///anniversary.in.rome///

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///snow.in.firenze///

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so….our last day in florence consisted of a record setting snow fall. according to the lady i talked to in the market that day florence had not seen this amount of snow since 1985! my memories of this event will top out at the epic snowball fight xander and myself found ourselves in. this took place in the piazza in-front of santa croche. there were approximately 500 italian men outside (more spectating) passionately hurling snow at one-another. this happened the only way it could if you only saw this amount of snow once every 25 years.  needless to say this ended with my glasses on the ground and the a cheek kiss from my italian snow-throwing nemesis.

///cinque.terre.///

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///do.it.dutch.///netherlands///

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///rome///

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///biennale///

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WARNING: this post may contain specific information and have limited interest to those who enjoy architecture.

we spent one day in venice at the biannale. this is a biennia design expo focused on current architecture. every other year the most influential architects from around the world gather to display recent works or theories. also countries as a whole develop installations to best demonstrate the pressing architectural concepts from their homeland.  the theme for this year was “people meet in architecture.” i found it inspirational to see the different architectural thoughts from all over the globe.

///venice///

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this place is not real its just a nicer version of the “it’s a small world” ride in Disney. no way people actually live here. they don’t even have cars. add the fact that seafood is a dietary staple and I am here to stay. weather aside we had a great time. the visiting graenings, kenzie and myself very much enjoyed our 2 days in venice. we were happy just to see mackenzie’s parents, as they were here to visit, let alone spend 2 days with them in venice. kathy our travel agent found us a perfect apartment along a quiet residential canal. bill and i would sit and drink coffee to the view of canal water lapping up to our kitchen door. our gondola ride was short and cheap. kenzie and i were unwilling to shell out the $100 a piece for a gondola ride and instead took the 1 euro gondola just to cross the grand canal.