European Tour- The Italian Job

You lean one way, I'll lean another.
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The final days of our tour were spent visiting Pisa, Florence, and Venice. The drive from Grund to Pisa was stunning. The countryside was filled with rolling hills covered in vineyards and little villages- it was exactly the way I had always imagined Italy to be.

We stopped in Pisa while on our way to Florence. The city is very beautiful, but you really only need a few hours to see the main sights. It was very strange seeing the leaning tower of Pisa. Even though I've seen so many pictures of it, I had never realized just how tilted it was until I saw it in real life. It is so out of place you almost feel as though it is on its own separate plane with a different sort of gravitational pull. I had to make sure that I was keeping my camera straight as I took a picture of it. The experience was a little bit tainted by the hundreds of tourists all taking the exact same picture (pretending to be holding the tower up). It was hard to go anywhere without walking in front of a camera.

The Angle.
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Florence was also very lovely, though it was raining almost the entire time we were there. We got to see the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers, a chapel where worked Michaelangelo, as well as the famous square that housed David. I was surprised at how large the statue was. I had originally thought him to be life-sized, but he is actually 17 feet tall! It was fascinating to hear our tour guide talk about all of the different powerful families and the feuds that used to go on between them. It made the battle between the Capulets and the Montagues much more realistic. After our tour we had a chance to wander around the city and explore the marketplace.

Basilica of Saint Mary
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Once we were done in Florence we headed over to our final destination- Venice. From all of the movies I've watched and photographs I've seen, I had a very specific idea of what I expected Venice to look like. I was not disappointed in the least. According to our tour guide there are 120 islands and 150 canals that make up the city of Venice. The houses are all former palaces built in the times of Venice's wealth and prosperity. There are gondolas, boats, and bridges everywhere and the water is the most beautiful color of blue. The streets are all very small (and very confusing at times) and will often lead you to a new bridge or square that you hadn't anticipated. We had our tour on the first evening we were there, so we got to walk around the city as the sun went down and the lights came on. The Square of San Marco (the most famous square in Venice) was breathtaking with all of the lights and the wet pavement reflecting them.

This is my friend David.
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Our final day in Venice, and of the tour, we had all to ourselves. The weather was perfect and we spent the entire time roaming the streets, going into shops and taking the water taxi to different islands. On our way to the Rialto Bridge we stopped to get so authentic italian pizza for lunch (it was delicious!). All of the islands that we visited were interesting, my favorite was probably Murano. When we arrived on the island we went to a glass-blowing demonstration. It was much cooler than I expected! We watched the artisan mold the melted glass into a vase, and then take another piece and make it into a cat figurine. We learned that the glass has to be cooled for 24 hours before it can be touched. To demonstrate his point he touch a piece of paper to the cat and the paper burst into flame.