By flying to Italy our official honeymoon started. We had to wait 5 unexpected hours at Prague's airport since our flight was rescheduled and we didn't know about it, so we arrived in Venice around 10 pm. We took water bus to our hotel, unfortunately it was dark so we didn't see much of the city that time. We had practically only one and half days in Venice, but it was just right. We visited St. Marco square which was just around a corner from our hotel, then we walked around the Venice labyrinth, took another water bus, this time we could actually see the canals and buildings, met for a dinner with my former colleague and friend Mary who happened to be in Venice too, and finished with gondola ride in the evening. The next day we took a water bus back to the airport after relaxing breakfast, picked up reserved car and drove to Bolzano, which was near Dolomites.
PHOTOS FROM VENICE
Odletem do Italie oficialne zacinala nase svatebni cesta. Na prazskem letisti jsme museli necekane 5 hodin cekat, jelikoz nas let byl presunut a nikdo nam o tom nerekl, tim padem jsme do Benatek prileteli az v 22 hodin vecer. Do naseho hotelu jsme jeli vodnim autobusem, ale jelikoz uz byla tma, tak jsme z mesta nic nevideli. Na prohlidku Benatek jsme meli asi jeden a pul dne, coz bylo tak akorat. Navstivili jsme namesti Svateho Marka, ktere bylo jen kousek od naseho hotelu, pak jsme se prosli Benatskym labyrintem, vzali jsme dalsi vodni autobus, tentokrat jsme ale videli Benatske kanaly a domy, zasli jsme na veceri s byvalou kolegyni a kamaradkou Mary, ktera byla zrovna taky v Benatkach a vse jsme zakoncili projizdkou na gondole vecer. Nasledujici den jsem po snidani opet jeli vodnim autobusem zpet na letiste, kde jsem si vyzvedli predem zamluvene auto a odjeli do Bolzana, ktere je pobliz Dolomit.
FOTKY Z BENATEK
Dolomites/Dolomity
Our honeymoon "had to" include mountains and Dolomites were the obvious choice. We planned 4-day, 23 mile Sciliar & Catinaccio loop. We reserved three nights at different rifugios. The first day we took the world's longest aerial cableway up to Compaccio and from there we hiked mostly up to Rifugio Alpe di Tires. We got rained on for about half an hour, but otherwise the weather was nice, and we walked on clear path. The second day we walked to Rifugio Re Alberto. Now we were in higher elevation (around 8000 feet) and we encountered snow covered trail. I think if we were first people to walk there we would turn around, but since we saw other people ahead of us we continued. The trail was quite steep and almost 99 % covered by snow, so I thought that without crampons and ice axe it is not safe. Luckily the snow was soft and as we ran a few times into uncovered path, I realized that it was probably easier to walk on the snow. The trail to the next rifugio wasn't long, so we arrived quite early in the afternoon and had a time to relax and go for another short walk. The third day we partially retraced our steps and went over another scary looking pass to our last rifugio - Antermoia. Again we spent the afternoon by relaxing and exploring the surrounding. The last day we got up really early and at 6 am we were on our way down back to Compaccio, we had to go over one more pass, but otherwise it was all downhill and around 11 am we were by the cableway. The reason for our early descent was that we left our luggage at Bolzano hotel and they were going to be closed from 1 - 4 pm. We arrived at the hotel on time, picked up our luggage, had quick lunch and started our drive to Florence. We took the paid highways which saved us quite a lot of time. The drive was smooth, only to find the rental cars at the small airport was a little challenge. Then we took bus to center of Florence and found our very nice hotel.
