Italy

In June Michelle and I had the awesome opportunity of joining with the Music department of Fresno City College on their trip to Italy. My girlfriend's husband is a part of the Community Symphony Band and that is how we got hooked up with the trip. Unfortunately Gene was unable to join us due to work committments. We left on June 8th from San Francisco and flew to London and then on to Rome. Our tour guide, Alice (who swears she dated Arnold Schwartzenagger, "before he was a 'monster') was with us the entire trip. By the 3rd day we were convinced we were hooked up with Atila the Hun and most of us were ready to kill her but after a couple of our group members, Michelle being one, had some words with her she lightened up and we actually fell in love with her by the end of the trip. We had 3 days in Rome that were beyond description. The Sistene chapel "wow", the Colleseum and Forum"double wow", St. Peters Basilica, the Vatican. The ancient architecture is beyond imagination and walking among and touching ruins where thousands of years ago the Ceasers and Paul walked was somewhat overwhelming. From Rome we traveled in our tour bus (with "Salvadore" our italian bus driver) to Sienna, a town that is the essence of my idea of Italy. I could spend 2 weeks just wandering the tiny streets and the surrounding Tuscan countryside! We only spent the day in Sienna and then traveled on to Florence where we stayed 2 days. In Florence we went to the The Academy of Fine Arts (which was built to house Michelangelo's David and many of his other sculptures/paintings) The David is a tear jerker, a complete emotional experience. From Florence we traveled to Venice for 2 days where the first day was spent roaming the city in the rain ("it never rains in Italy in June") though it was wet we had a blast and the second day was beautiful for our gondola ride. From Florence we traveled to Milan for 1 full day/overnight. We enjoyed wandering the street of the world famous fashion mecca and seeing the world's largest Gothic cathedral and also visiting La Scala, the best known opera house in the world. On June 17 we flew from Milan to London and then to San Francisco. One of the biggest contrasts for me between Italy and America: they preserve their history and pride their ruins while americans mow down the old and replace it with a new 7-11 or super K-mart.....go figure! Needless to say I had a blast! Anyhow here are a few of the pictures.