Italy!

Italy - where to start? Wow. An amazing time. And due to the Iceland volcano, our trip was extended by 9 days to a whopping total of a 24 day holiday in Italy!

Our travels took us to urban and rural and included a few first days in Venice, eight days in the Tuscany countryside, planned 3 days in Rome with 6 added on, and a bonus 3 days back in the countryside just north of Rome as we waited for the ash clouds to dissipate. We took many fantastic walks throughout the grape vines, olive trees, and medieval hilltop villages. We walked for hours in the big cities. We viewed and walked over and between countless ruins and inside numerous churches. We visited Jewish ghettos. We took every form of transportation possible, from buses to trains to water taxis (no bicycles actually). And of course, we ate very well!!!!!

It's a bit hard to capture 24 days in Italy in one small blog posting or even through selected pictures, but here is a small attempt to do so.

We filled the first 19 days with Gelato (strangely, no one requested it during the last five) and some days with two doses. Pizza was also a frequent food item and amazing. We did most breakfasts at home and most days packed a lunch so that we could enjoy the gelato treats and a dinner out (sometimes dinner was just gelato actually).

A point of pride: 24 days, 5 family members, 1 suitcase.


We mostly stayed in apartments, and here is the view from our bedroom window in Venice.


Venice was beautiful and we loved walking around without cars or scooters.


In a strange underwhelming way, though, it looked exactly the way it was supposed to, complete with gondolas and accordions and arched bridges. But still, who can argue with the beauty and tranquility of this:


We then rented a car and headed to the center of the Tuscany countryside about half way between Florence and Rome. We stayed in one quarter of a large house just outside a small town and essentially spent the week exploring different versions of this:


From this base, we also took day trips to Florence and Pisa. Florence definitely felt very busy and crowded, especially given that we had been a few days in a very peaceful countryside. It took a bit of time to get into the urban pace and by the end, with a visit to the top of the Duomo (see Marc below) with outstanding views of the surrounding city, we were glad to have gone. Florence deserves more than a day trip, but our hearts were with a slower countryside pace.



The kids unanimously voted for a day trip to see the leaning tower of Pisa (no surprise on the vote) and it was quite impressive to see in person. Much like our visit to Stonehenge, we were pleasantly surprised and impressed to see the tower in person. It's quite an amazing building and too bad the original builders made such a big blunder.


Off then to Rome, which much like our visit to Florence, felt incredibly overwhelming at first. Rome is a busy place, dirty and full of graffiti, with cars and scooters everywhere kind of dominating the senses. It is also a city with an incredible amount of monuments, ruins, incredible buildings, art, and the like. The first couple of days we weren't thrilled to be in Rome (we missed the countryside), but with our bonus volcano days, we came to be a bit more relaxed and in the groove of the city's pace a bit. We also moved from an apartment on the outside of the city core, to a hotel in close proximity of the Spanish steps, which made our exploring much easier and pleasant.

Here we are at the Trevi fountain, terminus of an aqueduct and, despite the picture, constant home to hundreds of visitors at all hours of the day. The statues here and throughout the city are just incredible.


The kids thew some money in, over the left shoulder, to help make a wish come true. I think they were wishing for the volcano to keep spewing ash so we could stay longer in Italy.


The Colosseum. THE COLOSSEUM!!!!! Right there. Impressive beyond belief. To think of the things that were being built by humans 2,000 years ago (and longer if thinking about Egypt) and compare to what was being built in the U.S. then or even two hundred years ago. It was very hard to wrap your mind around the scale and size and complexity and thoughtfulness of all these ancient sites.


Here is the inside of the Colosseum, now missing its floor. Behind the kids are the underground areas where animals and prisoners were held before being raised up to the stadium floor for their 'competitions'. We were really there. It was cool.


We visited the Vatican, which was impressive of course, but it was hard for us not to contemplate how all the wealth and power embedded in and symbolized by the Vatican squared with their previously forced ghetto-ization of Jews in Rome (including limiting Jews to one, unmarked Temple, and only allowing them to be bankers) or their current appalling response to pedophilia within the Church. Plus we probably got ripped off by a service to expedite our entrance.



On one of our Rome bonus days, we took a day trip out to Hadrian's Villa, which by this time the kids were done with ruins, although the remaining artifacts and grounds were amazing.


With our remaining volcano bonus days, we rented a car and headed back to the countryside. Mindy found an amazing B&B in a small town (Casperia) just 45 minutes outside of Rome, but a world away really. The town was 1,000 years old, pedestrian only, with a population of around 200. One place for dinner. It was a great end to the trip as we could once again take it easy, go for walks around the beautiful Italian countryside, and spend time together as a family.


There is much more to tell (we took 700 pictures), but basically we had a fantastic time. It was warm, the food was great, and we figured if we had to get stuck anywhere in the world for an extra nine days, Italy was a wonderful place. Our only small regret is that we actually over-packed.

Spain Half Term (long post)

Our kids had a week off of school in mid-February, so we decided to go to southern Spain in search of sun and warm weather. The good news is that Spain is absolutely beautiful, the mixture of Moorish and Spanish architecture is amazing, and the castles, cathedrals, and palaces impressive. The bad news was that we didn't quite get the sun and warmth we had hoped for; Spain, like much of Europe, is enduring one of the wettest and coldest spells in recorded history.

So to warm ourselves up, here was our very first breakfast: churros and chocolate. In this breakfast feast, you take the churro (fried dough), dip it in sugar, then dip that into liquid chocolate that can be described as somewhere between pudding and hot chocolate. Once we discovered this little gem, it didn't take long for us to agree to taste test throughout our holiday.



