Florence

I think that Florence was my favorite city in Italy. First of all, the shopping was unparalleled. Awesome. I regret not buying more there actually, because Rome was a bit of a let down on the shopping scene. Also, everything worth seeing could be easily walked to. Especially from the awesome location of our hotel.

We got there on a Sunday morning and checked into the hotel. Then, we had to do all museum related activities immediately because they would be closed on Monday. So we went to the Accademia gallery to see the David, and several other Michaelangelo statues, and then we went to the Uffizi gallery. We had to wait on line for both of them, which was lame. We also wandered the Palazzo Vecchio, where we saw the copy of the David in the original statue's location. And we shopped.

Palazzo Vecchio

Fake David (in the real David's original location)

Monday we toured the Duomo which was HUGE. So big in fact that I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, so I had to take several pictures from different angles instead. We also went to the designer outlets, but it was a bit of a let down - any discount as a result of being at an outlet was completely eliminated by the horrible exchange rate. So we didn't get anything there. But we went shopping again once we got back to the city.

Our train to Vernazza wasn't until the afternoon on Tuesday, so we went to the Santa Croce church in the morning to check it out. And then we did some shopping (surprise). And then we got on a train to Vernazza, which is where the disasters started. But that's a story for another day.

Santa Croce

Michaelangelo's tumb

Gallileo's tumb

I'll update with Vernazza and Rome (in a few different posts) next week. But for now, I go home for the weekend. Yay. Happy Friday everyone. And go Yankees (I cannot listen to Blake gloating about the Phillies winning the World Series for the second year in a row...especially if it's at the hands of my Yankees. That would be horrible).

Siena

First of all, I will say that if you ever go to Italy, go to Siena. It's really awesome. There's not much to do but wander and hang out and eat amazing foods and drink delicious wines. There's also some solid shopping. And if you go to Siena, stay here. Beautiful hotel. With amazing views. In fact, here's a view from our hotel room right now.

Hello, Tuscan hills.

There's a cathedral and a main square, called Il Campo, in the center of town that was an easy walk from the hotel. On the way, we stopped for lunch and oh my god it was amazing. I had gnocchi in a carrot and walnut cream sauce. SO GOOD. After that we hit the cathedral, wandered on the square, and ate gelato (naturally).

Cathedral

Clock tower/town hall building

Il campo

We also found a great dinner destination filled with locals that was fantastic. We each got a little jug of wine, that wound up being like 3 glasses, for like 6 euros, and since we were in Tuscany, it was really good. I can't remember exactly what my meal was, but I think it was a tortelloni in some kind of delicious wine sauce. After dinner we did some shopping and I got the awesome purple purse from the previous post.

I wish we had stayed there fore more than one night, even though there wasn't much to do. I easily could have done a half day wine tasting tour the next day and eaten more of the region's food for another day. I will definitely make a return trip at some point.

Bologna

There's really only one reason to go to Bologna: the food. Bologna is where a lot of really important Italian foods were created. Bolognese sauce (meat sauce) is probably the most popular. They are also responsible for filled pastas like tortellini and ravioli, parmesean cheese, and proscuitto. Its nickname is "Bologna the Fat" because of the food. Which is fine with me.

We had easily the most delicious lunch ever at a restaurant that we found while wandering near the hotel (which was in a great location btw). I don't know what exactly one can do to regular old bruschetta to make it as good as it was at this place, but I don't care. I also had some tortelloni in a cheese and wine sauce that was amazing. Good times.

I must find you again some time, Il Saraceno.

Bologna is not a normal tourist destination. It has a small square with stores and a cathedral on it, and some medieval towers, but otherwise it's pretty much a regular city. The church was especially odd because its construction took hundreds of years and, as you can see, somewhere around the halfway point they completely changed artistic directions. It was a little odd.

