Welcome
Welcome to the galleries for our visit to Italy in 2017. There are four gallery sets: one for Venice, one for Faenza, one for Florence, and finally one for the showcase event of our trip, the wedding of Dave's great-niece Caroline to Giuseppe.
Each gallery page contains up to 15 reasonably large thumbnails for general interest viewing. If you want to see more detail for a particular photo, just click on it for a larger (and printable) view. In the larger view you can click on "previous" and "next" at the top to scroll back and forth among the photos. Enjoy!
Venice
En route from our Baltic cruise termination in Copenhagen to the big wedding in Faenza, Italy, we spent four wonderful days in Venice. We stayed in a hotel right on the Grand Canal which gave us great access to the city. We knew vehicles are not allowed in the city and that you must walk everywhere or take a water taxi or water bus. What we didn't realize was that when you walk, not only are you walking horizontally, but when you come to one of the many canals (which is very frequently), you are taking many vertical steps up and down to cross them! Figure that into your FitBit.
We had a couple of days just to wander around on our own plus another day on a walking tour with a guide. We also spent a lovely day taking a public-tour ferry out to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is noted for its glass, Burano, for its lace.
Faenza and Brisighella
We spent nearly a week in Faenza, Giuseppe's home town. It was a great time for us just to lay back and relax after our more intense cruise ship and Venice schedules. We thoroughly enjoyed that down-time and had a lot of fun just casually wandering around exploring the sights. We not only walked the streets of Faenza, but we took the train up to Brisighella where Giuseppe proposed to Caroline. Brisighella is recognized as one of Italy's most romantic spots. We hiked up the road to a castle and then took a path along the ridge over to the clock tower where Giuseppe proposed. An impressive, but exhausting day.
Florence
Caroline and Giuseppe needed to make a trip to the American Consulate in Florence so we jumped at the opportunity to tag along and take in some of the sights. We had a great time wandering around on our own and then joining them after their mission was complete for a trip to the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's statute of David is located. We had intended to visit the Uffizi Gallery Museum, but unfortunately the wait in the ticket line was too great. Instead, we visited the Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
Caroline & Giuseppe's Wedding
And here is the highlight of our European trip: Caroline and Giuseppe's wedding. It was truly a Cinderella wedding, a story-book romantic time in Italy, a dream come true.
There are three segments: (1) the rehearsal dinner in Brisighella, (2) the wedding in Faenza, and, (3) the reception and dinner at the Villa la Pandolfa.
See it all:
The wedding was on Saturday. We stayed in Faenza another day and joined in the farewell luncheon on Sunday. On Monday we took the train back to Venice and flew home from there on Tuesday.
That's it. That was our trip to Italy. It was a wonderful time. Hope you enjoyed.