Florence (fourth stop on our taste of Italy tour)

We arrived in Florence in the afternoon and rushed quickly to our hotel, only to find a sign that said something about going to a bar to get a key. After going to the wrong bar we finally got the right bar and asked for Lorenzo like the note said. However, Lorenzo was not there but a lady gave us our key and told us how to get to our hotel room. The room was an old apartment and was up many many flights of stairs. We dropped off our luggage and rushed back to the train station to head to Pisa for the rest of the day. The town of pisa was not very impressive but the leaning tower was pretty cool to look at. I was not sure if you were really going to be able to tell it was leaning but you could definitely tell, especially at the base. After taking some pictures and walking around the grounds we stopped to eat (we were starving). The pizza that we got however was awful. We were hungry enough though that we ate it. We just complained the whole time.








The next day we slept in. When we left our hotel we ran right into a protest that was marching down the road. After getting through the crowd we headed over to a Museum to see the David. David was huge. (The picture is of a replica because you cannot actually take pictures of the statue). After walking around bored in the Museum for a few minutes we headed over to the Duomo. By this time all the churches were starting to blend together, but it was big and beautiful like all the others. We then caught a bus to a place called Chianti which is famous for there wine and is out in the tuscany region. The ride out there was hot however calm compared to the ride home. While in Chianti we went on a hike straight up a hill that was about 2 km. From up top you got a great view of tuscany and all the vineyards. We then headed back to catch a bus. This bus ride was very entertaining. There was a school group of about 30 girls from Sweden on it. They all piled in sitting 4 in a 2 person seat. There was a bus strike that day and so there was not very many buses running so there was lots of people on the bus and those girls that did not make it in a seat were on the floor. The bus driver must have been in a hurry because he was driving very fast through all the curvy roads. A baby was screaming the whole time which started the yelling. A lady went to help the mom with the baby and then started yelling at the bus driver to slow down. Then one of the girls passed out and they had to stop the bus and left her and a teacher on the side of the road. At this point half the girls were crying as well. In an attempt to calm the baby down the girls all started singing twinkle twinkle little star (I do not know what language it was). Kevin and I could not help but laugh at how emotional things got on the bus when there were lots of girls. But we all survived and made it back to the main station.









Following the crazy bus ride Kevin and I went to see the bridges and walk around the city a little more. We stopped at a restraunt and had a nice sit down dinner, however the pizza was still not very good. Thats when we decided the Pizza in Tuscany is not very good. I was exhausted by this time so we went back to our hotel and checked our email and such. When I checked my email I had a message from the Principal at Madison Jr. High (I had interviewed with him before I left) asking me to contact him asap. I downloaded skype on Kevin's Ipod and contacted my mother so she could contact him. She got a hold of him and he just said he had some questions to ask me. I emailed him and got his cell so I could call him Saturday when we got to Foggia.

Venice (Third stop on the taste of Italy tour)

Our third stop was Venice. After the rushed busy city of Milan, Venice was a good break. The city is beautiful and so unique (since it is all on water). After arriving we decided to do lunch (some yummy pasta) and then we attempted to find our hotel. Luckily it went better than Milan, however our hotel was a little iffy. It was down a little ally and then we were outside in a little courtyard. However the room was clean and had a bed and bathroom and thats all we wanted.


We then headed to the St. Marks square to see the Duomo and Bell Tower. We went up the bell tower and really enjoyed the view of the red roofs and beautiful canals. Once again Kevin and I agreed that the money spent to see the view was well worth it. We then took our gondola ride. The funny thing about the gondola ride is Kevin had just mentioned we should find a bathroom, so when the guy went about selling us his gondola ride we told him we would think about it, but first we had to go find a bathroom. He then said he would give it to us $10 cheaper if we did not go to the bathroom. We agreed. It was a very relaxing, romantic, enjoyable ride with the hubby.













We then headed over to another island call Lido where we ate dinner (good pizza) and bought some groceries. As the sun began to go down we headed back to the main Island to do some night sight seeing. The city was all lit up and it looked amazing. We road the ferry all through Venice just to admire the sights and then stopped to see the Rialto bridge. After kissing on the kissing bridge (The Rialto) we went to catch the water taxi again. While waiting an older couple came in and said something to the fact of we love your sweatshirts. We were both in Oregon Duck sweatshirts and they were huge Oregon Duck fans as well. They took a picture with us "to show there kids that there is Ducks fans in Venice" and then we visited for a little while. We then headed back to St. Marks square to see it all lit up. We decided to walk back to our hotel which turned into an adventure, since venice is just a lot of ally ways.










The next day me and Kevin took a Ferry to Murano (famous for its glass) to see the glass blowing demonstration. The glass blowing factory was not exactly what I had pictured but it was still amazing. It was just three men at work in a little warehouse. We watched them make a horse, a vase, and then part of a lion. It was very entertaining. It was then time for us to head back to the train station say goodbye to a wonderful city and head on to Florence.

Milan (2nd stop on our taste of Italy tour)

We arrived in Milan around 8 the first night of our trip. We however did not know where our hotel was. We bought a 90 minute metro ticket and attempted to get to what we thought was the closest train station. After running around (often in circles) in the the metro and being misguided multiple times we finally ended up at the train station we wanted to be at. Only to find out that we were still lost. We stopped to ask a lady for help and she guided us to a taxi guy because she did not know where our hotel was either. By this time it was 10:30 (Kevin admitted later he was thinking we might have to sleep at the train station) the taxi guy was very nice though and offered to take us to our hotel for 4 euros. We gladly accepted and were very happy to finally make it to our hotel safely.

The next day we headed to the Milan castle and then walked around a little quant park. Here we found some good entertainment. These women were working out in a large group with all there babies in strollers (great idea for Rexburg huh?) They even had their yoga mats with them.






We then made our way to the Milan Cathedral where we walked around inside and then went up to the top. Kevin and I both agreed that we love views so we would usually spend the extra money to go on top of things and see the view. The cathedral was amazing up top! There was so much detail and cool architecture. Plus an awesome view.








Following the cathedral we ate lunch and then headed over the mall that contained lots and lots of expensive things I will never be able to afford but they were still cool to look at. We of course had to stop by the bull and spin on his balls (they are supposed to be lucky). It was fun to look at all the expensive stuff and watch all these crazy people spending 2,000 euros on a purse! Overall Milan was fun but really busy.

Bern (1st stop on our taste of Italy tour)

Kevin and I decided to start our two week Italy trip off right by going to see the Bern Temple. Since it was a Monday the temple was closed however we were still able to walk around the grounds and marvel at the beauty. We took a train there and when we got off the train we had no idea which way to go. We decided to walk to McDonalds and ask, but before we got there Kevin spotted Moroni. It was amazing how peaceful it was just being on the grounds and how much it relaxed us both after a long day of stressful traveling. The temple reminded me a lot of the Idaho Falls Temple, which is probably because they were built right around the same time. The Bern Temple was also the first temple built in Europe.

After the temple we decided to just go back to the main train station and walk around Bern a little until our next train left for Milan. We walked around for a while and then ended up down a road that had a giant picture of a naked woman. We then decided to return to the train station. I was walking ahead of Kevin when all of a sudden I heard some guy yelling German. I turned around to see a Kevin holding the wrist of some crazy looking man. The man had reached into Kevin's backpack and Kevin had felt something so he reached back and found a hand. Luckily we only had some snacks in that pocket but it still shook us up a little.