Big Day for Sophia!

A couple of weeks ago, Auntie Lizzie and Sophia got their ears pierced together! For a couple of years Lizzie has been talking to Sophia about getting her ears pierced and said that when she was ready that they would do it together (Liz would get a 2nd piercing). Well, the day finally came that Sophia was ready and Auntie Lizzie didn't quite remember that she had agreed to get hers done too! But she was true to her word even if she didn't know what her word was! This was an early birthday present for Sophia as she will be turning 7 at the end of this week.

Mommy & Grammy went along for the big event as well. After the first ear, Sophia did not really want to get the other one done, but overall she was pretty brave!

Sophia & Lizzie before the big event

Lizzie's turn - not even a flinch!

Sophia's turn - a few tears!

Lollipops help!

Thanks Auntie Lizzie!

Italia! (Venezia e' Milano)

Well, here is my third and final post about Italy...after our wonderful time in Tuscany, we headed to Venice. Now in all fairness, my review of Venice will mostly be biased by the weather we had. It was by far my least favorite part of the trip, but it was pouring rain and quite cold! The drainage in that city is not so great, so there were huge puddles that sometimes you just could not avoid! By the end of the day, our pants were soaked from the knees down as well as our shoes and socks (obviously!). We did get to take a tour of an amazing palace complete with dungeons, and we went to a couple of glass blowing demonstrations to see the world famous Venetian glass. Near the end of the day there, the rain subsided a little bit and we were able to grab a couple of pics - although we were looking pretty rough by that time!

Here is what the view from the boat was:

So, as you can see, pretty gray and dreary. Most of the time spent on the boat, we couldn't even see out the windows because it was so foggy. Jon captured my interest level in this picture:


but I was in good company, here are some of the others in our group...






It seems the only one having a good time on the boat was our guide Raffaella - she told us that she does not really like Venice and taught us a motion and saying in Italian that means something like, "You are rude, I don't like you, I will take my business elsewhere" which she is demonstrating (the motion) in the picture below and saying "tyeh, tyeh, tyeh" - she said this will come in handy in Venice because many of the shop owners are not so friendly.

I just have to pause here and say that Raffaella just made our trip so great! She was so much fun to be around and taught us so much of the culture that we would not have learned if we would not have seen Italy with an Italian! We all just fell in love with her and want to get her to come to America - at least to visit - although she said she would love to come live/work here - I don't know how anyone could ever leave Italy though! (I miss you Raffy!)

One of our better times in Venice was when we got in from the cold and rain and just hung out with our friends Seth & Donna and Mike & Dionne - the 6 of us had some good times on this trip and we hope to continue our friendship beyond our time together in Italy.


The second day in Venice, the team had a game and so Rafaella was kind enough to take Donna, Mike, Dionne and I to a little town for some more shopping (I can't remember the name of the town, but it was really pretty!). Here we stopped to take yet another cappuccino...




After our time in Venice was over, we headed to Milan. I loved this city - SO beautiful! The Duomo there was by far our favorite. It took over 500 years to build!



We also went to see "The Last Supper" by DaVinci - unfortunately, you cannot take any pictures of it (you also can only view it for 15 minutes in groups of no more than 25 people). I have to admit, I wasn't super interested or excited about seeing this famous work of art, but when I saw it I was blown away by its beauty - it was probably my favorite thing that I saw the whole time we were in Italy. I had no idea that it was painted as a mural on a huge wall, I always imagined it as a painting hanging in a museum. It was absolutely breathtaking!

Another highlight in Milan was taking a cooking class - La Scuola De La Cucina Italiana! It was so much fun and we got to eat everything we made!




On our final night in Milan, we had an amazing dinner with the Bettini family. Carlo Bettini is one of the basketball players and his parents are the ones who set up all of the plans for our amazing trip. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip!

Francesca e' Filippo Bettini

Italia! (Toscana: Siena e' Firenze)

The highlight of our trip to Italy was the 2 days spent in the Tuscany region. If, I mean WHEN, we go back to Italy someday that is where we want to spend much more time. Jon and I both loved Siena and we only got to spend about 4 hours or so there. It was the place we always pictured when we dreamed of Italy - windy little cobblestone streets full of shops and cafes, a great town square, interesting history etc. Probably the most interesting thing we learned about was the story of the Pallio races, the annual horse race between the 17 contradas (parishes) that starts in the square each summer. We also saw Siena’s Duomo, which was started in the 12th century and was finished in 1339.

Also while in Tuscany we had the most amazing meal ever! It was this little restaurant out in the middle of nowhere - Al Chiaro di Luna - that we went for lunch one day. I can't even describe how good that meal was!

We also stayed in the most amazing place I have ever stayed in. A 14th century villa - Villa il Poggiale in the remote town of San Casciano (pop. 4000 and birthplace of Machiavelli). It was a beautiful place that these pictures cannot even capture!










