Aaron and my 25th wedding anniversary is coming up this year. We wanted to do something fun to celebrate so when we found an amazing deal on a flight 6 months ago we booked it. We had been hoarding our flight and hotel miles so we were able to cover the majority of this trips lodging and flights on points which was amazing!! We left early morning on Thursday, January 30. We flew from Salt Lake to JFK over 5 hours. Here we are on the first flight:
We had a three hour layover at JFK before we could board our 8 hour flight to Rome.
We made it! We got off the plane and got through immigration and then boarded an express train to get to downtown Rome. Here we are on the Express train to downtown Rome train station:
At this time it was about 10 am in the morning Italy time, but 2 am Utah time. To try and combat jet lag you try to stay awake until that evening and go to bed at a normal time. It is hard because you are so tired from flying and from not sleeping for 24 hours. We needed to keep moving. We had a few hours to kill before we would catch our afternoon train to Venice so we stashed our luggage in a locker and went exploring. We happened upon the the Basilica of Saint Mary Major and decided to check it out. When we booked this trip we had no idea that this year is the Jubilee year for Rome. This is something they celebrate every 25 years. It is a year long Catholic celebration where the Catholic faithful are invited to make a pilgrimage to Rome where they can seek spiritual renewal and a stronger connection to their faith. We had no idea this year was going to be Jubilee when we booked this trip. During Jubilee they open up the Holy Doors at four main basilicas in Rome--again that only happens every 25 years. Anyway the doors symbolize the spiritual journey from sin to grace so when you pass through them you can experienced increased faith and forgiveness. While Aaron and I were wandering around the city trying to stay awake we happened upon one of the four main basilicas with the Holy Doors--Basilica of St. Mary Major.
A main portion of the basilica downstairs had a relic/old wooden board supposedly from Jesus’ manger/Holy Crib. They had it set up behind glass. The board is housed inside the golden Here’s what it looked like:
We then picked our luggage up and boarded the train. When Aaron made the train reservation he booked us in a quiet train car. You can request a quiet car where people are not supposed to listen to things aloud, talk on their phones, etc. It was heavenly!!
It was amazing to watch the beautiful countryside go by our the window while on our way:
However, a quiet car had it’s difficulties. It made trying to stay awake a bit harder. Haha! Aaron and I both struggled staying awake. Aaron fell asleep while reading...
The train ride was 4 hours long before we hit Venice. We then had to get off and find a water taxi to get to our hotel. We were exhausted! Our hotel was in an amazing location, though. It was right next to the Rialto Bridge. The hotel’s name was The Rialto Hotel and we ended up getting a room in the annex. They called it the Unique Experience. It definitely was a unique experience--haha! To get to our room we had to pass through the hotel lobby, through part of the kitchen, go back outside and through a courtyard before we came to a locked door of an outer building full of actual residences. You had to then buzz the front desk to unlock the door then climb up 4 flights of steep marble stairs with a timed light that would turn off if you weren’t fast enough and leave you in the pitch dark. That happened to us and was a bit terrifying. Good thing we had our phone flashlights to try and light the way. Anyway, after going up the steep four flights of stairs you came to another locked door. You had to buzz the front desk to unlock that door to get into a mini foyer to walk down the hallway to finally get to our hotel room door. When we finally got to our room we scoped it out. It was nice. However, the shower was tiny--haha!
It was in a very old building so the flooring was not level at all. It was slanted down to the right. That was crazy, but it was a good room and definitely earned the name ‘Unique Experience’ haha!
After setting our luggage down it was time to get some dinner. There was a nice restaurant right next to the hotel we decided to try. Aaron wanted to try something local. He ended up ordering Spaghetti al Nero di seppia which is squid ink spaghetti with cut up sautéed cuttlefish. It actually was really good and not fishy tasting at all. The only funny thing is it turned your whole mouth black.
Here’s the view from the Rialto Bridge at night:
The next morning we had a walking tour of Venice scheduled. We got up early and grabbed a cannoli for breakfast:
Not all of Venice is canals. There are some walkways, but they very often get flooded during high tide season. That means they always have boardwalks sitting around in case they need to be put up to allow people to walk around not in the water.
