We arrived in Florence by train at lunch time, but staved off hunger to explore the Santa Maria Novella church near the station. We instantly recognized the clean, geometric exterior which, like other buildings in Assassin’s Creed 2, were faithfully digitized in the game. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing lunch deal at Trattoria il Contadino, where the prix fixe menu includes homemade pasta and juicy swordfish for a mere 10.5 euro a person. Fortified, we visited Museo Galileo to get nerdy with ancient instruments for navigation, medicine, and physics, then at Santa Croce to peruse the tombs of famous Florentines including Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante. Exhausted, we took a nap in the courtyard before a long trek back to our faraway hotel and a light dinner of Schiacciata pizza. The next morning began with a workout just short of insane – a 460-step climb up the Duomo to arrive, slick with sweat, at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. After stopping by the Duomo Museum and checking out the impressive doors of the Baptistery, we crossed to San Lorenzo to the Medici Palace and Chapels, where we found that Ezio’s rescue of Lorenzo the Magnificent during the Pazzi Conspiracy allowed him to live another 14 years. We stopped for a low-key lunch at Trattoria Mario including a whole octopus for Melody, before checking out the Museum of San Marco and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s David. For dinner, Trattoria Cibreo served up tomato bread soup, creamy mushroom soup, cheese flan, codfish mousse, and a potato gratinee. Although everything was essentially mush, it was all delicious mush. On our last day, we ran into a friend’s parents at the here.

Having soared across rooftops and scaled towers as a caped assassin in digital Venice and Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2, we could not resist visiting Italy to see these cities in real life. We arrived at the floating city (an island aptly shaped like a big fish) by water bus, where a bait and switch landed us at a hotel right along the Grand Canal. After a review of Venetian history and culture at the Correr Museum, we were mobbed by pigeons and the idiots feeding them in St. Mark’s Square. We ate dinner at Il Ridotto, where the pasta “calamari” featured shrimp gently cooked to tender, cuddly perfection. The next morning, our hotel speedboat took us to beautiful Murano, where our guide Lorenzo from Estevan Rossetto showed us some amazing glass-blowing technique, followed by some even more amazing glass-selling technique. A pricey snail sculpture caught our eye, but instead we sailed to colorful Burano to visit lace shops and enjoy a delicious al dente pasta along the canal. Unable to get the snail out of our minds, we succumbed and returned to Murano to give Lorenzo his commission. Back in Venice, we toured Doge’s Palace and crossed the Bridge of Sighs, which was sadly obscured by the surrounding scaffolds. Dinner at Corte Sconta featured a fantastic assortment of seafood appetizers and very salty pasta. On our last day, we embarked on a morning walking tour which took us across the Grand Canal via the Rialto to the tip of Dursoduro. Along the way, we passed the bustling fish market, the Frari Church, many gelato stands, the apartments of Ca’Rezzonico, and our favorite Scuola Grande, plastered from ceiling to floors with powerful Tintoretto paintings. Avoiding the high-priced gondolas, we took a traghetti back to St Mark’s Basilica, where we were ready for the non-existent pickpockets as we gazed around Ezio’s prettiest assassin’s crypt puzzle. We had our last and best meal in Venice at Alle Testiere, which proudly serves no pasta but the most perfect grilled seafood platter on the island. Complemented by a light, creamy tiramisu, it was the perfect way to end our visit.