Europe Trip 2010, Part 6: Florence

We arrived in Florence in the afternoon via train from Venice.
(note: book trains in advance to avoid having to take indirect trains because the trains are booked)

We walked from the train to our hotel, The Grand Hotel. We got a beautiful room with these amazing views out to the river.


The inside of our room was gorgeous too. Look at this ceiling!


We then walked over to the Boboli Gardens, behind the Pitti Palace.



We had so much fun walking all around the gardens, enjoying the fountains, statues, flowers, and views...



Then we had to do laundry, so we hunted down a nearby laundry mat and did a load while sipping espresso. (note you can read about our clothes debacle here).

Next we did a bit of research on Trip Adviser and found a restaurant called Il Santo Bevitore near our hotel, so we got dressed for diner and walked across the river. On the way to dinner we stopped to admire the beautiful Tuscan sunset.



Look there's our hotel!


Il Santo Bevitore did not disappoint! In fact, it was the best meal we had on the trip. We loved what we ordered - meats and cheeses, Tuscan tomato soup, carpaccio, and spinach with burrata. The restaurant was definitely not a tourist trap. It was filled with locals and the staff spoke minimal English, so we knew it would be good! We actually sat at the bar and got to watch them cut the fresh meats, which was really cool.

Our second day in Florence, we started off by heading to San Lorenzo Market to look at all the amazing foodstuffs.


San Lorenzo is amazing -- so much fresh fish, fresh veggies, fresh slabs of meat, cured meats, all being cut right there.

We ate the most amazing boiled beef sandwiches on ciabatta bread with chile sauce for breakfast. Random, but sooo delicious!

Then we walked over to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore -- to the baptistery and the Duomo.


We got in line for the famous Florence Duomo and started the long hike to the top of the Duomo.

We actually had so much fun walking up to the top. It felt like a "behind the scenes" tour of the church.


Half-way up you can see the inside of the dome close-up. So beautiful!


The higher and higher up we went up, the narrower the stairways got. The Mr. didn't fit at all!


Finally we got to the top. SO stunning!


We spent forever up top just admiring the view of the Tuscan hill and the red-roofed buildings.



We also had great view Giotto's bell tower (the campanile)


After the Duomo we went over to the Palazzo Vecchio.


Michelangelo's David =stood at the entrance from 1504 to 1873, when it was moved to the Accademia Gallery. A replica now stands in its place.


We didn't have time to go into the Palazzo, but we enjoyed the Piazza della Signoria in front of Palazzo Vecchio. There are several original statues by famous sculptures from the 1500s there.


We walked across the famous Ponte Veccio bridge, past all the pricey jewelry stores and up a giant hill Piazzale Michelangelo (there were a few espresso and gelato stops along the way)



The view from Piazzale Michelangelo was amazing!


We could see back to the Duomo where we'd been earlier.


We spent a while enjoying the view.


Then we headed back to the Pitti Palace to meet up with a friend of a friend from the US who lives in Florence and go with her to a special Carpaccio and Caravaggio art exhibit.

On the way there we spotted a lively Italian wedding. It looked like so much fun!


After the Museum we went with our friend over to her boyfriend's house to watch the soccer league championship, Munich vs inter Milan, with a group of friends. We ordered pizza and drank beer -- reminded us of watching football with friends in America except this was soccer and everyone was speaking Italian. The people were really nice and we had a great time seeing the European passion for soccer.

Our final day in Florence we slept in and then went to a great panini place near the Uffuzi Museum that gives you a free glass of wine with your panini.




Then we stood in line for the Uffuzi Museum for a while and finally got in.

The Uffuzi was well worth the wait! So many famous artist and famous works of art. Famous artists included Fra Filippo Lippi, Botticelli (The Birth of Venus was amazing to see), Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Caravaggio.

Sadly we didn't the real-life David over at the Accademia Museum (but we saw the replica where I used to stand). We'd heard that the David is really the only great art to see at the Accademia Museum, so we decided to go the Uffuzi instead and I think it was the right decision because I loved the Uffuzi. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back to Florence sometime!

