France and Italy 2012

We got home from our vacation today. We are glad to be back in our apartment but so sad to leave Europe behind! I have never seen anything like it! Brett was a pro at  getting us on planes, traines, busses, trams and shuttles and saved us a ton a money because of it.   So we had been saving up for this trip for quite some time now and when the decision came to purchase the flights we almost didn't do it... yes we hesitated thinking of all the stuff we could buy with the money... changes are coming our way and probably could find really good use for it.... we said ya know we saved for it and we are gonna do it. Besides we thought this may be our last vacation free and clear of kiddos... who knows... Anyway we flew into Paris last Friday morning around 8:00 am France time of course which is 1:00 am Chicago time... needless to say I had a hard time managing on the train... I wanted so badly to stay awake but just could not do it! We made it to the Eiffel tower and just couldn't move along to the hotel because the tower was to breath taking we had to stop. We grabbed a cheesy ham sandwich that turned out to be not so great and zonked out like back packers right smack dab on the grass at the foot of the tower. We slept with our heads on our carry on bags for about an hour and the feeling we had waking up on that sunny day looking up at the Eiffel tower was too amazing...  We were being so random and spontaneous that I just loved it! we decided to do a bus tour because it was there... we saw everything we wanted to on that bus, and in the mean time caught some sun... I also fell asleep on that tour... yes, I was the girl on the top story of the tour bus drooling on herself near the end of the tour. ha ha!  our hotel was nice and had a great view of the city.  We had to buy conditioner at a pharmacie (French spelling)/ apotheke. and man is that a treasure hunt... We had dinner at an italian restaurant a block away from the tower, I saw people just out jogging or walking their dogs and I really envied that they most likely do that every day in such a beautiful place.

The next day we woke up early and decided to go up inside the Eiffel Tower. We thought that waking up early would help get us ahead of all the other tourist wanting to do the same thing... nope... not the case, the line was still long... but fortunately for us we exercise often and were able to take the much smaller line for the stairs. We wanted to do this because who can say that they climbed the Eiffel Tower??? not many.  so yes, we climbed to the second level in the tower and the rest of the way you had to take elevators.

a little about it from Wikipedia : The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl], nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is a wrought iron^[10] lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of Franceand one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest building in Paris^[11] and the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.

The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-story building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until theChrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. 

At the very tip top of the Eiffel Tower! We climbed 600 stairs and took a six minute elevator ride to get up there! the 600 stairs down was the fun part...

Brett in front of Notre Dam. It was a Beautiful church! Brett kept wanting me to call him the hunch back!

VENICE!

I didn't think it could get better than France but oh yes it could! Italy was AMAZING! It was so awesome to see our friends Cori and Dustin and Italy wouldn't have been half as awesome if they weren't with us showing us all the really awesome parts!  

I didn't know this but people in Venice still wear masks and capes... it reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera...  There are mask shops all over Venice and we wanted one to take home!

The whole city is made from canals and thin corridors! We'd have been completely lost if not for Dustins bearings...  The city was completely amazing, there were all kinds of shops everything you could think of. We had Gillato (Italian ice cream) every single day!  We LOVED the accordion music and people were always playing it!  

Dogis Palace, was too much... we weren't allowed to take photos inside but I managed to sneak a few. This basically was government building and prison. Each room inside this building has incredible detail right down to the tiles on the floor. You could tell which rooms were more important because they'd would have security roaming those ones. 

We were able to go with Cori and Dustin into the top of this bell tower. It was so cold but the view of Venice was worth it! You could see everything and it looked like a huge maze of canals and corridors. I could see were we came from but I had no idea how we got to the bell tower... 

The name of this bridge is the Bridge of Sighs. Were prisoners could have one last glimpse of the outside world before being executed. The history behind Venice is so cool! it's so old!

We didn't have a ride in a gondalier but it was so interesting learning about them. Cori said that the Gondalier people have their own language and that the Gondaliers are only made by certain families and is a craft that is handed down from generation to generation.

Our Vaneshan masks!

In Italy for Easter they make these huge chocolate eggs and give that as an Easter gift. The one Cori is standing buy sells for 260.00 Euro which would be about 300 U.S... about...

Our second day in Italy we wen to Verona. This was a supper ancient arena there which is now used for the Opera. 

Just a few blocks away is the setting where Shakespeare's play  Romeo and Juliet took place.

This was Juliet's Balcony and the Golden statue that the Montegue family promised the Capulets. 

After a hard day of touring Brett found a dooner shop and we all were in heaven! After the delicious dooners... yep you guessed it Gilatto!

This is my longest post ever so I will have to save Germany for another day!

 It was the best trip really and we learned so much! It was so great to see friends and to get to spend so much time together! the mundane working 9-5 rut is good to get out of every once in a while!

Fortunately for me I only have 10 days left at my job!

The post about Germany will be coming soon!