Venice sounds like my perfect city on paper. No cars, easily walkable, full of stuff to do. So when I refer to it as "Old People Disneyland", please know I mean that lovingly.

The high speed train was pretty nice! Although honestly for the size of Italy, I don't think they're worth it unless you're going longer distances. The high speed is 2 hours for 100 euros, and the slow is 3 hours for 45 euros. To me, 55 euros is worth the hour, but you do you. As a point of comparison, China's high speed trains would cost the equivalent of ~15 euros for that distance and do it faster, so, while functional enough, Italy's train system didn't exactly blow me away.

Still, the train stops right in the middle of Venice, so we took a 10 minute walk to our hostel. My first impressions of Venice are exactly what you'd expect - an incredibly beautiful city, with lots of tourists, and yet it actually wasn't as crowded as I expected. Except for some choke points, it was rare to be standing next to someone. And despite boats wizzing around, we never once felt the need to take one. Looking at Google Maps, it was faster just to walk 95% of the time, considering how compact Venice is, and you have to wait for the water bus to arrive, AND they stop at each pier along the way. To top it off it's also 10 euros a ticket, so I kind of don't understand the point, at least as long as I'm young enough to walk. They really need to get the Bangkok canal boats in here, which zip to downtown and back for 10 baht (30 cents).

Anyway, enough about infrastructure, what about Venice? Well, pretty much every corner has a photo op that could be a profile picture, so we overfloweth with photos. We also went to a lot of churches, because A) Ella likes them, B) The art in them is better than what we saw in the museums, and C) They're free or super cheap. And oh boy, Venetians love their churches. We even went to a church that was converted into a supermarket, making those olives and cheeses the most blessed of all. But as far as churches go, we were both a little disappointed with the big tourist attraction, St. Marco's. The outside is great, but the inside was a little meh. Except for the ceilings - man, Italians are super good at ceilings. For us, Basilica dei Frari was by far the favorite, as we found it much more impressive and basically empty. There were a million other churches we stopped at on the way, so I'll put a bunch of photos at the end.

Also it turns out the church I really wanted to see, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, isn't a church at all, or at least anymore. San Barnaba Church now is a museum about Leonardo Da Vinci, who wasn't even Venetian. Sadly, there were no grail knight crypt underneath, although I did find the "sewer" that Indy climbed out of. It's since been replaced with a square utility panel, ruining my dreams of popping up in the middle of a café before a dramatic boat chase.

As much as I like recreating Indiana Jones, I think the coolest attraction in Venice is the Acqua Alta Bookstore, oddly enough. Apparently it floods a lot, so they store all their books in bathtubs or on elevated shelves. They also turn old books into stairs and walls, and have a free gondola for your obligatory Venice photo. Also, did I mention it was full of cats? Essentially if it was attached to a KFC, there would be nothing else in this world that could compete for Ella's attention. Still, I liked it as well, because it's such an off the wall place that you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere. And to me, that's what travel is all about.

But as great as Venice is, I have very little to say about it. I think pictures would be a better job than me saying "It's really pretty" a hundred different ways, so, I'd recommend you just look at the photos (seriously, some of the best pictures I've ever taken). If I had to say something bad though, it's that the food is a bit meh. I found it less good and more expensive than Rome (except pizza was cheaper, for some reason?) Eventually after a few restaurants we just gave up and mostly ate from the grocery store - when you can get the same salad for 2 euros that'd cost 10 in a restaurant, kind of makes you consider if it's worth it.

But despite that, Venice is still one of the coolest places I've visited. I really like it here, even if it's just impossible to not take an amazing photo. I think it's been perfectly tailored to be an Old People Disneyland, but it's just so beautiful, I can't help but love it. But unfortunately it's our last stop on our Italy tour. It has been pretty memorable, and looking back at my photo gallery, it's a little surreal to remember all the amazing things we saw. I'm sure we'll be back here some day, because I feel we just did the tourist track without really "seeing" the country. That's not a bad thing, now we checked that off the list, know how things work, and we'll hit the ground running next time. Hopefully that next time starts in Rome, because I really like Rome a lot. Then maybe south towards Sicily? But for now, we're off to Paris to switch from pizza to crepes.

