Venice

Venice is wet, and touristy. However its distinguishing factors from all the other touristy cities were the canals and the glass factories. Now the canals were awesome. They have absolutely NO cars, mopeds, and bikes in the city. There are too many little bridges over the waterways. There would be no way for them to get around. Also, at high tide, the water starts coming over the sidewalks and up thru the drain pipes. Its a little freaky, but I gues the residents are used to it.

Ahhh, Florence

Florence has to be one of my favorite cities on this trip. First off the camp ground. We stayed at a campground right outside the city, on the hills overlooking the valley. We had a wonderful view of the river, church, and the hills beyond.
The city itself was also just very relaxing. There was no fear of being mauled by large ammounts of traffic running thru the city. It was very well preserved and the streets were narrow and meandering. Every now and then we'd stumble upon a church, piazza, or other random point of interest.
For 4 days everyone hung around the campground, wandered into the city, and just relaxed and was thankful we were out of Naples. Whew.
One point of interest- the Domo. We believe that this roughly translates into "domed church". Every city has a Domo which is different than a cathedral. This was a large church that was made with pink and green stone striped. It was very unique looking and very pastel.
Every evening we congregated at one of the picnic tables and had dinner. We stayed there playing cards for up to 6hrs each night. It was nice to be able to relax outdoors, when the temperature droped into the low 70s. Ok, i guess it was relatively relaxing because the rest of the camp decided to congregate there and watch football(soccer) every night. They would remain there all evening and well into the early morning hours, drinking. Good thing out tents were far away from the clamour.

Napoli

Well Naples, as it is more commonly known, is not cool. We arrived late at night and had to wander the streets for over an hour before we found the hostel. It was dirty, smelly, all under construction, and shady back alleys leading off of the main roads. Once we found the hostel it was alright, but the city itself was just not a nice place to visit. After catching up on sleep that night, everyone slept in- having no real energy or desire to explore the city. Katy and I went out in the morning and got some food. Around 2 everyone went out to do some looking around to see if there was actually anything TOO see. I stayed back and read and journaled. It was a nice relaxing day. Oh yeah, Naples was really hot too. When they returned we got dinner- 3 pizzas for 3€ each. The little pizza joint was the only saving factor of the town. The people there were increibly friendly and helpful. They didnt speak english and we all tried to figure out pizza ingredients. Pizzas were awesome. We would visit again.
Day 2 in Naples was the island of Ischa. I believe this is the correct spelling, anyway, its atleast phoenetic. It took an hour and a half on an incredibly overcrowded ferry to get there. The island was more of a resort town, but it was pretty nice. It was nicer than Naples anyway. We went to one of the beaches and just layed out in the sun for a while. Good day, not great. Oh yeah, we also got more pizzas for the pizza place for dinner. This time we all got our own and had our pictures taken with the guy making them.
Day 3.
Pompeii. This was also cool. Pompeii was a ways out of Naples so it was a little less shady. The site was basically just an acient town that had been hit by a volcano. I dont know how else to explain it. The layout of the town was still entact, and we just walked up and down all the streets looking at all the ruins of buildings, walls, shops, and paths. There was a colloseum, cemetary, and forum as well. Aside from being incredibly hot, it was really cool to see. The icing on the cake though were the bodies covered in ash. They were preserved as they fell, and still had expressions on their faces, clenched hands and outlines of the clothes that they wore. Weird. In the afternoon we left for Florence.

Roma!

Well, Rome is Rome. Its incredibly buisy here. We have soooo much to see and do, we could spend a week or a month here. We met up with Katy(our Kiwi) and Robyn today. So far we've seen a whole plethora of random acient buildings, churches, parks, and really neat ruins. When I figure out the names of all of them, I'll post them. Tomorrow its to acient Rome and the Vatican after that!

Cinque Terre

This has to be the best and worst of the trip so far. Lisa and I didn't have accomodation so we had to get a new place each night. This ranged from a 1 star hotel, to a room with an ocean view, to a hostel high in the town hills. However the plus sides were hiking from town to town along a coastal path with awesome vies of the villages. We also met a group of Aussies and Kiwis and hung out with them for a while.
Let me backtrack and explain Cinque Terre. Its a national park that contains 5 costal towns. They're all cramed in between the mountains and the ocean. Everything is so compact and beautiful, we didn't want to leave. Each town has a beach or swimming area. This ranges from sandy beaches to rock outcroppings to dive off. Overall, the place is picturesque and definately on the "places to return to" list for my next Italy trip.

Milan

Hm, Milan..... We weren't too thrilled with Milan. Its a very businessy city with not a lot to see or do. We however did visit a monistary right outside the city and that was awesome. It made the trip worth it.

San Sebastian

San Sebastian is a small costal city on the Spain-France border on the west coast. It's relly scenic, small, and has some awesome beaches. Lisa and I camped outside of town and had an awesome scenic bus ride there and back every day.

Paris

I'll update each post as I have time. For now, I'm just posting the major cities and a brief item of interest until I find cheap internet to write more.

Onward to Bath!!!!

We mucked around London before heading to Bath today. We took the cheap alternative- the bus. I love the city of Bath. Its not tooo touristy, and retains a bit of its Roman influance. The Roman baths are able to be viewed, and the city just has an acient atmosphere to it. Our hostel was about 15 min walk out of the city. I stayed here last time I was in Bath, and knew it was a good one, despite the walk. It it situated at the top of a hill overlooking the city. The sun sets over the town and the hills in the distance, making for an awesome evening. The walk to the hostel is nothing short of impressive either. Along the way, we passed over a river, canal, where there were a series of working locks and canal boats. They are awesome to look at just in themselves. Then up a narrow trail passing several residential neighborhoods. Lastly is a huge open field the opens up into hte entire valley of bath. This is a jaw dropping moment just to see the cathedral tops, the baths, and the river in the valley. Overall the walk itself is a scenic journey..
...more on Bath to come...