Bologna, Venice, Verona and Milan!

Internet has been sketchy for the last few days while we stayed in Jeselo, so here is the update!

After leaving Florence we headed North to Jeselo along the Adriatic Coast. It is a beautiful resort town, and would be super fun to stay in during the summer. We walked around, went to the beach, watched the brave souls jump into the cold winter water and basically just took it all in.

On our way to Venice we stopped in Bologna. It is a University town, so quiet hip! It's little stores and open markets were wonderful and we basically just wandered and sat and ate.

The next day we headed to Venice to spend the day. After seeing the main sites we took a Gondola ride. Expensive, but well worth it as the city looks completely different from the water. I strongly suggest getting away from the crowds after seeing San Marco's Square (Piazza San Marco), the churches and palace, and getting 'lost' on the rest of the island. It is truly beautiful and quiet in all the small courtyards.

Venice is actually a string of islands (~120 of them). We had to take a boat to the city and visited a glass blowing shop on the island of Murano. Murano glass is manufactured here and can't get any more athentic than this!

Today we stopped in Verona, visited Juliet's (Guillietta) balcony and courtyard, and touched her statue for good luck. There we had lunch and wandered around before heading for Milan.

There are all sorts of things to touch throughout Italy. In Rome it was the Trevi Fountain (to come back), in Florence it was a Boar's snout (to come back), In Verona Juliet's breast (for luck in love) and a mosaic Bull's testicle's with your right foot in Milan (for good luck and fertility).

In Milan we saw the major sites and then shopped! All through Italy one can find the major European designers, but Milan is the capital of fashion for much of Europe - it's even bigger than Paris. It was awesome to window shop (because that's all we could do realistically).

Tomorrow we head home! It has been a whirlwind of a trip, but we saw SOOOOO much! This was different than what I'm used to when I stay in basically one area and take trips from there, but it was an awesome taste (literally) of many of the Italian regions. We basically ate our way from Rome to Milan. Every calorie was worth it!