Villa Pace Abano Terme

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 ...

... was very warm in Munich so a beer would hit the spot. Knbowing we had a 2 hour bus ride ahead I had a .05 liter of Heifeweissen and Steve oredered the 1 liter of the Ratler...described as beer with lemonade. Outside his comfort level! When it came it was beer and sprite! In Germany lemonade is sprite....but it was pretty tasty anfd we didn't have to carry him back to the bus! With a little time after lunch before we had to ...

Our final destination was romantic Venice...We went on a "vaporetto" from Mestre to Venice and toured around the canals of the city.We bought a pizza to take away, we had a grande cappuccino at San Marco's Piazza.Unfortunately we stayed there for only one day.We didn't have the chance to see the surrounding islands.Maybe next time...

... a priest there. It was really expensive too. We ate at a restaurant and my coke was 4,50 Euros. That's about 6 bucks. Also, in Italy they charge you a fee in restaurants. Kind of like renting your table. It can be anywhere from 3-7 Euros up to 10-15 for higher end restaurants. The canals didn't smell at all (which they warn you about in the summer). The Murano Glass Factory was great. They did a glass blowing demonstration. You ...

... Marks - Rialto - Piazzale Roma - etc. We made it to the islands well before 11 a.m. (or the cutoff for ordering cappuccino). We had a great cappuccino and pastry to give us fuel for the hike over towards St. Mark's. We took our time and wandered around without having much of an itinerary. I only knew that I wanted to go up the bell tower at some point in time. We did a little window shopping - had a slice of pizza and ate it at a stand up bar. Then ...

... different portions of the council would meet. One of the most impressive rooms was the grand hall where the nobility would meet to elect the Senate. The room is about 180 feet long, with a capacity of 2000 people. It houses the world's longest oil painting, which depicts Mary and Joseph surrounded by 500 saints. The painting was dark; it looked Baroque. We also saw the prisions and armory within ...