Pienza...

After all this time, I decided you might actually want to see what the Tuscan countryside looks like. Here are some pics from around the small hill town of Pienza...

And another one...

The main Piazza in Pienza...

And of course the day wouldn't be complete without our gelato...

That was the last portion of our last drive through Tuscany...it was great, but sad. I have certainly been enjoying my time here.

This past weekend was a little longer than usual for us and we took advantage of it and took a vacation through the Alps! We visited northern Italy, Austria, the very southern end of Germany, Leichtenstein, Switzerland, and back to northern Italy. Amazing country! And I do have to say, much cooler! We have offically hit summer weather here and I have to admit...I was not made for Italian summers! I am glad that we are leaving in a week...an action packed last week, but it will be good to be home again.

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!

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!

Monte Romano...

Tuesday, I was surprised by my most wonderful husband...he was able to come home early and we went exploring on a Tuesday afternoon!!! Here are some pics of the kids in the backseat of our 'sports car'...it's a good thing we left the car seats at home...they wouldn't have fit! There are only 2 seat belts back there! At least the kids are small...

I can't even back up enought to get all 3 in the pic...

Monte Romano is an interesting town...it is small (really SMALL, even for MT standards)...upon reaching the town we come to a stand still...stopped traffic about 1/2 mile out of town...is it an accident, herds of animals, did they just close the road...no...there is a one-way tunnel to get into town! In this picture you can see the tunnel in the lower left hand corner...

A fun fountain...

We stopped for gelato...I got the chocolate flavor (talk about rich!)...Clayton's was kind of like a chocolate chips in vanilla flavor...


Another great fountain...Fontana del Mascherone...Fountain of the Mask...


Then we continued north and drove through the town of Vetralla...it is a neat little town that I highly recomend driving through...the streets are crazy, narrow, hilly...the best!

I hopefully will get to the next post this afternoon!

Ciao a tutti!

Ancient Rome...

, Just a quick warning...this is an extremely long post...but then Ancient Rome deserves much attention! As you may have figured out, Saturday is our major exploring day...mainly because Tobin is off work, we have a vehicle, and everything is open for regular italian business hours (with the exception of banks which are only open in the morning on Saturday). Well, this past Saturday was the italian's Labor Day! Apparently everything just shuts down...if the lines in the food stores were any indication of what was to come...we bought lots of food on Friday!

We decided to brave the holiday and go to Rome. We certainly picked a great day to go! We got on the train in Montalto (apparently, they have these Birg tickets that are all inclusive...all train, metro, and buses included to and from Rome for one day...I feel like we made out like bandits...then they (the folks at the local Tobacchi that speak some english) said that even Case didn't need a ticket).

The kids were so excited about the train ride and were beside themselves once we were onboard...it was a double decker train and we got to sit on top (due to Labor Day we were basically the only ones on the train to begin the ride with...as we got closer to Rome it got more crowded, but it also got later in the day...we were on the 7am train!). Here is super excited Fuzz on the train...


We got off at the Termini station...well, you kind of have to because it is the end of the road/track!...then we walked through Rome to the Colosseum. My impressions of Rome (based on the short walk from the train station to the Colosseum) is that it actually reminds me alot of NYC. I was certainly expecting more along the lines of what one sees in the movies...more of an old feeling to the town, more quaint, more exotic, or something. The buildings were certainly beautiful and I always love to walk around in a city, but I certainly was NOT afraid of a pickpocket...frankly, I would have liked to see them try (my NJ is coming out) and finding the Colosseum was not difficult. I was shocked by the amount of grafitti on everything (not necessarily right in Ancient Rome but the outlying areas were covered...I haven't seen that much in a long time!

We arrive at the Colosseum and all of the streets around Ancient Rome are closed to car traffic...I wasn't sure what we were walking into but apparently they close off the streets and MANY Romans come down to walk the streets. It was very crowded...people were everywhere! I was afraid of being packed in the sites, but it really wasn't too bad. Apparently, all the people there were more interested in walking about and chatting with friends than seeing the sites...good for us! Well, we were in luck! Only for May 1st, the cost of going into the Colosseum was only 1 euro! Go us!!! Usually, the cost is 12 euros per adult and something less for kids, but on this day it was only 4 euro for all of us...my inner bargin-hunter was jumping for joy!

Here are the boys on a Roman road outside of the Colosseum...take note of the very large rocks that are used to make these roads...they are NOT made for strollers! We brought the stroller for Gwen and that was almost our downfall. Rome was not built in a day and it was not built with strollers in mind...think lots of stairs, large boulder streets, and gravel...thankfully, my stroller is well built...it made it and with minimal damage, but we did have to carry it up and down many staircases!

Here is the Arch of Constantine...this is just outside the Colosseum (the Colosseum is just to the left of this picture)...the arches are certainly one of my favorite parts of this adventure...they are quite the sight, large and relatively in good condition...

We then entered the Palatine Hill Area...just a note for those of you who may someday come for a visit...to get into the Colosseum, there is a combo ticket with the Colosseum and Palatine Hill...buy your ticket at Palatine Hill...there is a MUCH shorter line there...we just zipped in, whereas at the Colosseum you might stand for hours...

This is the Stadium of the Palatine...this is a long flat oval-type area that they say was used as a large garden...

After walking around the Palatine hill area and visiting the museum bathrooms, we meandered down into the Roman Forum. At the entry is the Arch of Titus...

I have a large number of pictures of all the ruins, but because (1) I am not sure what all we looked at/took pictures of and (2) not all the most exciting parts of our adventure, we will just have this one pic of the Temple of Saturn...by this time it was already really hot and the kids were loosing interest...on to the highlight of Ancient Rome (at least for me)...

My favorite part, by far, was the Colosseum...well worth my 1 euro to get in! It is a truly amazing structure. I think that once you are standing there and look at how large it is and remember that it was built thousands of years ago...truly amazing!

While the kids didn't understand exactly what we were looking at, I figured they would really enjoy this picture when they get older...

An outside few of this spectacular building...

Even with the 3 little kids (and one in a stroller) it only took about 1/2 a day to do that...we then took the Metro (think Subway) to Garbetella (one of Rome's neighborhoods) and we visited with our neighbors from Montana...amazing! The Lindquists actually live across the street from us in MT and we met them in Rome! What fun! A great refreshing visit in the hot of the day! We even had our first Italian Gelato! Looks like someone was enjoying it...

We got to meet the Lindquists daughter-in-law (Amelia) and granddaughter (Ocia) who actually live in Rome. Looks like Gwen has found her first friend in Italy...the 2 of them were certainly cute together...

Then back on the train home...we finally saw our first conductor, it was just minutes before our stop in Montalto, and apparently, Case does need a train ticket! We went all day and NOW they tell us we needed a ticket! The conductor let us go, but he made sure we understood that the penalty for not having a ticket is 50 euro! Yikes! For a 3 euro ticket! Oh well, next time he gets a ticket for sure! As expected, Clayton fell asleep almost as soon as he sat down...so much excitement for one day...

I hope that you enjoyed our adventure...I am sure to share more tomorrow!

Ciao a tutti!