​Cheat day, or cheaper travel day, one of the two. Instead of kids going back to school today and Mike going to work we decided to fly home today since the tickets were cheaper and the flight less crowded. In the end, the flight ended up being more expensive just because Mike lost his mind for a minute and upgraded everyone to First Class. It was his gift so that everyone could sleep a bit on the flight, be comfy, and be as rested as possible since we were travelling for so long today. In the end, the difference in cost between Sunday and Monday almost covered the upgrade. So, missing one day of school? Worth it. 
 
We got up early, finished packing up, had breakfast (our favorite granola) and cleaned up the apartment. The girl’s bathroom had reached the apex of stinkiness. Mike determined it was the bidet probably letting sewer stink back up into the bathroom, but in the end we may never know. One thing is for sure, big cities in Europe have stinky sewer issues, just like big cities in the U.S. It’s hard to fathom what it was like when people were just throwing their waste into the streets. Yikes. 
 
Mike took the garbage out and luckily found the garbage this time and then the whole crew headed out to the streets for our hike back up to Roma Termini. It probably is quite the sight to see this American family, pushing their suitcases along in the morning rush of people headed to work. It was a bit uphill, and a bit bumpy along the old cobblestone streets, but we made it to the train station in the mad rush of humanity. People everywhere, people going to work, vacation, the airport. It was a bit crowded getting on the train, but we made it on the train to the airport on platform 24. It took about 30 minutes to get there, and it was overall a smooth ride since there are no stops between the Roma Termini station and the airport. 
 
Once at the airport, we checked into our flight (checked all our bags since we could do two bags with our tickets), got through passport control, security, and then more passport control. Once we reached the international terminal, it was like being in the nicest mall on earth. Wow, Rome’s airport interior is stunning and full of high-end shops. I guess if money is no object, Italy is your place. We were able to use the ITA lounge, so we had a bit of breakfast, and then a bit o’ lunch. The best part of being in the lounge, is that we got to talk to Peter. He had a good week, which always makes us a little happier. It’s stressful having a kid on a mission, certainly more stressful than I thought it would be for us as parents. We are thrilled he likes and gets along well with his companion. They are doing a lot of finding and teaching a lot of people. The tricky part is getting them to come to church and be committed. He really likes speaking Cebuano as well, which he finds to be much easier than speaking Waray. Once we finished talking with Peter, it was time to board our flight. We got to go in the special people line. The stewardess at the gate looked at me and all our kids and was like, “You are all flying Delta One?” She then looked at our passports and looked at me and said, “You are a lucky man.” No doubt about it. 

The girls were pretty excited about the whole adventure being in first class, this being their first-time up front in the pods. Madeline was just happy to have her own seat/bed and TV to watch. Abby said she felt like a movie star. Mike was just happy to be able to stretch out his feet and not be scrunched up in a seat for 10 hours. We had a lovely meal, then everyone laid down for a spell, woke up to warm cookies, ate a fabulous breakfast, and before we knew it we were landing in New York City. Our next flight wasn’t as grand, but we eventually made it back home to Denver and our comfy beds back in Colorado Springs! What an adventure!

​Today was our last full day in Rome and our last full day in Italy! Nooo! Why can’t we be super wealthy trust fund babies and sail on our daddy’s yacht until we run out of champagne and grapes! Well, we are very fortunate, and there is no doubt about that. We headed out on Palm Sunday into the heart of Rome and went to the Pantheon. They were finishing up their services and we were able to sneak in with the crowd. On the first Sunday of the month, all the museums in Rome are free! So, we got in without tickets and enjoyed the spectacular Pantheon. It really is an amazing building. The oculus is cool, the church resplendent. No tour needed here (despite the annoying white guy trying to get us to take his 15 Euro tour. Pretty good grift to charge tourists to tour a building you can see for free. Well done Mussolini). The one good thing we got out of our tour yesterday was that the best gelato in Rome was near the Pantheon, so after the church, we headed that way. On our way, we happened upon an awesome French church, then happened upon an awesome toy store (lucky Madeline), and then happened upon an awesome place for lunch. So, our 10-minute walk to gelato, took about 2 hours, but it was perfect. That’s the perfect way to enjoy Rome and Italy, just wandering around. Also, screw Trip Advisor and Google Reviews, the secret to finding good places to eat is to look for Italians. The place we went for lunch was brimming with noisy Italians outside eating and laughing. That’s the place you want to go. The food was resplendent, the atmosphere delightful. We will miss the food scene in Italy. We won’t miss the dirt, the crowded streets, the tourists, or the smoking, but the food, oh my. 
 
After lunch, we finally made it to the gelato place. It was divine. Oh, my heavens. Thank you for such delicious food. Madeline was right, let’s just bring our house here and have good food forever. From there, we walked down the streets of fancy stores, the best was the Lego store. The mural of the Trevi fountain was superb. After using a bathroom in a pub, we decided to go to the LDS Rome temple.
 
