Italy Vacation - Day 7

We are headed up to Venice today, but before we check out of our hotel and hit the road we wanted to hit up the Borghese Gallery.  A few blocks from our hotel we realized we'd grabbed the wrong city map...uh oh!!  We knew the basic direction we needed to go and we had plenty of time so we didn't turn back.  Mistake, maybe, but after a few wrong turns and a bit of extra hiking we found it!  The city gave way to this central-park like location in the middle of the city, and the gallery was in the park.  It was a beautiful walk.

The Gallery is housed in what was once the villa of Cardinal Scipione Borghese.  He had it built in the 17th century.  He was a lover of art, an avid collector and built the home to prove that the glories of ancient Rome were matched by the Renaissance.  The gallery has a world-class collection of Baroque sculpture -- including Bernini's David and his excited statue of Apollo chasing Daphne (This was my personal favorite from the whole trip!  It was spectacular to see and the movement that he was able to capture, in the moments before Daphne turns into a tree...phenomenal!).  We also saw more works by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titan and Rubens.

We walked back to our hotel as we enjoyed our last views of this fantastic city!

I love, love, love this picture!  I'd love to own this building!!

Ciao Roma!!

VENICE

It took a little teamwork to get out of Rome, but once we were on the freeway again, we were golden.  The drive was long, 5 1/2 hours, but the scenery did not disappoint and I can't argue about the company either!  While we were passing through the mountains near Bologna it started snowing!!  Trent hadn't expected to see any snow on our trip so he was pleasantly surprised.  Thankfully the he roads were fine because we arrived just as the storm was beginning.  The trees were really pretty blanketed in the fresh snow fall....I think I need another cup of hot chocolate!!

OK, this picture is so typical of what we saw while driving.  you see that guy in the middle of the road.  Your brain automatically assumes that he's changing lanes to get around that semi, right??  Well, you're wrong!  He's just driving down the middle of the road enjoying the trip like we are.  We followed him like this for some time before he decided to choose a lane.

No cars are allowed into Venice, so we parked in a neighboring town called Mestre and took the train in.  We didn't have to wait long and it was fun to ride the train, but dark, so we couldn't see much. 

We have arrived!!  It was so exciting to be here.  We were surprised to see all the young people, and later found that they were students at the college in Venice.  We got a little turned around trying to locate our hotel, but with the help a few nice locals, it didn't take too long before we were headed in the right direction. 

The bridge to our hotel entrance.

As soon as we were checked in we headed out to find the laundromat...we were completely out of fresh clothes to wear and we'd already worn what we could twice or thrice even.  Finding the laundromat was interesting (the city is very intriguing), amazing (the city is a freak of nature with its bridges and waterways, totally cool), frustrating (figuring out the map was like figuring out a maze) and silly (kept getting lost and even the locals didn't know how to find the place) all at the same time.  Finally we were successful and were able to wash our clothes.  I had to wash my jacket, which had gotten filthy in Rome, so I stayed with the clothes and tried to keep warm while Trent went back out to find food and hot chocolate!

After the laundry was done and folded...we snuggled in bed to get some long awaited shut eye!

**Laundromat hot chocolate...1