We flew into Venice on a Saturday. We had no trouble finding our hotel, but ran into a bit of a problem. I screwed up and booked the room for Sunday and Monday nights instead of Monday and Tuesday. Doh. Luckily the concierge was able to find us a room at a nearby monastery :P. It ended up being pretty much just like a hotel room, so things worked out just fine.
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| From Italy - Venice |
Sunday we got up and headed out to explore Venice. We started out the morning with some espresso in the Campo Santa Margareta.
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| From Italy - Venice |
We then headed up to check out the Realto. Sadly, the farmers market was not in full swing (since it was Sunday). Then we headed up to the train station to get our tickets to Como the next morning. Well, this is where we came to roadblock #2. They decided to have a train strike on Monday (when we needed to be at the conference). So, we got tickets to Milan for that evening (after being told that we would be able to to get a train to Como from Milan Monday morning before the strike kicked off at 9am). After getting our tickets and booking a room in Milan, we headed out and did a quick tour of the city. We road around on the water taxis, and hit up Piazza San Marco (and the Basilica there). The Piazza was nice, but I was not particularly excited with the Basilica. We skipped the Palazzo Ducalte because of time.
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| From Italy - Venice |
After this we headed back to the train station and headed over to Milan. We did not do much in Milan, as we just had time for a meal and were up near the train station and not downtown. The one thing I will note is that we tried horse for dinner that night. It was good.
The next morning we got up and headed over to the train station to take a ride up to Como. Here we found out that, despite what we had been told the night before, the trains were on strike. So, we had to take a $150+ cab ride up to Como. Doh.
Como is a town on a lake up near Switzerland. Not lots of stuff to do there -- it is more of a place to go and relax. The conference was okay. I enjoyed catching up with Hillery and Ron (from Grad School) as well as some other people. The papers were not particularly exciting. Here is photo from near our hotel looking out towards the lake.
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| From Italy - Como |
After wrapping up the conference, we hopped on the train and headed down to Castiglion Fiorentino where we stayed on a farm. It was very nice and a great deal. We had a bit of trouble getting to the farm, and if I were to do it again I think I would want a car. It was also a bit tricky because the people that we were staying with did not really speak much English. We still had a great time. Here is a photo of the farm.
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| From Italy - Tuscany & Florence |
We had a full day on the farm, but the weather did not cooperate so we took a train ride over to Florence. I was not a huge fan of Florence. The Duomo was quite nice, but the rest did not do much for me. Here is a photo of the Duomo, and a photo from the top of the Duomo.
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| From Italy - Tuscany & Florence |
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| From Italy - Tuscany & Florence |
After the farm, we headed down to Rome. I had not heard a lot of good things about Rome in the past, but I really enjoyed it. I think most people go during the summer when it is nasty hot and there are tons of people. The rain spared us, so the weather was great for wandering around and scoping things out. Allen had already seen a lot of the sites, so we generally split up during the day and got together for dinner.
The day we arrived, I visited the Colosseum. It was really pretty cool, but I only really needed ~20 minutes to explore it.
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| From Italy - Rome |
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| From Italy - Rome |
After this I headed over to see the Palatine. Sadly they closed the entrance to the Palatine at 3:30pm, and I arrived at 3:32, so I did not get to go in. I headed home and had a nap before heading out to dinner with Allen. We first swung by an English Tea House at the Spanish Steps, and then walked down to Trastavere for dinner. After dinner, we walked by the Spanish Steps and down by the Trevi Fountain.
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| From Italy - Rome |
The next day we got up and walked together down past the Pantheon and to a market where we split up.
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| From Italy - Rome |
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| From Italy - Rome |
I headed up to the Vatican. St. James cathedral was pretty amazing. It was architecturally my favorite cathedral that I have ever seen. Overall, I would only rate the cathedral in Jerusalem as better.
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| From Italy - Rome |
I visited the tombs of the popes, as well as the Vatican Museum (which includes the Sistine Chapel). The museum was pretty amazing -- they have tons and tons of stuff.
After the Vatican, I hurried back down to the Palatine and this time I made it on time and was able to scope things out. I really enjoyed the Palatine. It is an area with all sorts of ruins from Ancient Rome. Here are some select photos.
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| From Italy - Rome |
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| From Italy - Rome |
For dinner that night Allen ordered Raw Beef. It was good.
The next morning we got up early and headed to the airport and flew to Frankfurt. Frankfurt is pretty much dead on Sundays. Apparently everything except for restaurants shuts down on Sundays, so there was not much to do. We saw all the sights in Frankfurt, which is not much.
Here is a photo of the Opera House (boring).
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| From Germany - Frankfurt |
Then we headed over to the Old City (they small part of Frankfurt that was not bombed into oblivion in WW2).
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| From Germany - Frankfurt |
We had a great dinner at a Cider Tavern called Fichtekranzi‎. Cider (alcoholic) is the drink of choice in Frankfurt. We also tried "Green Sauce", which is also a popular topping (on just about anything) for that part of Germany. It is a mixture of Cream, Yogurt, and 7 Herbs, and was really good.
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| From Germany - Frankfurt |
The next day we headed home.
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