More pictures - Florence, Venice and Milan

This is my favorite picture of Florence - one of my favorite cities I have visited.

St Mark's Square in Venice - my other favorite city. I think I could live here for a few years.
The picture beside it is the Rialta bridge in Venice. It is filled with shops.

On the left is the Duomo in Venice All of the churches are amazingly beautiful.

The picture on the right is the Monument Cemetery in Milan. It is a very small sample of the enormous cemetery. This is a must see - very emotional.

Pics from Italy Trip

Some pictuers from my trip.

My travel bags - both carry-ons and they were fine for a 12 day trip.

I love the Smart cars! In Rome, there are lots of Smart cars and often they park head into curb since they are so small.

This is St Peter's Square. And the Pope was giving a service when I went past. Notice the TV screens in the second picture so everyone can see him.

This is the Trevi Fountain, shown is the movie 3 Coins in a Fountain - very romantic.

When you get off the subway and go up the stairs you are directly across the street from the Colliseum - amazing! Its so hard to believe that it was built in the 1st century!

This is S - the travel buddy I met on the train from Rome to Florence. We spent a couple days together traveling around. He was cool enough to try on the candy dentures we found in a market - while we were in a fancy restaurant!

We were very lucky to get in to see the original statue of David. This is one of the copies that was in the town square in Florence.

When I was walking around Florence I saw a guy plug his car into this outlet in the public parking lot. Then a guy with an electric scooter plugged his vehicle in - why are we so behind the times in the USA??

More pics to come!

Home at last - with a few problems

As I feared, my flight to Amsterdam was somehow cancelled but the rest of my flights, from Amsterdam to Houston and Houston to Austin were fine and I had my boarding passes. Continental goofed up!
Luckily a nice lady from Alitalia, spent about 30 min. trying to figure out what was wrong and correct it - and she finally did. But the story starts even earlier.
I woke up about 4:45 am so I could check out of my hotel, walk the 3/4 of a mile to the Metro to go to the train station to catch the train to the airport. My flight was a 9:15 am. All went well - until I got to the Metro at 5:20 am - the doors were locked! I walked around for 10 min. thinking that maybe they would open at 5:30 am. Nope!! So I started walking back to my hotel - grumbling since no one mentioned that little fact - and luckily on the way, I saw a taxi (who knows what he was doing at that time since no one in Italy gets up early) Anyway, he took me to the train station and I had to wait abouty 30 min. but got to the airport in plenty of time - except that I had no ticket! After all was figured out, I was on my way. I had a 2 1/2 hr layover in Amsterdam and walked around the airport. It's enormous but very well organized. When you check which gate your flight is leaving from it not only tells you the gate but also how long it will take to walk there.
They also have some small casinos in the airport and yes, I had to lose 10 euros there before I went to my gate.
The really good news is that I had a whole row of 3 seats to myself on the 10 1/2 hour flight to Houston. That was fantastic - room to lie down or spread out all of my "stuff". The flight to Austin was delayed about 30 min but I finally got home about 10:15 pm. Because of the 7 hour time change, I have been up over 24 hours. Hopefully all of those awake hours will quickly get me back on central time.
Again, pics to come! And of course I'm missing Italy a bit - especially Venice and Florence.
I do plan on going back some day.

