holly

2008-09-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

We're home!! We made it. We were sad to leave our wonderful vacation and our great Italian family. They were so hospitibale and took such good care of us. We felt so spoiled. We left early Tuesday morning and flew and flew! The flights all went very well and the kids loved them. We arrived at 9pm which was actually 5 in the morning for our bodies! We had a great reunion with Bob, Canada , Bushy and Ricky. It is so nice to be a complete family again.

Well, laundry is done, I got groceries and we are ready to jump back into school and activities tomorrow....welcome back to reality!!!

Last day

2008-09-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Today is our last day in Italy! We leave at 7am Tuesday morning. It has been a great visit. We learned so much and saw so many new and interesting things and we had such a great time with Raffaella and her family. They are so kind and hospitable!! We will miss them. But we finally get to go home and be reunited with Daddy and Canada, Bushy and Ricky too. And of course all our other friends and family. We also get to be reunited with the reality of life. Like school and chores and a schedule...hmmm, I'm not so excited about all that.

2008-09-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

Shane loved our day in the country. He got to run up and down the dirt road and jump off everything in sight without a museum or church lady yelling at him!
The road was lined with olive trees, and walnuts, almonds peaches, figs and of course grapes. I kind of felt like I was back in the Bible!

more pix from the town of Bure

2008-09-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Just my size

A day in the country

2008-09-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

This was Shane's worst memory of the day. This was the cellar room where they store the wine barrels for about three years. You can just imagine the fermented smell we endured !!!
But, he survived and is now a stronger young man!

We peaked in the old church just to see what it looked like, and, to our surprise, got to watch an Italian wedding!

2008-09-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

We went with Marco to a huge, old, fancy opera theater in Milan, had lunch (pizza), then we all took the subway and the train to Marco's house in Nevara. It was fun to see a different style Italian home and meet hi Brother and Sister. we hung out there for a while then he took us to the train station. We took the train back to Milan, then to Verona and arrived home at about 10pm.

Saying goodbye to Marco at the train station

Today we took a drive with Raffaellas parents out to the country in the mountains. We went on a guided tour of and old villa that currently has vineyards and produces much wine for Italy. It was very interesting. We would have even learned more if it had been in English!!

I don't think they have the parallel parking otion on the Italian drivers test!
These are the trays they use to store the grapes for four months while they 'do their thing'

2008-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Florence
On the way home from Florence (hannah's camera has more to this story, I'll try to get it)
This was on our rest day back in Verona
yeah!!! we met Marco in Milan. Marco was an exchange student in sac with Raffaella.
Marcos house in Nevara (outside Milano) and his little brother Alessandro

2008-09-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

The famous David (some of him anyway)
1000 year old bridge with shops-Florence
view from the famous bridge of shops

2008-09-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Church in Florence

We got to use the bathroom in Florence (after we bought a pizza!)
Statues of all the greek myth gods etc.
I tried to use discretion while taking pictures of the statues...it was dificult to take any pictures at all!

2008-09-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

Today is a day of rest! Yesterday we got up and went to the train at 6 30am. It took about 3.5 hours to get to Florence but it was a great day. We even enjoy the train rides, with all the interesting people and countryside to view. We're considering stating a sing-along or musical chairs on the next trip.

Well, Florence, as you may or may not know is in the region of Tuscany, it is also the birthplace of the Author of Pinocchio and home to oh so many statues! It is also a city with SO many tourists, it's crazy. We enjoyed more 1000 year old buildings, bridges, churches and statues. It's so interesting to see history come alive. Like all the statues of the Greek gods. It's kind of freaky to read the signs that explain about them, they are so morbid and violent.

I think Hannah's favorite part of these cities are the shops and Shane's is the pigeons. He fed them some Museli in the plaza but then got in trouble by the police. They don't want to encourage the pigeons to come because the acid in their poop ruins the monuments-isn't that great to know!

Just before that happened we asked a nice policeman for directions to a water fountaina nd a public toilet (WC) those two are very hard to come by in Italy. The WC we found about eight allies away and you had to pay for it and the fountain was a tiny trickle coming out of an acient lions mouth dripping into a basin of algea- hows that for a picture of Tuscany?

After our sip of water we went to an old bridge. It was built by the romans aroung the year 1000, then over the centuries was added onto bit by bit and about 500 years ago they built shops on it and that is how it is today, all jewelry shops.

We ended our day with the train ride home, entertained by Shane singing. We usually have dinner at about 8. We got home close to 10 and found bread, cheese, fruits and veggies waiting on our table... Raffaella's parents are so sweet. If you remember we are staying in the house next door where her granfather used to live.

I will update pictures soon and tomorrow we are off to Milan to visit Marco, who was also an exchange student in Sac with Raffaella.

2008-09-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Hannah's friend
Ok, that's all for now. We will rest tomorrow and then off to Florence and Milan then back to the USA.

2008-09-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hannah made a friend in Venice too!

