We have really loved writing this blog. It not only kept you all updated on our travels but we can now look back on it and remember each day we spent here. So, thank you for reading and writing back to us and we can’t wait to see everyone on the other side of the pond!

Much love,

J&J

While we are not going to be in the states for the election of the century…we are probably going to party it up all night with the Londoners on the 4th! We may be going to the Democrats society party? So, we will be watching it eagerly with the rest of you! Go Barack! (I had to say it).

Anyways, pray that we make it back safely and hopefully we will find internet to make a final post before leaving Europe, but if not we will be back in Portland late on the 5th! We love you all so much and have enjoyed sharing this experience with you via this blog! Can’t wait to get back and share it with you in person!

Much love,

J&J

We arrived at 10:15am in the nicest train station we have been to yet, Roma Termini, and yes it had a McDonalds, like every train station in Italy (and just a side note, we are yet to see a Starbucks in Italy, I am thinking they are banned). We walked from the train and into the main area and got a map and headed into the wonderful chaos that is Rome.

So far, I am a fan of walking the city we arrive in first to get a feel for what it is like then take what ever mass transit is available. So we decided to walk to Vatican City from the termini and it was a relatively long walk but we really got a chance to take in the city and see how it has evolved from ancient Rome to modern Rome. It is amazing to walk by the pillars that used to hold up their Forums and other buildings now set with the back drop of modern buildings that hold Disney Stores and Gucci shops.

After about 2 hours and passing a huge student protest we made it to St. Peter’s Square. There was a ton of people filling the square and it was all gated off. It was a little confusing as to why things were gated off because so far everything has been pretty obvious, walk around the surroundings, find the line to the museum then go in. But this time we ran into a special guest, the Pope. Apparently, he gives public audiences every Wednesday, we happened to show up on Wednesday just after his talk. So we can now say we saw the Pope as a little white dot on a white car thing amongst a bunch of colorful dots, cool all the same. Once everyone was over the Pope being there we were able to go into St. Peter’s.

Let me tell you, never come here in the Summer to see super tourist hot spots. We are here at the end of October, not really the super high season and this place was packed. What I don’t get is why people can’t form an orderly line, and why the majority of the people in line feel inclined to bump and grind. Jill and I had a large tour behind us and these three people would know when to stop moving forward when they ran into us. It lasted for 30 minutes, which wasn’t as bad as we thought based on how long the line was looking, but I couldn’t stand getting constantly nudged and prodded, I thought I was going to lose it, but since we had just seen the Pope I was feeling pretty calm and forgiving.

Once inside we were blown away with how overwhelming the beauty was of St. Peter’s basilica. It is grand and ornate and huge and despite the enormous amount of people making it hard to appreciate it I would recommend anyone to go see it. In the frenzy of people we forgot to see the tomb of the Popes, which I was pretty bummed about because they have Peter’s tomb down there and that would have been amazing to be so close to. Next time.

After St. Peter’s we went the Vatican Museums. We walked through more security places (there was tons of security…worse than an airport). Then, we walked up to buy our tickets. We got 2 tickets and at first the guys said it was 28, then he looked at us again and gave them to us for 20…still don’t know why. After we got our tickets we walked up to the ticket thing, which we have used a million times, all the underground train places use the same machines, and I proceeded to drop my ticket in the place where it comes out. It dropped in there, and I could feel it slip away into the abyss of the machine and I now shot Jill and I into an awkward scenario. The turn style wouldn’t turn obviously because I had just thrown my ticket away, and so Jill gave me her’s so I could get through and talk to one of the guys to explain how cool I am, and that I just put my ticket in the wrong way. Basically, they eventually let Jill in but not before I managed to create a huge traffic jam of people wanting to get by and totally embarassing Jill, she’s a good sport and let me off the hook sort of, she still laughs uncontrollably when we talk about it. Woops.

I won’t even begin to try and explain the vastness of the Vatican Museums, they have everything from Egyptian art to modern religious art and everything in between. So, we saw a lot of amazing works and got a lot of visual history stuffed into our memories. The big one though was the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing, but not what I had expected. It is essentially a larger rectangular room that has one of the most iconic paintings ever painted on it’s ceiling. It is a very funny experience, because you aren’t allowed to talk or take pictures but everyone talks and takes pictures. The crowd noise starts to rise as new people come in and then one of the guards goes, SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Then a flash goes off and the guards freak out and look around and go NO PICTURES! We actually saw a couple get escorted out because they were video taping. I talked and took pictures, I am a such a rebel:

