Everything Floats

Did you know Venice is an island?
Neither did I.
Nor did I realize the complete lack of cars. We didn't see one.

So if you can picture a typical Italian town -with it's narrow alleys and colored houses- take that picture and replace any pavement, with water. It literally flows right up to the front steps of the houses.





With all of the water one would think it would be hard to get around, but
----Venice functions just as well as any other city, just a bit differently.----

For example, here is a police car:
...And here is an ambulance

Okay, so the emergencies are taken care of, but what about every day transportation?

Well, you can go by taxi
by "car"
or bus.
If you want a little variety, try a station wagon
a soft-top convertible ...or maybe something a little faster.
So what happens if you have a business?
How would you get inventory to your store?

Well you could hire a semi truck... or a UHaul.


And let's say you own a butcher shop or gelato parlor. You'd probably need a freezer truck.

Trash day is Thursday, but who will pick it up?
Doing some major renovations? You'd call these guys.

And these guys too.


And finally- All this business, but what about the kids? Just make sure they don't go running after the ice cream truck. You might have to call the ambulance for a water rescue.

Pardon My Mess. My Posts Are A Bit Out Of Order.

If you didn't check out the Cinque Terre blogpost, do it now. (Sounds harsh, but it's a great post) All ya gotta do is click this little link. http://yoshi-in-england.blogspot.com/2010/04/cinque-terre-was-too-amazing-to-explain.html

Fireworks for Easter

[For those who never thought it could happen, I've learned to pack light. And by learned I mean, British Airways will never loose my baggage again because it will be on my back.]

It seems like such a long time ago. We arrived in Pisa -as in the leaning tower of- the night before Easter. Let's just say it was an interesting flight. For that reason we didn't see the leaning tower, but headed straight on a bus to Florence. Eventually we arrived and met up with Sarah Sibila, our friend from home who was studying at SACI in Florence. It was dark when we arrived so we didn't see any of the sites until the morning. We went to the Easter celebrations at the Duomo. On the agenda: fireworks.

So there we were at 11 am on Easter morning, our first day in Italy, standing in shadow of the Duomo with thousands of others. There were fireworks going off but we had overslept, and in turn got what seemed like the nosebleed seats. But still, it was a great sight to see. The hotels in the Duomo's square were packed, and the guests had opened the huge windows as they sat and enjoyed their morning espresso.

First walk to the Duomo, a walk that would proceed to occur a hundred times over the course of our trip. 3 Florence knew I was coming so it decorated this pillar outside our door with my name. The only people who can afford to live next to the Duomo: tourists.

Lovin' the view from our (temporary) home in Florence.
Also digging the warm weather.


The next few days felt like we were on vacation. After the 3rd or 4th day in Tuscany we began to get settled. We lived with Sarah and Christina, and their roommates Manny and Aaron. They made dinner for us a few nights, and we made it for them a few nights too. It was nice to be staying in a place that wasn't a hostel. Don't get me wrong, I am the first person to recommend a hostel but sometimes it's nice to live in a private place.
Lovely dinner with our old friends and some new ones as well.
I was lucky enough to tag along on a SACI field trip to Galileo's Observatory. It turned out to be a private tour of the place and the most amazing view of Florence. This picture is of Galileo's house where he spent the last 3 years of his life, next to the convent where his daughters lived. I was here. No big deal.

View from the top of the observatory building. Drool.





One night we went to see a Gerhard Richter (painter) show at a contemporary art gallery. What a lovely show, and a lovely building (pictured here).





Florence brought us great times in places like the Boboli Gardens, Galileo's Observatory, the Ponte Vecchio, a trip to Cinque Terre, and an overwhelming amount of gypsies. After 11 days we were ready to get movin. Off to Venice.

Let us start at the beginning.

The Biggest Blog Post Coming Soon

D and I are in the mountains of Eastern Italy, which means internet is spotty. I cant wait to post all about it. Stay tuned. And say a little prayer that this Iceland Volcano clears up so we can fly safely to the UK----or that it is way too bad to fly, so we can have an extended vacation!

A Menagerie Of Thoughts

It's our last day in Florence. I woke up, wrote some postcards, bought my mommy a present, bought my train tickets and made some lunch.

D and I walked down to the Arno River and sat by the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery. We got there just in time for a grade school to start rowing practice. My first thought was "oh! Future Gondoliers of Italia!"

It was wrong to say that...and I take it back. I'm sure you didn't laugh at all.