Florence

AHHHHH Florence. What can I say. It is so beautiful. When we go back to Italy one day this will definately be the area that we will go. (Don't forget to click the picture to see them all)

We took a 2 hour ride on the train to Florence and arrived in the evening just before sunset. We each stuffed into a small taxi cab and winded the small an narrow roads of Florence until we got to our apartment. We had the largest set back at this apartment because it was not ready. After speaking with the man the week before and the day before to confirm our arrival time, it was not ready. So we all sat downstairs at a cafe and ate lunch. We were however really happy with the apartment and the large amount of space it had. It could have been a little cleaner, but it worked. Evelyn got really sick by the time we got into our apartment and started running fever again. Everyone took a walk up the hill to see the city during sunset and Lance and I stayed with Evelyn and Camille in the apartment. I found a number to a 24 hour doctor service in Florence and called. A German doctor came to our apartment that night to see Evelyn and we had her check almost all of us out (since we were all getting a little sick by this time). She prescribed some antibiotics for Evelyn and Paul and I set out at around 10pm for a walk in the city to find the pharmacy. We had a lovely time seeing the city at night and enjoyed some gelato on the way. Evelyn got some medicine and was much better by the morning.

The next morning (Day 5) we all walked into the city and met our tour guide for the day. It was an excellent way to see Florence, a guided walking tour through the city ending with the Uffize Museum. She showed us what made everything so special and educated us on the effects of the Renisance. We went to the Duome first which is a church with a large dome hints the name Duomo. It was an amazing accomplishment in its time. The outside of the church is covered with white, pink, and green marble. We walked through Florence and went into the uffize Museum. Wow the paintings in the Uffize were spectacular and even Evelyn was intrigued. We learned a lot from our wonderful tour guide. Camille got tired by the time we got to the museum, but the girls held on and we made it through our tour. That evening we went to the St. Croche church were our tour guide was an American Student studying in Florence. Michelangelo was buried there. The inside was really beautiful. We did get to do a little bit of shopping in Florence since it is the place that lots of leather goods are made as well as beautiful pottery. I definately could have spent more time shopping. Lance did buy himself a really nice computer bag for work and I got myself some pottery.

The next day we went to the Pitti Palace. It was really cool because there was a section that you could see how they lived back in the day. Evelyn and my favorite part of the palace was the dress museum. Beautiful gowns from the past. We ended our tour in the gardens and then headed to the train station for Rome.

One word to describe Florence.....breathtaking.....the views are just breathtaking...

Venice 2011

So here are pictures from our first 3 days on our "Felixwalds Italy Trip" I thought it would be easier if I broke up the trip by city. Our family, my Mom and Dad, and my Brother, his wife and almost 2 year old son all went on this wonderful 10 day trip across Italy. We had a great time.

We started our journey in Venice......

Well first I have to talk about the plane ride. It will go down in the hall of fame of worst flights we have ever taken. Not because of the airlines...no...because of Camille. You see Evelyn got sick as we were leaving for our trip. She was coming down with a cold and running fever. I gave her some medicine and she slept the entire way. Camille on the other hand cried the entire first flight. It was miserable. We felt so sorry for the passengers around us. Lance and I took turns handing her back and forth. She just could not get comfortable. Now, I think maybe she was coming down with the same cold and just didn't feel good. Evelyn was sick pretty much the entire trip with fever, runny nose, and a terrible cough. And by the end of the 10 days we all had it.

Well once we arrived in Venice I could have jumped out of my skin I was so excitted. We took a shuttle to the island and the plan was to take the water taxi to our stop to our apartment. Well the water taxi drivers were on stike that day, which seems to happen often, so we took a water taxi that was outragiously expensive. The first views of Venice brought tears to my eyes. I just could not believe we were there and looking at all of it's beauty. We made it to our apartment and were dissipointed with our place. Location was good, but the place was small and not as clean as we would have hoped. Oh well. The remainder of the first day we spent resting and getting groceries. The next morning we headed out to see the sites. We stopped at a great market then walked over the Rialto Bridge straight to St. Mark's Basicila.

You will not see any picture of the inside of the basilica because they do not allow. It was really pretty, and we saw were the remains of St. Mark lies. Do you know the story? Well apparently St. Mark died in Egypt and the Christins went to retrieve his body. The way they got it out of Egypt is by wrapping pork around the casket, knowing the muslims would not touch it. And they brought him to Venice and built a church around his remains.

We hung out around St. Mark's square. Which it was nice but not all that I thought it was going to be. Then we ate on sandwich row and had the best sandwiches of the entire trip. I would do anything to have one again. Then we went into Doge's Palace. By this time the kids are exhausted, so we had to go through the palace at warp speed. At the end of the palace you go through the prisions and cross the Bridge of Sighs. It is called this because once people were sentenced to prison they had to cross this bridge and it is said they would sigh as they crossed. We stopped at a great little pizza place on the way home and picked up supper. Then we headed to bed.

The next day we went to Morano Island to see some glass blowing. That was really really cool. These people are so talented. The industry sadly is decreasing because there isn't a large demand for morano glass since the chinese can make it much cheaper. Once we got back each family We ate a delicious lunch on the island, but it was not so relaxing. The girls were tired and could not sit still. They played in the courtyard close. Lance and I took turns eating. That night everyone went their own way for supper. We walked the market and picked up some souveniers, then we stopped at a little sandwich shop got some food and sat at the foot of the Rialto Bridge and ate. As we were sitting there a gondola passed in front of us with a younge man and woman in it. As they approached the bridge he asked her to marry him...and she said yes. We witnessed the entire thing. It was so cool.

I sum up Venice in one word....picturesque. The views are unbelievable.

The next morning we packed our things and headed to the train station. We boarded our trian and within 2 hours we were in Florence......

Ciao.....

March 2011 Mom and Dad visit

Click and you will see all of the great thing we did in March with Mom and Dad. Unfortunately, my camera broke in March and I did not get all of the things we did, but I did seem to capture most.

We had a great time with Mom and Dad visiting us the month of March. We did so many wonderful things, plus we really enjoyed their company as well as showing them our new home. I never thought I would see my parent in the middle east. It means so much to us that they came to visit us. Now they know how life is for us here in the UAE and understand what we are trying to explain to them. We were sad to see them leave for sure, but we look forward to seeing everyone this summer and for them to come back next year.