Meg and Italy in January (1/12-19/2006)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to present my girlfriend, Meg. Her second trip to Italy proved to be much more productive, even with sleeping in until noon almost every day she was here. When she landed, we hopped on a train directly for Florence, checked into our hotel, and then prowled the street for something good to eat. We found a place across the river that was very inexpensive and extremely good too. We spent the next day freezing in Siena and the following half day in Florence before returning to Pavia. The following day, we journeyed to disappointing Valenza, which was supposed to have interesting jewelry. The highlight of this trip, however, was that we found a really good foccacia store in Pavia. We decided to remain in familar Pavia the following afternoon, and spent most of our time shopping and eating apperativi. After freezing our butts off for most of the trip, we decided to head to the coast and our favorite Italian city to date: Genoa. there we attended an exhibition of one of Meg's favorite artists, Emanuele Luzzati. The warm weather and beautiful scenery was the perfect way to end the trip.

Siena

Palazzo Comunale and Il Campo. This is the highlight of Siena, the thing to see. There is either something wrong with my camera or with the tower because I don't have a single picture of it where it doesn't look like it's bending over.

San Domenico, I think. I'm not sure where exactly I was relative to the the church in the background, but we hit it just at the right time to get a little bit of the pink sunset in the picture.

Belltower of the Duomo. Unfortunately, the rest of the church was covered in scaffolding, cranes, and bunches of other crap, so the tower was really the only neat thing visible. The inside was beautiful though and the stone work in the marble floor was incredible, not too mention the beautiful illuminated manuscripts on display in the library. All told, the 3 euro entrance fee may have actually been worth while.

Palazzo Vecchio. This was the first time I have seen this building without the scaffolding infront of it, which, believe it or not, makes a huge impact.

Florence

Piazza Uffizi. Due to a schedule conflict with the time we had to exit the hotel, we did not have time to visit the Uffizi Gallery, but at least we have a reason to return to Florence, one other than shopping.

Meg's and my room in Florence, a studio apartment really. The spiral staircase in the back corner climbs up to a glass catwalk and the bedroom that is tucked away in a huge barrel vault, leaving it very dark. The bathroom in the back was equiped with a stand alone tub, fireplace, and chandelier, which you can see if you look closely at the picture. Yeah, I think this room will do.

Our stand alone tub in the bathroom, complete with a fireplace and chandelier. Unfortunately, the fireplace didn't work, but it did add a nice touch to the overall atmosphere.

Meg on the glass catwalk of our amazing room in Florence.

Valenza

The only good picture from Valenza. I had to really doctor it up in order to see anything because it was so hazy all day. Supposedly, there are pretty natural reserves somewhere surrounding the city. I don't think this is a picture of there, especially since, if you look closely, the trees in the background are actually planted in rows. That would be quite a natural phenomenon, but somehow I doubt it.

Eric's Italian Adventure (12/27/2005 - 1/6/2006)

Eric's big trip to Italy started off with a bang, we saw one of the 4 markers from Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons," but then kind of sputtered out a little bit after a 4 hour wait in Rome station. The rest of the iternary went as follows: Fly into Rome and go directly to Pavia, then Pavia, Verona, Venice, and the last few days in Rome. The total trip took up 10 days. I think that although we had our weather, transportation, and cold setbacks, the overall trip was a huge success.

Verona

Decorated for Christmas and ready for the New Year (so yes, that big steel star thing is not permanent). I'll have to return to Verona to get inside the Arena and, can you believe it, actually take a full picture of it. I got back and realized that all I have are details, what was I thinking?

See, Eric is smiling here before he realizes that we are going to climb that big hill behind him to the castel at the top.

View from Castel St Pietro on top of a hill overlooking the entire city. The castle itself wasn't that impressive, but the view was very pretty.

Venice

Venice was cold, wet, constantly rainy, and, being that we were there on New Year's Day, completely closed. At least we were able to attend mass at St Marc's and get this awesome close up of San Giorgio Maggiore.

I almost actually fell into the cannel behind me taking this picture, and yes, I am standing in the water.

