Noras paragraphs
Recently, we went to Assisi which is most known for being the home of St. Francis and St. Clare. First we went to Santa Maria de Angeli where they built the church around the original church of St. Francis. Then we drove up the mountains to Basilica de San Francisco (the basilica of st francis)where we saw st franciss tomb. The art in the basilica was extremely worn down and chipping from an earthquake, but it was still very pretty.
Right now we are in volterra where they filmed part of the twilight movie. Before coming here, we tried to stop in sienna, but after driving around for an hour looking for parking, we decided to go back later and drove to volterra instead. The road up here had many turns and eventually we had to get out of the car so that no one would throw up in it. In volterra there are a few cute castles and many gorgeous views of the area below. We are going to try to go to the duomo soon.
Bridget
A couple of days ago, we went to Verona, the setting for Shakespeare's famous story "Romeo and Juliet". Despite the fact that the story is clearly fictional, we somehow managed to see the famous balcony of Juliet. Verona might possibly exceed Venice in the romantic air of the city. We found several places where couples had "locked their love" by shutting a lock on a permanent structure of the city and throwing away the key. Verona was such a quaint and relaxing city that we were all somewhat reluctant to leave.
We also went to the small town of Cortona, located in the mountains. Many people have heard of this litte city due to the book and movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" that was written about the authors experience in Cortona. Based on a map of the city that we were looking at, we have estimated that the city is roughly 300 meters by 600 meters. Using this calculation and the knowledge that the city is surrounded by a wall, we figured that it woiuld be fairly difficult to get legitimately lost and thus my dad, Fiona and I wandered off on one of the little streets that lead to the top of the city at an extremely steep incline. My mom and Nora, the other hand, chose to stay in the market and shop around. After our long trek to the top, we stepped outside the wall to discover a beautiful view of the area. Many pictures later, we found our way back to heart of the town. While Cortona ranked low in terms of catching our interest, it is certainly one of the most charming.
We are relaxing. It is fun. Yesterday we played a soccer game. It was us kids against mother and father. We couldn't even concentrate on playing because my mom was so funny. We were all cracking up the entire time. Soccer is not her forte.
The villa is very relaxing and beautiful. We have a built in pool in the front which is surrounded by fields of sunflowers. There are bugs living in the house but my dad has become an expert bug killer. Basically, we are in the middle of nowhere.
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At the tuscan villa now. It is beautiful. Hard to describe how relaxed it feels here. Dlower are beautiful too. It is a working farm. Theuy grow lots of different things here cukes, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, olive oil, red wine and more
A couple other familes are staying here. Dutch, nigerian, and anothjer not sure
Um we are at a car rental and so I am being forced to write in this blog. We are all sad to be leaving venice as it was the favorite city thus far for many of us. It was so charming to walk through the back streets of venice or to sit in st marks square at night and enjoy the music. Venice is certainly a romantic city and consequently our parents love has become quite apparent to all. Displays of hand holding and gazing into each others eyes have become common and it is an inspiration for all of us.
n the 21st. We got out a little late arrived at the accademia museum at 8. The line was already to the end of the block. Sent the girls to check out the da vinci museum.
Nighttime on the 16th. We didn't get back to the room for siesta til 530 or so. We napped for about an hour and then headed out for a walk toward santa Maria del Popolo. We stopped for a rest at the spanish steps. The girls got a kick out of some of the high fashion observed. At the piazza del popolo there was not a lot of action. We scoped out the area and decided that the girls (B and N) would go to the harry potter movie and fiona maggie and I went to dinner at a romantic ristorante. Outside of the shock from the $6 sprite, it was a very nice dinner. The pasta is very fresh here but seems like the sauces are nothing special. I wish the kids would order more diversely. Outside of nora they just keep ordering pizza.
After dinner fiona and I hustled back tot he hotel while maggie waited for the girls. I think she fell asleep at the cafe out side the movie theater and they shooed her away.
Fiona is obsessing about her sweatshirt (she gets one everywhere she goes). She wants one that says roma or italia on it.
Morning of the 17th. We slept late had a leisurely breakfast (B slelcted a croissant with honay on it and embarrassed us by abandoning it at the table. We figured out that we could get capuccino with breakfast which makes you really feel like you are in italia.
We headed out for vatican city. Took the subway for the first time. It was pretty easy to use. St peter square was pretty incredible.
Then we went to the Vatican Museum. We were about 2 hours early for our tour so we spent the time writing postcards. Our tour didn't cover the entire museum but we got to see the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel as well as some of the other main rooms of the museum. The art was all astounding: incredibly defined statues, intricately detailed tapestries and frescoes, and so much more. My personal favorite was School of Athens by Raphael for several reasons. One was the clear thought that was put into the piece and the depiction of scholars of the day upon the wall. Another was that as I stood gazing up at the fresco, I heard a scream from behind me. I turn around to find my delicate flower of a daughter Nora fainting to the floor from what I inintially thought to be a push from Bridget but later learned to be from the heat. My dear wife Maggie had lost her head and was screaming in angst for water. Fiona stood there pondering when she would get to eat again and Bridget simply laughed. And of course my own dimwitted mind was far too slow to react and I merely looked down upon the scene stupidly with my mouth agape and my tongue hanging out the side, wondering what on earth was happening. My brain is so slow that I still haven't really figured that out. It was, to say the least an interesting experience for all.
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Got up at 630 am to get in line at the uffizi. The hotel owners drove us which was nice.
Got into the museum with minimal wait. The museum starts out with a bang going from icon apintings to the 1200's to the nascent renaissance elements to the brunellasci room in quick succession. But somehow we stayed in the museum til 230 (kids will blame it on me staying to long to study the paintings. I'm not sure I want to look ata ny art for a while but we are in florence so I'm sure we'll do more soon. Off to dinner now. We'll stop at accademia on the way to see if we can sneak in today.
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