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Getting to (and Surviving in) Venice

We ended up waiting ALL DAY to catch the bus out of Tavarnelle...which made us miss our train from Florence to Venice--by one minute. It turned out to be one of the most expensive minutes of our lives. Take Elder Wirthin's advice and find the humor in the situation when you shell out 80 Euros, aka $120, for another ticket (on top of the price of the non-refundable missed train). Needless to say, by this time we were all smiles. :)

We got to Venice short on cash and short on time. The two don't mix. How do you take a 20 Euro taxi and feel good about it? Of course, Lu saw the wisdom in biting the bullet and taking the taxi (we did only have mere minutes before our hotel closed for the night). The driver was nice and gave us a good price. The hotel manager was even nicer. We checked in and asked her where we could buy some milk (this was funny to watch because she spoke NO ENGLISH). After some hand signing and very basic Italian, she ended up taking us downstairs and heated up some milk for us like we were a couple of lost kittens. Everyone should try bran cereal and warm frothy milk during their lifetime.

Venice was an adventure. We saw a lot of the touristy places. There were hundreds of shops with masks, glass, and yummy candy. Busy city centers and packed restaurants. There were a couple of cruise liners in the city that day so it was plenty busy. We also took the chance to leave the main path and explore the back streets/canals.

The back streets were my favorite. Beautiful stone paths and buildings, an about-to-be-married-couple riding on a gondola, and some quite time in a church on Sunday made for a lovely day.

Aw, the pretty couple

No swimming here Lu! (But I guess if you've stuck your foot in the Nile you can stick your foot in anything)

Firenze: Italian for Florence

The next big stop on our trip was Florence. We took a train from Rome and saw a good chunk of Italian countryside, delightful! We immediately took off exploring the city, map in hand. Here is a small taste of what we saw (there will be a lot more picture showing when we get home!)

Lu and some other tourists at the Duomo.

Dustin by the Cattedrale di Santa Maria.

Look! A famous door!
(That's about all we can tell you about it)

With our remaining time in Florence we saw David(!), ate at ZaZa's, visited churches, and got rained on. Lu managed to capture a sneaky video of David (gasp!) without the watchdogs getting angry at her. After only a day in Florence we headed off for the next phase of our Journey. We caught a bus to the charming little town Tavarnelle.

Lu on a charming street listening to the bells of a little country town chapel right in the middle of Tuscany. If you ever have the chance, go to Barberino di val dʼelsa!

We walked and biked through orchards, vineyards, and the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. It really was a magical adventure. We were sad to turn in our bikes, check out of our hip hostel, and sit down to wait for the bus back to the big city.

The Vatican

Well, day two of Rome was spent at the Mecca of Catholicism. We took the underground to the other side of town to go see the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Good thing we had reservations or it would have been a 2 hour wait! But we were an hour earlier than our reservation time--better early than late. We took the time to walk around the outer wall of the entire city. Here's a picture of Lu with the Pope! I think he's stepped out for a moment actually...

After a brief "discussion" over the cost and benefits of the audio tour we were on a journey through the history of civilization. From mummies to Michelangelo to modern art, we saw it all.

We even stopped by the lesser-known carriage exhibit in the basement! Never has one seen so many statues, busts, and frescoes. The museums were wonderful and the audio tour was well worth the price (thanks Lu for insisting)! Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel. As a very angry Italian man once said, "NO FOTO!" After 2 hours in the museums there was still plenty of day left. We ran over to St. Peter's Basilica and queued in the closest line. After learning that the price to get into wherever we were going was 5 Euros (7 if you take the lift instead of the stairs) each we hesitated, but ended up enduring the wait and heading up the stairs to the Copula (cool dome at the top). We saw cool mosaics (Mom L, you should look at this) and got our money's worth with great views inside and out (thanks again Lu).

Peter's grave speaks for itself.

Too bad a crazy man in the 70's prevented us from seeing this any closer....
Lu was in heaven.

After a long day at the Vatican we couldn't stop. We headed back to the old Roman Forum to see a few things we missed the day before. BUT we didn't take into consideration the fact that tourism pretty much shuts down at four or five in the afternoon. This is as close as we got to the mouth of truth.