After the Sistine Chapel Jill and I were exhausted. We left the Museum as fast as we could to find pizza and wine. So far we couldn’t go wrong with Ristorantes, but this one was the worst place we have eaten at since we have been here. We both got pizzas, mine strangely tasted like a quessadilla with hot sauce at times, and to top it off we got a half bottle of their house red. It was a very nice wine presentation when the waiter brought it up, he showed it to us, we frowned because it looked like a Rosè, he said no it’s our house red, he then unscrewed the cheap screw top, dropped this lid on the ground, as he tried to get the cap from the ground he placed the bottle on the table, he dropped the cap again so he resorted to kicking it out into the street. He then filled our mismatched wine glasses and smiled, we smiled, he left and we noticed that we were about to enjoy a fine chilled red wine. But we didn’t care, we were so hungry, we even had Cappucinos after our meal, they tasted like warm milk, yummy!

At this point we didn’t want to walk anymore so we found the over crowded but nice Metro and went off to the Colosseum. It was really amazing to stand out in front of such an old construction. It was surreal at how many people come to visit it as well as thinking that it used to be a place where such horrible things took place. Either way it is an architectural feat and a piece of history. I had really wanted to go to the large Roman Forum, but by the time we got there it was closed but I honestly am not sure if I could have managed walking through it seeing how tired we were. Roma Termini was just a short ways away from the Colosseum so we slowly walked back to the station. We had an hour to kill when we got there so we got some drinks and relaxed. The train ride back was awesome, seeing how I could sleep. Rome was amazing and I need to go back and see the rest of it. It was a major dream come true to walk the former center of the world, and would recommend everyone else go too, just not all at once.

We love you all and can’t wait to see everyone and eat Tracktown pizza and have a couple Jubelales.

<3 Joey and Jill

P.S. Here are our Rome pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608502923652/

Joey and I got to the train early. It was about 2.5 hours to get there by train and we returned the same night. We probably missed some things but I am really glad we have a home base and are just making day trips to places. So, we got to Venice and I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew it was a city with canals instead of roads and boats instead of cars, but it was amazing! Not having to fear for your life as you cross the road or smell the dirty pollution of Florence for a day was magical!

So, we got off the train and Joey put his map reading skills to work. Although Venice is a lot more confusing than other cities he did a really good job. Plus, the city isn’t all that big so it was really managable to walk around.

We decided to head for San Marco’s Basilica first because it is supposed to be breathtaking. It took us a while to get over there but the sights along the way were amazing. The architecture of Venice is totally different from that of Florence or anywhere else we have been thus far. The Venetians are very regal and they use lots of pinks and reds and really elegant lights and decorative bridges and such. So, it is really fun just walking around because it’s almost like stepping into a fairytale. The only problem is that the buildings haven’t been kept up very well so things do look a bit deteriorated.

What I noticed most was all the Carnivale culture…there were tons of stores selling really cool hand-painted masks and blown glass. It was really fun. Then we made it to San Marcos.

This site is seriously breathtaking. I have never seen anything like it. It looks like a really big palace or something that is at the end of this huge plaza. The walls of the plaza are created by these amazing buildings that probably were actually a palace at some point. The Basilica is remarkable. Joey and I went inside to find the most amazing and intricate design. The whole thing sparkled gold with hugely tall ceilings and when you looked closer you could see that it was all tiled in a mosaic way. The detail was amazing and the floor merely reflected the intricacies of the ceiling. It was held up by these huge marble pillars of all different colors. We could have stayed in there for hours just looking at the beauty of it. Who knows how long it took to build but we really don’t see detail like that anymore.

Being in the huge plaza made me feel like I should have been surrounded by 17th century royalty with their big dresses and bright pink feathers in their hair. All of the glass in the lightposts was pink. And then if you looked toward the water you could see another huge palace like structure across the way. It was amazing and I loved every minute of it.

Although, you can’t stay in the fairytale for that long. It isn’t hard to forget that you are a tourist surrounded by hundreds of other tourists. Joey and I were taken aback to see that in the middle of this remarkable plaza there where toursits with bird seed just letting all these pigeons sit on there hands and heads and whatnot. It didn’t seem sanitary or fun to us but to each his own.

After exploring this area and walking through much more of Venice, we were tired. We have been on this trip for 28 days now and though it has been amazing and fun and exciting, it is also exhausting. We walk EVERYWHERE. Our legs ache and my feet are blistered, so we sat next to the grand canal and drank some wine and seriously just relaxed for a few hours. We watched the Gondolas go to and fro and the water buses and taxis. Venice may be the best place to people watch in the world.

