The Kings do Italy

In October my family came to Italy for an epic ten day adventure. We started in Bolzano

Here we are on a bridge

We went to a castle in Trento, it looked like this

Jonathon developed the magic ability to be in two places at once

The castles had great views, was kind of a ruin but had an armory where you could play dress up.

Joe, very pleased with his breastplate

After the castle we met some friends who live in Trento for a mini-tour of the city and dinner. We ordered a keg

Joe is very happy about the keg

We also went to a castle near Merano

Followed by visiting a lake near the Swiss border that used to be a town, until Mussolini in his psychotic wisdom decided that building a dam and flooding it would be best, all that you can see now is the church steeple

Then we hit the road and headed for Venice and Padova, stopping off at Verona on the way where we visited the Roman Theatre (one of the most intact ruins and still used for Opera performances today) followed by lunch.

That evening we headed into Venice - by BOAT.

While visiting Venice we actually stayed in Padova for a much cheaper hotel and better food, I don't have any photos of Padova t but it is a really beautiful town. We went to the Scrovegni Chapel while we there to see the amazing fresco's by Giotto. It was A-MA-ZING!

As you may remember that Joe and I have already been to Venice this year but there is just so much to do in this city that that didn't matter. We went to the Palazza Ducale (the Doge's palace) which we couldn't fit in last time

Jonathon is really good at being in two places at once

by the canal outside the dungeon

After Venice we caught the train to Florence for a quick overnight visit before heading to the Cinque Terre for the weekend. In Florence my parents, Jon and Vix headed up the Duomo but as Joe and I had already done that earlier this year we went to the Bargello which used to be the prison and is now a sculpture gallery with a lot of work by the master Donatello himself. It was a beautiful day and a lovely way to spend the morning before catching a train to the Cinque Terre (for more on that see the next post).