Under the Tuscan Sun

FiRenZe
On Saturday, we left at 4am and headed down to Florence. I stayed up the whole night (as mothers do before a big trip) and slept in the car on the way down. Around noon, we pulled into the historical art city of Florence. We parked at the Piazzale Michelangelo which was the perfect place to enter the city. Not only was it free to park there for the day, but it gave us a panoramic viewpoint of the city. It was sunny day and we got a great taste of Summer.

Classic trademarks of Florence: awe-inspiring art, heavenly gelato, "romantic" Italians, and SWARMS of tourists.

Ponte Vecchio

This is the oldest bridge in Florence, the only one that didn't get bombed out in WWII. Today it is a charming but crowded bridge with great views lined with jewelry and tourist shops but the area used to be a meat district. However, back in the day the Arno river started smelling so bad lawmakers banned butchers from throwing their scraps into the river and cleaned up the place. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Florence.

THE DAVID

No, I'm not talking about the American Idol Davids (can you believe COOK won?). I'm talking about THE David, as in David & Goliath - the Michelangelo version. As everyone says, the Accademia isn't much but the David makes it worth it. I agree. It's one of those things that really takes your breath away. You see other works from artists you're not familiar with and you're anticipating seeing the David. You turn a corner and at the end of the hall, he stands perfectly displayed. It took everything in me not to snap a picture. I even got my camera out to sneak one in, but the guard must have a good read on people like me. He came up and started talking to me. I thought the detail in his hands and arm were so realistic and the proportions were remarkable. I'll stop there but it really is a sight to behold. Here's a picture of a replica in the square outside the Uffizi (where the real one once stood).

Uffizi

Here we are outside of it. Once again, no cameras (which I can't stand) so I don't have much to show from it. I loved Botticelli's The Birth of Venus & La Primivera (The Spring) as well as DaVinci's The Annunciation & The Adoration of the Magi. Here we are waiting to go in.

Duomo
This is the famous Firenze Duomo that gives Florence its trademark skyline. The facade is detailed with green, white and pink marble designs. The inside is similar to other churches but the dome, created by Filippo Brunelleschi, that was impressive. The artwork on the inside of the dome depicted heaven and hell with several kings at the highest point. Kelsey really enjoyed standing against the plastic barriers near the top of the cupola looking down into the church making noises that echoed through the church.

View from the top

Walking on the beautiful marble church floors and making noises

We hiked up the Duomo with Kelsey and everyone kept commenting "I can hardly do it myself let alone with a baby." Some places were a little steep but she's still small enough that we can manage it between the two of us. Tally always took her when the stairs were really narrow and short (see above). When we came out, this Italian guy came up to Kelsey and gave her a balloon. It was all dirty and gross but she loved it so much that we could not pry it from her fingers until she fell asleep.

Vinci

Since we were close, we decided to visit the home and museum of one of the masters: Leonardo Da Vinci. It is amazing to me how one man did so many masterpieces in various disciplines during his life. Not only was he an artist, but also an engineer with his mechanical designs. The museum contained models of his mechanical drawings.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Little did we know it was the 2008 Pisa Marathon on the day we went and the finish line was of course, right by the tower! First of all, I think it would be amazing to run that and have a picture crossing the finish line with the tower in the background. However, it made it even more crowded than it usually would be. I thought it was really cool seeing one of the 7 wonders of the world (although I think it may have been voted off recently?). It's truly amazing that it hasn't fallen over yet. Since it was Mother's Day, I got to do a photoshoot of the baby and of our family. This proved to be much more difficult than I was expecting since there were people walking in my picture all the time. We got a few good ones but I will photoshop the people out when I go to print them. We decided we should start charging people to take pictures of or with our daughter. These were not the first or last of the Asian tourists to take a picture with her - just the most colorful. I played around a bit with the post-production of these Pisa shots too.

Lucca

This is a small, walled city with a circular courtyard in it. We stopped on our way out to Cinque Terre. The first two pictures are of the circular courtyard. The Guinigi tower with the tree on top is where I climbed up to take the 2nd picture. And of course, we had great gelato. We should have rented bikes and rode them around, but we didn't want to be there for too long.

