It stopped raining

 Yesterday we were confined in the hotel because it was raining off and on all day.  It would rain for bit then stop for 15-20 minutes then rain again.  We did make it out to a nearby restaurant for dinner though

Today, after checking and rechecking the weather, we ventured out.  The plan was to go to the school of leather to watch the craftsmen work.  Stopped by the Duomo again and were thankful that we weren’t trying to go in! The line was so very long! 

We get to the leather school and they are now closed on Wednesday.  It was a bummer.

 

We stopped at a cafe and sat outside with a beverage for a while. Then we went to this ceramics store and looked around. Then we just meandered doing a bit of window shopping and ended at Central Market for lunch.

In our window shopping we saw these items

Finally found a “wine window”

In the 16th century these came about when citizens were allowed to sell their own wine from their house.  Later in the 17th century these were useful for a variety of things due to a plague that was around.

We finished our adventure by taking the wrong tram - we were quick to notice and got off then on the correct tram and rewarded ourselves with gelato.

We leave Florence tomorrow and are headed to Ravenna.  This is where will will embark on our cruise.

The are you twins holding steady at 5

PS:  we walked about 4 miles today and my hip hasn’t bothered me much at all.  Could be the rest days or the baclofen I took yesterday!

Another slow day

 Today was another slow day.  BUT… It did start off with a bit of intrigue. It all began on a partly cloudy morning in the hotel restaurant. We were there for breakfast and what do we see? 3-4 Italian police officers encircling 2 people.  They were having a soft conversation but Shan positioned herself to try to hear what was going on.  The man asked to go get something from his room - he was not allowed. Then he asked to make a call - he was not allowed.  After a few minutes they were quietly escorted out.  So we think this is over and finish our breakfast

But it is not over, they are standing in the lobby with an officer, then they are placed in the police car and driven away.  We are soo curious as to what this was all about.  Here’s some pictures we snapped covertly

We explored a bit around our hotel and did a bit of window shopping and finally, we visited the grocery store.

We picked up a bunch of food items as we are going to be locked down in the hotel the next 2 days.  This is because of thunderstorms that are starting overnight.  They have used the term torrential downpours so we don’t think our umbrellas will cut it!

We were smart and brought our small travel bags for our grocery haul.

PS. That is Shan’s hand in her pocket. Her shirt is NOT I repeat NOT hiked up around her waist!

The bell peppers were huge!  Larger than your hand.  All of the produce was stunning.

We spent €48.50 euros, so about $56 US.  We got pre packaged salads and stuff for sandwiches and of course snacks.

We ordered pizza for dinner in a vain effort to eat before 8:00.  It arrived at 7:30 so not much better!

A day for relaxing

 So today we took it easy. We lazed around the room we went and saw the devil wears Prada 2 at the local cinema. They do have original language, timeslots, so we went to the English version with Italian subtitles. You would think there wouldn’t be very many people in the English language showing, but there were a fair amount of non-US Britain English speaking country people at the 

It was an OK movie I wouldn’t call it better than the first one, but it was interesting and a fun watch.

Also  there is an intermission halfway through the movie  perfect time for a bathroom break!

We then were on the hunt for the grocery store so we could buy laundry soap. It appears the grocery stores here are only open till 1 PM on Sundays. However, we did stumble upon what turns out to be a house cleaning store. It had everything from soap to dyes to dryer sheets to shampoo to just anything cleaning wise. It was quite interesting.

When we Returned to the hotel we went down to the laundry room where the washers and dryers are to see if the gentleman that had been there all day so far was still there. And he was. So we had to wait what 2-3 more hours and finally got one load of laundry done. We plan to do the rest on the day it is suppose to have thunderstorms.

We did end up eating dinner at a Mexican place. We weren’t sure if it was gonna be close to real Mexican food or not but to our surprise, it was fairly good.

Now we are back at the hotel again because we have been sloths today and Missy is busy googling how to fix her hip. Shannon does not think I will find a solution before we have to walk forever in Athens. So here’s to hoping for a slow paced tour guide there.

We may have a more exciting day for you all tomorrow - so stay tuned!

Pisa and Lucca

 6 MILES

Today kicked our butts! 

We had a tour from Florence to Pisa then on to Lucca.  We left on the short bus at 9:00 and got back around 5:30. 

With Missy’s hip acting out - the unknown 10 minute forced march at lightening speed almost did her in - the hip pain is really bad and I need to walk at a bit slower pace than Antonio was setting.  But I gritted and made it through.  

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is beautiful, but it is not out there all on its own.  It’s the bell tower for the church located right next to it.  The tour guide we met up with was HORRIBLE - she didn’t talk into her microphone 50% of the time, 25% of her time she was messing with her glasses and sunglasses and eventually broke her sunglasses, and the last 25% was spent talking where she lived in the valley of 2 mountains.  Needless to say we didn’t learn a ton but were able to view all of the buildings.  Interesting fact - the church and the baptistery have also sunk/are leaning in places.

The other fun thing we saw was all these people holding their hands up in various poses as someone took a picture of them holding up the tower. 

The church in Pisa was consecrated in 1118 and had these beautiful bronze doors made in 1602

 - 

Then is was on to Lucca.  Our tour guide there was also not so good.  It was really just walk and he would tell us “here is a tower from such and such family”  “there is a church from such and such family”  and he would forget to talk in English at times - so who the hell knows what he was talking about.

Now the guy who rode the short bus with us all was really nice and he did a good job. 

