We're back!

We are back from an amazing 13 days in Italy. We celebrated our 10th anniversary (4 months late) by touring Rome, Tuscany, Florence, the Mediterranean town of Lerici, and Venice. My parents stayed with the kids and did a wonderful job of carpooling, getting to gymnastics, piano, sports classes, church, AWANA, etc. We are so very thankful for them. I was informed by Madelyn that the family we carpool with prefer Granddad to me. Ha! I took close to a thousand pictures, and when I'm not jet-lagged, I'll post more details and the pictures.

I'll start with these, though. J.D. treated me like a princess, and in Montalcino ( a small Tuscan town) we stayed at Castello di Velona. It is a castle turned spa, and it was unbelievable. It sat atop a mountain and provided amazing views, beautiful amenities, and a pool filled with water from thermal springs.

The castle:


The castle from the pool area:


Standing in the lobby:


Views from the pool deck:




The pool:


A view from one side of the castle:


People have asked about my favorite part, my favorite city, etc. I can't pinpoint my favorite thing because we had such a great time at every place we went. I can say that my favorite area was Tuscany, with the Mediterranean area being a very close second. Tuscany reminded me a lot of the landscape of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee with its mountains and rolling hills, mostly rural areas with a few small cities and lots of farmland. The coolest thing was the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It really leans-a lot! My favorite piece of art was Michelangelo's David. The biggest "wow moment" is walking out of the Collosseo metro stop in Rome, seeing cars zooming by, and then looking up and seeing the Colosseum- 2000 year old building surrounded by modern buildings and machines. It's almost Hollywood set-like.

I have much more to post on the trip, and you might get tired of seeing the pictures and reading about it by the time I'm done.