Venice, Italy

May 13, 2008We spent 1 day in Venice. It was really pretty and NO TRAFFIC! It is really weird to see water for streets, boats for taxis and buses - even police cars. We took a gondola ride with the kids.

Bergamo, Italy

May 12, 2008

Gary's work took him from Milan to a quaint, little town called Bergamo. It has a lot of history, so we had a great time learning. While Gary was working, the kids and I went shopping and walking around the town a bit.

Switzerland

May 9, 2008

After we arrived in Zermaat, we took a train up to the base of the Matterhorn. It was a beautiful ride. We noticed that Switzerland is much cleaner and more friendly than Italy.

Since we spent so much time in a car, train or plane, and the Ty and Rach were missing school, they had to keep up on their homework whenever they could.

May 10-11 2008

We took a beautiful ride on a train from Zermaat to Interloken. Life is much slower there and the chocolate is to die for.

Milan (The Fashion Capitol of the World)

May 7, 8, 12

Milan was not what we expected. It reminded us of New York City with a lot of well-dressed people rushing from place to place. It was weird to see men dressed in expensive suits riding bikes. In this main piazza, there were streets that didn't allow cars, so there was a lot of walking.

The pictures show the main shopping mall there. It includes stores such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci. We are standing in front of the Louis Vuitton store. It was interesting that there were guards posted at the doors. The bottom left picture shows the big cathedral next to the mall. The main door of the cathedral was made of brass and had different scenes of Christ's life on it. Some people believe that if you rub Christ's knee, it will bring you good luck. Who knows why the leg of the abuser was shiny as well.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

May 6, 2008

We drove from Tuscany to Pisa. It was a beautiful drive, but we were surprised to see that all there was in Pisa was the tower and the cathedral next to it. We went up inside the tower and it was weird to feel ourselves leaning as we went up the marble stairs around the inside. The view was incredible from the top.

Tuscany, Italy

May 4-5, 2008

We had a nice, relaxing time in Tuscany. It was so beautiful everywhere we looked. I enjoyed running the scenic route in the mornings and we loved our bike ride to see some of the very old buildings and churches around. The nearby towns were quaint and just like the movies. People here were not very friendly, but we still had a good time. For fun, we went swimming in a nearby hot spring. It was so much fun!

Pompei and the Amalfi Coast, Italy

May 3, 2008

We got up early and drove to Pompeii. It was a long drive but it was beautiful. We got to see Montecassino Monastery and Mt. Vesuvius on the way. When we got there, we walked through the city of Pompeii. It covered a very large area and was amazingly well preserved. You could still see the paintings on the walls, and their marble kitchen countertops with holes cut into them. Attached from underneath were clay pots making sinks. That was surprising. We learned that the city was covered in ash from about 70BC until the 1600s? Artifacts started showing up, so it was ruled that no one could take anymore and they started uncovering the city. They started finding voids in the ash that seemed to be air pockets, so they started pouring plaster into these voids and they found the shapes of where bodies were in the positions that they died.

After we finished with Pompeii, we headed to Tuscany by way of the Almalfi Coast. It was amazing how these cities were built on cliffs. The crazy thing was that the only main road along the coast was narrow and the tour busses had a hard time getting through the traffic, so there were lots of delays - 2 hours to be more precise! The people in Southern Italy are so laid back that when traffic was completely stopped, people would just get out of their cars and smoke and visit with each other, or toss a ball around.