The Most Modern City of Italy...

...Milan.

Before we arrived in Milan, Italy we made a pit stop in Genova, Italy.  This was another quick stop, but this time it wasn't to see any sites...it was just so we could save mega-money on train fare.  We walked around for a bit, and then went to a local pub to have a few beers before our next train ride.  Hard to believe we started in Siena, then Pisa, then Genova....then to Milan.

I had only heard things about Milan and never really looked into pictures and whatnot so I was surprised to get off the train to see skyscrapers. When we got off the train from Pisa we noticed how big the train station was as well.  It looked like Grand Central in NYC. We found our hotel and grabbed a quick dinner as we were tired from all the train rides, and knew we would have another day of traveling tomorrow.

Doesn't look like Italy compared to our other Italian visits, does it?

We woke up early, and had a great breakfast.  We were pretty bummed to find out a few of the big attractions were closed on Mondays.  The castle and the building that held The Last Supper painting were closed.  Timing was not our friend.  We walked toward the city centre, and first stopped at the Sforza Castle just to take a few pictures of the exterior since we were unable to go inside.  Luck was on our side, as the castle was open and we were able to walk through it.  My favorite part was all of the stray cats that were in the moat area.  Now it is all grass...don't worry they weren't drowning.  I think at one point Jeff counted up to 8 cats, but I know there were more as we continued to walk inside/outside the castle. The cats made me laugh because in Siena I was telling Jeff about this staircase I went down that had cats all over it when I studied abroad.  I swore I saw one in another spot...I think Jeff just thought I was being a crazy-cat lady for a while. I was super excited to show him...there are actually stray cats in Italy! Inside the castle grounds was large and pretty although we didn't go inside to see rooms like we have in other castles.

 Entrance to the castle

 Inside of the castle

Just a few of the cats!

Next on our list was the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral). Once again, only pictures from the exterior.  The inside was pretty, and pretty busy.  This was the only other experience we have had that you had to go through security to visit a church other than St. Peter's (The Vatican), which I found interesting. Afterwards we headed towards the shopping.  The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the oldest shopping malls in the world.  It is four stories high, and filled with luxury retailers.  We obviously didn't buy anything during our time in the mall, but it was beautiful and very fancy.  We then headed to a street with more couture shopping. Again, no purchases.

 Beautiful cathedral in Milan's city centre

Last selfie of the trip

Inside the fancy shopping area. 

Our trip then was on its final leg of the journey.  We headed to buy our bus tickets, grab a quick lunch, and check out of the hotel. We traveled about an hour via bus to get to the airport, 1.5 hour flight home, and another 1 hour bus ride back to Nottingham all in a day's worth of traveling. We were happy to see Mackey, as I think he was happy to see us as well.  That is definitely the longest we have left him without anyone checking on him...made me a little nervous, but he did just fine!

Now we are back to our normal daily lives.  Jeff received a promotion at work a few weeks ago, so he has been working a lot more to get caught up from what he missed while we were away. I'm catching up on my graduate courses and making plans to see friends I haven't in a while. So everything is back to normal, and going just wonderfully!

Onto the next adventure...

Pisa, Can we Climb the Leaning Tower?

Hopefully, you got my corny joke?...Anyone? 

Pisa was next on our list, and we were only planning on staying there for a few hours.  Our goal was to see a little of the city and climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Like I mentioned in my last post, I had visited Pisa before but I was unable to climb the tower because we didn't have tickets.  Jeff and I made sure we got tickets this round.

We had about 45 minutes before we could climb the tower.  We visited the church nearby, and took some pictures of the other buildings and of course, the tower.  So, as I had read on the tickets I was not allowed to bring my bag into the tower for safety reasons.  They mentioned there would be a cloak room available, so I just assumed it was inside the tower. Wrong!  After we had walked around, and then stood in line for 10 minutes a man told me I needed to get out of line and put my bag in the cloak room across the lawn.  Just my luck, a huge tour group cut in front of me in line and I had to wait over 15 minutes to give them my bag.  I was freaking out, given our tickets said that we had to be on time, or they wouldn't let us go up.  The tickets were not cheap...

