Italy has officially become my favorite country, thanks to Venice. Ive wanted to come here my entire life. It was the one place that I wanted to see before I died, and I'm so glad that we are here. Again, I wish we had more time. Yesturday morning we visited the Uffizi Museum, which was definitely one of the best art museums we have seen. They have an extensive Da Vinci exhibit going on. It also contain the works of Botticelli "Birth of Venus"(a little disap...

Florence continues to amaze us and I wish we had more time here. Yesturday a lot of things were closed (again). We visited Museo del Bargello in the morning, which holds almost nothing but artifacts and primarily, sculptures. The whole purpose of that visit was to see Donatellos "David". It is... smaller than I thought it would be. But it is bronze and stunning none the less. We ate more pizza at a wine bar and then visited the Duomo church. All I have to say is ...

Florence is really amazing and what we were expecting when we came to Europe. Like almost all other major cities in Europe, it is on a river (see photo). The streets are tight and are very medieval looking. Last night, we went to the Uffizi plaza and watched an outdoor concert while eating gelato. Excellent. So many things are closed on Sundays here. Luckily, the shopping isnt. The girls and I went to San Lorenzo market. I bought the leather purse I had bee...

It is really difficult to get anything accomplished in the afternoons here because it is so so hot. Yesturday, Nick, Ted & Heather went to the beach (apparantly it was nice) while Rach & I went to the Colosseum. We made the mistake of taking a tour. It is much smaller than I thought it would be. We then walked around other ruins nearby and saw the Arc of Constantine. Because it is summer, there is a lot of excavation going on. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant...

Rome is very, very busy. Rachel and I took a sight seeing bus today around the city. It covered most of the areas, such as the Roman forum (see photo). There are ruins randomly situated around the whole city, though. It is really fascinating. It is an interesting contrast because right next to a Roman wall that is decaying is a pizzeria built in 1900. The traffic around the city is horrendous, and apparantly has been since the time of Caesar. He used to regulate ...