The we headed to the train station to catch our train to Rome!


Overall, we really loved Florence. It's must less touristy than Venice or Rome, but has so many great old churches, palaces, buildings, and art to see (plus it was less expensive than Venice or Rome). The old buildings with their red roofs set against the rolling Tuscan hills and sky just feel like you're in a beautiful post card.


Next up? Rome!

Just joining the Europe recaps? See them all here.

It's a Love Story: The Beach Proposal

Sometimes I wish I had some elaborate engagement story that caused girls around the world to swoon and sigh, but then I remember the night I got engaged and I know that wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

In fact, in just a couple of weeks it will be 3 years since the Mr. proposed to me.

Honestly, it feels like longer ago. So much has happened since then - wedding planning, buying a condo, wedding, honeymoon, and millions of small (and large) moments and milestones as a married couple.

But since I've never shared our engagement story on this blog, I figured it was an appropriate time to reflect and share.

The date was 07/07/07 - and for me, it really was the luckiest day of my life.

The Mr. took me out to celebrate my 24th birthday (which was actually 7/6/07) at this amazing restaurant near where I lived in Manhattan Beach called Bora Bora (sadly that restaurants has since closed).

We shared an amazing dinner of ceviche, crab-stuffed fillet mignon, and wine. Sadly we didn't take any pictures, but it was such a fun dinner.

After dinner, the sun was setting and the Mr. suggested that they take a walk on the beach in the sweet light. At that point I knew something might be up, so I agreed easily.

While we were walking along picturesque Manhattan Beach at dusk, the Mr. suddenly dropped to one knee and asked, "will you marry me?"

I replied, "OF COURSE!"

We kissed and hugged and I cried. It was perfect – sweet, secluded, and very "us."

Then suddenly in the distance, near Santa Monica, fireworks started going off. We joked that they were for us and stayed on the beach until it was totally dark.

We then went back to my apartment, took a few pictures, and called our families.

Here's the pictures from about 45 minutes after the proposal...



After the proposal I asked the Mr. a million questions and found out that he'd talked to my Dad already (which made me cry) and that he had been in possession of the custom-designed engagement ring that he handled 100% on his own for almost a month.

Here's a close-up of my ring:


I love my ring because it's unique, and because the love of my life chose it just for me without any input!

I remember for weeks and even months after he gave it to me, just staring down at my hand thinking, "OH MY GOSH! I'm ENGAGED!!! YAY!!!"

I can't wait to read the rest of the proposal stories on Kelly's Korner!

Europe Trip 2010, Part 5: More Venice

On our second day in Venice we got up early and went straight to St. Mark's plaza (Piazza San Marco) to do the church and museum.



We stood in line for the basilica and after about 1/2 hr of waiting for it to open they let us in. Wow, what an incredible church! The domes, the mosaics, the art. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!



The church is free to enter -- but then you pay money to see each "attraction" in it. We paid for all of them -- the treasury, the alter, and the museum. But my advice would be to just pay for the museum part. The gold and jeweled alter is cool, but not worth the money to see. And the treasury is mainly relics, which aren't really my cup of tea. The best part is the museum which allows you to go upstairs both inside and outside of the church and shows more history, art, mosaics, and more.

Here's some pictures that I took on the "outside" part of the museum...




We spent about two hours in St. Mark's and then took the water bus back to Rialto to get food.


We used the "gelato index" to get some cheap lunch and delicious gelato.


Then we set out on what was quite possibly the longest walk across Venice ever, but it was so much fun!

Guided by my Eyewitness Travel book we walked from Rialto to San Polo to Dorsoduro to the main channel to the mouth of the grand canal by Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.

First major attraction we hit was the went to the old church, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Built in medevil times and filled with all kinds of beautiful art (Titian, Donotello, Bellini, etc.)