 It is actually difficult to take pictures of the tower as you want to naturally "correct" the lean.  This was one of our better shots.  

The tower!

Luckily, we went on the 12:00 tour, and they let us go up with no problems.  We kept going 'round and 'round to get to the top.  You could definitely feel the lean of the building when you were walking up, and especially at times at the top.  Although, there was a fence that surrounded the area, it still made me feel a little uneasy as I felt I was going to slide off the top.  I did not.  Jeff and I took a few pictures, and enjoyed our time at the top by sitting on the steps.

 Beautiful weather and views!

 "Do not touch the bells"

We made it!

We headed back down, and walked towards the train station as it was already time to go to our next destination.  We knew this was not going to be a spot that we were planning on spending much time.  We enjoyed our visit, and were very happy that we could check "Climbing the Leaning Tower" off of our bucket lists.

Onto the next adventure...

My Ol' Stompin' Grounds

Siena, Italy was next on our list after Bologna.  We traveled by train to get there.  Not only is this the town I spent a month studying abroad, but it is also one of the most "Italian" cities you can visit.  Since it is in Tuscany, it and the area surrounding Siena is just gorgeous.  Small, quaint, and now....highly touristy town.

On the train! 

A little background, so some of the photographs below don't confuse you... I spent a month in Siena studying abroad learning Italian Sign Language (I also took Italian & a deaf culture course).  The program was discussed in one of my American Sign Language classes, so I begged my parents to send me on it that upcoming summer.  I went to classes 4.5 days a week (all day), and then was able to travel on the weekends (Pisa, Florence, Rome).  I stayed with a local family, who treated my friend and I amazingly.  We had a great experience, and I wished I had still kept in contact with them.

Now onto the good stuff...

We dropped our luggage off at the hotel, and began our exploration.  We walked a little around the city, but then sat down to enjoy the Piazza del Campo, which is a large area where there are shops, restaurants, and the large tower, Torre del Mangia.  We grabbed a couple slices of pizza.  Jeff tried a tuna slice, which smelled awful, but he seemed to eat it all. Gross. We ate our pizzas in the piazza and then got tickets to climb the tower. Jeff and I had about 45 minutes until we could climb the tower, so I decided to walk him down the street to the flat I stayed in while living in Siena.

 Hanging out in the piazza

I stayed in the flat with the shutters open. 

We then climbed the tower.  This was one item that I didn't do during my time in Siena. I'm not sure why, but Jeff and I enjoyed the climb as well as the view.  The tower was not nearly as scary as the one in Bologna, but there were a few times when the look down freaked you out a bit.

 One of the views from the top!

We walked to the Siena Cathedral, which always reminds me of the snake scene in Beetlejuice.  Take a look at the pictures below, and you'll see what I mean.  We walked around in side for a while, and then walked on through the city.  We ended up walking to the Siena School for Liberal Arts where I went to school, but quickly found out that it was closed.  It was a complete shock and bummer to see the garden area all grown out and the trees non-trimmed.  From the last I heard it was still a functioning school, so I just assumed they moved.  Sidenote: They did move locations, I looked it up when we came home. 

 Siena Cathedral

Inside the cathedral

In front of the school

Jeff and I walked up the Fortezza Medicea (fortress).  It has some great views of Siena, and we enjoyed sitting down in the amphitheater and taking it all in.  I wished the timing would have worked out as they have cinemas in the fortress during the summer.

 View from the fortress

View from the amphitheater

We headed back to the hotel to find out that they had overbooked...and we couldn't stay there.  Looking back, we probably should have fought it more considering we were there 3 hours earlier and our room was not ready.  The look on their faces when we gave them our luggage tags was priceless, as they knew they screwed up. They set us up in another hotel, which had an even better view. It was more quaint as it only had 8 rooms.

