Last Picture From Rome

I might post some more pictures later, but here is the official "last" picture from Rome, taken on our last day there. We found a vendor that sold really big beers (they were about 1 litre each), and got someone to take our picture in front of the Colosseum.

Songs We Hear

I'm not sure what the big hits are in North America right now, but here, we keep hearing the same few songs all over the place...on tv, the radio, in shops. Here's a quick list (some of the songs are actually pretty good):

Zero Assoluto - Svegliarsi la Mattina (I like this one)
dEUS - Bad Timing
Muse - Super Massive Black Hole
Orson - No Tomorrow
Pussycat Girls - Don't Cha (ralphi's mix)
Rihanna - S.O.S (Rescue Me) - Darren is in love with her I think
Robbie Williams - Sin Sin Sin
Luciano Ligabue - Ho Messo Vio
Sergio Mendes (ft. The Black Eyed Peas) - Mas Que Nada

Ah, back in Rome.

We've been busy. And without an internet connection. Last time I posted, we were in our hotel room in Murano and had a really crappy wireless connection. (FYI: Murano is the city of glass. Glass makers in Murano apprentice for 15 years before they can go their own way, and in the early history of the city, any glass makers who attempted to leave the island were given two chances: after the first escape attempt, they had all of their equipment taken, and after the second attempt, they were killed. They are pretty crazy with the glass making, but they do some some pretty amazing things made out of glass.) I've uploaded some pictures from Venice/Murano and some of the pics from the Amalfi coast. I mentioned that Venice is the most beautiful city on earth...well...the Costiera Amalfitano is definatly the most beautiful place. It was about 30+ degrees. The coast is a beautiful array of jagged rocks with tree's and lemon gardens (they grow lemons there that are about the size of a football). Each morning, as the fog lifts, it hovers around the tops of the cliffs for a couple hours. Oh, and the bus ride to Amalfi from Salerno was INSANE. At some points of the road, there is only a single lane for traffic, even though there is traffic going both ways. Have you ever seen a hairpin turn? Well thats nothing. This bus driver was taking hairpin turns on the side of the cliff going about 60 kilometers per hour with traffic coming the other way. It took over an hour to go 30 kilometers, and the bus was honking the horn the entire way. It was almost like a roller coaster ride. Anyways, our hotel room at the Hotel Tritone (one of the only 4 star hotels in the area) was awesome. Biggest balcony I've ever seen, and an amazing view. Darren went swimming in the Mediterranian, while I sat on the deck and drank beer (the Italians actually make some pretty decent stuff, just as good as any beer from Canada that I've had). Anyways, here some pics.
Me standing in Piazza San Marco in front of San Marco's Basilica.
The Ala Napoleonica in Piazza San Marco, with the sun shining right at its point. We went to the top of this tower later on to get a good view of the city and the square.
Darren is obsessed with gryphons.
These guys were playing classical music with crystal glasses. The guy on the right was doing the bass and the guy on the left was doing the melody.
The south enterance of the grand canal in Venice.
The Basilica della Salute at the southern tip of the south enterance of the grand canal.
The Basilica's of San Marco's church.
A view of Piazza San Marco from the top of the Ala Napoleonica. Notice the pidgeons all over the place.
I paid 1 euro for a bag of corn and had birds all over me. Some chick yelled something at me about bird flu.
The most famous bridge in Venice - The Rialto bridge on the grand canal.
Another shot of some buildings along the grand canal. We were given wine to drink while on the boat and I'm pretty sure the driver was drunk. There's boats driving all over the place and almost everyone has beer in hand. We drove past some famous buildings along the canal (for example, the house that Richard Wagner lived in until he died).
The town of Amalfi. We didn't get to do much here, because we arrived here late and had to get to our hotel in Praiano, which is 10 kilometers away.
A view of the town of Praiano from our balcony.
Some of the cliffs by our hotel.
Darren on the beach.
View of our hotel from the beach (it was a private beach).
Darren swimming in the sea.
View of the beach.
many people have gardens built on the cliffs in the form of steppes. This garden was full of flowers, herbs, stupid dogs, and a rooster that went cock-a-doodle-do ALL day, every day. You could hear it from miles away.
A view of our hotel room from some random point on the road.
A lemon farm with some cliffs in the background.
Another view of Praiano.

Venice is the most beautiful city on Earth

Its fairly late right now, and I have to get to sleep soon. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Amalfi Coast, so I should get some sleep. But first, I'll give you a quick summary of our day. Took the transit to Piazza San Marco and chillaxed in the sun. Walked around and took lots of pictures. Ate some great food and drank some great drink. Took a boat up the grand canal of Venice. Thinking about leaving this place makes me a sad panda.
Can't upload any pictures right now, I'll try tomorrow (the internet here is REALLY slow). Ciao

PS. SCOTT JERGENSON!!!! I LOVE IT!!!