Last full day in Milan

Today was busy. I thought I would be just wondering around Milan but I actually accomplished things. I had to purchase a train ticket to get from the Metro to the airport so I figured out how to do that. My hotel is about half a mile from the Metro and then I have about 4 stops before I get to the train station-Metro station. I am expecting to leave my hotel about 5:30 am Sunday morning to make my connections. My only concern is that when I checked my flight on Continental to Amsterdam it wasnt listed. I am hoping that is because the flight is not on their airline. I guess I will find out tomorrow.
Then I finally went in to the Prada store (first store they ever had) and saw some nice boots I liked - for 280 euros! I touched them and walked away. I went downstairs in their store where they have kind of a museum of some of their original bags, etc. in cases - a Prada museum - who would have thunk it?
I did a bit more shopping and bought a shirt at the HM store (I always see it advertised in US magazine). It is very reasonable. I think I paid 9 euros.
Then I decided to find then Monumental Cemetery since it had a great write up in my tour book. It is described as" Europes most artistic and dreamy cemetery experience". And it was! I have never seen anything like it - large monuments, statues, a church shaped like a cross with statues everywhere. It is a good reason for visiting Milan. I think it was one of the most emotional sites I have ever seen. I hope some of my pictures show its glory (not "gory")
I then found a grocery store - it is a very good day when one finds a grocery store in Italy! I bought some hard rolls, cheese, wine, and orange, some chocolate and a fruit smoothie (yep, I was hungry) and went back to my room to eat, watch TV and read a bit later.
I was out of reading material and found a couple shelves in a bookstore so I bought a book. It is amazing how important reading is when you do not have anything to read. I was getting a bit tired of Rick Steves "Italy" tourguide.
As a bit of a recap, I was thinking that it would be impossible to be on a high protein, low carb diet here. My diet consisted of the 3 Ps and Cs - pasta, pasterie and pizza and capaccino, chocolate and cookies. When I did try to get some meat on my pasta (veal) I got some ground up veal that was not very satisfying. I did have some good pizza yesterday - with olives. They serve the olives with the pits and I was not sure how to eat them. I watched a man at another table and the olive pits just seemed to appear magically on his plate. I also noticed that they eat their pizza with a knife and fork and then sometimes pick it up and fold it over and eat it by hand. I followed their lead and ended up with a blob of tomato on my shirt. No one seemed to notice but I dont know how since were were all sitting shoulder to shoulder at the tables.
I have to admit I did spent a lot of time at McDonalds. They have a Mc Cafe here with just pasteries and different coffees for breakfast so I started going there since you could sit down. I just did not get in to the stand at the counter drinking your expresso and capaccino although I did it twice. I need to ease into the morning off of my feet!
Steps the last couple days have been around 22.000. I am looking forward to resting my feet for a bit when I get home.
By the way, my travel buddy S met his ex girfriend but there were no sparks. I think they both needed to find that out.
I hope you have enjoyed following my adventures. I know I have missed covering some of my experiences so be prepared when I start a conversation with "Well when I was in Italy"
Hope to be home tomorrow and have pics up in the next few days.

Milan - Day 2

Milan is a big city like Rome so not my favorite. I am trying to keep a positive attitude. I did take a tour today and went to see The Last Supper painting and that was very impressive. The Duomo (largest church) is very impressive. I think they said it is the 3rd largest church in Europe. Outside of the church was another demonstration - this time the shop keepers were on strike. It is an interesting demonstration - almost like a concert. There was African music playing and lots of drumming. At least when I was there it seemed safe.
I am staying at another "free" hotel- the Milan Marriott - very fancy but probably not as fancy as the Hilton in Rome. At least this is walking distance to the Metro which makes it pretty convenient.
It is amazing to see all of the designers stores here. This is a very upscale, fashionable town. All young women have on boots. It makes me laugh because when I was in Rome I wore my sandals (I may have mentioned this already) and the only other person in sandals was a nun. I have seen no sandals since, so they are safely packed away in my suitcase. Even when I dress up in my black slacks I will not wear my black sandals but instead my brown walking shoes. I know they do not match but I think I will get less stares of disgust with these shoes.
I will probably wonder around the city tomorrow but if I had my "druthers" I would catch an early plane home. If it was not for the Last Supper Tour, I would have much rather stayed in Venice.
I keep meeting people from the US that can not believe I am traveling on my own. I do not think they would feel that way if I were a man. A crazy view of the world can limit peoples goals.

