KilmerMedia

This travel journal details both the fascination and confusion brought on by one of the world's great cities: Venice, Italy.

“The Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo!” -Mark Twain, “The Innocents Abroad”* In lieu of a “Welcome” sign, your arrival in Florence is marked by an increase in the amount of graffiti on walls running alongside the train tracks. At home in Los Angeles, dedicated crews remove such tagging in a perpetual game of Whack-a-Mole. Here, though, no one seems to mind, and you have to wonder if the oldest layers of paint date b

We start the day in Siena with a continental breakfast – the standard, uninspired fare of hardboiled eggs, cold cuts, cheese, bread. Evermore important, though, we get the party started by pounding some machine-made espresso, then we head outside. The van pulls up right on schedule, and we are the second couple in. We stop at two more hotels up the road, then begin the 45 minute trek along winding roads of Tuscany. Eventually, the medieval towers of San Gimignano start to pee