Oh and Darren says our return flight to Regina is flight number 7192 from Minneapolis on Wednesday May 31st, arriving in Regina at about 10:30pm. Oh wait, he says we're not coming home. K.

More Pics (A Reprise)

I finally finished uploading more pics to imageshack. Here they are:
The Trevi Fountain at night.
Il Vittoriano at night.
The Colosseum at night.
View of the street in front of our Hotel in Turin from our room window.
The Egyptian god Ptah, who they believed created all things using only his tounge.
The first page in the Book of the Dead.
Turin is a major chocolate city. This is my glass of bicerin, which is a hot mix of coffee, dark chocolate, and milk cream. At the side is my giandujotto, which is a paste made out of cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, and hazelnuts.
A view of part of Venice from our taxi to Murano.
A street in Murano which ends abruptly at the sea.
Another view of a street in Murano.

Torino, Venezia

Ciao
We didn't have a net connection in Turin so I didn't upload any pictures. Turin is a really nice place, the Egyptian museum was amazing. Right now we're in our hotel room in Venice (more specifically, the island of Murano). When we got here at 5pm, the sky was so dark with storm clouds that it looked like 10pm, and after our taxi-boat took us to the area of our hotel, it started pouring rain like madness. Then we couldn't figure out where our hotel was cause we didn't have a map so we asked a couple people some general directions and eventually found an elderly Italian man out for a stroll who guided us there and let me walk under his umbrella. We showed up at our hotel dripping wet (my shoes are still drying out and will probably still be damp tomorrow morning). Navigating in Venice is interesting. The most important thing to note on the map is where all the bridges are, because they're the only way to cross the streets. Plus, the ferry/transit/boats change their routes at about 11pm and you have to know where they go or else you are in trouble.
It's kind of strange walking out onto the sidewalk and seeing boats going up and down the street. Venice is the kind of city where you can take a picture from any point and in any direction and it will turn out amazing. Wish you could all see this place.
After getting our room sorted out, we found out where some of the good restaurants are and went to one, and of course, it was awesome. Volpolicella is my new favorite red wine.
Anyways, here's some more pictures (some of my uploads aren't working, I'll post them as they come around):
View of Piazza Dei Popolo from Villa Borghese.
Me standing by a palm tree at Villa Borghese.
A pond in Villa Borghese.
Same pond in Villa Borghese but different angle.

Castles & Churches

So it was about 28 degrees yesterday, and no clouds. It was also the day of our boat cruise up and down the Tiber river. We took a cab down to Ponte Sant'Angelo, where the boat left from (on the west bank of the Tiber).
After the cruise, we went to the top of Castel Sant'Angelo. From the top of the castle, you can get a really nice view of the city. Normally, on street level, you don't have great visibility, because there's so many tree's and tall buildings.
After taking some good pictures of Rome, we went to get some gelato from a good place around there and then hung out at St. Peter's Square again, and this time, noticed the ponente's surrounding the obelisk in the middle of the square.

Me standing on the west bank of the Tiber River, across from Castel Sant'Angelo at Ponte Sant'Angelo.
View of some of the smaller Basilica's of Rome from the terrace on Castel Sant'Angelo.
View of the northwest bank of the Tiber river from the terrace on Castel Sant'Angelo.
The angel atop the Castel Sant'Angelo which the Castle is named after.
The West Ponente at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. There are 12 ponente's blowing towards the obelisk in the centre of the square. The west ponente "blows" straight out of St. Peter's Basilica towards the obelisk

Day of Fountains

Update: Heres a link to a short video that I've uploaded to Google Video. Just a few clips of our day on Capitoline Hill:
Video Link

Yesterday we wandered around on the east side of the Tiber river today, going to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi fountain, and up to the edge of Villa Borghese (where we'll be going tomorrow).
Today is our river cruise, we have to be at the Ponte Sant'Angelo bridge at about 10:30 am for our boat ride up and down the Tiber river.
Anyways, I don't have time to write much this morning, Darren wants to find out the score of the Oilers game.
Il Vittoriano again. This is the spot that our shuttle from the Sheraton stops at in the morning, on Capitoline Hill.
Inside of the Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres (aka. The Pantheon).
My spagetti at lunch.
Bernini's most spectacular fountain "la Fontana dei Fiumi" in the centre of Piazza Navona.
Close up of Darren in front of the fountain.
The Fontana di Trevi.
Me in front of the Trevi Fountain.
Collection of fountains under the Villa Borghese.