Venezia! (April 9-12)

Venezia!

(Click on the canal to see the rest of my pictures!)

April 9 - We got on our train in Florence and had a lovely ride through Tuscany up to Venice. The train was very nice and new, and Tuscany was very beautiful! I can see why people like it so much. I think I'd like to go back to Florence, maybe rent a car and see Tuscany. I was very excited to cross the Lagoon into Venice, since for some reason it seemed like a big deal in several movies. The weather was beautiful when we arrived in Venice and we turned to each other and said "Ahh, Venice!" Our hostel was out in the suburbs, about a fifteen minute bus ride away. When we got there, it was siesta time and the neighborhood was like a ghost town. Very strange! The hostel was really nice, in a new apartment complex. Our room was hella swanky (almost like a proper hotel room!) but we had to change to a not-awesome room the next night. Boo! Anyway! We headed back into the city and decided to do a walking tour from the guidebook. It was sort of a backroads way to San Marco that took us out to the Jewish district and past some churches of note. We walked down the quiet, tourist-free streets and meandered past some churches, in the general direction of Piazza San Marco. Of course we had a gelato break. Ooh, I had banana and chocolate flavors in one cone! Yum... (Here I will digress and tell you that I had actually been to Venice before. When I was six. For half a day. All I really remember is that it was burning hot and the tiny alleys were packed with people. We definitely went on the vaporetto and to San Marco, but that's all I can half-remember.) On the way to Piazza San Marco, we walked by the Bridge of Sighs, which was tragically covered in scaffolding, which - to add insult to injury - was itself covered by a giant advertisement for luxury sunglasses. So Lame. Emily was so angry, since her big attraction for Venice was the bridge! By the time we reached San Marco, the fog had rolled in HELLA thick and we could barely see anything. We called it quits for the day when we started feeling cold and clammy.

April 10 - We tried to buy some cereal from the grocery store across the street from the hostel, but it was a comedy of errors. The grocery seemed like it was never open, it had an odd selection of food and no one was helpful. We did manage to buy cereal, but it was this weird off-brand Nutella filled cereal that was sickeningly sweet. After that first day, we started eating it for desert. We took the Vaporetto #1 up the Grand Canal, the scenic tourist route. We saw all the great buildings, Venice has architecture from ten centuries. We went to San Marco and stood in line to see the inside of the Basilica, which was amazing! Every inch inside of it is covered in mosaics (and quite a lot of the outside too!), very amazing. We climbed up to the museum and went out on the terrace to enjoy the views of the piazza and the lagoon. After lunch, we visited the Palazzo Ducale, next to the Basilica, which is where the rulers of Venice lived, The Doge. As you might imagine, it was quite opulent. It had a really cool map room as well, with the maps painted right onto the wall, like in the Vatican. After that, we strolled over the Ponte Dell' Accademia to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, which is now housed in the palazzo she used to live in on the Grand Canal. The museum had some really great modern art paintings and sculptures in it, plus there were a few sculptures in the garden. We really enjoyed the museum, in each room there was a picture of what the room looked like when Peggy lived there. Peggy lived there until her death in 1979 and is buried in the garden, along with her many beloved doggies. Once we'd soaked up as much 20th century art as we could handle, we walked over to the Ponte Rialto and enjoyed its beauty, though we did not so much enjoy the tacky tourist shops on it. The weather was amazing that day, the fog burned off about noon and then it was sunny and warm until 8pm!

April 11 - Last full day in Italy! We ate a breakfast of champions at the hostel - Italian ho-ho's! It was hella foggy this morning when we took the vaporetto over to the island of Murano to see the famous Venetian glass. We went in the first shop we found, but the saleswoman was snooty so we hightailed it out of there. The canals on Murano are lined with shops that sell glass. Glass vases and decorations for your house, glass jewelry, glass figurines, glass everything! We window shopped for a while and then went to the Glass Museum, which was really awesome. They had an exhibit on how glass is made, and so many amazing glass pieces. Apparently, there has been glass-making in Venice since the Roman times. There was a whole garden scene made from nothing by glass, it was huge, as big as a dining room table. Totally amazing. We walked and window shopped a bit more, after basking in the museum courtyard, and then had a delicious lunch capped by a delightful Tiramisu! Emily and I both bought necklaces and then, right before we left, we got to see a glass-blowing demonstration in a workshop! Very neat. When the Dale Chihuly exhibit was on at the DeYoung in SF, I saw a documentary about his workshop on PBS in the middle of night and watching glass-blowing is so neat!

