Europe Part 7 - Italy - May 21-23, 2008

Below are just some of the photos from this part. See all of them with high-res versions at Flickr.

39 Venice photos - CLICK HERE.
89 Florence photos - CLICK HERE.
48 Pisa photos - CLICK HERE.



Wednesday was the longest day of train traveling, as I spent basically the entire day going from Bern to Florence, Italy. Along the way, however, I was able to make a 4 hour stop in Venice.



I had done no research on Venice, so I just decided to start walking and get lost. That was probably a bad idea considering that Venice is already probably the most confusing city in the world to navigate.



Venice is really cool and definitely unique, but I didn't regret having only 4 hours there.



It is kind of weird being in a city with no cars.



San Marco is the most famous area of Venice, and one of the most annoying places from the trip.



It seems it is a requirement to act like an idiot and feed pigeons, which draws thousands and thousands of them to the square.



I would have liked to go up in Saint Marks, but the line was massive.



Now that I was on the complete opposite side of the city, it was time to find my way back.



Easier said that done. I had no idea where the train station was.



In my frantic wandering I was able to see a lot of the city at least.



With time ticking down until my train reservation, I gave up on walking.



I took a taxi boat to the train station, and sprinted to my train with literally seconds to spare. This was the closest call of the trip.



The solo portion of my trip ended in Florence where I met up with Matthew. We stayed at the Hostel Archi Rossi in Florence, a definite candidate for best hostel of the trip. Free computer use in the lobby, a computer in the room, free breakfast (with a lot of choices), and free walking tours. We were also able to catch the end of the Champions League Final when we got in Wednesday night.



In the hallways, guests are encouraged to write on the walls.



The lobby walls are covered with artwork.



We did the free walking tour on a rainy Thursday morning. This was also the moment where my heart stopped for a good 10 seconds as I thought my camera card had been formatted, erasing over 1,000 photos. Turned out that the hostel computer modified the folder with the pictures so that the camera didn't recognize it. As you can see, all of the pictures were intact.



It's hard to tell in this low-res version, but these pictures are done by carving various rocks and carefully piecing them together.



The main attraction in Tuscany is the food, and in Florence we had the best meal of the trip.



It was also easily the most expensive.



I didn't understand what exactly the logo was supposed to mean.



Do you think many people ride motorcycles around here?



We crossed the river and made an exhausting climb up the hillside.



The views were worth it. Full-size photo.



Once the brief morning rain stopped, it ended up being yet another beautiful day.



The Florence Duomo is yet another landmark European cathedral.



This pano reveals a number of Matthew clones all squinting from the sun. Full-size photo.



The walk back down was much easier.



It was great to escape the city for a little while. Full-size photo.



I'd be curious to know how many copies of this are around the city.



After our little walk, we headed back toward the city.



This place had some pretty amazing gelato.



The trend of buildings under construction continued with the Duomo.



The sun begins to set over Florence.



We wandered into a random little bar to finish a long day.



I'm not sure what this was, but it was kind of creepy.



Back to the hostel for a good night's rest (and no snorers in the room!).



Before we checked out on Friday, I left my mark.



It was a hot day in Florence as we looked to finish seeing everything before we left that afternoon.



There are some great museums in Florence, but we didn't go in any of them because they all had insane lines like this.



Something was happening in one of the squares. That is the extent of my knowledge.



Very colorful.



Want.



So we did in fact go to one museum in Florence; definitely the lamest museum I have ever seen.



This poster copy of the entire Divine Comedy was one of the only remotely interesting things in Dante's House.



Outside, though, this guy was impersonating Dante I guess. At first I thought he was a mime, but when he started talking I figured it was a Dante act.



Here's some offensive candy we found in a grocery store.



Now here is this equally offensive soda that Matthew bought. This may be the worst drink I have ever tasted.



We took a train to Pisa in the afternoon where we were scheduled to fly to Girona.



This shot could easily be confused with Florence or Venice.



Now we come to the most annoying part of the entire trip. EVERYONE thinks it is the most clever thing in the entire world to have their picture taken at an angle that makes it seem like they are holding up the tower.



This is genius! It's not like there are 100 people in any direction doing the exact same thing.



Thanks for ruining this entire city.



Turns out it is possible to have a normal picture of yourself taken here.



We didn't actually go up in the tower, but we went in the Duomo.



There are many many more of these sort of pictures on the Flickr page.



Well, at least they tried a somewhat different variation.



As I've been saying, EVERY landmark on this trip had scaffolding on it.



Speaking of (un)clever, I just realized it looks like the guys in the bucket are pushing the tower over.



"This is ttly going on my Myspace"



Make sure you get that angle just right now; you wouldn't want to look COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS.



Ha Ha Ha I'm using the Internets



Before I get carried away, we also went in the Baptistry.



Just let me take one freaking picture without one of you people getting in the way.



2008 Christmas card?!?!



He's totally about to do the pose.



Duomo HDR action.



As always, they like their candles over here.



Goodbye Pisa. It's good to be able to say I went there, but I highly doubt I'll ever be back. It has to be one of the top most annoying tourist sights in the world.

Next Up - Tibidabo



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