Arrevederci, Italia

In September, I fulfilled my 7+ year dream of going to Italy. Sarah-Dawn came along, and we met up with Lauren and Yuriy periodically throughout the whole trip.

VENICE

All the streets are pedestrian only. No cars. It was beautiful.

For the record, we didn't take a gondola ride. They were overpriced. We just piggy-backed on everyone else's experience and rode in the water taxis when we needed to get around.

FLORENCE

This is from the Piazza Michelangelo, which is on the top of a hill and has a duplicate of the statue of David. We weren't paying much attention the statue. We were too distracted by the sunset.

I couldn't help myself - I just wanted to see if I was as tall as a SmartCar is long!

The Duomo. That's all I know about it. Nice, isn't it?

TUSCANNY

On a whim, we took a bike tour through Tuscanny. Tied for first with the best and most memorable experience we had there. The scenery is every bit as incredible as everyone says. This picture is from the tower of a castle - which is also a winery. Very exclusive. It is only distributed in Italy. We didn't get to try any, but we DID try some olive oil, which I'm pretty sure was the strongest I've ever tried in life.

ROME

I really liked seeing all the sights of Rome - the Colosseum, the Panteon, the fountains, the Vatican, the ruins...but in all honesty, I feel no need to go back another time.

Look familiar? You may have seen me previously in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas! Interestingly, this place has a tomb of the unknown soldier on the other side, with guards keeping watch 24 hours a day and a flame that never burns out. Sounds like another place I know...reminded me of home.

The Spanish Steps - I'm still a little bitter that they put that big sign right in the middle of it and ruined my shot.

CAPRI


The other place tied for first - Capri Island, right off the Amalfi Coast and Napoli. Go there. Just go. Mount Vesuvius is behind us.

Inside the Blue Grotto - the blue is from the angles of the rock and the light refractions from that tiny hole...yeah, I don't know what I'm talking about.

Right after this, we went back down to the bottom and went swimming for about 10 minutes before our ferry left.

THE VATICAN

It rained for just long enough for us to buy those ponchos. We were wearing these hats we'd purchased in Capri and talking with really bad Italian-english accents and watching how many people laughed at us. It's like the hats set us free. And St. Peter's basilica really is ginormous. No picture will ever capture its magnitude.

Gelati and our hets. Life can't get better.