Florence and Venice

The highlight of Florence wasn't actually Florence.  It was the castle that we stayed in near Florence.  We had to tear ourselves away to go into what we know now is called Firenze in Italy.  Not Florence.  That would have been helpful to know when we were trying to find it and saw all those signs with Firenze on it.  As much as we hated to leave the peace of the castle to head into the world of tourists, we knew we couldn't not go and see the statue of David.  It was fascinating to see up close.  Florence is full of awesome museums and cathedrals but Vatican City was as much as we could handle so after we took a look at David and I snapped this illegal picture:

                                              
We headed back to the car.  We passed by a few cool things on the way just by chance.  But we were determined to get back to our solitude so we didn't linger very long.

Once we got to the parking garage we drove up to the exit and placed our ticket in the machine.  No matter how many times we tried to pay it would not let us through.  Apparently we had done it wrong and so had the car next to us which was also being driven by an American.  It was too late to go back and do it correctly because cars were piling up behind us both and we were trapped, blocking the only two exits.  We were beside ourselves.  I reached panic mode and jumped out of the car and tried to go by foot to pay not really knowing where or how the right way to do it was but just feeling like I needed to take some sort of action.  On my way I passed about 25 cars wondering why they couldn't get through.  Then surprisingly, the cars started moving again so I ran back to our car weaving in and out of traffic by foot.  The worker upstairs  had gone ahead and let us through so that at least one exit would be clear for the other cars.  But for all I know, that poor other American is still trapped inside.  We were the lucky ones.  We got out 12 Euros richer because we never did figure out how to pay for the parking.

Back at the castle trying to wind down again.  If you look closely, you can see some new gray hairs.

Castle, why did we ever stray from you?  

It was quite a drive from Florence to Venice but like the statue of David, we couldn't not see it.  Here we stayed in our 3rd and final campground of the trip.  It was on the beach on the south side of venice and it was really nice and very large.  It had 3 swimming pools a restaurant, a grocery store, showers and beach access.  The ocean water was very calm and relatively warm.  We all decided to go swimming.  Once we'd gone out a good distance from the shore we saw creatures that looked like snakes poking their heads up out of the water.  Sydney, the smart one, headed back for shore in "every man for himself" mode.  The rest of us tried to get closer and closer to find out what they were.  I think we were all half relieved and half disappointed to find out they were just fish sticking their heads up to see what was going on in cartoon style fashion.  European fish are sociable.

Venice was hot and touristy but very picturesque.  I'm glad I got to experience it.  Here are some favorite photos:

Water fight!