April 12 - Last day in Italy, we got up early and went to the Ca d'Oro (Gold House), the prettiest palazzo on the Grand Canal. (When we were walking to the Ca d'Oro, we saw a hound dog who couldn't hold his emotions inside - he was very vocal and he kept howling! He was very cute.) It's now a museum that has many Renaissance paintings, tapestries and sculptures, plus great views of the Grand Canal from the balconies. Once we had our fill there, we wandered a bit toward San Marco and had an early lunch in a piazza. The church bells kept ringing and ringing because it was Easter Sunday. I took my leave of Emily (her flight was about 6 hours after mine) and flew back to Glasgow. All in all, a very very good trip!!

--Observations on Venice:
-The canals do smell bad! But since the weather was mild, it was only an occasional whiff of unpleasantness
-The Venetian masks were everywhere! Most were tacky tourist souvenirs, but some of them were amazingly elaborate
-Walking across the entire city (from San Marco to Piazzale Roma) took only about two hours
-We saw tons and tons of dogs in Venice, most were small
-Many more German-speaking tourists, far fewer Spaniards (who tend to mob tourist destinations)
-Italians are not into coffee to go - no Starbucks!

Firenze! (April 6-8)

Firenze!

(Click on the church to see the rest of my pictures!)

April 6 -- We got up early on Monday and took the train up to Florence. We were a little sad because we had finally gotten to know Rome and now we had to leave! Oh well, that's just how it goes. We took the train which was about 3 hours and we had a nice tea and pastry. It was very old school, with cabins for six people. Anyway, as soon as we got to Florence, we loved it! It was so calm and quiet, not as crowded and much easier to navigate. Our hostel was delightful, clean and amazing. We lunched and then took our tourist bus around the city. When that was finished, we had some gelato and walked over to the Duomo. We went into the church and wandered around, took some pictures of the inside and outside. Wow. There is a lot going on there! We climbed to the top of the Duomo and it was so beautiful! It was warm and still, I wanted to stay forever. We eventually, reluctantly, climbed back down and walked over the Ponte Vecchio. We wandered and looked around for a while before having some dinner and hitting the hay.

April 7 -- We got up early to go to the Uffizi, but when we got there there was already a giant line! A German guy told us that we could buy reserve tickets for the afternoon, and we were very glad that we did that! So we switched out afternoon plans to the morning and headed over to the Palazzo Pitti to check out the Boboli Gardens. We also went to a Costume Gallery at the palace which was pretty cool. There were clothes from three centuries, very neat. The Boboli Gardens were alright, but we really liked the Bardini Gardens which were nearby. The Bardini Gardens were smaller but much more interesting and there were far fewer school groups! (Actually, we were the only people there.) We had a wonderful pizza and gelato lunch, then headed over to the Uffizi. There was lots of great stuff there, including Botticelli's Primavera and the Birth of Venus and Titian's Venus of Urbino. Works by Caravaggio and other Italian greats were all worth seeing, but walking through the museum very quickly made us tired. We relaxed back at the hostel and then went for dinner with two American boys from Georgetown who are studying at Oxford.