Some of the alleyways were really narrow:
Our gondolier was very adept at making the tight turns and navigating the canals without running in to anything. It was impressive. Even navigating under the bridges took some finesse, but he did amazing!
After our gondola ride we had a few minutes to walk around until we were going to meet up for the second part of the tour. We walked around Saint Mark’s Square.
It was very impressive on the inside. It showed where the government meetings were held:
You can’t see the detailed mosaics on the ceilings, but they were pretty.
We then walked around and took in all of Venice since we would be leaving early the next morning for Florence. We got up early and took a Water Taxi to the train station.
They also had some relics containing bones of Saints:
Amazingly enough we were able to get some tickets to be able to hike to the famous Florence Dome. We were excited, but a bit of that excitement wore off after we got about 2/3 of the way to the top. It has 463 steps to get to the top including a bunch of narrow, spiral staircases.
It was neat to see the fresco paintings on the ceiling of the dome up close:
Here’s the narrow walkway around the top of the inside of the dome we walked around:
Again it was so high up!!
Then we had the rest of the climb to get to the very top. Narrow and steep staircases were the norm.
The view of Florence from the top of the dome was beautiful!!
We got to walk around the other half of the inside of the dome we didn’t see before on the way up. It was awesome!
So many spiral stairs!!
At the bottom the cathedral wasn’t open to the public that day which was nice. We took a quick picture before we were asked to leave since it wasn’t open to the public.
Here’s the dome from the bottom:
After hiking the dome, we got to visit Santa Reparata. It is the underground area beneath the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. They had found that the modern cathedral had been built over the remains of an ancient Christian church and Roman remains. It had been built in the 6th century. The crypt is open to the public. It was amazing to see the old mosaic floors:
Here’s what it all looked like:
We did go out later and had a delicious dinner. Here was the buffalo milk mozarella and tomato appetizer:
I got some walnut gnocchi and Aaron got chicken parmesan:
It was awesome to actually see the leaning tower in person.
We first toured the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary:
Construction on this cathedral started in 1063, but has had a few fires and restoration throughout the years. It was beautiful on the inside:
This was a huge mosaic behind the alter:
We then were able to move on to the Leaning Tower. We were lucky enough to get some tickets to be able to climb to the top. When we entered the tower it truly is leaning. My camera is straight up and down and you can see how tilted it is. It was wild!
It was crazy to have the tilt amplified so much at top!
Here’s a view of the cathedral:
The shadow:
The cathedral with the tiny people walking around on the ground:
There were bells around the top:
Later that day we headed back to Florence. We then got to talk to Daniel because it was his P-Day. That was fun! After that we headed over to hike to the top of the Bell Tower Florence. There were 414 stairs to get to the top. Our legs certainly got a work out that day--haha! Here’s the bells at almost the top of the tower:
The views were amazing especially of the Florence dome:
They certainly love their narrow, steep stairs there!!
After that we got to really look around the cathedral that was open to the public that day. It was crazy to think we were walking around the top of that dome the day before:
Duke and Duchess of Urbina:
Birth of Venus:
A Rembrandt:
After that we headed over to the Academy Museum where we got to see the original David statue:
I ordered ravioli which was good. I don’t have any pictures of it, though. We got to eat in an outdoor patio with a great view of the Rialto Bridge, but they had the plastic shields down so it wasn’t freezing.
Our server didn’t speak much English and we don’t speak much Italian so there was some issues with communication. He asked if we wanted something and we just thought it was the check. It wasn’t. He ended up bringing out two shot glasses with something called limoncello in them. Hmmm. We had to look that up because I had no idea what it was. After finding out what it was we respectfully declined which surprised him. He then offered to bring us some coffee which we declined again. He had to get someone else to try and communicate with us since things were getting lost in translation--haha! Anyway, it was a nice dinner even if the server felt like it was incomplete without the limoncello or coffee.
After dinner we decided to walk around. The hotel lent us some umbrellas so we didn’t get soaked since it was raining. It was fun to wander around and see everything. It was late enough that most shops were closed so we didn’t stay out for too long.
