Milano Padua

... control measure (hint: it’s not working!) If you even accidentally drive into the area, much less park there, they will photo your car and send you a hefty bill! Did we mention that drivers here seem to all have the same death wish?

Our first stop was the Bargello Museum, which is home to works by Donatello and Michelangelo, among others. Then off to the Galleria Academia .Yes, we went to an Accademia in Venice, too. It does get confusing! The ...

... of you who are not Reddingites, Calatrava designed the world famous Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. Michele had read about the Venice bridge and found that it was just as plagued by delays and cost over-runs as the Redding project. Michele describes herself as the only resident of Redding who hates the bridge, more for its cost than its beauty.
You will see some pictures on the blog, but two ...

... 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.)

... find. Then it started raining, I mean it IS Venice, so what more could you expect? But it wasn’t bad, so (after I bought an umbrella) we kept walking.

The next day was spent the same way, though without Steve. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed tracking down gondolas. We found a great little place that sold yummy ham and cheese Paninis, and had a surprisingly wonderful few days. Next stop: Rome.

... put pictures up. We walked around inside and than I went up on the roof (Jen was tired and hot so she waited for me at the Mcdonald's across the street). The roof was amazing as you could get really close to all the sculptures and I took a bunch of pictures. You could also see way across Milan. I'm so glad I walked around up there it was an amazing experience. To get up to the roof you have to either walk or take a lift. Of course I chose the lift but that didn't mean there was ...

... it was three really thin pieces of beef, but it was tasty. It came with fried potatoes which turned out to be the best tasting french fries I have ever had. They must have been cooked in olive oil. They were great. We also got caramel flan which was really tasty. We stopped at a sweet shop to buy some sweet buns which we kept in our room to eat later. We went back to our hotel and went to bed.

... are also photo freaks. We wanted to capture everything & any thing that was new to us. After two stops we reached the Tre Archi Bridge Stop behind which was our hotel. Remember we'd just got out of the train. No bath no refreshment, no breakfast still. We couldn't get 4 rooms. We just got one, which was more than enough for all of us. We all took around half an hour to refresh & ate curds & ...

... of you, Venice is a dream that you may never see so I tried to capture the feel of it. Sooooo, there are a lot of photos of gondoliers and people being covered in pigeons in the Piazza San Marco. I also used my video to capture a few things that you will really like... the gondolier musicians, a group of italians breaking into an impromptu song, and a street musician playing Swan Lake on water glasses. I'll try to get those up soon.

... don't know why) we arrived in Baveno, Italy, a small town that sits on the shores of Lake Maggiore. Once again we lucked out & found a small hotel right on the lake with a little balcony overlooking the 3 islands of the lake - Isola (Isle) Madre, Isola Bella, and Isola Pescatori. We walked around this small town - covered most of it in about an hour - and stopped along the way at a supermarket to buy a nice bottle of Barbaresco red - which we're enjoying (of course) as we sit ...

... Man had spoken better English we could have bought the ticket from him, but he didn't! So there we were, put off the train at another weenie station in yet another weenie town by yet another German-speaking official. What is it with these Germans?! The town was called Baden (of all names) and we had a 5 hour wait until the next train to Padua. The reason we had arisen so early and ...