Monday, July 19, 2010

LIKE NOTHING ELSE I'VE EVER SEEN...

We're B-AAA-C-K! Back from the Italy trip we considered one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities! Hopefully we'll return someday, but it was just something we really wanted to do, with our daughter being a student there this summer. It was wonderful, seeing sights 2,000 years old, incredible churches, awesome statues and artwork, and the gelato...oh the GELATO is really as good as they say. One day we had gelato 4 times!!! But that was because we'd been hiking and it was incredibly hot. That is the ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE NEXT TIME: go in spring or fall! But we wouldn't have seen our daughter and the Harding University-Florence (HUF) group then. I think the heat is like OK's it just that we aren't normally out in it between 12:00-3:00 p.m. And especially not on black cobblestone streets with little breeze and green spaces. Still, it was AWESOME! Here's a few pics:

Eating Italian food!
Florence Baptistery doors of bronze by Ghiberti
10 Euro gelato - we shared - after that we always made sure they understood we wanted the 2 Euro size!
Ponte Vecchio bridge -rebuilt in 1300's - last one standing after WWII
view of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo
THE David by Michelangelo - didn't know I wasn't supposed to take pictures!!!
One of our favorite days - cooking in the olive grove!
Cinque Terre hike - wishing we had a ride on these Vespas!
Another Cinque Terre view of a village - see how sweaty I am from the hike between all the villages?
Monterosso beach - the reward at the end of the Cinque Terre hike!
Our daughter's "free travel group" at the Spanish Steps in Rome after we treated them to Hard Rock Cafe!
The Colosseum is beautifully lit at night!
The entire HUF group at the Arch of Titus in the Roman forum.
We got to hear their "reports" on the different antiquities in this area so they made great tour guides!

7 comments:

Alyssa said...

Love it!!! Wow! I'm really wanting to go back now! It's odd and fun to think...I've been there!

OK Chick said...

My sister LOVED Cinque Terre. She did the hike and ate the whole way up. She said there were berries along the trail.

I'm happy you made it back safely and had a great trip. But we all knew it would be an awesome trip. :)

Lori said...

Wow, this brings back a lot of memories from when we went to see Lindsay at HUF in the spring of 2007. You are right, spring or fall is better weather! We only made it between two or three cities in Cinque Terre and then took the train between the rest :) We stayed in Monteroso and went to that same beach! When I went back this April we ate gelato all the time too...but I never saw a 10 euro size!!! Glad you had a great time and are home safely.

Lori said...

Enjoyed this! Glad you had such a great time!

kj said...

**Like**

(this is my like button, I want blogs to have one!)

The 5 Arbuckle's said...

Glad your home safely. Can't wait to see more about your trip.

Gena said...

You just took my dream vacation. LOVE it.