Day 10 - 3:30AM Wake Up, Flight to Napoli and Driving Like a Video Game.

3:30AM. Let me reiterate that; 3:30AM. What an ungodly hour to be getting up. Our driver, Chafi, had called some buddy that he had in Venezia to arrange a water taxi to pick us up at Daniella's apartment for the ride to the airport. I have to admit that it was pretty cool to be on the water in Venezia when it was so quiet and dark. Our driver took us through a little canal to the other side of the island then out into the channel for the run to the airport. Normally, that little canal would have been filled with gondolas and we wouldn't have been able to go through there.

Video of Water Taxi Ride at 4:30AM Through Venice

Hurry up and wait. Isn't that always the way it is at the airport. EasyJet was a great airline - quite affordable and definitely a great way to get down to Napoli in the shortest amount of time possible. Our flight was on time and, about an hour later, we were standing at the car rental desk picking up our car. We decided to splurge a little and "upgrade" to a Fiat 500 because, after all, it's important to drive an Italian car when in Italy. Right?

What a great little car. Little is the key word here. The thing is gutless as hell but it gets amazing gas mileage. We hopped on the autostrada and made our way towards Sorrento then on to our hotel a little ways past Massa Lubrense. Sorrento was where I got my first real taste of Italian driving. Driving from Firenze to Venezia was no big deal but driving on small city streets filled with scooters - yeah, that was fun!  I'm serious, it was a lot of fun. People here, there and everywhere, scooters on the left and the right, busses squishing all of us, people turning left right in front of us, passing on the right, on the left, in the middle - it was a free-for-all and I was driving like I freaking owned the place!!!

We made our way through Sorrento without incident and started climbing towards Massa Lubrense. Amazing views everywhere!! Hairpin turns back and forth with water on the left of us, then we would crest a hill and there would be different water on the right. It was amazing. The hotel was a little bit past the village of Massa Lubrense and our GPS took us right there. It looked exactly as it did on Google Earth a month ago. We pulled in, walked into the lobby and our jaws dropped! What a beautiful place! Very modern Italian feel to everything with white everywhere. We entered our room and right there in front of us through the huge window was the island of Capri.

All of our stuff was situated in our room so we decided that we needed to make a run to the nearest store to pick up some beer and Apperol and Prosecco for spritzes. The staff was able to give us directions to the one-horse town of Tremini up the hill a ways but, as they said, we had to get there before 1pm because they shut down for "lunch". Mission accomplished and within a couple minutes, we were enjoying a few beers and some munchies in our room. We were so tired and buzzed and the bed looked so comfortable that a nap was to be had. Correction, I had a nap - Sandra listened to me snore. Oh well, I was tired. Anyway, we got up, got dressed, had a spritz or two and made our way to dinner.

Let me tell you a bit about this dinner. The restaurant at the hotel is a Michelin starred restaurant run by a chef who was voted Italy's Best Emerging Chef a few years ago. This is true fine dining. (It's funny because, as I type this, I'm eating Ritz crackers out of a box on the terrace of a business hotel near the Rome airport. Oh well...) Fine dining is all about itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny, scrumptious, little morsels of food. It was unbelievably fresh with a litany of different flavors that could be discerned from every bite. Amazing food, great wine, excellent service, a beautiful woman sitting across from me.....pure heaven!!

We had some amazing dessert and discussed what the next day had in store for us - driving the Amalfi Coast!

Day 9 - Exploring Venezia and Finally Finding Zuppa di Pesce

The day dawned bright and beautiful in Daniella's amazing apartment and the decision was made to make our way to the island of Murano to check out the glass shops that Murano is famous for. We had a choice to take the vaporetto to the left or to the right and we decided for the left which was a few less stops and took us all the way through the Grand Canal before finally crossing the channel to Murano.

As we exited the boat, the skies were clear and the sun shone beautifully on the canals and walkways. Shop after shop after shop of Murano glass. Murano glass has been produced on the island since 1291 when the Venetian Republic demanded that all glassblowing be moved to the island for fear of fire in Venice. By the 14th century, Murano's glassmakers were so well-known that they were allowed to marry into the most prominent families and they, themselves, became some of Venezia's most influential citizens.

