Today I when I woke up, I went down for a breakfast of juice, cereal and toast (with yummy jams and nutella!) for 1.90E. I proceeded to the free walking tour of Edinburgh. The duration is about 3 hours or so. I’m attracted to the charm of the city! I love the old buildings and the stories our tour guide provided us with. We saw the Elephant Café for those of you Harry Potter fans. Also saw the burial site of Thomas Riddle and the school JK Rowling could see as she wrote Harry Potter…Hogwarts much? We saw the unofficial Cathedral (unofficial because it doesn’t have a bishop) as well as the church in the cemetery and I’m going to have to get back to my brain on this one but there was something to do ... read more

I'm staying just a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower. I haven't had internet on my computer and I've been using a European keyboard, so I decided not to do any grand postings just yet. I definitely do have to catch up because we had the most perfect last day in Rome complete with an Italian meal in a little Roman restaurant referred to us by someone who waited tables in the touristy area of the Piazza where the Chariots used to race. It was a great meal. We actually had great meals almost every time we ate in Italia!! I ... read more

Today is the Feast of St. Peter & Paul and as a holiday, many shops around the area were closed…made it feel like a Sunday. However, everything touristy (minus the Vatican) were open so it didn’t affect us too much. Today really only consisted of three things: Coliseum, Roman Forum & dinner. ALL = AMAZING. Pretty much don’t have words. Can’t even figure out how the Romans built such structures. Or how they’re still standing. Some of them anyway. The Forum was like a garden of marble. I again am without words. Sorry, Italica, as impressively awesome as you are, you barely hold a candle to the Roman Coliseum! I think I’ll post pictures…I took 450 today… And Faye wonders why they let thousands pass through daily. Hmmmm…Jake says, “It’s just that durable.” It is curious ... read more

Ok, have to make this quick since it’s late, we’ve had a LONG day and we have a long day tomorrow as well. So for starters, we woke up in Milan pretty early and booked it for the train station, bought an awesomely cheap ticket to Venice and headed on our way. Last night we discussed the possibilities with the guy at the hostel/hotel desk. Funny enough, he preferred to speak to us in Spanish because he speaks little English and I only speak a very little bit of Italian…so seeing as we both spoke a fair amount of Spanish, Spanish it was! Yay! Who woulda thought in Italy… So anyway, it was a 3-3.5 hour ride (like I said, it was the cheap train) to Venice. We arrived around 10:30 and checked our luggage into ... read more

I enjoyed staying at Malpensa Garden Bed and Breakfast and the owners were super nice. They actually, with the two guests who arrived last night, helped me figure out what I needed to know when I got into the city this am which made life a bit easier…who am I kidding, a LOT easier. Bruno even had me put the google maps street view up so he could tell me which direction to leave the metro. Phew! I ended up getting up an hour later than I would have had to otherwise. The other two guests last night were a couple of guys who spoke some English. I could understand some of what they were saying in Italian, but that only gets one so far so I was glad to have some English conversation. Ok so ... read more