We are underway on our adventures!! Our package never arrived with our tickets, but we did happen to find passes at a good price in Budapest at the Eurail office. We missed out on most of Croatia, which is quite sad, so we will have to come back someday. We had a great time in Split, then took a ferry over to Ancona, Italy. Split was a great city to do in a day, and beautiful at that. There is this great bell tower that overlooks the whole city, and the view is beautiful!                                         Of course, Rome was amazing. You could be there for a week and not see everything. For sake of time, we went to the most important things. The Colosseum, of course. Then the Vatican city and Sistine chapel was awesome, we had a great time going up to the Capella of St. Peters Basilica. You actually walk up about 50 flights of extremely narrow stairs, and walk in a curved dome shape staircase around the actual dome, and then come out for a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire city. Its hard to explain, but lets just say, if you get claustrophobic at all, don't think about it!
   After Rome was Florence, and we stayed in a small town in the countryside of Tuscany. I think I enjoyed the small Town more than the crowded touristy city of Florence. I had the best pizza of my life there. The difference, garden ripened tasting vegetables and fresh flavorful ingredients. Basil of course helps anything. Who would have thought that freshness could affect quality so much? So much better than the methylene gas ripened vegetables we consume in the States.
  We took a side trip to Pisa, and saw the leaning tower. Pretty cool sight. It was 15 Euro to walk up it, so we decided not to. The next day was Venice. Super cool city just to get lost in. For all the winding streets and beautiful architecture and bridges, its hard to take a bad picture. I loved the masquerade masks, and I wish so badly I could take one home for my artistic actor in training sister! She would have loved to have one!
    Finally, we spent our last days in Italy in the Cinque Terre. Highly recommend by my friend Emmi Genovese and Rick Steve's (Author of Europe through the Back Door), we were not disappointed. If you have not had the opportunity to travel here, put it on your bucket list. It is a set of 5 small villages on the Italian river set right up into the mountains. We stayed in Vernazza, the 4th village, and it was the best by far. The smallest and the least touristy by night. In the evening the locals come down and join the few tourists smart enough to stay there. they have had some bad flooding, and the city has had to be remodeled. Despite this, it is still beautiful.
      Italy was overall amazing. The Italians are crazy, passionate, aggressive and amazing. Its been a great trip so far, and we are looking forward to many more countries.. That's three down, about 13 more to go! Pray for us! Miss you and love you all!