We just got back this morning from our vacation in Italy. We had a great time, but it was tiring. We kept pretending we were on "The Amazing Race" as we walked all over Italy looking for the train station, restaurant, landmark, etc. The prize for winning "Amazing Race" was a three year vacation in Doha.
Remember when you were in Kindergarten and you did the unit on "Transportation". Well, we lived that unit this past week. We traveled by taxi, plane, train, bus, ferry boat, and tired feet. This was really our first vacation as a family to an unfamiliar place and we learned a lot.
The Highlights of our trip............
1. The Coliseum in Rome. The kids loved this "ginormous" (Will's word) ancient arena. We paid extra for a tour so we didn't have to wait in the "ginormous" line.
2. The "hop on - hop off" double decker bus tour of Rome. Fun for all.
3. The Vatican. Believe it or not. We again paid extra for a tour to avoid the extremely long line and we had the best tour guide. He was laugh out loud funny, full of interesting facts about the art and artist, and made everything come alive for us. The kids even liked it, although by the time we reached St. Peter's Basilica, we took a quick look around and abandoned ship. The kids had reached their limit. I read somewhere to buy postcards in the museum gift shops and let the kids look for the things on the post cards. They had fun doing this.
4. Trevi fountain. Amazing. I loved how you could refill your water bottle at the fountains. The water source for the fountains is all natural.
5. The piazza's. Each one has it's own "personality". Cole and Abbey got to try a Segway at one and I bought a painting from a "starving" artist at another. Fun just to sit and watch people. Although, Italy is for lovers, obviously. We say a lot of passionate couples..which is odd coming from Doha, where PDA is a no-no.
6. Siena. One of my favorites. A town trapped in it's medieval glory. They have a horse race (the Palio) here twice a year that dates back to the middle ages. The people are very enthusiastic about it. The city is divided into 17 neighborhood teams and each has its own flag, colors, etc. We got to witness the energy as the Palio winners for this last race geared up for a parade.
7. San Fabiano. We stayed in Tuscany at a restored farmhouse. The owners were very gracious and showed us around the entire estate. Even though everything was extremely dry, as they have had very little snow or rain this year, it was still beautiful. It was fun to walk (seriously, very "Under the Tuscan Sun") to the tiny town nearby for dinner.
8. Gardaland. The kids favorite day. An amusement park in Italy. I didn't realize my kids were such thrill seekers. Our days of kiddy rides and carousels are over for now. Oh well, on to the roller coasters!!
9. The food was yummy. Although most of the time we ended up goofing up our order, because of our really bad, really limited Italian.
10. Gelato, gelato, gelato......we ate so much gelato. It was delicious. My favorites were mango and coconut. Cole always got chocolate. Abbey liked menta. Will always got stracciatella (kind of like chocolate chip). Bill's favorite was lemoncello.
The kids were so ready to come home and so was I .....Will kept whining "I want to go to Gutter!" (his preferred way of pronouncing Qatar)
So, it is good to be HOME in Gutter watching Virginia Tech on ESPN (Bill's happy!!).
Remember when you were in Kindergarten and you did the unit on "Transportation". Well, we lived that unit this past week. We traveled by taxi, plane, train, bus, ferry boat, and tired feet. This was really our first vacation as a family to an unfamiliar place and we learned a lot.
The Highlights of our trip............
1. The Coliseum in Rome. The kids loved this "ginormous" (Will's word) ancient arena. We paid extra for a tour so we didn't have to wait in the "ginormous" line.
2. The "hop on - hop off" double decker bus tour of Rome. Fun for all.
3. The Vatican. Believe it or not. We again paid extra for a tour to avoid the extremely long line and we had the best tour guide. He was laugh out loud funny, full of interesting facts about the art and artist, and made everything come alive for us. The kids even liked it, although by the time we reached St. Peter's Basilica, we took a quick look around and abandoned ship. The kids had reached their limit. I read somewhere to buy postcards in the museum gift shops and let the kids look for the things on the post cards. They had fun doing this.
4. Trevi fountain. Amazing. I loved how you could refill your water bottle at the fountains. The water source for the fountains is all natural.
5. The piazza's. Each one has it's own "personality". Cole and Abbey got to try a Segway at one and I bought a painting from a "starving" artist at another. Fun just to sit and watch people. Although, Italy is for lovers, obviously. We say a lot of passionate couples..which is odd coming from Doha, where PDA is a no-no.
6. Siena. One of my favorites. A town trapped in it's medieval glory. They have a horse race (the Palio) here twice a year that dates back to the middle ages. The people are very enthusiastic about it. The city is divided into 17 neighborhood teams and each has its own flag, colors, etc. We got to witness the energy as the Palio winners for this last race geared up for a parade.
7. San Fabiano. We stayed in Tuscany at a restored farmhouse. The owners were very gracious and showed us around the entire estate. Even though everything was extremely dry, as they have had very little snow or rain this year, it was still beautiful. It was fun to walk (seriously, very "Under the Tuscan Sun") to the tiny town nearby for dinner.
8. Gardaland. The kids favorite day. An amusement park in Italy. I didn't realize my kids were such thrill seekers. Our days of kiddy rides and carousels are over for now. Oh well, on to the roller coasters!!
9. The food was yummy. Although most of the time we ended up goofing up our order, because of our really bad, really limited Italian.
10. Gelato, gelato, gelato......we ate so much gelato. It was delicious. My favorites were mango and coconut. Cole always got chocolate. Abbey liked menta. Will always got stracciatella (kind of like chocolate chip). Bill's favorite was lemoncello.
The kids were so ready to come home and so was I .....Will kept whining "I want to go to Gutter!" (his preferred way of pronouncing Qatar)
So, it is good to be HOME in Gutter watching Virginia Tech on ESPN (Bill's happy!!).