Cathedral

Clock tower and shops on the square

The square

Fountain on the square

One of the medieval towers

I wouldn't spend more than a day there at a time because of the lack of sights, but if you are anywhere near it and want delicious food, you should go. I had a delicious mushroom ravioli for dinner and the most amazing hot chocolate ever while I was there as well. This hot chocolate was like they just melted a hershey bar and poured it in a cup, that's not thick it was. Amazing.

Venice

We got to Venice around noon and, of course, got totally lost trying to locate our hotel. Once we found it though, it was in an awesome location. If you ever go to Venice, stay here. It was a 5 minute walk to the Rialto bridge and a 5 minute walk to St. Mark's square, so it was right in between the two major sights. It was great.

That afternoon, we went to tour the Accademia gallery (no pics allowed, sorry). Other than that, we basically just did a lot of walking around. On our evening wander, we stumbled upon St. Mark's square, and it is awesome at night. Though I have no pics to prove it. Oh well.

The next day, we decided to walk to the Frari church, which was on the other side of the canal. So we went over the Rialto bridge (great shopping) so get there. We, of course, got a bit lost, but found it eventually. After that, we went to St. Mark's square (also good shopping, but a bit overpriced) and toured the Basilica and Doge's palace. And also ate gelato. Because I had that just about every day.

St. Mark's Basilica

Clock tower on St. Mark's square...with a very cooperative pigeon that wound up making this picture really cool.

Doge's Palace exterior

Doge's Palace courtyard

Shot of an island from the Doge's Palace second floor window

Really, the best thing to do in Venice was just walk around. There are signs everywhere directing you to the major sights, so we figured as long as we could get back to St. Mark's square via signs, we'd never be lost because we could get back to the hotel from there. Venice was beautiful, and I'd definitely like to go back there some day. Here are some random pictures I took from just walking around.




The next afternoon, we left for Bologna. That will be the next post (probably not until tomorrow though. I have to do some kind of work today at least).

Milan

Before you get too excited, I realized that apparently I wasn't into taking pictures in Milan...because I hardly have any. But I'll post anyway.

We started our trip on Milan. I flew out on an overnight flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia to Rome on a Sunday and arrived in Rome Monday morning, only to take a train directly to Milan (4.5 hours). I was, clearly, exhausted when I arrived, and my mom wasn't coming until the next day, so I got some food and then slept. Not very exciting.

Side note though: I flew first class over there (thank you, rewards points) and it was AWESOME. The flight was almost a vacation in itself. I will never fly coach overseas again. EVER.

Tuesday, my mom arrived around noon and we had to kamikaze attack Milan in one day. We weren't able to get reservations to see the Last Supper, so we didn't have too much to do. We grabbed a quick and delicious lunch and then toured the Duomo and went to Sforza Castle (which I somehow forgot to take ANY pictures of. WTF. Lack of sleep was clouding my judgement I guess).

Duomo

Fountain that I'm pretty sure was right outside of Sforza Castle.

After some walking around near the hotel and eating dinner, we passed out pretty hard. The next morning we were off to Venice. That will be the next post. And don't worry, I took about 100 pictures there, so you will be entertained. :)

I'm back!

I got back from Italy on Monday night. Going back to work today was terrible. But it was a good trip. And I leave for St. Thomas in three weeks, so I think I'll survive.

Anyway, I'll update throughout the week in separate posts for each city we went to with pictures and all of that. But for now, I'll just show you all of the awesome shit I bought...because that's probably why you're here anyway. It may seem like a lot, but trust me, if the exchange rate had been more favorable, there would be a LOT more. As it was, we needed to buy an additional suitcase to get it all home. It could have been much worse.

Venice: Venice is all about glass, and as such, they had awesome jewelery. For super cheap. Here is what I got myself. I really like the black and gold, and will be wearing it to Wake tailgates in the future.

Pretty.