When in Rome...

And thus it was that Dustin and Lauran set off on their journey. We reached England after a long night flight, took a bus from Heathrow airport through BEAUTIFUL England countryside to Stansted to store our luggage and leave our recently-greeted England on yet another plane (We've been traveling for about 35 hours at this point) to ROME. There we caught our last bus from the Ciampino airport to the city center of Rome - one of the most ancient cities still in existence.

Amazing. We pulled into the city around 5:00 and quickly (luckily) found our hostel, including our really weird Arab landlord (the bed picture is from our second Rome hostel which , including the Italian landlord, was much nicer except for the shared bathroom) then headed out to explore a bit on foot while the sun was still up, choosing to take the stairs rather than the lift (elevator) that was labeled "ride at your own risk". We found a tiny hole-in-the wall place with yummy pizza - they had little tomatoes cooked on top that exploded in your mouth whenever you took a bite, and the crust is closer to chewy sourdough bread than "normal" pizza - and again, hardly any grease involved (olive oil doesn't count)! And, of course, what better way to introduce yourself to Italy than by finding some authentic gelato - Aunt Teresa, you were right, the hazelnut is hands-down the best flavor!











The next morning (after listening to a crazy drunk Italian shout on the streets for a couple HOURS past midnight) we woke up, got ready, and explored Rome. On our way we passed a man playing - yes, it is Italy - an accordion on the streets. Nothing will make you feel more like you are in an Audrey Hepburn movie than hearing the wholly unique strains on an accordion permeate the morning. We bought bread and peaches from a tiny store on our walk to the COLOSSEUM!!!

Can you see him behind us??

The Colosseum is HUGE. Absolutely gigantic. We spent a lot of time there (and that time was pent inside, not waiting in line because Dustin was awesome and bought us ONLINE tickets before we left home - a must if you are wanting to see everything in Italy - we didn't wait in line our whole trip!!) We went and saw EVERYTHING today - We must have walked ten miles :) Arches, Palaces, columns, graves, museums, aqueducts, fountains, etc. I think it'd be most interesting if I just show you the pictures:

This was one of my favorite pictures of the trip - this is right outside of the Colosseum.

Aqueducts for Jared.

This is Trevi Fountain - huge sculptures!!


These are the Spanish steps - and this is a fountain at the bottom where we filled up our water bottles - probably not the best idea usually, but if the natives do it...

One of the best parts of the day happened as we were walking down the street and passed a church - we decided to go in, and ended up sitting for twenty minutes in a Roman cathedral listening to the dress rehearsal of Mozart's Requiem (we didn't have money for the performance that night). WOW! Music is a whole new creation when performed in a cathedral. Heavenly.

And while we walked around and around, we had to stop and get some more gelato :)



And next was the Pantheon.

We walked and walked and WALKED - we had such a fun day. I wish we'd taken pictures of everything - but about the time I documented the cobblestone pavement our battery started flashing low... it's a great feeling to be on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy and to know you have mere seconds of footage left before it dies. Ah, the joys of life. Mom L, we thought you'd like the cobblestones, so enjoy :) We love ROME!

Getting to England: Chicago

It's a mistake to stay up until 1:00 when you have to be at the airport the next morning at 6:00. But when it is your last summer night to play Nertz with the family, sacrifices must bee made. Miracle of miracles, Dustin and I still woke up and were on our way a little after 5:00am (Thank you to Mom F, Lanae, and Trevor).
We've decided to really milk this trip for all it is worth (and tickets with long layovers are much cheaper) so we spent the afternoon in the windy city of Chicago :)

Chicago is unlike any U.S. city I've ever been to. The sky scrapers are huge but everything else makes you feel as if you've stepped into the 1800's. The lamp posts and canals and old buildings give the city a really unique feel. We loved it!
After visiting the Willis tower (formerly known as the Sears tower) we searched for the most authentic-looking pizza place in Chicago - and I think we found it!! The pizza was TO DIE FOR! And, surprisingly, much less greasy than normal Utah pizza. Definitely a must-eat for anyone traveling to Illinois.


We explored a bit more around the city, then grabbed the subway back to the airport to get on our way.

See you on the other side of the ocean!!