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Family Reflections:
Yup...Italian food is indeed better in Italy (and southern Germany if the restaurant is owened by an Italian family)! We even had the most amazing tomatoes (from a grocer) in Venice.Â
Italians reign in espresso...and that's not just the coffee talking. 😂
Venice is just a beautiful place to walk around.
Rome we recommend skipping (or come for one night, with a tour to see the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Sistine Chapel, and then jet). The change to Euro has really economically impacted the locals in a negative way, the driving is nuts, and it's so crowded. And we're here in the off season!
We were warned by many of you who have been, and we weren't victims to pickpocketing in Rome, but we sure witnessed several assaults and heard from other metro riders of it happening to them the day before.
Don't sit too close to the opposing teams when going to an Italian futbol match. The "away" fans were literally behind plexiglass dividers, and were very intense...and even threw beer over! It was nuts, but a memorable experience for sure!
Venice
The streets of Venice...really fun to walk over bridges, no cars, canals everywhere...
Fish markets, along with fruit and pasta stands, abound in various piazzas.
The famous Rialto Bridge, the oldest bridge over the Grand Canal.
Yup, a chocolate gondola fountain. Eyes popped out!
What's Venice without paper mache masks? We found a local craftsman among our wandering.
Our host recommended booking a free terrace view of Venice, and we lucked out with a slot! This is pretty much the highest you get here. This looks over the Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal.
An incredibly unique bookstore, Alta Acqua Libreria. At high tide, you can see the water coming into the store. They use bathtubs, gondolas, shelves, boats, and more as book storage. You can even walk up books that were damaged by water at one point. There's also a bookstore cat that lives here!
Piazza San Marco and St. Mark's Basilica...and of course, iconic gondola beauty.
Palazzo Ducale (with the basilica in the background). This was the "palace" of a very intense and powerful Venetian government for hundreds of years.
A prison cell in the palazzo.
Took a behind the scenes tour of the palazzo. This was where tortuous confessions took place.
This was Giacomo Casanova's 2nd prison cell, but the chair transferred with him. Known for his womanizing, he was the only person to ever escape from Palazzo Ducale!
Some of the old "truth mail slots" where people could put notes about others doing immoral things. If more than one was written about you, the council investigated/punished. Yikes!
Love this zodiac clock.
Bridge of Sighs...going from the prison to the interrogation council, people could "hear" the sighs of the incarcerated.
Learning to row on the Venician canals!
Learned to row a gondola, well a row boat with the gondola oars and forcola (fork-u-la), as we would've fallen into the water in an actual gondola. Just saying, I'm a natural!
Love the canal "road" signs.
Murano (one of the neighbor islands to Venice Island, known for glass)
Island hopping water bus style!
The welcoming committee!
So far, the best gelato in Murano!
We did a little "workshop" to make our own Murano glass pieces...what a fun experience with a takeaway souvenir. Our teacher was amazing, walking us through the whole process.
Rome
The Colosseum...still impressive, and in the words of our guide, "The Romans were barbaric."
The holes aren't from erosion, but rather from times when the colosseum was stripped of it's metal throughout. To the right, the original marble seats (only recently recovered from a long ago earthquake, so they never were "recycled" elsewhere in Rome.
Down on the ground floor, where Gladiators and animals, along with the many elevators (the white pillars below) to hoist them above, would be awaiting the cruelty above for the emperor.
An upper gate, leading from the Colosseum, of the Roman Forum (center of Roman life...now you see where a forum=chat room comes from on the web).
The Roman Forum was buried below present Rome, since a swampy valley was drained long ago to create it. It's 3-4 floors below today's streets, once excavated.Â
Just resting on an ancient pillar, no big deal. Â
Left: Part of an original building in the forum, transformed into a church much later. If you look closely at the green door on this side, there are no stairs to enter. The ground used to be that high. The present entrance is on the other side of the building, along a present day street.
The Pantheon
Trevi Fountain (not fountaining due to restoration, but fun to see).
Fontana della Barcaccia (Fountain of the Boat) at the base of the Spanish Steps.
The Spanish Steps (only named this because the square below is Piazza di Spagna).
Thought this was olive oil as first, but it's big jugs of wine! 💕
Vatican City (the smallest country in the world)...St. Peter's Basilica from the main square. Holy crowds of people here!
Fun in the Pinecone Courtyard
Sphere within a Sphere...this has been here for awhile and is always a reminder that amongst the older collections in the Vatican, there are quite a few more modern pieces, which we tend to enjoy.
We're blending in!
Waylon found a Minecraft friend!
Sistine Chapel...truly a sight, but it has become very challenging to get to. It literally takes over an hour to go through the path of rooms to get there. Don't get me wrong, some of the rooms were really cool as seen above, but with so many people, it loses its specialness by the time you get to appreciate it. Still glad we went.
Stadio Olimpico for a Roma fútbol match!
En route to the game, tons of fans travel by moto since busses are too crowded and cars aren't allowed close by. Â
You can see the plexiglass divider behind us separating the opposing Bologna fans...they were not nice! Thank goodness our kids have been exposed to things. 😂
In the words of Phish..."Drive me to Firenze..."Â Part 2 of Italy to come with adventures in Florence (Firenze), Pisa, La Spezia, and Cinque Terre!
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