Italia - Pisa, Tuscano & Roma

Thursday, September 4

This day was probably the most adventurous and crazy day but as with any risk, came with some of the best rewards of the entire trip!  We got up the earliest I believe we did all trip and hit the street at about 8.  We ate our “waffle” breakfast as we walked to the train station where we didn’t know exactly where we were going but knew that we had to get to the airport somehow.  I asked around a little and found that there was a shuttle that takes you there and we finally found it and caught it where it took us clear out to the airport.  There we had to find another shuttle to the car rental place which was outside the airport.  While doing this we bumped into a couple of other American couples who were there visiting.  We finally got the Hertz rental place and stood in line a little longer and finally got our Diesel, Stick, Ford VAN!!  I didn’t think we would get anything larger than a smart car, but they gave us a van.  And to top it all off, they didn’t have a GPS available for us and they didn’t have any maps!  I had had the thought that we should have picked up a map when we were still in Florence proper, but brushed it off thinking that surely the rental car place would have some.  But they didn’t.  So now we had no idea where we were and no idea how to get to Pisa, our next stop.  Luckily the man at the counter drew us a very crude map showing us how to at least get to the right freeway heading to Pisa.  

As we left the rental car station, I killed the car.  It’s been nearly 5 years since I last drove a stick!  I don’t get nervous traveling overseas.  I am pretty travel smart and savvy in a foreign country, but at that very moment I started to realize that we might have gotten ourselves in over our heads!  With Megan’s help and a lot of white knuckle driving we finally made it out on the freeway heading in what we thought was the right direction.  Then we started to see some freeway signs telling us that we were heading in the right direction to Pisa and things got a little more calm as we made the roughly hour drive over to the coast and to Pisa.  As we neared Pisa we realized that we didn’t know how to get to the leaning tower which was the only reason we wanted to go there.  Rick Steves’ map was not detailed enough to figure it out and it mentioned a few times not to go into downtown as you can get huge fines driving where you shouldn’t.  But in true tourist fashion, we got completely lost driving into Pisa, and through a series of roundabouts and oneway streets got sucked right down into the very center of traffic packed Pisa!  I was so incredibly nervous driving stick in that little city, but never killed it once and didn’t hit a single sole.  After some aimlessly driving around, we found some signs that said, “Torre Pendente”, which we didn’t know what it meant but it was brown (like our historical sign markers) and had a little picture of a leaning tower.  We thought surely that had to mean the leaning tower so we began to follow them.  

Eventually it lead us for a ways and all of a sudden I looked up and bam, there was the leaning tower looming up above a wall just right in front of us.  And lo and behold just on our left was a parking lot!  I couldn’t believe it.  We had completely stumbled upon the leaning tower of Pisa.  We happily parked our car, grabbed our little green chip and walked over to the grounds of the tower.  It was pretty cool and there were a ton of tourists there.  And of course EVERYONE was taking pictures of themselves holding up the tower or pushing it over or having it come out of their pants or something silly like that.  So we did too.  We could have climbed to the top of it but it was 18 Euros per person to climb it so we passed.  

We then hopped back in our car and headed out down the coast.  This time it was a little easier to figure out where we were going since every sign had an arrow to Roma.  As they say, “All roads lead to Rome”.  We had originally planned to drive down to Sienna at least if not to Sam Gimgnano or Civita and Orvieto but since it took so long to get our car and we got lost enough time we figured it smartest to just high tail it to Rome. We still got to see some pretty stunning views of Tuscany as well as the Tyrrhenian Sea on the way.  In fact we even stopped at one little town called Cevitavecchia and walked down to the Sea to dip our toes in.  There were so many Olive gardens (the real things, not  the American Restaraunts) and vineyards it was just beautiful to drive down.  We even made a little pit stop at a little gas station/conveniene store to use the restroom and buy a drink and a delicious pastry.  

