After spending the morning exploring Cortona, Funnel headed back to the hotel for a nap, and I decided to do some shopping in the town square.  I browsed several pottery shops, a textile shop, a couple of art galleries, and some general souvenier shops. 
After a bit, I went back to the hotel to get Funnel, [...]

Our second day in Cortona started out with a buffet breakfast in our hotel -quite an impressive spread.  Croissants, Crostata (a baked italian jam tart), fruit, yogurt, cereal, eggs, proscuitto and some other meats.  A sweet Italian lady was making drinks for everyone and we both had a cappucino.
It was a beautiful day, the nicest our [...]

Funnel and I continued ascending the hill above the town of Cortona. 

At one point, we ran into an American and talked with him for a bit.  He’s a professor with the University of Georgia, which has a study-abroad program in Cortona.  He was currently there with a group of students, teaching a course on wine [...]

Our train from Venice left late in the morning.  It took us three trains to get to the tiny Tuscan hilltown of Cortona, and it was absolutely gorgeous riding through the Italian countryside.  The red poppies were starting to dot the landscape and I saw so many little villages that I wish we had time [...]

For our last night in Venice, Funnel and I wanted to have  a special evening: a nice dinner and a romantic gondola ride.  I was especially excited for dinner because I had been sick for several days, and this would be my first meal in awhile that wasn’t plain pasta or white rice.  We headed [...]

Our first two days of Venice, I still wasn’t feeling well.  Pretty much any food gave me issues, I was sick all night, and the pharmacist told me I could only eat plain white rice or plain pasta (no sauce).  Not so great when you are in Italy surrounded by amazing food.   I still felt [...]

On our second day of Venice, Funnel and I took our vaporetto to a little island called San Giorgio Maggiore.  It was teeny-tiny and there wasn’t much there: a church, an ice cream shop, some ships and little, old man, but it was fun to explore and we got some nice views of Piazza San [...]

The Piazza San Marco (aka Saint Mark’s Square) is the main area in Venice.  It was full of guided tour groups, vendors selling carts of souveniers, gondeliers offering rides, people eating gelato, and pigeons.   We spent time there, during our 2nd and 3rd day in Venice.

On our last day in Venice, Funnel and I paid [...]

After being sick for our entire stay in Nice, I was excited to head to Venice, hoping that I would start feeling a little better.  We boarded our train early that morning and headed to Italy.  It took us three trains to get to Venice, and none were as nice as the train that took us from [...]

The morning that Funnel & I were to leave Paris for Nice, I wasn’t feeling well.  I told Funnel to get breakfast without me so that I could stay in bed for a little bit longer.  While he was gone, I got sick.  He brought me back a croissant and some tea, which I thought [...]