Can a holiday be fun AND relaxing?

So I went to Italy this past week for a holiday or a vacation as my fellow American's would call it.

The plan was to fly into Rome, train to venice, spend a day, train to Florence spend a day, train to Naples, rent a car, drive to the resort, rest for several days, train back to Rome and fly home.

What happened....

Louisa and I flew into Rome and took a train to Venice

We met up with my dear friend Kristin and spend an evening and night in Venice. Where we ate dinner that night... there was a HUGE pizza with the words (in dough) Deutschland, Auf Wiedersehn... cause Italy beat Germany the night before in the semi-final round of the World Cup.

Train to Florence

Night in Florence. Thanks to Nicole who let us stay with her and took us on a little tour the next Morning.

Nicole is great fun... a fellow Oregonian. Gotta love it...
Myself, Louisa and Kristin posing at the top of Piazza Michaelangelo.. yes Tracy.. that is where we are. :-) Thought of you.

The next day we took a train to Verona where we were going to stay... lots of confusion with where we had reservations.. ah the joys of Italia... so Verona it was! I like Verona a lot. The hotel did not have any prospects for relaxing by a body of water.. so we headed into Verona on Sunday and did the Rick Steve's tour.. may I reccommend his travel books.. HIGHLY!!!? :-) He is great.

I'll tell the rest of the story in a couple days... :-)