Teeny, tiny glasswork. This and the work below were barely 2" high.

We definitely wanted to pick up some Murano glass but where do you start? So many different styles, so ungodly expensive, so delicate. We opted to purchase a couple souvenirs from a small shop where the woman was actually making all the glass herself. We walked a bit more then we hopped on the vaporetto and went back to Venezia to explore a little more. We hadn't yet visited any museums or anything, even though we paid a little extra on our vaporetto passes to do just that, so we decided to head back towards Piazza San Marco and find the Doge's Palace.

The Doge's Palace or Palazzo Ducale was the official residence of the Doge of Venezia who was the supreme ruler of the Venetian Republic. The Palazzo was started in the 8th century and, over the years, moved, expanded, destroyed by fire, rebuilt, destroyed again by fire, rebuilt better, occupied by Napoleon, then Austrian rule then back to Italy in 1866. Over that time, it has always been the seat of Venetian administration. Pretty cool place, I have to admit....we actually got lost in the prison and were getting a little frustrated trying to find the exit. Kinda cool though; while exploring through the prison, we stumbled upon a display of ancient graffiti that had been preserved from the prison walls. We found the ancient origins of Beavis and Butthead!!! We eventually found our way out of the prison and we decided that we were going to make our way towards the Zuppa di Pesce that we've been so craving!

On the way, it started to rain. We thought, "oh no, here we go again" but, this time, we were prepared with the ponchos that we bought when we did the Cinque Terre hike and ended up not needing them - we were happy that we had them and, luckily, the rain didn't last long. By the time we finally found Taverna San Trovaso, I was hungry, tired, my feet hurt and I was a tad grumpy so when we saw that they didn't open until 7PM, I was ready to just leave and grab some food at the store and head back to the apartment. Sandra, being the wise wifey-poo that she is, suggested that we have a drink at that packed little standing only wine bar down the block aways. I growled at her then acquiesced. She had a couple spritzes and I had a couple Birra Morettis and it's amazing how much my attitude changed after a couple beers. Obviously, that's exactly what I needed.

We had our reservations at the Taverna right at 7PM and were seated in the older, more rustic downstairs area and were attended to like we were Mr. And Mrs. Doge. The Zuppa di Pesce did not disappoint!! It was actually similar to when you order mussels in the states except that the broth had been simmering all day long and had fish and shrimp in it - all were cooked to perfection and the taste of the broth was pure salty, seafoody goodness! The soup and a bottle Paladin Malbech was a perfect food pairing match!

Satiated and a little buzzed, we made our way back to the apartment to call it an early night because we needed to be up at 3:30AM in order to catch our water taxi by 4:30 for our ride to the airport. Ciao!

Day 8 - Driving to Venezia and Getting Moist After Dinner

Those assholes partied it up on the street outside our hotel window until the light of day. Neither Sandra or I got much sleep at all and we had to meet out taxi driver at 8:30AM so he could take us to get our rental car.

We ended up getting a brand new Toyota Auris which is the European name for the Prius. What a great little commuter car - and, no, I'm not going to get one!! We set the navigation for Piazzale Roma in Venezia and off we went! Everyone was so concerned about us driving in Italy but, quite frankly, it was no big deal. You just have to pay attention rather than play on your cell phone, like most Italians do, and everything is fine.

Everything about the Autostrada is what American highways should be. Perfectly smooth, well marked lanes, clean, fast, amazing rest areas that are super easy to get into. Also, each rest area has huge gas stations, excellent, clean toilets, good grocery stores, shops selling amazing sandwiches, pizza, etc. It's the way it should be.

