Cinque Terre...Steep!

First injury of the trip...Keely "tripped" (actually slid)on the steep streets of Manarola. This is a steep little town!

We had to lug our suitcases up a VERY STEEP street to the top of the hill, but it was worth it when we got there. Our little guest house was beautiful and had an amazing view with a great deck overlooking the entire (tiny!) bay. After a few hours of walking all around the town, we were ready for a rest with a view on the deck and a glass of wine...the usual!

The town grows grapes, olives and lemons on these steep slopes and it's really quite an amazing thing to see. Great seafood too!

Lake Como...Gorgeous!

Lake Como is one of our favorite spots so far...relaxing and beautiful. No wonder George Clooney has a place here! Our hotel was right on the lake with a great little restaurant and sun deck. After the busy Rome and Venice, we were so happy to just sit on the deck and sun, eat and relax. Our room had a nice lake view and we basically just lounged on the deck all day.

Just a note...driving on the tiny one lane road around the lake from the Como train station to our hotel was enough to cause an anxiety attack! So we needed a little R & R after that!

Ahhhh....Venice.....

We arrived in Venice at the end of a long day of travel and got off the train and onto the Vaporetto, or water bus. We inadvertently took this the wrong way and got to have a nice long look at the Grand Canal before we finally got to our stop near the Rialto Bridge. Our hotel was nearby and although we had read that it was almost impossible to find....miracle of miracles...we found it without a hitch! We had a wonderful dinner on the canal and explored Venice in the evening to find a beautiful, romantic little city on the water. Every corner we turned there was a cute little shop or restaurant. It's so magical in Venice!

Next day, after checking out the amazing San Marco Square, we headed out on a ferry to Burano which is a small island off the coast of Venice and is well known for its hand made lace. We explored the small island which has the most colorful buildings we have ever seen. Each building is painted a different vibrant color, as you can see in the picture we took. So adorable! We did a lot of shopping and got some great lace and Murano Glass jewelry...even some custom stuff for the picky Christi... :)

Back on the ferry and to Venice, we ended up enjoying the evening at another canal-side restaurant and then back to our little guest house to try to get some sleep...the night before we had the living dead staying next to us with a cough that kept us both up all night! We said a prayer and went to bed. Luckily we all made it through the night.

Our new business venture...

Ok well...if you see how great this hat looks you will agree that the "Tower Hat" will be the next big fashion trend. Notice how it accentuates my fine bone structure and makes me look years younger!

So, as you can tell, we went to see the leaning tower of Pisa and it was AMAZING! We just could not believe this thing was standing up and didn't just topple over. It is really a wonder.

Before we went to Pisa we pulled into Lucca which is a cute little walled town in Tuscany. Pretty sleepy and quaint. This picture is of Keely at the front gate. We didn't spend too much time there because we wanted to get to Pisa which was great, and beyond the Tower was a beautiful cathedral, baptistery and cemetery so we spent most of the day there. I do have one bone to pick with the Italians, however, there was not one sign when we got off the train to indicate that there was a Tower anywhere nearby! Come on people, this is one of your cherished landmarks and you can't even put up one sign? Thank goodness we befriended some Italian people who were also completely lost but at least they could ask some passers by where the darn tower was! So we tagged along with them and eventually found the tower and all the the other beautiful structures and a whole bunch of other tourists!

We spent the day looking around and then headed back to the train station where we found an empty station and some bad information regarding our train back to Lucca...very common here in Italy, where we have found that you need to have ESP to get around on these trains. Luckily, since we are so friendly, we again befriended a Dutch man sitting near us who was also misinformed, and together, after running back and forth across the tracks several times taking our lives in our hands (not really but it sounded good!) we found the right track and made it back to Lucca safe and sound. Whewwwww!

Busy Day of Sightseeing!

So...A lot of sightseeing today...Mostly the "touristy" stuff, but you gotta do it! We hit the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps and still made it to our favorite piazza for some wine and a panini!

The Pantheon was definitely the best of today's sights. It's one of the oldest buildings around and the inside is just beautiful and still so well preserved. How did they do it?

We love Roma!

A day at the Vatican is like a day...a long day! We headed over there and decided to walk part of the way to look at the sights which was great on the way there, not so great on the way back, when we were exhausted and hot, but more on that later! We picked up a tour (and a guide) on our way, which ended up being nice because we didn't have to wait in the 2 hour line to get in and also had a cute South African guy leading us around, giving us an encyclopedia's worth of info.

Keely loved the Vatican! Actually we were in the Vatican Museum and there were so many great statues and frescoes and all kinds of wonders to behold. The best part was the Sistine Chapel. It was so incredible and after hearing all about Michaelangelo and how it came to be, we were so impressed. It really is just amazing!

Boy is it hot and crowded on the Vatican grounds and by the time we finished the tour I was ready to get away from the horrendous crowds and heat and head back to the Piazza de Popolo where we had to pick up our little crazy bus to go back to the hotel. As we walked up the LONG boulevard...we got hotter and more tired and our feet were killing us and we finally had to stop for a panini and rest. But there was more walking to get to the bus!!! Here is where that nice scenic walk was not so great :( But we did make it back to the hotel alive...thank you Jesus!

First Sight seeing in Rome

Here we are at the Colosseum! What an amazing day seeing the Forum and the Colosseum. The weather was great...hot and beautiful. The Forum was just awesome, seeing how the Romans lived back in 70AD. And the Colosseum was unbelievable. So BIG!!! We could almost see the Gladiators down below. Long day... we need to get our sight-seeing legs!