Time to go home :(  It was really hard to leave!  We were picked up by a water taxi right outside the front door of our hotel.  We enjoyed the ride through the canals, leaving Venice behind as it wound its way towards the Venice Airport.  So glad we got to take this trip with Bryan!  We will remember it FOREVER! … [Read more...]

TODAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY...IN. VENICE. HOLY. COW.  Best birthday present EVER!  Today we started with a tour of the Doge's Palace on St Mark's Square.  The Doge was the leader of the Venice Republic.  There were BEAUTIFUL rooms here, but we weren't allowed to photograph most of them.  Our tour also took us across the Bridge of Sighs, which was used to transport prisoners from the courtroom to the dungeon prisons.  It was named after the lamentations prisoners uttered … [Read more...]

Today we left Tuscany, taking a bullet train (First Class!) from Florence to Venice!  What a trip!  We were zipping along at 180 miles/hour!  Yet it didn't feel like it because it was perfectly smooth.  Someone in our group commented, "I really thought this would go faster" because it was so smooth.  Then we looked up where the current speed was posted, and it was 180 miles/hr!  We had lunch on the train. Stepping out of the train and out into … [Read more...]

Today we traveled through Tuscany to Florence!  This was a BEAUTIFUL drive through Tuscany.  Along the way, our Disney guides told us lots of information about Italy.  We even got a little Italian pronunciation lesson from Marco (who is from Northern Italy).  I really loved the time in the bus when we got to hear from our guides.  Marco liked to joke about how totally NOT Italian the Olive Garden is.  He also talked about a lot of misconceptions Americans have about … [Read more...]

I LOVE TUSCANY! This was probably my favorite part of our trip.  It is SO BEAUTIFUL here!  We started the day at a family farm where they have 250 acres, run by four generations of family.  Here one of the family members was showing us the name of their farm and telling the story of how her family came to own it years ago... One of the family members, Sarah, taught us a pasta making class - all by hand.  We all had our own boards where we were told to use "two handfuls of … [Read more...]

Today we hopped on the bus and left Rome behind to travel through Umbria, one of Italy's most beautiful and historic regions.  It's called the "Green Heart of Italy" and features Etruscan ruins, historical monuments and some of Italy's oldest churches.  We started the day in the medieval hill town of Orvieto (meaning "old city").  This beautiful old city was built over an ancient volcanic butte overlooking vineyards and villages.  It was once populated by the Etruscans, … [Read more...]

This was our last day in Rome.  We started with a walking tour of Rome.         First was the famed Spanish Steps...Girls posing, then the boys... Kind of a shame that the church at the top of the stairs was being cleaned on the outside.  The scaffolding is not pretty when taking pictures :( This was the home of the famous sculptor, Bernini... One interesting thing about Rome is that no one here has a water bill.  They have … [Read more...]

Today we started at the Vatican!  Vatican City is pretty amazing.  This is the home of the Pope, and when we got through the gates, we saw that there were thousands of chairs set up.  We were informed that the Pope addresses the world every Wednesday, so the chairs were set up in preparation for that address happening the next day.  They do this every week.  Wow! We got there early so we would be at the front of the line to go in St Peter's Basilica.  This church … [Read more...]

Mark and I decided it would be fun to do a Senior Trip with each of our kids around the time of their Senior year in high school.  It would allow us to spend some one on one time with them while also traveling somewhere we've never been before.  Bryan is our oldest, and he picked...ITALY!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I was that he picked Italy!  That has always been the one place, at the very top of my 'dreams' list, that I have always wanted to see!  Mark … [Read more...]