View from our hotel balcony

Next on the agenda was to go back to the piazza where there was an festival going on.  There were a couple bands that would walk around the city playing energetic music.  There were tents set up in the area and were promoting their candidacy for the Capital of Culture in Europe.  Not exactly sure what it means, but I'm guessing if Siena is selected that means...more tourists. I think it will eventually lose its small-city feel.  We sat in the piazza drinking wine and people watching.

We ended up back at the hotel to drink the rest of our wine and enjoy our beautiful balcony view.  We sat there talking for hours, and grabbed a quick dinner...one of my favorites might I add.  It was this little local food stand.  Jeff got some sort of keebab "hotdog" and I got a falafel loaded with all kinds of goodies.  We woke up early, missed the amazing breakfast spread our cute little hotel had sat out and started our next journey on the train.

Night time shot from our hotel balcony with a couple glasses of wine

Onto the next adventure...

More Pasta, More Pizza, More Beer/Wine, and More Florence!

After a quick train ride, we made our way to Florence, Italy.  I was really excited to head here, as I came here with some of my study abroad friends about oh, six years ago.  We got into Florence in the evening (I think...timing is starting to blur together).  Our hotel was one of our favorites, as it was near the train station, had a balcony with a great view, and great breakfast.

 You can see the Florence Cathedral and a few more churches from our balcony!

Panoramic view from our room. 

We walked around the city, took a few photos, and headed straight to Piazzale Michelangelo, which was where one of the replicas of The David stood.  I remembered this area during my time there with friends because we were lost for a long time, and all of a sudden there was this amazing view and The David was lit up.  It totally changed all of our moods.  So I knew I wanted to take Jeff back to that spot as it was breathtaking at night.

 Sunset at the Piazza 

One of the replicas of The David

Getting good use out of the self-timer...although we normally look pretty odd to people passing by: "Why are they smiling at that post?"

We were able to enjoy the scenery, then walk back towards the city centre for dinner.  On our way back down we kept hearing some popular music being played in a small park area.  We decided to check it out.  A young woman and man were playing/singing on a small stage. The audience was drinking, eating, and enjoying themselves at these quaint tables in this park.  We grabbed a couple beers and enjoyed the music. Jeff and I were enjoying ourselves so much that we sat their for an hour or two (or more?).  Shocker...I was losing track of time. Anyway, this ended up being one of our favorite times in Florence because it was relaxed and we could slow down the tourist mode we get into sometimes.  Afterwards, we grabbed a quick dinner (sandwiches & pizza) and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning, Jeff had tickets to see the real David.  I decided to not "waste" the money, as I had already seen the massive statue.  I walked around, stopped in shops, and enjoyed the city while he went in there for about 30 minutes.  Jeff said he enjoyed himself, and was surprised that you could take photos.  I had told him that I was not able to take pictures when I went there 6 years ago, and now apparently you can.  So no pictures of the both of us, but Jeff got a few selfies with The David.

 Over 13 feet tall. 

Jeff's selfie with David

We decided to head to The Florence Cathedral.  It was a free entrance fee and extremely crowded.  Although it was absolutely beautiful, our experience wasn't the best as there were people everywhere.  You were dodging people, and trying to take pictures at the same time.  Jeff opted out of climbing the duomo, and I had already done it before.

Beautiful!

We decided to head to the market so I could do some shopping next! I had my eye on a new bag...surprised, anyone? and a maroon scarf that I had been looking for locally.  I ended up with a brown multifunctional leather bag and a maroon scarf.  I was pretty pleased with my purchases and got the prices down pretty low. Wahoo! 

[No pictures here...but I'm sure you'll see them make their debut in future posts!]

Next on our agenda was visiting a plaza area, grabbing lunch, and heading to yet another church.  Lunch was one of my favorites during our time in Italy.  I had a potato filled tortellini with meat sauce, and Jeff enjoyed a penne dish.  We also enjoyed a bottle of wine, which it and the rest of the food came from a local farm.  We really enjoyed that experience as it was a quaint place with great food.  We found the 2nd replica of The David in the Piazza della Signoria as well as a statue of Zeus or it might have been Hercules. We just went with Zeus...

