Our Amsterdam hotel canceled on us, so we had to rebook when we have more internet. We had breakfast from a French bakery nearby.
We journeyed to the giant pink bunny on the Italian Alps, on our way to Torino (unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop there).
The drive to Geneva would take us a little over four hours, and got a little lost to our hotel.
We got lunch in Genoa- not much to see, but we ran across a really cute, quaint restaurant.
Wandering around Monte Carlo, counting expensive cars during the off-season vacation time, and getting dinner.
Interesting experience at the casino- we played the slot machines, blackjack, and roulette at a net loss of 70 Euros, including a 20 Euro admission. My first time gambling!
We went to our hotel afterwards to go to sleep.
Visit to the Uffizi, which houses prestigious pieces of artwork such as Venus of Urbino, etc.
We went across the river towards the Pitti Palace for lunch at Mamma Gina’s and gelato.
Visited the Basilica and church, and took the touristy picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We also got dinner at a trattoria nearby.
Checked into this gorgeous hotel, and went to sleep. =)
Visited the famed Duomo in Florence, and had lunch at Paoli. Paoli’s a bit touristy, but had good food.
The baptistery had the reputed Doors of Paradise, although there are replicas there now. The Museo del Opera houses the originals, as well as Donatello’s Mary Magdalene.
Went for gelato, but it was closed. We went to the church of Santa Croce, where the tombs of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo are housed, as well as a pseudo-tomb of Dante. We also had dinner at Da Ganino.
Our reservations ended this morning, so we went to breakfast and went to pack up for Florence. We are well practiced in unpacking and packing things by now. After loading everything and checking out of the hotel, we went onward to our three-hour drive to Florence. I was looking forward to looking at some Renaissance art, but we didn’t make reservations at the Academia Gallery or the Uffizi Gallery. Those were also closed tomorrow. I really didn’t want to go out in the rain- it was rather depressing. Both Evan and I didn’t know what to do in Florence and we needed to orient ourselves. So we did research online (the hotel offered Wi-Fi for a price), blogged a bit, and ate dinner at the bar in the hotel. All the food was frozen and heated up, but it was affordable. It wasn’t bad food, but it wasn’t spectacular. We also had a pretty decent dessert, a chocolate shell of ice cream filled with vanilla ice cream. They didn’t accept cash; it was billed to your hotel room. The hotel (Grifone) reminded me of a Marriott- it was rather Americanized. We went to sleep early, planning on going to some major places that were open tomorrow.
Evan and I will be traveling to Europe this summer, from May 17th until June 12th.
Starting from Boston to Rome, to Munich, to Salzburg, to Innsbruck, to Venice, to Florence, to Genoa, to Monte-Carlo, to Torino, to Geneva, to Paris, to Amsterdam, to Brussels, to London, and then back to San Diego… hopefully with plenty of up-to-date blogs along the way. =)