The drive out of Firenze wound into the mountains a bit and, at one point in time, we had the choice of taking the "panoramica" way or the direct way. We decided to stick with the proper English nav-chick who took us the direct way. Well, the direct way ended up being a brand-new highway with a 2.6km tunnel right under the Appenines....the tunnel just went on and on and on. As I was typing this, I decided to look it up to learn a little about it. Come to find out, it was recently completed using the world's largest tunnel boring machine and is currently the record-holder for the longest tunnel bored by this machine - soon to be challenged by the Alaskan Way Project in Seattle and another project in St. Petersburg. For those interested, here's a link to the article I read about this: Tunnel Info

Once we got out of the mountains, it was flat, green farmland as far as the eye could see. It reminded me a lot of the Willamette Valley in Oregon except for the scattered church spire and remnants of Medieval times that would pop up here and there. I set the cruise control to the speed limit of 130kph and just relaxed. Even at that speed, there would be some of the faster cars like Mercedes, Alfa Romeo Guliettas, Porsches and BMWs that would fly by like I was standing still. The Italians are so nice that they monitor the speed on the autostrada using speed cameras that calculate the time it takes you to go between the two cameras set kilometers apart. I say that they're nice because they warn you ahead of time with signs saying that you're entering into a "controlled zone". Awesome!!

There was some confusion when we booked our car rental online - the closest that they would allow us to drop off the car was at Venice's Marco Polo Airport which is on the mainland and a long taxi ride from Venice proper. Our host at the apartment where we were staying insisted that we could drop the car at Piazzale Roma which is a huge parking garage where the bridge ends in Venice. We called Hertz numerous times and were told that that particular office was closed on Sunday but, for an extra 50 Euro, we could just leave the car in the garage at Pia Roma. We opted to pay because we didn't want to deal with getting a taxi and schlepping our luggage around. As luck would have it, there was a huge "Dragonboat" Regatta that day in Venice and all the vaporettos and taxis were shut down for the first half of the day so Hertz decided to open their office to allow people to rent cars who needed to get out of town. Sandra, in her most persuasive way, talked the car rental dude into receiving our car.

We met Daniella, our apartment host, at the designated spot, exchanged greetings, picked up our vaporetto passes and hopped on one for the ride to her "district". If you've never been to Venice, it is an assault on the senses that has to be experienced in person. Everywhere you looked there was some kind of boat bustling about on the Grand Canal; exquisitely beautiful private water taxis, work boats/barges with cranes on them, vaporettos, private boats, tour boats, etc. all churning up the water into a turbulent, milky-green, choppy, mess all day long.

The vaporetto stopped at Guideca Palanca and we made our way to Daniella's apartment. Palanca is on an island across from Venice proper where it is super quiet and quite a bit newer. The apartment was stunning!!! I'll let the video speak for itself. We are already considering coming back to Venice and staying a couple weeks in Daniella's apartment sometime next year. Daniella gave us advice on her apartment, suggestions for dinners in Venice (she gave us directions to the best Zuppa di Pesce in Venice) and bid us farewell. Wonderful lady and she really enjoyed practicing her English with us.

Video of Apartment in Venice

A couple beers were cracked and enjoyed in the apartment and then it was off to explore Venezia!!! The vaporetto comes every 9 minutes and takes you straight across the channel into the city so, in mere minutes, we were off on our way to find Piazza San Marco or St. Mark's Square which is, arguably, the most famous place in Venice. We meandered through busy shop-lined walkways and single-filed paths between medieval 4 story buildings back and forth, over canals filled with the obligatory gondolas, through tunnels, under buildings, past teeny-tiny restaurants and bars and, all of a sudden.......we were in the middle of the HUGE St. Pigeon Square!!!!!

St. Pigeon Square is massive - especially considering everything else in Venice seems so cramped. From it's earliest beginning in about the 12th century, the Piazza and the surrounding buildings have been the center of religious, political and organizational administration of Venice. We decided to sit, have a glass of wine and watch the tourists with their selfie-sticks wade through the pigeons and create memories for themselves - they, in turn, were creating memories for us! The same immigrants who were selling selfie-sticks, laser lights, and those nasty rubber squishy balls to the tourists in Rome and Florence were here as well. The difference, though, was that they were feeding the pigeons what looked liked breakfast cereal and getting the pigeons to land on the tourists arms, head and shoulders for picture opportunities and a little cash in their pockets. NASTY!

We left St. Pigeon Square and decided to try to find the restaurant Daniella told us about that had the best fish soup in Venice. Needless to say, we got lost and ended up walking about 2 miles in the WRONG direction. We finally gave up on GPS which didn't work very well in all the small walkways, and just asked for directions. We ended up in the approximate locale but couldn't find it. We decided to find a restaurant close to our vaporetto stop and have some dinner there. Dinner was good - not the best we've had - but the view of the channel was amazing. As we were sitting there, a few raindrops fell. Then a few more. Then it started to really come down. We did not have the 3 umbrellas or 2 ponchos that we bought for rain with us as it was sunny when we got to Venice.

