Lucca - March 2010

Lucca is a beautiful little town, all enclosed by walls.... an old medieval town. Now, you can ride your bike or walk around the walls. Matt and I came here after leaving Pisa and stayed for about 3-4 hours. I really loved it. It was such a nice change of pace from the touristy spots. We toured the whole town in no time, and then enjoyed a snack (imagine that) and glass of wine (and, again) in a big open sqaure so we could people watch and enjoy the weather.

View from the outside of the town

Bell tower

Another view of the walls. It was really cool. You had to walk through the walls and wind around to actually enter the city. Usually, i'd seem really scary because it's almost like a cave for a second, but I really don't think they have much crime here.

Our afternoon break

I look like a freak face, but this is where we sat and enjoyed some of the afternoon.

Bruschetta (yum) with sardines (baaad idea). I like to think I'm adventurous with food and whatever, but these were gross. They were so salty that they took over the whole flavor. I was all sad because I wanted to soak in the tomato/olive oil goodness, but just got a mouthfull of salty fish:) It was worth the 'experience' or something.

Overall, this place was definitely worth visiting, especially if you ever go to Pisa because they are so close together. Plus, the sound of "Lucca" just sounds cool. Lucca. Lucca. Yep, very cool.

Pisa - March 2010

We actually didn't eat in Pisa, so I just added a picture from the trip. We were probably only in the city for about 3 ours. Long enough to climb the leaning tower, and check out the other sites around it. We did grab a bite to eat at the train station, on our way to Lucca, so I added those pictures.

Standing in front of the leaning side looking up.

The McItaly! I can't remember what was on it, but we did get one, and it was so so...no big mac:)

McRoyal Deluxe: aka quarter pounder.

Not really sure, but I think a tiramisu flavored shake. I should have tried it!

Florence - March 2010

Bell Tower to the Duomo

Walking to Michaelangelo Piazza

Standing on Ponte Vecchio

The Duomo and our hotel, Hotel Duomo, to the left.

Top of Bacilica di Santa Maria

Looking up in the Duomo

Florence. Florence is my favorite. I LOVE that city, and the food is a great mix of all types of yummy Italian. Ohhh, Tuscany, how I miss you. Matt and I stayed here for 3 days. One of the days we took a day trip to Lucca and Pisa...they are about 15 minutes apart by train and only an hour or so from Florence. We had debated on renting a car and driving through Chianti Country, but decided that might be too much of a hazard, after watching the drivers!

To me, Florence has the most beautiful architecture and is a perfectly sized city. I could have spent much more time there checking out the sites, eating and drinking all the goodness, and just soaking it all in. I miss this place!

Chianti Classico - We were told Classico is the best, and I have to agree. It was cheap over there, but is actually pretty expensive here:(

We were skeptical. This restarant, or Buca (which I think means underground in Italian), was a cute cavern like place. They only spoke Italian, but the waiter did a good job of selecting great dishes for us. This was fresh meats and chicken livers...scary, but surprisingly awesome.

Ohhh, yum. This was incredible. Matt got a beef pasta...to me a little too much like beef stroganoff, but still good! Their noodles were always cooked so perfectly it made everything good. My dish was stuff with cheese, but the noodles were so delicate, yet firm...I guess the sophisticated word is al dente :) 

Some dessert..lemony yum. Very light and a perfect ending to the dinner.

Vivoli. A famous gelato place in Florence. I was having my favorite, pistachio.

We couldn't pass up the view. This was a cool piazza, and that architecture in the back is what you see all over Florence. It's colored marble, and beautiful.

Peroni

This was my dish. It was actually some sort of traditional ham and egg pasta. Sounds different, but it was very tasty!

Matt's pasta carbonara

Caprese Salad. The basil was AMAZING. 

Our afternoon break. We stopped in the square that contains the fake David, and tons of other beautiful statues. This was Matt's Big Bear (that's how it was spelled in our English menu :) ). Also, my baby wine bottle, and of course, their cool water.

You can see the Birra grande...I should have included the English version so you could see "Big Bear." I thought it was very nice that they even had an English menu in addition to Italian.

