“Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life; Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove, Is […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

(The strange title of this post will become clear towards the end.) Our final day of the trip we had a tour planned for Verona for the majority of the day, so on our last full day in Venice we wanted to make it count.  It was time to see all the major tourist attractions starting with arguably the most famous: St. Mark’s.  We also strategically planned our day to attempt to avoid a looming rainstorm, which would be the […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

Get yourself ready for pictures galore because this is the day we hit the most colorful town in Italy – Burano – and it was a photographer’s dream land.  Of course, there were multitudes of other things to see, so we’ll get to Burano shortly. The breakfast at the Venice hotel was my least favorite so far, however I will give them points for having prosecco and orange juice (though I never did get the chance to make myself a […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

Everyone says that the best way to see Venice is to just get lost. They were right. Truth be told, there’s no real way to actually BE lost in Venice.  It’s not that big, and all the major landmarks are extremely well marked, with signs pointing in their direction.  But there’s something to be said of just wandering the winding streets, finding a dead-end and backtracking, crossing the countless bridges and seeing the canals and trying to avoid the tourist […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

The next day was our only full day in Florence.  I was almost immediately in love with the city, so much more so than Rome.  I developed a theory that your preferred cities in Italy correlate to your preferred eras in history.  Rome is for people who like the ancient Romans and similarly old cultures and cities, Florence is for Renaissance geeks like me. We only had one day in Florence, and I wanted to make it count, so we […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

On our last day in Rome, Sarah woke up with a stomach bug.  We had no major plans, so we stayed at the hotel for a few extra hours until she felt up to going out and doing some last minute shopping.   It was surprisingly cool for Rome on our last day (though don’t take that to mean we needed anything close to a sweater; it was just more like 85 rather than 95). I had my heart set […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.” -John Steinbeck Positano entered America’s radar in the 1950’s when John Steinbeck wrote about his visit, one he took to escape the heat of Rome (see, it wasn’t just me) for Harper’s Bazaar.  However, I’m sure it would’ve been discovered sooner or later because it’s just that damn charming, and I didn’t get to see nearly […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

On our second full day in Rome, we conquered. Our morning was pretty leisurely.  We slept in, gave our legs a bit of a rest, and had breakfast, where we made a plan for the day.  Quick learners, we knew that we didn’t want to be outside in the heat of the day, and so we decided to visit some museums so that we would be out of the sun for the early part of the day, and then head […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling

I believe I mentioned in my last entry that it’s hot in Rome.  Well, the first day was nothing compared to the second day in which, because we were going to the Vatican and it had dress requirements, I was wearing a maxi dress that basically felt like wearing a blanket. However, before we get to that, we’ll start with the basics.  Our day began in the breakfast room of the hotel.  Located right next to the roof garden, it […]

Categories: Travel Tales, Traveling