The long awaited Italy post...it's a long one!

Sorry it took so long to get this done. I added all the pictures I took into photobucket and it took longer than I expected it to. I still don't know that I did it right, but the link on the right will take you to them. You can look at them all, or just skip it. There are lots of boring ones, but I left them all on in case you want to see it all. Mike looked through them the other day and said (exact words) "I looked at your Italy pictures last night when I was bored. There's just a bunch of old buildings and naked statues. I wasn't jealous at all. Seriously, was it that all it was? A bunch of tall old buildings?" I guess that isn't Mike's idea of a cool vacation, but we sure had fun.


We started the trip off by flying into Venice. Nancy lives an hour away in Vicenza on the Army base. Her husband was just going back to Afghanistan for another 6 months...sad. She said goodbye to him, and hello to us at the same airport. Then we were off to see the sights. I loved Venice. I think we got there at the perfect time. Not too hot, not too many tourists.

Some of the highlights of Venice

• Gondola ride...wow, it's amazing to see them maneuver boats around in those tiny canals


• Our first taste of Italian food...the yummy mozzarella cheese balls and cherry tomatoes were my favorite. The others were total fans of the ice cream, but it was a little to soft and melty for me.


• I loved the water bus/taxi thing. It cruises down the main waterway. I am a sucker for any kind of boat. Give me wind in the hair and I'm happy (same with my Mom).


• The pigeons on San Marco square. I was feeding them and letting them crawl all over me. After it was all said and done, Kim said that she was surprised that I would let them get on me. I asked her what was wrong with that. She reminded me that I wouldn't eat my lunch until I had used a bottle of hand sanitizer, but I still didn't get it. "Sue, they're like rats with wings!" Ugh...I wanted to go home and scour my body. I never even thought about where those wretched birds had been before they landed on my head.

Anyway, Venice was great.

The next day we did some shopping in the towns close to Nancy's house. We had fun getting to know Nancy's son Jaron. It really was fun to hang out with the cousin I used to play hours of Monopoly with at Thanksgiving. Thanks Nancy! We had a great time with you, and your house is cute.

We took the train to Florence that night. Mom was an awesome travel agent/tour guide. We had a great book that told us all about the places we were going. (Rick Steve's Italy) Mom would read it and give us the tour of things as we saw them. She got us all settled on the trains and took charge. We had pretty specific roles on the trip. Mom was the tour guide. Kim was the person to find out where we were and what street to go down next. She preferred to talk to people when we were lost rather than try to read a map. My job was to sit back and enjoy the ride. Sometimes I'd carry Mom's suitcase up the numerous stairs. Honestly, I don't know what you would do if you were wheelchair bound in Italy.

Florence was my favorite city. The more I think about the trip, the more I know that was just cool. I loved going out in the plaza at night and hearing the hippy American guy singing Simon and Garfunkel. When I was in college, that was one of my dreams...to travel the world with my dog and my guitar. It didn't matter that I don't play the guitar all that well, I wanted to do it. Anyway, here we were in Italy hearing all these American songs being blasted out in the square. It was really cool.

There is amazing art in Florence. The David was amazing to see in person. We sat there long enough to change our focus from the awe inspiring statue to the people that were coming in to view it. People can't help but walk in the room and look in awe. I had no idea that the statue was so large. It's in this room with a huge dome. We are little tiny people beneath his feet. It was really hard to leave the room. Imagine, as an artist, leaving something like that for the generations to come to appreciate...thanks Michelangelo!

I also loved climbing to the top of the Duomo. It was really steep, really cramped, but really cool. Highlights of the climb:

• Top of the list has to be the poor hygiene of the people going before us. To those people: thanks for making a tight space feel even tighter. Thanks for making my labored breathing even more labored. Thanks for going out the wrong way and squeezing past us in the (previously mentioned) tight space.


• 463 steps. Need I say more?


• The paintings on the inside of the dome. Can I just tell you that I wouldn't have made a good Catholic child. If I had to sit in church and stare up at the ceiling and see paintings of what happens in Hell, I would have had nightmares for life.


• The view from the top...WOW! It was amazing. The city is beautiful. I know Mike might say that it's just a bunch of old buildings, but they are worth seeing.

We left Florence for Pisa. We took the obligatory pictures of us holding up the leaning tower. Then, we took off. We had a train to catch. But alas, we missed the train to Cinque Terre by 3 minutes.

However, we did get an education on "tiefs". We got on the bus and bought our tickets. Kim was doing her job and asking the bus driver if his bus was headed to the place we needed to go (thanks Kim). The bus driver suddenly started yelling to the back of the bus. "Tief. Those girls...the one with the baby and her friend" (remember, this is English...barely. I am translating for you) "Tiefs. You know what that is? Tief! Watch your cameras. Watch your bags. They are tiefs. You know what that is?" Meanwhile, this girl (who didn't look like a "tief") who was holding a baby, started to slink off the bus. We realized that he was saying thief. We saw our first thief...and we wouldn't have even known it. Of course, we were jealously guarding our bags, but we were worried about Mom. The book said the "tiefs" target the elderly (am I a disrespectful daughter or what?) We kept an eye on her. And, we are proud to say that on the whole trip no "tiefs" got the best of us.

The next time we stepped off a train, we were in Cinque Terre (five lands). It is just that, five towns along the coast. That was a great place. We hardly saw any tourists, I think the tourists that do come, stay a while. The towns are all linked by scenic paths. You can walk, or by-pass the trails and ride a train. We took 2 of the hikes and enjoyed every minute. Our hotel was really nice. It was right by the beach. We took an hour one of the days to sit by the beach and relax. We watched the people (saw more of some than we wanted to) and talked. I think that was where I started to miss Mike and the kids the most. I couldn't be that close to the sand and not think of how much Allie would enjoy the taste of sea sand (I imagine the salt makes it taste better). Or how much Jake would love playing in the water. Mike would have been amazed by the LARGE people changing into swim suits wherever they pleased. It was just a really nice place to be, and it's hard not to miss those at home and want them there to see it all too.

We went from that to Rome. Rome was busier than any of the other places. I told you all about the mold...the whole city just had a different feel than any of the others. More modern and busy. We saw some amazing things there. We went to the Vatican the first day. Once again, the art is amazing in person. Michelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel was beautiful, and not what I imagined from pictures. We stared up at the ceiling for a long time trying to drink it all in. I never really studied it much, and I didn't know that this painting was just one in a series of paintings of The Creation. It's God, giving a soul to Adam

Another highlight was Michelangelo's Pieta'. What an amazing artist to be to great in different mediums.

I'm starting to get bored writing all this, so I'm sure you are getting bored reading, so I'll move on to the next day in Rome. We saw the old stuff the next day. The Colosseum, the Forum (just crumbly ruins), all the cool things to see in that part of town. I know I've said it before, but it is just amazing to see such history. The Colosseum has been around for over 2 thousand years. We walked around in places where the people who founded Democracy walked. It really does put America's "youth" in perspective.

I liked Rome for the historical aspect. I am way more interested in finding out more about the places we went now.

I loved the trip. I loved my traveling buddies. I think the only complaint that I could have is that now I have the taste in my mouth again, I want to keep going places. I want to go to Switzerland, France, Alaska, Austria, etc. etc.

Thanks Mom and Kim for making it possible and for making it so much fun. Huge thanks to Mike, and those who helped with the kids while I was gone. I missed them, but the silver lining is that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I love their voices, their faces, the cute things they all do (including Mike) all the more because I was starved for them in Italy. It was a great trip and one that I will remember for life...