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xt morning i hit up the famous rialta bridge before we had to board our next train our time in venice was short but truly memorable day 6 cinque terre after an all day train ride we arrived in cinque terre for some it is a relatively unheard of group of 5 towns right on the northern coast of italy but any owner of a rick steve s guide to italy will know of this enchanting place we arrived just in time to hike up to the castle before it closed to see the view of the town of vernazza then we decided to eat at a great place right below the castle that overlooked the ocean cinque terre is famous for their pesto so i of course indulged pesto is one of my favorites i had pesto lasagna which was fantastic day 7 cinque terre and pisa all of the towns of cinque terre are connected by trails that many of the visitors emback on we decided to do the toughest but most beautiful hike in the morning from monterossa to vernazza the hike took us through grape vineyards on the slopes of the mountains before vernazza is back in view a boat from vernazza the 4 th town took us to the first town of riomaggiore from there i hiked to the remaining two cities of manarola and corniglia the scenery is just beautiful and the day was a nice change of pace from the other cities we had stayed in i even took a dip in the mediterrenean in this perfect swimming hole after bidding cinque terre a fond farewell i made a pit stop in pisa there s not really a whole lot to see in pisa but i figured if i was in italy i had to see the leaning tower so i took a quick bus into town and saw the tower everything i had heard said that you would have to wait for a couple of hours to climb the tower but when i got there there were tickets available ten minutes later i decided i would probably be there once so i had to do it it was really cool it was interesting because as you would climb the circular tower you would feel yourself leaning depending on what side of the tower you were on don t mind the pictures i was hiking all day and looked spent after my short stint in pisa i was off to florence for the night day 8 florence florence is the birthplace of the renaissance and a really fun city everything is pretty compact and close so it was fun to walk around we started off the day with a tour of the doumo the big domed cathedral in town after the duomo we meandered down to the leather markets to purchase some fine italian leather we also perused the shops of the bridge that has been home to goldsmiths for centuries although i prevented myself from making any purchases after some more shopping it was time to tour some of the famous museums in town first stop was the uffizi gallery i was kind of museum d out but the uffizi has some great pieces of art including the birth of venus after lunch in one of the great piazza s we headed to the museum that houses michelangelo s david i had definitely seen pictures of this statue but they don t do it justice michelangelo s work and level of detail is just unbelievable he even incorporated veins in david s strong hands after some more gelato and more shopping we headed up the hill for a grand view of the city as a side note we had gelato practically every day twice on some days even though i haven t mentioned it it was delicious after some more wandering we were off to rome for our last night in italy and an early flight the next morning it was a truly great vacation that i couldn t have asked more from and will never forget let s just hope throwing a coin over my shoulder at the trevi fountain really does guarantee a return posted by jason bond at 10 44 pm 2 comments italy part 1 when in rome i know it s only about a month and a half late but i m finally getting around to posting about my amazing vacation to italy we saw a lot and i felt like i needed a vacation afterwards but i wouldn t have done it any other way so here we go day 1 we landed in rome about 8 00am in the morning and headed straight to the hotel to get ready for the day before heading out to explore rome our first stop on the agenda was the coliseum and palatine hill the coliseum was just as grand as i imagined it would be it is amazing to see how sophisticated the architecture was way back then including an efficient way to get thousands to their seats and a giant retractable canopy we took a guided tour through the coliseum and subsequently to palatine hill which is where the emperor s palace used to be and has a great view of the roman forum after our lengthy tours the heat and hunger were getting to us so we decided to embark on our first meal in italy we found a quaint back alley restaurant in trastevere with delicious pasta it was a great way to start out with food in italy well fed and rested we headed over to the pantheon with its masterful domed architecture and angels demons connections after a quick walkthrough we headed up the street to the trevi fountain the trevi fountain is quite the gathering place for people in rome but is also a wonderful work of art they say if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain it will ensure your return to rome i m not superstitious but i figured anything to get me back to rome wouldn t hurt as sunset ensued we set off to our final destination of the evening the spanish steps let s be honest i don t why this place is so popular but i wasn t that impressed there are just a lot of steps and hundreds of people day or night can be found sitting on them nothing too exciting but when in rome do as the romans day 2 for the next two days we decided to join an organized tour that required being picked up at our hotel at 6 30 am luckily we were able to sleep on the bus as we headed down to naples and pompeii naples is definitely a place in italy that you could skip but pompeii was definitely worth it it was so amazing to see a whole city from 2 000 years ago preserved you can see hundreds of individual shops and houses the romans were a very advanced culture with well painted homes and temples that have been so well preserved when they were excavating the city any time they would find a hole they would fill it with plaster thus preserving the form of the ash that was being removed these plaster forms have been kept and put on display it is very sobering to see these people that were trapped when they saw the volcano erupting after touring pompeii we were taken to our hotel in sorrento sorrento is a gorgeous city along the cliff lined coast our hotel was gorgeous sitting right on the cliff we spent the evening watching the sunset enjoying a nice dinner overlooking the ocean and then exploring a little bit day 3 capri so after enjoying a nice breakfast we took a boat back over to the island of capri i keep saying everything is gorgeous but capri truly is deep turquoise water and cliffs rising out of the water after touring the town of capri and anacapri we took a chairlift up to the top of the mountain which provided splendid views of the island many of the rich and famous vacation on this island or bring their yachts to the back bay of the island we were supposed to take a boat out to the blue grotto but due to poor sea conditions no one was allowed in the blue grotto instead we took a boat around the island to see some of the splendor up close our trip to capri soon came to a close and we headed back to rome day 4 the vatican the history of the catholic church has always intrigued me so i was so excited to go see the vatican we