We then grabbed an Uber (which turns out to be way more expensive than the Taxis) and headed around the ring road to the temple. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The grounds are meticulous, the Spirit abundant, and the people so nice. Madeline prayed next to the olive tree, which we thought was cute and special. Turns out, the temple was built on an olive grove, so they moved all the trees because you can’t cut them down. The four olive trees were brought in from other places and were more than four hundred years old. The olive leaves features prominently in the stain glass. The temple itself is shaped like the center of a Venn diagram (the intersection of heaven and earth). It was pretty neat. 
 
The visitor’s center was even better than we had envisioned. The statue of the Christus was amazing, but having the rest of the twelve there was really neat. The sister missionaries were amazing and spent so much time with our girls and with Madeline. The visitor center is phenomenal and the spirt was so strong the whole time. We loved watching Abby’s countenance change from being a bit grumpy earlier in the day to just being bright and full of joy. Those sister missionaries were amazing. I am so grateful for them and the Spirit they brought to our family. They were just so full of light and joy. They passed it on to the rest of us. We loved learning about the mural behind the Apostles, the meaning of each statue’s item, and the history of the Temple in Rome. It was the perfect way to end our Palm Sunday and also the perfect way to end our trip to Italy. Of all the things we saw, the one that brought us the most joy was the temple and the people there. That has to say something about the truth of what Peter is out teaching. I just wish everyone that was coursing around Rome could have felt what we felt there and been there with us. So much is spent seeing dead stones from eras long since passed. They have no life. But just on the outskirts of the city is a place of light and truth where joy is abundant. 
 
Uber wasn’t keen on getting us, so the Bushmans (the senior couple there) helped us get a taxi home. It was half the cost of the Uber and much more comfortable. We got back to the apartment, got our umbrellas, and headed out for one last meal in Italy. It was a little Osteria just a block from our apartment and it was divine. Thank you Italy for making simple ingredients delicious. Gratzie Mille! 

​Today was our busiest day. We were up early and off to the Vatican. We braved the metro again, but since it wasn’t too crowded, and it was barely after seven in the morning, there were not so many pick pockets. We took the metro to the Vatican and then met up with our tour group. Tomorrow happened to be Palm Sunday, so it was pretty darn crowded. They were also getting set-up for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter, so it was chairs for days in the plaza. Our tour guide for the basilica and the museums was Massimo. He was awesome. He was funny, but not too funny, full of good information, but not a bunch of stuff you didn’t want to know, and had a soothing voice, but not too soothing that you went to sleep. He also wore Hokas and a scarf. Comfortable yet still fashionable. It was pricey doing the tour, but hard to imagine navigating the zoo of the Vatican without a tour group. We started with the stairs up to the top of the Basilica and that was well worth the climb. Turns out, the paining on the ceiling is not a painting but rather a giant mosaic made up of one-inch little tiles. The first Lego mosaic before Legos were invented! It was breathtaking. The view from the top was spectacular of Rome and the Tiber River and the surrounding hills. Madeline really enjoyed the seagull that had laid eggs by the tower, so everyone wins. Mom gets pictures, Mike gets to go up lots of stairs, Abby and Emma get to take selfies, and Madeline sees a bird. Good times. We also got to see where the Pope lives and see the Swiss guards in their goofy awesome uniforms. On our tour, Massimo let us in on all the good things the fascists did to screw up Italy and always ended with the statement: “Well done Mussolini.” Say it with an Italian accent and a bit of a sarcastic smirk and it captures the beauty of it for all of us. Turns out Mussolini tried to fix a lot of things with cement, and totally failed. Well done Mussolini!
 
After the dome hike, we got to go inside the church, and it was unreal. It was so grand with so many amazing pieces of art, relics, altars, chapels, and of course another Michelangelo masterpiece. It really was quite striking to see Mary holding Jesus across her lap. It was moving. Mike really enjoyed seeing where St. Peter was buried and learning about all the different stories about the statues. This was an amazing basilica and truly hard to wrap your mind around. 
 
After the basilica, we mailed some postcards from the Vatican post office (after losing Sara for a minute) and then sped around the corner and down the street to go the museums. The museums are a treasure trove of stuff from Greece, Egypt, Italy, and all over the world. The ceilings were amazing, the tapestries unreal, the staircases inspirational, and of course a 2,000-year-old pine cone statue. How could it get any better? Well, we learned that Mussolini filled in the rivers and canals around Milan with cement creating a mess for today’s residents: Well done Mussolini. 
 
The highlight of the museums, is of course, the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. It really is hard to imagine that being done. Equally fun, is the mural on the front of the final judgment. The Pope’s advisor was all put out by Michelangelo’s portrayal of things, so Michelangelo painted him in the bottom corner in hell getting his genitals eaten by a snake. Don’t mess with the legendary artist or else you will end up immortalized in hell. Pretty great stuff. 
 
From there, we took an Uber back to the apartment, got some food (cheese, grapes, toasty bread, and cookies).  Then we walked about ¾ mile to the Colosseum for our next tour. On our way there, some street vendor asked Mike if he was a bodyguard.  In the end, I guess he kind of is since he was keeping the rest of the group safe. 
 
