Why we've been too exhausted/busy to update the blog recently...

When we were in Siena the first time, Melinda and I discovered the one thing that is cheaper in Europe than in the US--Birkenstocks!  Since I'm a Birkenstock aficionado, I bought a pair.  Melinda fell in love with a leopard print pair and picked them up as well.  These shoes feature prominently in the blog and in our lives the past few days.

Because we loved Siena so much, we decided to rearrange our schedule in Tuscany so that we could visit the town once more.  On Friday, we hopped a train to Florence, since we already had reservations at the David and the Uffizi.  Melinda wore her new shoes, and since we had reserved a hotel room in Pisa for the night and because we were carrying a light change of clothes on us for the next day, they were the only pair of shoes she had with her. 

We walked the streets of Florence, which look like this:  

for a bit before viewing the David and the collection of religious art housed in the museum.  After the David, which thoroughly scandalized Aidan (but not as much as Courbet's The Origin of the World), Aidan performed tricks such as balancing a bottle on its cap:

and consuming this entire gelato on his own in less than 5 minutes:

Melinda discovered that she loves affogato (gelato and espresso), but she ate it so quickly that I couldn't snap a picture of it.

After the gelato and coffee feast, we went to the Duomo, which Melinda declared was her new favorite church we've seen thus far.

Aidan wanted to climb to the top of the Duomo (of course), which marked our second consecutive day of 400+ stair climbs.  Due to the stair PTSD of Paris, Melinda waited outside, where she befriended a group of students from Atlanta and got to look at stuff like this:

Aidan and I became friends with a nice couple from Normandy that had a very cute accent in French.  They had just been pick pocketed the day before.  We got to climb lots of stairs that look like this:

Aidan did his requisite "I did it" pose at the top

and we got to see views like this.

Manu had been there too:

After the steep hike down,

we met up with Melinda who informed us that she was pretty sure she'd been cursed by a gypsy because she refused to give her money.  We laughed about it and went to lunch on the way to the Uffizi.  Aidan was pretty museumed out, and rushed through the gallery.  Melinda's feet began to really bother her.  They started swelling and she had difficulty walking.  Aidan and I went over to the Palazzo Vecchio while Melinda rested and contemplated the curse she was pretty sure had been placed on her feet.

After a stroll along the Arno, we went to the Ponte Vecchio, which was really the only super crowded place in Florence, but it offered great views!

We had delicious but extremely over-priced gelatto on the bridge.  Melinda was determined to purchase a purse she'd seen earlier in the day, so although she could hardly walk, we hiked about a mile to get the purse.

The woman who worked in the purse store was from Monterrey and she knew Melinda's feet were paining her, so she showed Aidan lots of pictures of her horses and dogs in Mexico (she's living in Florence to learn Italian so she can work as a translator in Mexico).  By distracting Aidan, Melinda got to sit and put her feet up for a few minutes.  We hopped into a cab (Melinda couldn't not walk at all due to the curse) and boarded a train to Pisa.

It was dusk when we got to our hotel in Pisa.  Our room had a view of the top of the Leaning Tower (or Tipping Tower, as Aidan calls it).  Melinda wanted to visit the tower at night, but couldn't even walk the 3 minutes to the tower.  Luckily, there was a 24 hour pharmacy (a rarity indeed!) across the street from our hotel.  After about an hour, so choppy Italian/English conversations and lots of orthopedic shoes tried on, Melinda created a solution for her feet through a creative use of corn pads, band aids, and shoe liners.  

The piazza with the tower is amazing at night.  No one is there.  Only locals.  Unlike other Italian piazzas that are paved, the Pisa piazza is covered in grass.  During the day, you cannot walk on the grass.  At night, however, no rules are enforced.  We snapped the requisite pictures and headed off to bed.

In the morning, a nice family from Seattle informed us that the tower is open for climbing now (it wasn't the last time I was in Pisa), but that children have to be 8 to climb.  No worries, Aidan and I aren't above a little lying to the authorities.  The authorities, however, viewed me with incredulity when I said, with a straight face, that Aidan was 8 and that, no, I didn't have his passport as proof with me.  The guard actually rolled his eyes at me, but since he couldn't prove Aidan wasn't 8, we were allowed to climb.  The last time I was in Pisa, the tower was at a 5.5 degree tilt, but now it's "only" tilting at 5 degrees, so it is safe to climb.  Although its climb is quite pricey--18 euro a person, even for Aidan  (all the other towers were 8, and Aidan was free).   After climbing 300 tilting steps, which make you feel like you're on a ship, you're rewarded with these views:

Our climb complete, we rushed off to the train station so we could maximize our time in Siena.  The train ride through Tuscany was lovely, as usual.  We left Melinda at the train station in Siena because it has a mall attached to it.  She shopped for new shoes while Aidan and I had a coffee.  Melinda met us at the cafe and was miraculously cured of her gypsy curse, and she had cute Italian loafers to boot.  Unfortunately, my camera battery died just as we started walking down the main road in Siena.  On this trip, we visited the Duomo, which is now Melinda's new favorite, its crypt and library.  The square facing the Duomo is peaceful and not crowded.  After meandering through Siena and dinner on the main square, we had to head back to the train station.  

We all had to use the bathroom, but none of the stalls had toilet paper.  Fortunately, the handicapped bathroom was unlocked, so we all used it.  Unfortunately, I accidentally set off the handicap-assistance alarm while in the bathroom.  This alarm set of a series of loud beeps and flashing lights that radiated throughout the train station.  Consequently, we hightailed it to the platform and tried to be inconspicuous.

The next morning we set off for Rome.  Rome has not been our favorite city--to loud, dirty, crowded, rude, etc.  On Sunday, we did a hop-on-hop-off tour of Rome.  It was actually not that expensive, and Aidan was free.  We got to see all the major sites in about an hour.  We decided to ride almost to the end of the tour and got off at the Trevi Fountain.  Unfortunately, the fountain was so crowded that you couldn't even see it.  We had lunch in a really good restaurant. Melinda had steak tartare with raw egg!  She had meant to try it in France, but hadn't .  She ate every bite.

After another gelato (Aidan specializes in mint and lemon, often together), we went to bed early.  Our train to Naples for our trip to Pompeii was scheduled to leave at 7:20 in the morning.  Ugh.  I'll write a separate entry on Pompeii because it deserves it.  We hated Naples but loved Pompeii.

Today, we visited the Colosseum at about 8:30 in the morning,  It wasn't crowded at all when we got there, but by the time we left, it was immensely packed.  The Colosseum didn't disappoint.  The trip to the Colosseum completed, we decided to split up.  Aidan and I headed to the Spanish Steps and then to the Napoleon Museum.  This marked Aidan's second Napoleon museum during the trip.  Melinda went to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museum.  She loved everything she saw, but hated all the people around her.  She said the entire Vatican complex was more crowded than the Mona Lisa. 

Tomorrow, we fly to Barcelona.  I'll post about Pompeii.