spent the morning touring the vatican museum the museum has a massive collection of renaissance art including the school of athens the pinnacle of the vatican museum is the sistine chapel i walked in and was just stunned it is absolutely awe inspiring to see the beautiful murals on the walls and ceiling they don t let you take pictures of it but i ve included one off of the internet after the vatican museum we went around to the front of the vatican and entered st peter s square the square is something i ve always seen on tv or in movies but it was great to finally see it in person after waiting in line for a few minutes we were able to enter st peter s basilica all i can say is wow that s a big church the inside is so ornate and rich with splendor the only thing i found a little creepy is that they have some of the former popes buried in the basilica in glass coffins and don t forget that michelangelo s famous pieta is located near the entrance after touring the inside of the church i overcame my fear of heights and climbed up the dome of the basilica and looked down inside the church from up above i was definitely not regretful as the view from the dome is probably the best in rome after a nice dinner it was soon time to say goodbye to rome posted by jason bond at 10 02 pm 1 comments italy here i come friday september 4 2009 blogging has been on my list of to dos for awhile now i have so much to catch up on this summer but for now i m headed off to my last vacation of the summer i m heading to italy for 9 days it s been very stressful planning it but now i m finally leaving this will be my first time in europe so i can t wait i ll report back when i get back posted by jason bond at 12 57 pm 2 comments happy birthday to me monday july 20 2009 so friday was my birthday it was one of the best birthday s i ve had in awhile i woke up in the morning and a friend had come by before i woke up and dropped off some balloons and a dozen doughnuts from tim horton s a canadian doughnut shop that just opened in new york then on the way to work i received a phone call from my parents they woke up at 5 30 in the morning to wish me a happy birthday it was so good to talk to them throughout the day i received so many birthday wishes it is always so fun to feel everyone s love for you after lunch with a friend my team at work bought me cupcakes from crumbs bakery so tasty then they even let me leave work early i couldn t have asked for a better day but there was still so more to come a bunch of friends met up for dinner that night at one of my favorite restaurants the eatery after a great meal the fun began my friend adrienne planned the amazing birthday race based off of the reality show the amazing race that i love so much so we were given an envelope with a clue in it that clue led us to somewhere in the city once we got to that place we were supposed to call for our mission once we completed the mission we were given the clue to the next spot so the first clue led us to time square while here we had to take a picture with a member of the nypd flexing his muscles the cops are really friendly in times square but this cop was embarrassed because he said he didn t have any muscles the next stop was the late show with david letterman studies while there we had to find 3 strangers to sing me happy birthday it was actually one of the harder tasks to complete but we found some great people to do it they even sang to me in french next stop on the race columbus circle while here i was told i had to get in the fountains and hold a stranger when i first heard this i thought no way is anyone going to do this in the end it didn t take us too long to find someone to let me hold them she thought it was the coolest thing the race then took us to cold stone at this stop i had to find a stranger who would be willing to feed me a bite of their ice cream once again once i heard this i was shocked but i did it then we were off to the apple store where i had to don headphones and dance while everyone stared at me not bad compared to the last two tasks what a relief then we were off to the finish line along the way you could get bonus points for other things for example we got an extra point for finding someone to kiss me on the cheek our most proud bonus point came from finding a street vendor who let us cook a kabob on their grill and serve the next customer i thought we would never be able to find someone to let us do this because of food handling issues but we did it was the funniest thing my competitive side came out and we finished first after running to every stop it was such a blast and someone thought i would be embarrassed to do stuff like this boy were they wrong once we got back to adrienne s house we watched the other team s videos and enjoyed good food and good friends thanks adrienne for the most creative birthday activity i ve ever had you re amazing then came the after party another group of friends wanted to celebrate with me as well so i headed over to their place and we had some yummy cake and ice cream it was the perfect way to end my birthday except for the fact they put the candles that don t blow out on my birthday cake i had to take them off and put them in water to get them to go out so if all of that celebrating wasn t enough several of my closest friends share my birthday week with me just like last year we had a combined birthday party so we decorated one of my friend s roofs and had about 200 people over to party granted i didn t know all of them but it was good to see so many of my friends in the city i truly have some of the most amazing friends anyone could ever ask for here s to 27 may it be my best year yet posted by jason bond at 7 46 pm 5 comments niagara falls and palmyra tuesday july 14 2009 something i ve wanted to do since i moved out here was attend the hill cumorah pageant this last weekend i checked that one off my list several friends and i rented a minivan and headed up to rochester ny on friday night since we were already so close we also decided to head up to niagara falls once we got to the falls it started pouring rain we had rain coats but we still got soaked none of us really minded though we took lots of pictures and just had fun in the rain we headed down to the observation deck for a few more pics before we headed down to the maid of the mist my parents took me on this boat ride about 18 years ago so it was fun to go on it again it is really cool to get so close to the falls and since we were already wet we didn t care about getting more wet one of our friends is actually from canada so we decided to cross the border so he could show us some canadian classics like tim horton s and some great canadian candy on the way back from canada we had to stop at texas roadhouse this is one of my friend s favorite restaurants so anytime we go on a road trip he looks up the nearest one after a great dinner we headed down to the hill cumorah the stage is quite impressive all the characters come out before the show to meet and great our stake president was with his family performing in the pageant so we had to get a picture with him in costume the pageant was really neat and had good effects for a pageant unfortunately halfway through the pageant there was a crazy lightning storm so they had to cancel the rest of it i was really disappointed but there was nothing i could do about it on sunday after church we headed down to all of the church sites we saw the martin harris farm the gr...