 Another replica of The David

 Spending time in this busy square

Zeus or Hercules? We are overruling and saying Zeus!

We went into our last church in Florence, Basilica of Santa Croce.  It was beautiful, as they all are in their own ways.  We especially enjoyed the courtyard area.  Jeff and I sat down and enjoyed the area and the beautiful day.

 Basilica of Santa Croce

 Pretty impressive entrance, right?

The courtyard area

We headed all the way back towards our hotel to see a fortress called Fortress da Basso.  At the time, we thought this was the "fort" that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married at...now looking into it. Not the same fort. Whoops! It was a good thing they didn't get married here, because the fortress was not well kept.  We couldn't even enter, so we found a park nearby to enjoy instead.

 Outside of the fortress

 The park near the fortress

We headed to one of the most famous bridges in Florence afterwards, the Ponte Vecchino.  It is most famous because it still has functional shops built into (onto it?) it. What makes it even cooler is that all the shops are expensive jewelry stores.  It is amazing to see it from afar, as you would think the buildings would just fall into the river.  Also, walking through the bridge you don't realize you're going over water...just feels like another street.  We walked over this bridge to see the palace, Pitti Palace, which unfortunately closed about 10 minutes before we got there.  It was so massive, I could only take a picture of the entrance.  Now I have found out that the fortress where Kim and Kayne got married at was right behind this palace. THIS makes more sense now. Mystery solved. We actually saw this fortress, Forte di Belvedere,  from our view at the Piazzale Michelangelo the night before.  [End of tabloid rant]

 The famous bridge, Ponte Vecchino. No jewelry purchase this time. Florence was only meant for me to buy bags and scarves. 

We grabbed dinner on our walk back home, and headed to bed.  We had yet another early day of train rides to get to our next destination....

Onto our next adventure...

Bologna: Home of Jeff's Fraternity

After Venice, we stopped in Bologna, Italy for a few hours. This was on Jeff's "must see" list as his fraternity, Kappa Sigma was founded at the local university in 1400.  We didn't have much on our agenda as we knew we were not spending too much time there.

We walked towards the city centre, and stopped in a building that people were going in.  Because it was so close to the road, we couldn't tell that it was actually a church.  This church was definitely one of our favorites, as you can see why in the picture below.

After the church, Jeff and I found the famous two towers.  Apparently, there used to be many of these towers (many are still around), but these two are by far the largest.  So like any other tower we come in contact to...we climb it.  I can say that this was the scariest climb we have had in our 9 months abroad.  The stairs were made out of wood, and honestly felt as if they were going to come loose off of the building.  Thankfully they did not. The tower had no airflow whatsoever, so we were sweating by the time we got to the top.  The top, like all the other towers, had a great view of the city.  It also gave us a better understanding of where some other "hot spots" were that we could visit next.

 The Towers

 Up we go!

 Wouldn't you be freaked out?

 We (I) may look happy, but I was already panicking about the route down. 

We realized Bologna is a much bigger city than we thought!

We decided to grab some street food...pizza and sandwiches. What else?  We ate in another plaza area, which had the Basilica of San Petronio.  In my book, it had one of the ugliest exteriors of all of the churches we had seen so far.  Once we entered, as you probably expected, was beautiful inside.  We were unable to take pictures, so you are just going to have to take my word for it...or look it up yourself! We did learn that the reason the outside was so "ugly" was because they could not decide on what the outside would look like.  They started building over the brown brick, and would stop.  I'm not sure if it will ever be finished., but can you imagine how impressive it would be if all that marble went to the top!?

You can see how it is uneven and unfinished

We walked around the city, looked around in some shops, local markets, grabbed a few items from the supermarket, and went back to the plaza where we drank our boxed wine.  Big spenders, right?  It reminded me of my time abroad, and I was excited to share that experience with Jeff.  Not the best wine, but we still had fun! We headed back to the train station where we went to our next destination.

 Street filled with local markets, restaurants, and shopping

Boxed wine!

Onto the next adventure...