Florence and Sienna, Italy in Tuscany

The last leg of our trip was spent in Florence and Sienna! These are the pictures from that!

Rome, Italy

Our next stop was in Rome, Italy. All we can say is that Rome is amazing. It seems like every corner you go around there is something architectually amazing! For Mandy and I it was amazing to see all the Michaelangelo paintings in the Sistene Chapel as well as his marble statues he carved. We'd just read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" which brought it all to life. The kids did really well especially with all the walking we did. We rewarded them about 3 times a day with gelato!!!

Venice, Italy

The next day we spent in Venice enjoing the sites, food, shopping, water, etc. We were sooooo tired by the end of the day and the "water buses" were packing people in like sardines, so Kurt splurged and got us a "water taxi" which the kids thought was one of the highlights....that and feeding the pigeons......

Lake Bled, Slovenia and Gmund, Austria

On our way home from Austria, Kurt and Blake noticed a sign for a Porsche Museum....so we got to stop and check out the cars! The boys LOVED it!!! We also took a detour over to Slovenia and stopped in Lake Bled, Slovenia for lunch and to view the gorgeous scenery! The lake was absolutely beautiful. The boats that we took across the lake are called pletna boats which are handmade and this type has been used since the 17th century.

Hallstatt and Salzburg, Austria

We just spent a wonderful vacation with our wonderful friends Kurt and Mandy Myhre and their kids Tag and Emma from Seattle, WA. It was their first time in Europe and so we went turbo seeing as many places as possible in 10 days! Our first place we visited was Salzburg (Mozart, Sound of Music, shops, etc.). We also visited Hallstatt which is one of the most gorgeous places on earth with the beautiful lake and mountains. We visited a salt mine also and had dinner in Bertchesgaden, Germany. Above are pictures of Salzburg and Hallstatt!

CARNEVALE IN VENICE

Caleb and I and some friends headed down to Venice for the last day of Carnevale. Above are pictures from that day. Below is an explanation of what Carnevale is all about.....

The word Carnevale derives from the latin expression “carnem levare” which means to take the meat away and it refers to the last day of this festivity when the meat was removed from all the tables in order to start the Lenten penitence. Carnevale takes us back to the Middle Ages, when the meat (carne) was a precious food eaten only by rich people and its presence on the tables was a reason for celebration. When we talk about Carnevale, we think about the use of masks. But where do these masks come from? In the past, masks were generally used by actors on the stage. In ancient Greek and Roman theaters the mask was introduced to describe the personality of the character; this was particularly true in the Commedia Dell’Arte, a theatrical and cultural event which took place in Italy during the 1600’s. All the characters of the Commedia Dell’Arte wore masks representing qualities and defects of the human nature.

Istanbul, Turkey

To comply with all the red tape of Italy in order to receive our resident permits, we had to leave the European Union in order to return and have our passports stamped in Italy. (OK, I don't get it either....) In fact we just went to "check in" yesterday at the immigration office with our newly stamped passports and it looks like it will be another year before we even get out residence permits (once again, I don't understand - the 'officials' don't either - so we're in good company). The perk of all this was going to Istanbul. We had just been there in September on our cruise, so it was great to go back and see a couple of the things we missed while there! The pictures above explain it all. It was great to eat food other than pasta! We loved the Turkish, Chinese and Japanese food!!!!