Joey and I decided to forego going on a Gondola because they are really expensive, but watching them was just as surreal. Then, tired and ready for bed we got back on the train for the trip home. It was a long ride, especially for Joey who forgot to bring a book and his headphones so he was pretty bored the whole way back. He tried to sleep or watched me read.

Once back I decided that I am ready to be back in the states. We are having a blast here, but being away from home for so long makes you realize how much you love it. I miss my bed and my family and my friends (no particular order). I think it is good that we only have one week left.

Tomorrow we head for Rome, Joey has wanted to go here the whole time so it will be really cool to get to see it. Joey will be sure to take lots of pictures for Timmy.

Here are some pics from Venice…enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608443178992/

We also added more pics of Florence here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608357212433/

We miss and love you all so much and can’t wait to see you in a week! Have a Happy Halloween (what are your costumes???) and we will post again on Thursday!

Much love,

J&J

It’s Sunday in Italy which means that we only have 9 days lefts in Europe! Crazy how time flies! Although, I can say that Joey and I are ready to come home. We are having a blast here in Europe but we miss you all like crazy and are getting antsy to get back to life! But we will miss being over here. I have learned a lot about my new husband since being with him 24/7, like he is an amazing map reader and a really good problem solver and possibly the funniest human being/dancer on the planet!

So, yesterday Joey and I took a day trip over to Pisa to see the famed leaning tower. It was a bit surreal seeing it. It certainly is leaning. It has all these weights and bars attached to it to keep it from falling over, but people were still going up it to see the view from the top. We didn’t make it up though. It was a gorgeous day in Pisa and so we got some gelato and sat in the grass and enjoyed the iconic view.

The tower lies in the same plaza as a Duomo so the whole scene was quite beautiful. The buildings were amazing and there weren’t too many people there…but it probably gets crazy during the summer.

It was actually pretty funny because pretty much all of the other tourists were taking pictures of each other either holding the tower up or pushing it over. Joey and I tried a couple different pics but they didn’t really turn out : ) It is kind of funny to walk around the leaning tower and see all of these people with there arms in the air and the camera person directing them on where to stand.

Turns out, the tower is pretty much the only thing in Pisa. So, after a relaxing hour or so we headed back to Florence. The commuter (domestic) train ride is about an hour (and the train is disgusting). The eurostar trains are pretty nice though. But we miss the straighforward clean trains of Scotland. We actually received our first Italian ticket on the train to Pisa because you are supposed to 1. buy your ticket 2. stamp your ticket on these little, barely visible yellow stampers 3. show your purchased and stamped ticket to the ticket checker on the train. Well, Joey and I bought our ticket, had NO idea we were supposed to stamp it, and got on the train and were subsequently charged €5 each for not stamping the ticket. But, we learned our lesson and got to the stamper thing before our return train left…and of course, no one even checked our ticket this time! Isn’t it ironic.

Well, we better be on our way. I think we are off to Venice (hooray!) tomorrow and Rome on Wednesday then we are headed back to London next Sunday. Pray that we catch our early morning flight from Bergamo!

Here are our pics from Pisa:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608374652726/

We love and miss you all and hope that you all have a happy Halloween!

Much love,

J&J

Our apartementi is in a relatively central location and we have started to get to the know the streets and are starting to get around without a map, which I feel is an act of God. There are some amazing sites to see in Florence that make your head turn everytime you see them. I would say that my favorite building in Florence is their Duomo. Although most Duomo’s have a dome the name actually stands for the whole building itself, I am not sure what makes it a Duomo though. In our pictures from Siena the cathedral looking picture is their Duomo. Florence also has a series of very beautiful bridges that go over the kind of gross looking river that doesn’t move very fast but it is very picturesque despite.

Florence is an incredibly easy city to walk. Jill and I seem to walk the entire city once a day just wandering from one item on the map to the next always finding something new that we hadn’t noticed before. Most of the time we find ourselves wandering to Piazza Signoria, which is one of our favorite places to rest and people watch. It is a very surreal area because you have this huge fortess like structure with a very tall tower and at the base you have the location of the David before it was moved to the museum. They have a replica of the David erected and a replica of Apollo (i think) still standing that are just as incredible. There is also an area called the Loggio (i think i butchered that spelling) that houses a group of about 14 marble and bronze sculptures dating as far back as the 14th century. It is just so strange to sit and eat bread and Nutella while sitting next ancient art all out in the open.

Jill and I also made it up to Piazza Michaelangelo, which is obviously a tribute to their famous artist. What makes the piazza spectacular is that it overlooks all of Florence. Jill and I wandered up there as the sun was setting and it was quite amazing despite being sort of overcast.

