Highlights from our Italian Odyssey: Now that we’ve returned from Italy, we thought we would highlight some of our more interesting memories or trip highlights that will stick with each of us individually:
Chris – driving a standard again (love it!); driving in Rome again (don’t love it!); having a ‘moment’ at a toll payment booth that has no person working it – machine only (needing 22 euros in cash and a line of cars behind me); wine tasting at every port; being given a cross by a priest in Rome; being told by police not to feed the pigeons in Venice (when I had a pigeon on each arm); getting lost in the streets of Venice; meeting up with an ex-student (from Switzerland) in Florence; being at a Mass in the Vatican; watching Greg and Mo climb steps up the mountainside in complete awe (stressful just watching); taking night walks through all the town streets…
Mo – cozy overnight train cabin; drinking hot wine in the streets of Venice; having my feet attacked by “Kiss Fish” and nearly having a heart attack from the feel of it (never again!); driving a standard again (love it!); not hydrating enough (forced to drink wine instead water) knowing I would never find a toilet; paying for toilets when I did find them; Orzo (barley coffee – Yumm!); dragging Brianna out of stores; trying to speak Italian; leaving the kids in the apartments late at night to stroll through quaint piazzas (campos) with such great character; Italian radio in our Volkswagen through the hills of Tuscany; the history, beauty and history around every corner!!
Greg – feeling crooked after sleeping all night in a cabin on the train; the tightly packed vaporetto ride in Venice that I thought I would never get off; waiting for my mom and her camera to catch up with us; climbing the leaning tower in Pisa (awesome); lunch with Hugo in Florence; the Colosseum in Rome (awesome); wearing shorts into the Vatican Cathedral (against the rules – yikes/close one); hanging over a 500 foot cliff that dropped into the Mediterranean (crazy); swimming in the Sea on Halloween (awesome); Pizza, Gelato; Seafood; Pizza, Gelato, Seafood (amazing food – I wanted to eat all the time).
Brianna – hanging with Rebel Wilson in Florence (Wahooo)!!!! ; meeting up with my friend Payton in Venice; having my pedicure done by the “Kiss Fish” (Awesome!); sleeping in a ‘loft bed’ in Florence; drinking wine with some meals :); 2 gelato a day 🙂 (yummm); seeing St. Catherine’s finger in Sienna; the small parts of male statues (Why?); the long line for the Vatican (praying it would move quicker); street shows with artists & musicians…; trying to find wifi (not easy!); being woken by an earthquake; window shopping like crazy and badly wanting Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada ETC; walking, walking and more walking!
We really used many ways to get from point A to B over the past 9 days, so the ‘Planes, Trains, Automobiles’ cliche does apply. We used Ubers (to airport in Milan and to and from garage in Rome), a ferry, bus, vaporetto and our rental car of course (a white Golf TDi). 🙂 LOTS and LOT of walking every day to see all of these beautiful sites. Overall we toured Venice, Florence, Sienna, Pisa, Rome, La Spezia, Riomaggiore, Manorola, Vernazza, Monterosso, Portovenere and Milano. It was a very memorable trip, even with teens, or maybe ‘more so’ with teens!! Hmmm?
C M G B Overseas 
So many beautiful memories for each of you!
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