Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice + Nuremburg, Germany

Hello everyone,

Well a lot has happened since we last wrote a blog post.

We stayed in Rome for 2 full days, and made it to all of the main attractions.

The afternoon we arrived we just walked around the area near our hotel and explored the city a bit.

The next day we wanted to go to the Colosseum before continuing on to other sites, but it happened to be a national holiday in Italy, so the Colosseum was closed and the streets were packed with people waiting to see the parade.

Our first stop was the Pantheon.

We continued on, stopping at some plazas along the way to observe the statues and fountains.

We stumbled upon an interesting exhibit showcasing various machines that were built based off of drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci.

This bridge is designed to stand freely without nails or glue

Next we went to Castle St. Angelo to get a view of the city.

We then crossed the street to the Vatican and stopped by St. Peter's Basilica

While walking around the city afterwards we found out that Smart cars are good for more than just their fuel efficiency.

The next day we went to the Colosseum and encountered the first bit of rain we had seen on the trip. Luckily it only lasted about 20 min.



And thus began some of busy days of sightseeing and train travel.

First we got a train from Rome to Florence and stayed in a hostel there for 2 nights.

Our next travel day was a long one. It began with a trip to Pisa before moving on to Cinque Terre on the coast.

Unfortunately, we were only able to stay in Cinque Terre for about an hour before catching a train back to Florence, but it was worth the trip and the rides to Florence, and then on to Padova, were very scenic.


After staying in Padova for one night, we got up early and caught a train to Venice.

We stayed there for about 12 hours and spent the majority of our time there figuring out where we were going.






We took a short boat trip over to an island called Lido and when to the beach there.



We got a train out of Venice at 11pm bound for Munich, Germany.

It was a long 6 hour trip, but we managed to get some sleep.

We arrived in Munich in the morning and took a train to Nuremburg.

After arriving at a friends house and taking a well deserved nap, we went for a bike ride around the neighboring towns.

The next day we went into the city of Nuremburg itself.

We first went to the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds, built into the former Congress Hall of the Nazi party, and saw the exhibit there about the history of Nazi Germany.

We then went to the main square in Nuremburg and visited some churches and castles nearby.

Sorry for the late post. Internet access and time has been limited the past several days.

We'll be heading on to Dresden tomorrow morning and then spending a day or so in Berlin.

Auf Wiedersehen