Don's Pictures

          In the fall of 2001 we decided to tour northern Italy and also enjoy some of the skiing.  As the time grew closer it became apparent that we would not have time to ski and also do the road trip we had decided upon.  I voted for the skiing because there's only a few things to see in northern Italy and everyone knows the rest is junk.  I was out voted however and so decided to put a brave face on a potentially disasterous trip.  We decided to fly out of Denver on Christmas day and head for Milan.  We would arrive on the morning of the 26th and stay for two full days and leave mid-morning on the 28th, driving though Pavia, Genoa and down the coast to le Grazie.  We toured the sea coast and Cinque Terre on the 29th and drove though Pisa that afternoon and on to Florence.  We stayed in Florence that evening and two more days, leaving on New Years day.  We then visited San Gimignano late in the afternoon and arrived in Bologna that evening.  From there, we drove to Ravenna and toured that town for the day and then moved up along the coast to Venice on the evening of the 2nd.  We stayed in Venice the third and fourth of January and left the morning of the fifth.  We drove through Padua and arrived in Verona around noon for a quick visit and then quickly drove on to Milan to return our rental car minutes before the agency closed its doors for the night.  We left by bus for the airport the next morning, the sixth, and arrived back in Denver later in the evening of the same day.

          You can also follow the trip by clicking on the green stars on the map.