The Italians treat Internet connections like gold and seem to share one lousy wifi connection to hundreds of guests so I haven't been able to get many pictures uploaded. I looked today and Picasa is stuck at May 21st with about 2000 pictures to go! Most people know I've been using Facebook status updates as a poor substitute just to let people know where we are and what's happening.
For hose of you not on Facebook and who haven't yet heard through the grapevine, we have changed our travel plans to go home 3 weeks early on July 6th out of Rome.
We had thought that we'd leave Italy and head into Greece and then make our way to Madrid but with the Greek crisis and the uncertainty over which way the election was going to go, we chickened out thinking that all we needed was to get stranded in Greece due to some protest or general strike. Greece will have to wait for another trip.
So we've spent the last month touring Italy and we love it. If my foresight was as good as hindsight, we'd have spent more time in Germany and even more in the Czech Republic/Austria but we have enjoyed our time here in Italy and the prospect of another 10 days or so isn't too hard to take!
We came to this decision in Rome so knowing that we had all this extra time in Italy meant we could backtrack a bit and see some places that originally didn't make the cut. We just spent a fabulous week up in Lake Garda. It wasn't lost on us why so many Europeans spend their vacations there but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Since my favorite city Prague, we have visited Czeky Krumlov (what I call little Prague), Salsburg, Venice, Florence and Rome.
I now (by a very slim margin) have a new favorite city... And it is Rome. While it isn't as visually striking at first glance as Prague, the Italians know how to make run-down look good. In the middle of an otherwise unimpressive block of buildings you trip across a 2500 year old ruin built right in... Or come across some flabergastingly impressive fountain in a Piazza. The sheer numbers of this really tipped the balance for me. The whole country is like that. Wait till you see the pictures!
Out of Rome, which is near the centre of Italy, we drove north back past Florence again, through earthquake damaged Bologna (although you could not tell from what we saw) and had lunch in Modena before heading to Lake Garda for a week. Now we're back in Florence for 4 days before heading south of Rome to the Naples area for a week or so before heading back to Rome to fly home.
I have some relatives that were killed in the war in the offensive to take Italy in 1944. The first around Monte Cassino in January and the second 4 months later in the offensive to go around those same lines and come in from further up the coast at Anzio. He was with the famed Canadian/US Devil's Brigade special forces division. I'm keen to learn more on both of them so I'll be spending a day around both sites.
We will also of course tour the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Capri and so on.... So ending the trip on my favorite city once more.
That's enough for now. I hope to be able to post some pictures next time.
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