It's 5K Friday - IN FLORENCE!

Good morning! It's 5K Friday! TJ and I got up early and ran the requisite 5K through the city of Florence. We ran by the Duomo di Firenze, the Uffizi Museum and along the Arno River. It was a lovely morning, less humid than Venice, with a cool breeze. All in all, a great way to start the day!

Now it's time for a shower, breakfast (coffee, I need coffee!!) and then we'll be off to meet David and enjoy some of the world's greatest art.

Ciao!

Arrivederci Venice, Ciao Florence!

Elvis has left the building! Or in other words, we have departed Venice and arrived in Florence.

Our last night in Venice included meeting 3 blokes from Australia, 3 guys from Canada and a pair of girls from Texas. We closed down the Devil's Forest Pub with our new travel buddies and headed over to Bacara Jazz, the jazz-themed/named bar that apparently never offers live music. Huh? No live music in the jazz bar? Crazy Italians!

This morning we packed up our suitcases, checked out of our hotel and headed to San Marco Plaza to see the Basilica of St. Mark. The church was rebuilt in 1064 and consecrated in 1094 (apparently, they lost St. Mark's relics for a while). It was absolutely beautiful inside - statues and murals and gold, oh my!

After a quick bite for lunch (and by quick I mean it took forever), we took the water bus to the station to catch a train to Florence. Of course, we missed the train by *that much* and had to hang at the station for an hour to catch the next one. But we eventually got going and 2 hours and 4 stops later we were in Florence.

In the 2 hours since arriving, we’ve already scoped out the museum where the original David is housed and found the Duomo di Firenze (the cathedral church of Florence). Tomorrow should be another busy day!

Buonanotte!

Day 2 in Venice

It's already been a long day and it's not even 5 pm yet. After my morning run (see previous post), we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast and then headed out to see the sights.

We started with a shuttle to the island of Murano, where they make beautiful glass objects. It was interesting to see the master glass blower make a cup and a rearing horse in about 5 minutes. After the demonstration, we had to "tour" the glass house, which was a thinly veiled sales pitch. The items were beautiful, but not even free shipping tempted us to buy.

After Murano, we took the water bus to the island of Burano, a charming place where they make lace and fish (no, they don't "make" fish, they go fishing). What an odd combination of industry. I wonder if the lace-making evolved from making/repairing fishing nets ... hmmm, I'll have to do some more research. Burano was colorful and what I would consider a perfect example of a village on the Mediterranean.

From Burano, we took the short shuttle (80 meters) to the island of Torcello, home of a very old cathedral and church. There we toured the area around the cathedral, where they had removed many stone statues and friezes from the buildings, but left them on site so we could enjoy them. This is also where TJ fell in a hole and cut his foot (shockingly, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going because he was too busy taking pictures). Don't worry though, he's fine.

Ciao!

Run, Teresa, Run!

MISSION: Run (at least) 2 miles in each city visited.

STATUS: Venice, check!

Got up at 6 am this morning and headed out for a run. It was HUMID, but no worse than summer in Iowa. The challenge was finding dry land to run on, without getting lost (that was key). All the bridges made the run more interesting, especially the long and steep bridge to All Academia, the district just south of San Marco. I need to research the reason behind all the padlocks locked onto the handrails of this bridge ... I suspect it's something related to love as each lock has two names (and a heart or two), written on it.

Now it's time to get cleaned up for breakfast then another day of wandering the city. Today's plans include St. Mark's Plaza, the Rialto Bridge and a trip to Murano to see the glass blowers. Ciao!

Stupid blog - whose idea was it anyway????

I uploaded some pics (when I could have been out finding another gelato stand) and now I can't get the stupid album to load/display the right pictures!!!  ARGH!!

Other than that, we're having a good time.  We're currently chillin' in our hotel room (literally trying to cool off cuz' it's really, really hot here).  Soon as TJ wakes up from his nap we'll be heading out to find some more gelato, oops, I mean find someplace to grab a late lunch/early dinner.  We haven't eaten since the gourmet breakfast on the plane (eaten something other than gelato anyway - that was my brunch selection) and I'm getting a little peckish.

I'm probably hungry from the 63-minute hike we took to find our hotel.  The streets of Venice are a rabbit's warren of dead ends, bridges and hidden alleys.  We wandered around lost for quite some time (still draggin' our bags) - then finally we bought a map and made our way to the hotel.  We dropped off our bags, exchanged our sweaty travel clothes for fresh togs, and went exploring, only to get lost on the way back to the hotel AGAIN!  And I was paying attention!

OK, my tummy is really rumbling now - better wake the sleeping giant and go get some chow ... ciao!

Hot-Lanta!

Well, we made it to Atlanta with no lost luggage (that we know of) and no pat-downs (darn!).  Currently, we're sitting in the Delta Sky Club (we have privileges at the "Club" since we're flying first class), enjoying free drinks and snacks.

(I warned you it may not be interesting and/or entertaining - read on if you've got nothing better to do!)

TJ was only 30 minutes late getting to my house (thank you, Craig), and since I applied the TJ time lapse factor to our pickup time, we made it to the airport at exactly the right time - not too early, not too late (thank you, Janice).

I got screened at the gate but my 14 1-oz baggies of white powder (protein powder, that is), didn't raise any red flags (yet), so I was allowed to board.  Whew!

I've identified the first forgotten item - my camera cable and/or an xD card reader.  Hopefully, TJ has a card reader that will work or I will have to buy a cable so I can upload pictures along the way ... I know our loyal readers (I'm talking about that one bored person) want pictures!

That's all I have for now (sorry it wasn't more interesting).  With TJ along for the trip, I'm sure adventure/mayhem will soon ensue!

Ciao for now!  Hasta Venice!

Two weeks and counting!

Two weeks from NOW, we'll be sitting on leg one of our flight to Venice, Italy!  We're travelling on Delta via Atlanta, GA.  I'm both excited and nervous!  Have I made all the necessary arrangements?  Did I book our inter-European flights on the correct dates?  Does TJ know where his passport is?

I spent the weekend shopping for travel clothes.  I literally had nothing to pack for the trip.  Now I'm afraid I have too much stuff to pack for the trip. :) 

If you're not from Iowa, you might not have known this past weekend was the sales-tax holiday shopping weekend.  Apparently, saving 6% on clothing is enough of an incentive for out-of-towners to make the long trek to Des Moines for school clothes.  And this also meant they had to bring along their infants and grandmothers ... in other words, the malls were really, really crowded with a bunch of amateur shoppers (aka slow walkers and gawkers).

That's my update for now ... busy two weeks ahead ... heading to Minnesota/Wisconsin this weekend with my college gal-pals, then TJ's big 3-0 birthday float trip and then we're OFF!