Sunday, December 14, 2008

Ah Florence...Ah Pisa






















Ok, WE took a train to Florence (Firenze) which was pretty neat. (as soon as we figured out where we needed to go..firenze.. go figure. We saw some of the neatest country side of Italy that is straight out of the books! It was beautiful! After about 2 hrs we arrived in Firenze. What a neat city, though totally crowded with people and the CRAZIEST driving i have ever seen, down the skinniest roads i have ever seen, we saw some of the neatest stuff. We passed the 'Duomo' which you see Sammy and Andrew pictures of, what a crazy huge old church with the craziest rennasaunce archetecture!! it was thrilling, inside were some neat frescoes and statues and the Dome was designed and painted by Michaelangelo! everything is Michaelangelo in Florence. we went and saw the David' it was way larger than i was expecting. i took a picture of Deena right before i found out you weren't supposed to take pictures...oh well. I probably would have taken one anyway! i didn't use my flash for all you art junkies out there!......But the highlight of the trip was the hour and a half more trainride to Pisa! That place was awesome! the leaning tower of Pisa is soooo much taller in real life than you would believe! I think it is something like 400 feet tall. of course this is where Galaleo dropped the different sized balls from the tower to prove the velocity of different sized objects is the same. The babtistry is the other building in the pictures, it is the biggest in the world! the archetecture is just incredible! I must say i was in heaven and thinking that my mother would be in heaven here too! though more on that in my next blog of San Marino!!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Ahh.. Venice!
























Ah. Venice - Indiana Jones....Yes we did see the library that Indiana Jones realized that X marks the spot, and eventually found the tomb of Sir Richard! We had such a good time at this incredible floating city! We got lost among the maze of narrow waterlined streets, it seemed at every turn there was some old gothic looking church or plaza with statues of famous people i had never heard of. The archetecture is amazing. i just cannot believe that this city is totally built over water! St Marks square is just amazing. the church tower for the cathederal is just enormously tall, and the art work in every nook and crany of that building is just exquisite! It was here that Sammy got to know the local Pidgeon population intimately! there were serioulsy hundreds of Pidgeons swarming her...(she did have a cracker) the Tourists (which is everybody) all flocked around taking pictures of Sammy with pidgeons serously covering every inch of her body! don't be surprised to see it in National Geographic or something!! We took a water taxi back to the train station wich was amazing. it went along the entire Grand Canal as they call it. What a fun way to see Venice! We saw the gondoliers and even passed one that was singing to his riders!! Way fun way to start our Italian trip!! Next up Florence!! will post next blog then.. Love you and miss you all