Neuschwanstein...

Day Two: The second day of our vacation was a pretty rough day. I knew it when I was making the plans and I knew it that morning when we woke up! We were to drive from Bolzano through Austria and into Germany to make it for a 1pm ticket into the Neuschanstein Castle...it was a stretch to begin with. It was a long uphill walk, two castle tours, and a hot day with three kids and a stroller, plus it wasn't exactly my husband's cup of tea...but I did it anyway...because I REALLY wanted to! And it was AWESOME!

Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein are located in the Bavaria region of Germany...just outside the Austrian border...in the amazing Alps. Neuschwanstein Castle is what Walt Disney used as inspiration for his castle. Both are closely tied to Mad Kind Ludwig II of Bavaria. Schloss Hohenschwangau is actually his parents castle...where he grew up and Schloss Neuschwanstein was one of the castles he built when he became king of Bavaria.

Hohenschwangau is named after the 'swan in high places' or something like that...after the Swan Knights that lived there long ago...

The first castle was Schloss Hohenschwangau...only a 10 minute walk up some stairs...apparently they break you in easy! It is an amazing yellow structure that rises above the tree line. The tour was about an hour, the rooms are exquistely decorated, and my 2 year old was not really into the tour thing! But I still HAD to see it...

After the tour she managed to pose a little for me in front of this fountain...

Then onto Schloss Neuschwanstein...it is an amazing place. Kind of where fairy tales were born. I can blame it on my daughter, how I wanted her to see it (she is really into Sleeping Beauty right now...thanks to Krystal and all the castles we are seeing...we sold the tours by saying this is where Beauty lives)...but I will be honest...I wanted to see it! I REALLY did! Even after the 30 minute uphill hike with 3 kids and a stroller, sweating and baking in the sun...I REALLY wanted to see it! It was worth every minute...

And of course, we both enjoyed it after all...

And a special thanks goes to my most wonderful husband who made this whole day possible...schlepping the kids up a mountain, my idea...his back! Thank you for making our vacation happen...

After this long day, we stopped at our local german McDonald's...

Who could say no to this face...

We had to back track a bit because our hotel was in Innsbruck, Austria. It was late, dark, we didn't have much of a map...but we found it anyway...

Have a wonderful and cool day!

Ciao a tutti!

Tuscania...

On Friday, we (me, the kids, and Grandma) zipped over to Tuscania (it is only about 20 minutes away if you take the direct route...I forgot my stroller in the car and we had to take the long cut to the job site to pickup the necessary item). It was market day! I am really enjoying the open air markets...one in every town...all sorts of different vendors. This one had a great dried fruits, nuts, and candy vendor. I think by the end we had a taste of everything! I also finally managed to find Case a soccer shirt (I have been looking for a while...his birthday will be in the States and I wanted to bring him something from Italy).

Then we strolled around the castle/centro for a bit, window shopping and visiting some great shops. Here is a great fountain...

We utilized the nearby water fountain (these are thankfully everywhere...it does get a bit warm...no wonder they have a siesta)...

Another fountain that Clayton especially liked...

We made it to the park...who wouldn't want such a helpful big brother...

And even managed to have some coffee and gelato at the nearby bar...

Overall, it was a great way to spend a Friday!

Ciao a tutti!

Spoleto...

Moving along our Umbrian tour, we came to the lovely town of Spoleto. It's most fascinating feature is the Ponte della Torri (the bridge), built to get to the town on the next mountain...



Three good lookin' kids...



Inside the fortress of Spoleto...



Outside the fortress of Spoleto...

Overall, this was a pretty fun drive through the hills of Umbria. The roads have crazy curves, sometimes you go almost 180 degrees or more...makes for fun driving experiences!

Have a wonderful day!

Ciao a tutti!

Todi...

As usual...I am a bit behind in the old blog! So many things have been happening lately...more on that later! Anyway, 2 weekends ago we had our first real drive through Umbria and we visited a few hill towns in this very mountainous region. Umbria is called 'Cuore verdi D'Italia' or the 'Green heart of Italy'. It is the only land-locked region in Italy and is a very mountainous and green area...LOTS of trees!

Our first stop was the very hilly Todi...

