This was our last day in Venezia. We had breakfast in the room again, then left the hotel around 10:30. Walked to Santa Maria della Salute, a church at the tip of Dorsodoro, by the water. Inside the church was plain but there were some really nice columns. We went back to the hotel to get our bags, then took a crowded vaporetto to the train station. The train ride seemed much longer going back to Firenze.

Our next move was to rent a car in Firenze and drive to Lucca.

Upon our arrival back in Firenze, from Venezia on the train, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! From the train station we walked five blocks, with the luggage in tow, to find the Europcar office. However, since it was Sunday, the office was closed. So by now we were sweating from the heat, and tired from carrying the luggage. This was not good. We headed back toward the train station looking for a phone that worked. Most of the payphones either did not work or were occupied. Did I mention it was really hot? We called the Europcar office at the airport to see if we could pick up our car there. This was our last resort because if we couldn’t pick up the car the rest of the trip we had so carefully planned was screwed. Luckily the airport office was open and we could pick the car up there.

So we took a 20 minute cab ride to the airport for the rental car. When we got the car keys, we had to walk another ten minutes in the hot sun with the luggage to the car parking lot. When we finally got our stuff in the car and were ready to go, I could not get the car to go in reverse. Argh! I left Theresa in the shade of a van, and ran back to the office at the airport terminal only to find out that I had to push up on a ring on the stick shift to get it into reverse. Maybe if the car manual was in English I could have figured that out.

We finally hit the road to Lucca, and got on the A11. We wanted to stop in Prato first. But Prato was elusive. We would follow signs for Prato but could not find the actual city. There were about 30 - 40 signs at each intersection for hotels, stores, and restaurants in addition to roads. It was pretty hard to navigate. Eventually we learned to distinguish the colors of the signs and ignore the ones we didn’t care about.We had to abort on Prato and drive on towards Lucca.

We thought the hotel was inside the city walls of Lucca so we decided to stop in the tourist office for a map and directions. The (rude) lady there told us that the hotel was not inside the walls, but 3 kilometers away up in the mountains. The road to the hotel was very narrow and winding. We pulled up to the hotel and Theresa was stunned.

The place was amazing. It was a beautiful hillside setting with the hotel set in an old rustic building. The grounds have grape vines for their house wine and olives for their own olive oil. The pool had a panoramic view and an infinity edge that just flows over into, well, infinity. Our room had terra cotta floors and wood beamed ceilings. The shower was very tiny, even for Theresa, and I kept banging my elbows on the sides. The rest of the inside was very rustic with lots of old stairways that lead to the same place. All in all we were very satisfied.

We ate dinner at the hotel on the terra cotta patio outside with a great view of the surrounding hills, churches, and farms. It was very romantico. The food was good up until my bistecca, which was a bit dry. We had insalata mista with ham, salami, olives, mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes, fresh pasta with meat sauce, very good local wine from a winery in Lucca twenty kilometers away, and sausage. Througout dinner we were entertained by the two housecats, one black and one gray. We ordered a local grappa and creme caramel for dessert. The grappa was very strong and Theresa didn’t like it but the creme was very good.

In the morning, we were served breakfast in our room on a silver tray. We ate while watching the canal through the semi-circular window.

Afterwards, we went to Piazza San Marco and in Saint Mark’s Basilica. There were gold mosaic ceilings and beautiful marble tiles on the floor. This was Theresa’s favorite church. We went up to the balcony and saw a fabulous view of the square. After the Basilica, we took the elevator up the bell tower next to the church. There was a great view of Venezia on all four sides. We saw the huge bells up there and wondered if they ever went off. We guessed that they probably did not because of the tourists up there. Sure enough, while we were waiting to take the elevator down, the bells went off. They were loud as hell. Luckily we were on the other side of the tower when that happened.

At this point in our trip the weather was getting extremely hot. We had pizza along the waterfront for lunch in the deadly heat. After lunch, we went back to the hotel and changed into shorts and hats (we wore long pants for the Basilica) and took a gondola ride for 80 euros. The gondolier explained various things about Venice to us, like the symbols on the gondola. The ride was short but definitely worth it.

We spent the rest of the day shopping. There are tons of different stores in Venice. Then, after getting ready for dinner, we walked to the restaurant, La Fenice. The courtyard where we ate was romantic, but the food itself was very expensive and not that good.

After dinner we walked around and took a vaporetto to the Rialto bridge, which was very crowded. We got lost on the walk home, which is always a treat in Venice. In fact, that’s probably one of the most fun things you can do there.