PHOTOS FROM DOLOMITES
Nase svatebni cesta "musela" obsahovat navstevu hor a Dolomity byla jednoducha volba. Naplanovali jsme ctyr denni, 37 km okruh Sciliar & Catinaccio. Reservovali jsme si tri noci v horskych chatkach. Prvni den jsme zacali jizdou na svetove nejdelsi lanovce do Campaccio a odtud jsme sli, prevazne nahoru do horske chaty Alpe di Tires. Zastihl nas asi pulhodinovy dest, ale jinak pocasi bylo pekne a cesta cista. Druhy den jsem sli do horske chaty Re Alberto. Ted, kdyz uz jsme byli ve vetsi nadmorske vysce (asi 2400 m) jsme narazili na snih pokryvajici cestu. Myslim, ze kdybychom sli jako prvni, tak bychom se obratili, ale jelikoz jsme videli lidi pred nami tak jsme pokracovali. Cesta byla hodne prikra a z 99% pokryt snehem, myslela jsem si, ze bez macek a cepinu to neni bezpecne. Nastesti snih byl mekky a pote co jsme narazili na nejake odkryte useky, jsem si uvedomila, ze je to po snehu jednodussi. Cesta na dalsi horskou chatu nebyla daleko a tak jsme dorazili brzy odpoledne a meli jsme cas si odpocinout a zajit si na dalsi malou prochazku. Treti den jsme se castecne vratili a presli jsme dalsi hruzostrasne vypadajici prusmyky do nasi posledni horske chaty - Antermonia. Opet jsme stravili odpoledne odpocivanim a prozkoumavanim okoli. Posledni den jsme vstali brzo rano a v 6 hodin jsme byli na ceste zpet do Compaccio, museli jsme jeste pres jeden prusmyk, ale jinak cesta byla vice mene jen skopce a kolem 11 hodiny jsme byli u lanovky. Duvodem pro nas casny setup bylo, ze jsme si nechali zavazadla v hotelu v Bolzanu a hotel byl od 13 h - 16 h zavreny. Do hotelu jsme dorazili vcas, vyzvedli nase zavazadla, rychle poobedvali a vyrazili na nasi jizdu do Florencie. Jeli jsme po placene dalnici coz nam usetrilo hodne casu. Cesta byla bez problemu, jen najit pujcovnu aut na malem Flrentskem letisti bylo trochu napinave. Pak jsme odjeli autobusem do centra Florencie a nasli nas moc pekny hotel.
FOTKY Z DOLOMIT
Florence/Florencie
The first day in Florence supposed to be just relaxing wandering around the city, and visiting some museums, but since the day would be Monday and most museums are closed on Mondays, we went for a tour to Tuscany. First stop was Siena, beautiful old town with interesting tradition in horse racing twice in the summer in the main square, which is in shape of shell. After Siena we went for lunch with wine tasting, of course we tried Tuscany's famous Chianti. After that we drove to San Gimignano, another interesting medieval town, known as "Medieval Manhattan", we had some time to wander around and tasted the world best ice cream. Last stop was Pisa, most of the time there we spent by the leaning tower of Pisa, but then we took a bus around. The second day we started with Florence sightseeing, our hotel was almost in the center of the city so we could just walk everywhere. First we stopped at Florence Cathedral, walked up to the tower for nice views, after lunch we had prepaid tickets to Uffizi Gallery, which is one of the must see in Florence. In the evening we put our nice clothes on and went for nice romantic dinner since we were on our honeymoon. We started our next day by climbing up the Cathedral dome. Our train tickets to Rome were for 3:30 pm, we tried to exchanged them for earlier time, but we couldn't, so we had more time to wander around Florence and to have nice lunch. The train to Rome took just about 1 hour.
PHOTOS FROM FLORENCE
Prvni den ve Florencii jsme puvodne chteli mit na poklidne prochazeni mesta a navstevu muzei, ale jelikoz to bylo pondeli a v pondeli je vetsina muzeii zavrena, jeli jsme misto toho do Toskanska. Prvni zastavka byla v Siene, malebnem starem meste se zajimavou tradici konskych zavodu dvakrat v lete na hlavnim namesti, ktere je ve tvaru musle. Po Siene jsme jeli na obed s kostovanim vina, samozrejme jsme ochutnali Toskanske Chianti. Pote jsme jeli do San gimignano, dalsi zajimave stredoveke mesto, zname jako "Stredoveky Manhattan", meli jsme nejaky cas na projiti mesta a ochutnali jsme nejlepsi svetovou zmrzlinu. Posledni zastavka byla Pisa, nejvice casu jsme stravili u naklanejici se veze, ale pak jsme se projeli po meste autobusem. Druhy den jsme zacali s prohlidkou Florencie, naz hotel byl temer v centru, tak ze jsme odtud mohli vsude dojit. Prvni jsme zasli do Florencske katedraly, vysli jsme si na vez a kochali pohledy na Florencii, po obede jsme meli predplacene vstupenky do galerie Uffizi, ktera je s jednou mist, ktere by kazdy mel videt pri navsteve Florencie. Vecer jsme se pekne oblekly a zasli si na romantickou veceri jelikoz jsme byli na nasi svatebni ceste. Dalsi den jsme zacali vystoupanim do kopule Florencske katedraly. Nas vlak do Rima jel ve 15:30 hodin, pokusili jsme se nase listky vymenit za drivejsi cas, ale neslo to, tak jsme alespon meli vice casu na dalsi prochazku Florencii a obed. Vlak to Rima jel asi hodinu.
