Italy with the Campbells - Venice to Rome

Now that we have no more guests in the foreseeable future, I have time to update the blog again!  Since the Campbells were here, we've had 4 groups of visitors, but I'll keep things going in order so that I don't jump around too much and forget something!

On Wednesday, after a day in Venice, we made our way to Rome by way of Florence.  The car rides were pretty uneventful and it was nice to be able to stop in Florence around lunch time.  We had to eat at McDonald's so that we could count Italy into our list of countries where we have eaten in McDonald's.  Laura had been to Florence before, so she knew what were the most impressive things to see and became our tour guide for the day.  We first went to the Duomo which is a big church with a tower in the center of town.  This church was quite impressive!

After going inside the Duomo and deciding that the line to go up in the dome was too long for the amount of time we had in Florence, we decided to check out a few more churches.  We then went to the Medici church and library.  Of course, I had to take a picture by the library sign!  This church was fun for me because I had listened to a history podcast of the Medici family and could now picture where the things had happened that were talked about in the podcast.  We then saw another church, but I don't remember which one it was.

After a quick tour of Florence, we headed the rest of the way to Rome, but by the time we arrived it was raining quite hard.  We were supposed to be camping in a tent while we were in Rome, but none of us wanted to set up the tent in the rain and then sleep on the wet ground.  Brian went to talk to the guy in charge of the campground and discovered that they have trailers that you can rent out to stay in.  We ended up getting 2 rooms each with a bathroom to stay in while we were in Rome.  It was nice to be inside out of the rain and to have our own bathrooms.  The campground was very nice complete with its own restaurant! 

Congratulations Mike and Lisa! & Happy Birthday Jamie!

Today is a double celebration and we get to celebrate with my parents!!

My cousin Lisa is getting married today and since we can't be there, we're celebrating with cake (for Lisa) and beer (for Mike).  We wish we could be there, but are glad that Katie can stand in for our whole family.

Today is also Brian's youngest sister's birthday so she had to be part of the celebration!  Happy birthday Jamie!!

The cake lineup:

Dad - fruit cake
Mom - cherry kuchen
Brian - Black Forest cake
Beth - raspberry chocolate cake

Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect

If you click on the link below you will be linked to my last bike ride.
This is the first time I (Brian) have used this so you might say I am trying it out.
Depending on how well it works may depend on how may others I will put on in the future.
Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect - Details

So If you followed the link and you like it please comment on the post and I will try to put more exciting tips on this as well.

Italy with the Campbells - Venice

On Tuesday, we spent the whole day in Venice.  Our hotel had breakfast, so we took advantage of that and were surprised to find garden gnomes in the breakfast area.  This hotel was quite interesting!  After breakfast, we took a bus into Venice.  Rather than taking a water bus around, we decided to walk through Venice in order to see a bit more of it.

Our first stop was San Marco Square which is probably the most famous area of Venice.  We first went into the church there and got to hear a choir singing for a service they were having.  This church was built in the Byzantine style, so it was much different than any that we had seen previously.  I really liked the marble on the outside.

In San Marco Square, we also checked out the pigeons, found a library, and saw a couple on the way to their wedding.  Brian really liked the 24-hour clock that was on one of the towers in the square.  We then made our way in the direction of Murano and stopped for sandwiches on the way.  Murano is an island that is separate from Venice, but still part of the city.  This island holds all the glass-making industry of the city.  When this first started, they put this whole industry on a separate island to protect the rest of Venice from possible fires. 

We took a water bus over to Murano, saw a store where they show you how they make the glass objects, and then headed into the main street of the island which is lined with different stores selling handmade objects from Murano.  We all ended up buying quite a few souvenirs and gifts from here because it was all so beautiful!

We then took the water bus back to Venice (which was not very fun because of lots of people!) and stopped for a dinner of pasta.  We all got something different and all really enjoyed what we got.  We then walked back to the bus station and made our way back to our hotel and some gelato!