Trips, Pics, and Tales

We did it, we navigated the streets of Rome, in the dark on our own!  We made it to the Trevi Fountain, which if you can manage to get past the craziness of the crowds and the people trying to force roses upon you…is really a stunning site all lit up at night!  Alex, Megan and I made our way down to the actual edge and tossed in our coins. We will be back! This was our insurance!   You know the legend right? Toss one coin in the fountain and you guarantee a return trip to Rome!  Two coins and you come back and fall in love, three coins and ...well this is where it gets a bit fuzzy.  I've read that you'll get married, and I've read you'll get divorced.  But the one that's always consistent is one coin and you come back! And then just go toss as many as you want, and then  Euros are donated to the local food bank or to the poor, and foreign coins are donated to the Red Cross. It was a crazy mad scene though!  The crowds were tight an...

We had a little bit of time to relax after our whirlwind tour through Florence, so we spent some time at our hotel, which has some lovely courtyards and common areas. Megan and I hung out in the inside common areas. The gardens were way too hot. I took advantage of the free wifi and caught up a bit with home. Keith and Alex stayed in the air conditioned room. Oh, we had a loft quad room and my parents had a double room.  And once again, we kept thinking how amazing this hotel find was - it was so hard to believe that these gardens and tranquility were tucked behind one of those giant doors in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Florence! After our little bit of down time we were ready to go. So when I said Megan was ready for “fun”, it was time for our Pizza and Gelato making class! Before our trip, we had looked for something hands on for the kids. In the past our vacations have always been more of the “fun” type – you know, beach type, active type. Sure this is a...

We finished up our water taxi tour by passing by the Doge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, right where we started first thing this morning!  W e met up with another guide for the walking part of the tour. Again we were given the headsets and we started walking. This guide immediately started walking fast! She didn’t say where we were going, but started practically sprinting. It was difficult for my parents to keep up at this point. What could be so urgent to get to? We walked and walked, dodgin g crowds of people an d then we arrived…where you ask? A public WC! Yes, a bathroom, that was apparently our first stop! She now started talking. She said it was hot and she wanted to get out of the sun. This would also be the last time to use a bathroom for some time, so it would be important to go now! I really thought this was a very strange way to start at tour! Ok, so after those who needed to used the facilities, we started walking again – off we went to our fir...