More Pictures Update 06180

Pictures, pictures and more pictures. I've set out to summarize where we last left off and we're staying at the Merdien, which means that there is good Internet here.

Rome, Italy 051508

Rome was certainly a historical experience as mentioned previously so I won't elaborate too much here. Below are pictures from the Spanish Steps and the Colleseum (or rather, Collesevm).






Vatican City, Vatican 051608

The Vatican was amazing. Again, I blogged about the focus on greatness and the capital raising machine the religious institution is. That said, I've been reading Shogun by James Clavell as of late. To those who like historical fiction that intertwine characters within personal and national struggles for power, intertwining goverment and religion you MSUT read this book. It's awesome, trust me. Few books have ever gripped me as much as this one and have generated as much thought thereafter.








Pisa, Italy 051708 (via Florence)

Pisa is one of those check-the-box type of places. I have no idea why a country would showcase an engineering mistake. I suppose it's rather the resolution to that mistake - massive amounts of resources dedicated to saving the building - that is more marvelous. Either way, it was a $15 each ticket to walk up to the top! We were going to miss Pisa but we decided even in the rainy 4pm moment to take the 2hr IC train ride out to Pisa to see this (for me the 2nd time). Fortunately, we found some vendors selling 5 euro umbrellas, which I negotiated to 2 euros in true Jon Lee fashion (negotiate everything!!!)







Florence, Italy 051808

Florence was a dissapointment in one sense of what others' tell me, but a great trip nonetheless. Everyone says "speed through rome and head to Florence." In retrospect, I would have rather spent more time in Roma than in Firenze. There are two museums which are famous and we visited, the Academie and the Uffizie. The Academie has the David and the Uffizi, Venus.

I actually have the theory that the venus is indeed not the original. Crowded among hundreds of tourists, elbow to elbow where my glasses even fogged up, I can't imagine a country would allow one of its national artistic treasures to be subject to this open air environment where even sunlight penetrated the atrium.

The attractions were just "ok." It was possible the less than blissful memories were from the highly confusing nature of getting into these museums. You need to get "advanced reservations" and from there, identify the right person to talk to who can get you a ticket and next, fight you way into getting into a slot hrs later than the one you were originally assigned.

Meanwhile, I can see how David and Venus were marvelled pieces of art, but the price and effort required for entrance prepped me for an amazing experience which was met with more humble (and possibly fake!) pieces.







Crystal at Sea 051908-052008 (Civichivichia)





Sorrento, Italy 052108 (Amafli Coast)






Pompeii, Italy 052208 (Amafli Cosat)