One Full Day in Lake Lucerne...

Our first stop in Lake Lucerne was at the famous Lion stone sculpture made in honor of the heroic Swiss Guards of Louis XVI, which Rick Steve's warned us all about.  They said that it's one of the easiest places to take coaches, so tour groups are always here looking around in awe, haha.  We looked at the Lion and heard the story of the person who constructed the lion made the outline in the shape of a pig because he wasn't paid for his work.  Payback.

The Lion Sculpture with a Pig outline if you look closely!

Cuckcoo clocks are a popular Switzerland attraction!

After the Lion they dropped off those that didn't go on the optional tours (Paul and I).  We were dropped off in the city by the expensive watch shop.  It was pretty early in the morning so nothing was really open, McDonald's wasn't even open.  We wandering up and down the streets and made our way into the grocery store.  We did some damage at the grocery store and bought bread, jam, lunch meat and the whole works.  We propped up to sit down inside the grocery store to indulge, but turns out we were sitting in a restaurant and were asked to leave because there was no picnicking, Whoop!

Moments before getting the boot...

The rest of the day we did some souvenir shopping and then went into Starbucks to get some free internet.  We had to book our hotels for the last few nights in Paris, so we spend a decent amount of time trying to find a reasonable hotel. After hotel searching and hitting up the grocery store again, we walked up the wooden bridge.

We really enjoyed our long day in Lake Lucerne even though we skipped the boat ride and adventure up to the top of Mount Titlis.  It was a good day to relax and not feel so touristy.  Everyone in Switzerland was so nice and hospitable as well, we felt very safe and weren't in constant fear of getting ripped off by pick pockets and the like.

Florence, Italy to Lake Lucerne, Switzerland… Pit stop in Pisa!

On this day of the journey, we took a lot of different pit stops and because of that we had to get up extra early to depart for the bus.  Our first stop was Pisa!  We were there early in the morning and the vendors were just getting set up with all of their trinkets and souvenirs displayed.  We walked into the city and through the gates to the courtyard and manicured lawns of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!  The tower is no longer moving and continuing to lean because a large stabilization project recently restored the tower's foundation.  We took plenty of pictures with the tower and made a fool of ourselves.  It was nice to be there so early in the morning to beat the crowds and people that were filing in as we left!

Leaning tower of Pisa!

Good thing I'm there to support this leaning tower!

After spending and hour at Pisa and running around through the souvenir shops we were on our way out.  We took the city bus in and were looking to get on a extension bus to take us back to Coach parking, but nothing was coming.  In the mean time everyone was getting some deals from the street vendors.  Fake coach purses were going for $10, a steep discount from what they were trying to get from us.  All of the people from Burma were buying umbrella's like it was their job, haha.  They walked back onto the Coach with at least 15 umbrellas, ahha, I have no idea why.  Paul and I were browsing and found a white bracelet I enjoyed.  They said it was 15 Euros starting which was ridiculous, so we walked away.  Paul gave him a stiff offer at 3 Euros and he was pretty hesitant.  We just walked because I wasn't too attached to the bracelet and the vendor decided it was better than nothing, so he coughed in disgust and took 3 Euros, put the bracelet in a bag and walked away without even looking at us.  He couldn't face us with that stiff price.  We were impressed that he even took the deal, ahah.  The other guy with the same bracelet came up to me and starting talking jibberish trying to sell his to me... I protected my purse and gave him many stern declines.

The best part of Pisa was getting back to the Coach, because the city bus didn't show up in time, our guide worked out a deal with a McDonalds train/trolley that hauled us back.  It was absolutely hysterical to see everyone bouncing around in that kiddy trolley!  Once back on the coach we were headed to Lake Lugano!

We had an hour or so to spend walking alongside the lakefront in Lake Lugano.  We walked downtown towards the shops and Paul hopped on some free internet outside an expensive Jewelery store.  It was a nice break to walk around and spend some time in the sun.

Lake Lugano, walking the boardwalk...

Back on the bus we were headed to the St. Gotthard Tunnel, the third longest tunnel in the world extending about 10.5 miles through the Swiss Alps!  You have to maintain space within the tunnel and the traffic waiting to get in the tunnel can back up significantly some times.  Luckily the wait to get into the tunnel wasn't too long and we entered the long tunnel.  It was an odd feeling to be in the tunnel for so long, but it was surprising well-lit and we reached the other end in about 15 minutes.

St. Gotthard Tunnel

After tunneling through the Alps we finally got to our hotel located outside of Lake Lucerne. The scenery around the hotel was beautiful.  We were across the road from the train station.  The tracks were running alongside of a beautiful lake which had mountains in the background.  I felt as if I had stumbled into Colorado or something.  It was absolutely wonderful and by far my favorite hotel spot.  Paul went for a run up the road and I took a quick jog. That night we had dinner with the group and were able to sit with the Australian family for a friendly chat.  My dinner was a little odd, but I couldn't complain about the free food.  Vegetarian options aren't plentiful in Europe, so you have to roll with what you get.

Church close to our hotel... Bells ringing every hour through the night!

View close to our hotel, pretty decent scenery isn't it?

After dinner we took an evening walk up to the cemetery and the church close to the hotel.  It was pretty uneventful because we couldn't see anything, but we bonded with our group.  Nighty night in Switzerland...

Rome to Florence, Italy...

The last morning of Rome Paul and I went downtown with the rest of the crew on an option tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica.  It was so nice being a part of a local guided tour because we had priority access to the museum and were able to jump some major lines.  Rome was buzzing from Palm Sunday, and the Museums were shut down, so we had to visit the museums on our way out of town.