Then we walked all of the adorable canals in San Polo and Dorsoduro. I went totally tourist and took a million pictures, but I seriously could. Not. Stop.


I think at this point the Mr. said "NO MORE pictures in front of canals!"


On our journey we spotted some really cool stuff. Like this mask shop the supplied the masks for the movie "Eyes Wide Shut."


And a gondola repair shop (Venice's version of an auto body shop, ha!).


In these less touristy areas we found much cheaper wines, cheeses, and gelatos than we'd seen anywhere else, so we stopped a lot to nosh. Like at this little wine bar.


We ended up on the main channel which was really cool to see too. Lots of bigger boats and more giant old buildings.


We ended up at Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the grand canal.


Salute was built in the 1600s as a votive offering for the city's deliverance from the plague. It was free to enter, so we did.

It's a gorgeous Byzantine-style church.


I call this picture "Pre-Feminism" -- the two statues depict a nun hugging a cross and a mom hugging a baby -- basically saying that women have two choices, motherhood or church service. I love it!


Also the view outside of Salute is spectacular.


And there's our hotel! The Westin Europa & Regina.


Exhausted we walked back to our hotel for a quick rest and clothes change. Did I mention that Venice was really hot? It was.

Then we ended the day by touring the amazing Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale di Venezia) - which is, in fact, open into the evening in the summer (despite what our dumb concierge told us).


We spent over two hrs looking at all of the the massive rooms and beautiful art. The ceilings in particular are gorgeous.


Oh and the views from inside of the palace aren't too bad either. I could live there. I'm just sayin'.


Touring the palace, it was apparent what a power house Venice was in it's hay day. So much wealth and prestige. Being a bit of a history geek, I loved reading all of the history of Venice. An interesting note is that after Venice was on the decline, Napoleon invaded it and stole a lot of Venetian art, which partly explains why France still has such an amazing art collection.

The Mr. really liked seeing the old "Council of 10" weaponry and the prisons attached to palace. Actually we both really enjoyed the prisons.



One final note on Venice: I know a lot people don't like Venice because it's super touristy, and while yes, it is a tourist mecca, we really loved it! (Just follow the "gelato index" and avoid menus in 5 languages). It's gorgeous and romantic. And it's like taking a step back in time to the 1500s. It's crazy to think Venice was a world power back then, but now the city is pretty much 100% supported by tourism -- kind of a Disneyland with real history behind every canal, palace, and plaza. I'm glad that even though the proverbial "Merchant of Venice" is long gone, that tourism can keep Venice alive.

Next up? Florence!

Just joining the Europe recaps? See them all here.

Europe Trip 2010, Part 4: Venice (the first half)

We arrived in Venice after 9 insane hours on the night train from Munich to Venice and this is what we saw...

Bellissima!

Why, you ask, was the night train so bad?
Let me count the ways... First we couldn't get a private cabin, so we stayed awake waiting for our cabin mates to board the train at the next stop after us. They turned out to be two young Indian guys who slept the entire time, so they were fine. Second the train rolled and bounced around a lot and was super hot and loud, so we were in and out of sleep a lot in the night. Finally, in Verona at about 4:00 AM the train came to a stop. We could hear someone walking around in the car and the suddenly our door slides open very quietly and slowly. We had locked it with the chain, so it only went a couple inches. Then the person stuck their hand way inside, and was feeling around for anything to grab. It was a thief! I yelled "hey" and kicked the door. The angry would-be looter kicked back and then walked away. But after that we were WIDE awake, traumatized from almost being robbed. Thank goodness our door was locked! Anyway, enough complaining, on to the good stuff!

We arrived at the Venice train station tired, hungry, and gross from the train, but 100% excited to be there. We bought tickets for a water bus (the only water bus tickets we bought the whole time because they never check them) and got on a water bus down the grand canal.


It was early in the morning, so the quiet canal was spectacular. It felt like a movie set or a dream (maybe because we were so tired). We got off the water bus at the San Marco stop and navigated the tiny streets to our hotel using directions I found on Trip Adviser (life saver). Then after tons of tiny turns, there it was!



