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!

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… 😛

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.

Dicomano with Le Pera family!

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Philly

On Sunday we got up very early and went to Mass on our way to The Le Pera family’s house. Mom and Dad first met Tommy and Erminio 32 years ago when they first moved to Italy-near Florence to be precise, weeks after getting married. We have remained friends with them throughout the years and we kids (they have two daughters, Eleonora and Gaia) have grown up together.

Our early morning faces.

The surrounding area

One half of the table (the sweet one I have my arm around and the one Augustin is sitting on are Gaia and Eleonora. The rest are different friends)

Other half of the table. Mom and Dad, Erminio and Tommy. 🙂

It was also the day of a big feast day in the little town they lived in so the church was decorated with flowers. What you see above is all flowers.

Another cute shot of (from left to right) Mom, Dad, Erminio, and Tommy.

I would like to apologize for not having posted anything on this site in such a long time. Our internet has been non-existent for the past little bit, except for data on the smartphones. And wi-fi is necessary to upload photos. However, I am going to try and catch you up on what we did!

St. Paul Outside the Walls

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Philly

St. Paul Outside the Walls is one of Romes four major (papal) basilicas. We were lucky enough to go visit it with some friends of ours. The Basilica was originally founded by Emperor Constantine I over the burial site of St. Paul in 370. In 386 it was renovated and extensively remodeled under Theodosius I. Throughout the years, St. Paul Outside the Walls has been damaged by natural disasters and human inflicted damage, including Saracen invasions in the 9th century.

Panorama taken of the facade.

A closer look at the incredible mosaics on the facade of the church.

A walkway up to the church entrance.

The intricate scrollwork on each column

A shot from an interesting angle, again of a column.

The main nave of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

One of the side naves with a couple of little buggers (Augustin, Christian, and Antonio) posing for a photo. 😉

Villa d’Este and Dad’s Birthday!

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Philly

On Dad’s birthday we went to one of his favorite places in Italy, Villa d’Este. Villa d’Este was originally commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. Cardinal d’Este had been lobbying for the papacy and was appointed governor of Tivoli (where Villa d”este is located) by Julius (who had been elected) to earn Cardinal Ippolito’s loyalty. When Julius started building a palace and gardens, Ippolito took over a Monastery and started building what is currently known as Villa d’Este. Hundreds of fountains are supplied with water from the Aniene River.

Mom and Dad right after we got there.

Mom and Dad acting like an old married couple (oh, wait, they are an old married couple. :))

Momma looking like a movie star.

Mom and Dad on the stairs leading up to the Villa.

Please note Andrew being a creeper at the end of the bushes on the right hand side.

A spirally stair case.

Alex

Ostia Beach with the Family

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Philly

Mom and Dad got back late last night, so today we all went as a family to the beach. It was very windy and rather chilly, so we didn’t do any swimming, just walking around. It was a very nice time just relaxing with the family.

But first. this is how we started our day… (you will probably see a lot of this little guy as he lives just below us)

Teaching him bad manners…. Crazy boys!

Jakob taking a rest with Big Al.

On to the beach!

Me and Alex looking at something interesting. I can’t remember what.

Mom enjoying the waves

To be perfectly honest, this picture wasn’t SUPPOSED to look like this. Gus was digging in the sand…. Andrew saw a piece of wood….. I had a camera…. It just happened…. I am not sure Augustin actually knows we took this picture. We’re sneaky like that. 🙂

Andrew doing a handstand!

A cool picture of Alex. However, after I took that picture (I may have not warned him there was an enormous wave coming. I wanted a good picture…) His expression changed to….