Day 25 & 26 - Bologna and Venice

Northern Italy is truly beautiful. The history, especially the older buildings and different landscapes have really captured us, and the kids are really enjoying something different here from what they have seen before.
Yesterday we spent the day travelling from Rimini to Venice, but we made a pit stop in Bologna to see a few of the famous sites. We did get a chance to do a quick 2-hour tour of the university and some old buildings, but I know I could spend so much more time in that city to really see everything it has to offer. Next time we are here, that is a must-stop for a few days. As the kids noted, we finally caved and did a McDonald's stop here for lunch. Tastes a bit different, but the airconditioning really helped to hit the spot.
Today we spent the entire day in Venice. It really is a beautiful city, and we did not see even half of the area. We did walk a lot instead of taking the water taxis, but this gave us a chance to really appreciate how big the island is and see how the locals live. We got some shopping done here too, and, although it was super hot, we found the city was one of our favourites. The icing on the cake here was the 45-minute gondola ride we enjoyed with Tony and Lynda. It is not something we would have done on our own, but it was worth it to see the city by water. It was an amazing experience.

Gabe:
This day I got to get up late because we were having a driving day to Bologna and Venice but it didn't take that long to get there. First stop...Bologna. When we got there, we went out of our parking stall and walked around looking at some cool stuff. Saw a tower that has 500 steps, but we didn't go inside it. We saw lots of cool buildings, and got to have McDonald's for lunch! Then we went back to the car and drove to Venice. When we got there we saw our apartment, and then got some time to relax. Later on, we went for dinner at a place where we had potatoes that tasted like doughnuts and deep-fried grilled cheese. Then we went back to the apartment and went to bed.
Today when we got up we stayed at the apartment and had some breakfast, then we went to the bus stop. We caught the bus that drove us all the way to Venice. When we got there we walked over a glass bridge and then walked around and saw some cool buildings that had water around them instead of grass! Then we had lunch and found a gondola to take us for a ride. When we got on the gondola, I was pretty freaked out because it kept on tipping, but the person in charge was good. He showed us some cool houses and told us about some history. Then we walked, and walked, and walked. We finally got to a grocery store and bought some coke and water. We also bought a fan for me to remember Venice. We finally made it to the bus and got to go home to have showers and relax for the night.

Julian:
Today I got up early so that we could get on the road in time. About an hour later we are halfway into our drive and we stopped in Bologna. We walked around a bit until we went to see the first university that had two towers. One of the towers was half broken but it was still very cool. Half an hour later we had lunch and drove off for Venice. Once we got there we spent the rest of the day relaxing and had a tasty deep-fried dinner.
The next day we got up at eight which does not feel right because eight here is midnight in Canada. Anyway, we took the bus all the way to the centre of Venice and saw that the water streets were way cooler than I thought. We walked to the St. Marks Basilica and saw the church. Then we went for lunch and had gelatos. After that, we walked for an hour trying to find a gondola that would take us around the beautiful city. Once we found one we got on a took off. It was great. we got to see the bridge of sighs and other cool things. Once we were done we went back home for the night.

Alie:
Today we woke up and immediately rushed ourselves out the door to start the drive to Bologna and then Venice. It took about an hour and a half to get to Bologna where we stopped and walked around for awhile site seeing and looking at the two towers Bologna is known for. After an hour or two we stopped at a McDonalds to eat lunch which was so delicious and then we continued our drive to Venice. One we arrived there we got into our apartment and relaxed for a few hours before going out for an amazing deep-fried dinner with deep-fried grilled cheese like things and potatoes that tasted like mini doughnuts.
The next day we got up at eight and slowly got ready before heading out to the main area of Venice at around nine o'clock. We bussed into the main area and then walked to St. Marks Basilica, but decided not to go inside because there was a massive line up. Afterwards, we went for some amazing pizza for lunch and some gelato before going to try and find a spot to get on a gondola. We searched for what like felt like forever before we finally got on one and saw the amazing waterways of Venice. Once we got off the gondola we got some shopping done and then started the long trek home. After we got home we ate our leftover pizza and relaxed before going to sleep.