April 8 -- We slept in a bit later and had our customary breakfast of pastry and tea. We headed over the Galleria Della Accademia to see David. On our way, we saw an old man with a jaunty feather in his cap, singing in the street! We waited in line, but not too long. There was a really cool special exhibit of old musical instruments. I learned the difference between a piano and a harpsichord! Are you ready for me to school you? A Harpsichord plucks the string, while a piano strikes the string. Now you know! David was really cool, I knew the statue was big, but I had no idea it was that big! It really is amazing. Unfortunately, there was nothing else cool in the museum. Lame. After that, we headed over to Santa Croce to see where all the famous Florentines are buried. We saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Macchiavelli and a few others. The church was huge and very pretty with lots of nice frescoes. There was also a Leather School in the back, where you could buy all kinds of neat leather goods and watch people make stuff! Neat. Once we were done there, we decided to go to H&M because we still had some money left. We went out for dinner with the two American boys again, and I had my Floretine steak and it was DELICIOUS! Yum.

Thoughts on Florence--
-So much prettier, easier, more modern than Rome
-More relaxing, though still heaving with tourists
-There is graffiti Everywhere in Italy!!
-The Florentine police wear such funny white hats!

Roma! (April 1-5)

Woo! Here are the photos from Rome!

Roma!

(Click on the Colosseum to see the rest of my pictures!)

March 31 - We flew to Rome, landing in the evening and then took the train to the city. As we walked to the hostel, we were pleasantly surprised by how warm it was! Scotland had been super cold, as usual, so we were very happy! After dropping our stuff off, we went out and had an amazing dinner of pizza! Oh yes, yum yum yum!

April 1 - Got up super early and went to the Colosseum. Arrived at 8:30am, before it even opened! We wandered around and listened to the audio guide, the best part of which was "And then the jaws of the whale opened and fifty bears poured out!" Once we were done there, we walked up the street to visit the ruins at Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The forums were really cool, the best ruins. Unfortunately, the sky made good on its threat and opened up a torrential downpour! We ran up the hill to take shelter and found ourselves at the Piazza Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo. We also, quite coincidentally, ran into the statue of the suckling lady-wolf, which we had wanted to see but couldn't figure out where it was in the guidebook. We walked down the steps of the Campidoglio and then down to the church where the Bocca Della Verita resides. We took cover in the church, since it was still raining. After while, we started one of the walking tours in the Rome City Guide, and walked through some back streets. The tour took us to a church with an orangery in the courtyard, which smelled amazing. It also had amazing views of the city. We walked a little further to a plaza dedicated to the cavalry of Malta, where we looked through a keyhole and saw the dome of St Peter's Basilica perfectly framed in some hedges. It was magical. We walked back and had a yummy lunch across from the Colosseum and then changed our damp clothes at the hostel. We headed out again to do another walking tour, this one starting with the Trevi fountain! We continued to the Pantheon, but we were so tired and there was a McDonald's... it was actually the only time we ate at Mac Do the whole trip! Then we collapsed from EXHAUSTION.

April 2 - We got up and finished the walking tour that we had started the day before, beginning with the Trevi Fountain again, and then the Pantheon. We had gelato down the road from the Campo dei Fiori, YUM. We started another walking tour around Trastevere, walking over the oldest standing bridge in Rome through Isola Tiberina, the smallest inhabited island in the world. We crossed to the other side of the Tiber to the neighborhood of the Trastevere. We chilled out in the courtyard of the church of St Cecilia, walked along a bit and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. The weather was fabulous and we both really enjoyed the laid back, not-as-touristy feel of the neighborhood. At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Botanic Gardens to relax a bit. It was a really nice garden, up on a hill. Once that walking tour was done, we walked over to the Spanish Steps which were absolutely swarming with tourists enjoying the spring sun. Seriously, Swarming. We walked up to the top of the steps, and then started yet another walking tour, this one of the Villa Borghese Park. We enjoyed our stroll through the park in the early evening, we marvelled at the museums but did not go in. The weather was so nice, it was very sunny and warm with lots of fluffy clouds. We headed home and had a delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hostel, and then we slept the sleep of the truly tired.