Our guide walked us around the city and explained the history and different things about the different areas. It was really interesting. She even let us a pause for a minute to get some cool pictures of the canals:
She did tell us that Venice is not an old city. It just has old buildings that cover all the areas. They have to repurpose these old buildings into modern day uses. This old white building in this picture has been repurposed into the hospital. They even have ambulance boats on the back side (not pictured) for emergencies:
We even got to take a gondola ride. That was fun. It was so cold, though. I had about 5 different layers on and I still couldn’t get warm. I felt like the kid from A Christmas Story that couldn’t put his arms down because he had so many winter layers on--haha!
We then toured around Doge’s Palace. It is an old residence that was turned into a palace for the seat of the Venetian government. It shows off it’s gothic architecture and was built in 14th and 15th century.
It also contained a prison, but for some reason I don’t have any pictures of that. After visiting Doge’s Palace we then toured St. Mark’s Basilica next door. This basilica is famous for it’s cool architecture, intricate mosaics on the inside, and it's relics.
It was beautiful on the inside:
After our tour was over we immediately went and found some hot chocolate. The whole day had been rainy and SO COLD!! Even with all the layers of clothes on, we froze!! We were glad for the yummy hot chocolate that was SO THICK, warm and delicious!!
We then grabbed some yummy dinner. We found a place where you could pick your noodles and then your sauce and they would cook them to order. It was delicious!!
On the way to Florence. This train ride was only 2 hours so not too bad.
When we got to Florence we walked over to our hotel and dropped off our luggage at the front desk since our room wasn’t ready yet. We then went out exploring. Here’s the Baptistry of St. John. Back when this was consecrated in 1059 people who weren’t baptized couldn’t enter the church. That is why the baptistry is a separate building outside the church. You had to get baptized first. They think it was added to from a 4th century baptistry. That is crazy!! Anyway, it was a beautiful building!
The Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral is right behind the baptistry. Walking around there was a small museum next to the cathedral that was open. We got to see Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture:
It was really amazing to be able to walk around the inside of the dome before we got to the top. It was pretty high up. You can’t quite tell in the pictures, but it was high in elevation.
It took Aaron an me a bit to catch our breath from the climb.
We really loved looking around at the top. Finally it was time to come back down. Here’s the spiral staircase to start the climb back down:
At the bottom the cathedral wasn’t open to the public that day which was nice. We took a quick picture before we were asked to leave since it wasn’t open to the public.
We then went to visit the inside of the Baptistry. Part of it was being restored and was covered, but the rest of it was pretty cool:
After all that on our way back to check in at our hotel we stopped and grabbed some gelato. Yum!!
The next morning we did a half day trip out to Pisa. The scenery on the way out there was beautiful!
Here is the Square of Miracles at Pisa. It contained the Leaning Tower of Pisa, baptistry and cathedral:
Another spiral staircase with 251 stairs to the top. You can really feel the tilt of the tower as you climb the narrow stairs!
The view at the top was beautiful!
After being at the top for a bit we climbed down and walked around the area for a while. You can really see how tilted it is:
Of course you have to do the cheesy tourist pic--haha!
After that we grabbed some gelato walked around the Republic Plaza to look around. We then headed back to our hotel for the dinner. When booking hotels Aaron researched Florence and found a decent hotel with good reviews for a good price. However, when we got there we found out it was a combination hostel and hotel. We stayed in the hotel part, but the name of the hotel was The Social Hub. Needless to say it catered to a younger crowd with the ping pong tables and bean bag seating all around. When we checked in we really felt our age--haha! Oh well it all worked out. We got to revisit our college days since our hotel room was set up just like a dorm room. We were only there for two nights so it wasn’t a big deal it was just funny. We got to be hip for a few nights at least before we became old fogeys again.
The next morning we got to visit Uffizi Art Museum. We got to see some famous paintings:
Medusa:
Aaron censored this picture--haha!
It was amazing to see in person:
After that we grabbed our luggage and headed over to the train station. We then took the train to Rome where we would be the rest of our stay. In making the hotel reservation we let them know we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. They were amazing and gave us a tart to share when we got there:
As well as a yummy bowl of fruit:
They even provided two bathrobes and slippers in our room. It was awesome!! I will write some more of our trip in the next few posts. However, so far our trip had been amazing!!
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