We have also sampled pizza and pasta all over the city. It is a little hard to deal with, when every time you get a new pizza it is the best pizza you ever had. But it is a problem I am ok with. We have also really enjoyed the espresso here when we don’t get ripped off. We are starting to figure out what coffee shops to go to and which ones not to, because if you go to the wrong one you will end up paying €4 for an espresso when it should cost €1.

I could go on forever with random details but we can tell you all about the rest of the stuff we are back and in the flesh. Here are a few pictures of Florence, we will post more when we have our other memory card with us:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608357212433/

We love you all and can’t wait to see everyone!

<3 Joey and Jill

So, Joey and I have been in Florence for 3 days now and it is quite the experience. As we said previously, we found an apartment which has been a great releif because we have a place we can cook food and that saves loads of money. We have just kind of been bumbling around Florence except yesterday we took a chance and went on a wine tasting tour to Tuscany.

We went to 3 small medieval villages including the most recognizable name–Siena. It was so amazingly beautiful! Especially coming from Florence which, don’t get me wrong is breathtaking but it is a big city with lots of traffic and funky smells. So, to be able to get away and up into the country with fresh air and calmness…it was a huge blessing!

So, we arrived at the tour office around 8 or so and left in a van with about 9 other people plus our guide, Stefan, and our driver. As we drove through Florence our awesomely funny German guide explained a lot of the history and architecture to us. It was really interesting. Then, as we got further from the city he explained more about the places we were going and the wines we would be drinking and we also learned a lot of olives and olive oil…like ALWAYS use extra virgin!

We arrived at our first stop. This little medieval city atop a hill called San Gimignano. It is a quaint little walled city with amazing views of Tuscany. Here Joey and I got ripped off for some overpriced esspresso…but everything is overpriced so whatever. We walked around the little town and then about an hour later we got back on the van and headed for the next and most important stop.

We then arrived at this little vineyard called San Denato. Here we got straight to business. We headed down to the cellar for lunch and vino. Joey and I filled our plates with olives, cheese, farro salad, procuitto, more cheese, and lots of salads with olive oil. We sat down and filled our then empty wine glasses with Chianti and started in. Pretty soon we had eaten all we could and drank quite a bit of chianti. We then were served 3 different kinds of Grappa and then a desert wine with cantucci (kind of a hard almond biscotti thing.) So, we were having a great time by this point and met some new friends from North Carolina and we headed into another cellar where the winemaker came to talk to us about how the wine is made and how olives are picked and whatnot. We then headed into their little mercado where they sold their own wine and olive oil. Joey and I purchased a little bottle of the chianti reserva. We found out that reserva means aged at least 2 years. So, then we left that cute little vineyard and headed for Siena. We made one other quick stop after this for a capucino or whatever and Joey and I thought it would be a good idea to try an olive fresh from the tree. Not such a good idea. They are disgusting…a flavor there are no words for. So, warning to you all…don’t eat olives from an olive tree.

We walked into Siena and one of the most beautiful plazas we have ever seen. It was huge and very impressive. Here we laid in the sunshine, enjoyed some gelato and chatted with our new friends. It was the most beautiful day and we had the best time. Hands down my favorite day yet!

But, we have posted some pics for y’all to see here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608304270903/

Well we miss you all very much and can’t wait to be back in Oregon to show you all more pics of this amazing trip! We will hopefully be off to Venice, Rome, and Pisa soon and then we head back to London and then back to the states and the land of public bathrooms!

Much love!

J&J

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608230419254/

And tomorrow we are going to be going to the Tuscan country side to do wine tasting! It is a tour that takes us through a couple of towns. We will take loads of pictures and make a post a couple of days after because on Thursday we are planning on going to Venice so we will sort of combine the two trips into one post. We love you all and hope all is well.

<3 Joey and Jill

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608204563185/

Hey everyone! It has been quite the journey so far, but we finally have gotten our feet on the ground in Florence and it is wonderful. We left Dublin at about 5:30pm and arrived in Bergamo at about 9pm or so. We had to get a taxi which costed us a cool €25 which sucks since we drove just 5km. When we walked up to the taxi we startled him because he was watching TV on a little handheld thing and we told him that we wanted to go the Hotel Maxim. He looked puzzled then cracked a grin and said “Ohh, Hotel Maxeeeeem”. Yes, the Hotel Maxeeem. Just in two days we have gotten much better at pronouncing stuff but I am sure we are butchering everything we say still. Anyway, we got in the taxi, and much to our dismay, he mounted the handheld TV to the dashboard and drove us to the Hotel Maxeeeem through tight roadways and fast freeways all while watching Italian TV, it was interesting. We arrived at the hotel and gladly passed out.

