Rome - Day 2

I have to say this has been the best day in Italy thus far. We did so much! I was amazed by everything we saw and did. It was a great day, but we still have 14 more days to make this trip a trip of a lifetime!

Yesterday was our first day in Italy and it was exausting for most of us. I think some of us went around maybe 20 hours without sleep. This had been the longest time I have gone without sleeping. It was tough!

Today was awesome! We started off the day by visiting the Vatican. We went to the Vatican museum, Sistine Capel, Saint Peter's Basillica, a Glatiator school, (it was so much fun!) Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and did so much more stuff. It's amazing what we saw. 

Living in the small town of Valentine and at the Coal Mine Ranch for most of the summer, this has been a great experience so far! So many people have told me how amazing Italy is and I have to say it is. It takes some time adjusting to the time and changes, but it is fantastic! 

Tomorrow we are going to the Pope's public audience at the Vatican. There are supposed to be between100,000 to 200,000 people at St. Peter's Square. It is also our last night in Rome so we plan to wonder around the city after dark to see the beauty of it at night!

Rome - Day 1

We have arrived! We got to Rome at 7:30am and didn't stop until 5:00 PM, needless to say, we we exhausted! The kids did an awesome job packing and traveling. They were excited once the first plane took off, Rye asked when the next flight would be as soon as we landed in Atlanta. By the time we got to Rome, they looked like pros. 

The hardest day of international travel is always the first day, clearing customs, finding the stay, finding food, and fighting jet lag. Once again, the kids handled it beautifully. We didn't do much today, we wanted an early night since Day 2 will be early and long. We went to the Colosseo and visited the Basilica of San Clemente where the kids got their first taste of the architecture here and the ornate style of churches. It was really cool for me to see them try to take it in. I think they were not aware how overwhelmed they were with what they were seeing, tomorrow they have even more ahead of them!

We'll try to have someone post daily when we have wifi available. I'm so glad to share this experience with such a great group of kids and am so proud of the new skills they have already acquired (using the metro system and navigating huge crowds of tourists). 

Remember we are 7 hours ahead of Texas time so as I type this it is 1AM and I am sitting online in one of my doctoral classes, I think I'll have a large caffe latte in the morning! For now, ciao!

Almost There!

With less than 10 minutes left for most of the travelers to leave Valentine, I sit here waiting anxiously and decide to write on our blog!

I can't believe it's already here! It's been about a year of waiting for this weekend to get here. Now it's unbelievable that tomorrow morning we will all be getting on that plane and head to Italy!

There's all sorts of emotions going through me right now, first graduation and all the crying from last night, now all this excitement to finally complete our dream. I am literally about to go crazy, I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight because of the excitement.

I hope everyone stays in touch with our blog, here you will be able to see the amazing fun things we will be doing in Italy. And prepare yourselves for when we get back home, I don't think we will be able to shut up for a while. We will have great experiences! 

Milan...the fashion, the art, the shopping!

Our last stop in Italy is the fashionable city of Milan, I'm sure we will all be very tired by the time we arrive, but that doesn't mean we are done yet! The day we arrive, we have a walking tour of the city that includes a viewing of DaVinci's "The Last Supper." Once again, the tour was cheaper than just a viewing of the painting, so we thought we'd learn a little about the city too.

 

"The Last Supper" is arguably one of the most famous and most important pieces of religious art ever created, and according to some was not actually completed. We'll get to decided whether it is complete or not for ourselves!

Other than the tour and art we will be taking in a little culture while in the city. We also have tickets to attend a symphony at the Teatro Alla Scalla, one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world. Mrs. Houy and I are especially excited about this, not only will we get to attend a symphony while in Italy, we will also get to introduce the experience to the kids. It will be a busy day, but I have a feeling it will be awesome!

After our long day of touring and taking in the culture, we will have a down day. It is likely we'll spend this day doing laundry, wandering around the city, and visiting the massive mall in Milan. Some of the boys have already talked about saving up all their spending money so they can buy something snazzy in Milan. I just wonder if I will be able to afford a scarf, assuming I'll even be dressed well enough to be allowed in the stores!

