After we got back from our tour of Tuscany we ended up taking another nap. Because of the decongestant I've been taking, its been making me very sleepy. I fell asleep on Nate every time we got in the car during the tour. It was funny. The roads here are pretty horrible and the drivers are even worse!! But somehow they have a flow that works for them. Its much different driving than in the US. And its mostly very very tiny vehicles and scooters!
After our awesome nap we decided to get ready to go to dinner. We decided to dress up tonight. I wore Allison's black dress and my heels. Nate wore his comfy golf pants and black AE polo. He looked very sharp! He even did his hair! He's gotten pretty good at it I must say.
He really wanted to try one of the restaurants directly across the river from our hotel. We had two to choose from...we decided on "Golden View Open Bar."
While we waited for a table they brought us two glasses of champagne. We finally got a table and the view was amazing. We could see where our hotel was and had a great view of Ponte Vecchio. There was actually a slide projection on the entire bridge. It was abstract type art/pictures they were projecting.
We ordered a bottle of wine that we had tried that day called Vernacia, when we visited the town of San Gimigiano. We also got a bottle of still water (its not customary to order tap water over here).
Nate ordered a grilled chicken breast and I had four cheese ravioli. The cheese sauce on the ravioli was spectacular. Nate used it to dip his chicken into. We learned that most wines taste much better after you take a bite of your food. After dinner we finished our wine while listening to the jazz band playing in the restaurant. It was an incredible place. We forgot our camera, so we didnt get any pictures, but we will surely remember this place!
We are waking up at 5 am for our 6:10 am train to Cinque Terre tomorrow.
Today we met our private tour guide, Christian, in the lobby of our hotel at 9:30 a.m. Once we were loaded up and ready to go explore Tuscany, he took us to Michelangelo's Square to see one of the most famous views in Florence.
You could see the Synagogue, Ponte Vecchio, il Duomo and our hotel. Shortly there after we got back on the crazy streets of the Italian drivers and headed to San Gimigiano for some sight seeing of the town. This town is famous for the towers that the families would build to show how wealthy they were.
We walked around admiring the sights and taking in the views of the town overlooking vineyards and olive groves. We stopped in the town square and Brittany wanted to get some Gelato from a certain shoppe our guide had shown us. I said that we have had gelato everyday so far and she said "but this is 'World Famous Gelato.'" So needless to say we got some.
We then headed to a small traditional restaurant in the Siena. We tried some red wine, ate some bruschetta - one with diced tomatoes, another with mushrooms, the next with lard from a pig and finally chicken liver. All of which were pretty good but none of them our favorite. I had the grilled pork chops with mixed vegetables and Britt had the wild boar stew which was also delicious. After lunch we headed back up the road to a small family owned and operated winery.
This is Christian, our tour guide
The husband and wife that own the winery were on vacation and found this place, bought it and restored it. They made their life in Italy. They only have a handful of people working for them and they put out thousands of bottles of wine every year. One of the girls that worked for them showed us around and we tasted some of their wine, which was really good. We bought a bottle of wine that we will save for a special occasion one day! Once we were finished with the winery we headed to a small town in Chianti called Greve. The town itself was actually built around a food market that is still very active today. Every Saturday the locals have the market square slammed packed with people. We visited one of the local butchers that deals with pork, wild boar, beef and cheese.
We were able to taste some wines and try some of the different cheeses they had to offer and we even tried some of the wild boar. After a full day our driver dropped us off at our hotel and said goodbye. His wife is due with their first born child any day. Brittany is feeling a little better today - still stuffy but we are both very excited about hiking through Cinque Terre tomorrow.
This picture doesn't do this justice...the colors of Italy are amazing. The lighting, the hundreds of year old buildings...Italy has such amazing character.
We finally arrived at Florence's termini (train terminal station) and got a taxi to take us to our hotel ("Hotel degli Orafi"). It is in view of the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge - which is covered in shops. The name means "old bridge." It is a beautiful sight.
Our room was also very nice. Pretty big bathroom (compared to the bathroom at the Dona Palace in Venice). They had a bottle of champagne waiting on us with a "Happy Honeymoon!" note.
We actually couldn't check in to our hotel until 2 p.m. So we went to the Duomo and waited in line to climb to the top of the dome. It was insane!! It was almost 500 steps up! The inside of the dome was very impressive. I can't imagine how they painted the inside of the dome! It was sooo high up.
The walls are completely flat and contoured. Notice how they
painted the man's leg in the center of this picture.
It looks like his leg is hanging over the edge.
We finally got to the top and it was completely breath-taking! We took plenty of pictures and video then made our way back down. I was soooo sick this day. I had body aches and felt like complete crap. But I sucked it up and put a smile on anyways!
This is the Chapel of the il Duomo (the dome is
behind this building)
We began walking back to the hotel and came across a bunch of replica sculptures found in this square near the Uffizi gallery. We walked around and took in the amazing sculptures. We were very impressed. There was the replica of the Statue of David standing where the original stood for many years. After taking some pictures we headed back to the hotel and checked in.
