June 11, 2001 - In Milan and Florence

When you fly East, you lose time. When you fly to Europe, well... you lose a lot of time. Fly late enough in the day, and you wind up getting there the next morning. If you are like me, and have trouble sleeping on the plane, you get to be a bit of a zombie the first day.

Milan is the modern day hub for business, finance, and fashion in Italy. It still has its history and buildings, but it is also a busy bustling city. In the heart of the city lies the most amazing church that Carrie and I have seen in Europe - the Gothic duomo, built in the 14th century. You will find plenty of pictures of it in the photo album pages.

After Carrie and I explored Milan for a few hours, we headed back to the Stazione Centrale and took a train to Florence. The plan was to meet up with Chris and Andrea Nicholl late afternoon at the Hotel Basilea. It couldn't have worked out better - within 10 minutes of checking in to our room, they knocked on our door, and our vacation in Italy had officially started! The Nicholls were great travel buddies.

We learned a bit of a Italian along the way, but my favorite (and easiest to remember phrase) was: Va bene, which means "That's fine".

June 18, 2001 - Train to Venice

Ah, Venice...

Our favorite phrase while in Venice came from Chris, who stated the line spoken by Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in the third Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, just after we got off the train.