 We'll be staying in a Bed and Breakfast again while in Milan, and it is really cute. We had a difficult time finding a place to stay that would take 10 people in Milan, and when it came down to two options, the seniors chose this one: Antica Corte Milanese

After our short time in Milan, we'll board a train for Zurich and the trip home. Our train will take us through the Alps and I have a feeling I'll be plastered to the window taking in the view. We plan to have updated posts every day or so while we are travelling so be sure to check back regularly. We'll post pictures and some videos so you can see all the fun we are having! For those who have secret hopes of fitting into our luggage, we apologize, but you'll be in our hearts and heads and we travel.

 

Ah, Venice!

After our whirlwind stop in Tuscany we will head to Venice, where we will explore the waterways and visit the palace of the Doges of old. Hopefully no one will be overcome by the sadness on the Bridge of Sighs, because then they won't be able to enjoy the gondola ride!

 

We have arranged a couple of tours of the canal city, one where we will get to visit the palace and take a boat ride out to the island where Murano Glass is made! The other tour is a walk through the city in the evening that ends with a gondola ride. The latter tour was a great find, we wanted to make sure the kids could have the iconic ride, but when we looked at prices, for a 30 minute ride for the 6 of them would have cost us almost as much as a three hour tour of the city where all 10 of us can have a ride! We opted for the three hour tour (doing your homework really makes a difference!)

We also plan to spend the day on the Lido, another day of fun in the sun!  This beach experience will be different from our day in Capri, but we'll have gotten to play at the beach in two different parts of the country! We will have to take a waterbus out to the island, and I'm not sure how long that will take, but it's an adventure!

Once again we'll be staying off the beaten path somewhat. We've rented an apartment just three blocks from St. Mark's Square, and with Venice being full of water it is perfect for us to walk just about everywhere we want to go!

Venice is one of the last stops on our trip, and we'll all be sad to reach this spot (although we won't be sad to get to see it!)

The Art of Tuscany

After our time in Naples, we'll travel through the countryside to a farm in Greve in Chianti where we will participate in an authentic cooking class. The girls are looking forward to learning how to cook like Italians, and the guys are looking forward to eating it!

The farm is beautiful and the owner, Silvia, has been a great help figuring out some logistics for our stay. She has been posting pictures on her Facebook page of the flowers in bloom and it is stunning: http://laghiandaia.net

Once we arrive in the Tuscan region we will visit Florence as well as take a bike ride through the region. In Florence we will see as much art and climb as many stairs as the kids will allow. I have also created a scavenger hunt for us to do while we explore the city. Be on the lookout for pictures and videos from that for sure!

I am excited to see the looks on their faces as they experience the statue of David and the stunning painted ceilings of the buildings in the home of the masters. I'm sure we will all be out of breath as we climb the 400+ steps to the top of the cupola of Il Duomo, where we will take in the majestic view of the region. And, of course, we will all treat ourselves to gelato.

Once we have had our fill of art we will return to the country and travel by bicycle for 17 miles as eel explore the hills, valleys, and villas of the area. It should be amazing! Our third stop on the trip will probably be our most exhausting, but it will be worth it!

Naples!

The city we will visit second on our trip is Napoli! The home of pizza (although their pizza is very different than what we know here), where if you order a pepperoni pizza you'll get a pizza with peppers on it. We've also been told that pickpockets are excellent in Naples, so we all plan to keep our wallets close to our hearts.

We'll be doing more than just eating pizza however, we plan to spend a day on the Island of Capri and visit the ruins of Pompeii.

Capri will be our first time at the beach and we have our sunscreen ready! We will be taking a hydrofoil out to the island, they look like boats on skis! The video is from a hydrofoil on Lake Como in Italy, we might all get the funny tummy feeling from this ride!

 

We will also be visiting the ruins of Pompeii, I am very excited about this. I have often heard the stories and seen the pictures of the devastation caused by Mt. Vesuvius,  I can only imagine the power in a place like that. It should be a great learning experience for all of us.

We are continuing our tour of the country staying at a neat little bed and breakfast in a historic part of the city: B & B Napoli Centro Storico