Notice where the spear pierced Jesus
This is the replica of the Statue of David (they do not allow
pictures taken of the original)
Next on our list was to go to the Galleria de Academia which is where the original Statue of David is located. There were numerous original paintings by Michelangelo and other famous artists found in the gallery. Without a doubt, the Statue of David stole the show. It was absolutely gigantic! Very impressive! I just kept staring in awe at it just thinking back to my different art classes where I studied this figure and now I am seeing the real deal in person! Spectacular. We then made our way through the museum; I couldn't stop looking at the intense detail in each of the paintings. The other sculptures there blew my mind. It was amazing!
We headed out of the museum and bought some post cards then went and found some awesome gelati. We sat outside the Duomo with its enourmous walls towering over us while we ate our gelati.
Strawberry (or fragola in Italian) was my favorite gelato
We took a slow walk back to the hotel and took a detour to the Ponte Vecchio. On the other side of the bridge we ate dinner at a nice cafe. They all seem to sell the same stuff...pizza, pasta, gelati, beer and wine. We both got the calzone - which was a little different from what we were use to.
We came back to the hotel and used our free voucher for two drinks we received upon check-in. We sat on the terrace of the fifth floor with views of the Duomo on one side of the river and Ponte Vecchio on the other side.
The dome in the center is the Duomo - we walked to the very very top of the dome
After enjoying a few drinks and the amazing view we went back to the room to enjoy our champagne.
Tomorrow morning we will be picked up to be taken on a private tour of Tuscany. We are going to see if its possible to visit the Leaning Tower in Pisa.
The next morning we tried to get up early at 7:30 a.m.....that didn't happen. We slept with the large windows open and ended up waking up to church bells ringing from Saint Mark's Square. It was absolutely amazing. We started our day at 9:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. back in NC). We began our walk through the streets of Venice and ended up stopping at a store to buy a bikini for myself because we realized on the plane that we both forgot to pack bathing suits! We continued to the Rialto Bridge which is the only stone-built bridge across the Grand Canal. It was of course covered in shops/vendors....all selling the same thing.
Shops on the other side of the Rialto Bridge
Rialto Bridge
Our next stop wasn't planned but it was well worth it. We went inside of a church we came across that seemed to be pretty bland from the outside...but when we stepped inside we were awe-struck. Cameras were not allowed...but I snuck our camcorder to record some of it. The cathedral ceilings were spectacular. There were original paintings and sculptures all over the place. We signed our names in a book stating who we were and where we were from.
"Brittany Lawing & Nathan Lawing - North Carolina, United States"
We continued walking through the town towards Gallarie de Academia. We were going to go inside until we realized how much it cost. So we got some lunch (pizza and beer) and just sat and chatted. Every single place you go to eat here, the main (if not only) option for drinking is either beer or wine. Some places it costs more for a Coke and water is served in a bottle (sparkling or still). Not going to lie...I'm getting pretty tired of beer and wine. But this is their culture.
We continued on and took pictures throughout the city. We came across many produce stands, artists and performers. There was also a lot of homeless people... We walked through shops with signs that read "Prada," "Louis Vuitton," "Chanel"... It was pretty awesome! We walked into Louis Vuitton and walked back out pretty quickly after we saw the prices! I mean, I realized it was expensive...but holy crap! haha. We ended up making our way back to St. Mark's Square. We wanted to go to the Basilica (which is a big church in SMS) because we had heard it was free. But that's just to get in the sanctuary. We found out after hiking a bunch of steps that the terrace that goes around the outside of the Basilica was charging like 5Euro a piece. So we turned around. We admired the sanctuary and then left. We were both absolutely exhausted. So we took like a four hour nap. We then got up and got ready for dinner. We used a voucher we received when checking-in for 15% off at the hotel's restaurant across the street. We both got spaghetti and meatballs. It was probably the best I ever had.
After dinner we went to find a gondolier. We found a guy by himself so we were able to make a good price with him. It was very romantic and pretty much what I had imagined, but experiencing it for myself totally surpassed my expectations. He showed us where Marco Polo, Mozart and Casanova had once lived. We had to lean hard to the right whenever we went under bridges because the tide had come in and the water was pretty high. He brought us around to the Grand Canal and back under the bridge of Sighs. He told us that if we kissed while going under the bridge it would be good luck!
On the gondola after an amazing tour of the canals
He dropped us back off near St. Mark's Square. We decided to just sit and people-watch. It was fun watching people try to make it across the flooded square. Some would walk right through it how they would normally walk, some tip-toed, some stepped with their heels and some took their shoes completely off. It was perfect weather that night too. The moon was big (like a big pizza pie, lol) and the breeze was only slight.
Truly beautiful this night...
Oh! I forgot about earlier before dinner, when we were just walking through the city we stopped at this cafe/bar that seemed to be more mine and Nate's style. There was a younger crowd outside the door. The windows were large and open. Nate and I grabbed a seat near the window so we could watch the different people walk buy. I got the most amazing sangria I think I have ever had at this place. Nate got an Italian beer...and I convinced him to get whats called a lemon chello. I had heard it was sweet and tangy...turns out it was just plain horrible.
