Travis and Michelle Fitzgerald's blog

It's been almost a week since we returned from our vacation in Italy, and our brains are finally back into the Houston mindset. All of our pictures are posted on our picture website. Here's a quick recap of our vacation.

Saturday, July 15: Travis arrives, Michelle meets him at the airport. Travis falls asleep early.

Sunday, July 16: Tour of Turin. We see the "Church of the Shroud", the Mole (a tall church-like building that actually houses a film museum), and the Basilica di Superga. This is what the Superga looks like.

Monday, July 17: Travel to Venice. Haul luggage across cobblestones and boat-buses to our hotel. Do a little exploring (aka wandering).

Tuesday, July 18: Sightseeing. We see the Accademia (priceless arwork galore), St. Mark's, the Doje's Palace, the Rialto bridge, and do more exploring. We discover that the hotel turns off the air conditioning during the day. (Huh?)

Wednesday, July 19: More sightseeing. We see the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (one of many cool churches in Venice). We continue sampling the many flavors of gelato (egg-based ice cream). This picture is of the "Bridge of Sighs", which connects Doje's Palace to the prison. This was many prisoners' last view of the outside world before being thrown in a cell...hence the name.

At the end of the day, we travelled to Florence (via train).

Thursday, July 20: Florence. Went to the Uffizi Gallery (look, more priceless artwork!), the Medici Chapels (nice, but kind of dissapointing, to be honest), and the Duomo ("ha! my church is bigger than yours").

Friday, July 21: Went to the Accademia. Saw Michelangelo's David (wow. seriously.), and more priceless artwork (starting to get tired of the same old stuff). Then travelled to Rome. Here's a picture the Duomo in Florence.

Saturday, July 22: Vatican City. Went to the Vatican museum, St. Peter's...aka The Mother of all Churches (and just in case you aren't impressed with it's sheer size and tons of beautiful art...they went and buried ALL of the popes below it...even St. Peter), the Sistine Chapel, and the Swiss Guard (they have very nice pants).

Sunday, July 23: Rome. See the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Capitol Hill, and the Forum. Rode a late train back to Turin to catch a flight on Monday morning back home. If you can't recognize these Roman ruins, shame on you.

Well, that's the quick and dirty (okay, maybe not so quick) chronicle of events. Periodically we'll post stories of the adventure, until then...Chiao!