Any trip to Italy is not complete without a visit to the Cinque Terre. We skipped Pisa (but saw it from the train) and spent a few nights in Vernazza on the Cinque Terre after Florence. We were not disappointed. This place is heaven on earth.

Today’s photograph is from my seat in the restaurant (Ristorante Bar Al Castello right next to the castle) were we ate on our first night in Vernazza. The food wasn’t great (like it was just about everywhere else we ate in Italy including our other nights on the Cinque Terre), but who cares with a view like this? With a glass of wine, no food is really that bad anyway. The nice thing about Italy is house wine is about the same price as water, similar to how beer can be less expensive than water in Denmark.

Posted on December 23rd, 2008 under Other. Tags: beach, italy, pictures. Comments: 1

Siena’s Duomo was one of our stops as we browsed around Siena on our Tuscany tour mentioned yesterday. While the current cathedral is quite large, there were actually plans (almost 700 years ago) to more than double the size by turning the current church into the cross portion of a new nave. Thanks to the bubonic plague of the 14th Century construction was halted and never resumed.

In the above photograph you can see some of that existing construction on the far, lower right. The structure with the white material was to be part of the new, larger cathedral.

Posted on December 22nd, 2008 under Other. Tags: italy, pictures. Comments: 1

While in Florence we took our only non-self-guided tour during our travels in Italy. The tour was called something like “Tuscany Day Tour” and consisted of visits, by car, to San Gimignano and Siena. Along the way we stopped at an old winery for an incredible lunch and wine tasting.

San Gimignano is pictured above. San Gimignano is surrounded by walls. It’s a medieval hill town which doesn’t seem to have changed much in hundreds of years.

We had a super tour guide. His name was Michaelangelo, and he got very excited as he told us of San Gimignano’s history.

The views from San Gimignano were amazing in every direction. Since San Gimignano sits on a hilltop, there are classic Tuscan panoramas where ever you look.

Posted on December 21st, 2008 under Other. Tags: italy, pictures. Comments Off on San Gimignano

While in Florence we had a lovely dinner with wonderful views of the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno River. I was sporting a Venetian haircut. The lady who cut my hair a few days prior in Venice couldn’t speak a word of English, but she sang to me in Italian through the entire experience. It was very memorable, and I had a smile on my face the whole time.

After dinner we went for a stroll over some of the other bridges going over the Arno to watch the sunset.

Posted on December 20th, 2008 under Other. Tags: italy, pictures. Comments Off on Ponte Vecchio sunset

After a few days in Venice we headed, by train, to Florence. The above photograph is of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s town hall. In the lower, right-hand corner you can see a replica of Michelangelo’s David which has been there since 1910. The original was there for over 300 years until the 19th Century.

This David is the real deal, unlike the countless copies throughout the world. Michelangelo completed this original in 1504. I took this picture in the Galleria dell’Accademia (even though pictures aren’t allowed). It seemed a shame not to take a picture so I crept back into a corner to take this when the guards weren’t looking. I’m not sure why photography isn’t allowed. Perhaps they want to increase postcard sales in the gift shop.

Posted on December 19th, 2008 under Other. Tags: italy, pictures. Comments: 3