Round 1 Eastwood

I am currently in Orlando, FL playing in a Suncoast Series tournament. Today was the first round of play. I fired an opening round of 77. Considering the game I brought to the golf course today, a 77 was a good round. That does not mean that I am content with shooting that score, but I did get the most out of my game today. I have been struggling with my ball striking, particularly my tee ball. Today was no exception. My dad has come with me this week and it is nice to have his help. He can see the things I cannot. He noticed that my swing gets a lot faster during the tournament. Tommorrow I am going to feel like I swing only 80% at the ball, especially in the beginning of my round. Hopefully this will help me feel the clubhead especially when my nerves kick in during the start of my round. I was very patient today and did not let my frustration get in my way. I was proud of the fact that I played better as the round progressed. My putting was much improved. This is my first tournament round this year that I had 0 three putts!!

Venice

By the time we reached Venice we were tired from our travels. It was a good relaxing place to end our vacation. When we got to the city we decided to take the water buses around the lagoon and down the grand canal. Venice is such a neat city and it was incredible just to see it. After we had our fill of riding around we decided to explore Venice by foot. It is simply charming and very confusing. Luckily the city is not very large and you always end up somewhere recongizable.

The following day we took the water bus out to the island of Murano. Murano is known for its glass making. We were able to see a glass factory and the sculptures being made. The city was filled with tons of store filled with the most beautiful glass objects. We fell in love and could have easily bought tons of sculptures. Brian limited me to just one and we found a heron sculpture to bring home.

On our last day we headed to Piazza San Marco. In the morning we visited the Doge's Palace and took a tour of the prison cells. In the afternoon we headed to St. Mark's Basilica. The line to get into the church was long. The church was okay. It is Byzintine style and not our favorite. However, we can appreciate the mosiacs and history of the church. Since our last day was Good Friday we decided to find a church and attend stations of the cross. Not sure how much we got out of the service because it was all in italian.

As a final treat to ourselves we got tickets to a concert for our final evening in Italy. It was a performance of Vidali's Four Seasons and Pachbel's Canon. The concert was wonderful and a great way to end our trip to Italy. It was a wonderful two weeks, but we were glad to be going home.

Milan and Leonardo's Last Supper

We took the train into Milan. We had prebooked tickets to see Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper painting. The painting was huge and in much better condition than we anticipated. The area of the church where the painting is housed had its roof torn off during WWII. The most disappointing part of the painting is that there is a doorway underneath the painting. Someone decided to enlarge the doorway and cut off Christ's feet in the painting.

The Duomo in Milan is also worth a visit. It is a very cool Gothic church. Brian and I rented an audioguide at this church and were glad we did. The guide told us that there is a bronze cross above the altar that contains a nail from Christ's crucifixion cross.

I am glad we saw the Duomo and Last Supper painting, but overall I strongly disliked Milan. It was extremely busy and lacking in any charm. I have absolutely no desire to ever return and could not wait to leave the madness behind.

After the headache of Milan, we decided to return to the pizzeria we found the night before. The staff at the restaurant remembered us from the previous night. They immediately brought us some free champagne. It was so good and I polished off both Brian's and my own glasses. The evening was great fun!

Lago Como

Today we took the ferry up the lake to Bellagio. It took two hours each way. The scenery was spectacular with the alps in the background. The ferry stops at all these charming little lakeside villages. We could have spent all day on the boat and have been perfectly content. Bellagio is a charming little town that sits in the heart of the lake. Brian and I immediately fell in love. We vowed that we would return some day. After our bad experience with dinner the previous night we made ourselves walk deep into Como. We found a great little pizza restaurant. We shared a spicy salami pizza. This was Brian's favorite meal while we were in Italy.

Hello Lake Como!

After the hordes of tourists in Rome and Florence, Como was a welcomed relief. It was by far our favorite stop on our 2 week trip and the only place we would like to return. The views were spectacular. When we arrived in Como we decided to take the tram up to the top of the mountain. It was a nice, sunny day so we decided to leave our umbrellas behind. When we got up to the top of the hill a huge thunderstorm rolled in. We were trapped up on the mountain and took refuge in a tiny cave with a statue of the Virgin Mary. About 45 minutes later we were able to wander around the top of the mountain and get some spectacular view of the lake and town below. We were starving by the time we got back down the mountain and decided to try a restaurant along the lake. It was a tourist restaurant, but we went against our better judgement and ate there anyways. We paid the price. . .literally. It was our most expensive meal and our worst meal. Neither of us could finish eating our meals and we headed to the McDonalds immediately afterward.

Pisa and Lucca

We scheduled a trip to climb the leaning tower of Pisa. The tower leans a lot and you can tell that it leans when you are climbing up to the top of the tower. It was a neat experience, but it is the only thing worth seeing in Pisa. From Pisa we took a train to Lucca. Lucca is the only city in Italy that has the walls around the city completely intact. We strolled along the top of the walls. It was a nice day, but probaly not the best choice for our weary, tired feet.

Florence Day 2

We started the day with a visit to the Accademia to visit Michelangelo's David. The statue is massive and amazing. The museum where it is held also has some unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo's. It was fascinating to see the figures coming to life in the large marble pieces and then the end product of the David. Museums are not our thing and we thought an afternoon outside enjoying the Boboli Gardens would be more our speed. We were not disappointed. These gardens are beautiful and enormous. The weather was fantastic and it was a great afternoon to stroll thru a true Italian garden. I had scheduled a cooking class for the evening and we had worked up an appetite. The cooking class was our favorite experience in Florence. We were in a room with 11 students and two chefs. Brian and I were joined by a couple from NYC at our cooking station. We made an artichoke flan, crispelle alla fiorentia (which we had enjoyed the night before), chicken caccitore, and panna cotta. All of them were delicious. Hopefully we will be able to recreate them at home. Overall, it was a great evening of good food, great wine, and even better company.

Goodbye Rome, Hello Florence!

Rome was wonderful, but we were ready to continue our travels to Florence. Florence is beautiful. The city itself is a site. Brian and I are not really into art, so that part of the city was completely lost on us. We were staying right next to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It is so beautiful that it was spared bombing in WWII & is thus the only medieval bridge left in Florence. Today it is lined with jewelry stores. At night when the stores are shut down their exteriors look like trunks. We hiked up to the Piazzale Michelangiolo & had some wonderful views of the city & Duomo. The famous Duomo of Florence was slightly disappointing after the grand churches in Rome.

Florence had the best food of all the cities we visited. The gelato in Florence is good, but the way they serve it makes it the best in Italy. They serve the gelato on warm waffles. The waffles are covered with a glaze and are so much better than our waffles in the US. It was my absolute favorite food in Italy. I don't even like waffles. Our first night we ate at a local restaurant & shared two local dishes. The first was crispelle alla fiorentia (crepes with spinach & riccotta cheese) & ossobuca di manza (beef w/ marrowbone). This was my favorite meal in Italy.

Day 4 (Papal Audience)

We were able to get tickets to attend a papal audience during our trip. The pope speaks to thousands in St. Peter's square most Wednesday mornings at 10:30. We arrived at 8 am in order to get a good seat and our early arisal was well worth it. We sat in the third row and had a great view of his holiness. The pope was very impressive. He spoke of his recent trip to Africa and addressed the crowd in 5 languages! We lucked out with the weather. It started pooring about 5 minutes after the end of the audience. It would have been a struggle being in St. Peter's square with thousands of people trying to pull out their umbrellas. Since it was raining out we decided to eat a large meal for lunch and headed to a trattoria near our hotel. Brian had his first piece of lasgna. It was creamier than american lasgna. No riccotta cheese and less tomato sauce. Very good, but different than what we were expecting.