Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Mindy, Jennifer and Brandi on Gondola

Venice

Venice

Gondola Ride

Gondola Ride

Gondola Ride

Gondola Ride

Gondola Ride

Gondola Rides

Gondola Ride

Gondola Ride

What a day! Starting at 6:30 this morning, we have been in a taxi, train, Gondola, bus, plane, another bus and a lot walking. Our train to Venice was disgusting! All of the trains before this train, have been very nice and very clean. When the conductor came around to check our tickets we found out that we were sitting in first class. We either had to pay an additional 11 Euro each or move to coach. We had all our luggage with us and didn't want to move, so paid the money to stay in our seats and we really didn't want to find out what coach had to offer. Venice was beautiful - exactly what you would picture. We went on a Gondola ride, which was really cool! We are really happy that we came to Venice today, even though we only had 4 hours - it was worth it! Mindy and Jennifer went a little crazy in the glass stores. Venice is known for their glass, so we got caught up in the moment. Brandi was a trooper; she stood outside in the scorching heat waiting for us crazy tourists! Mindy and Jennifer are catching the 8:00am bus tomorrow morning so we can catch our 10:20 am flight home. We have a couple of layovers and hope to arrive in Indy at 9pm tomorrow night. Thank you for following our journey through Europe with us. Ciao!

Ciao Florence!

Passion Fruit drink at Open Bar
Open Bar
Florence
Florence
Florence -close to where we ate dinner

Florence - where we ate lunch today
Florence - close to where we ate dinner
Florence - close to dinner Open Bar - where we went after dinner tonight for a drink
Florence

Today was pretty low key. We went to the markets this morning, which was cool to see. We bought some balsamic vinegarette, sun dried tomatoes and pasta. We have been surprised by how inexpensive things are here. Too bad our dollar sucks. We looked in some clothing/shoes stores today but of course couldn’t find much to buy. We are hoping there will be some good stores in Venice. Today, Jennifer bought a wallet, Mindy bought a purse and Brandi bought Another dress – 3 total this trip. And the funny thing is, she has worn the same dress every day since we have been in Italy-which is the dress that she brought from home. We packed so lightly for Italy, that we literally are wearing the same clothes daily. We planned one outfit a day, but it’s so hot here that we have had to change clothes twice a day—so yes we are switching out dirty clothes daily. Showers have never felt so good and we have been showering a couple times a day. We came back to our room this afternoon around 2 and napped and relaxed so we could enjoy our last night in Florence. We went out to dinner, then to a restaurant/bar/café, which was really nice and on the water. We each had a passion fruit vodka drink, which was so pretty and tasted so good-we attached a picture. We are getting up at 5:30am tomorrow morning to catch our train to Venice. We are in Venice for about 6 hours before our flight departs for Lyon. This may be our last post since we won’t get back to Brandi’s until late and leave early Monday morning. But, we will try to write something about Venice and post pictures. We are hoping to take a Gondola ride tomorrow and were happy to find online tonight that we can check our luggage once we get there and won’t sink the Gondola.

Spaghetti Funk

Dinner tonight in Florence
After dinner - Dance Party at Residenza il Villino
More of dance party
And more

Castello di Poppiano
Courtyard
Jennifer and Mindy
Vineyards

View of Tuscany
From top of Castle

Us in Courtyard

We did the Tuscany bike tour today and it kicked ALL of our butts, but it was SO much fun! We met up with our group, then 3 vans took us up to the Castle where we biked. We took a small tour of the Castle, tasted some wine and oils, then biked about 6 miles. This part of the bike ride wasn't too bad, we went downhill a lot of the time. The scenery was beautiful! We stopped for lunch half way through the tour. We had salad, 1 of 4 different pasta dishes to choose from and dessert.. oh and wine! and water of course. There were 25 people in our group. We got to meet some really cool people from the states and Belgium. After lunch is when the real biking started... we weren't sure we would were going to make it, but happy to report that we did. The tour was a total of 13 miles, which didn't sound too bad before the tour started. It was so hot again today and this part of the tour was not flat nor were we going down hills. Whomever said this tour was easy.. lied! The girl who drove us to the Castle said that this is the only tour that goes through the Castle. "The Boys" as she always referred to them, knocked on the castle door 3 times before they accepted. So, it made the tour that much more cool, that not everyone gets to taste their wine and tour the grounds. It was once again, a very hot day, which made biking that much harder. We all got a little bit of sun. Did you know that attorneys are the most stressed out people in the world but can drink because they can afford it? That was something that we learned on our tour today from other participants.

Roman Around ...

Coliseum

St. Angelo Castle

St. Angelo Castle
Vatican
Brandi and Jennifer Vatican
St. Angelo Castle
Ruins


Man Bags are HOT!

Ruins
Ruins
Ruins




Ruins
Ruins
Ruins
Ruins

Florence Bed and Breakfast
Room
Toilette
Room
2nd bedroom

We are tired! It was another HOT day – it was at least mid 90’s. Rome is amazing! We started off this morning walking to the Vatican. It’s huge! Next we went to the Coliseum. We can’t put into words how beautiful it was, nor do the pictures do it justice. We ate pizza for lunch and of course stopped for more Gelato. We did more shopping today. I think Mindy won the prize for buying the most today. She wanted a tank top for the bike tour tomorrow and ended up buying three along with a few other things like some really cool wine colored heals. Jennifer got a dress and sweater and Brandi bought a dress and of course some things at Sephora. The shopping was great! We took the 5:35 train into Florence (in the Tuscany region). Our bed and breakfast is so perfect-we love it already! The owner is a middle age guy who is the sweetest man ever. We ate dinner tonight at a restaurant around the corner called Accadi, of course Italian food. We are really looking forward to our bike tour tomorrow which is from 10am-5pm. Arrivederci!