We finally made it to Rome and to the airport where we dropped the car off and then caught a train, the Leonardo Express, to the Train station at the Termini Rome station.  We bought tickets for Sunday back to the airport so that we didn’t have to worry about it when we got up Sunday to leave.  We then walked to the hotel which was the Palladium Palace.  it was the nicest one by far, but did come with a costly wifi as well as a 6 Euro per person per night city tax!!!  We immediately Facetimed with the kids and were grateful to hear that Talya was being a good girl and Grandma was impressed with her manners and how she had apologized to Grandma for fighting with her.  We then went on a little walk to try to see the colosseum from a distance but couldn’t find it.  We later learned that we did find it, but in the dark we couldn’t tell it was it because it was covered with a scaffolding on one side.  We stopped and ate dinner at a little street side restaurant with a Ukranian waiter.  It was the best pasta dinner either of us had had the entire trip.  We had Gnocchi and Spaghetti with Bacon.  We also found an awesome little tourist trap store and bought our frame, an Italian magnet and some little Colosseum and St. Peter Square statues.  On our way back we stopped and of course had to get Gelato which turned out to be the worst one of the whole week.  It was raspberry and sage.  Turns out, Sage is a nasty taste in ice cream!  Then we made our way back to the hotel and hit the sack early because of our early day the next day…Vatican City!!!

Italia - Firenze

Wednesday, September 3

As we had nothing to do but make it to our train by 9:30, we slept in and then cleaned up and went downstairs for the same little breakfast as yesterday.  We walked the few blocks the train station and caught our Frecciabianca (fast) train to Florence, and it was packed.  On the way, we played Ticket-to-Ride on the iPad (on a train :), and Colten killed!  When we arrived, all we had to do was walk about 3 blocks from the train station and we were right in the very center of Florence on the square of the famous Duomo where our hotel was.  After looking for it for a few minutes we couldn’t find it and then finally realized that it was on the 3rd floor and we had to get buzzed into a little alleyway to then find the elevator.  Unfortunately, we could not figure out how to work the elevator and ended up toting our luggage up the stairs where we finally found our little San Giovanni Hotel.  Besides being difficult to find, the bathroom was across the hall and we had to unlock it with an old skeleton key.  The room was humongous though with frescoes on the ceiling and two windows with an incredible view of the Duomo and the Baptistry.  We did have two separate beds like we did for every single night except the two nights in Venice.  

After getting settled in, we finally left and headed to the center where we stopped at a little cafe and has some of the best pizza in our whole time in Italy. After lunch we walked over to the Duomo.  We went inside (much like Milan’s Duomo inside), and then we went down into the crypt with lots of burial sites.  After doing that we planned to climb the dome of the Duomo but the line was insanely long so we decided to go shopping in the market where we had heard is the best place to buy leather items in Italy.  We found it and it was just like something out of Mexico.  Ricky Steves (Colten's nickname) or Stevie Ricks (Megan's nickname), as he became affectionately known to us, let us know that the prices were soft and haggling was needed to get a fair deal.  So as I have never been able to before, we haggled a guy down a ton until we got a great price on a Red Leather hand bag for Meg.  We also bought 6 scarves and 8 “silk” ties.  

We then took them back to the room then headed back to the Duomo dome climb line which hadn’t shrunk at all.  As we stood there we chatted with two twins who were from Salt Lake City and were going to BYU and studying abroad in London for the nearly hour as we stood in line.  We finally made it to the front just in time before the closed the dome climb and we made it 463 steps to the top!  This dome was pretty significant as one of the first domes completed in the last 2,000 years and every dome after it was modeled after it including our capital building.  It was made by Brunelleschi who was a native Florentine.  It offered some absolutely breathtaking views of Florence and the hills surrounding it and Tuscany.  Probably my most favorite countryside sites of all Italy.  Truly, that was one of the most surprising things about Italy in general was just how mountainous it was in general, not just the Alps but all throughout there were tons of hills and mountains.  We then went back down the dome and went over to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge that spans the Arno river.  It had tons of Gold shops on it and we bought some really expensive and not all that great Gelato on the other side.  On our way to the bridge however, we happened to find the little sandwich shop that the BYU twins told us about.  It was right behind the Uffizi Gallery and it was amazing.  I’m not even sure what the guys made us, but he did it right in front of our eyes and it was pretty tasty.  After talking with an American at the market earlier in the day, we decided to walk clear out to the North side of town where he told us we would be able to find some street artists.  However we got there too late and there was nothing there but some shady characters.  As we walked back, we had some pretty awesome views of the sun setting behind the Duomo and Meg snapped some pictures.  We also stopped in an authentic Italian grocery store, where we were the only tourists inside and we bought some snacks as well as breakfast waffles since our hotel did not have any breakfast.  

