The Last Supper and Post

Julie at St. Marks Square

Venice Beach

Our Gondolier

On our Gondola Ride

The Last Supper
Today really topped off our Italian adventure. We took a morning train out of Venice into Milan. After checking into the hotel we took the subway to Santa Maria Della Grazie. The church where the Da Vinci painting, The Last Supper, survived a 1943 Bombing in WWII. This masterpiece is absolutely breath taking. It spans the entire width of the wall and is probably 15 to 20 feet tall. To protect this work of art they only allow groups of 20 people at a time for 15 minute intervals in a climate controlled room....no pics are allowed. So that is it for our time in Italy. We appreciate your time checking out our blog and for keeping up with our trip. We fly out of Milan tomorrow at 10:45a which will put us back in Abilene some time around Midnight. (We gain 7 hours) Here are a few more pics....

Venice

We had a great day in Venice. We slept in for the first time our whole trip and got a late start and went to the beach which was fabulous. After a few hours at the beach we came back to the hotel to get cleaned up for the Gondola Serenade. The Golonda ride was just as you see it in the movies...spectacular!! We catch an early train tomorrow to Milan where we will see the "Last Supper" painting which, by the way, is painted on a wall above a doorway in a church...Santa Maria Della Grazie. One night in Milan and we will be heading home.

More pics

Just took this pic outside of our hotel in Venice

436 Steps up the Duomo Cathedral...the view made it worth it.

Hold it up!!!

Tower of Pisa

So we ended Florence this morning after climing 436 steps to the top of the Duomo cathedral yesterday and spending a couple of hours at the Uffizi museum this morning. What a trip!! Now we are in Venice just hanging out after dinner and absolutely loving it! We dont really have anything planned for the next two days just relax and take it easy... Check out some new pics of Italy.

Since Last we spoke

Alot has happened since we last got to update this. We have spent the last day and a half touring Florence and Pisa. We got to see the statue of David and go to most of the major churches in Florence and they were just amazing. We are up to about 380 pics with 5 days yet to go...we are camera happy. This morning was Pisa. It was very cool...more than just the leaning tower although it was cool as well. It has great people, great hot dogs, believe it or not, and a very cool Baptistry for the church that is close to 1,000 years old. What an experience this has been so far. We head off to see the ufizi (sp?) museum in the morning here in Florence. Then we board an afternoon train to Venice and begin our two night stay there.

love
Gary & Julie

Pics From Rome

US in front of St. Peters Basilica

One of Julie with Laacoon Roman Marble Sculpture

St. Peters Square

Pantheon

Inside the Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

First look at the Roman Colosseum

Awe inspiring

I teared up as I stared at Michelangelo's masterpiece in the Sistine chapel. Everything we see is beyond words. From Egyptian mummies and artifacts, to roman Marbel sculpture and Raphael's room full of frescos. We have yet to venture into St. Peter's basilica, but the square is GRAND. We are on our way to the ancient pantheon and will tour s. Peters when the line isn't an hour long. We keep wishing we could stay and stare at these things forever, but realize we still have many more things to see. Ciao!
- Julie

No pics yet

So through just 10 hours of touring Rome we have 168 pics. However we are not able to post any to the blog from the iPod but we are going to try to find an internet cafe and get some posted on here. Additionally please excuse any wrong spelling or gramatical errors.... We are posting to the blog from an iPod and while we are glad to have it with us it makes typing a little tough.

When in Rome

When in Rome the first thing you have to do is get there. That was quite a plane ride. We flew from DFW to ohair and then on to Rome. We were in the air a total of 11 1/2 hours, watched the sun set and rise within just a few short hours of each other, and make several unsucessful attempts to sleep on the plane. We haven't slept since Wednesday night and we are wore plum out. We had a great first day in Rome. We saw the Roman colosseum, all of the roman forum, palentine hill, trajan's market, and capital hill. All of this without a tour guide in five hours. Julie has done impecable research and it has paid off. We are going turn in a little early tonight and we will be hitting the ground running in the morning with the Vatican stuff. Stand by!!!
ARRIVEDERCI!!!!!

Picture Me Rollin'

Well...its 6:35am and Julie and I are getting our stuff together to leave while Avery continues to sleep off a big day yesterday. Grandmama came in last night and she will be taking him back to her house today. We've got a long one ahead of us today. Amanda of "Doug and Amanda", rented us a car this morning so we don't have to worry about parking at the airport for 10 days. This will be much cheaper...Thanks Amanda!! We fly out of DFW @ 1:30 cst to Chicago. We have about an hour layover and then we fly to Rome @ around 5:00p cst. We land in Rome at 9:00am tomorrow. They are 7 hours ahead of cst. Our goal is to buy our buss passes as soon as we get into Rome and then head to the hotel. Assuming they won't let us check in that early, we hope to leave our bags at the hotel, get a bite to eat, and get started exploring.
The title for this post comes from the title of a masterpiece written by a great American poet and wordsmith... Tupac Shakur.

Almost Time ~

Well...it is almost time. Today we are finishing up the "before we leave" list which has become quite lengthy. We have all of our travel documents in order and Julie has already purchased the tickets to the majority of the places that we will be going. As you guys know...Avery will be "sitting this one out." So, thanks to Grand mama and Grandpa & Nonni and Bumpas for the child care. Julie is a little apprehensive about leaving Avery for 10 days but she knows we are leaving him in great hands..... Stay Tuned!!