We got to Venezia on the 8:30 train from Firenze. It was a very picturesque train ride through parts of Northern Italy. Once we got to Venice, we took a vaporetto (water taxi) to Ponte Accademia, where our hotel was located. We started to climb the old wooden steps of the bridge with our heavy luggage in tow. Halfway up we realized that our hotel was on the side of the bridge we were originally on, and had to turn back. The hotel was right on the Grand Canal by the bridge. We had a big spacious room with a half circular window view of the canal and bridge. We met an American couple leaving the hotel who were on their honeymoon too (they got married a day before us). The hotel room was great, except for the toilet lid which did not stay up. Sitting on the bowl was a funny experience.

We went to lunch near the hotel at Taverna San Trovaso. We had the house wine, scallops au gratin, tortelloni, and I had the liver (a traditional Venetian dish). The food was not that good, but relatively cheap.

After lunch we took a walk to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It had a lot of modern art including some Joan Miro and Dali paintings, and a nice sculpture garden.

We walked towards the Rialto bridge and had gelati at Gelati Paolin (known as one of the best in Venice). The coconut and chocolate/vanilla gelati were incredible. We walked up Ponte Rialto, which was very hot and crowded. This is the bridge under which Theresa’s Uncle Kevin proposed to his wife Mary in a gondola.

We walked back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. Getting anywhere in Venice always involves a nice walk. You can take vaporettos around but usually walking will get you there more pleasantly. We ate dinner at Casin dei Nobili and it was excellent. We had melted cheese with spinach and ham, ravioli stuffed with eggplant and cheese, monkfish and steak, and breaded fried stuffed olives.

Next we walked to Piazza San Marco and were blown away by the size and grandeur of it. I had been there before and was impressed all over again. We sat at Laverna, had coffee and tiramisu, and listened to the orchestra. There were four bands spread across the square who took turns playing. As they played, the crowd of people listening went from one to the other. They played tunes from the Sound of Music and other well-known pieces.

On the third day of our trip, we woke up at 8:30 to go to the nearby archeaological museum. It was ok but most of the explanations were written in Italian and we were hungry because we didn’t eat breakfast. We then got a quick sandwich at the OK Cafe. We walked to the Ponte Vecchio area and tried to shop, but we didn’t find much of anything. We had to call the dinner restaurant to confirm, and had to find a phone and use our phone card. There were surprisingly few pay phones around and most did not work. This is probably due to cell phones, which are everywhere in Italy. We ate lunch at Vecchi Sopori and had pasta w/tomato, and pasta with sausage and beans (which is a traditional tuscan meal).

We then went to the Accademia Museum (which we also booked in advance) and saw Michealangelo’s David. The statue is so big that you can see the veins on his hand. We were really impressed. The museum was small, so we spent only a short time there. By the statue of David, there was an Italian woman trying to take pictures and was arguing loudly with the guard. It was typical Italian behavior and I loved it.

Since it was really hot the whole time, we kept buying bottles of water to carry around. Most of the time the water was relatively expensive. We figured out after a while that the supermarkets were the best place to get cheap bottled water.

Later that day we walked to the Boboli Garden across the Ponte Vecchio. The gardens were very dry and hilly and we were low on water. At the top of one area we had a great view of the Florentine countryside. After the gardens we came back and showered for dinner. Dinner was at Taverna La Bronzina, which was probably my favorite restaurant of the trip. It has nice decor, somewhat modern and rustic at the same time. We started with complementary champagne. The waiter was very nice and explained the menu to us. The wine we ordered was from Montelpuciano, which we went to later on in the trip. The host poured a small amount of wine into one glass, swirled it around, poured it into another glass and swirled, then poured it out with the rest of the bottle into a decanter to breathe. It was the most elaborate wine procedure I’ve ever seen. The food we had was: liver terrine of fois gras, gazpacho with shrimp, risotto with porcini and truffle infused butter, fillet mignon with spinach, and suckling pig with sweet fruit. Cappuccino and chocolate mousse cake was for dessert. We both agreed that the food was excellent. Theresa’s only complaint was that it wasn’t “Italian enough”.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and packed for Venezia earlier the next morning. We had to wake up at 7am for our taxi to the train station for an 8:30 train to Venezia.

The next morning, we had “breakfast” at the hotel which consisted of yogurt, a croissant, and bad coffee. Yes, that’s right, bad coffee. I told everyone before we left that there is no such thing as bad coffee in Italy, but I stand corrected. Fortunately, that was the only case of this during the trip.

After breakfast, we walked back towards the Duomo and climbed the Campinile Tower. It was 411 steps to the top. Theresa got 3/4 of the way up but the stairs became very narrow and dark so I went to the top alone. There were some great views of Firenze from the top.

