Italy part 1

Remember I said we needed a vacation?

During all that packing I had a bit of a brain wave regarding our vacation and put together an itinerary.  After our stuff left we realized we needed to clean the place, rent a car (no way our little EJ could do this trip), pack, and just unwind.  So we pushed back a day, picked up a rental, and on Friday the 19th we headed out!

Pinky is bound to give us a good ride!

Our rental (Pinky, though she is white) is registered in HH, so we knew we were in for a great trip.  We drove south through Innsbruck and the Brenner pass into the Dolomites.  Lovely scenery!  Then it was east past Verona into Venice!  We arrived mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day just sort of getting lost in the city.  For those who haven't been, the city is a maze of canals, alleys, and bridges.  No need for the stair master.  10 steps up each bridge adds up!  We saw San Marco square, the Rialto bridge (the big one across the Grand Canal), and countless cool shops.  There is nothing like wandering around a city as pretty and romantic as Venice at sunset--that's for sure!  Gus used his nose for food to find a neat little restaurant with excellent seafood.  Turns out it's the oldest in Venice, in operation since the 1500s.  Nice find, Gus!  While heading back to the bus terminal we accidentally stumbled onto a local festival with live music and tons of food.  Too bad we had already eaten!  It was a fundraiser celebrating 20 years of some community garden program for kids or something.  Anyway, I was wearing a relatively rare soccer jersey from Germany's 1994 team.  These guys near us were looking through the pictures of the first years of the event and all of a sudden they came over to me.  In broken English they showed me a photo from the early festival of 3 guys wearing the exact same shirt.  Cool!

 Dolomites

The Dolomites are a UNESCO site.  Wonder why?

 This is me on the Rialto bridge over the Grand Canal.  This picture is for the READ posters for Cal Young, but it shows the shirt I mentioned nicely.

 San Marco square

 Gondolas lined up

 One of the countless bridges (and a picture for which Gus posed--I had to put it in!)

The bridge to get to our VERY GOOD restaurant.  This bridge led only to the door of the restaurant.

The next day we sprung for a gondola ride.  I know it's expensive and a total tourist thing, but come on--we're in Venice!  We also bought Venetian masks, saw some churches, wandered along the waterfront and past the Bridge of Sighs, and got lost a few more times.  I am pretty sure we crossed at least 50 bridges (city has 400)!  Every plaza is different and you can see how much wealth was in the city.  Each house tries to outdo the last. It really is an amazing place.  While we were walking along the waterfront we asked this guy to take our picture, thinking we would get the typical, boring, smiling couple in front of an awesome sight pic.  Instead we got crazy photographer dude who took a bunch of pics from different angles, made us take off our sunglasses, and generally had fun telling us to "kiss, kiss."  Oh, and I was wearing a crazy tie dye shirt from Cal Young, and some guy had an almost identical shirt (his didn't say Cal Young) and commented.  Two days of rare T-shirt comments!  All in all a successful visit.

 This is really the way to see Venice--from the water!

Our gondolier was training his son.  We think only the actual gondoliers get the hat and the apprentices don't, but we forgot to ask if this was true.

 Every turn brings something amazing.

 Craftswoman making the masks.  Many are factory made from China, others factory made in Italy, but there are still lots of hand-made masks all over.  We each got a one-of-a-kind mask (Gus's was made in the shop--we saw the guy working on some--while mine was made elsewhere in Italy, probably nearby).  

Crazy photographer dude did good work!  Oh, and seriously, this shirt?

Cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.  A typical and tasty meal here.

We think this lady is a tourist (she's reading a guide book), but she was wearing such an awesome outfit she became one of the attractions as far as we were concerned.  I wish I had the confidence to pull off this outfit!

Sunday morning we left early and headed to the tiny country of San Marino.  Just a few km from the Adriatic, this nation sits on and around a big mountain with one side on a cliff.  We immediately found parking, took a series of elevators up, and found ourselves in the old city of San Marino.  We kept walking up the hill (again, no need for a hotel gym in this country) to the first of three towers.  I should mention that it just so happened that weekend was a Renaissance festival of some kind.  There were events and exhibits all over the city and a series of archery competitions (think frisbee golf style).  Anyway, the first tower was hosting more stuff, and in the courtyard we got to watch traditional dancing and try some home made honey liquor that was REALLY good.  We then climbed into the actual tower, which included a steep climb up a sort of ladder.  At the top were some good humored guys in armor making a game out of surprising visitors with their weapons as they came up the ladder.  They were really funny and didn't actually scare anyone--just made it more fun.  I am not going to lie about the scary factor of being in a tall tower on the side of a cliff, but it was worth it for the views!

 We stopped for lunch here, but we were disappointed with the service.  The view was great, though--and below us was this pit in which there were archery competitions going on.

 Another group of archers counts up the points.

Did you know that San Marino was founded in 301 AD?

 Tower 1

Festivities inside the First Tower

 Dude scaring people  (sort of--as you can see he is mostly just good humored) as they came up the ladder and through the trapdoor beside him.  He was having way too much fun.

View of Twer 1 from Tower 2.  Told you it was on the side of a cliff!

We headed on to tower two, where we saw a medieval weapons collection.  Other exhibits we saw along the way included the werewolf and vampire museum and the waxworks and torture implements museum.  On the way back down we spotted a sword fight.  We sat down at a little café along the top of the ridge, enjoyed a plate of meats and cheeses, cold beverages, and the Adriatic breeze.  Processions of medieval actors kept coming by with drums.  Very cool day, and we ended it by finding this hilarious gum--called liquid filled camel balls--that was pretty fun and good.  We drove back down to our hotel and looked out the window at the towers all lit up.  Wonderful visit!  San Marino is the Switzerland of Italy--clean, cooler (mountain!), very scenic and pretty, and full of good humored people proud of the independence of their little country.  Put it on your list!

Tower 2 seen from Tower 1

Dinner on the cliffside (and yes, I did sit there with almost no difficulties in spite of my fear of heights), where we were interrupted repeatedly by processions (seen over my shoulder) coming from . . . 

 . . . the sword fight!

 Oh, and archery at Tower 2

Tower one in the center, Tower two on the left, and on the far left past the light post is the mysterious Tower three, which doesn't seem to have an entrance.  This was taken from our hotel room.

Monday morning we headed over to Florence, but that is the next post as this one is long enough and we have stuff to do!