Half Term

The kids had a week off of school for the half term break, so we decided to take a trip to Italy. We took an evening flight to Pisa and got to our hotel in nearby Livorno very late at night. We woke up the next morning to warm sunshine and blue skies. Blake asked us why Italy is so bright (I guess it's been overcast in England for the past few weeks, but we didn't really notice until we got to Italy and were overwhelmed with all of the sunlight). In Pisa we saw the Leaning Tower, the Duomo and Baptistry, and the Camposanto.
Amy and I even climbed the winding stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I took this picture from the top. The baptistry is the round building in the back, the Duomo is the big cathedral in the front, and the Camposanto is off to the right.

I knew Amy had a fear of heights, but it wasn't until we were on the top of the Leaning Tower that I learned that Amy has a paralyzing, tear inducing fear of heights. We stayed up just long enough for me to get a couple pictures and to wait for everyone that was still coming up the stairs, and then we headed back down. She was a very good sport and recovered very quickly.
On our second day we drove to the Tuscan hill town Volterra. We just strolled around, enjoyed the views, and had a little picnic lunch.

Cade was very uncomfortable with Blake climbing up on the wall.
On day three we caught a train to the Cinque Terre, which is a series of 5 villages perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We hiked the trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola where we stopped for lunch. The kids had the world's most delicious spagetti (I don't even like spagetti and it was delicious), Matt had pizza and I had ravioli with pesto.


Then we ate gellato as we hiked to the next village- Corniglia. By the time we got there it was getting late, so we just caught the train to the last village, Monterosso, where we spent an hour playing at the beach. When the kids were nice and wet, we caught the train back to our car.
We spent day 4 in Florence. We saw the stunning Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, and the baptistry with it's Gate of Paradise.

Then we walked to the Piazza della Signoria where there is a copy of Michelangelo's David. Later in the day we went to the Galleria dell' Accademia to see the real thing.

This is my favorite picture from our trip - Matt, Cade, and Florence.

In Florence we ate pizza, gellato, and this is Blake trying some cannoli.
Day 5 we went back to Florence and started with a visit to the Boboli Gardens which had wonderful views of the city. We happened to be enjoying the views when all of a sudden it was 12 noon and bells from all over the city started chiming the hour.
Then we crossed the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge built back in the 1300's.

After a big lunch of pizza and calzones, we left Florence and headed up into the mountians to find the Ponte Della Maddalena, also known as Ponte del Diavolo (Devil's Bridge). Legend has it the devil had a hand in making this bridge. This may have been my favorite part of the trip. I was very uncomfortable watching my kids walk across it because the top is very high, but it was a beautiful bridge set in some stunning scenery. We spent some time letting the kids throw rocks into the river before crossing back over the bridge and heading home.

On our way home we just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got this awesome shot of Pisa.

My morning sickness was fairly manageable on the first 5 days of our trip, but on day 6 I was miserable nauseous and couldn't do anything. We took the kids to the beach and I sat in the car trying not to move or throw-up. Then I spent the rest of the day on the couch in our cabin while Matt took the kids bowling on the American base. I feel very lucky that I felt well enough to do stuff for the first 5 days because ever since then I have felt pretty horrible. Early the next morning we caught our flight home. We had a great time on our trip, but it was so nice to be home where everyone speaks English.