Just something brief upon our return.

Spent a week in Florence and a week in Rome. We found Florence to generally be a disappointment. It's pretty grimy and although we understand that graffitti was invented in ancient Rome and is an Italian tradition...in Florence it's really become obnoxiously ridiculous. The duomo was impressive but we enjoyed a number of churches in Tuscany much more, the Orvieto duomo in particular. The quality of the food in Florence left much to be desired and we spent considerable time researching and utilizing advice from TTOL members and others on dining in Florence. The marble at the Academia was obviously spectacular, and the Ufizzi had a lot of stuff, although how much renaissance art can one look at before it starts to become a blur? Side trips to Siena, Orvieto, and the coast were what we enjoyed most. Pompei was remarkable, and Sorrento was beautiful. Our meals in Siena and Orvieto were the best we had while in Florence/Tuscany. Generally we found Florence to be noisy, dirty, claustrophobic, and covered in graffitti (stupid, ugly graffitti for that matter, some idiot who calls himself "yogurt" had himself sprayed all over town...that's it, just "yogurt"). We found the locals to be generally sullen, and it's just not likely to ever draw us back. We got a couple of really great deals at the San Lorenzo leather market, but not that good to make it worth another stay. If we want to visit Tuscany again, we're thinking we would stay on the coast somewhere and tour from there.

The fast train to Rome was impressive. And we enjoyed our time in Rome a lot. We had an expert guide to the Roman Forum, Colosseum, and other ancient sites...our niece who is a university professor of Greek and Latin classics. The info we received while touring the forum and the Palatine hill at the forum really made that interesting. The popular sights of Rome, Trevi Fountain, the Villa Borghese, the Spanish Steps, etc., were all a bit of a snooze, although the plundered Egyptian obelisks and the stories behind them were fascinating. So we enjoyed our touring of the ancient sites the most.

We had reservations for the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel so we didn't have to wait in the two hour line. It was so much to see, and obviously remarkable. (A lot of it is the holy church museum of historical plunder though, but what the heck.) But when we finally got to the Sistine Chapel it was like a cattle pen. Packed solid, physically and odiforously overwhelming, with the guards continuously screaming at the picture takers, so we couldn't get out of there fast enough. But if anybody hasn't seen St. Peter's it's worth the long wait in line. St. Peter's is just unbelievable.

We stayed in an apartment in Trastevere which was really nice and saved us a lot of money. Our favorite time of the day was going into the cafe and shop area of Trastevere...it's tucked into the area just south of the river and west of Viale Trastevere. So many cool little shops and dozens of cafe's and trattoria's on the winding narrow streets, with food way less expensive than on the other side of the river and just as good, if not better in many cases.

Rome is pretty much covered in graffitti as well, but somehow the size of the city made it less noticeable. Another trip with some more time in Rome is something we would probably consider.