Our Italian Adventure

Last month we had an awesome opportunity to tour Italy with our dear friends the Macdonalds. We rented a house near Pisa and traveled all around Italy! One week is certainly not enough time to see this gorgeous country.


Here are a couple pictures of our accomodation.






Our first sunset from our dinning room.





Chinque Terra


On Friday we went to Chinque Terra or the 5 cities. These 5 cities are only accessible by train. They were so pretty.








Pisa


On Saturday we visited Pisa. We had a blast posing with the Tower of Pisa. There was a beautiful church on the grounds. There was a wooden door that had numerous panels. In each panel was carved a scene from the life of Christ. It was amazing. As we entered the Church I had to put on a covering made of what seemed like Dryer Sheets because my shoulders were exposed. Everyone, but me, got a huge kick out of this!









Someone, I believe one of the boys, recommended that we take a bike tour! What were we thinking agreeing to such a thing??? Two adults peddling for 5 was not fun! We had a good laugh though.





Venice


On Sunday morning we set off for the 4 hour journey to Venice! It was such a remarkable city. It is amazing that this city is built on the water. We had to take a "water bus" into the actual city. The kids had so much fun feeding the birds in the city square. We went on a toured Gondola ride and I am so glad we did! We got to see parts of the city that we wouldn't have been able to see on foot. Can you imagine a City without cars??









Florence


On Monday we traveled to Florence to see the Statue of David. Of course, Monday is the day the Museum is closed! So, we had to settle for a copy! The kids sure got a kick out of all the naked statues.




Rome


By Tuesday we were all wiped out so we decided to take the train into Rome. Praise God we did because Brian ended up getting really sick! We went into the Coliseum. I am so glad we did! I enjoyed all the history we got from our tour guide. I can't even begin to imagine the sights, sounds and smells of what really happened in the Coliseum all those years ago! Learning more about Rome next year with our Home school curriculum will be a lot of fun.








We used our final day in Italy for some R&R by playing UNO with all 10 players and by visiting the American Beach. The setting of this sun brought a wonderful close to our journey. It was absolutely stunning!





Of course our time in Italy wouldn't have been complete without some Pizza and Gelato! Let me tell you, we often heard others rave about gelato. What's the big deal, I thought, it's just ice cream! I know now, there is nothing like Gelato!! Eventually Gage told me he was tired of pizza, because the boys ordered pizza every night! I offered to order him pasta but he refused and happily ate his pizza! Brian on the other hand ate Seafood pasta every night! YUK!!!

We are so thankful for such a great vacation with such great friends!! We praised God on our flight home for his grace!! Ken had said he was thankful that we weren't on separate ends of the plane and in a huge fight! For our first vacation with friends it was great! Our boys all got along beautifully. We are now planning our next trip together!! Spain? Ireland? A cruise??