It is hard to leave Venice

One more post from Venice. This is such a wonderful city I do not want to leave! I think I might like it more than Florence because it has the added bonus of the water everywhere. I took one more vaporetta ride down the canal to the Rialto bridge and then walked back to St Marks Square. Luckily they had good signs everywhere so I did not get lost.
Yesterday I only walked about17,500 steps and today I am sure it will be less since I will be on boats and a train for much of the day.
As I have walked around for the last week or so, I have been so thankful not to be in a tour. You see people lined up like rows of ducks following someone with a flag all over the towns. It would be so difficult for me to be in that position. My free spirit would be squashed. Even getting lost I love traveling and exploring on my own or with a small group of old or new friends.
Everyone needs to visit Venice - but not on a tour!!

Last Night in Venice

I am loving this free internet at my hotel so am using it when I get the chance. I wish I was staying in Venice another day or two. I enjoy riding the boats, walking around the town and watching people. I did not even go to any museums - but I did get my hair cut!! LOVE IT!!
I walked into a salon and luckily they had time. It was very small, only 3 chairs and one wash station. One girl washed my hair - great job - and then sat me in the seat for the "master" to take over. He really way like an artist. I just told him to do what he wanted - just not too short. He would cut, then gently pull, then cut more. He did some cool cuts - kinda jagged after he cut it blunt. Hard to explain but he kind of cut it to go with my natural curl. Then he abruptly said "stop" (I guess to himself) and he walked away. The girl came back and blew it dry and styled it. I hope to get a pic before I go to bed so I can put it on my blog when I get home. I do not think I will be able to add pics at these computers.
I got my train ticket for Milan - it is so easy to do on the automatic machines, then road the boat-bus around the area. I finally ended up on the island of Murano where they do glass blowing. Unfortunately I was too late to see them do it but I did take a bunch of pics (when no one was looking) at some of the glass the artists made. It was really facinating.
Then I took the boat-bus from the train station to my stop at St Marks Square after dark and again it was magical. I think I have already used that word but it sure describes Venice.
An interesting thing - this morning I was mentioning the table-like things that are all over the place and they use them when water gets high so people can still walk around. When I came out of my hotel, they had started putting them up around the Duamo (church) because that is the lowest part of Venice and there was water on the ground. I will be curious to see if there is more water tomorrow. It will not affect my travel since I go from boat to train but it would be a site to see.
If you have never been to Venice or Florence, I recommend both highly.
More from Milan tomorrow -

Quick post from Venice

Love it here. As long as you are around the Grand Canal it is magical. Away from that are just neighborhoods, construction sites and stuff I do not want to see on vacation. I enjoy riding the boats around the town and am getting ready to take the boat to Murano island where they do glass blowing. The weather has been great which is especially lucky here since Nov is one of the times when Venice floods. I saw that they had lots of tables piled up in the market places and found out that those are actually used as walkways during the floods. The water is right up to the walkways normally so any bit of high water will flood the areas.
It is also interesting that they do not want anyone to work on stabilizing the buildings along the canal so they are slowly rotting and sinking. It is still a wonderful place to be.