The 2 nights that we spent at Villa il Poggiale, we also ate there and had some fun times with the entire group. We would gather in the great room after dinner and play games, talk etc.







Our second day in Tuscany was spent in Florence. The group had a bicycle tour of the city planned. That was Jon's favorite thing he did on the trip. They rode bikes with electronic radios in their ears to hear the tour guide, both for information about Florence and about how to “safely” navigate the streets. The tour took them to the famous Duomo, the world’s fourth biggest Cathedral, and the Bell Tower. They crossed the Arno River and saw the market, with open sides and top, then rubbed the bronze pig’s nose. The Piazza Della Signoria from the end of the 1200’s held the old government palace and there they saw where the fake David was (being cleaned), and lots of statues commissioned by the Medicis. They saw the church where Michaelangelo and Gallileo are buried and then headed to a great lunch at Osteria dell Olio.

I, along with the coach's wife Donna and her sister Dionne decided to blow off the bike tour and go shopping all morning! We had so much fun in San Lorenzo market and stopping to take cappuccinos and then we met up with the group for another amazing meal.

We finished the day with a stop at the Verrazano family estate, Castello di Verrazzano. If the name is familiar, it’s because this family gave stones to help build New York’s Verrazano Bridge. There we heard about the Chianti wine that this region is famous for and that this family has produced since 1170. Our host Geno was quite the philosopher and taught us all a lot about wine and life. I would love to come back in the summer when everything is green and beautiful. It was such a beautiful place even though everything wasn't in bloom.

Geno, the philosopher

Our next stops were Venice and Milan which I will write about in my next post.

Italia! (Roma)

We just got back from an amazing trip to Italy! At the last minute (less than 2 weeks before), we got the opportunity to travel with the varsity boys basketball team from The Hill School. I have to admit that I wasn't completely excited about going to Italy for the first time with 16 teenaged boys and a bunch of adults I didn't really know (I only knew one couple, the coach and his wife, who now I can call my friends instead of just acquaintances!). I was happy to be pleasantly surprised as it turned out to be a trip that exceeded all of my expectations. I feel like we made some lifelong friends on this trip!

We packed so much into 8 days that I might have to do this post in shifts. Thankfully the coach did some blogs to update the parents, so I will be borrowing a lot of his material.

Today, I will tell you about our time in Roma:

After landing in Rome, we checked in to Hotel Diana, showered after the overnight flight, and headed to a nearby Metro stop under the guidance of our tour guide, Raffaella Lodola. Raffaella was with us the entire time we were in Italy and she was simply amazing! We are all looking for a way to find her a job over here as she would love to come to the States, and will definitely be staying in touch with her via email and Facebook!

We took the Metro to the Spagna stop, and walked down Via Condotti (Carlo, who is on the basketball team and is from Milan, called it the 5th Avenue of Rome but with cobblestone pavement). Our first meal in Italy was at the Autogrill - which is like an Italian fastfood chain. It was pretty disappointing for a first taste of Italy so we made a note not to go back there the rest of our time (the team has negotiated special rates there but the adults had freedom to go wherever we wanted). Back to the Metro and on to the Vatican. We walked all through the Museums as we made our way to the Sistine Chapel - quite an amazing site! We also took some time to go to St. Pietro's square and visit the Basilica. We got there too late to get to the top of the Basilica but were so glad that we made it in before it closed.

Jon's sister Elizabeth was also in Rome at the same time as us! She booked herself in the same hotel and so were were able to get together before dinner and go out for some caffe latte and gelato! It was so much fun to see her there! We also got to have dinner with her on Sunday night and found a great little out of the way restaurant (forgot to write down the name!) and had our first great meal in Italy! We had several dishes, but our favorite was the Spaghetti alla Carbonara.

On Sunday morning, we headed to the Colliseum. It's just so amazing to see something so old in person! Now we want to rent Gladiator again and watch it in light of being there. From there we walked to Basilica di san Pietro in Vincoli, one of Rome’s four major churches. Back on the bus, we drove by Cathedral san Jun of Latera where the Pope lived for 1000 years. We saw numerous Obelisks, the Laternano Palace, the Battiserie, Callicutta, one of the famous Baths, and Circus Maximum (of Ben Hur fame). We drove by Domus Augustana, Pallatino Hill, the Emperor’s residence, and the Giano Arc.

From there we saw Capitol Hill, Marcelo’s Theater, and Venetian Square. There we saw Trevii Fountain, which was very impressive. Jon and I made wishes as we threw in American coins (we didn't want to waste our euros!). After lunch we went to see Palace Chigi and the Marcus Aurelius columns, and then the Pantheon. We finished our walking tour checking out more fountains at the Piazza Navona, the entrance to the ancient stadium, and the Palace of Justice on the Tiber River. On the drive home, we saw the Olympic Stadium. The drive back to the hotel continued to cross by some of the 8 miles of city walls that remain around Rome.

Here are some of our favorite pics from Rome:











My next post will be about our time in Tuscany (Siena & Florence).