Lunch was at Piazza Santa Croce where we had pizza, salad, and white wine. It wasn’t very very good. We had booked our tickets to the Uffizi Gallery months in advance, so we went there next. It was a good thing that we booked in advance because the normal lines were waaaaay too long. We didn’t like the museum that much. There were too many religious paintings that all looked the same, but at least there were some nice painted ceilings. Also, we did not get to see Venus which might have made a difference. I thought the whole museum was a bit soporific.

After a quick gelati limone and coffee, we went inside the Duomo to look around. They gave Theresa a blue smock to wear to cover her bare shoulders. Bare shoulders and legs are a no-no in most Italian churches. Some were stricter than others on that count. The Duomo in Firenze happened to supply smocks, but other churches did not. The inside of the Duomo was beautifully painted.

After the Duomo, we went back to the San Lorenzo market to do some shopping. We bought several things there, mostly leather goods like wallets and shoes. The quality of things like that in Italy is great, but the prices are not that much (if any) lower than the States.

After a short nap back at the hotel, we went out to dinner at Trattoria Za Za in the Piazza Mercato Centrale. I liked it a lot but Theresa was not impressed. I had one of the best steaks I’ve ever had there.

When we arrived in Firenze, we took a cab to the hotel (Hotel La Morandi, which used to be a convent) and checked in, but our room wasn’t ready. We freshened up in another room and left our luggage in the lobby.

We walked around the outdoor San Lorenzo market to kill time before lunch. Hence our first taste of Italy was the shopping. We ate lunch at Tratorria Mario on Via Rosina based on a recommendation from the hotel. The meal was very good and cheap to boot. We had the house wine, which was good. In Italy, all restaurants have a house wine, and all meals should be eaten with wine. And who are we to be different? Since we were up all night flying, we got really sleepy and returned to the hotel to nap for a few hours.

Our hotel was fairly close to the Duomo, which in Italian towns is the main cathedral. We walked around the Duomo area. The Duomo itself is quite impressive. The facade was recently restored so it looked great, but the sides were still covered with black soot.

Last time I was in Italy, one of the things I loved was the gelati. It’s not the same as the gelato here, but it was the best ice cream-type food I’ve ever had. We had our first (of many) Italian gelatis near the Duomo. After that we walked towards the Arno river, over the Santa Trinita bridge to watch the water and the sunset. On the four corners of the bridge were statues representing the four seasons. We walked over to another bridge, the Ponte Vecchio but the shops were all closed.

We had dinner at Mamma Gina’s in the Oltarno section, and had polenta and mushroom antipasti, canneloni and ribollita, shrimp with curry, and carpacchio with Barolo wine to wash it down. I was not super impressed with the wine but food was excellent. After dinner we walked to Ponte Allegrazi and through the Uffizi gallery area and listened to the musicians there. At Piazza Della Signoria we sat down at a cafe and had really good Panna Cotta and Cappuccino. Theresa tried her first cafe latte, of which she only took 3 sips.

So, you want to go on a honeymoon. How does the beach sound? Too boring. What about the jungle? Not romantic enough. How about Greece? Great! Oh, wait, the Olympics are in town. Wait, I know… how about Italy?!

That’s how we made our decision in 2004 to go to Italy. We wanted to spend all of our time in Northern Italy, mainly Tuscany. We went for 2 1/2 weeks in July and August.

The highlights of the trip depend on who you talk to. We both enjoyed the food and wine tremendously. Theresa’s favorite place was Venice, but mine was San Gimignano (mostly because I had been to Venice before). The scenery all around Tuscany was very cool, with lots of rustic hilltop towns.

The meals in Italy are a whole concept in and of themselves. They have multiple courses, and sometimes you get funny looks if you don’t order at least 3. The antipasti course is what we would usually call appetizers. The primi course is either soup or pasta. The secondi course is the “main” course of meat or fish. If you like, you can order contorni, or side dishes, which are usually vegetables. Then there’s dolci, or dessert. This is very different from American meals because each item is eaten seperately. Instead of eating meat and potatoes, you would eat the potatoes first and then only when you’re done, eat the meat.

We flew into Firenze through Roma on Alitalia. One of the best things about Alitalia is that they serve free wine and beer with your meals. On the long flight to Roma, however, our TVs and lights were out so it was a bit boring.

We stayed in Firenze for three nights. Then we took a train to Venezia, where we stayed for two nights. After a train ride back to Firenze, we rented a car and drove to Lucca and stayed there for two nights. After that came San Gimignano for two nights, the Chianti region for two nights, Montalcino for one night, and finally Perugia.

Finally, check out my mini-page I like to call “the doors of northern Italy.”