States – France – Italy

Here are a few more pictures from Florence by Lizzy.

We got to Florence and the first day we decided to go see Michelangelo’s house and the church were him and Dante Alighieri was buried.  Lizzy has the pictures of Michelangelo’s house so those will come up shortly.  The tombs where really cool, just to think that there decaying bodies are right there only a few yards away.

That day I also dragged Lizzy up to a look out that over looks all of Florence.  I added a picture of all the stairs she had to climb, in her defence she was a bit sick with a dry throat.  In the end though it was well worth the trip.  I will be working on a panoramic of Florence when I get home.  There was also 2 weddings at the look out, well at least 2 sets of just married couples.  I got some photos of the one couple getting in to their car.

We also had some gelato at what is known as the worlds best gelato place  Vivoli.  It is really good.  Sorry Leopold’s  (in Savannah) but you just got served.  The Don Giovonni poster is just a poster I thought was cool of an opera playing at the old Midici house and I also had to add the I love Ketchup grafitti for Bridgette.

Ooooh and I can’t forget that we also got to see the real statue of David.  No pictures where allowed but we snuck some anyways.  It really is amazing to look up at it down a long hall and walk right up to it after you have been studying works like this for so long.  The other pics are pics around Venice, houses on the famous old bridge and a night shot out of the window of our hostel.

More Pictures from Venice,  Ciao!

WHOO HOO we made it to Venice! It was a nice train and boat ride to our hostel, a little place called Casa Linger. It was up about 3 floors, with tiny winding stairs. Venice is beautiful. Just like all the movies and pictures! So amazing. We stayed 4 nights and never ran out of places to explore. Venice is known for its glass blowing and art and it’s face masks and costumes for Carnival. Every street had a glass shop or mask shop. It was a large city, but it felt small and cozy. Lots of confusing streets! Oh and no cars, bikes, or roller skates allowed! It was a pedestrian paradise! We saw all the sites in St Marcos Square, and went to the top of the tower to get a birds eye view. It was crazy! There were cafes with live quartets and pianos playing music at night, so romantic!

Of course there as more shopping, but we many just walked around and saw all the historic sites, like the Rialto Bridge and the navy museum. The food was very yummy, lots of pizza and pasta. Cliff even ate squid ink pasta, totally black noodles (I wasn’t interested).

We wanted to take a gondola ride, but they were super expensive, so we just watched other people take rides. The city is full of tourists, so on the last day we walked outside the city to a more residential area and enjoyed a day in a park and walked on the small path along the canal. On the last night it rained and there was a huge lightening storm so we stayed up and watched the lightening over St Marcos Square.

After a very easy and relaxing train ride, we got to Milan on Sunday. Our hotel, called EuroHotel was really nice and it had air conditioning! YAY! Most places were closed Sunday so we just walked around our neighborhood and ate dinner at a little restaurant near by. Monday we were up early to see the sites! We headed to the Duomo di Milano, a huge church in the main square. The church looked like something out of Lord of the Rings, I expected Froto to come around the corner! It was really ornate and detailed, so much to take in.

After exploring the Duomo, we headed to the little church that houses the painting the Last Supper. We walked all the way across town to find the church under renovation and no one could go inside! So we took pictures around the church.

Of course the main thing to do in Milan is SHOPPING!! And we window shopped at all the fancy designer stores but there was great other shops that were affordable.  We had a good time exploring the city, although I have to say the food wasn’t that great, but Milan isn’t know as a culinary city haha.

SOOO our trip to cross the Italian border was a huge adventure. So decided to leave Grenoble early in the morning and take the train to Chamberly, France. Its a small city just for our connecting train to Turin. We planned on getting to Turin around 1:30 that afternoon. It was the holidays in France so our early connecting train to Turin was full so we had to wait for next train, which left at 6:30 pm. So we spent the day in Chamberly just walking around and wasting time. The train was suppose to get to Turin at 9 pm that night, and although that was way later than we planned we went along with it. We boarded our train and were excited to finally get to Italy. Unfortunately, in the small city of Modane, just right near the border, our train broke down. We waited and waited for it to get fixed, and finally the train company decided to get a bus for us. So we sat at the train station waiting for a bus. Needless to say, it was 2:30 in the morning when we got to Turin, and after 3 when we got to our apartment.

But our crazy train ride to Turin didn’t slow us down. The apartment we rented was so amazing. Just a one room with a bathroom, but it had a little kitchenette and a tv with lots of channels haha! It was hidden behind a big wooden door that led to an annex with branches off to other apartments. It was fantastic. We enjoyed the city for the day and went to the Egyptian museum. Its the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Egypt, so it was full of objects from tombs to cloth, plates, bowls, mummies (mummified cats and crocodiles too!) and tons of statues.

We walked around the main square and there was a man drawing perspective chalk images! He had a little area mapped out where the viewer should stand to see the drawing in the correct perspective. Pretty awesome! There are lots of statues in Turin and one in particular caught my eye because it had a small pond around it and there was a turtle on a rock in the middle of it! It reminded me of my Dad!

Our last night in La Mure, our fabulous hosts Meg and her mom took us up to La Salette. It was a mini road trip! On the way, we stopped at a little church that is a memorial to  the people who died in a plane crash. It was very sad to hear, it was a plane going to Rome from Canada and it crashed in the mountains. But the church and memorial site is very peaceful and beautiful. Our drive continued up to La Salette. Its a huge church high up in the Alpswhere the virgin Mary appeared to two children. There is a fresh spring, which is blessed water.  The church is huge! It was crazy to the see this giant church in the middle of the Alps! The view was breath taking, the pictures really don’t do it justice. After we explored the church and surrounding foot paths, we drove back down the mountain to a very extravagant restaurant for dinner. The decor was intense, lots of wall paper and lamps and statues. And plates full of pastries fulled all the open surfaces. There was so much food! I can’t even remember how many course, just plates and plates of food! It was a wonderful way to end out stay in La Mure. 

t was so beautiful. A great way to end our stay in La Mure.

After the Tour De France we went over to see an amazing art exibition by Robert Ibanez from Spain.  He is a local artist in La Mure that paints and draws fantastic works in pen & ink, water color, oil paints, and pastels.  He paints and draws the local life of La Mure and is able to illustrate his feelings and emotions directly into his pieces.

After the gallery we visted Meg’s Aunt and Uncle in the Village.  She showed us some of Ibanez’s paintings that she had bought, which she has alot of.  We also talked about the Tour, our trip, and she showed some of her pictures from their time in Africa.
Afterwards we had a tour of her garden and wine cellar both of which were amazing.  She also gave us some fine wine which we’ll probably toast Bon Voyage when we go to leave Rome.  I’m excited to try it she said “It isn’t shit”

That night we had dinner on the lake at a place called Le CouCouLou in the valley but before we stopped at the Napoléon monument where Napoléon rallied troups after his exile.  We have been having a fantastic time in La Mure with everyone, Thanks Again 

We spent 3 days in La Mure, a small village near Grenoble. It is so beautiful, nestled in the Alpes. Everything looks right off of a post card. We stayed with our friend Meg and her mom and they were fantastic hosts!! The Tour de France went right through the main part of town and we got to see it! It happened really quickly, the bikes flew by, it lasted maybe 30 seconds but it was intense. We had a very nice time relaxing and enjoying the garden and kitties!