Day 22, 23 & 24 - Visiting Family in Rimini

Our last three days have been spent visiting with Zio Franco, Zia Paola, and our cousin Serena in Rimini. This has been such a nice visit and so amazing to get to know these three! We hope it leads to more visits in the future!
We had a cute Airbnb outside of the city, but it did not have air conditioning, so we have struggled with the heat at night as the kids, have noted. Our visits with family have been so wonderful. We have been welcomed with such hospitality and love that we are all feeling overwhelmed with the connections we have made here. And, there has been so much food. The kids are learning  'Mangia' means to eat and that there is always something to eat when we are with the family. We also got some more time at a different beach here and that was a really nice change for the kids, and it was also really needed with the heat we've been having. As much as I don't want to complain, heat in the high 30s into the late evening is pretty wearing after a while. Our visit here also included a quick morning trip to San Marino, and independent state found inside of Italy and just a few minutes from our Airbnb. It was very beautiful to walk the castle streets and climb the towers on the top of the hill.
As we enter the last stages of our trip, we are looking forward to our whirlwind ending with a trip to Venice, Florence and Pisa all in the next 5 days. Looking forward to sharing those pictures!

Gabe:
Over the last three days, we have been to some very cool places. We went to San Marino, we went to the beach, and then we went to the beach again...it has really been a relaxation week this week. I also met three new people. Their names are Zio Franco, Zia Paola, and Serena.
San Marino is a place where there are three towers on a big hill. Only two towers were open. The first one we went into was the best because we got to go on a ladder and there was a hatch at the top that you push open to get to the top of the tower. The second one had a museum in the tower with knight armour, swords, weapons, guns, arrows, and lots of other stuff.
After San Marino, we went to the beach and stayed there for about three hours. Then we went back to Zio and Zias and got ready for dinner. We went to Frankie's restaurant where there was a lot of seafood. Some stuff looked gross but I still tried it. We were up pretty late that night but it was fun getting to know our new family members.
The next day when it was lunchtime, we ate lunch at Zio and Zia's house, then we said goodbye to Zia because she had to leave for work. Then we all got ready for the beach. I had a lot of fun jumping into waves, getting covered by waves, and playing in the sand. I had lots of fun. Then we drove home, dropped off our stuff and went for dinner at a cafe where we got pizza, more seafood like the night before, yummy food and ice cream, then we went to bed.

Alie:
We haven't done too much over the last two days. We drove to San Marino and got to explore the castle towers and walk around the museums. I loved being able to climb up a ladder to go into the top part of the first tower. We stayed the last three nights in a very hot Air Bnb which had no AC so we spent most of our time at Zio Franco's and Zia Paola's. We went to the beach with them on the first day after San Marino and spent a good two hours in the water cooling off. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called Frankie's where we had lots of food but had a hard time ordering it. We had some really good pasta and a big plate of seafood which tasted really weird. We got home at 12:30 and went straight to bed. The next day we met up at Zio and Zia's house to say goodbye to Zia Paola because she had to go to work until late that night. As soon as she left we immediately went back to the beach where we had so much fun in the water. I loved to watch the boys jump over waves and play in the water because they looked like they were having lots of fun. That night we went to a small cafe and had pizza and some appetizers. After we said goodbye to Zio Franco and went home to sleep.

Julian:
Today I woke up and got on the road super quick after that late night. Once we finally got to our Air BnB and dropped off our luggage and went to Zio Franco's for a snack. About three hours later Serena came to have dinner with us. The rest of the night we just played cards. The next day we got up and went to San Marino and saw some castles and saw some ancient weapons. It was cool that San Marino is its own country. That afternoon we spent at the beach and met Zia Paola. That night we went out to dinner with Serraina, Zio Franco, and Zia Paola. I tried some food there that I thought I would never eat like swordfish. The next day nothing really happened other than is saying goodbye to Zia Paola and spent the rest of the day at the beach. That night we went to a cafe for dinner and said goodbye to Zio Franco and left. Today was a good last day in Rimini.

        

Day 21: Another beach day!

