Our trip to Italy

We just returned from a lovely trip to Italy late last night. We had a great time! Ethan LOVED playing with his cousins, Freeman and Grace. He also loved exploring Italy on his daddy's back. It surprised me how well Ethan behaved on the flights and how well he adjusted to the time change. He "slept" (as well as he could) the entire flight to Italy, and though it took some work to entertain him on the way home, he was really pretty good. Unfortunately, he is not adjusting very well to the time change here....we are all exhausted!!!

This is how we spent our time:

Day 1- Vicenza

Because we were so exhausted from our flight, we spent our first day in Vicenza with my sister and her family. We explored their city a little bit, napped and ate our first of many Italian feasts. My favorite thing about food in Italy is the tomatoes! They are so full of flavor there. The herbs are also amazing, as well as the buffalo mozzerella.

Day 2 - Venice

We took an early train to Venice and spent the afternoon exploring the city by foot. After feeding the pigeons in St. Marks square, we took a boat taxi back to our train. Venice was a very charming city. There really is no other place like it.

Day 3- Lake Garda

We all piled in the Birds car and took a 45 minute drive to Lake Garda. The weather was beautiful! We strolled the beach, and had a picnic. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Day 4 and 5- Rome

Spencer and I left Ethan in the care of the Birds (thank you Peggy!), and headed south to Rome. I didn't know what to expect when I arrived. Spencer and I were both blown away. We LOVED Rome. Every place we visited was very impressive! We saw Vatican city, St. Peter's Basilica, The Colosseum, and the Forum.....and plenty of other sites along the way. This is a place you just have to visit to really understand the grandeur of it all.

Day 6- Florence

We stopped in Florence on our way home from Rome. We didn't have much time, but we were able to see Michelangelo's David (that man was seriously an amazing artist!), hike up the Duomo, shop in the many downtown markets, and eat gelato. Mmmmmmm....

Day 7- Vicenza

We took a break this day, mainly because of the rain. It was still a fun day. Ethan rearranged the Bird's furniture while we watched High School Musical with Freeman and Grace. Grace was more entertaining than the movie.

Day 8- Verona, and travel to Zurich

We had originally planned to spend a few days in the Cinque Terra, but the weather forecast said rain, rain, rain....so we quickly changed our plans. We wanted to spend a few days in Austria, but we could only change our flight to leave from Zurich. We decided that Zurich was German enough, and headed that way. We stopped in Verona for a few hours before continuing to Zurich.

Day 9 and 10- Zurich

What a beautiful, clean and expensive city! We loved Zurich! We spent our first day downtown, shopping, sight-seeing and finding good bratwurst for Spencer. The second day we went to church in the morning, hiked the surrounding hills in the afternoon, and enjoyed a swiss spring festival in the late afternoon/evening. It was a fabulous day, and a perfect ending to our vacation.