The next day we found our way to a bus that we got directions to the day before. We had to walk to this plaza or piazza (there a ton of piazzas, it’s really cool) and buy a bus ticket in advance. We walked past the bus stop at first then made our way back and eventually found it. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the bus, but was actually really fun to people watch. The stop was right by a church and at one point a marching band came out of nowhere leading a procession of people and they walked in the church and the band stopped playing, we have no idea what it was about. Then about 10 minutes later an old man rode up on a bike and started talking to us in Italian. We had no idea what he was saying, and we tried to say in English we don’t know what he was saying. He at one point mentioned La Banda, so we pointed to the church and smiled, he then rode away.

The bus eventually showed up. This bus ride started normal…until we reached The Stop. We came to one random stop and there was literally 40 women standing waiting for the bus. This bus is just like any city bus we see cruising around the states. All of the sudden I was bumping and grinding with a whole lot of 45 year old Italian ladies that were smelling kinda ripe. We had no idea where we were going, had no idea how to stop the bus at the stop we wanted, and no idea how to even comprehend the situation at hand. Thankfully, two super nice ladies talked to us and helped us figure out our stop and told us when to get off at the Bergamo train station.

We took a train from Bergamo to Milan (Milano), then Milan to Florence (Firenze). Sunday is not the best travel day because a lot of things don’t run on the normal schedule and places are closed but we were lucky to find a tourist office open in the stazione. We got hooked up with the Hotel Lombardi and put our stuff down. From there we asked the front desk where to eat and he told us to go somewhere, but we forgot the name as we walked so we found another random ristorante and had some pizza, spaghetti, vino, cafe, gelato, and cheese cake with berries. We were tired and hungry so we kinda went all out.

While we were sitting at the table the place mat had an ad for apartments for rent. That was convenient seeing how we were planning to find an apartment all day today but instead one came to us as we were eating dinner. So fast forward to this morning and we went back to the ristorante and found a guy named Jean (kinda pronounced John, you know like Puff Big Daddy J). He had a tiny apartementi available and was going to give it to us for 60 euro a night, which is fantastic because this is technically still their high season and it’s a €40 a night discount.

So we are now going to take some pics and spend some time wandering until the apartementi is ready, and we will get set up. We are super glad to be in Florence and can’t wait to check out the rest of this amazing country.

And two side notes, one for T Dizzle, I will email you specifically when I get to take some pictures of Rome, and for J Dizzle, the Guiness was remarkable in Dublin, and it does take a while to get your Guiness, they pull the pint about 3 quarters of the way, let the foam go down for a few minutes, then they fill it up and over flow it. I didn’t try the quarter thing because I was too busy drinking the delicious brew. But to tell you the truth, Jill and I found a much better Irish brewery that has one incredible stout.

We love everyone, and can’t wait to see you guys. Thanks for the continuous support and we love reading your comments. Ciao!

<3 Joey and Jill

Dublin grew on us a lot. Irish people are as kind as they come and the culture here is so rich and distinct. (they even have their own language.) Yesterday, Joey and i went to Temple Bar and that was very fun. We found an Urban Outfitters and I found some boots (I know!) and we got some coffee and sat and read for awhile. Earlier in the day we visited the Irish Wrtier’s Museum which was extremely interesting and we went back to Joey’s new favorite place in the world, The Porterhouse Brewery. It claims to be the only true Irish brewery in the world now, because Guiness and other large “Irish” breweries are owned by large, multi-national corporations. So, Joey fell in love with about 7 different pints of beer…it was pretty dang amazing beer. I’ve been drinking a lot of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey…pretty dang good whiskey.

We have gone to see some movies the past couple of nights which have all been very good… The Duchess and Burn After Reading.

We were also lucky enough to hear some actual Irish music whilst walking around Temple Bar. These guys were really great and it was fun to stand out there and watch them. They were making a killling just playing out on the street! It was really cool.

So, today we are off to Milan and as Joey and I are growing tired of lugging our bags around from city to city we are thinking about letting an apartment in Florence and using that as sort of a homebase as it is as centrally located as we can get. So, that might be fun! Anyway, we are having a blast and can’t wait to show everyone all of our MANY pictures! We love you all and love to hear what you are all up to so leave us some comments! Here is the link to our latest set of pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9547617@N02/sets/72157608088017785/

Much love,

J&J