I need a directional implant

Oy vey! How can anyone get lost so much? I had to ask twice the direction to the train station in Florence. I took the looonnnggg way around for sure but I made it in time for my train. Then when I got off in Venice, I walked for 20 min trying to find the canals! Found out there are 2 stops in Venice and I got off too soon. When I went to the Train info center and told him about it he said "why you get off here?" Duh, I made a mistake??? He let me get on the next train for free and I finally made it to Venice.
Info on Venice - from the train station to the old part of town by boat - it is like any other town except that all of the services are done by boat. I saw a garbage boat, an ambulance boat and of course the taxi boats. I did get off at the right stop for my hotel but again walked around alot before asking 2 people where it was. I will take a pic of the "street" I needed to go up to find it - a bit small and scary. But the hotel seems good. I have a single room which means a twin bed and a dresser and a very small bath but that is fine with me Tonight I walked around St Marks Square for a few hours and stopped to eat. The man in the restaurant had a 7 euro menu - no surprises he said. So I had some pasta and red wine. When I got my check, the pasta was 8 euros and the red wine was 5. I said that I thought the pasta was all 7 euros and he said no, meat costs 1 euro extra. Too funny but pretty much par for the course here.
I then had a craving for chips - I needed salt. I walked all around town and could not find any so I happened upon a McDonalds and got a small fries - for 2.20 euros. That is approx $3.30 What could I do, I needed salt!
Tomorrow I hope to take a boat to a church across the way and go to a gregorain (spelling?) chant service in the morning. I am hoping that tomorrow night I have the energy to take the boat tours through the Grand Canal.
Steps today - so far - 23,049! Even after 3 hours on a train. It pays to get lost when it comes to collecting a lot of steps.

Quick update

Just a short blog this morning. I of course got lost after leaving the train station last night and it took me more than an hour longer to find my hotel than it should have. It was dark by the time I got back and it was only 5:30 pm. I collected some carbs along the way so that when I got back to my room, I ate a sandwich, chips and some chocolate something (very yummy) and finished reading a book I brought.
Steps yesterday were on 16,150 but much of it was uphill or up stairs. I am not going to climb to the Duomo Dome here - 450 steps since the 75 steps to my hotel room had me huffing. By the way, here they count floors as 0 is the ground floor and 1 is the 2nd floor. My hotel main office was on 2, which is where the 75 steps came in.
Today I am wondering around Florence - still my favorite city, probably among all that I have been in throughout my years, but I am looking forward to Venice. One interesting thing - they have electric cars and scooters here and there are plugs in the parking lots where people can plug in their vehicles. So cool! I took pictures of it since that would be my dream for the US.
It was funny that yesterday S and I went first class from Florence to Seina which was one little car that had a slightly bigger isle than the rest of the train. Not worth going first class on regional trains. I am taking the Express today so it should be better. They give you a glass (no ide) of whatever you want to drink and a packet of cookies. Is it worth it? I will let you know.
I just sent an email to my travel buddy to see what happened when he met with his ex so I will let you know when I hear back. I am big on romance - hard to believe sometimes - so I am hoping for the best for him.
I am loving Italy more and more as I get further from Rome :)

Another good day

S (I promised not to use his name since he is here to see an ex girlfriend) and I walked all around Florence last night. I really like it. We had wine and beer and more wine and listened to street musicians and ate. Very fun. This morning we took the train to Seine since everyone says it is the best town square in Italy. It was nice but I would not call it the best. I like smaller ones with lots of old buildings and churches surrounding it. This is very large and shaped like a triangle. They use it twice a year in July and Aug to run some kind of horse race. I can see how that would work. I did love the narrow streets leading to the heart (as they call it) or triangle as I will call it. We ate at a cafe on the square and tried to beat each other at pointing out all of the men in orange pants (really) and people with bling - lots of bling here. If your pants or purse is not full of studs or jewels you are a tourist.
We then took the train back to Florence and went to get S bags. I then walked back to the train station with him so I could get my ticket to Venice for tomorrow. There is also an internet cafe here that is only 2.3 euros for 30 min so I am enjoying the longer time to type.
As to steps, yesterday I walked 24,702 steps. So far today is a measily 14,201.
I had to laugh at my hotel here. It is supposed to be a converted convent but I think the only thing left are the beds. On a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being sleeping on the sidewalk with a blanket and a bag of newspapers as a pillow, and 10 being my bed in Rome - this was a 2. The pillows were the biggest and heaviest I have ever seen. The mattress is about as hard as the sidewalk. S commented that he woke up and thought a person was on top of him - but it was a pillow!! Seriously where would you buy something like this - or why would you buy them? At least they are safe with them not being stolen. I have a bath down the hall and I did not know that the one I was using was the worst one. The shower is just a knob coming out of the ceiling and water just goes all over the floor. The other bath has an actual tub with shower. Tonight, I will shower in luxury!
We did finally use my GPS to find out way from the train to the hotel yesterday and I was hoping to use it to find my way back tonight from the train - but I could not find it. So my biggest hope and joy will be to get back to my hotel before dark. It is not an easy route.
Wish me luck!! More tomorrow from Venice!

