Italy (May 30-ongoing)

After 5 days or so catching up with friends in Paris and doing some further trip planning we departed on a discount airline flight for Venice. Our plan is to spend 2-3 weeks in Italy moving at leisure from Venice to Florence through Tuscany to Rome and ... well after that we'll see how things go. So far we've done the Venice,Florence, Siena part and tomorrow we pick up a rental car for a week to wander through smaller towns and the countryside.

There isn't nearly as much to say now compared to the more exotic travels and sights of Asia and the Middle East except to say that everything is so much easier and relaxed about this kind of travel (albeit about 4x as expensive!).... and of course everything is beautiful and that we have moved into much more recent history of the middle ages and the renaissance. We'll just say a few words here and leave some photos just so you can have some feedback knowing we are still alive and starting to really relax and enjoy ourselves (as well as getting fattened up!).

So first a few words about Venice. If you ever have a chance to go there.... GO!. There is no place like it on earth. A whole city completely devoid of motorized vehicles (even bikes) and where the only way to move around is by foot (through an almost infinite maze of streets and bridges), or by boat. Here the city transit is boats and the canals are full of boats of every kind (UPS, FedEx, Ice Cream delivery, Telecom Italia, Police, Firedepartment, ambulance, garbage, etc). It's like being in a dream world and that's not yet to mention the enormous number of churches all richly decorated, restaurants and cafes, tiny little food shops, etc etc. After a few days in this kind of environment you really relax.

From Venice we took a couple hour train ride to Florence. Florence is a whole different atmosphere with lots of traffic and an architecture that is less people friendly. It's hard to describe...darker, more imposing, less human scale, less pretty. Nevertheless Florence has some truly amazing architectural wonders and art museums that just have to be seen. We also suffered through a couple of days of overcast and drizzle here which also dampened the atmosphere, so after 2 days we took a 1.5 hr train ride south to Siena in the heart of Tuscany.

Siena is a truly medieval feeling town, smaller (50,000 people), cars banned from the city centre, a university town and a wonderful place to stroll around in and be awed by the central square and the most beautiful and ornate cathedral (hailing from the 1200s) that we have ever seen. It's been nice walking around without cars once again and almost feeling like you're transported back to the middle ages.

So Tomorrow we pick up a car and enjoy the freedom to wander as we will. Internet access will probably become harder to find so you might be seeing less from us on the blog....but just imagine us sitting at a cafe, with a view over rolling green hills and old stone churches and sipping on some wine.... Ciao.