We were able to spend another beautiful day at the beach today! The water was so calm that we could look for sea creatures and managed to find the star fish! The kids had so much fun.
We ended the day with a late night dinner with family to say thank you for the amazing hospitality over the last few weeks.
Tomorrow we leave for Rimini for a few days and might not have WiFi. We'll try to keep updating of possible.

Julian:
Today we got up and rushed out of the door so that we could get to the beach on time. When we got there we got right into the ocean. About two hours later we made an active volcano. How we made it was that we made a huge lump of sand lit a fire underneath and made a hole so that it would smoke out of the top like a real active volcano. Whenever we went into the water someone always put there hand down on a starfish. When it finally happens to me it had already happened to Mom, Alie, and Gabe. That night we went out to a restaurant at 10:30!! It was nice and when we finally left it was 12:30!!!! We were so tired.

Gabe:
Today I had to get up early because we were going to the beach and we wanted a good parking spot. On the way to the beach we were getting a little frustrated with a driver who kept getting close to our bumper, but when we got there we found out that the girl was actually their friend. Once we got to the beach, mom put sunscreen on and I was so excited to get into the water. The beach was so much fun because we went out to the rocks at the end of the sea, and we made a volcano out of sand and fire. Then we destroyed the volcano and roasted mussels on it instead. When I was coming to put sticks on the fire, I accidentally touched a hot stick and burnt my thumb. The three of us all found star fishes that day too in the water. Then we got out of the water and went home to do showers, then went out for dinner. We stayed up until 1am, then got home to go to sleep.

Alie:
Today we were woken up pretty early because we got to go to the beach again and had to get a parking spot. We met up at Zia Rita's house to pick up our grandparents and Zia Rita and then drove off to the beach. On our way there we had some entertainment because some girl was driving really close to our bumper and the boys were getting mad. It turned out that she was our family's friends and she was coming to the beach with us. We found a parking spot pretty easily and then went to the beach and found a nice spot and put sunscreen on. We immediately went swimming as soon as we could and we had lots of fun finding starfish and I was flipping around. After we were all tired out we went home and then went out for dinner at 10:00 and had some traditional Chieti dishes and then went home and crashed immediately because it was 1:00 in the morning. It was a super fun day.

Day 19 & 20: From ancient to renaissance history, and rest time

We are so glad we built in so much time to have some downtime while we are here. The last two days, while still busy, have been really nice to get some sense of normalcy.
Day 19 we returned from Sorrento and, on the way, visited the UNESCO heritage site of the royal palace of Caserta. Apparently, a few scenes from Star Wars were filmed here, so Mike and the boys were pretty excited about that. We even had to take a picture of Mike looking out one of the famous windows. After a long drive home, we visited with Pierluigi (Mike's cousin) and his family. The kids were able to figure out Google translate and had a great time getting to know their cousin Sofia through this technology.
Day 20 started really quiet as we got to sleep in and take our time getting going. We took about 2 hours at Ikea to see if there was much different from the North American ones we knew. In the end, we only bought a few coffee cups, but the ideas for decorating were well worth the visit. We then made our way to Great Zia Rosetta's apartment in upper Chieti. She is 92 and was super cute. It was harder on the kids since she has no English, but she kept forgetting that the kids already had many candies so they liked getting more than we would normally let then have. The afternoon was spent in Chieti visiting some of the old town areas. We then went to Zia Rita's for a quick dinner and home for an early bedtime. Tomorrow will be a bit busier, so we need our rest.

