England

• London (6/9, 6/10, 6/24)

Italy

• Rome (6/11, 6/12)

• Capri (6/14)

• Sorrento (6/14)

• Pompeii (6/15)

• Assiss (6/15)

• San Marino (6/16)

• Venice (6/16, 6/17)

• Verona (6/18)

• Lugano (6/18)

• Como (6/19)

• Milan (6/19)

• Pisa (6/20)

• Florence (6/21)

• Siena (6/21)

• Rome (6/22, 6/23)

Monday, 06/20

Pisa, not Pizza...

• Today was mostly spent on the bus.  We drove from Varese to Pisa to take pictures of the leaning tower, wander around the tiny town and sat at a local cafe to have my favorite gelati.

• Then it was more driving to reach the outskirts of Florence (Firenze).

Tuesday, 06/21

Florence (Firenze) -> Siena

• After breakfast, it was time to head to Florence.  The majority of the people went with a local tour guide to the Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia di Belle Arti) to see Michelangelo's famous statue David.  I had wanted to do some shopping and intended to check out the Academy later on during the day.

• So off we went and walked across town with Pietro as the guide.  We walked thru Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore), Piazza della Signoria and Basilica di Santa Croce.  Too bad I don't have any digital pictures to show 'cause mine wasn't working and Po's didn't have battery that day.  Ponte Vecchio was famous for gold and silver jewellery.  As I'm typing this up, I feel like I missed seeing all the tourist attractions.  Guess I'll just have to come back again and spend more time here.

• Pietro took us to a store called Peruzzi that was catered for tourists.  It has 2 stores in Florence: Via Borgo dei Greci 8/12/14/R and Via Anguillara 5/7/9/11/13/15R.  Although it claims to be a leather factory store, the price hardly reflects that.  I saw the same wallet that Ihad bought at Winners for $25 CAD.  The price tag: 65 Euro.  As soon as I saw what a scam this store was, Po and I took off.

• Pietro also told us about a leather jacket store 30 seconds away called Caesar.  There was a jacket I liked but having just seen the ridiculous store Peruzzi, I was no longer in any buying mood.  Plus the sales guys were extremely pushy.  I figured I can always get a leather jacket at Danier back at home...

• We were told that Piazza San Lorenzo is where tourists and locals buy leather goods so off we went.  It took a while to find it as the streets weren't nicely arranged in grids like in Toronto.  None of the handbags that the street vendors were selling caught my eye, partly because it was really hot and also after what I had experienced at Peruzzi and Caesar, I didn't exactly want to shop.  But I did get a gelato with lemone and fragola (strawberry), very yummy!

• Then we journeyed to Siena in the heart of Tuscany.  The walled city hasn't changed much since the Middle Ages.  We mostly stayed near Piazza del Campo and did a little shopping.  I got a leather handbag and Po got a bottle of Brunello and something else that I couldn't quite remember.

• Some random pictures...

Wednesday, 06/22

Siena -> Rome

• After breakfast, the tour bus took us from Siena to Rome.  The majority of the people went to the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) for a guided tour, while others wandered around nearby.

• We decided to go to Sistine Chapel ourselves the next day since it's more economical (12 Euros vs 36 for the guided tour) and we could stay longer if we wanted.  So Po and I walked around, I bought a handbag and we had lunch at a ristoante.  Wine really is cheaper than water in Italy...

• The spectacular dinner, as Pietro called it, was at a restaurant with 3 tenors sang throughout the evening.  Had high expectations and wasn't terribly impressed...