Volterra

We drove through the Tuscan region of Italy, and it was beautiful! - Tons of vineyards and olive trees everywhere.





Then, we made a quick visit to Volterra and found out that Volterra has definitely not banked on its fame from Twilight. (Just FYI, New Moon was actually filmed in Montepulciano not Volterra - go figure.)



The actual city was way up there.



It was this huge fortress type - walled city that was as medieval as you could imagine! It had coat of arms carved on the sides of buildings and flags waving! It was so fairy tale like.





And although Volterra is not known in Italy for Twilight, it is known for its alabaster. This is a man in his shop carving a horse sculpture out of alabaster - with not even a picture - amazing!



And this, to me, is one of the most endearing photos of our whole trip! Layne saw them just kind of "people watching" and finally decided to take a picture. So sweet and so, so cute!







This is a building out of black and white alabaster. Kind of cool, huh?



These next two pictures, I can totally imagine the knights rushing in on their fabulous strong horses - hooves pounding on the cobblestone.







It is way up there!

Verona

After Venice, we started our next day with a quick stop in Verona. Beautiful!









This is the street where Juliet's house is, just through the arch on the right.





Letters to Juliet - not quite as "romantic - looking" as the movie, but taken very seriously none the less.





The Courtyard.



The Balcony.



A statue of Juliet. The myth is - if you touch Juliet's right side you'll have eternal love.



They also had a great little sandwich shop and bakery in Verona - so yummy!

Venice

We went from Austria to Vicenza, Italy on some beautiful, crazy, lonely mountain roads that sometimes had guardrails and sometimes did not.



No, I was not taking a picture of a cute Italian bum, but this young couple pulled this big wooden box out of the trunk of their tiny car on this near vacant mountain road and we're thinking - What are they doing? - They were changing the battery to the red light.



Then we came across this herd of sheep "cutting" the grass in a "downtown" area. I wonder if they were rented out to cut grass?



This was by far the most - umm - interesting hotel, fabulous breakfast buffet though.



The next morning, we took a train to Venice. I've always fantasized about what Venice would look like...it really is a fantasy - even in person. It is surreal, and amazing, and fun!





So we're thinking we have a day in Venice, how do we maximize our visit. Italians do not speak English as freely, so Layne stopped in a hotel to ask if there were any tours or fabulous ways to see Venice. The hotel man said he could get us a taxi for free to Murano (the beautiful island where glass blowing started - have you heard of Murano glass?). So off we went in a wooden boat - I tell you it was such a James Bond moment! It was so cool to be on the "water highways" of Venice.



Check out the date of the Murano Glass Factory.



Here is one of the master artists.



We decided to opt out of the free ride back and stay on Murano for a little while.





So many things in Murano were made of glass. They mostly had glass shops, places to eat and quaint little homes. The farther from the factory you got the cheaper the glass and jewelry. We also had some yummy food in Murano - vegetable lasagna, caprese salad, and grilled tuna.



Kim awaiting public transportation back to Venice, silly girl.



Piazza San Marco









A gondola ride - who would have thought? Our gondolier was disturbed that we were already kissing. He said, "No, no! We get to bridge - then smoochie, smoochie, kissie, kissie!"



Kim and Kent took him seriously!:)





After our ride, we continued walking through the city. I think we sampled two or three different Gelato shops! :)









Then, we came across this violinist who played so beautifully. It went right along with the fantasy!



We wished we could have had more time in and around Venice. It was amazing - just like a movie.