Think grocery shopping up and down this street...

Random fountain...

3 cute kids and a castle...

The entry of the local duomo...

The inside of said local duomo...

Stuck a feather in his cap and called it 'macaroni'...

Have a wonderful day!

Ciao a tutti!

A walk across Rome...

This is one of my favorite adventures thus far in Italy (aside from going to Venice with Tobin). I just don't get many opportunities to just take the boys (who are older and more 'bribe-able') to do more 'grown-up' things. I truly enjoyed Rome, my boys, and the adventure, never mind it was in the 90s and humid, we just had a super fun time!

We spent the day walking across Rome...I am so impressed with the boys, having good attitudes despite being hot and tired...finding several TIs certainly helped, and gelato will make any day better, and mommy even got to do some shopping...a GREAT day!

Our first stop was Castel Sant'Angelo. Roman law stated no one could be buried inside the city walls, so Emperor Hadrian built this great big circular tomb. For nearly 100 years emperors were buried there, it was a prison in the dark ages, and eventually it was connected to the Vatican as a handy place of last refuge for threatened Popes. The boys enjoyed the castle, we found a great spot to rest with a magnificent view of Rome and a cool breeze...and the local TI with a map for everyone! Here is a pic from Ponte Sant'Angelo...

The fortress/castle from the inside...don't you just love those 2 helpers...

We continued on...hot and sweaty...I can't say that I ever thought I would drink from a public fountain (like the bubbling over kind), I got over that quick and learned to truly enjoy the ice cold water freely flowing...a quick wash of the face and you are ready to go again!

We managed to find Piazza Navona...an oblong shaped square with 3 impressive fountains (the middle one was by Bernini)...we ate gelato, washed off in a fountain, strolled through the artists booths, and found another TI...

I managed to stumble onto the Pantheon, totally by accident, but fun none the less. It is the only wholly intact roman building...it is pretty impressive...

Inside the dome, while it is much shorter than St. Peter's...it is 3 feet wider at the base...

We 'mosey-ed' on...if one can mosey while sweating and dragging 2 tired kids...bribing them with the possiblity of finding one more TI (which I never did by the way) and found the Trevi Fountain. It was quite impressive, crowded and huge. Of course, I forgot to toss in the obligatory coin into the fountain...silly me...local story, if you toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain and you will return to Rome...need to get back there...

Then we managed to find the Metro, got on the 4 o'clock train, meeting back up with Shannon and made it back home to Montalto. Not bad for one day's work! While it wasn't that important to the boys and, frankly, they won't remember, I will always treasure the memories of this special day. The boys did wonderfully, we had a good time, the boys had their maps from the TIs, and I had some wonderful memories to bring home...

Ciao a tutti!

Orvieto...

This past Saturday we made our first excursion into Umbria (another region of Italy...there is Tuscany, we live in Lazio, etc) to visit the hill town of Orvieto. It is pretty large as far as the hill towns that we have been visiting, but it is still a pretty small town. It is pretty impressive to walk through the cobblestone streets and then be faced with this HUGE Duomo...

This prickly church is amazingly detailed! The sculpture, mosaics, and stained-glass are almost overwhelming. Each of the 'pictures' on the fascade has been done with small 1/4 inch tiles...amazingly detailed...

Here is some of the details of the front...

The inside is very large and spacious...it was actually built to look larger than it is...the back portion of the nave is larger than the front causing an optical illusion...

The main reason such a small town has such a large church is the 'Miracle of Bolsena'. As the story goes...there was a priest who was skeptical about the eucharist actually becoming the body of Christ...during his blessing of the eucharist, it began to bleed and a linen cloth was soaked in blood...so they built this church. I even got to see the 'actual' blood-stained cloth...

Orvieto is also an Etruscan site. Historians think that Orvieto was some kind of mecca for the Etruscans, based on the number of tombs surrounding the city. The entire city lays on top of and entire underground network of tunnels and rooms...an underground city. We went on a tour of a couple of the tunnels...pretty cool! This pic is showing one of the actual 'houses' underground (notice the gabel roof)...

Later these underground rooms were turned into olive oil mills...