Siena and Florence: Siena is close to Florence, so they have a lot of the same stuff. Although we found that Florence was by far the most awesome place to shop, we went to Siena first, so we also got some stuff there. We were really mad that we didn't buy more there...we wanted to save money for Rome, but it was just not as good. Check it out.

Christmas gift from Mom. I wore it home and when Blake picked me up at the airport, he told me I smelled like dead cow. Mmm, new leather smell.

These boots are made with the softest leather. I heart them. I like to wear them over leggings, as that was the look everywhere we went. And they're super comfy.

Grey and purple seem to be big this season, as they were everywhere we went. So I followed the trends in my purse purchases. Also, this one matches the boots perfectly.

Purple has always been my favorite color.

This wrap/scarf is cashmere, and it is so damn soft. And I will forever be pissed that I only got one of them, that is how much I love it. Next time I'm in Florence, I'm getting like three more.

More pretty scarves. Silk. I'm really into scarves now for some reason.

Rome: Rome did have a lot of shopping, but most of it was expensive designer boutiques, which weren't even in my price range without considering the horrible exchange rate, so that was lame. I did a little bit of damage though.

Leather jacket number two...because you can't have just one.

Suede boots. Look awesome with my skinny jeans tucked into them. Love.

That's about it. I already want to go back, but now I know exactly where to go and for how long, so hopefully next time I'll convince Blake to come with me. There are also some places, like Capri, Sicily, and Sorrento, that I didn't make it to this time that I'd like to see in the future. I'll update with more stuff within the next week or so. Ciao!

Another Kindle Plug

So yesterday I open Amazon while I'm bored at work, because I figure I'll take a peek at their new kindle book offerings, and what do I see? Only that the Kindle I ordered two weeks ago has decreased in price by $40. Greeeeeat. Of course it has.

For a few minutes I was mad, and then I was like "wait...I'm just going to email them and, as politely as I can, inform them that I'm still within my 30-day return window and therefore I'd like a $40 refund. And that if I don't get a $40 refund, I'll return my current Kindle and order a brand new one for the new price. And they will be stuck with a used Kindle to refurbish and sell for even less." I sent an email to customer service, and with zero argument, about 3 hours later they wrote back to tell me they would refund me the $40.

Basically, what I'm saying here is that Amazon is awesome, you should all use them all the time, and you should all now buy Kindles because they're only $259. And they're the best things ever. I can't believe that getting this price adjustment was easier than getting one on a pair of jeans from the Gap. Ridiculous(ly fantastic).

I'm bored at work this week, which has enabled me to do a bunch of Italy planning with the help of the internet (which I don't have at home) and a printer (which I do have at home, but it's inkless currently). So yay.

Kindle is the shit.

I leave for Italy in 5 days. Woo! Anyway, I finally ordered that Kindle last week and it is AWESOME. It's totally not annoying to read on such a small screen as I thought it might be. You should all buy one.

In other news, I had jury duty yesterday. It was, at times, awesome and horrible. First, you go in there in the morning and sit in a "jury suite" where they have movies playing and popcorn machines and arcades and pool tables and just hang out until they call your name. I was in the business center with my laptop plugged in reading until about 11:30. And then, when they need to populate a 12 person jury, they call out 12 names, plus some additional names in case some jurors are dismissed by the attorneys. I got pulled in as #35 for a jury that only needed 12 people. And once you get to the courtroom you're not allowed to DO ANYTHING but listen to the jury questioning. No reading, no eating, no talking, NOTHING. So for three hours I watched the attorneys ask jurors questions. And then the unnecessary jurors were dismissed and went back to the jury suite. Fortunately, it was so late by then that we were allowed to go home 30 minutes later without having to deal with any other schenanegins. I'm back at work today.

I'm also lazy. I just DO NOT feel like going to the gym today. So I'm not going to. I'll lift a bit when I get home. I'll also make a delicious dinner because I roasted a chicken Sunday night and I've been cooking with the leftovers ever since. Tonight we will have a casserole. Yay.