Going back!

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Philly

As the saying goes,

We are excited to announce that we will be traveling back to Italy shortly, with a quick trip to Malta and a week long visit to Spain!

I can’t wait to share our journey with you. We have many exciting things planned, including visiting Barcelona, seeing the Mille Miglia in Rome, racing down to Malta for a early morning, late night two day trip, and the boys running with the bulls at the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona.

We cannot wait to share, and I am thrilled to be blogging about our travels again! Thanks for joining us!

GELATO

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Philly

At the beginning of this trip the boys decided to eat gelato at least once a day while we were in Rome and take a picture of one cone every time we ate it. And on special days, such as Alex’s birthday they ate it three times. Now in my opinion that is slightly vulgar. The following pictures are going to be nothing but gelato; The gelato itself and us eating said gelato. I am truly sorry if you feel like punching your computer screen out of envy as I torture you with pictures of lusciousness. 😉

A bishop in line at Old Bridge for Gelato!

Mary licked Andrew’s ice cream right as this picture was taken. Haha!

On the road again… To Pavia!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Philly

On the 13th the family departed for Pavia/Portalbera, which is right between Turin and Milan. On our way there we took a very leisurely and relaxing car trip. We took mostly scenic routes to enjoy the beautiful countryside.

Look at that eyebrow!!

Family photo… It’s wonderful for all of us to be in there. Again this is courtesy of Backpack. He is really an excellent photographer. 😉

We drove for a nice while around this lake, Lake Garda.

How Andrew gets around. Hitchhiking!

Standing around looking at all the beauty around us.

A lovely shot of the water.

Boats and water…

Many times while we were driving we would see a pretty spot and pull off, like we did here.

Or we would stop to eat lunch…

Andrew wasn’t exactly thrilled with dad’s choice of cars. He would have preferred something a little more…red…more…HORSEY. So he altered our black Ford Fiesta.

That evening we got some aperitivs from the grocery store and some potato chips to eat at home. (also, not pictured because I’m a flake, a coconut. I like coconut! ;))

What happens when the house you’re staying in doesn’t have wi-fi… 😛

Verona

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Philly

On the 12th we went to Verona for the day.

Pieces of a set for an outdoor opera

Alex in front of the arena

Mom and Alex sitting at the flogging stand in the Marketplace.

The Marketplace.

Alex in the bell tower.

Looking down the bell tower

A comical graffiti, reading “268 stairs to become deaf” Evidently we weren’t the only ones to get caught right next to the bell when it rang. We were all screaming afterwards to try and hear ourselves!!

Looking down from the belfry onto Verona!

Juliet’s house.

Mom and Dad in front of Juliet.

Alex sitting on the bridge of stone.

The three boys on the bridge of stone.

San Marino!

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Philly

On the 8th we went to San Marino which is a Republic in Italy that is about 25 sq miles in size. It is the third smallest state in Europe (after the Vatican and Monaco) It also claims to be the world’s oldest republic. It has three towers located on the three peaks of San Marino.

Alex with one of the three towers in the background.

Big Mom and Big Al standing up at a lookout spot, looking out.

Another of the famous towers.

Bologna

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Philly

On June 7th Dad held a course in Bologna. He had taken Mom with him the night before and they spent the night there, while the kids stayed back in Rimini. The next morning we all got up at 5 and drove to Bologna to tour the city.

Bologna is famous for its University (the oldest in Europe), its food and its Galleries. They are covered walkways that have arches looking out on to the street. The longest one is the one leaving from the main church down into the town. It has 666 arches and is over 2 miles long. Because we are how we are, we ran until arch 333, over a mile before we hopped in the car and continued down to site see.

The longest Gallery

Bologna’s main church, the Sanctuary of St. Luke. This houses a painting of Our Lady painted by St. Luke.

Looking down the portico.

The view from the Sanctuary.

Inside the Church.

The facade and the beginning of the covered walkway.

Relaxing and having a beer in the main Piazza that afternoon.

Osimo and Rimini Beach

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Philly

On June 6th we went up to Osimo, which isn’t very far from where we were staying. Osimo is where St. Joseph Cupertino lived the last years of his life, died, was buried and was canonized. On our way up to the church dedicated to him, we stopped at an outlook to look at our surroundings.

Alex

Mom

Mom waaaayy at the end…

The courtyard of the church dedicated to St. Joseph Cupertino

The inside.