In some places, the tunnels and rooms can be 2 or 3 stories deep and even up to 5 stories deep...Here we are looking at a pigeon breeding room...they used pigeons for food (think little chickens)...brings new meaning to the term 'pigeon-holed'...

Overall, Orvieto was a pretty interesting place. It is known by the three C's...it's Cathedral, it's ceramics (I just happened to buy a jar for my home), and it's Classico wine (I purchased some and will have to let you know if I like it when we open it up!).

We ended up back at home earlier than usual...I think that we all are pretty tired from our siteseeing extraviganza! Hopefully we can catch up on some sleep and rest this week...we have a pretty exciting weekend planned...more on THAT later!

Have a wonderful day!
Ciao a tutti!

Vulci...Part Due...

Thursday afternoon was just begging for an adventure! So off we went to Vulci (the local archeological park...think Etruscans) to visit the museum there. It is inside this great castle...

The kids really enjoyed running around the castle and throwing rocks in the spring-fed moat...

An example of Etruscan artifacts...

And our 'local' aquaducts...just down the road from Montalto...a little 4x4 on a dirt road, it felt just like home (aside from scraping the ground with the car, of course)...

Have a wonderful day!
Ciao a tutti!

Volterra...

Yes! For those of you who have read the Twilight Saga...yes! This is the same Volterra that Meyer wrote about in the second book! On Sunday (I am still writing about last Sunday...it was a REALLY long day and we didn't get home until midnight...we are tired!) after we went to Pisa and Lucca, we went the back way home through Volterra. On the way there we saw this awesome rainbow...

We reached Volterra at about 7pm and enjoyed our first real experience in an Italian resturant (thank you Rick Steves')...we were really adventurous and ordered different KINDS of pizza! It was really good...we even got to have some vino! Again, it has been hard to do resturants because we don't know enough Italian to order anything for us let alone the kids! So this was a real treat...I loved it! Just outside the old city walls is this roman ampitheater...

The town also has 'the only Etruscan archway' in existance...at least that is what they say. Apparently in WWII, the Nazis were retreating through this town and wanted to blow up the arch to stop the allied advance...the people of the town ripped the stones out of the road and blocked the arch and convince the retreating Nazi army not to blow it up...

As we were walking through this old castle turned town at dusk, one can really understand why Meyer chose to use it in her book. Bats flying overhead, people looking at you funny (well, I guess we get that everywhere we go here, but it certainly added to the ambiance of the place)...it is easy to just let your imagination go! Here is the Tuscan view from the town at dusk...

Phew! Last weekend is done now! On to other fun stuff! I think we have explored more in the past month and a half than we have in Case's entire life! Good thing our rental car has unlimited miles!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Ciao a tutti!

Lucca...

As we left Pisa, it was HOT...at least for us. We traveled north to Lucca and into cooler and cloudy weather! As we entered the centro, I spotted the local TI (tourist information and my newest obsession...they give out free maps and really great brochures that tell you all about the area in English) and ran in to find my cool map and brochure (which by the way gave me all sorts of info on a great travel destination). While inside, my most wonderful husband came up with the BEST idea...riding bikes! The centro of Lucca is entirely inside it's intact castle walls which house the BEST paths around the city...cool! So Tobin took Gwen and Clayton in a trailer and Case was pedaling with me on a tandem bike! The kids were SO excited...I think it is the best 11 euros we have spent so far...

After traveling along the walls...we ventured into the town and found this really neat church...

This is a close up of the front...notice that each column is different...

Here is me with Case...He did a great job pedaling his little heart out...now if he just had a little balance!

The little kids LOVED the ride...notice my map in her hands...can't start teaching them too young! You should have seen the attention we got as we were biking through the town...'Ah Bella!'...there there was alot of pointing and exclaiming that there were 'due'/two kids in the trailer...3 kids is ALOT for Italy!

Lucca has alot of churches...

Here is a pic of one of the streets and Tobin...

So all in all, this was a HUGE sucess! The next morning all the kids could do was thank us for bike riding! I think this will be something that they actually remember from our trip! It is so much fun when we find something that the kids really enjoy...

But wait, Sunday was still not done...

Ciao a tutti!