Alie:
Day 19: Today we had to get up super early so that we could be out of the house by 8:00. We got some coffee and breakfast at the restaurant on the top of the mountain and then started the long drive to Caserta and then home. On the drive down the mountain, I felt super sick since the roads were long and windy so it made my stomach queasy. We drove for an hour and a half to get to this cool castle called Caserta. Dad and the boys were so excited to see it because some of Star Wars was filmed there. Once inside we did the entire tour of the inside which was super beautiful and then we went outside to the palace grounds. We took a bus out to the far end where there was a waterfall and took a bunch of pictures. Afterwards, we went into the gardens and got super lost in the amazing looks of it. After finding our way out we took the 3km walk back down to the palace because Dad wanted to see the middle fountain. Once we got down I was super tired and so we got lunch and then finished the drive back to Chieti. We got home at 5:30 and quickly got changed and then headed out to Zia Rita's house to see some more family for dinner. Once arrived we had a really delicious dinner and then played cards with their daughter Sofia who was super funny even though she didn't speak English. Later that night we went home and crashed.
Day 20: Today we got to sleep in which was a huge relief because I was exhausted. We slowly woke up and then decided to go to Ikea to look around. We got some lunch there and then bought some things for coffee. Afterwards, we got home and quickly changed and then went and picked up Grandma and Nonno to got to Great Aunt Zia Rosetta's house. She was super nice when we arrived and her assistant even gave us ice cream, cake, juice and candy. After leaving their house we walked around the top of Chieti and some of the main streets and then went to Zia Rita's house for dinner. Dinner was pizza which was super, super delicious and then we went home and fell right to sleep. It was a good two days and I loved every minute of it.

Gabe:
Day 19: Today I had to get up early again because we had to leave to Caserta. It felt like a long time to get there but really it was only an hour and a half. Before we got out of the car and before we parked Mom told Dad that the palace that we were going into was the palace of Naboo from Star Wars I and II. All of us got really excited, so when we got out of the car we all speed walked to the entrance. There was basically no one in the palace so we got some good pictures of Dad pretending to be Princess Amadala looking out the big window from the movie when she said "They're here" when the bad guys came. Then once we finished the palace we took a bus all the way up to where the waterfall was and we went into the garden. But, when we were halfway through, Gramma and Nonno took the bus back and we kept walking to look for an exit. I saw a sign that said exit, but Dad thought he knew there was another exit, but when we got to that exit it was really a locked gate. Then we had to go all the way back to the exit I saw. So we had to walk all the way back to the palace but it felt like 20 million kilometres. But, when we got there it felt really nice because it felt like I achieved something big. When we got back to the palace we saw an ambulance, a police car and a fire truck. When the fire truck passed, we went to Gramma and Nonno who were sitting in the shade and we asked them why the trucks were there, and they said they didn't know. We then walked into the palace to eat lunch. After lunch, we walked all the way back to the car and drove back home. Then, at night, instead of going to bed we went to Zia Rita's house where we met Pierluigi's family. We had a lot of fun with his daughter Sofia playing cards and doing magic tricks. Then we said goodbye we walked back to the car, drove home, did our blog, and went to bed.
Day 20: Today I got to sleep in, not like yesterday, and I had a really weird breakfast which was hard toast with Nutella. It was actually really tasty. After breakfast, we all relaxed a bit and then went to Ikea. But, all we bought at Ikea was some coffee stuff and lunch. Then we went to my Great, Great Zia Rosetta's house where we had some candy and played cards. After, we walked around Chieti and saw some cool fountains and a playground that was really fun. When we got back into the car we drove back to Zia Rita's where we stayed for a couple hours, had dinner, and played cards again. After dinner, we said goodnight to everyone, went back to the apartment and got ready for bed.

Julian:
Today we got up so early that I could not see a meter ahead of me. We drove out to the cafe and had a croissant. Then the owner of the house came and said goodbye to us. Fast forward an hour and a half later we are driving up to the Caserta Palace and walking in. It was HUGE!! And it was only there summer home!!! As we walked along we saw the chair that Pope Pius VI was carried around in. A little while later we walk out to the courtyard and we saw that it was about 3 km. So we took the bus to the end and saw the beautiful waterfall. Then we went into the garden a walked around for another hour. 3 km later we got back into our car and drove home. That night we met Pierluigi's family and had dinner. We all had a blast playing cards with Sofia and finally left unwillingly at 11:00.
The next day we got up at 9:30 and left for IKEA. We bought some cups and saucers, had lunch, and left. Then we drove all the way to pick up Grandma and Nonno and went to Great Great Zia Rosetta's house to visit. We got some candy, chatted, and played cards. An hour and a half later we left and went to Great Zia Rita's house to have dinner. We stayed for a couple hours of playing cards and had dinner. Then we went home and got ready for bed. That was nice.