Foresteria Valdese Venice

Day 7, Florence

If Rome and Venice were “aerobic sightseeing,” Florence was a triathlon! Three world-class museums (plus lunch,, Rick Steeves’ “Renaissance Walk” and two harrowing bus rides in and out of town) all in about nine hours!

We started the day with a bus ride into the city center of Venice. (Even though we have a rental car, the city center is what is called locally a “no go zone’” This is a ...

Day Six, Venice to Florence:
Today was a travel day for us: getting out of Venice, picking up a rental care, making our way to Florence by way of Padua.
How we hated to leave Venice! We agree that a month here would just scratch the surface. Around every corner is a new piazza and a new adventure. We will be back!
Michele was intent on seeing the Calatrava bridge before we left Venice. For ...

... endowed a museum of modern art, which seems especially radical in Venice, with its nearly universal focus on the Renaissance.
After dinner and a rest, we finished our day with a night at the Opera! We saw “The Barber of Seville” a great, silly romp of an opera - and to add to the fun, it was performed inside one of the old Venetian palaces, with each act taking place in a different room. (The small audience followed the players and the Piano Quartet from room to room.)

... places where you can observe art in the setting it was created for. Titian considered this his home church and, besides having many of his creations there, he is buried in the main church.
We had to hurry back to our hotel, or to our neighborhood. We had stopped in a little shop nearby, planning to bring some snacks and drinks back to the hotel later. We asked the shopkeeper how late he would be open. He stated firmly, “I close at 8 o ...

... All of us girls crashed on the bed and Steve decided to go explore since he didn’t have as long in Venice as we did. We all eventually woke up and took showers, then met Steve to go exploring. Venice is a very beautiful city, though it does smell somewhat like fish but that didn’t bother me. We walked for hours. Winding around the back streets and bridges, trying to see what treasures we ...

... have a water taxi to pick us up at 7:30 am and take us to the airport on the mainland. Our Hotel is making sure we have some breakfast before we go even though they don't usually serve until 8. All the people here have been wonderful.

Just wanted to mention the girls have learned quite a few Italian words and have done well with their books "Kids Go Europe". They are treasure hunt books and I got them each one ...

Venice ~ how to describe it? First impression, bellissimo!!! And for 3 days it was still bellissimo!!! EVERYWHERE canals, gondonlas, small charming streets, beautiful people, small cafes, and of course tourists - always with a map in hand! My palace was amazing!!!! Thank you D!!! It made me feel like a true principessa! I was alone in the house for 2 nights surrounded by comforting Italian antiques and a view of 2 canals!!! San Marco ...

... No clubs sorry. Just a pub crawl. Have the pizza on your way back home from drinking as it is so fresh and cheaper in this area. The taverna travoso was great but this does get crowed too. Have all the seafood you can stand. I had the zuppa pesce (seafood soup) and the spaghetti con mussles - so good. Academia, basilica, and the doge are all great to check out. Follow your guidebook on these things and get your tickets early and try to ...

... a towel and a hoody each)
-covert operation to get packs inside
-slayed 2L wines out of water bottles (purchased that way)
-stole airport seat beds for night (rude awakening at 8am)
-met up with Whasnames+1 (Abby, Lindsay, Hannah)
-legs vs. arms 2k8 in pool (Barry vs Bosh): water treading competition, Bosh's arms far superior
-learned Egyptian Rat Screw: Bosh revealed to be world champion
-met ...