Italy Part Two

Well…while we were in Florence we decided to take some day trips to some beautiful Tuscan towns. Our first trip was to Pisa and the ever so famous leaning tower. I tried to push it upright again, but I guess that I am too weak. It was a wonderful little town. The square where the tower sits is perfect for picnicking, which is what Cassie and I did. There is grass all over and you can also look at the Cathedral and baptistery. It's a great place but it is also expensive. Because there is only the tower, cathedral, and baptistery to see they charge and arm and a leg to get in (15 euros to climb the tower); we decided to save some money and just walked around. We also took a bus to the Mediterranean Sea since Pisa is really close to it. I was fortunate enough to get a lovely sunburn during our day in Pisa.
The next day we took our second day-trip while in Florence. This time we went to the medieval town of Siena. We didn't have very much time while we were there, which is very sad, but we did have a great time walking around. There is plenty of shopping to do, but my favorite was the Siena Cathedral. This was by far the most impressive building I saw while in Italy (sorry, my pictures didn't do it justice, so they aren't on my blog). The interior has black and white striped marble columns and huge inlayed marble murals on the floors. Their ceilings were covered in a blue night sky with bright gold and yellow stars and moons. The library was filled with color and light. Despite the age of the murals on the walls they looked as though they were just painted. I highly recommend going to Siena, in fact, if I had the chance to go again I would stay at least a night or two there and just wander around and take part in the medieval landscape.
After our five-day stay in Florence we moved on to Venice. It is exactly what you would expect to see from all the movies and pictures of it. Despite the many people going there on vacations you can still find little side streets and plazas that are very quiet (of course, we didn't go there during carnival). There are boats and gondoliers everywhere (and yes, they do wear those cute little hats and striped shirts). Even though our stay there was very enjoyable I would say that it would be much better if you have a significant other to share it with.
Especially at night in the Piazza di San Marco where the cafe's have live music you can dance to in the open night air. We were able to see a live Reggae band outside a bar and were picked up on several Italians offering a ride on a gondola with them, but we graciously declined the offer.

After Venice we headed over to the northern mountainous region of Lake Como on the border of Switzerland. This was by far my favorite spot. Tourists were few and far between, it was a lovely two days of pure relaxation. While there Cassie and I rode a bus to a town 45 minutes north of Como and rented a canoe for 3 hours. Since there were hardly any boats on the lake it was as though we had it all to ourselves. As each hour passed we could hear the cathedrals bells across the many lake villages singing the time. The mountains seemed to emerged directly out of the lake, were speckled with terra cotta rooftops and old gray shepherd cottages, while still revealing the vibrant greens of its wilderness. For our last night in Como we were fortunate enough to experience an exhilarating thunder and lightning storm while playing chess in the hostel commons room. The next morning we awoke to an electric blue sky reflecting off the glassy lake, and then we were off to Milan and home. Italy was an amazing experience, I hope to go there again some day and see many other treasures it has.