IN FIRENZE...

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4/25/07
Sorry last blog was so short… we had a very long day ahead of us and the internet wasn’t available until morning to upload. Let’s take a moment to re-cap what’s happened so far.

Thoughts on Germany:
Beautiful trees… relaxing… good laughs… riddles… great lifetime friends… surprisingly good food; cheeses, bread, schnitzel, SAUSAGES!... green, green, pristine… good wine & beer… cigar smoking w/ Mark… hanging out with the kids (Ryanne, Mariah, Brooke, Zach)… Shanna’s dessert: HEAVENLY… confusing road signs… K-town (Kaiserslautern)… playing Mexican train on sunny afternoon... THiw was the best bed-n-breakfast anyone could ever ask to stay in. Thank you, thank you, thank you ;-)

Re-capping Switzerland:
The drive in was long, but very diverse in scenery. First there was the trees of Germany, the rolling hills of France, then breaking way to mountains, mountains, mountains. And everything was so clean. (Well, France had litter on hi-ways.) We almost went to Paris (was that Nicole’s real intention???) And thank goodness for McD’s bathrooms -- Andy’s first experience with communal toilet facilities. The route took us on a “railroad ferry”. Pulled the car up onto the ramp & away we went thru the mountain. It was a 15 minute ride in darkenss… Managed to pull into our hotel in Brig (check you map!), do dinner by 7:30pm, then have an early turn-in.
On Tuesday, we headed towards Zermatt to see the ever famous Matterhorn. There was a quick train from Tasch to Zermatt, followed by a 20 minute train ride to the top. Wow! Eye candy!!! Probably snapped 4 dozen photos before even reaching the top. (OK, maybe more…) The top reached 3100 meters (that’s aprox. 11,310 ft) and sported a restaurant, mini-mall, and several look-out points. Walking around made one’s heart palpitate quite hard. Thankfullyk we were first train ride up, so the mountain was ‘ours’ until around noon without too may people. We copped a spot on the veranda, enjoyed several mini-bottles of wine (given to us by the B’s), and Andy enjoyed an Arturo Fuentes cigar. And since you can buy beer, wine, & cigarettes from a vending machine - no one seemed to really care in the slightest!
Down at the bottom… We were stymied by the prices in Zermatt. And just when our blood sugar started to dip again, we found out that Eurpoean restaurants were closed between 4 & 6pm - bummer! Did find one restaurant with a ‘bar menu’. That night Nicole & Ange left Andy behind in the room in search of a fondue restaurant to no avail. Change of plans… Never thought chicken could be so tasty!
On Wednesday, we made our way toward Grimmelwald (this is to satisfy Angie’s need for Swiss cow fix - “cows on hills with bells!” Angie got her fix and everyone was blown away by the grandeur of mountains, green hillsides, and the quietness. Found a fabulous Swiss-Italian restaurant. Yummy, yummy! Then we drove to Interlaken to exchange the car for a new one… Interlaken was a casino gateway - tons of Japenese tourists spending lots of $$. We opted for fondue instead. There was a CRAZY thunder & rain storm that swept thru during dinner. On the way back to Brig, we got pounded with rain large drops - thank goodness for automatic water sensors on our rental car. (“Honey our next car HAS to have this feature!”)

Now it is Thursday… we are in the car typing this out, sitting in a tunnel, not moving, in Italy. The construction (note: we’re in the ALPS!) on this pass is quite sporadic, but we love this country… they let cars go in front of the trucks. It may turn out to be another lo-o-o-n-g day, but hey… we’re on vacation… and we’re in ITALY!


Saturday, 4/28
Bon Journo! We pulled into Florence yesterday mid-morning - it was an 75 minute drive from Lucca. Before finding our hotel, we took a drive up to the Piazza Michaelangelo. Wow! This boasts a pretty good city-scape… while we were there a limo drove up with a wedding party to take pictures (very traditional for bride & groom to go to all the sites & take pics in wedding garb). The weather turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. In fact, bead of perspiration donned our brows… and the day only got hotter!
There was tons of construction around our exit, so it took a bit to get oriented & find the hotel. (Seemingly the theme of our trip…) But with a little help from the locals & a couple “follow that Vespa!” we managed to get there. Spent most of the mid-day afternoon walking around Florence snapping photos & mixing in with the crowds. And there were plenty of them, too… Our dining experience was a little mixed last night - first place was too ‘touristy’, so we hopped over to another place (where we will go tonight for dinner) for desert & a little more wine. Oh, Andy had to indulge in Spaghetti all Carbonara - mmmmm, rich & tasty!
We hope to have pix up soon. Haven’t had time in evenings to edit them down. Thankfully we were able to find this internet café today…
Ciao!

US

ps... you can email us directly at [e-mail]

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Comments

[Mom and Dad Joyce]

Firenze
Bon Journo, Have really enjoyed reading your blog. Sounds like you three are having a crazy, wild, wonderful time!! Isn't Italian food the best? Ciao, Mom