Cinque Terre
It's great to site see and all, but it can be so exhausting. There's nothing like a vacation on the beach. It was great to end our trip walking along the coastline on the "Via Di Amores or Lover's Walk" between Rio Maggiore & Manarola. We skipped Corniglia and went to Vernazza. I think I liked Vernazza the best for pictures. It is exactly what I picture a beach front, Italian town to be like. We ate some pizza by the beach, did a little shopping, and then headed back to Monterosso. When the clouds started rolling in, we decided to call it a day and head home. It was sad to leave so soon, but Tally and I decided we wanted to go back for a weekend this summer - without the babe. Kelsey seems to enjoy the sand and water...maybe she'll be a beach babe like her mama. We had a great trip and hope to be back to Italy again soon.

Here's the hotel we stayed in near CT. It was a nice little B&B up on top of a hill overlooking the Italian hills.

Keeping Kelsey entertained in the car. She has the cutest laugh!

Kelsey is 8 months now!

Here's an update on our little princess (since you don't see enough pictures of her, haha):

We took the newborn headrest insert out of her car seat

Growls, hisses, and practices her Swiss German

Still NO teeth (okay with me)
Wears 6-12 month clothes

Pulls herself up more and more

Points and talks/sqwaks when she sees something she wants.

Tally was eating pickles one day and gave her a taste thinking she'd make a funny face to show her distaste. Instead, she just about grabbed the pickle jar out of his hands. She loved them.

Does anyone see my baby? I hear her crying but I can't find her...
...oh THERE she is! Under the couch, of course.
Sleeps in all sorts of positions. This is how I sleep so I wonder if she'll take after me on that.

Occasionally I walk in to check on her and she is sleeping with her lovie over her face.

Here are the beautiful dandelion weeds before they mowed them.

Her favorite toys (as of the end of April - now she loves the Pinoccio we got her

We just had a new sink put in because our old one cracked when my hairspray bottle fell out of the medicine cabinet (who knew it could crack a sink?). I discovered it

She tries to grab the water. It's funny to watch her do this. Her face is so perplexed as to why she cannot grab it.




Kels and I at Park Im Gruene. Kelsey loved the dog we saw at the park more than the train. She also likes to watch the other kids...and eat since we had a picnic.
Mom, here's Kelsey today in those Icky Baby pants you gave her. I have to give you credit for those. I thought they were ugly when you brought them but they're actually really cute on. Props.

On Our Way Back...

Koln, Germany
We stopped here on our way home from Amsterdam and it ended up taking most of the day. Our first mistake was typing "Bahnhofplatz, Koln" in our GPS. Usually that's where the main part of town is, but not the case. It lead us to the outskirts of Koln, but luckily not too far off the freeway and a KFC was nearby. The second mistake was losing Mike & Anna. Traffic was all backed up because of this:

We turned off the freeway and wrongly assumed the Connellys had their GPS on. We were so sure they didn't turn because their GPS took them another way. Luckily we finally got ahold of each other on the cell phone and met at the KFC. Everyone was hungry and needed to use the bathroom so it was a good stop. Plus the kids were dying to get out of their car seats. They had a lot of fun playing in the ball pit.

Here's a pic of the skyline as we drove into the city.
Jay and I taking a walk down by the Rhine.
This city had style. It's a college town where old and modern are happily married.
Reliving our college days...
The huge cathedral next to the Rhine was impressive and there was a good amount of shopping. There was a great bridge that spanned across the Rhine as well.

Like father like daughter...Kelsey's first ice cream cone (mommy ate most of it and we snuck it away from her when she wasn't paying attention). There was a little gelateria with MINT AND CHIP ICE CREAM! It's my favorite type of ice cream and they do not sell it in Zurich (have any of you Zurich people seen it?)! I had two scoops.

This reminded me of my Grandpa Lang because this is how he speaks Spanish. Apparently that's how they speak Spanish in Germany too :). Overall it was a cool city to see if you're in the area, but not a place worth spending several days.



Heidelberg, Germany

We pulled into Heidelberg as the sun was setting and luckily parked right next to the path to the castle. The walk up to the castle is steep and made me think of my mom. Almost 7 years ago (has it really been that long?) my mom and I hiked up this hill together. Mom, I wish you were doing it with me again! It actually wasn't bad at all because of where we parked. Unfortunately, the castle was already closed but we got to walk around it and had a great view of the city.

The city was very quiet and charming. We grabbed some Indian fast food and hit the road, but not before seeing the Old Bridge.


Road Trip

Spring is the perfect time of year to travel, in my opinion. There are fewer crowds, it's not too cold or too hot, and the fields of flowers are GORGEOUS! These fields with mustard seed-like flowers blanked the landscape of France and Germany. It made me want to frolic. And don't you love those puffy white clouds?


The German Autobahn