FOTKY Z FLORENCIE
Rome/Rim
We arrived to Rome around 5 pm. We were ready for dinner, but for Italian it was too early to eat, so we walked down and had first look at Colosseum. We were the first guests at 7:30 pm at restaurant, which was selected based on Lonely planet. It was very nice restaurant and we felt little bit underdressed, especially since we were rained on on the way there. Our first full day in Rome we started at Colosseum and then Roman forum and Palatine Hill. It was amazing to walk around these historical places, but also it was very hot. Luckily it wasn't difficult to find drinking water and we were making sure we stay well hydrated. In the afternoon we wander around Rome more, seeing history at every step on our way to Pantheon and Navona square. The next day we reserved for Vatican. We arrived to St. Peter's square with many other tourists, so to get to St. Peter's basilica it took us about an hour. It was definitely worth it. We also went up to the dome for more views of Rome. At 1 pm we went to Vatican museum. Our guide book said that if you would want to spend on every exhibit one minute, you would spend 12 years there. We didn't have so much time, se we had to make selections, the best part was of course the Sistine Chapel. Our last day in Rome we took a tour to Pompeii. First we stopped at mt. Vesuvius and hiked up to the rim. It was a little bit cloudy and the view on Naples wasn't the best. Then we stopped for lunch and had pizza Margarita, which has an origin in the area. Last stop was at Pompeii. We spent about 2 hours walking around this ancient city, once buried under lava. I was very surprised how big and modern for its time it was. When we returned to Rome, we went for our last nice dinner in Italy. After dinner, even quite tired, we went one more time to Colosseum to see it light up in the dark. The next day we finished our visit in Rome by watching movie about history of Rome, then we took a train to the airport and flew back to Prague. We stayed overnight at my aunt's flat and then next morning we flew back to California.
PHOTOS FROM ROME
Do Rima jsme prijeli kolem 17 hodiny. Chteli jsme jit zrovna na veceri, ale na Italy to bylo prilis brzo, a tak jsme se sli poprve podivat na Coloseum. V 19:30 jsme byli jako prvni v restauraci, kterou jsme vybrali na zaklade doporuceni pruvodce Lonely Planet. Byla to moc pekna restaurace a my jsme meli pocit, ze nejsme adekvatne obleceni, zvlaste, kdyz jsme po ceste tam jeste zmokli. Nas prvni den v Rime jsme zacali v Coloseu a pak Rimskem foru a Palaninskem kopci. Bylo to uzasne prochazet temito historickymi misty, ale bylo take velke vedro. Nastesti bylo jednoduche najit pitnou vodu a my jsme se snazili dodrzovat pitny rezim. Odpoledne jsem se dale prochazeli po Rime, kde jsme videli historii na kazdem kroku na nasi ceste do Pantheon a namesti Navona. Dalsi den jsme meli vyhrazeny pro Vatican. Na namesti Svateho Petra jsme dorazili s mnoha dalsimi turisty, a tak dostat se do baziliky svateho Petra nam trvalo asi hodinu, ale stalo to za to. Zasli jsme si take do kopule abychom se mohli pokochat vyhledy na Rim. Ve 13 hodin jsme sli do Vatikanskeho musea. Nas pruvodce rikal, ze kdybychom stravili 1 minutu u kazdeho exponatu, tak bychom v muzeu zustali 12 let. Tolik casu jsme nemeli a tak jsme museli vybirat, tou nejlepsi casti byla samozreme Sistinska kaple. Posledni den v Rime jsme jeli na vylet do Pompeii. Nejdrive jsme se zastavili u sopky Vesuvius a vysli si nahoru. Bylo trochu zatazeno a tak vyhled na Neapol nebyl ten nejlepsi. Pote jsme se zastavili na obed a dali si pizu Margaritu, ktera je z teho oblasti. Posledni zastavka byli Pompeje. Asi 2 hodiny jsme prochazeli timto prastarym mestem, kdysi pohrbenym pod lavou. Byla jsem prekvapena jak velke a na tu dobu moderni mesto to bylo. Kdyz jsme se vratili zpet do Rima, zasli jsme si na posledni peknou veceri v Italii. Po veceri, i kdyz jsme byli docela unaveni, jsme si zasli jeste jednou ke Coloseu, abychom videli, jak je osvicene v noci. Druhy den jsme nasi navstevu Rima zakoncili podivanim se na film o historii Rima, pak jsme vlakem odjeli na letiste a odleteli zpet do Prahy. Zustali jsme jednu noc u moji tety a hned druhy den rano jsme leteli zpet do Kalifornie.
FOTKY Z RIMA