Our 2nd afternoon break; we had to try a Pizza Trattoria. It was so cool. There was an even longer section of pizza selections that went down the right.

Our selection. We were close to dinner time so we split one.

Oh, my. This became my favorite appetizer. Bruschetta. Of any kind. The key was SOAKING anything in their olive oil. Their olive oil was drinkable it was so good. Matt and I got over trying to be polite at dinner, and just joined the other Italians and basked in the olive oil as it ran down our faces and arms:) The other key ingredient was garlic; and LOTS of it. The white bean thing became a favorite. They'd soak them in garlic and olive oil, and oh wow. Delicious.

Bone marrow. Yes, Matt got gross. 

:)

My spaghetti with mussels.

The waiter was so nice. He was like, "oh, I bring you something good." Turns out he brought out a plate of french fries and fried zucchini. Oh, the American stereotype:) We ate them, of course:)

House wine, Chianti. It was cool because we asked how much it was and he was like, "oh I just base it on how much you drink." We drank much of that, and I think it was only about 6 euros. 

Very cool appetizer. It was raw artichokes, fresh parmigiana, and olive oil. Very very good.

My FAVORITE. Pesto pasta, with no holding back on the olive oil. This was my favorite of the trip. I have a slight obsession with pesto.

Matt got some meat thing again. Beef maybe? Very good, too, but not like my pesto. He loved it, so that's what matters.

Not a great picture, but this is spinach. YUM.

Those awesome beans again. Note the olive oil...sigh.

Eating my full plate with wine in hand, of course.

Our spread. We were stuffed!

Very impressive that our bill, with a almost 2 bottles of wine (we were lushes this night), an appetizer, 2 huge sides, and 2 pasta dishes was 58 euro. Of course, that was close to $80, but still. Not bad for all of that awesomeness!

Venice - March 2010

San Marco Square

Gondolas 

From the Rialto Bridge

We had quite an adventure getting to and around Venice. First our train ride was really long because we got on a regional train that stopped EVERYWHERE. It was burning up, too:) But, hard to complain when the country side was so pretty as we went through. We got there later than expected so it was almost dark. Venice is so very easy to get lost in...we hit many dead ends, but finally made it to San Marco square, so we started looking for a hotel somewhere around the area. We looked for a couple of hours and had a few scares. Matt was certain I was almost a victim of being "Taken." I don't think so, but do admit we found a shady place where they were trying to make 'deals' but not knowing Italian kept us out of the know. I'm sure it was all legit, but we were happy to get out of the dimly lit red carpeted, dark walled place. 

Needless to say, as soon as Matt recognized a Hampton Inn, I saw his face say, "AMERICA!!" and we went in....to find they were booked. By now, it was about 9pm. Luckily the people at the Hampton Inn recommended a place on the water, and it turned out this place that was orgininally $350/night, cost us $100/night which wasn't too bad for being desperate! We settled in to find on the wall a map of the hotel and "Camera Room" written at the top. Now, Matt's certain we're being taped (can we say paranoia had set in with us??). Well, long story short, when we got to Florence later the next day, we see another sign for "Camera Room" so we ask the hotel lady who says, "oh, yes, camera is 'room' in Italian. Ha on us.

Back to Venice, with all the fun memorable side stories the views, buildings, and food was amazing. We loved getting lost the next day during the daylight:) The Rialto Bridge was a fun experience, but I mostly loved the ride on the water taxi around the whole place. So neat, and just to think the whole thing is surrounded by water is awesome. We were only in Venice for about 7 hours of daylight, but made the most of it. We walked the city and grabbed a quick lunch. We had a less food focus knowing we had to catch the train to Florence that afternoon. Our favorite site was the favorite tourist spot St. Mark's square. The architecture was beautiful. Venice, was Matt's favorite after Innsbruck. Mine was 1) Innsbruck, 2) Florence, 3) Rome, but Venice wins for unique for sure.

Yummy cappuccino 

Mussels

Some squid at market. I like it when it looks like calamari, not so much an octopus.

I loved the sandwich bars. 

More sandwiches!

Cute Coke.

Sandwich for the train ride.

Bye bye, Venice!