Modena, Italy

We finished our breakfast at the hotel and walked in the garden for a while and packed our stuffs to the car and left for Modena. After about 2:30 hours, we safely arrived the Romanesque in Modena, however, it was not possible to go inside because it was under construction! Quite disappointed! This city was quite near Bologna so we was thinking about Bolognese for our dinner today but could not find the restaurant with that menu so we left for Munich and had dinner quite late in the restaurant in  the service area on highway. The Italian food here turned out to be amazingly delicious! All of us was so impressed by Italy, plus, during this Italy trip, we had visited 10 world heritage places! My dad was so happy!

The city tower of San Gimignano
from the hotel

Vineyards view from our hotel

Look at the number on this clock!

The Romanesque in Modena
Under construction….!

San Gimignano and Sienna in Italy

San Gimignano from top 

After breakfast we strolled in the garden of the hotel. The air was so good that we could felt good doing nothing. Then we headed to Siena, the city with its own color, sienna color! the color of this town even to say, the whole city is beautiful - in Seina color. You can tour the church, climb the tower in the center of the city or just enjoy sienna color in this town which can be seen everywhere. We walked around the city, ate pizza and gelato and moved to another city nearby where the city tower could be seen from our hotel. it was the World Heritage city, San Gimignano. This city was also in sienna color, small but very beautiful. We went to the city tower and climbed to the top of the tower to see all the city from top, it was so impressive, old Italy! Since we had walked a lot from the morning so we went back to the hotel early about 5:30 and took a rest in our room waited until the dinner time, 7:30pm. Dinner at the hotel with soup and steak and pasta and with white wine for mom and dad, unforgettable dinner!

Sienna 

Hotel with their own wine! 

The church in Sienna

Main square in Sienna

Sienna in Sienna color! 

San Gimignano color is also sienna!

Main square in San Gimignano

Interesting post box

A lot of nice souvenirs

Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana, Italy

Wonderful fountain!

We left Naples after breakfast, our plan was to stop by at Tivoli and to the hotel for tonight at San Gimignano. I was again very popular in parking this morning! Many staff in the parking lot gave me a blowing kiss and candy!  Dad didn't like much when I became popular like this! We left Naples and headed to Villa d'Este, Tivoli in about 2:30 hrs. All Fountains were Stunning though we were not impressed much about inside the castle.

A lot of water here and there

Too many fountains!

Another short stop for today was Villa Adriana. This villa was builded 2000 year ago. It was really huge, not really a place for a short stop. We walked for about 2 hours, feeling the history. After that both I and Mom felt like enough for history and we wanted to go to the hotel already. We arrived at the hotel in San Gimignano and surprisingly it was a hotel with its own vineyard and made its own wine, the kind of hotel that mom always wanted to visit! Dinner was also very good and wine made by the hotel itself was only 12 €/bottle! Good wine, good view and good dinner, all of us was so happy! Actually, when mom made ​​a booking for this hotel, it was not quite clear in the internet so she was a bit worried that it would be a small weird hotel far from the city, but turned to be an excellent place not many people know about!! good job, mom!

Fountain and lake

2000years ago building

Another 2000years ago...

Nice restaurant in our hotel



Costiera Amalfitana, Italy

We went to Costiera Amalfitana, Italy today. Left  at 10am after breakfast, lost the way many times along the way but finally we made it to Emerald cave around 12:30am. Blue Grotto in Capri was blue color, but here was beautifully green. The coast road here was very beautiful but so narrow and with a lot of sharp turns. It was so close when there was another vehicle passing through and most of them drove so fast. Dad felt so tired driving plus little scary. . . We arrived Costiera Amalfitana at 1:30pm,  first toured the church, then just hanging out in the city, playing on the beach and left at 4pm. The view of Costiera Amalfitana from far away on the way back was good too!

The entrance to emerald cave,
by elevator from here to downstairs

Costiera Amalfitana beach

Costiera Amalfitana Church

The church

Inside the church

View in the evening

Pompei, Italy

A dog mark at the door
of the house

We left after breakfast to Pompeii today! Arrived at 10:30am and walked around until 4:30pm. Mom brought a picture book of Pompei with pictures of now and before with description of each main location from the souvenir shop for me and I opened the book and walked around. It was very easy to understand this way. I was so impressed with the story of Pompei very much. But the last spot, family who tried to escape during the eruption of the volcano, was so depressed. It was like a time slip! Our dinner was the same as yesterday, same restaurant and same dishes!

Still very beautiful color！

It was a restaurant here! 

No comment! 

A church

studying the book 

Still good stadium

So sad!

View from top

Napoli and Blue Grotto in Capri

Got up at 6 am in the morning and ready to go at 7:30am, quite early start for today! However we wanted to make sure before leaving if the Blue Grotto would be opened today or not so we called the Front desk and asked them to check for us but they said it was too early to contact anybody now so we went to the hotel restaurant and had our breakfast while waiting. The restaurant was at the roof floor. The food was so so but we enjoyed the view very much.  We went to asked the front desk again at around 8:00am but they still could not contact anybody till now but based on the weather forecast today it should be fine, they said! So we went off to the port and to Capri by boat and to the Blue Grotto safely! It was so impressed, no doubt why it was so famous with people from around the world came here. After that we took a walk around Capri and went to San Giacomo Monastery. We also went to Villa Jovis, quite a hard way to go. I was pretty exhausted while mom was almost give up at anytime!  It was closed already when we arrived, but after staff at the door saw us panting, he just let us in! Very nice people!  The building was 2,000 years ago and it was so impressive! We went back to the hotel in  Naples and walked for our dinner at Da Ettore restaurant near the hotel. Once we saw the restaurant mom and dad were a little bit not sure about here but the food turned out to be unbelievably delicious. Octopus appetizer,  anchovy marinade and seafood pizza were superb! 0.5L of while wine costed 4 €, Viva Italy!

Small boats waiting for their queue here

Very blue!

The very small entrance!

A church in Capri 

Capri's lemon, nice！

Villa Jovis

Our wow dish! Anchovy marinade

This restaurant is the best! 

Caserta Palace, World heritage Palace in the southern of Italy

In front of Caserta Palace

Today we had a long hour drive to Naples. On the way, we stopped at Caserta Palace, World Heritage Site in the southern of Italy. Because we did not have much time so we just took a short tour of the hall which was free of charge walked around the castle before left to Naples. We checked in the hotel and walked around the city of Naples to the port and checked our tomorrow boat ride time table, had a dinner and back hotel, long journey today!

Apartment in Napoli, not new! 

Inside the Palace

Florence, Italy

Look good!

The  hotel shuttle bus to Florence town, left the hotel at 8 am! First to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the Statue of David. It was early morning but still already a long queue in front of the entrance. Seeing the real thing was quite different from what we had seen from internet or poster! Everything was so impressive! After we got out of the museum, there was even much longer queue than this morning, lucky us! To the Basilica di Santa Croce through the Dom then, we visited the grave of Michelangelo and Galileo and took a walk inside the city. Wandering around the small street, eating lasagna and pasta in a self-service restaurant, 1 hour nap for me in the Piazza della Signoria and we entered the Uffizi Gallery at 2:00pm to see The Birth of Venus, then, walked up to the Pitti Palace across the Ponte Vecchio bridge. I was so tired so we decided to go back to the hotel by bus at 5:30pm today, quite early than planned.  A lot of funny road signs made the ride so fun! Don't miss it!

Another funny road sign

In front of the castle

A lot of shops around here

The grave of Michelangelo inside

The grave of Galileo

The real statue of David (from the back)