Jen & Mark's Travels

Tour de Italia

Wednesday, March 11th

Today we were on the road before 6:00am, it seems like a common theme is for us to get early starts on travel days. We got on the highway and headed south.

Destination: Pisa

In Pisa we drove around in search of the Leaning Tower, it really shouldn’t be that difficult to find – but it was. The signs were completely useless, traffic was heavy, and buildings were just tall enough to obscure our goal. 45 minutes later we found ourselves directly across the city wall from the Leaning Tower with a convenient parking space. We walked into the city wall and over to the tower, got tickets for entrance 10 minutes later and climbed up into the tower. It is very weird to climb a spiral staircase around a building that is not straight. We knew that we were standing straight but nothing around us reflected that. It was a bigger challenge then we thought it would be. Once you finish climbing around the outside of the tower there are spiral staircases (narrow!) to take you to the top. It’s weird to be standing on the top of an unlevel building with just 36” high railings around the edge. The view from the top was very nice.

The Leaning Tower
Pisa, Italy

The Leaning Jenny
Pisa, Italy

Pisa, Italy

Next Destination: Florence

We continued our drive towards Florence where we had a date with "The David" at 1:00pm. Now The David is located in a museum built basically for the purpose of holding it. Parking was difficult to find, the city was dirty and there were crowds everywhere. We arrived at the museum and had a little bit of a hassle entering, even though we had reserved tickets ahead of time. When we finally got into the gallery pictures were not allowed and people were everywhere. It was super, super crowded. David was there in all his glory. We’re glad that we went, but we wouldn’t go to Florence again.

Tuscan Countryside
Italy

Final Destination: Roma!

We arrived at about 5:00pm to the hotel that we had booked on the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say it wasn’t what had been pictured on the web. The neighborhood was not the best and the rooms were far from the 3 star rating they had claimed, even for a hotel in another country. We decided that hotel was a mistake and set Kim (Jenny’s sister) on the mission of finding us another place to stay. She came up with a beautiful hotel in the center of Rome, very close to everything (good find!). We moved in, and headed to the airport to return Clio, our car.

To Ski or not to Ski, Part Two

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

We slept in this morning, after getting in late the night before. Our goal for the day was to find a closer ski resort than Zermatt, so that Mark could go skiing in the Alps. We realized that our GPS has Ski resorts listed in its attraction category, so we found one that looked to be in a good location about an hour away.

Once again, we crossed into Switzerland and threaded our way up a steep switchback hill to the “resort.” On our way up the hill we ran into a slight road block – about 6-8 goats parked in the middle of the road in no hurry what so ever to move things along. When we got there, there was a single gondola lift, no snow, and not much action. Needless to say, it was another disappointing trip into Switzerland. We headed back down the hill in search of lunch and a grocery store to pick up some staples for the rest of our trip. Lunch was at a small restaurant in Lugano, Switzerland.

Some of the Goats near
Lugano, Switzerland

A typical Northern Italian/Swiss Road
Lugano, Switzerland

Ribbit all night?
Lugano, Switzerland

After lunch we found a local grocery store and decided to stop there but before we went in we wanted to see if we could find wireless internet access. Sure enough we found an access point and surfed for awhile. After about 2 hours of catching up on internet surfing, checking email and blogging we realized that we needed to move along with our day. We headed back to Bellagio so that we could get the apartment packed up and ready since we will have an early start Wednesday morning.

Bellagio, Italy

Schloss Hunting

Monday, March 9, 2009

Today we decided to do a reprise of Thursday’s attempted “Schloss Hunting” trip to Bavaria in Germany. This time we took the super highway entirely out of our way to guarantee we would not be sidetracked by Alpine passes in Switzerland. Instead we headed into Austria.

On our way we stopped for lunch at a “gasthaus” (Guest House) on the side of the road. We were greeted by a guy, Paul, who we were to find out later, was the owner, host, menu, waiter, bartender, barista, cook, busboy, cashier and entertainer. Mind you this was only for the restaurant; he offers many other services as well. He recited the menu consisting of four items, ham & cheese, goulash, a sausage platter and fresh trout. We chose the sausage platter which came out with fresh bread, fresh grated horseradish, spicy brown mustard and a pickle. As we were happily munching away he goes out into the hallway and returns with an accordion. For the next 15-20 minutes he serenaded us along with the other two parties present with authentic Austrian music. When he was done the dessert chef (same guy – of course) presented us with apple strudel ala mode. It was only at this point that Jenny noticed he was wearing lederhosen. That was one of the best and most memorable lunches we’ve ever had.

We proceeded along to our destination, Schloss Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, Germany. Neuschwanstein means New Swan Stone; swans were featured throughout the house. This is the place that Disney’s Cinderella Castle is based on. King Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned to have this castle built in the late 1800’s. He never saw the completion of this castle and indeed it was never fully completed. There is a mystery that surrounds his early death. The castle features central heating, indoor plumbing and its own “cave” next to his living quarters. King Ludwig II was reported to have mental problems; after seeing the castle, it is our estimation that nobody in his right mind would build something like that in the late 1800’s.

Schloss Neuschwanstein
Schwangau, Germany

From Schwangau, we took the shortest route home, which happened to be through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Italy. We got in late, but now we can definitively say that we’ve been to Lichtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world.

Milano & Bellagio

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day! Jenny woke up early and took pictures of the apartment and the surrounding town of Bellagio.

Our Apartment Building
Bellagio, Italy

Bellagio, Italy

Our Renault Clio
Rental Car

We went into Milan mid-morning to see the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. It is housed in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church within double purified air chambers. The painting was much more spectacular in person then photographs. Although, the door in the middle kind of ruins it (you were right Aunt Joyce). After our 1:00pm scheduled visiting time was up we were promptly escorted into the gift shop.

From there we headed towards The Duomo which is one of the largest Gothic churches in the world, built in the 14th century. Its size is truly remarkable and awe inspiring both inside and out. After our experience at Saint Mark’s we decided not to go into the Treasury.

The Duomo
Milan, Italy

Inside the Duomo
Milan, Italy

We headed back to Bellagio to explore the town. There were many small shops on quaint narrow roads built into the hill side. To our surprise the sleepy little town of Bellagio comes to life on Sunday afternoons, parking was at quite the premium. We followed a stream of people down to the end of the peninsula that Bellagio was built on (Lake Como looks like a wishbone) and were greeted with beautiful views of the Alps in the setting sun.