First stop - Ferrara, Italy

I flew into Venice, and we drove to Ferrara where John had been working for the previous month or so. The hotel was in a beautiful location just outside of town. We got to run every day on the most picturesque farm road right next to the hotel. John still had two more days of work left, so I spent the next first day sleeping and the second day playing in downtown Ferrara with another friend who was already finished working. The town was really pretty! I was going to write the history of these places as I posted these pictures, but John has the travel guides... They didn't fit in my bags. Here is a picture of the Church. Doesn't the sky look gorgeous here?

This was just a beautiful stairway. Everywhere we walked on this trip we could see beauty like this even in the most crowded cities.

The castle in Ferrara was really interesting! It was built by a ruling family that was part crazy despot but also part supporter of the Renaissance artistic movement. Several famous painters came from this town. I forgot which ones though.

The door into one of the prison cells reminded me of the doors in Wonderland. Poor Gish had to bend over double just to get through.

An example of the ornate ceilings.

The view from a balcony filled with orange trees.

On our last day, John got to go see the castle himself while I finished shopping. :) Then we traveled to our next stop!