As we walked back it was dark but not all that late yet and we decided to just site on the steps of the Duomo and watch the masses in the Piazza.  It was quite fun and relaxing.  It was even pretty romantic as we just sat there on the steps of a cathedral that was thousands of years old and did nothing but chilled.  We finally got the energy back up to walk to the corner of the square back to our hotel.  We found out that the wifi didn’t work in our room since the walls were about 4 feet thick and so we Facetimed with the kids from the couch in the “lounge” and then went to bed.  

View from our  hotel window.

Megan's favorite pizza the entire trip!

Italia - Venezia

...On the way we had some pretty awesome views of the Alps and some pretty awesome lakes and views.  Meg slept a little and I did some studying of what we were going to do in Venice.  Then we arrived in Venice and it was absolutely magical!  We arrived at dusk and with the lights on and dancing on the waters of the grand canal it was such a romantic and beautiful atmosphere.  We walked the 4-5 blocks to our hotel over about 4 bridges (with stairs).  Hotel Falier was pretty cool, very small but very quaint.  Then we decided that since it was such a magical atmosphere that we’d go do some walking and we got lost, then found some more gelato in a little square.  We walked back to the hotel and Facetimed with the kids before falling to sleep.  

Our silly "Talya" faces.

Smallest hotel room I have ever seen.

Tuesday, September 2

Today was Venice all day!  Because of this, we decided to catch up on a little more sleep and slept in again to about 8:30 and then went downstairs to get another typical European breakfast complete with our beloved Croissants.  Then we started walking and exploring the many tiny winding and confusing walkways to finally arrive at San Marco Square around 10 am.  There we saw St. Mark’s Basilica where St. Mark the Evangelist (who wrote the book of Mark) is buried.  It was busy and packed as we walked through and a loud speaker kept blaring, Silenzio, No Photo!  We finally made it out and then bought tickets to enter the Doge’s Palace which was the political headquarters of the Venetian Empire for about 300-400 years.  It was pretty ornate inside.  There were tons of awesome art pieces as well as a humongous ball room that is what you’d expect from a palace.  It also had a prison that was across a little canal connected to the palace by way of the “Bridge of Sighs”.  It was said that prisoners would be sentenced to the prison in the Palace and then have to cross the bridge and as they would cross they would get their last glimpse of the lagoons of Venice and then sigh as they crossed into the dungeons.  The prison was pretty creepy and we got lost as we didn't follow the signs marking the suggested flow of visitors very well.  After touring that for a while we then ventured into the maze that is Venice again.  We wandered for a little while getting really tired until we finally found our way to the Rialto Bridge, the prettiest and main site that spans the Grand Canal.  It was well past lunch time at this point, but I think that we had way too high of expectations for food and were way too cheap and so we kept passing place after place until we finally ducked into this little restaurant off of a main piazza and got a little 8 Euro pizza and rested for a little bit while using their free bathrooms and free wifi.  After lunch we then toured around all the shops that surround the Rialto.  That’s where we bought Talya a mask (that was everywhere), a fan, glass earrings (Murano glass) and a necklace.  We also bought a Venetian magnet, which ended up being the only “city” magnet we bought.  After exploring around there for quite some time and getting lost again, we finally found our way back to just outside San Marco’s Square, where the main hub for Gondola rides is.  We stood there for nearly 30 minutes trying to catch someone to share a gondola with us since we didn’t want to pay the 80 Euros by ourselves which is what it costed for a 40 minute ride.  Finally, by chance, Megan bumped into this little Italian family with a “Romanian” wife, McKayla, who happened to speak decent English who said that we could join them.  So we got to go on a 40 minute Gondola ride that included a little stint on the Grand Canal for only 25 Euros!  Awesome deal.  And we even chatted with the little Italian family for a little bit which made the experience even cooler.  After returning from the gondola ride we wandered back over into San Marco Square and over to the Bell tower where we stood in line for about another 30 minutes to ride the elevator up to the top of the bell tower to get some pretty amazing views of not only Venice itself but also the lagoon and the Alps!  Pretty breathtaking!  We finished our little venture with a walk along the waterfront where we saw a massive Cruise ship being towed out to sea.  Finally we made the trek back to our hotel, and by this time I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to get us to where we actually wanted to go.  We stopped by this little piazza for diner and Meg got a Feta Cheese Salad that had very little lettuce and I had some Chicken which was quite tasty.  It was a cold evening as we sat there waiting for our waiter to bring our check as per the Italian style.  As we sat there, there was a little Russian family a few tables down that had a little girl that was just Natalya’s size and she was acting in the same little quirky way that Talya does.  She was jumping around and playing with her family in just a way as to make Meg really miss Talya and get home sick to the point of bringing tears to her eyes.  We finally got our check and then walked back to our hotel by way of getting a peach gelato for me and a scarf for Meg.  We Facetimed with the kids and then hit the sack in our teeny little hotel room.