NOW things are picking up!

I left Rome this morning and sat on the train with a nice young man. We were both going to Florence so we have spent the day together and are planning to go to Seina tomorrow. He is leaving for Milan tomorrow afternoon to meet up with his ex girlfriend. He is supposed to give me his email address so I know what happened. He has been a great companion to travel with. And no, he reminds me of my son so we are comfortable laughing together.
I LOVE Florence. We went to see the statue David and it was the highlight. But just about everything in this town is noteworthy. The church in the middle of the plaza is amazing - no picture will do it justice so I am just going to try to find postcards. This whole place is full amazing buildings. We have tried a few glasses of the wine here and I have not gotten stuffed up after drinking it. There must be some additive in our wine that they dont have here.
I still hope to post a few pics - maybe tomorrow. This internet site is much cheaper than in Rome - 1.5 euros for 30 min. I spent $15 for 30 min in my hotel last night.
The hotel here is much different - and smaller than in Rome but its fine. There is a bath down the hall and some kind of breakfast in the morning. Its fine and works for me. I dont really see that it could have been a convent but I will use my imagination.
OK, time to quit. I will have more juicy stuff tomorrow

Day 3 - I'm starting to mellow

OK, so maybe I'd come back here one more time. Here are some quick thoughts on the trip so far (quick because this internet services is $30/hr!)
1. Always go for the Roma Pass - 3 free days of public transportation and 2 free admissions into a number of sites - I used it to go to the Colosseum and traveled all over town. I think this cost $13.
2. Dogs are everywhere here - and all are good. Seymour would be great with the crowds of people but heaven help Rome if he came across another dog!
3. Why does the conversations sound more interesting when people are talking a foreign language than when I'm just evesdropping on Americans??
4. The demonstrations are over so the tour buses were back in business. Its a great way to see the sites - get on and off the buses- and hear descriptions of the sites along the way. $13-$16 for 24 hours
5. I am getting carbed out here. Breakfast is capaccino and sweet rolls - not even McDonalds has eggs mcmuffins! They also just have sweet rolls. Then its on to lunch - pizza, or pasta. Dinner is however I can get it - often junk food because I can't find a place to eat at or near my hotel. OK, I found a sandwich at my hotel for 20 euros (ham and cheese!). I had a strawberry margarita last night at the hotel for 15 euros. I don't mind splurging but $30 for a sandwich???
6. I did have a lunch special today for 6.9 euros - spagetti and tomatoes and a glass of red wine. Not bad but I was still hungry sadly.
7. LOVED the Colosseum - can't believe that it was built in the 1st century. They had statues and murals from the same time period - just amazing!!!
8. The Pantheon looked older than I thought it would - don't laugh. I know it's old but the replica in Tenn (?) is so nice and clean and it was supposed to be an exact replica. It is amazing though.
9. The drivers here are crazy!! There are smart cars and scooters everywhere. They are like little knats racing around and through the traffic. No wonder I see so many ambulances! I would never drive in this city.
10. Loved, loved, loved the Trevi Fountain - so romantic. I now want to see Three Coins in a Fountain and Roman Holiday again. By they way, there is lots of smoochin' going on in Rome - everywhere - and it's not just a peck on the lips, if you know what I mean :)
11. I walked up the Spanish steps - another place the romantics go. I sat on the steps and enjoyed watching people.
12. My steps per day - day 1 - 17,770, day 2 - 25,343 ( I was lost most of the day), day 3 - so far - 18,306 (lost a little but mostly touring sites and walking between them)
13. Speaking of getting lost, I found the Colloseum last night and decided to walk around that part of town for awhile. The Colloseum is not a small building - but within a few blocks I could not find it again. I actually had to ask the way back to the Colloseum - and no I haven't used my GPS yet. I'm starting to think it was a bad purchase.
Tomorrow I'm off to Florence. I got my train ticket today - 1st class on Eurostar for 46 euros. A bit pricy but not much more than a ham and cheese sandwich and margarita at my hotel!!
As I said, I'm mellowing out - even though the traffic is really bad and scary - I haven't even been scared being in the buses. Now crossing the streets - that's a totally different matter. Not everyone believes red means stop here. I've taken to shadowing anyone who is trying to cross the street so I can either make it or go down with them. So far so good!!
More later-