Rome

St. Paul - I really wanted to get this picture because I already had St Peter on the other side of the church. The other thing that I got to do this time around was see Pope John Paul II's tomb, and I must say that was a moving experience. I still have yet to climb St. Peter's dome, or visit a few of the museums that I want to see, so I guess I'll just have to go back.

Eric, still sick with a cold, wiped out by the Vatican Museums. I guess a rest up against St Peters was necessary.

San Pietro at night. A tall Christmas tree and a beautiful manger scene take up the center of the Piazza, adding to the overall glow.

My brother the fantom inside the columns surrounding Piazza di San Pietro.

The Roman Forum from Capitine (I know I missed spelled that one) Hill. It was almost too sunny, what a terrible thing to say.

More of the Roman Forum. Day 2 in Rome, we finally had good weather on our trip and I think that is why we panicked. We saw the Roman Forum, Trajan's Forum, the Coloseum, Palantine Hill, Vittorio Emanuale II's monument, Il Campidoglio, the murder place of Julius Caesar, the Pantheon, Marcus Arelius's Column, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps, not to mention a bunch of other smaller and lesser known sites, all in one day.

The Arch of Constantine with the Colosseum behind it. After the lowsy weather we had up to that point, you couldn't ask for a prettier day.

Inside the Coloseum. It doesn't get much better than this.

Eric is obviously feeling better today. I guess Roman ruins has that effect on people.

What many people don't realize is that the view of the Colosseum is amazing when looking back out towards the Forum.

Trevi Fountain. We were fortunate enough to find it with a very small crowd around it. We couldn't linger at the fountain, however, because all of the running water makes you have to go to the bathroom really badly.

Due to our awesome tour guide, we learned the true location of where Julius Caesar was murdered, and it was not in the Roman Forum. I'm trying to point at it, but it's actually to the left of the tree, not the right.

Eric and I finished off his trip by exploring the Pincio park in the northern part of Rome. It was very pretty and a nice contrast to the crowded streets.

For those interested, check out my Yahoo Photo Album for more pictures of our trip.

Breckenridge, CO (12/ 17-23 /2005)

Matt got to pick a location for his high school graduation gift for our family vacation, and to my Mom's displeasure, he choose Breckenridge, CO. So, we headed out to Colorado for a week of fun in the snow on skiies, snowboards, dogsleds, gondolas, and thick boots. I am proud to say that I survived HAPE and the slopes for one hell of a trip.

Me at the Denver airport just after we arrived. After my flight back home from Germany, this little 3 hour one was a piece of cake, especially since we sat in first class.

So how was the flight E? You look dead, mon.

The morning before our first day of skiing.

Matt and me sucking down some water from our camelbacks. I really like this one.

This was Matt's graduation trip. It's nice to see such a big smile on his face.

Eric chilling in a chair after a rough couple of runs.

Me action shot

Eric action shot

Matt action shot

The aftermath of taking a snowball to the face. I like where the snow replaced my lense in my glasses. Nice.

A nice picture of the boys down on the frozen lake with the creek behind it. We actually had a professional photographer take some pictures down there for use so that we could all be in them. A new idea for my family.

My Dad being a goof ball. You see, he's not actually on the lake in this picture, but in the ones before, yeah, we were definitely standing and having a snowball battle on ice.

A night on the town made a perfeect ending to the first day of skiing. It was expecially pretty with all the snow and Christmas lights in the town.

Eric in front of his restaurant.

Matt posing by an ass, go figure.

That's me. My Dad and I decided to drive around a bit and see of the other sites while Eric and Matt found their way to a crowded Peak 7, on the same day that the lift broke down. That's an interesting story and I'm just glad I'm not a part of it.

Me Dad at the base of Peak 8. That was a nice way to easy back into walking around after getting over the worse part of HAPE.

Even in Colorado, I would have to find some type of building or bridge to take a picture of. At least I got the Budweiser truck in the background to make it more interesting.

The view from the hotel (I think) on a day when the clouds break and we could actually see something.

A pretty good shot from the base of the top of the slopes. Most of the time while we were there, you couldn't see the top of the mountain due to the snow clouds surrounding it.