Trip to Italy: Day 5 Cinque Terra

On our 5th day we travelled to Cinque Terra. Cinque Terra is made up of five little fishing villages along the Italian Riviera. It was quite beautiful. We stayed in Vernazza, which turned out to be quite the busy little place. Our room was right in the harbor. During the day the villages are quite the busy places because tour group will visit each village, but in the evening they are very relaxing and quiet. We arrived midday, grabbed some lunch and headed out on a hike. There are trails between each village and then there are also trains that go between each. We ended up doing a hike that turned out to be one of the more difficult hikes. It was quite muddy from rain the day before and very crowded with tour groups, but you cant deny the beauty as you walk along the cliffs looking out at the ocean.

Trip to Italy: Day 4 Florence & San Gimignano

Today we woke up early and took a train to San Gimignano which is a beautiful hilltown in Tuscany. We climbed to the top of one of the towers in the town and enjoyed an unbelievable view. After some lunch and some world champion gelato we did some shopping and headed back to Florence to catch an amazing sunset on the river.

Trip to Italy: Day 3 Florence

On our 3rd day we hopped on a train to Florence. Once we found our hotel and put our stuff down we headed out to discover Florence. We had a wonderful day just taking in the sites and wandering around town. We enjoyed some wonderful lunch and then hiked to the top of the Duomo. It was amazing to see the city from the top of the tower. Let me just tell you it was quite a hike, almost 500 stairs I believe, up a tight spiral staircase. We were stuck behind some very very very slow people climbing up, which led to much sweat on my part by the time we reached the top. The view was beautiful with all the red roofs and made the sweat worthwhile. We also enjoyed THE BEST meal of our trip at a little place by our hotel. We had the best pizza, mmm too good.

Trip to Italy: Day 2 Rome

Our second day was spent again walking all over Rome. We started the day at the Colosseum which was quite amazing. After some lunch our friends the McDonoughs joined us. We then headed to the Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and the Palazzo Novana. We had a wonderful day enjoying our friends company.

Our Trip to Italy: Day 1 Rome

Alright well as most of you know, Kevin and I had the chance to take an amazing trip to Italy. We had an wonderful time, while Gavin and Audra soaked up some wonderful Grammy and Pops time at home in Phoenix. We were very busy trying to fit as much in to each day as possible, but it was so worth it. So since I have way too many pictures, I decided I would pick a few of my favorites from each day and then you if you have the time you can view the slideshow at the end.

We landed in Rome Saturday morning, without much sleep shall I add, and hit the ground running. We made a quick stop at our bed and breakfast to drop off our backpacks and started our very long walk. We walked up a hill through a beautiful park on our way to find the Vatican. After much walking and a few dead ends we arrived at the Vatican. It was quite stunning. There was so much to see and we were pushed through by all the crowds so I'm sure we really only saw a very small portion of all there was to see. We also toured St. Peter's Basilica which was also quite beautiful. One of our favorite site of the day was the Sisteen Chapel. It was truly amazing to see the detail, however I have to admit something to you; now keep in mind we were running on no sleep and were now in the late afternoon, but we were sitting in the Sisteen Chapel listening to our Rick Steve's tour on the ipod, staring at the ceiling and . . . I . . . fell asleep. Yep I fell asleep. Quite embarassing, but I was so exhausted from not sleeping on the flight and then from walking all day. Anyway that is my story for the day, I also fell asleep at dinner that night, needless to say it was a rough day without any sleep and lots and lots of walking. We also did see the Spanish Steps, we happened to wander upon them at sunset, which was quite amazing, not only because it was a beautiful sunset but because of the swarms and swarms of people. Rome is one busy, busy city with lots and lots of people.

Belated Birthday Wishes!

While Kevin & I were gone on our trip we missed several very important birthdays.

We would like to like to wish Uncle Jake a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

(My children have not really been in much of a picture taking mood. I've been feeling quite under the weather since getting back with an awful cold and today Gavin started the day by throwing up. Fun huh! Needless to say there are not an abundance of good pictures.)
We also want to wish Grandma Floch and Uncle Reid a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Don't let them fool you, they aren't really sleeping (that actually probably would have been easier) they just don't want to look at the camera.