April 3 - Woke up hella early again, to beat the crowds at the Vatican, at which we were very successful. We walked almost 3 miles to the Vatican at 8 o'clock in the morning, which was very silly. We did see about 3,000 priests and nuns on our walk to Vatican City, so that really got us into the spirit! We wandered around St Peter's Basilica for a while, it's huge! Everything is gigantic and over-designed, imposing statues wagging their fingers at you and opulent everything! We climbed up the cupola (320 steps!) and took in the view. We bought stuff at the gift shop (Rosaries 'R' Us!) and Emily mailed her postcards - they have their own postal system. When we were done at the Basilica, we strolled over to the museum and we only had to wait in line for 20 minutes. Awesome. We couldn't find the things we wanted to see, so after seeing a bunch of stuff we didn't really care about, we gave up and walked toward the Sistine Chapel, only to discover that we were swept along in a sea of humanity through about 30 rooms, some of which had the stuff we had wanted to see! The Sistine Chapel was much shorter than I expected, and it was packed with people, guards "Shh"-ed us every few minutes. It was really neat though! After that, we headed across the street and had a yummy lunch at a family establishment. All the Italians were yelling at each other and rushing around. After lunch, we walked back to the hostel and took naps. We had a super delicious Chinese dinner with Jasmine tea and everything! Yay!

April 4 - Today we got wise and took the Metro to the Castel Sant'Angelo. The castle terrace had the best view! After seeing all the buildings by foot, I really appreciated the view now that I knew what most of the stuff was. We lunched on some paninis off of Piazza Cavour and had gelato on Via Cola Renzetti. We took the Metro and a bus out to the catacombs and started doing the walking tour, but we got there so late that pretty much everything was closed. We ended up just having a nature walk ... of several miles. It was very beautiful and enjoyable, as the weather was mild.

April 5 - We decided to take it easy, after killing ourselves for four days. We headed to Piazza Barberini to see the bone church, Santa Maria della Concezione. The monks at the church made decorations out of the bones of the brothers who died. It's a little creepy but very creative and cool. After we had gawked at the bones, we walked across the street and had delicious croissants and tea al fresco. We rewarded ourselves for our hard driving sightseeing earlier in the week by taking a day out to shop and gorge on gelato. We caught the City Sightseeing tourist bus as a nice little coda to our time in Rome and then we cheated and had dinner at an Irish pub off of Via Nazionale, and half-watched an Italian football game.

Random thoughts on Rome:
-Tons of scooters! Everywhere!
-The men were actually very nice, they always moved out of the way on the sidewalk and held doors open for us
-Blood orange juice is very yummy!
-All the Italian food is really delicious!
-Saw so so so many priests and nuns
-Rome is mostly tiny little streets, with very few big boulevards. It's annoying when you're trying to get across the city
-Rome is too overwhelming. There are too many museums, palazzos and piazzas. Too much stuff to do! Too many people, too many tourists, too much noise.
-I would definitely go back, but not any time soon.

Pollok Country Park, Glasgow

Ok, ok, Italy pics are on the way! But first, I had to write 6000 words of project reports and now I need a mjor break, so I will try to pop them on here next week. In the meantime, I downloaded some software to help me blog my pictures and as a tester I am going to put up some pictures from Pollok Country Park.



As a reward for all the hardwork we put in last week on our digital projects, some of us Digitisers decided to treat ourselves to a day out Pollok Country Park. Scotland is so beautiful right now, everything is blooming! I hope you like the pictures, the park was wonderful.

Get Ready ...

This is just a little taster of what's to come ... here we are in front of the Rialto Bridge in Venice!

And fifty Bears poured out ...

Ciao da Roma!

Emily and I arrived in Rome on Tuesday night and have been running ourselves ragged! But we always make sure our tummies are full of pizza and gelato! Yummy. We have been seeing EVERYTHING and doing lots of walking tours from the guidebook. We're heading to Florence on Monday morning on the train and then the following Thursday we are off to Venice. I'm looking forward to the train journey and I'm extremely pleased that we managed to buy our tickets with no fuss yesterday. So far I've taken over 500 pictures! I don't know where I'm going to put them all ... maybe I will start up a Flickr account.

Anywhoozle, just wanted to check in and let you know that we are having a great time and that it is really warm here! Hurray!