Italia - Milano

Our trip to Italy is written from Colten's perspective as he wrote in his journal... (There is no need to rewrite it if it has already been written.) 

Saturday, August 30

Megan had to wake up really early today to get to a volleyball tournament that her team was playing in.  She wasn’t really excited about being away from the kids the day we were leaving, but it was kind of a condition of keeping her job that she coach today since she would missing the next week.  She skipped out on the last game to make it home in time for lunch and to give my Mom a driving tour around town, and her team ended up winning the championship.  While Meg was at the tournament, the kids and I played with Grandma and acquainted her with the house and the schedule etc.  Talya only wanted Grandma to do everything for her.  She only wanted Grandma to tell her stories etc.  Ty on the other hand was still pretty unsure of Grandma and would just stare at her.  He never cried, but was just a little weary of this new stranger in his house.  

After our tour, Grandma took us over to the Microtel where our shuttle would pick us up to the Minneapolis airport.  As we drove out of the hotel parking lot in the shuttle it sunk in to Meg that we were really leaving the kids for a week.  It was sad for me of course, but it really hit Meg and she shed a couple of tears.  It took her a few miles to finally get composed enough to talk.  After we got to the airport, we made it through security very quickly and waited at our gate for our 8 hour flight to Paris.  We had to sit in the middle of a 2 seat, aisle, 4 seat, aisle, 2 seat sized plane.  The flight really wasn’t that long as they had a great selection of movies and I watched 2 of them and Meg watched Frozen.  We both slept for a few hours as well since it was our bed time.  We did get a great dinner too on board.  Meg ate pasta penne, and I had beef with potatoes.  We even got a breakfast snack as well before arriving in Paris.  We were pretty tired and Meg was a little nauseous in Paris. We had to go through some pretty crazy trams and security before finally making it to our gate where our flight was delayed to Milan... 

Sunday, August 31

...We finally boarded that and made the final flight from paris to Milan which was beautiful as we crossed the snow-capped Alps.  We arrived in Milan about 3:30 pm and had to figure out how to get to our hotel and the conference center to put up my poster.  Before leaving the airport we decided to take out some Euros from a Bank ATM and it denied my card 4 times before it finally let me take some out.  We looked around and finally found a bus line that would take us to the terminal station of a metro line that would take us about 6 blocks from our hotel and the conference center.  It took some adventuring and a few stops but we made it without a hitch.  We were pretty dead tired but we finally made it to Hotel Johnny.  We stayed on the 3rd floor where there were 3 twin beds that were rock hard.  It did have an A/C though.  The bathroom was also pretty interesting with a teeny little corner shower and a bidet.  After checking in we walked the 2 blocks to the MICO conference center where we found out that my poster which I had designed and printed to hang horizontally was actually supposed to be printed Vertically.  After feeling pretty stupid, Megan helped me cut it up and realign it so that it was “collaged” to fit in my space but still be read upright.  We then walked back to the hotel who recommended we eat at the Mercante restaurant around the corner but found that it wouldn’t open till 7:00 pm.  This was our first introduction to the slow and easy-going nature of Italian dinners.  Nothing is rushed, it is considered rude for a waiter to bother you or rush your ticket to you.  Italians don’t eat on their way to the evening event, Dinner is the evening event.  So we waited around on the tables on the street and finally got dinner of the most delicious Bruschetta bread topped with fresh Tomatoes and a good pizza.  Total costed 24 Euros.  After dinner we then crashed back at Hotel Johnny but not before we Facetimed with Grandma and the kids.  It was good to finally see their faces.  

