Whoo Hoo! On my way to Lugano :)

I need to catch a car ferry and then drive into Lugano off the Swiss Highway since I have no sticker :( I just noticed my Hotel has limited parking so I need to get there before other guests ;) I plan to go up Monte Generoso since it looks like a nice clear day! I'll post pics later :D

Lake Como

Staying the weekend in Bellagio .. it's a small town full of cute shops and restaurants. It is a lot more Italian than the lake Guarda area with less Germans and more Americans .. I wanted to explore so I got an all day ferry pass and checked out the towns around the lake



The area is known for it's resorts.. this hotel across the lake in Cadenabbia created a sandy beach and a swimming pool right on the lake ...



Climbed Castle of Vezio in Varenna .. It was quite a workout and had great view of the lake :) I took the road route up and this great rugged trail down which was similar to the trails in Cinque Terre :)



They had a falcon show





and a great owl



and some ghosts! I guess every summer a tourist will pose and get covered with plaster and make a mold that slowly breaks down :)



They put these fake candles on the graves.. kinda freaky :(



Beautiful sunset!

Lake Guarda

Bellisimo!



I stayed in a cute little town called Limone sul Garde in the northern part of the lake. It is famous for having residents that live over 100 years old due to a genetic mutation in the cholesterol gene :) I didn't see any of them, probably at home resting and avoiding the Germans that take over the town during the summer holidays ;)



This was the view from my room.. awesome! I woke up to watching sailboat races :D








And I found this great bar in Guarda, the town at the top of the lake :) Bars in Europe are different than in the US.. they serve coffee, food, and sometimes beer,wine and even gelato!




Pretty bridge at the southern part of the lake

More Venice

Venice is a great place to visit, even with all the tourists in summer :) I thought Rome and Florence were busy, but Venice had the most.. maybe it just seemed that way beacuse of all the narrow streets and traffic routed over certain bridges :) There were more Americans there then I had seen before, so eavesdropping became a fun activity when strange situations arose :) I met a lot of nice people and had fun exploring the city.. and was lucky with nice cool weather! Here's a view from on top of the tower near the basilica






There were beautiful sunsets every night so I was out to enjoy them on land or sea :)





The city was even pretty at night by boat :)



There, of course, were tons of gondolas :)



and tourists going for rides!



There was tons of tourist stuff to buy!



The museum were full of interesting art




I even took the ferry to other outer islands



I saw the glass factories on Murano and all the great stuff.. too bad the trip home is so far! The guy said he could ship anywhere in 3 days.. doubt it, it's hard to get anything to Hawaii that fast, even from the Mainland ;)

Venice is amazing!

This place is so strange, it could take a while to get tired of it ;) I have put way more pics on Facebook so check there :) I will try to add more later.. I took tons but haven't checked them yet since I have been so busy! I leave tomorrow and rain is suppose to come so hopefully it won't be hard to get to the next place :) It won't be as crowded so it will be nice to be away from the tourists!, although, I'll never complain about them in Waikiki again.. they act so much better there than here ;D

Cute fake iPhone fan ;)

I could use this in Italy, especially in Rome and Florence :) Venice is much cooler, especially in the evenings which is nice ;) There are not too many iPhones here and most are owned by Americans so it makes it easy to tell if someone might speak English when I'm lost ;)

White "iPhone 4" Air Cooler from M.I.C. Gadget on Vimeo.

Off to Venice :)

The last few days have been busy! I drove up from Tuscany to Florence where I went to the museums that I missed the first time I was there and explored new places! I even went to a science museum.. which was empty :( Here's me next to a Wooly mammoth leg found in Tuscany.. good thing there are not there anymore :(







I climbed the tower by the duomo to get a better view of the city and went back to the plaza di michaelangelo to watch the sunset :) I had the best veggie meal ever at il vegitanereo and more gelato :P It was hard to leave the city, but the adventure must continue! I drove up through some forests that looked like Switzerland, and even had ski lifts!





I then made it to Milan to explore the city and see Jack Johnson in concert.. and get a little bit of aloha spirit in my trip :) I first went to the wrong castle (who knew there were so many!) and then some helpful Italians told me where the right one was.. getting there was a little like the amazing race tv show! Fortunately, it gets dark late here so I was able to find it and make it before the show started :) The Italians here are so nice and helpful.. you would never know by the way they drive! It's like a Indy 500 just going down the street! At least Venice will have no cars and I can just get shoved around on a water taxi ;)

Saturnia is a lot of fun :)

I had a great day visiting the thermally heated waterfall at Saturnia




The place had it's own mud bath section :D



Of course, I had to try it for myself ;)



Muddy from head to toe!



Then I had to get in and rinse off!




I ended up staying the whole day there since it was so wonderful!

Italy Round Two :)

So far, the trip from Vienna to Rome and up through Umbria has gone well :) I took a few scenic routes since the drivers in Rome are as crazy as every one says.. so as they say "when in Rome... " I used the GPS on the iPad to get up here since looking at a map would have been impossible since there are few exits off the highway and nowhere to pull over :( I'm just glad that I got here before dark.. with an awesome sunset on the ride up the coast! The landscape is mostly fields of wheat and sunflowers with a few sheep .. and a lots of narrow winding roads with italian drivers :) This place is very rural between the small towns and very beautiful!

Last night in Vienna

Well, it had to happen! I got lost again :) A simple walk in the park along the river after the conference finished got me far from the metro and I had to walk through some apartment/ industrial district until this cute little tram came by which took me into the city. Too bad my unlimited weekly pass expires today or I'd ride it all over to see the different neighborhoods :) The line ended at stephenstrasse which is along the river and has ice cream even better than Italy! Good thing I'm leaving, the Garam Marsala Chocolate is addictive :P

There are lots of great buildings, fountains and museums around the city.. too many to put pictures here..







The famous landmark is St. Stephens Church which I used to find my way back to the city center ;)



But it has a dark side in the basement.. a crypt of 11,000 bodies from the black plague

Vienna also has the strangest things!

In addition to street musicians that play mostly classical music, there was this group with some instruments that I've never seen before.. They even had a bathroom with music to entertain.. Too bad it smelled like a port-a-potty :(

Vienna is beautiful

Last night they had a party for the conference in the city hall which is called Rathaus (not sure if they get the irony) which is a beautiful building that had a central floor that I'm sure hosted many Viennese waltzes :)