Michele and Dave Schanker- powered by SmugMug

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Schanker European Vacation Part 1 Galleries

Venice : We spent 2 days in Venice, Italy. Venice is such a great city. Our first stop on the 17 day trip, and one of our favorites! While we were there was managed to take a gondola ride through the canals of venice. Which of course we had to negotiate with the godola drivers. We also fed the pigeons in st marks...not once but twice. It's pretty crazy to have all these pigeons just flock to you. They will land everywhere on you, even your head. (see the picture of me with a pigeon on my head). We roamed the streets of venice, visited the Murano Glass Factory, toured the Guggenheim Collections and saw original paintings from Picasso, Dali, and Pollock.

Florence : Florence was our second stop during our italy trip. Florence was so different from Venice. We never saw a car in venice, and Florence was filled with tiny cars and scooters. There are hardly any traffic lights. So people just kind of go when ever they feel like it. It's total chaos. Much different from home! We spent valentine's day in Florence and had dinner at a really nice restaurant. One of the best meals we had the entire trip! While in Florence we visited several Museums including the Uffizi, Academia, and Archelogical Museum. we also hiked up the hill to Michaelangelo Piazza to overlook the city of Florence. It was quite interesting to be in the city where Michelangelo, Leondaro, and Donatello all resided.

Rome : We spent 3 days in Rome. Rome was an amazing city. Here we saw all the ruins, Coloseum, Vatican, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We also discovered that Dave likes Italian White Wine. One evening we found a really cute cafe in one of the upscale piazza's. We sat outside under a heater and enjoyed a bottle of house wine. It was one of our favorite moments of the trip. The cafe was wonderful and they kept us stocked with wonderful finger foods. We had one rainy day while in Rome, but we made the best of it.

Pisa : Our one day trip to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We arrived in pisa at 11am and left early the following day. It was a great day to see the tower, but extremely windy at the top! After visitng the tower we used the rest of the day to relax, shop, and enjoy dinner by the leaning tower.

Susa, Italy (Where we stayed during the olympics) : Susa, Italy is where we styed during the olympic games. An italian family was kind enough to let us rent out a spare room. The town was really cute. it was located about halfway between Torino and the mountains. Before we left I took a walk to the train station so I could take some photos of the town.

Susa, Italy (Where we stayed during the olympics)

City of Torino : The olympics were a blast! So much fun. And the family that allowed us to stay with them was amazing. Their hospitatity was fantastic! Here are pictures from the city of Torino.

Aeiral Skiing Adventure : We had quite an adventure while attending the aerial skiing event. The event got postponed due to snow. We stood in the snow for 3 hours, which fell at a rate of about 2 inches/hour. Then the roads were closed and the buses couldn't get down the hill. So we walked 4 miles in the snow to the train station. We never got to see the Aerial skiing since it got moved to the day of our hockey game tickets.

Aeiral Skiing Adventure

Slalom Skiing : On Feb 20th we got to enjoy the slalom skiing in Seistere, Italy. It was really neat to be able to see the skiers fly down the slalom course. We got to see Bodie Miller, but he finished 7th overall.

Ski Jumping : On Feb 20th we also saw the Team Ski Jumping on the large hill. We stood pretty much at the bottom of the hill and were able to have a pretty good view of the skiers as the came off the jump.

Hockey Game Czech Vs Canada : The czech vs canada game was a good game and full of excitment. We got to see Dave's favorite hockey player as he played for Team Canada. Canada won the game.

Hockey Game Czech Vs Canada

Skiing at the Matterhorn (Zermatt) : After the olympics we made the journey up to Zermatt, Switzerland. Just when we got used to Itallian, the language changed to Deutch! Zermatt was a neat experience since you could literally ski over the border back into Italy. Skiing at the Matterhorn was amazing. Great powder and a huge mountain! It was totally different from any other place we have skied, even mammoth. It's just so expansive!We could have skied there for an entire week and still not have hit al the trails available there. Riding cable cars up the mountain was a new experience for both of us. We weren't able to get lots of pictures since we were on the slopes all day, but here is what we do have.

Skiing at the Matterhorn (Zermatt)

Last Minute Stop - Paris : One our way back on Feb 25th, our plane was late departing Geneva. This caued us to miss our connetion flight by about 5 minutes! Since Air France decided to take off without us on board the plane to LAX, Dave and I got to enjoy a free hotel stay in paris. Therefore we took a trip into the city to see the Eiffel Tower. We wondered around in the cold without hats and stuff, since everything was packed in our suitcases. The walked along the Seine River until we reached the Eiffel Tower. On sunday Feb 26th we boarded our plane back to LAX. The entire trip home took about 43 hours But we've decided that we'd like to get back to paris for a few days. We may even work in wine tour and travel down to Spain. But thats a trip for the future.

Last Minute Stop - Paris