Monday, September 1

So since it took us so long to figure out how to get to our hotel and to put up my poster we didn’t get a chance to see any of Milan so we decided to do it this morning since my presentation was not until 2:00 pm.  So we slept in like rocks despite the rock hard beds until 8:30.  We made it down the teeny little elevator to the basement where we had breakfast (meats, cheeses, fresh peach juice and yogurt, and the first of our wonderful experiences with Croissants filled with fruit jams) under a really cool brick arched ceiling.  We left the hotel by 10 and walked to the Metro where we rode it downtown to the Milan Duomo for free.  I received a free pass from the conference and Megan found a free 24 hour pass on the ground that she used!  The Duomo was amazing!  It is the largest Cathedral in Italy (St. Peter’s is technically in the Vatican City), and the 4th largest Cathedral in the world!  Our Metro stop popped us right up literally 20 feet from the side of the Duomo.  It was pretty spectacular.  We must have looked like tourists gawking up at the Duomo because the second we walked out of the Metro this African man walked up and before we could realize what was happening tied cheap little braided bracelets onto our hands.  He said they were free but then after trying to chat us up while we walked away, he then started to badger us for money.  I figured since we did get bracelets from him and he was obviously going to pester us till I gave him something, I’d give him a little coin in my pocket.  It just so happens that the only coin in my pocket was a 2 Euro coin!  Lesson learned.  They were not the last Africans to bother us the entire trip.  Every corner of every city we went to had Africans trying to swindle you into either holding corn seed for the pigeons, buying a rose for your wife, or buying a squishy ball you throw at the ground (more on this ball later).  We got better at avoiding them as we decided that showing any mercy or saying “no thanks” in English only enticed them more.  So we started saying “Nyet” or No in Russian and that usually worked, and if they persisted, then I’d spout something else off at them in Russian.  Since they didn’t know Russian, they usually left us alone after that. 

Anyway, we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo first after paying I believe 10 E, and snapping a pic with the military-clad guard, we made the 200 + stair climb to the top!  It was pretty awesome.  The views of the Alps and the rest of the city were pretty amazing.  The Duomo itself was awesome.  There were some 2,000 + statues on the outside alone, complete with a golden “Angel Moroni” as we called it.  After snapping quite a few of our first “Selfies”, which we became very very good at, we descended the Duomo and then went inside.  Not very ornate or pretty but MASSIVE.  We snapped a few more pictures from the square in front of the Duomo and then walked to the nearby fancy shopping center with the roof that inspired Fremont Street in Vegas.  There were stores for Prada, Gucci, Armani and Versace that we didn’t even dare enter.  It was at this point that we saw our first bountiful piles of colorful goodness we came to know as Gelato!  We each got one for 3 Euro each, then took the Metro back to our hotel.  And walking back from the metro stop to our hotel itself we decided to just find some cheap lunch and we stumbled upon what looked like a little breadshop but it had some fresh pizza bread? which was the cheapest thing we bought the entire week and was the most delicious thing we probably ate!  

We then checked out of the hotel and picked up our luggage and walked to the conference center.  Megan set up shop in the little lobby where there was wifi since she was not allowed into the conference center because she did not have a name badge, and I went into the bathroom to change into my dress clothes for my presentation.  As I was changing in the teeny little stall with the toilet, my suitcase, and a little 2x2 foot square to stand, the power went out leaving me half-naked in a stall in a pitch-black bathroom.  It was comical, but I finally turned on my iPhone flashlight and finished changing by flashlight.  For the next 3 hours Megan sat in the lobby Instagramming (her favorite thing to do on the trip :) and playing games and watching movies on the iPad.  I found Dr. Pawlina, Chris Bailey, and Prakriti Gaba who all came to my session to watch my presentation.  There were probably 30 people there for my presentation and they were all pretty impressed with my project as well as my presentation.  Probably the best one of the 20 in my session.  After my presentation I shot the bull with Chris for a little while and then changed my clothes and grabbed Meg and we traveled back to the train station via the Metro.  There Meg had to use the bathroom and she had to pay 1 Euro to do so.  Then we found our train and hopped it for 2.5 hours to Venice.