Italy 2008

We knew that this day would come and that it wouldn't be pretty and now it's here. Yup, ROME! So much to do and see. We've all seen it before, well everyone except Aaron which means we all see it again. Yeah!


We started the morning with a little jaunt over to the Vatican. A few hours of forced march through endless rooms of sculptures, paintings, and tapestries and you make it to the Sistine Chapel and then St Peters Basilica.





Being the adventurous fellows we are we thought it might be fun to climb the copula at St Peters -- it's a modest 500+ steps. When you get up into the dome the passageways are pretty narrow. The guy behind Aaron cursed every step the whole way up. Fun times.





I'm not sure how the groom got his bride to do this (or vice versa), but this is actually a bride that climbed up to the top in her wedding dress.





From the top you get some great views though and then you have those 500+ steps to look forward to on the way back down.








From the Vatican we rushed over to the Borghese Gallery for some Bernini. No pictures allowed here, sorry. A few more hours of art then off to Hard Rock -- burgers and beer, score!


Full and partially rested we continued on to Trevi Fountain followed by the Pantheon, and then Piazza Navona. We were tired from the start, but at the Pantheon we were all begging for it to be over.











A long day filled with tons of sites and experiences -- at times you hate it, but you're always glad you did it.

Just got into Rome and already off to see stuff. You have to be on your A-game if you're going to see a good portion of Rome. Aaron and I ponder our upcoming adventures at the Spanish Steps.

I don't know that I can do Tuscany justice with words or even pictures -- the place is incredible to see. We setup basecamp in Pienza and ventured through a number of hill top towns on this visit.









The sunsets are spectacular here with incredible colors lit up against seemingly endless rolling hills.








Aaron found a thrown to call his own.

After collecting Aaron from the Pisa airport it was one totally cramped car ride to Monterosso. Last time I was here it was kinda big...no reason not to create traditions. Aaron even managed to drag his hung over and jet-lagged ass out of bed to hike between the towns with me. Honestly, I had forgotten there are that many steps. :-/ The views you get from the hikes make it well worth the effort though.

We spent a quick night here on our way down to the Cinque Terre. Not exactly on our way persay, but you can't miss this place. Plus the parents have a tradition of buying watercolors from a local artist.

On my last visit to Venice the bus boats were striking -- well the people that operate them really. I walked the length of Venice with my bags to get to my hotel. That sucked! This time the boats were running and it only took an hour to get down the Grand Canal to our apartment.





We spent a few nights here and basically just enjoyed ourselves. Places are much better after you've been there once or twice because you can skip the touristy crap and just enjoy your time.

A night in the walled town of Rothenburg provided the necessary Pils, braut, and sauerkraut I was craving. The next day we made for Castelrotto. Another cute hill town that may well have some decent riding during the winters. I got the hobbit room apparently -- you may not be able to tell, but this door is several inches shorter than me.





The town offers some pretty spectacular views of the Dolimites. And on the way out we strolled around a local lake.

So I had a lovely flight to Cincinnati -- I got more work done in those few hours than in the past several weeks combined. But my next flight to Frankfurt was a different story altogether. The guy next to me had enough pharmaceuticals to knock out an elephant. This guy cocktailed more drugs together than I've ever seen and wouldn't shut up. The toddler next to me didn't scream that much I guess, so it could've been worse.


With no sleep we arrive in Frankfurt and my bags comes off ripped to shreds. Great start to the trip! Seams were torn open everywhere and my gear was falling out. I guess the shelf life for luggage these days is about 3 months. The bag people were nice enough to offer some tape to "repair" my bag and forked over 80 Euro to compensate me -- they said I wouldn't be able to get a replacement in Europe for anything less than that (I only paid $50 for my bag...SCORE money!).