Boy, what a year!

You're still here? Holy moley, I didn't think anyone was still reading this. I guess I better post an update then, huh?

Here's part of a year worth of updates. You might want to get yourself something to drink first, this is going to be a long one, and it's going to be so gripping that you won't want to stop until you get to the end. I may even throw in a teaser or two, to make you come back and read the rest.

My mom and dad came to visit in April. They stayed in a hotel for the first week, and we took them up to Camp Darby (in Livorno) to show them the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took a day trip to Orvieto while they were here too. Dad went back to the states after the first week, and mom stayed for an additional week. We took her down to Naples, and stayed a couple of nights in the cabins at Carney Park. We took her on a day trip from Naples to see the Amalfi Coast too.

Next, Becca's aunt and uncle (Neil & Sandy) came to Rome on a whirlwind vacation across Europe. They stayed in an apartment that they rented down in Trestevere (closer to the center of town). We hung out with them while they were here (including our first tour of the Colosseum - we'd put it off until visitors were here); they were able to celebrate Easter Mass at the Vatican.

Another aunt and uncle of Becca's (Sheila & Hal) came and stayed with us for a few days next. We did all the touristy stuff with them too, then they took a cruise (this was right after the Costa Concordia ran aground - very brave of them!), and came back to stay with us for a couple more days, then they went back to DC. I think Becca took them to Orvieto while they were here. Becca swears that the kids and I went, but I have no recollection.

Some friends from Austin came to visit (Brenda & Todd & their son Connor) next, and we had our first experience with the trains. They planned to visit several different areas of Italy while they were here, and were able to get decent prices on train tickets for their trip (Rome -> Florence -> Venice -> Salerno -> Rome), and we decided to accompany them to Florence (we still hadn't visited there). We got tickets on the high speed train, and the four hour drive to Florence took only about an hour and a half, and was fairly economical too (at least, it was cheaper than driving!).

Florence is a great little town; it's all within walking distance from the train station. We stayed for (I think) 3 days, and saw everything that we wanted to see. We have a new favorite restaurant too - Becca had found a book somewhere that had reviews of a lot of restaurants in Florence, and she picked a specific restaurant because of a dish called "Drunken Spaghetti". We made reservations and... to be honest, it's the best pasta dish we have ever eaten. I've tried to recreate the recipe at home, and while it's good, I haven't been able to recapture the magic. I'll keep working on it though!

We went through the Galileo Museum, which was fascinating - they have one of his finger bones in a glass case! There are a lot of mock-ups of his experiments there, and the kids really got into it... until we got to the third floor. There was an exhibit there of some of Leonardo da Vinci's studies of anatomy; specifically the growth of unborn children (in utero), in full sized, cutaway mannequins. Palmer took one look around, then almost sprinted through that portion of the exhibit. 

We also saw David, Ponte Vecchio, and a little museum with a bunch of mockups of inventions by Leonardo da Vinci - it was pretty cool to be able to see life sized examples of some of the things he built.

David deserves his own paragraph, but there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said hundreds of times, by much more proficient scribes than me. You'll just have to see him for yourself.

Our visitors continued on their adventures (including a day trip to Pisa), and we returned to Rome. Before they returned to Rome, we left for the states for our home leave - we'll save that story for the next post, though.

I'll post it tomorrow - ciao for now!