Lisa & Michelle's European Adventure

  A driving force behind my desire to visit Italy has always been the art. There are dozens of world-famous paintings crammed into museums and churches scattered throughout this wonderful Renaissance-obsessed country. At the top of my just-have-to-see-it-before-I-die list is Michelangelo's David sculpture in the Galleria dell'Accademia. Lucky for us, we showed up in Florence just in time for the first Sunday of the month when all the museums offer free entry, and we had already purchased a time-entry ticket for later in the month, so I was able to convince Michelle to stand in line twice so I could spend time with David on two separate occasions. He is truly spectacular... as grand, majestic, and extraordinary as I had ever imagined. Admiring this work of an artistic genius felt sacred, like the feeling I get when walking among the Giant Redwoods in Northern California.  Fun facts: Michelangelo sculpted David between 1501 and 1504. He was 26 years old when he started. David i...

A couple of weeks ago, Lisa's friend-since-high-school Keeley joined us here in Florence and we've had fun walking, exploring, eating, going to museums, playing Monopoly Deal, and drinking wine together. Thanks to Keeley, we went on a guided Tuscan wine tour last weekend. Keeley had to do her laundry and, unimpressed by the machine in our apartment (one machine, which takes 3 hours to wash clothes and then another 4 hours to make said clothes approximately halfway dry), found a laundromat nearby. In the laundromat, Keeley met Max, an American originally from California who has lived in Florence for 22 years. When he isn't cleaning laundromats, Max is a tour guide for a company called Fun In Tuscany. We signed up for their wine tour and Max was our guide. Along with five others (three women from Maryland, in their 50s or 60s, and a couple from London in their 40s), we drove into the Tuscan hills – otherwise known as Chianti country – in a mini-van navigated by a hyper-caffei...

We have now spent about two weeks in Florence, which is exactly how much time we spent in Bologna. That makes this a good time for a special edition blog post comparing our experiences of these two Italian cities. We have invented the following categories and list them in no particular order. Who will win: Bologna, or Florence? 1. Walkability. These are two reasonably-sized cities that are both excellent for walking. In either one, you can pretty much get anywhere on foot, and spend your walk on beautiful narrow cobblestone streets passing by old churches and piazzas and adorable, inviting spots to eat and drink. But Bologna has porticos on almost every single street. The porticos are gorgeous, every one different, and the sidewalks below them are wide. It never seemed as if there was much car traffic in Bologna: many of the downtown streets were closed for pedestrians only on weekends, and there was always lots of room for walking. By contrast, the sidewalks in Florence are, on avera...

On Sunday, Michelle and I spent a few hours exploring the Boboli Gardens (could the name be related to the ready-made pizza crust sold in American supermarkets???). This outdoor space sits behind a huge palace that has been converted into several art museums under one roof (the Palazzo Pitti) . As we wandered through the vast and meticulously designed gardens that were built by the Medici family, I couldn't help but imagine the courting and flirting that must have occurred on the benches around the fountains or next to a particularly romantic sculpture or underneath the trees that formed an almost hidden walkway, ideal for hand holding.  The fountain between the palace and the gardens: A modern sculpture: One of the many not so modern sculptures: A courting pathway right out of Bridgerton: This pathway that felt a little too much like "The Shining." The view from the top. The gardens were built on the side of the hill, so lots of steps conquered for this view: My favorit...

It's our fourth day in Florence or, as they say in Italian, Firenze. Here are a few scattered notes about the city and our experience here so far. Our apartment is on what they call in Europe the fourth floor. In America, it would be called the fifth floor. There are 86 or 89 stairs (Lisa keeps counting, but never gets the same number) between the bottom and here, so we are getting lots of great exercise on top of our long walks around the neighborhood and the city. On the street behind our building is a school, and every weekday we are awakened at 7:50 by children waiting outside for the doors to open at 8:00. It's a rather pleasant sound to which to awake. Our neighborhood is on the opposite side of the Arno River from the city center, which hosts most of the big tourist attractions. Over there, it's Michelangelo and the Medici, the statue of David and that famous painting of Venus, the dome and the cathedral. It's also crowds of people, lines, souvenir shops, and mor...

The last 2+ weeks have truly been, as the title of this blog promised, an adventure. Around every corner there has been something new or different or beautiful. Bologna has been such a great place to explore. And the food... it definitely lived up to the hype.  Still, it hasn't been all perfect... and there is nothing that makes me hate internet/social media content more than the illusion that the life of the person posting is grand/flawless/exceptional 100% of the time. So, to that end, here are my top three gripes about Italy. Starting with #3 – They don't cut their pizza! There are pizzerias on just about every block. And it's quite common for a person to order a pizza and then be expected to eat the whole thing. Two people, two pizzas... you get the idea. They're about the size of a medium-sized pizza in the U.S. We really can't eat that much for most meals, so we'll order a pizza and a salad and then split them. When they bring your pizza, it's supper h...