Week 34

ITALY

I don't even know where to begin with this post!
We finally made it over to Italy. We only stayed 4 days but still managed to see quite a bit. I definitely want to go back when we have a week or two to do it right.
I will try to (briefly) highlight our trip.

Day 1

The first day we drove about 4 hours to Garmisch (on the German/Austrian border). We couldn't believe how much snow there was! We stayed at the Edelweiss Resort again... the boys LOVE it there. It is in the Bavarian Alps so it was pretty much winter there!

We took one of Lauren's friends with us. She is also an Au Pair here in Germany and just happen to have the whole week off! The kids loved her. Here they are standing in front of the famous Zugspitze Mountain (the tallest mountain in Germany) but you can't hardly see it for all the fog.

Whitney walked straight to her little rocking chair that she loved the last time we were here!

We had 7 people with us.. so we had to get the 2-story suite. The boys were freaking out that we had stairs in our hotel room. lol!

Running to the pool!!!

It was so nice to stop half way in Garmisch to relax and have some fun!

Day 2
We continued through the German and Austrian Alps. What a beautiful drive. We stopped in Innsbrook, Austria to use the WC. I can honestly say never before have I had a male bathroom attendant that actually held the stall door open for me AND pulled out an appropriate amount of toilet paper for me to use....

We didn't spend much time here but I had to get some pictures as we drove by. The scenery on this trip was awesome!


After about 5 hours we got to Vicenza. Our hotel called us before we left Garmicsh to let us know that they overbooked the hotel and we got bumped from our 4-quad suite and they tried to put us in a single room with 1 queen sized bed and a couch... FOR 7 PEOPLE!! We had to stay at a different hotel and pay for 2 rooms. Also, Whitney developed croup on our first night and had a fever. Those 2 things definitely put a damper on the trip.

Our first night in Vicenza I stayed at our hotel with Whitney, the girls went out on the town, and Jeremy and the boys went out on their own. They said it was the CDC club (cool dudes club). They started this "club" actually the last time we went to Edelweiss and Whitney was sick then too. They had to go to dinner without Whitney and me so Jeremy said it was the CDC club. The boys gave themselves names: Connor's name is 'Spike' and Aiden wanted to be 'Love Animal X'.

Whitney and I started the SPC club (special princess club) my name is Twinkle Toes and Whitney's name is Rainbow Cheeks.

Here are pics from the worst room of the entire trip and also the most expensive!

The boys were very curious about the "2 toilets". They thought the idea of a bide was hilarious!

I gave Connor the camera since I knew Jeremy wouldn't come back with any pictures. However, Connor wasn't much better. These are the pictures he came back with.

Day 3
Things were looking up. Whitney seemed to be feeling better and the fever finally broke. We drove 30 minutes to Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet.

Our first priority was lunch! The funnest part of traveling to new and exciting places is trying the local food. Jeremy found this cute little restaurant nestled in a small alley.

Mmmm... Pizza and Pasta! Yummy!

After lunch Gelato's in City Center

Beautiful city!!! The Arena in the middle of city center was quite impressive. It is actually the largest arena after Rome. It was amazing to see the condition of this arena after 2000+years!!

The view from the top of the arena

We were surprised at how low the ceilings were inside the arena.
People were really short back then!

Having fun down town

This is "supposedly" the entrance to the house of Juliet.

This is the balcony where Juliet would wait for Romeo. Beneath the balcony you can see a statue with people gathered around. The myth is that if you touch the breast of statue that you would be lucky with love. Everyone was lined up to cop a feel!

Of course the boys had to try their luck...

My romantic husband... he didn't even close his eyes!!!

That's ok.. I still love him!!

A wall of post-it notes where people have declared their love for their significant others

Driving through Verona was a little tight at times. You can't really tell here but if we wanted to open our doors, we couldn't. Our mini-van could barely fit through some of these alleys. We had to fold our side mirrors in just to get through!

That night we checked into a different hotel and had plenty of beds for everyone this time!

Whitney's bathtub..

That night Jeremy and I went out with my friend Megan. Her husband is in the States right now so she brought her kids over to hang out with the Au Pairs and our kids.

We went to this great restaurant in Vicenza that night. Galileo stayed there while he studied over 300 years ago. The restaurant was built on top of a cave below. We had several courses and WONDERFUL food! I had something called fagotinni. It's home-made pasta stuffed with pears with a cheesy/proscuitto sauce over the top. It was SO GOOD!

This is the ceiling in the room where Galileo sayed.

It was so great to see Megan again too!!

The kids were sound asleep when we got home. Aiden and Megan's little boy were so cute cuddling together.

Day 4
The next morning we woke up early and drove about 1 hour toward Venice. Jeremy's family had been on a week long cruise that just finished in Venice. They spent the day in Venice with us before catching their flight to go back to the US. The kids were SO excited to see Grandma and Grandpa!!

We hopped on a train from the hotel to go to Venice

Whitney was a very serious traveler!!

VENICE... AT LAST!!!

Waiting for our water taxi

St. Mark's Square

In front of the Basilica

These people were crazy about the pigeons... feeding them, putting food in their hair so the birds would climb on them. They gave food to the kids to feed the birds too... it was gross!

Souvenirs

The train ride home. Everyone was tired.

That night we stayed at the Sheridan... yes, another hotel!

We got to see Jeremy's Grandpa who celebrated his 90th birthday on the cruise!!

Day 5
Time to leave already. The drive home was interesting. We started in Italy and watched the sunrise over the hilltops covered in vinyards. We were wondering how the workers were able to work on the vinyard when they were on such steep hillsides. I would have taken pictures but my camera just couldn't do it justice. The view with the sun rising was breathtaking. A few hours later we were in the Alps of Austria again and in the dead of winter, so it seemed. Everything was covered in snow. A few hours later we were back in Germany with the beautiful trees and the changing colors of the leaves. 12 hours later we were finally home!