We met some interesting people in our little group - 2 solo ladies - both doing big trips.  Several married couples and somehow Shan and I ended up being referred to as “Kansas”.  For example, me and 2 others went to the bathroom, Antonio was counting heads and was one short (me) and one of the group piped up - it’s Kansas that is missing.

Now Lucca didn’t meet my expectations - the city wall did - but the city within the walls wasn’t as old as I had expected.

This is the tallest tower.  Different families had ‘towers’ - which were their homes.  This one you could walk up to the top - if you wanted to climb 264 stairs or so

This is part of the city walls which were built in the 1500’s to enhance the medieval and Roman fortifications.  We were told that are 30 meters thick at the base and about 20 meters at the top.  You can walk, ride bikes, have a picnic on the top of the walls

After passing through the entrance through the wall - there were these stunning red roses.  They almost looked fake. 

We have determined that we are taking Sunday off as a day of rest.  Going to go see a movie and just hang out at the hotel. 

The “are you twins” count is up to 5.

Ciao

City Center Tour

 On Thursday we did a walking tour of the city center.  Lots of history and great buildings.  The Basilica di San Petronio is NOT the Bologna Cathedral - wanna know why?

The pope didn’t like that the citizens of Bologna were building the Basilica - because if it was finished then it would be larger than his church.  So he put soo many roadblocks up that it was never finished.  It would have been in a cross shape - like the letter “t”. So the only part that we finished - at least inside was the lower part of the “t”. 

The pope at the time was so upset about this church he commissoned at bronze sculpture of himself by Da Vinci and had it placed above the center door.  Well, he died a few years later and the citizens of Bologna brought down and crushed that statue.

The other super interesting part of the tour was seeing part of the University of Bologna.  The oldest university in the world.  Teaching there began around 1088.  Students would go to the professors homes for their lessons.  They finally built a building in 1563. 

Below is the Anatomy Theatre - There are also 2 skinless statues that were used to teach with.  They did use deceased prisoners for teaching - they were placed on the marble slab you see and the students were seated all around. 

The law school here was filled with very special folks - they couldn’t mingle with the others - they had their own staircase to the 2nd floor. 

Here is a picture of  a long hallway - in between each of the book cases you see were initially individual rooms.  When they turned this building into a library they cut a center hall for ease of moving between areas. 

We found a little place for dinner and Shannon has the Green Lasanga.  The pasta was made with spinach.  

This place had a thing for chandeliers

 We woke up this morning (Friday) and headed to Florence.  Train ride was a quick 37 minutes.  At one point we were going 164 mph!

We have checked in to our hotel - the same one we stayed in the last time we were here.  Still love it!

We have been surrounded with Devil Wears Prada 2. Movie stuff and there is a movie theater close by and they have it in the original language so Shan and I are going to go on Monday or Tuesday. 

Tomorrow we are headed to Pisa and then to Lucca.  Shan is excited for Pisa and I’m excited for Lucca!

Murder Mystery and Nails Day

 We have failed you all - sorry for not posting.

We have been in Bologna for 3 days and are leaving today for Florence

Bologna is a great little city. People are everywhere but at a slowed down pace. The buildings are beautiful - even the unfinished church. 

Our first activity of the day was mani/pedis.  Found a nail place and set up an appointment.  This is what the entrance looked like

The salon had this zen garden and only one of the staff spoke English.  It was an exceptional experience!

We did a self guides murder mystery tour day before yesterday.  It was an app based game where you had to find certain areas then solve a riddle or clue to move on to the next spot. It also provided you some history regarding each spot.

To get started we had to walk a mile up a street.  Then we proceeded to walk back down that same farm street!  After about 4 clues, we stopped for a snack and something to drink and then cheated!  We finished it while sitting at the cafe. 

We enjoyed it a lot .  More to come later!

Bologna

 Leisurely morning in Venice.  The morning was taken up by watching the city come to life - linens being delivered, trash being collected, restaurants preparing for the coming rush, and all of the venetians making their way to work on their small boats.

Had an uneventful train ride to Bologna.  We switched hotels - wanted one closer to the city center.  So we booked what turns out to be a 3 room B&B.  This one is also within the high end galleria.  We are on the 3rd floor above the stores.

It appears these 3 rooms and a small communal space has been converted from an office suite as everything else on the floor are offices.

It was a bit tricky to get in since it was really offices and there wasn’t a buzzer to get buzzed in.  So we waited till someone was leaving and jumped on the door to get in.  Then we had to figure out where this hotel was

Finally made it to the door. Again no buzzer or phone.  Mind you we still thought this was some boutique hotel with a lobby and front desk BUT NO.  so we finally called the number and a gentleman answered but really did not speak English. Shan got out Google Translate and we had that tell him “we are here for checkin”. He says 10-15 minutes. We both are getting frustrated when we receive a text on how to get in   It was an electronic code.  So we are now in and see where the keys are.  These keys are for the entry door downstairs and the safe.  

He shows up very apologetic and somehow shared he wasn’t able to get me the information and showed us that he had tried to send it

So we are currently the only guests.  We are very happy about this.

We went out and explored the main square, had dinner, then hit up a true gelato store for dessert.

Tomorrow is for manicures and maybe a murder mystery tour…

Another beautiful day

 We have had another beautiful day watching the world go by.  The sounds of people, animals, and boats fill the air.

My breakfast waffles were topped not with whip cream but ICE CREAM    I thought it would be weird but it wasn’t 

Another boat ambulance made its way thru the canal

We discovered a “parking lot” for gondolas

And now we sit here trying to decide what we want for dinner.  We don’t want pasta or pizza - so the options are slim!