That evening, Mom and Dad went to Bologna to set Dad up for a presentation job he had to do the next day. So the kids went to the beach that was extremely close to where we were staying.

Walking along the shore.

The sun setting slowly

More of the sunset, just now with me thrown in there.

Alex looking out to the sea.

We caught a tiny crab!

All 5 of us got up in a lighthouse tower and got backpack to take a picture. In hindsight, getting up on something that people can LITERALLY see for miles around, even in the sea to take a picture is slightly stupid. Very stupid…

Especially after we saw a sign forbidding us to do EVERYTHING we did. Though in our defense, we didn’t see the sign till much later.

Wandering around the beach town we managed to come across a couple of cool things.

Including this fountain

And a FERRARI. 🙂

Road up to Rimini!

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Philly

On June 5th we left Rome and started our upward journey by going to Rimini.

We started the car ride up like this…

All our shoes went on the back dash

We were all crazy and excited.

But gradually it became like this…

We had a wonderful view with mountains on the left as we drove along with the coast along the right.

That evening, when we got in, we went to dinner with a priest friend and got some gelato afterwards.

A dinner table picture.

What Big Al got for dinner. That is a big thing of grilled smoked cheese, surrounded by grilled vegetables.

Mary and Augustin enjoying their gelato outside in the pizza.

Last Day in Rome

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Philly

On our last day in Rome we tried to go as hard and fast as we could and see almost all of the major monuments (we saw much, MUCH more than this post shows….) But first we started the day like this…..

A little bit of Jakob time… 🙂

A group shot except I was taking the picture. This was in the morning waiting on the next train.

Ahhh, there we are. All of us!

Alex and Mary in front of the Colosseum.

Look at the Monument!

A lovely shot, thanks to Andrew

Again courtesy of Andrew, this time a shot with Alex going all Lion King, offering his iPhone to the sun gods. Haha!!

The backpack took this cool shot with all of us perched on a rock. (Our group split up, one went the Colosseum route and one went to a market to go shopping. Here you see Andrew, Gus, Alex, Mary, Me, and Christian.) In case anyone was wondering, we kind of like the Colosseum…

The Forum.

We also went to Piazza Navona and I caught this funny picture.

And to add to the non-stop fun, I caught a constant stream of Mary throwing her coin in Trevi Fountain. So just look at the below pictures…. HA!

wooooh

haaaa

WAHHH!

Leaving our mark in a guestbook in a church we went in. I have no idea where Andrew was. Maybe taking pictures or something.

Speaking of pictures… On our way up to the Pincio we stopped at this lion and all got up on, with Andrew leaping on last after he started the camera. You would not believe how many weird looks one gets when one tries to take a simple photo on a lion. 😉

That evening, Mom and Dad went to a conference and dinner with some of dad’s colleagues, the kids met up with some (extremely) distant relatives and friends and got ice cream.

My cone with dark chocolate and pistachio.

Alex’s cone with jasmine (yes, jasmine, the flowering plant) and pistachio.

It was a lovely way to end an incredible day!

St. John Lateran, Scala Santa and Mary

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Philly

On Monday it was our second to the last day in Rome and so we went to a few of the spots we hadn’t hit yet. Mainly we went to St. John Lateran and the Scala Santa. The Scala Santa is the Holy Stairs that Christ walked up in order to reach Pontius Pilate. The original (marble) stairs are covered in wood with small windows where you can see the Blood of Christ. It is customary for people to walk the stairs on their knees while praying as a small sacrifice.

Alex on his way up

St. John Lateran

Inside the church

A lovely shot of most of our group walking through the Basilica

We also went into the museum inside St. John Lateran and saw things such as this enormous monstrance. To show the size of the thing we got a picture of Christian and Antonio next to it.

After leaving that area we went by the airport and picked up THIS kid!

Later I made a ricotta and chocolate cake with a neighbor/friend (secret family recipe and whatnot-the only reason I was allowed to have it was because I didn’t live in Italy!) Ha!

After putting the cake out to cool, we went into Rome for dinner and a little evening out.

Mary and I were pretty excited at the sight of an enormous pitcher of Beck’s! No, we didn’t drink it all

Castel Sant’ Angelo

St. Peter’s

Together in Italy

Enjoy Italy with our family.

Category Archives: Italy

Going back!

GELATO

On the road again… To Pavia!

Verona

San Marino!

Bologna

Osimo and Rimini Beach

Road up to Rimini!

Last Day in Rome

St. John Lateran, Scala Santa and Mary