We checked in to the hotel, but found out our room would not be ready until 2:00 PM. Boo! So we freshened up in the lobby bathroom, left our bags with the concierge, and set out to Venice by foot.

We got come cappuccino and sweet rolls for breakfast, and then wandered over the Accademia Bridge.


We saw that the Accademia Museum was open, so we decided to check it out. The museum was really interesting -- famous artists included Titian, da Vinci, Carpaccio, and many more. However, the art we later saw in Florence and Rome blew the Accademia away. But since this was our first Italian art museum we enjoyed it a lot.

We left the museum and suddenly Venice had come alive! Tons of tourists were out and about (many from the cruise ships in port). So we got back on the water bus with them and headed to Rialto.

As we cruised down the grand canal I continued to take 100s of pictures of the amazing old palaces.


We walked across the famous Rialto bridge and took the obligatory pictures along with the 1000s of other tourists.


The Rialto neighborhood had tons of shopping and lots of overpriced food. We quickly learned that you should not eat at any restaurant that has a menu translated into 5 languages.


However, about a five minutes walk north of the Rialto bridge we found a some adorable small streets.


And on these more "off the tourist path" streets we found inexpensive food and cheap bottled water.

Look how excited I was about my water!


Also, near Rialto The Mr. and I and developed something that served us well throughout our stay in Italy. We called it “the gelato index.” It works like this... if you see gelato for sale for more than 1.90 euros per scoop, then you're in a pricey neighborhood, so you should not buy food (or gelato) in that neighborhood. It really works! Note: the cheapest gelato we found in Italy was 1.30 per scoop!

So we bought some gelato and brought it back to the banks of the grand canal to enjoy. There is a great place to sit on some steps near the Rialto bridge.


We loved just sitting there people and boat watching.

(Note: If we look a little rough in these pictures, remember that we had not showered and had only had about 4 hours of sleep total).

We then wandered back toward the hotel. We contemplated doing a gondola ride, but we just couldn't justify spending 60 Euros for what seemed like a 20-minute Disneyland ride. But hey, that's just us!

Look how packed the gondolas were in this canal. Not romantic if you ask me. If we had done a gondola ride we definitely would have tried to find one off the beaten path.


We checked into our hotel and upgraded us to a sweet suite! All that traveling that I do for work really paid off in Europe because not only did we use Starwood Points to pay for most of our hotels, we also got some upgrades!

After we took showers The Mr. went to get dressed and he couldn't find any of his clean underwear, socks, or undershirts. We suddenly realized that he'd left ALL of it in a drawer in our hotel in Munich! Ahhh! We called Munich and had them ship the clothes to Rome and made plans to do laundry in Florence. Then I set out across Venice to try to find The Mr. some underclothes, which is not an easy task since Venice shopping is mainly Gucci, Armani, D&G, and Prada. I did finally find some underclothes that were moderately priced after walking a looong way.

So 30 euros and a lot of stress later, The Mr. and I got dressed for a nice dinner on the town.



In the lobby of the Westin I ran into some actors dressed as 15th century Venetians for some party. So of course I took a picture with them.



Earlier in the day we had done some research on Trip Adviser for where to eat dinner, and found a good looking place in a plaza not too far from our hotel, called A Beccafico. We knew that just picking a random restaurant in St. Marks would ensure that we got expensive, rip-off, low quality food.

A Beccafico was amazing! The waiters loved us and kept bringing us dishes, like bruschetta "on the house" and even gave us free limoncello.


The food we ordered was delicious! We feasted on prosciutto with melon, caprice salad, and risotto del mare. The seafood was super fresh! We enjoyed our food with regional white wine and capped off the meal with yummy cannoli. Definitely one of the best nights in Europe.


Next up? More Venezia! I just couldn't squeeze it in one post.

Just joining the Europe recaps? See them all here.