Vatican wall, a whole different country!

The Vatican Museum was great, although we didn’t see too much of it.  We went out into the courtyard  and listened to our guide describe the beautiful paintings in the Sistine Chapel because discussion and talking isn’t allowed inside the Chapel.  We walked through a hall of statues in Rome, with all of their goods covered in fig leaves.  I don’t want to know who had the task of removing all of the male statues’ stems and replacing them with foliage, yeesh, hopefully not a man.  

We also went into another exhibit with beautiful large tapestries.  You could definitely see the different between the restored items and the large tapestries waiting to be refreshed.  Another exhibit featured artistic maps of Rome, Italy, and Europe.  These artists tackled the task way before any real knowledge of the area was known, they used reports and surveying to get a lay of the land.  Wild enough, the maps were recently put over top of google maps of the area are remarkable close to the actual lay of the land!  The museum was wonderful, massive, and contained wonderful art!  One of the ceilings was painted so carefully that the flat ceiling looked curved and arched!  The shadows were amazing, and when I was told it was flat, I couldn’t believe that my eyes had fooled me!

Italian  artistic maps of Italy, very accurate!

Shadows that make the ceiling seem three dimensional!

Inside the hall with the beautiful tapestries and golden ceiling!

After the Vatican, we walked into the newly restored Sistine Chapel.  Full walls, full ceiling, and expansive art displays!  It is hard to believe that Michangelo painted these overwhelming frescos on his back in such a short amount of time.  It was supposed to be silent, but everyone was chatting in awe and looking up.  The best part was the guards screaming “Silence, NO PHOTO!”  I guess that the people who restored the chapel have rights now to the new image, and therefore we can’t take photo due to copyright laws or something of that nature.  It was still amazing and I don’t even know if a photo would be necessary to remember the paintings!

Door outside of St. Peter's, all your sins are free! Opened on very rare occasions!

Through the back store of the Sistine chapel, you’re able to access St. Peter’s church without waiting in an overwhelmingly long line.  The church is free, so there were plenty of people lined up.  The church is absolutely massive, the biggest Catholic Church in the world built to house the pope.  I had the chance to touch St. Peter’s foot for good luck, an old tradition!  So old that, the number of people touching his foot over time made it ware down to the point of not having any toes.   It’s as if everyone has taken a piece of the foot with them in their hands. 

Each letter in this saying is 7 feet tall!  Everything is to scale which makes this massive, massive church seem small and perfectly proportioned!

We were able to see the tombs of the church from above while looking down, and the expansive altar.  They were preparing for Easter, so the building was bustling.  We also had the chance to see the famous statue of Jesus draped in Mary’s arms.  Rome was amazing, but it was so much to see and do, and unfortunately, we had to join the tour group on almost every occasion.  I think it would have been fun for Paul and I to take our time there, but we definitely enjoyed our stay.  I guess we’ll just have to go back!

When we arrived in Florence, we left the coach and walked into town to the city center where MTV was setting up this massive tacky stage, haha.  We had to follow the group into the leather shop to get a leather demonstration and a sales pitch.  The coats and leather products were obviously very nice, but there were also very expensive.  Paul had on some sunglasses that were over $200 or something like that.  It was crazy.  We used their free bathrooms and got out of that store pretty quickly, although a few of our tour members left with brand new leather coats.  After the sales pitch we walked around the corner to a gelato bar and shared an afternoon treat.  We sat on the square eating ice cream and people watching until it was time to meet up for our guided tour. 

MTV is setting up in Florence!  Ewww.

On our Florence walking tour...

After our wonderful guide in Rome, it was hard to take a step back down to this dude.  We had our ear pieces in, but I couldn’t really hear a word he was saying.  It didn’t need much explanation though, the statues and art in Florence, the capital of renaissance, spoke the words loud and clear.  Unfortunately we were only able to see the replicas of the statues, but they were still a sight to see.  Oh yeah, and in Florence there are no fig leaves on orders of the Pope, so the statues were free to show off their goods, haha.  We walked down the busy main street with high end chain fashion shops and expensive clothes and ended at the massive marble church positioned in the midst of the city across from the Gold doors.  The church was beautiful, and it’s hard to believe that such small and delicate designs were created out of three colors of marble!

Fountain in the square of statues...

Replica of the statue of David...

We finished our tour at the church and then had some time to wander in the city.  Fortunately we were able to take the train back which saved us some bus riding time and also gave us more time in the city to explore.  Paul and I were pretty tired, so we wandering into a few shops and down the street to find McDonalds, ahah.  We got there but decided not to order because the internet didn’t work.  We stopped and bought a scarf by the train station and gradually made our way back to the church to walk down to the train station as a group.  I am glad that we were able to experience train travel at least once outside of London because the metro is very different from the train stations. 

The golden door across from Cathedral il Duomo...

Paul and I in Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance...

Cathedral, il Duomo... Three colors of marble give the distinct coloration.

Florence train station, on our way out of town to the hotel!

At our hotel we had an included dinner and were able to sit with the Russian couple and their son.  We had wine in our room before joining the group for dinner, It wasn’t much, but it was something to eat and we gladly accepted.  The waiter had some juicy body odor and killed my appetite, ahha.   By the end of the evening we were exhausted.  It was a long day on the road, a long time in Florence walking around without much to do, and after dinner we just crashed!  One thing that came out of dinner however was our second time voting to go to Pisa… and the smoke burned white!  Now for some reason, the guilt hit the negative voter and we all decided to go!  Paul and I were the last ones in the dinner room, so we were the deciding vote, booyah!