Left Gainesville around 1pm and arived in Rome 9am the next day.

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Holy Jet Lag Batman!!
What an incredible city. So much marble and travertine. Aside from the Unesco Heritage Site, which were very crowded, the Trastevere and Jewish Gheto neighborhoods were our favorite areas. Great restaurants and bars and much less tourist crowds.
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These photos are mainly from a food tour in Trastevere, wandering around and a Pantheon tour. The churches wer just open to just wander in and check it out. Masive churches with dones are everywhere.

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This was a walk and talk tour we did. I don't think I remember much of what she said but it didn't matter, St Peter's Bacilica was spectacular.

These photos are from a Collesum tour. 2000 year old structure made of solid travertine masonry. You can still get this stuff for your bathroom. Of course dinner in the Trastevere.

Leaving Rome, our train was 20 min delayed arrivig in Naples. We couldn't get in touch with our driver that was supposed to take us to Sorrento. When we got to Naples, we had no driver. By pure luck we met another couple also going to Sorrento. They let us ride with them. We came to find out our origional driver showed up about 2 hours late. We had a tour and dinner at a lemon farm. Thanks to the freindly couple we just barely made it to the bus without a moment to spare.

This was a walk and talk tour of Pompeii. Really cool and informative. I've always wanted to see this place. This tour included a trip to Mount Vesuvius and a wine tasting. All great and so much fun. Back to Sorrento for sunset and drinks.

Random photos of time in Sorrento.

Here we were driven to a parking lot an hiked up to the top of the mountain. There was steam comming out of the rocks in the basin. There are several places that serve wine for 2eu a glass.

We visited this place on a boat tour from Sorrento. It included a slow spin around the island, a 3 or 4 hour visit to the island and winding up with prosecco and a swim in the Mediterranean. The town was very pretty but unbelievably packed, almost to the point of not being very fun. Very pretty tho. Lots of high end shops. The boat ride and swim was great, but couldn’t get into the Blue Grotto because of the waves.

Here we booked a bus tour of Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. We got to the meeting point a few minutes late and got stuck on the back of the bus were there was not enough room for my legs. The seats seemed like they were more designed for children. We had an hour in Positano then back on the bus and off to Amalfi. Once there we bailed on the tour and spent more time in Amalfi and took a public boat ferry back to Sorrento for 20e. Which was pretty nice. Disappointed we missed Ravello but was not going to spend 3 more hours on that bus to walk up and down the street in Ravello and take some pictures. We made it back to Sorrento for cocktails at sunset at a bar on a huge cliff. In spite of a crappy tour, it was a good day.

These are random photos from nights in the town of Sorrento. Love this place. What a great city, with lots of bars and restaurants. All walkable. And the sunsets. It sits on a huge cliff. A great night time scene.

This day we did a walk and talk tour of Brunelleschi's Dome and Academia where the David statue is located. Mike the sculpture/architect/painter was a pretty talented guy. Then of course pizza and wine at a really cool place across the street from the hotel.

This is more of the dome tour. We climbed up into the dome between the outer and inner shell. This place is amazing with spectacular views of the city.

This day was an ambitious tour that includes a bus ride from Florence to Cinque Terre and back, a visit to all five villages, (an hour at 4 and 2hr at 1) a hike between two villages and a short boat ride all in one day. It was a fun day but the only thing I got out of that trip was complete exhaustion, some nice pictures and the ability to say we’re there. This place needs more time. Really!!

More just chilling in Florence.

We rented a car in Florence for 4 days in Chianti. The photos are from the hotel and village we stayed in. Very fortunate with great weather and gorgeous sunsets over the grape vines. In Tuscany we scheduled no tours. It was the perfect place to just chill out and explore on our own.

The hotel and other locals gave us some suggested towns to go to. One of the towns, Montefioralle, we showed up and stumbled into a wine festival. All you can drink. At a 1000 year old medieval castle.

Ignoring our reservations about making reservations we made some new reservations thru the place where we made our origional reservations for a visit to a wine maker, the Castelvecchi Winery. Another 1000 year old building. It was first a military base, then a church. The church gave it to the Vecchi's around 500 years ago and they still own it. Now they are making wine. We sent some bottles home.

We got off the train around 2pm and took a water taxi to the hotel. I didn't know what to expect with Venice. Totaly crowded and overrun with tourists. All true, but this place is spectacular. Everywhere you turn your head there is something cool. There are a lot of areas that are not packed.

This first day I went to the Rick Steves book and picked out five or six spots and let google maps do the rest. It was later in the day so the day tripper crowds were gone.

Thes are from the night of our first day. It's a different city at night.

One of the things that sets this city apart from anything I have ever seen is that that are no cars, no skateboards, no scooters, no golf carts, no rickshaws, no wheeled vehicles at all. If you go anywhere you walk. Or boat, but even a boat can't get everywhere. That's the reality in the entire city. And that distinction is far more powerful then I would have ever thought without experiencing it. It's sort of a class equalizer.

This day started with a tour of St. Mark's Basilica, Doges Palace and a gondola ride. Then a walkabout. This time I grabbed an actual Rick Steves walk from the internet. It was earlier and yhe Rick Steves highway was rediculusly packed. We got off it preying quickly.

More of the tour and our own walkabout from the second day.

15 years ago we got married in Telluride, Colorado. Today we will be celebrating our anniversary on the islands of Murano, Burano and Venice. Murano is known for it's artistic glass making, Burano is a small fishing village with very colorful buildings. Venice is, well, Venice.

We left Venice in a water taxi, train to Milan then a train to Como. A little ready and then pizza. The next day was Cynthia's birthaday. For this day we took the ferry to Varenna, walked the streets and drank some wine then sailed the Belagio where we walked the streets, bought some silk and drank some more wine while we watched the sun go down over the mountains on the other side of the lake. After that we took the last slow boat home to Como.

This day we spent walking around the town of Como. Then took the funicular to Brunate at the top of the mountain and had a sunset drink and bruschetta.

Our last stop in Itlay. We went to the Duomo di Milano, the Galleria and explored the town for a day.