Italy Trip Day 4

May 15th

We spent practically the whole day on the ferry, in the middle of the Mediterranean . We whiled away the time by playing games (Clue, Slamwich), listening to Chuck read from the Lord of the Rings, exploring the ship, and playing tag on the helipad.






We finally spotted Sicily as the sun was starting to go down, and by the time they finally let us disembark (also a very unorganized process), it was quite late.


Once off the boat, we drove a ways outside of Palermo towards the middle of Sicily, through a few "less-than-inviting" towns, and finally out into the middle of farmland, where we parked the car, pulled out the sleeping bags, and hunkered down for the rest of the night.

Italy Trip Day 3

It seems that these entries get shorter as I go along.

Here are some shots we took in Siena. John gave us a grand tour of the city center, complete with the Cathedral, the Sant' Agostino Church, and the Palazzo Publico (where they were filming the new James Bond movie). Most of the buildings in Siena are a rusty brown color--which is where the Crayola Crayon with that same color got its name! To top it all off, he led us through the quaint alleyways to his favorite Gelato Shop--two scoops for everyone. Thanks, John, for the wonderful stay--you were a fabulous host, cook, and tour guide!


After leaving Siena, we headed across the Tuscan countryside to the small town of Vinci, where (you may have guessed it) a certain famous, dead guy named Leonardo was born. There was a small, sincere, kid-sized museum that contained many working models of da Vinci's most famous inventions--some favorites were a self-winding clock, weaving machines, wings made of wood and cloth, bridges, and pulley contraptions designed to construct cathedrals.

From Vinci we continued west to Pisa--where we had to make sure for ourselves that the tower truly was leaning. It was. We did, however, see if there was anything we could do to "help".

After having a tasty picnic of Italian bread, cheese, and meat--we hit the road again. Our goal was to find our ferry in Livorno that would take us on an overnight trip south to Sicily--which turned out to be no easy task. Even with our faithful "Navigator", Lisa, it took us a long time (and a lot of driving around some "not-so-friendly-looking" parts of Livorno) to find the right port. In true Italian style, the ferry was running a couple of hours late, and driving onto the ferry (in the midst of semi-trucks, campers, and shuttle drivers) was absolute chaos! But, we finally got parked, packed all six of us into a cramped cabin made for four, passed out the sea-sick medicine, and hit the hay.

Italy Trip Day 2

May 13th--

After leaving the Vaira's we headed south toward the Meditteranean. As we drove through Milano, we hit the nastiest traffic jam I have ever experienced (who knew that it is possible to fit four vehicles side by side, including semis, in 2 lanes of traffic). We got really excited when we made it to the peninsula and town of Portofino--and saw the water!

Our first order of business was to find some gelato. After that important item was taken care of we went on a walk, and found a small public beach--perfect for wading and skipping rocks. While we were there, Chuck had the unpleasant experience of making friends with a 2 foot long octopus. It wrapped it's cold, slimy self around his foot. And, even after he shook it off, it followed him around for a few moments before torpedoing back into open water.

After saying goodbye to our eight-legged friend, we left the coast, and headed back inland, driving past Florence (where we saw several marble yards--like lumber yards, except they have rows and rows of huge marble blocks and slabs) toward Siena, to stay with Chuck's cousin, John Ockey. John treated us to a fantastic meal--complete with bread, olives, salad, and (naturally) pasta. We all enjoyed staying in his "fairy tale" Tuscan cottage, and the kids especially liked his canaries, Blue Planet DVDs, and Carpenter's collection.