Goodbye to Italy. We flew back to the states today to continue our adventures in San Antonio.

We took the train to Milan again today. We checked our luggage at the train station and spent the day touring. We visited the Da Vinci painting of The Last Supper. It was painted in the dining room for the monks at a monastery. Da Vinci used an experimental technique instead of using fresco painting. It turns out that it was not as reliable, and the painting started deteriorating after a few years. Then the monks decided they need a door into the kitchen, so they cut a hole in the wall painting. The painting has had many different restorations in the past. Historians currently have had to erase the restorations as they believe them to have actually been detrimental and not correct. The painting has been stripped back to original paint. What a lot of work. After touring, we collected our luggage and caught a bus to our hotel near the Milan airport. Like most large cities, the airport is an hour outside of the city.

We visited Milan today. First stop the Duomo. It is unusual in that it is covered with spires and statues on the roof. We took an elevator to the roof and then walked up several flights of stairs outside to get to the spire area. Not only did we get a good view of the statues, we had a wonderful view of Milan.

After the Duomo, we walked through the Galleria, a large outdoor shopping mall covered by a glass roof. Just outside is a statue to Da Vinci.

Our adventure continued with a visit to the Castello Sforzesco. Who knew Italy had so many castles?

Cindy decided to take it easy today. Jeanine and Norm took the ferry boat to neighboring islands. We visited Menaggio and Bellagio. Both were picturesque small hill/fishing villages with stone streets and water views.

We climbed further up the mountain to the Castello di Vezio. This is a feudal castle which is open to the public. We even got to see a knight in shining armor. Well, the armor at least. It was well worth the hike up the mountain. Great views. We also went into a bunker built in the 1800’s and used in the World Wars.

Our hotel had a wonderful roof top restaurant looking out at Lake Como. We really did have an incredible view.

Took the train to Lake Como in the Italian Alps today. Our hotel is on a cliff side with an elevator that runs up the mountain on an angle. Actually it is 2 elevators as the distance is so far. The views of the lake and other islands are beautiful.

We took a boat to Murano Island to see glass blowing. It turns out that the process has not changed much in 19 centuries. We walked around town, had a nice Italian lunch and then back to Venice.

We went to the Academia in Venice. It is here that they have the Da Vinci drawing of the perfect man. Unfortunately because they have no air conditioning, they never display the drawing as it is too fragile. Oh well, at least they told us it was kept here.
Afterwards, we walked to the Rialto bridge for Jeanine to do some shopping.

On the way back, we stopped in St. Marks Square and birds landed right on Cindy’s arm. She really does have animal magnetism!

We toured the Doges Palace. The Doge was the town head ruler for centuries until Venice was conquered by Napoleon. The palace is a combination of living quarters, official meeting and working rooms, and courts. The Doge eventually became a figure head who was not allowed to leave the palace without other town officials and really had very little power. They did know how to decorate. What a place.

We had a walking tour of Venice this morning. We saw Piazza San Marco, many bridges including the Bridge of Sighs where prisoners had to cross before entering prison from the Doges Palace and of course San Marco School.

There is a statue in front of the school of a Mercenary who lived in Venice, became rich and wanted to donate his money to Venice. His only stipulation was that a statue of him had to be erected in front of San Marco. He envisioned the church at the main square of town. The town officials decided to take his money and follow his wishes by placing the statue in front of San Marco Church. Since the mercenary had no surviving family members, who would complain?

We also saw the oldest homes in Venice which just happen to be the ones where the Marco Polo family lived. Venice is known for a fruit flavored cocktail called a Bellini which was invented at Harry’s Bar. We went there to try one, were given a menu and a quick minute to study it when it was pulled away and the waiter told us to leave. Norm was wearing short pants and they have a dress code. No problem that Cindy had on short pants too. We tried a Bellini at another nice bar that did not care on a 100 plus degree day what kind of pants a man wears.

We visited the Bargello museum of sculpture this morning. It contains sculptures by Michelangelo and Donatello among others. We had just enough time to see the museum, check out of our hotel and make it to the train to take us to Venice. Just before getting to the train, we visited the main post office to send a package back to the states. The only problem was that they had no forms to send the package slow boat, only air. They had been out of the forms for several weeks. When we asked why, the answer was “This is Italy”. What an expensive package of travel pamphlets we sent home.

We arrived in Venice, found our hotel, walked around St Marcos square and just relaxed.

We started our day visiting the Acadamia, the art museum built on the old art school. The paintings were beautiful but the price of the audio guide was too high. It cost Jeanine her drivers license. They gave it away to someone else by mistake. We should have been allowed to keep the audio guide since they gave away our security deposit.

After collecting our thoughts, we decided that “The Tour Must Go On” and visited the San Marco Museum. This contains wall frescoes painted by a friar in all of the upstairs rooms.

We went to the Uffizi Gallery this morning. This art museum contains paintings by Michelangelo, Caravaggio and many other famous painters. In the afternoon, we finally took time to explore the Boboli Gardens. There had not been enough time the other day to really look around.

From inside the gardens, we were able to also visit Fort Belvedere which has the world’s largest sofa sitting outdoors. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Back in Boboli gardens, they have a sculpture showing what happens after eating too much Italian food. We pity the turtle.

We took the train to Pisa today. We figured out the bus schedule to get us the final part of the trip as there was yet another taxi strike. Pisa has a huge church, baptistery, and of course the tower.

Cindy and Jeanine climbed the tower. Norm had enough towers at the Florence Duomo climb. After, we had “Pizza in Pisa” and then had time to take a picture of us leaning in by the leaning tower.

We visited the Piazza della Republica and saw the bronze Wild Boar sculpture that if you rub its nose, you will return to Florence.

Then we walked along the Ponte Vecchio bridge before going to the Pitti Palace which contains the Boboli gardens botanic and sculpture gardens.