We finally went back to the room and packed our stuff up and took showers. We had a pretty special night that night. The next morning we got up at 6:30 a.m. to wait on our transfer to pick us up. It was a lady this time. She had arranged for a water taxi to pick us up from the hotel. It took us directly to the train station. We got there early and she explained our tickets to us and how we find our train when it arrives.
We went to get a croissant and some water for breakfast while we waited for our train to arrive. When it finally pulled up we dragged our bags to the very first cart..."first class." They gave us some snacks and drinks on the ride. We made a few stops before arriving to Florence. Nate said the landscape reminded him of Iraq but greener. We stopped at the train station in Bologna...which was cool. We kept on after that and got to a point on the track where we kept going in and out of tunnels. There were some Americans from Chicago in front of us that we talked to for a little bit.
This blog will be composed of journal entries that Nate and I wrote while we were on our honeymoon. We hope you enjoy!
Our flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam was very nice. We asked to be seated in an exit row so we could have more leg room (which Nate really appreciated). There were personal TV screens at each seat which we could watch movies on or play video games. There was a flight-tracker too which was very nice. We stayed awake all the way up the Atlantic coast. We started to break towards the ocean at Massachusetts - where we could see the unique "curl" in the land that juts out into the ocean. The meals on the flight were pretty impressive too. We were flying with KLM (who is associated with Delta). We had chicken, green beans and rice for dinner. We had told the flight attendant (after he saw the Italy Source paperwork) that we were headed to Italy for our honeymoon. So he asked if we wanted some champagne - we said "yes" of course. He also gave us this porcelain Dutch house which has homemade Dutch liquor in it.
Our champagne
We finally arrived to Amsterdam's airport and had a couple of hours to kill before flying out to Venice. We were exhausted after the flight - we didn't get much sleep at all. And it was very uncomfortable. But the breakfast on the plane was really good! Egg/cheese sandwich, fruit, granola and yogurt...
We finally found our terminal and found a seat and I immediately fell asleep. When we finally boarded the plane, we took our seats and were off again.
The plane had rows of three seats on either side of the aisle. Once we realized no one else was on our row, Nate laid across the seats and went to sleep with his head on my lap. They gave us drinks and sandwiches for a snack. We both ended up falling asleep quickly.
We were woken up by the pilot telling us to look out the windows at the Alps. It was absolutely breath-taking! They were capped with snow and were spotted with cloud cover.
The Alps
Before we knew it we were approaching the Marco Polo airport in Venice. We arrived at 4:50 pm on May 25th. As we flew in, we saw the Venice island out the right side of the plane.
Venice Island
It was so very exciting!! We were giddy when we got off the plane! We went to luggage claim and our bags were right there waiting on us! We walked out the doors to see a group of people holding up signs with names on them. We finally spotted ours - "Mrs. Brittany Lawing"! (They didn't have Nate's name because I was the one that did most of the communication with the Italian travel agency). There were two Italian gentlemen waiting for us. One of them asked for my bag and they directed us to our car...a Mercedes Benz.
They loaded our luggage and then we were off. It was so surreal having this happen to us. The car was amaaaazing!! They drove us to the furthest point into the Venice island that you can take a car. Then we got out and our transfer got us a water taxi. It was an incredible ride down the Grand Canal. We passed the most amazing houses/churches/museums just seemingly floating in the water! This was truly the most spectacular thing I had ever seen! There were boats galore!
He took us right under the famous Bridge of Sighs - construction was being done on either side of the bridge so the view wasn't the greatest. The bridge was built in 1602 and connected the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. Rumor has it that the view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells.
We pulled up right to our hotel where a bell-hop was waiting to help us with our bags. The transfer came inside with us and helped us check in. Our bags were brought to our room for us and when we got to the room we were more than excited! We had a pretty nice view of the terrace below. We immediately took showers because we felt disgusting!! And then we took some time to relax. We then decided to walk around and explore. It was very confusing at first but we finally figured it out. We walked around the alley-ways and over the bridges aiming to get lost. We found a gelato stand and decided to try it out! This is Italy's form of icecream. It was very good!
Our first gelato of the trip
We finally found a place where we could get on the internet - I sent out a Facebook status letting everyone know we made it to Venice safe and soundly. Allison, my sister-in-law, happened to be online so we talked for a little bit. We then headed to Saint Mark's Square and on our way we grabbed some dinner. We stopped at this little place and had some awesome pizza and wine. Nate had cheese and salami and I had cheese and black olive.
After dinner we made it to Saint Mark's Square which was really close to our hotel. The water was very high that evening and was flooding the square. Apparently this is normal for them. It was kind of fun though. We took our shoes off and walked around in it. It was surprisingly chilly! We listened to some bands play music and just admired the great architecture surround us.
We found a place that sold Martini & Rossi Asti (which is our favorite champagne!) We bought it and took it back to the hotel and celebrated. We sat out on the terrace and watched gondolas go by.