Day 2 in Rome

Well many of my guidebooks said 1 to 3 days in Rome is enough and now I agree. It is way to big, crowded and hard to get around. Last night I walked from my hotel about a mile or so to get some pizza and then came back and sat on my deck to watch the sunset. I was in bed before 8 and up at 7 thirty (I cant find some keys on this board so please excuse the mistakes)
Today I took the free shuttle into town center to find a tour bus and instead found that there were demonstrations at the center (where ever that is) and the tour buses were all cancelled. Instead I took the Metro and went to the Vatican museum and St Peters church. The Vatican was spectacular - there are no words to describe it. It is much much much larger and more amazing than even the Louvre. The Sistine chapel goes on and on and on with more art and sculpure that you can ever imagine. It was very impressive. I took lots of pics. Then I had to have gelati - yummy ice cream. Im trying to find the metro again so I can do more touring on my own.
By the way, my hotel room is the best Ive ever seen. I took lots of pics of it also. It is like being in a museum. The bathroom is sooo cool, but I did get the Hot (c) and Cold (f) faucets mixed up when I took my bath - had to totally refill my tub.
So far I have had no problems except for getting ripped off on a cup of capaccino. I fumed about it but finally decided it was my own fault. I paid 80 cents for the same cup yesterday and 4.5 euros today (about $7.50) I learned a hard lesson - to ask first.
I am looking forward to more touring but Im also looking forward to leaving Rome. I dont think I am interested in coming back here. Once is enough - but I still have lots to see and I will enjoy that. I hope to find the Trevi fountain because I loved the movie 3 Coins in a Fountain.
More later -

Oh Lordy, I'm tired already!

Well, I finally made it to my hotel - after a train, subway, walking forever and finally giving up and taking a taxi. I've already logged 9200 steps on my pedometer and it's only 11:45 am here! This is a hotel much classier than me - and it is farrrrr away from any of the sites. But let me start with my trip here.

I only had 45 min between my flight from Austin to Newark until my flight from Newark to Rome and of course our flight left late, then had to circle the Newark airport for 25 min due to too much air traffic. My gate change, which originally was 9 gates away on the same terminal ended up being about 1/2 mile away. I raced to the gate and the door was already closed. Luckily they opened it and I got on. My seat was taken so I had to take another and it was a long cramped flight - but we did eat 2 meals so I wasn't totally cranky.

I found that you should not change money at the airport or train station - after I had already done it. For $400, I got 221 Euros - very bad exchange rate.

I did find out how to say "coffee with cream" - cappaccino :) and I ordered one as I walked aimlessly around trying to find my hotel. It was less than 1 euro - a bargain.

My room is not ready yet but they did say that they upgraded me so I can't wait to see it. I hope to find a tour today because I'm not sure I can find my way anywhere from this hotel. I haven't tried out my GPS yet but plan to do that later today.

Interesting tidbit - I talked to a couple from Fla and a local woman on the train and they all said to watch for theft and pickpockets. The local lady had her luggage stolen. When I was on the subway, all of the women had their purses on their laps protected by both arms.