Day 5: Florence & Siena

Another fabulous day in Italy for the Iowa kids!! We started off with some 'free time' in the morning in Florence, so we hiked up to the Boboli gardens for some amazing views of Florence. After lunch, we boarded the bus & headed south to Siena for an afternoon. What an amazing town! Such a quaint Italian village. This is where the Palio takes place every year...the big horse race between the different families of Siena. They race around this square below and even if the jockey falls off, the horse that crosses first still wins...We also went into the cathedral...amazing black & white striped marble and the most amazing original frescos I have ever seen....unreal... quite breathtaking... Course the kids had to get gelato and took off before I could get a group photo.

On our way back to hotel we say the most amazing sunset...well, I did...think the kids were sleeping. Will try to get a pic up soon...breathtaking...

Got back to hotel and off to dinner we went - here's a pic with some of our new FL friends having margarita pizza...delish...and the kids were so pooped after dinner that they didn't even want to go out for gelato...that should tell you how tired they were! :)

All in all a great day was had by all!! Tomorrow we're off to see a pottery demonstration and then to Assisi before ending in Rome.

Thanks for all who are reading this - we are loving the Italian way of life!!

Ciao Ciao ~ steph :)

Day 4: Florence and Pisa

What another great day!! We are all completely exhausted right now...so that makes for a great day! We sadly had to say good-bye to Venice and head west to Florence. We went to a leather demonstration, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and took a wonderful tour of the lovely city of Florence.
Saw the Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio, and the Duomo...amazing!! Below, behind me and my masked crusaders is a statue of Neptune. Had some free time for shopping...and gelato at one of the best places in Florence, Grom...had to stand in line for a good 20+ minutes...totally worth it.
Our hotel is out in Montecatini, so after we checked in, had dinner, we headed to Pisa for a private night tour. It was great! So beautiful lit up at night. We had basically the whole magical square to ourselves and a lovely guide explaining it all.... Amazing!!
All in all...we're pretty exhausted...but all for a good cause!
The weather has been absolutely amazing! Now that we've moved away from the water, it's gorgeous - sun shining, barely a cloud in the sky!!

Tomorrow consists of some more time in Firenze, and then off to Siena.
Hope all is well in your neck-of-the-woods! Hard to believe we're almost half-way through our trip!! One week to go... hope it goes slowly as we're having too much fun to think about home!

Hugs ~ steph :)

VENEZIA

What a day we had in Venice!! Not a cloud in the sky - absolutely gorgeous!!

We took a ferry to the island of Milan to watch a glassblowing demonstration. Then off to Venice where we met our local guide, did an amazing walking tour through all the narrow streets and alley ways, saw a lace-making demonstration, grabbed some lunch and headed out for a gondola ride along the canals...sigh.... Had some time to shop as well as check out the Doge's palace - amazing! More gelato. :)
All in all, an amazing day... lots of bridges = lots of steps :)

This was our view as we left Venice tonight...sigh...

Tomorrow we sadly these this lovely town and head to Florence...and a side trip to PISA!!! :)
Kids are having a blast - taking oodles of pics to share - eating mucho gelato.

Que bella italia :)

~steph :)

Welcome to Italy!!!

Welcome to Italy!!! We had some rough flights from Minneapolis to JFK as well as JFK to Milan...but this is what we woke up to...sunrise over the Alps...sigh...look at those colors...amazing!

We met our Tour Director, Mario, as well as our driver, Pietro, and we were whisked away to a lovely town, Arona, just along the Lake. A bit chilly, but the sun started to come out. We grabbed an Expresso at this lovely little cafe as well as Crepe...Welcome to Italy!!
Back to the airport we went to meet up with the other 3 groups on our bus: Texas, Colorado & Florida. After loading all on the bus, we headed to Verona.
Got to see Juliette's house/balcony...see all the love locks...all the messages... We wandered around the lovely town....and had Gelato!!! :)

Overall a great day! We're currently just outside of Venice along the sea and heading into town on the Ferry tomorrow. A great day planned with glassblowing, San Marco's square and a Gondola ride...stay tuned!

~Steph :)

Spring Break: BELL' ITALIA

MLI - MSP - JFK - MXP

"From the Cities of Milan to Capri
We'll conquer them one by one.
Exploring the sites & eating gelato,
We're ready to have some fun!
Here we go!!!!"

This post is a bit earlier than previous years as we are doing a Spring Break trip to Italy today! It will be my 13th trip taking students around the world and I couldn't be more excited! It's an 11 day tour throughout Italy including the amazing cities of Milan, Venice, Siena, Florence, Assisi, Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri....yes, all of that (and more) in 11 days! I have a 4 students and 3 adults traveling this time and we are paired up with 3 other groups from Texas, Colorado & Florida. Our Tour Director, Mario, was our Tour Director this past June, so it will be nice to have him lead us around his country.

Wish us luck! Pray for us...and for great weather!
We'll be in touch soon!!

~steph & the gang :)

February 2012: Portland

My annual President's Day Weekend in Portland, OR, was a blast again!!
My friend, Sarah, just bought a house and so I went out to visit her and her family for the 2nd year in a row and a good time was had by all! Ate some delicious food, saw some interesting sites...Keep Portland Weird!

On Saturday we took a tour of "Underground" Portland - a tour of the city's shady history... fascinating! Went into Chinatown - saw the famous "Hung Far Low" sign... lol :) Learned there were many 'seamstresses' back in the day who would offer to 'sew on the button' for a gentlemen... up in her room! :)

We also saw the 24 Hour Church of Elvis... you could actually get married here if you wanted... or just put in a quarter and watch Barbie work out :)

We went to the Irish Bar, Kells. Here's a picture of the bar & ceiling. Those are dollar bills. Give the waitress a dollar and 2 quarters. She folds the bill around the coins and tosses it up to the ceiling...and magically it sticks. Every year, just before St. Patrick's Day, they take down all the money and donate it to charity. Cool stuff!!

Here's my Portland family: Judy, Sarah & Tom. I met Sarah & her mom on my Dubai trip last New Years.

A great weekend it was! Perfect weather, perfect company, hilarious conversations, great flights! That's what I call a success!! :)

~steph :)

Happy New Year from Hong Kong!

In keeping the streak alive, I headed to Hong Kong for New Years! What a fascinating place! Much English, due to the British rule for years... they even accepted the dollar in many places!

While it was a short trip, it was jam packed! The hotel was located right next to where the old aiport used to be. Now, it's out on land that has been reclaimed. We went to a temple, which was all decorated in anticipation of the upcoming Year of the Dragon.

Besides touring all over the city, up to the highest heights, I also was able to stick my feet into the South China Sea. :)

On New Year's Eve, we headed to Lantau Island to see the Tian Tian Buddha, or the Big Buddha. Had to take a very, very long cable car to get there, then walk thru the village which was playing Christmas music (?!), then walk up the 240 steps to see the Big Buddha. HUGE!! Afterwards we had a Vegan lunch in the Monestary and headed back to town to get ready for the New Years celebrations!

We found a spot downtown between the fancy hotels - one even had a stage out front with entertainment. We watched all the people filing down towards the Clock Tower - they were in such an orderly fashion. Many stopped for pictures with all of us - guess we looked like celebrities! The building pictured below even put a countdown on it and then BAM! Fireworks! :) Pretty cool! I would guess their Chinese NY celebration was more elaborate, but this was pretty good!!

While the flight was long...14 hrs... it was worth it. I luckily didn't have any jet lag and it was a fascinating city to explore and another great location to ring in the New Years!

~steph :)