quote:
Venice: Favorite place I have ever been. Weather was beautiful while we were there. Loved sitting in Piazza San Marco and having drinks while listening to the orchestras. Drinks were extremely expensive, though. The Rialto Bridge, Basilica, and Doge's Palace where all really cool. We also headed to the islands of Murano and Burano while there. Got to see the glass blowing and the cool colorful houses.

Cool to go see once, but you you've been there, you don't ever have to go back. We did all of this. And there were a few more museums and places we probably could go see, but it's not as special to me as BOD seems to perceive it. Just a ton of tourist shops. Few people even actually live in the city anymore.
Florence and Rome were easily better.

quote:
Pisa: We were originally scheduled to go to Pisa, but audibled to Siena, which was awesome.

I'll second this. Siena was much better.

quote:
Florence: Uffizi is a must. Try to get into the Vasari Corridor. Really neat and hard to do. It exits into the Boboli Gardens, which are beautiful. Basilica of Santa Croce is really cool. Tombs of Dante, Galileo, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo. The actual statue of David is in Galleria dell'Academia. Skip it. Line is huge and it is the only must-see thing there. There is an exact replica somewhere else in the city. Donatello and a lot of Medici are buried at Basilica di San Lorenzo. Worth swinging by if you are chasing Ninja Turtle tombs.

This is all great advice, except the David. His comments are bullshite. You have to see that thing in person. The real one and not just the fake they have in the Piazza della Signoria.
Just get a tour guide with a fast pass. Don't be cheap and just skip the line. If you are spending two weeks in Italy, you can afford to do it right.
Also, the Santa Maria del Fiore (Il duomo/ Giotto's bell tower/ St. John's baptistry) is a MUST - absolute priority.

Other cool things to see:
Santa Maria Nuova, Santa Maria Novella, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio), Loggia dei Lanzi, Walk around Pitti palace while seeing the Boboli gardens, buy some leather goods while there (they make shoes, jackets, and most of the super high-end name brand purses are made here... so just buy the same thing from one of the workers just without the branding). Mercato del porcellino is cool along with the il porcellino fountain (brass pig).

quote:
Rome is cool, but it is A LOT more spread out than the other places, so seeing things in a timely fashion is very difficult. An under the radar thing to check out is Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, which is a church made of skulls. Vatican is an absolute shitshow. If you are claustrophobic in the slightest, you will have a panic attack on the way to the Sistine Chapel. St Peter's Basilica was much less crowded, though. Coliseum, all the fountains, Villa Borghese are all cool spots, as expected.

Take taxis. Don't be worried about the cost. They aren't that expensive and your time is more valuable in Rome. Go see the hallmark items. Coliseum, trevi fountain, Spanish steps, Victor Emanuel, Trajan's Column, and Pantheon, etc. You have to see the Vatican. It would take you 21 years to see it all if you spent 8 seconds on each item 24/7/365. SO, yeah... you can't see it all. But the pure talent and craftsmanship on display is overwhelming. And I personally liked St Peters more than the Sistine. The sheer size still blows my mind.
Again, small private tours are the way to go. You can get some cool back door tours and skip most of the herd. If you are wanting fine dining, this is the city to do it. Lots of 3-star Michelin places about.

In super rural Italy, they don't speak alot of English unless they are running the hotel/lodging. But everywhere else, everyone speaks English. However, if you make a half-assed effort to try Italian, they really respect you and we got more free shite and superb service just by not being the typical assholes they usually see.

Oh. and bring back some Grappa if you can. You have to hand import it, b/c it's the only way to get it in the US. If you don't want it, I'll buy it from you and have you ship it to me! Lol.

This post was edited on 9/5/17 at 1:06 pm