Well, we sent Bob off for the states early yesterday morning. The week went by very quickly.
I slept til 11 this morning Hannah til noon and Shane til 1pm!! We do a lot of walking each day. Raffi,s dad usually drops us off in town and we walk all day to see the sights. The labels with the oictures sometimes get messed up. But basiacally we,ve seen about five huge cathedrals, with all the original stone work and murals. They are so amazing to think that everything we are walking in, on, under or through is 500 to 2000 years old.

Yesterday after Bob left we visited the natural history museum. (that was Shane's favorite) then we went to the old castle and saw the armor, swords, all sorts of small artifacts, and tons (literally) of marble statues. Throughout the old castle were rooms with ancient paintings on wood or stone. It's neat to see how the Biblical characters were portrayed over 500 years ago.

Ok a quick change of subject: T wanted to hear about the flights, well we flew from Sac to Philadelphia about 5 hours, then from philly to Venice about 8 hours. The kids slept a lot, Bob, a little and silly me, awake the whole time. We arrived in Venice at 9 30 am It. time. Raffaella and her dad picked us up in the motorhome. There were too many of us to fit in the car. They all have tiny cars and of course no such thing a s a van or a suburban! We got home at about 11am, met her mom and had lunch. Lunch is at about noon with something like rice or pasta, then vegetables (like a do it youself salad) everyone can take whole cucumbers, tomotoes, and lettuce and peel, cut and peocess it youtself, then put on some olive oil, vinegar, salt and oregano .
Then comes maybe some bread and stinky cheese, then come the fruit bowl for dessert! It's quite a process, but it's so fun to sit around the table for an hour and try to talk. Raffi's parents don't speak any English so she has been SO busy listening and translating! shane and Hannah have picked up quite a few words. I'm a little shy to speak but with my Spanish background I can read and understand quite a bit.

Ok, after lunch we went to her grandfather's house next door (where we are staying) (he doesn't live there anymore)
Bob and I slept and the kids visited and got to meet the rest of the family: two sisters, uncle and grandpa.

When we finally woke up we all alked to the square to enjoy the week long party, with people food and music! It was great we went there each night for about four nights and stayed until 1130 or 1200!