Venice

The entire trip I was really excited to visit Venice, especially to photograph it.

Ryan and I woke up early the first morning to catch the good light. Sadly, all we got was a heavy layer of fog.

But we made the best of it and had a fun morning capturing the city.

The fog gave it a bit of a surreal feeling.

The clock in San Marco Square.

You can't go to Venice without getting a photo of a gondolier.

Or his boat.

We took a long walk to a little pier that had some significance that I can't remember.

Our perfect travel companions!

Our last stop was Rome. By this point I was tired of photographing (and I had tons of photos from our previous trip to Rome), but we did manage to get this one.

It only took me 2 years, but I finally managed to finish posting our trip. Thanks Packers for making it a memorable one!

Sienna

On the way out of the Umbria region we stopped at Sienna. It was overrun by tourists and not my favorite.

But the gelato was delicious!

Italy really knows how to do doors. The first one was in Spoleta and the last was in Sienna. I don't remember where the middle door was, but I found it interesting that they just painted the wall to look like stonework.

Civita and Orvieto

On Rick Steve's recommendation, we went to a tiny hilltop (more like cliff-side) town called Civita. It is often called a dying city because most of it's residents are quite old and the population is literally dying off.

The town is surrounded by very steep cliffs and the only way to access it is to walk across an elevated bridge.

This women sits in front of her house everyday and charges visitors a small fee to enjoy the view from her backyard.

Near Civita is Orvieto. My favorite thing in this town is the famous striped church.

A tribute to Kimmy. She will know why.

Not to be outdone by us, Al and Ryan had some good poses too.

And one good shot to round out the photo shoot.

This restaurant was across the piazza from the church. I would have loved to eat there, not sure why we didn't.

Apparently this worn down lion was very exciting.

Assisi

I didn't have high expectations for Assisi, but it turned out to be one of my favorite cities.

Assisi is famous as the home of St. Francis. He is buried in this basilica.

I'm assuming this is a statue of St. Francis, but I'm not positive.

I loved all of the nuns running about.

Consulting the guide books.

Why don't we have more fountains here? There are gorgeous ones all over Italy.

Alissa and I went shopping for souvenirs.

The flying buttresses of the Basilica of St. Claire made a nice backdrop for this pigeon.

A trip to Italy would not be complete without Taylor acting like a tool.

Trevi

On the outskirts of many towns, we found random pieces of exercise equipment. We dubbed them Communist Training Camps.

The one we found outside of Trevi was the most elaborate. All sorts of fun toys to play on.

Al is showing off her muscles.

This one may look fun, until you get to the end and it sends you flying.

Trevi was a fairly typical hill town. Very quiet with cute little streets.

This pattern of colored rocks was used as a door mat.

We found a doorway just Alissa's size.

A heart-shaped rock.

Umbria

For the middle portion of the trip Alissa and Ryan found this great house in Umbria. We used it as a home base and then did day trips to small hilltop towns.

Our first town was Spoleto. It was a Sunday so things were kind of quiet, but we did find one restaurant open. Contrary to Taylor's expression, it had a nice terrace and great food!

Something in this photo was really old. I think it was the steps, but could have been a wall.

The Duomo.

Alissa decided to give us a sermon.

Just outside the city was an aqueduct we walked across. I didn't get any good photos of it, but the view from it was gorgeous.

The start of the aqueduct.

Lucca

2 years after the trip, and maybe I'll finish posting these photos!

After the Cinque Terra, we had a brief stop in Lucca. We rented bicycles and cruised around town. I think this was one of the highlights of the trip!

There is a bike path on top of the wall that surrounds the city. It's a nice little ride with a great view.

We went down into the city too with our bikes. It was a really charming town.