More friends
And more friends...ahhhh
oops, ok, we'll give him one more friend
Venice, towards the ocean

2008-09-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

More amazing views of Venezia

Shane's favorite part of Venice!! All his new friends

2008-09-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

Traditional Italian food market in Padova

More churches full of marble
Yeah, Venice!!! We had a beautiful, sunny day. It was so fun to wander through all the little cobblestone allies, and see all the sights and people and pigeons

Eatting our paninni by the gondola

2008-09-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

On the midnight bus home from the Arena

Roman ruins in the city of Padova
Typical University Graduation celebration
Another Padova Graduate!
More stinky cheese...mmmmm

2008-09-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

In the Arena waiting for Notre Dame to start!!

Just outside the Arena, before the show
view of the stage from out seats...amazing!!!
View of the downtown from our seats i n the Arena!!
View of Raffaella, worker dude and Shane from our seats.

2008-09-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hannah got brave and asked the pizza guy to smile and pose...he did
Hannah and cute little Veronica

2008-09-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday, We went with Raffaella' sistre Veronica to a town called Mandova. It's normally about 40 minuts away but it took about an hour and a half in the white out rain storm! Westill had fun walking with umbrellas and looking in the shops. We heard the obnoxious bells ring forever in the square and noticed it was a wedding in a fancy church. Hannah snuck up and took some pictures then we went in the church to look around. (more solid marble for Bob and chandelies for cynthia) Sorry I can't label each picture. We bought a typical Italian big crumb cooky thing. You smash it in the package with your fist then everyone shares the pieces.
The drive home was clear so we got to go the speed limit. (which is 130)

When we got home we picked up Raffaella's parents and Veronica's boyfriend Andrea and went out to pizza. Shane always gets a Marguerita (which is just cheese), Hannah always gets the one with proschuto(ham) and I got brave and got Zucchini and stinky cheese. I also sampled some others. The problem is I like them all!

We got up early today (10am) and went to the huge 1000 year old church in the city. It would a lot more interesting in English-especially for the kids. It was a beuatiful experience though.

Tonight we are going to watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the Arena ( that ancient collesium I posted last week) It should be amazing!! although all in Italian of course.
Ok, I have to go pack up our raingear for the show, I'll let you know how it goes!

2008-09-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

2008-09-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

What a lovely rainy day it is!! Complete with thunder and lightning. We love it.

Last night R sister took us to the hot springs. It was a small hot lake with smaller enclosed natural hot tubs and caves to swim in with jets and waterfalls..ohhh how wonderful!! We arrived at about 6pm and stayed till about 11.

R sister and boyfriend came for lunch today and we will visit another town in a while.

We are having such a great time. It is so relaxing and we are all sleeping so good!! Even me, thanks to many prayers. We go to sleep at about 1 30am and sleep til 11.

2008-09-12T05:31:00.000-07:00

Today we walked to the post office and the store to get milk. It was a hot beautiful day. Then one hour later we were in the house and it started pouring rain and lightning and thunder!! We love it. We hope it clears up in a couple hours though because R sister is going to take us up near the lake to go to the hot springs lake for and evening of relaxation...oooh, I can't wait!

Hannah spends half her time playing with the cute little dog Pirina, and the three cats, Gildo, Scheggia, and matilde. And of course taking a million pictures of them. If anyone is dying to see them send a comment and she will post their lovely photos!

Shane found R old movies and is watching all the Disney movies in Italian!

2008-09-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

Torre dei Lamberti
Giant bell tower

Chiesa Di San Lorenzo

Garda Lake

Old castle museum Castelvecchio

Duomo

a step back in time

2008-09-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today we got a two day pass to visit all the famous sights in Verona.
We saw many churches dating back to 1100 AD. (We will attend the service next Sunday)
We went to the Arena (colleseum), Juliet's tomb and museums of art dating back some 500 years. We basically spent the day viewing everything that is older than our entire country!!
We are exhausted and off to see more tomorrow- well talk then.

feel free to post coments!

Garda lake penninsula

Shakespeare

Yummy stinky cheese! (gorgonzola)

2008-09-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is Beautiful Garda Lake

this is the Roman Villa at Garda Lake

Viva Italia

2008-09-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Raffaella's Arena

Juliet's balcony River in Verona

When a new city is being built they often times find an ancient city under the soil. This picture is a section in Verona that was preserved for visitors to view-pretty cool!

Wow we have been so busy, I haven't had a chance to get this blogging thing done!

We are here and it is wonderful. So many new and weird and funny and great things to do and see and smell and eat!!!

Bob is only here a week so we have to rush through some of the nearby things. We have been to Garda lake to see the amazing Roman ruins , and again today to see the Air show, we also swam in the lake and got (had) to view some interesting swim attire. We are certainly learning alot about the different cultures.

In Verona , where we are staying, we walked to, and through her beautiful town. She lives about five minutes walking from all the picture on this page. We saw the Arena (collesium) where Raffaella sings. And we saw Guiliette's (Juliet) house.

Today for lunch we got to have all of Raffaella's favorite stinky cheeses-it was wonderful!

2008-08-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Ok TT,I did it, now If we keep up with this blogging thing you'll be able to join us on our Italian adventures.

These are some pix from ou Trip to Oregon, and some samples of Hannah's photography.