tasting with Joe and I, you would know that we cannot resist buying a bottle. With our little packs, we drank our premium bottle (7 euros, by the way) of Chianto Classico with pizza.

Bologna

Hi All,

I am running a tad behind on posts and pictures. I am not sure when I will be able to catch up since I do not have wireless access.

We are outside of Bologna with an Italian family: Simonetta, Leonardo, Martina (13) and Daniele (11).

We spent yesterday exploring a nice city Bologna.

When in Rome.....

After a few schedule adjustments, we made it to Rome for a 3 day stay. Today we went to the coliseum, the Forum and the Rome National museum. The coliseum was only ho hum for us, but the Forum was fantastic. WE just couldn't believe how many ruins there were. We saw where Cesar was creamated, where the senators held court, where the houses were of famous romans (what is left of them) and tons more. We also saw where the romans courts were, unfortunately there is nothing left of them.

It just floors me how advanced the romans were.

The night before, we visited the spanish steps and the trivoli fountain. Both places were 5 deep with people and tourist central.

We are staying at a fantastic B&B near the train station.

Italy

We have arrived in Italy after two buses and six trains. I will save our night train experience for another post. Its a good story.

For now, I will tell you we are in a medium sized town called Siena smack dab in the center of Tuscany.

Here are some nice pics of us living up life Italian style.

Joe listening to a Rick Steves pod cast:




Antipasti to start a meal off right and washing it down with Chianti



Speaking of this, we totally messed up the order. I got a liter of Chianti thinking 1 Liter was no more than a few glasses of wine. Joe informed me later that a standard bottle of wine was 750 ml. So we got a mega bottle of wine. My head hurt for the rest of the day. :)

Not the best picture of me considering that I was a mess after the 6 trains: