The People's Daily: Florence and Venice, Where Rocked Socks Were Knocked and Left Behind

After an epic treatise of Como, I shall save myself the effort and you the burden of an excessively long post about Florence and Venice, which together lasted a mere 3 days.

So below, you get pictures and comments on each. Deal with it.

Heather and I at the best place we ate in all of Florence: Trattoria dei 13 Gobbi. At the bottom of the picture: Florentine Steak. I never thought I'd eat steak outside of America that would rival its best, but lo, that's what we had. Holy smokes, yum.

Florence, from the Duomo Belltower.

Florence, from the Duomo Belltower. Edge left is the Duomo dome. Further out: hills of Tuscany.

Florence, from the Duomo Belltower.

Florence, from the Duomo Belltower. An old palace in the center-left.

Heather, characteristically gorgeous, with the Duomo dome behind.

Erik, squinting.

Another fabulous dinner, outside. More steak, not quite as good this time.

And lo, we arrived in Venice. Former capital of the world. Actually no cars.

Perhaps the best spot, in front of the old Customs House. Panoramic looking northwest from there.

Streetside Vivaldi!

And a great video of our Streetside Vivaldi folks.

Along the Grand Canal. The boat is public transit (a bus).

We stayed away from tourist sites as much as we could, discussing art and religion, looking down alleyways and upon bridges.

We hired an awesome gondolier to take us around.

HEre we are, with yon awesome gondolier in the background.

The grand canal, from the gondola.

Heather, gondolier, and his awesome daughter who hung out and spoke as little English as we did Italian.

Ride over :(

Looking upon the grand canal from the main bridge across it. Note no other bridges down there--it's a pain to cross if you don't know where you're going (generally a pain to get around, actually).