Even the grocery stores are beautiful

So clearly we're lost. I thought we got on the train to Florence, but I can't see the "Florence Ya'll" water tower anywhere. Still, this so-called "Fake Florence" seems nice enough, so we'll stay for a bit.

We wound up taking a slow, local train to Florence, which was about 3 hours as opposed to 2 on the high speed. But on the flipside, it was 20 euros a ticket compared to 50. When I think about how many beers 60 euros can buy, that sounds like a good deal. Plus we got to see a bit of countryside, which was nice.

Since we took the slow train, we arrived at the old station - which was part of the plan, since our hotel was in walking distance of there. But we had a few hours to kill before the room was ready, so we stopped off in a local cafe for a sandwich and to kill an hour. I forgot to mention that Ella brought a little painting kit on the trip, and has been painting her favorite photos as we go. This has been really nice, because I'm amazed at how good she is, backed up by the random compliments from strangers.

So, one thing about Florence is that I really like the city itself. The buildings and roads are made of stones, so it looks like someone converted a castle courtyard into a city. I also love how walkable it is, since there were very few cars. It reminds me a little of the Tianzifang neighborhood in Shanghai, which is a good thing. I'd love to live in a city where cars are banned or heavily restricted, because it just makes everything so much nicer.

Anyway, we walked to the Santa Maria Cathedral, which unfortunately was closed for the day. But we still walked around the square, which by itself is really impressive. Even though the restoration work of the church made a few vantage points less scenic, most looked like something out of a fairy tale. So after dinner in a wine cellar, finished off with gelato, we got some rest to get a proper start for the next day.

We started with a visit to another church we passed, Santa Croce. I knew absolutely nothing about this church, we just saw the bell tower and thought we might as well look. Turns out it's kind of a big deal. It has the graves of Dante, Michaelangelo, and Galileo. I'm not really sure where the other three Ninja Turtles are buried, but that was a nice surprise. Also, I find it kind of weird Galileo is buried in a church after the church kind of ruined his life, but hey, whatever man. I always thought "he was just a poor boy, from a poor family."

We did come back to Santa Maria (AKA the Duomo), and waited about an hour to get inside. Gotta say, not worth it. Santa Croce was much better, except for the ceiling. Actually man, something I've learned on this trip - 1) Italians really like dogs (seriously, everyone has a dog), and 2) Italians are the best ceiling makers (ceilingsmiths?) ever. So, bang up job for the ceiling, the rest of the church was meh. If there's no line it's worth it, otherwise no.

But I guess the main draw in Florence is the art. I suspect that outside of perhaps Paris, there is no place on Earth that could compete for the quality of art available. I say that like I know what I'm talking about, of course I'm an art idiot. Ella is not though, so this trip to Florence was predominantly an Ella art tour. Out of the three super famous art museums here, Ella wanted to see The Uffuzi and The Bargello. We also went to see the Pitti Palace, which turns out is much of an art tour as anything. So, quick rundown of each: The Uffuzi has the most famous paintings, like The Birth of Venus. The Bargello has the coolest building, like a medieval castle. It has mostly Christian art, still quite nice but not quite as impressive. The Pitti Palace is my favorite. It didn't really have anything super famous (to me, anyway), but it felt like what I imagine the inside of Cinderella's Castle to actually be - every room is unique and covered with art that could be a museum by itself.

Unfortunately, after two solid days of seeing art, I was getting pretty art-ed out. Like, I saw some really amazing stuff apparently, or at least things even me, an art idiot, recognize from books. So that's cool. Ella was really enjoying everything, as well as sharing the photos with her parents, both artists themselves. But I have mixed feelings on Florence. It's a beautiful city, and I enjoy hanging out there. But for me, there's not actually that much I'm interested in doing, aside from seeing a good example of city design, as I mentally curse at the few cars that brave driving the alleys. I think I prefer Rome as there is so much to do, but Florence is definitely a great weekend getaway. Certainly I saw more world-class art than I ever have in my life, and if you're a fan, Florence is the place to be. Or if you like to cosplay at a Renaissance Festival, I think you'd fit right in among the cobblestone roads. Anyway, I feel Florence is a city more to be seen than described, so I'll put some extra photos at the end.

Anywho, the next stop on the agenda is Venice. We opted for the high speed train this time, so we could have a point of comparison. Speaking of urban design, I think it will be interesting to see a city where the roads are replaced by boats. Let's see how that goes.