Have you ever enjoyed a game for its environment and setting more than the actual gameplay? I recently finished Assassin's Creed 2 on the Xbox 360, and while I had great time with the game itself, I had more fun being in Italy's Renaissance period.

Almost a year ago, my wife and I spent three and a half weeks traveling through Europe. We visited historic cities including London, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Venice, Athens and Munich. There were so many exciting landmarks we had the chance to see, but out of all the places we visited, Florence and Venice were my favorites. Our stay in Florence -- or Firenze in Italian -- gave us the opportunity to see the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. We walked all the way around it, something I emulated in the game after I accidentally pissed off a city guard.

In front of the Duomo in Florence

Our last stop in Italy was the fabulous city of Venice, or Venezia. Known as the City of Water, it was definitely my favorite stop. It had been raining hard before we got there, so the streets were flooded. This meant we had to walk on wooden risers which helped us not get our pants and shoes sopping wet. Luckily the hotel was very close to the train station so we didn't have to go far. That's the first time I've ever had to walk over water in order to get to my hotel. After checking in and putting away our bags, we were pretty hungry. And wouldn't you know, there was an eatery right across from our hotel. We had to duck our heads when we entered because they had a small piece of wood keeping the water from entering. We ended up getting two amazing slices of pizza which was some of the best I've ever had. That's one of my most memorable stories, and I just had to share.

St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace

My time in AC2's Venice wasn't quite as memorable, but I had a blast being able to see so many of the same locations I'd already seen in real life. When I first made my way to the San Marco district, I did so with the flying machine. It's one of the coolest missions in the game, not only because I was flying (!), but because I got to see St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace; we went inside both of these landmarks on our trip. The inside of St. Mark's Basilica is astounding -- the walls, ceilings and even the floors are so intricately decorated that it would take a whole day to observe each and every work of art. In AC2, I explored the inside of the cathedral by climbing everywhere in order to get to another one of the assassin's tombs.

Doge's Palace courtyard with the top of St. Mark's in the background

Games like this are like a mini-vacation. I was there again, except this time it was in a 600-year younger virtual representation. If you don't ever get the chance to visit these cities and their landmarks in real life, then this is one way to do it. Though it's not as good as seeing it in person because it's just too small in-game. You have to really be there in order to experience it fully. It is better than just watching a documentary though. I only wish that the developers had included Pisa and more of Rome. It would have been fantastic to climb up the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Colosseum, two things I enjoyed seeing on my trip. But it was still fascinating to see the places I've seen in real life through a video game.