Italy

So, a couple weeks ago I went to Italy for a conference. I never reported on my trip. Now, I know that 99% of the people who read this blog read it because of my wife and are primarily interested in her posts, but, I will write about this trip anyways. Mostly, I will show a few pictures of some things I saw, and provide brief descriptions. I started out the trip going to Lugano, Switzerland. It is just across the Swiss border, and is very beautiful. I went to church there on Sunday, and, the Church is still true when done in Italian in Switzerland.

This is Milan's largest attraction, the Duomo. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world, and is amazing. I have seen many amazing things in my life created my nature, that make you sit back in awe. I had never experienced that with something man made. This made me sit back in awe. Started over 600 years ago, this building is old, huge, and so amazing. Here is me on the roof of this building. The statues all over the place are large - 4-6 feet tall, and there are over 1000 of them on the building. I just kept on taking picture after picture, hoping somehow I would be able to capture the magnificence of the building - I failed.

After the conference ended, I spent a few days in Italy on my own dime. I went to Venice. It was alright. This is a picture. While the thought of a city with streets of water sounds quaint, my vote is that it was somewhat overrated.

I also went to Verona, Italy. This is the third largest Roman arena in Italy, and the best preserved. It was amazing to see the Cathedral in Milan and think it was over 600 years old. It was even more amazing to think that this building is 2000 years old (completed in 30 AD). It seats 25,000 people. Had the people of the New Testament walked up to Verona, it would have been there. Amazing.

This is a castle in Milan. It was pretty amazing. At the conference, we had a dinner. It was the longest dinner I had ever been to, with official time (as kept by me) at 2 hours and 58 minutes. They like lots of courses, and like to eat slowly. I also ended up with 5 separate glasses at my setting. A lot of glasses. It was also the first time I had been given a fish knife. It was definitely the place for a refined and cultured Idahoan such as myself.

This statue of the dead Christ and the Virgin Mary is by Michelangelo. He didn't finish it. I saw a lot of art there, even though Milan is not known for its art. It was amazing to see works of art that were from 400-1600 years old, and see how beautiful it was. Amazing.

So, this was a little balcony in Verona, Italy. It is supposed to be where Juliet talked to Romeo. What they forget to tell all the tourists is that it is a fictional story. Anyways. It was still kind of cool.

So, that is that. Like I mentioned, I saw a lot of amazing things, and the more I saw, the more I realized I could not capture my amazement by taking a lot of pictures. But, I tried. Here are all the pictures I took on a little show. It will go through them. However, if you want to look at them, it would be best to click on them and look at them all at the same time.