Italy-2010 Pictures

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The eternal city

We made it to Rome, our final destination in italy. It is a fitting place to finish this vacation: a mix of the ancient with the most modern society. In fact the roman ruins are right beside new construction. Yesterday we toured the vatican museums and st peters basilica.  What a grand place! I cant believe how big the basilica is (200 yds), plus the mile long museum! Today we went to Pompeii, the city preserved in ad 79 by the eruption of mount vesuvius. It was amazing to see a snapshot of daily Roman life: bakeries, temples,  bars and brothels all perfectly preserved for us to see. Tomorrow we tour the Roman forum and colosseum. I can't wait!

Florence

Today we visited the great Renaissance city of Florence. This is the city where the medici family funded the works of michaelangelo, donatello and dante. The cathedral is a classic, the first dome of its kind in the world. It is the 3rd largest church in christendom. I can't help but wonder when i look at these cathedrals if God is pleased by these elaborate structures. Did they really inspire people to worship? Or would it have been more pleasing to God to spend the money helping the poor. Surely the cathedrals were a great sacrifice of time and talent, but as  Hosea 6:6 says. "I desire mercy not sacrifice".

Enough philosphising...we also went to the science museum to see some of Galileos instruments and enjoyed the finer things of life- art, food and wine.

Mangia bene

Until now chad has been our primary blogger, but i noticed he has not described any of our meals! So i will fill all of the foodies in and also keep a record for myself so i can remember the taste of the fresh tuna from the mediterranean on our first night in manarola. Our first meal was at the trattoria dal billy. Billy recommended tuna caught fresh that day. It was the best tuna i have ever eaten in my life (including sushi!). We also ordered lobster (also fresh) and squids ink pasta with frutti di mare. My goodness, i could have rolled home i ate so much. The next day we ate and drank our way through the 5 towns. Caffe here, wine there, panini here.  Our dinner was of traditional ligurian pasta with pesto which originated in liguria. I am bringing some home!

In pisa Chad had wild boar which is another regional specialty in tuscany. We also had the best gelato. We will try to find a better gelato but the bottega di gelato in pisa just might win the title.

Now we are staying in the agriturismo and ate a 5 course dinner prepared by the hostess and accompanied by 5 different wines they produce on their farm. The homemade pici pasta was good enough for me, but the roast pork and potatos were even better (i think we may have eaten one of the friendly pigs but i will try not to think about that). Everything is so fresh and delicious, i cant wait to try some of these recipes for my friends at home. Mazzaros here we come!

Hill towns of Tuscany

This morning we began our day with a delicious farm breakfast accompanied by pigs and chickens. We then drove to san gimignano. This town has 7 medieval towers and is almost like it was 700 years ago. Then we went to volterra and visited etruscan ruins and a Roman theater. Our final stop was Siena where we ate dinner in the beautiful il campo.

We also had an exciting day of driving. Italian roads are not like the US but they were very scenic. Luckily Kara was able to read the map and navigate while chad figured out how to drive a manual transmission up and down the hills. Let's just say chad tried to start out in 3rd gear a lot. More to come tommorow.


Location : San Gimignano Sienna,

Agriturismo

Picture of our breakfast company. We also have vineyards all around us.

Location : San Gimignano Sienna,

Pisa

Sunday we went to Pisa. The city is a lot bigger than I thought it would be from the pictures that I have seen. Also I thought the leaning tower was in a big open field but it is actually in the middle of the city. Monday we went to lucca which is a medieval city 2000 years old. It still has a wall all the way Around it which is 25 ft tall and two miles around. We also arrived at the agritorismo or working farm. We had breakfast this morning next to a few free roming chickens and pigs. We are going to Florence today. We will writeore later.

Location : San Gimignano Sienna,

Cinque terre

We finished our trip to the cinque terre. There are 5 cities tucked away in the rugged mountains of Italy. The area is unbelievably beautiful, the food is amazing, and the wine is incredible. These towns are over 1500 years old. I have included a picture from our room. We are now on our way to pisa for the night.

Location : Address not available

We are here

We made it to Rome. We are waiting for our bags that we are hoping they also made it. We had some complications in Boston with our bags. Hopfully we can continue our trip with no more issues.

Location : Address not available

And the trip begins

Well this long awaited day is finally here. Kara and I are at the airport in Tampa preparing for a long day of travel. We have our coffee in hand and are looking forward to some time away from work. We will keep everyone up to date as to our travel adventure.

Location : George J Bean Outbnd Pkwy, Tampa, FL 33614,