The rain never let up. We finally had to make a mad dash for the vaporetto stop after dinner then get off and slosh our way to the apartment. We were completely soaked once we got there. What a great start to our short visit to Venice!!

Day 7 - Halfway Point, Uffizi Gallery and the Crush of Humanity

Everyone said that the Uffizi Gallery was a "must see" in FIrenze so we rolled out of bed, threw our hair up and off we went! We didn't have reserved tickets so we knew that we needed to do a little time in the queue. Luckily, we were standing right next to an older couple from England and passed the time chatting about Europe and the differences we both noticed compared to our home countries. Interesting side note; they told us that the UK was considering dropping from the EU. I had no idea. Another interesting note; Donald Trump is headline news and the UK is seriously terrified about what will happen should he be elected. Interesting, huh?

We finally made it into the gallery and I have to say that it is definitely filled with priceless works of art. Here's the thing though, after a while they all start to look the same. How many times can you see Jesus being crucified? How many times can you see baby Jesus suckling Mary's breast? How many times can you see Man's struggle between Heaven and Hell. After a while, they all kinda rolled into each other. Michelangelo, Botticelli and Da Vinci did stand out, though. Not necessarily because they were well-known names but because their art really was just a notch above everyone elses. Michelangelo, especially, had a way of expressing depth-of-field that was mesmerizing.

Priceless works of art?  DONE!! On to the important things in life like exploring and drinking good wine! First, we made our way back to the room to shower and change clothes. After, we had a general plan to head in the direction of the Ponte Vecchio which is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arched bridge over the Arno River. How's that for regurgitating Wikipedia? Once we got there, we were completely encompassed by the crush of Humanity as it slowly swayed it's way across the river, pausing at every rock, trinket and overlook to hold up their phones with selfie sticks and document their journey. What I found very interesting was that the majority of the merchants on the bridge were jewelry merchants. I wonder why that is?

After the bridge, we knew that the next major point-of-interest was the Palazzo Pitti. So here's the thing; we walked around a corner and the Palace just rose before us. It was breathtaking in it's grandeur and presence. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. Months ago before we ever had any tickets or anything purchased for Italy, I was cruising through Google Earth and I stumbled upon this place that looked totally amazing. Guess what?  It was the Pitti Palace!! I recognized it as if I had already visited it! So cool what technology has given us.

My lovely bride and I found a great little wine bar and proceeded to have a few glasses of wine and some specialty cheeses endemic to the region. Awesome!! We took some artsy-craftsy pics, had a good time and figured it was time to work our way back towards our hotel. Of course, on the way, we needed to make sure that every local bar was graced with our presence. We found a Birrateca, an Irish bar (Grizzly's....and we had Jager shots there) and I'm sure there were a few others as well.

You know, after drinking a bit, you work up a huge appetite so we fired up Google and looked for a steakhouse nearby as Firenze is known for it's steak. We called to make a reservation for 15 minutes from the time we called. Needless to say, the restaurant was about 15 minutes away! We took off through the streets on our quest for some carniverous delight. We made it on time and were promptly greeted by the waiter who informed us, in Italian, that he knew exactly what we wanted. Yes, we were hungry but the sizzling side of beef that was carried to our table by a team of oxen, was a little much. We dug in with gusto, drank some wine, dug in some more, drank some wine and before we knew it, we were ready for the cardiac unit at the local hospital!

It was about 10:45 by the time we rolled ourselves out of the ristorante and began the slow, painful shuffle back to our hotel. It was Saturday night and the townsfolk were partying it up and, as much as we wanted to join them, there was no way we could ingest another bite or drink of anything. Speaking of partying, they partied at two bars right below our bedroom window until dawn. Seriously, they were screaming and yelling at each other, dropping beer bottles and making a ton of noise until the sun came up at about 6AM. Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep and we were meeting a taxi at 8:30 to take us to pick up our rental car for the drive to Venizia. Grrrr.......