Met Lizzy in Rome on May 22. The timing was great as our flights arrived only four hours apart. It was so good to see her. Checked into our beautiful hostel near (but not too near) Termini Station. It was five flights up in the ancient, pint-sized, rickety, elevator or the "dreaded stairs" (which we ended up taking frequently due to elevator problems). The floors were marble and the shutters opened over a beautiful garden. Our roommate was a sweet Italian woman who spoke little English but who gave us some great information through her few English words, our few Italian words, and lots of map pointing and body language. Hit the cute restaurant across the street for our first dinner of pizza (alfredo and basil), salad (wine and vinegar), and a nice red house wine. The "service charge" was a new one on us. Upon asking what the charge was for, the waiter explained it was for the bread (which we didn't get) and the water. How special...from then on we ate at restaurants with no service charge. We are loving the way Italians drink coffee. Step up to the bar in any cafe, tavern, bakery and order your cappuccino or espresso. It's pushed in front of you within a minute, slurp it down in 20 seconds because it's served warm, and you're on your way!

Bought a "Roma Pass" which was a bit pricey at €30 each but worth it. This got us free admission to our first two sites, a discount on all other sites, and free public transportation for three days. Hit the Colosseum/Palatine Hill/Roman Forum and two of the National Museum sites the first day. Went to the Vatican the next day and saw the Pope while waiting in line for St. Peter's Basilica. There was a rally going on (never found out what it was) with probably 50,000 people or more in attendance. The Pope gave a speech and then rode through the crowd in the Popemobile! St. Peter's was amazing and worth the two-hour wait in the blazing sun. Checked out the rest of the Vatican including the post office and St. Peter's Square. Next day we did Rick Steves' (the expert on Europe, sorry Lonely Planet) Heart of Rome Walk which included the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, Church of St. Agnes, Campo de' Fiori, Egyptian Obelisks, and every gelato shop we came across. (We ate pizza and gelato for five days straight!) Next two days were spent walking miles through all of Rome seeing too many sites to mention, shopping, eating. Last day we stood in a massive line (thank goodness we got there early) to get into the Vatican Museum. It's free the last Sunday of each month! So worth the wait! Thank goodness Liz, with all of her recent art history class knowledge, was with me!

Five days and a couple of pounds heavier, we boarded the train for Florence. We almost missed it because we were standing on the wrong part of the platform. We kept seeing people running past us dragging luggage and found out they were running to our train. We followed and hopped on with less than a minute to spare. The Italian train system is a bit challenging.

Florence

Missed our stop in Florence because we didn't know you have to open the doors yourself (we mistakenly thought they would just pop open and we would hop off!) Got off at the next stop which was really far from our hostel. Taxis were too expensive so we bought a local bus ticket at a bus station kiosk. Met a nice guy from Canada, Chad, who was going to the same hostel. We clued him in as to which bus to take so he bought a ticket also. The bus went in the opposite direction (thanks a whole bunch kiosk guy) and dumped us even further from our hostel. With no more buses or taxis in sight and nothing but Chad's phone GPS, we walked the two miles to the hostel. After checking in sweaty and disgusted, I dumped the contents of my pack in the middle of the floor and sent a sizeable pile of stuff home the next day. The hostel was great! Looked like it used to be a convent or seminary as it was attached to a beautiful, old church. The windows opened into a gorgeous courtyard full of flowers and grape vines. The free sangria upon check-in was a nice touch too.

We spent two days exploring Piazza Della Signoria, Piazzale Michelangelo, which was perched on a sizeable hill along the Arno River with great city views and beautiful gardens, Piazza Della Repubblica, Palazzo Vecchio which was jammed with gelato-gobbling tourists, and Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). Got in line early for the Uffizi the next day and only had to wait 1.5 hours. Four hours was about as much art as we could soak up at one time but we covered most everything. It was fabulous with artwork from the usual suspects...Michelangelo, Giotto, Botticelli, Raphael, da Vinci, Titian, Caravaggio. Saw several Rembrandts too in the "Foreign Artists" gallery.

Missed our first train to Venice because we thought we were leaving from the station where we purchased our tickets. Doesn't necessarily work that way. So we purchased another ticket to get to the station from where it was leaving only to find out (after we missed our second train of the day) that the platform number had been changed. It's not announced so you have to keep an eye on the screens. We were at the station so long that we ended up catching a different train to Venice from there!

Venice

Luckily the hostel we booked was close to the train station but we couldn't find it as it had no sign. Stopped at a newspaper kiosk to ask directions and the woman behind the counter flipped off her radio, rolled her eyes, threw back her head, and let out a long "aghhhhhhhh" before waving us in the right direction! We wandered around in the wretched heat and humidity for an hour before determining we had the correct place, they just couldn't post a sign due to some ordinance. They couldn't tape a little piece of paper to the buzzer? How annoying. It was a beautiful old home, three stories, marble floors throughout, and on a canal with a great view from our window. The managers left a lot to be desired though. They lived downstairs, argued frequently, had a big sign (apparently they did know how to make signs) on their door that said "Private", and were rarely available.

Spent three days wandering the streets and getting intentionally lost. It's hard to get too lost as it's not a big place. Checked out St. Mark's Square and Basilica but didn't go inside as the line was really long. Can't imagine what Venice would be like in July and August if it's this crowded in May. Was disappointed that so many churches charge admission. I understand charging for museums but churches? Checked out the Grand Canal and took a traghetto across to see San Giorgio Maggiore. Had a wonderful dinner at a little out of the way restaurant along a canal. Lasagna, calamari, salad, bread, wine.