Wine bar

One of the funniest/"funnest" things we saw.....a wine shop in Venice that had big barrels of various wines for around 2.50 euro per liter. Tell the shop keeper what you'd like, and he fills up a plastic liter bottle from a spigot. Not "fine" wine, but definitely decent table wine. Maybe Bill and I will start a similar concept store in Seattle :-).

More Venice

Venice!

Arrive in Venice this morning. It's gorgeous!

Fast food

This was our mad-dash-between-trains-vending-machine lunch the other day. Bill couldn't resist something called 'freaky fries' :-)

Above verona

We took a hike up the hill to see the views of Verona

Pisa and Lucca

We weren't really planning of going to Pisa, but found ourselves with an extra night. So we took the train to a cute walled town nearby (Lucca) and found a B&B, then took a local bus over to Pisa. Hoards of tourists and souvenir stands, but the tower was interesting and and the church beautiful. We're back in our quaint lodging relaxing before going out to find dinner.

Cinque Terre

Stopped for a drink at Riomaggiore (town 1 of 5) after boat ride to visit all five.

Vernazza hike

Hike above town this morning

Cinque Terre sunset

Cinque Terre

Landed in Vernazza (town 4 of 5) in the Cinque Terre last night. Absolutely beautiful.

Died and gone to heaven

Second night in Florence, found the coolest place called the Proscutteria. They make up awesome plates of cured meats, cheeses, bread, small fishies (yum, anchovies). I didn't want to leave.

Florence

We got into Florence yesterday afternoon and mostly just strolled around. This morning we got up early to get into the Uffize before the lines were long. Was easy as pie, and the museum was amazing. So much gorgeous renaissance art! I wish I remembered all the art history I learned long ago! (picture is from the top of Uffize looking down at ponte vecchio)
After the Uffize we went to the Pitti Palace, which contains, you guessed it, more amazing art! After wandering through room after room after room just covered with classics, we went upstairs to see the "modern" area. Ha ha....they define modern as anything after 1800!!!
Then we went to the old Central Market where locals were shopping for their produce, meat, cheeses, and had lunch at a little pasta shop, delish. after lunch, we headed to the Duomo (translation: huge church!)....amazing, especially the huge dome by Bruneschelli.
Tired, we are back at the hotel for a brief siesta, will head out to wander the streets and find dinner soon.

More and more duomos!

We left Siena after lunch, and headed to Florence. Dropped off the rental car (Bill was happy to not be driving anymore!). Spending afternoon/evening strolling around the city, planning our strategy for tackling the major sites tomorrow. Picture is of another gorgeous church, the duomo of Florence.

We have found that Internet/ wi-fi is sketchy and hard to find throughout Italy. And, weather has been warm....in the 80s most days! Looks like it will cool down as we go to the Cinque Terra and Venice.

Siena Duomo

Spent last night in Siena (totally divey hotel room, but the price and location were great!). This morning walked the Siena sights - this over-the-top renaissance church. We also climbed up to a cool vista to look over the sprawling rooftops of the city.

Florence

From the bridge in florence

Siena

From a tower in siena

Siena

The top of Siena

One of the many alleys we explored in Umbria and Tuscany in the hill towns

Hotel in Assisi

Hotel in Assisi with swimming pool

Umbria and tuscany

We have now been to several "hill towns" in Umbria an Tuscany including Orvieto, civeta, Assisi, cortona, montepulicino and now we are staying in Sienna.  Food and wine has been great. We saw festivals in Assisi and Sienna that proved we were in the right place at the right time.  We were in Assisi on October 3, and it just so happens that is the anniversary of Francis of assisi's death.  Pilgrims were everywhere and we saw a huge festival with drums and flag throwers and free food! Tonight in sienna, we ate dinner next to a huge celebration for a sienna community that won the all city horse race last month.  We weren't invited to participate but we saw several hundred people dressed up like animals and monks have a huge feast.  Tomorrow we are heading for Florence.

St.peters basilica

Today was the Vatican day. We walked all the way to Vatican city and then ended up wAlking all day long and our feet are really tired. We started at St. Peters which was huge. I didn't get an idea of how big it was until we walked all the way up to the cupola to see the view. 551 steps! We have been to a lot of big churches but this was the biggest. After having some more pasta and gelato, we went to the Vatican museum. Went through an incredible maze of old roman heads, tapestries, maps, paintings, until we made it to the Sistine chapel. It was amazing! We then found our way to the Italian masters section and saw Raphael, bernini, Leonardo, michelangelo, and others. We waddled our way back home and now are thinking about how to find dinner with the least steps. More pasta!