In all, we spent 8 days in the Andalucia region with 2 days in Malaga, 3 in Seville, 1 in Cordoba, and 2 in Granada. We stayed in the city center in all cities (hotels and apartments) and had a nice mixture of wandering the old historic areas and traveling to palaces up high. Here is a view down from an old palace (and light house) in Malaga, with the bull ring in the foreground.


We then went on to Seville, which has a really beautiful old core. This is where Christopher Columbus sailed from when he crossed the seas in 1492 and we retraced a bit of his history, including where his remains rest. But really we walked and walked and walked and just marvelled at how beautiful things were (plus walking kept us warmer). We took an excellent guided walking tour for a few hours as well.


We loved the public squares, fountains, (mostly) pedestrian environments, stonework, and architecture all around us.


After a while, the kids seemed to stop noticing the narrow, curving streets, the detailed architecture, the different street signs, and the vehicles and mopeds seemingly not caring that pedestrians were all around. They thought much of what they saw reminded them of their three months in Greece two years ago. Lucky kids.

That said, what makes southern Spain so remarkable is the vast influence of northern Africa over the region's history in religion and design. Mosques became churches and palaces were used and built upon over time, creating some stunning buildings to explore. This picture is an internal garden from the main palace in Seville.

Each inside and outside 'room' had a different design, pattern, and look, which made exploring really interesting.


And even when we were just waiting around, regrouping, or thinking about what to do next, the kids could easily find something to do in one of the many beautiful small courtyards.




Seville has the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, and come April, we will have visited the the top 3 (#1: Vatican; #2 St. Paul's in London). The size and details of these buildings are unbelievable and inspires respect for the artisanry and makes one wonder if the time and money would have been better spent.

Seville also operates a rent-a-bike program where you can check out a bike and return it anywhere else in the city and payment is on a per 30 minute basis (the first 30 minutes are free). Bikes were the same design as in Paris and were used to some degree, but not as much as in Paris from what we could see.


We then left Seville and spent a day and night in Cordoba trying to stay dry while watching local news of floods all over the region. We visited the ruins of an old synagogue - the only reminder that Cordoba once had a thriving Jewish population and the Alcázar, a massive mosque that was partially redesigned to include a church. The building was deemed too beautiful to tear down completely by the Christians once they took over the region several hundred years ago, but they did insert a massive and ornate church in the middle. The building is essentially a massive open room divided by minimal columns and arches, creating the perception that the building goes on forever (which was designed that way on purpose). It was incredible.

Here the old Muslim section (left) transitions into the later built Christian section (right). Different styles for sure and it wasn't clear they belonged together in this way, but certainly the building told the stories of the changing power within the region over time.

We then went on to Granada and sampled some regional cuisine (falafels, couscous, pakistani tea), but we decided to opt out of the hookah.

After some more walking around another beautiful city, we went to the Alhambra, a massive palace overlooking the city to one side, and being towered over by the snow capped Sierra Nevadas on the other.

The Alhambra is known for its incredible inside spaces and its incredible outside courtyards and gardens. Water runs throughout the space and was designed in an integrated, beautiful and impressive fashion throughout the grounds and buildings. Unfortunately for us, it was hard to completely appreciate the elaborate water designs because we were trying to get out of the deluge of water from the skies. Nissa's shoes became sponges and Mindy couldn't quite ever get warm.

Here is a view from inside looking out to the city beyond and below.

And just as we were contemplating significantly abbreviating our visit, the clouds broke and the sun appeared for a short time. We took advantage of the opportunity to climb the highest tower and explore the gardens a bit.

It momentarily got so bright, the kids could barely look up at the camera. We soaked up every bit of sun that we could.

Here is one of the many landscaped garden spaces.

And here is some of the outdoor space and palace buildings inside the fortified walls, with the main city beyond.


In addition to the main sites, we also went to a small Flamenco show in Seville and went to the Picasso museum in Malaga (his birthplace).

And that was about it. Spain was a bit wetter and colder than we had hoped for, but still the cities were beautiful, the kids were fantastic travelers (again), and we now have a goal of finding churros y chocolate elsewhere in the world.

A Weekend In Paris

In early February, we were able to take a long weekend trip to Paris, without kids, to celebrate Mindy's birthday. We took the Eurostar through the Chunnel and enjoyed walking and walking and walking around the city core. It was Mindy's second visit, after having gone in November with Tala to celebrate her 12th birthday, but even though many of the sites and routes and food stops were the same, it was Paris and all worth a second go around.

We stayed in a B&B in the Latin Quarter and here was the view that greeted us from our window when we arrived. It was an absolutely stunning welcome.


We then pretty much just walked our days away, occasionally stopping for some hot chocolate, coffee, pastries, or food. It was amazing how good everything tasted and equally amazing how that cooking skill doesn't seem to have been able to migrate across the English Channel.


We walked past the Louvre, didn't go inside, but thoroughly enjoyed the architecture and open public spaces.


We did, however, go into the Musée de l'Orangeries, which showcases Monet's Water Lillies in two oval rooms that give the visitor the feeling of being at the water's edge.


Of course, we visited the Eiffel Tower, which much like Stonehenge was for us, was so much more impressive in person than could have been imagined. Having the top of the tower in fog was also cool, although we probably would have preferred sunshine and warmth instead.



We did have moments of sun, like this visit to Sacré-Coeur, a magnificent church that overlooks the entire city. Climbing up to the church was the only time we shed a jacket and once up there, we realized that Paris is a much prettier city from ground level than from above.


We stopped by the Jewish quarter, picked up some excellent felafels, and went to this beautiful park from the 1700s to eat.


And of course it was hard not to pay attention to other modes of transportation like the subway...


and the Velib rent-a-bike, which we saw in constant use throughout the city.


We had a great few days in the beautiful City of Paris - what's not to like.