Anyway, the tour guide at the Colosseum was no Massimo. It was Dario, like Mario, but without the M or the super. The Colosseum can be done in 30 minutes, maybe 15, because it’s basically a big empty arena. It’s amazing to see, the steps are huge, the stories intense, but it’s overrun with tourist and our group was full of people that had to pee all the time and walked as fast as Joe Biden up a flight of stairs while holding his ice cream. It was a bit painful. Also, the skip the line part of the tour, wasn’t so skippy, it was really just a different line of people in groups. Overall, it was amazing to see, but we were a bit over toured at this point. By the time we got into the Roman Forum, we were done and turned in our headphones and toured on our own. The roman Forum and Palatine hill were much cooler and more interesting than the Colosseum. They were much prettier than the Boboli gardens. It was interesting to see the arch of Titus who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. There was a little menorah on the arch. It was crazy to think that he fulfilled Christ’s prophesy about the temple. Overall, you could spend days listening and learning about Rome here, but it was time to eat. So, we walked back to our apartment, then ate at the little Osteria by our apartment. The apartment was very average, but it was tucked in with a bunch of great little restaurants. Dinner was wonderful and we got back to sleep after a very long day full of tasty food. It was a nice way to end the day.

​It was hard to think about leaving our wonderfully nice apartment in La Spezia. It was so clean and comfy, with big showers and bathroom counters and a nice little patio. We had breakfast (granola) and then packed up our stuff, got back in the car to drive back to Florence. On the way, we detoured to Pisa to see the leaning bell tower there. It was a bit overcast, and we marveled at how lucky we got to have nice weather on our Cinque Terre Day. In Pisa, we were back on the tourist trail. There were lots of people everywhere. Also, there were awesome people trying to scam us. How fun!
 
The cool thing about Pisa is that the bell tower is beautiful and quite amazing, and it is really leaning. You think 4 degrees and then you see it and you’re like, that thing is gonna topple right over. Turns out, it hasn’t fallen over. The rest of Pisa is pretty much, meh, but it was worth seeing the tower lean. Pisa is a detour destination, certainly not something you want to spend all day fiddling around at. 
 
After the tower, we headed to a giant Carrefour to get snacks and water and use the bathrooms. Then we were back in the car and headed to Florence. We had to have the car back by two because Mike picked it up early. We were cutting it close, and we had to get gas on the way. We got gas at one of the stations right off the highway, which was more expensive, but really easy. Navigating the streets of Florence was a little stressful. We made it back to the street of the garage and then some dude parked his car in the middle of the street. It was two o’clock and we were right there! No time to waste! The dude didn’t like Mike’s horn and came to the car and said, “Just because you are a big man, do you think you can honk your horn?” Mike said “yes” and the man disappeared and someone came and moved the car. Good thing because there were now other people stuck behind us and they were not happy. A man got off his motorcycle and started yelling at them too, so Mike was in good company. We dropped the car off at the garage and then walked to the train station. On the way, more missionaries! We talked to them for a bit. One of the Elders was from Saratoga Springs, Utah, the other from Argentina. They had a great light about them and were super happy. They said that they were having lots of success and were doing well. Good to hear it! 
 
At the station, we had about an hour to kill, so we got lunch at the station bread store, which was pretty good again. Really, there is pretty decent food everywhere you turn in Italy. We had business class tickets for our short trip to Rome, so it was nice to be in comfy seats. The views from the train window were quite wonderful and you could envision driving through this countryside, stopping at every little town on a hill and just walking around. If only we had all the money in the world to explore. 
 
We got off the train at Rome Termini and instantly got to enjoy 10,000 Italians smoking right on the train platform. Seriously Italy, enough with the cigarettes. From there, we made the ¾ mile journey to our apartment. We knew it wouldn’t be as nice as our last place, but at least it was clean. The second bathroom smelled pretty tart (like the sewer), but the rest was fine. It would be fine for our last stop on this journey. We put all our stuff in the apartment, ate a snack, and then headed out quickly to try to go to the Pantheon. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on our side, so we went to the Trevi Fountain, tossed in our coins, and then made our way to the Spanish steps. The fountain was truly unreal, both in number of tourists and in its sheer beauty. The Spanish steps were in fact steps with lots and lots of tourists. The view from the top was pretty cool. From there, we bought Rome metro cards and got on the metro to go back to our place. On the metro, it was nuts crowded. These German guys got on and then some dudes in masks and hats and dark clothes pushed in behind them. They were pickpockets. They did all the classic moves. Pushed in on people when they were loading into the train, then pushed in at stops. One dude tried to get Mike’s wallet out of his pants pocket but instead got Mike’s hand. Mike then looked at Abby and said, “This guy is a pickpocket, so watch your stuff”. Mike then pinned his arm to the rail and the thief got real scared. He and his companion bolted at the next stop, and we got off and walked down to our apartment. Mike was so thankful he didn’t get robbed and was super careful the rest of the trip. It was a close call.
 
We were pretty tired, so we found a restaurant at a hotel on the way back to our apartment. Mike got a salad (yippee), the girl’s got fish and chips (yippee), and Sara a cheeseburger that was cold in the middle and soggy (boooo). This led to our next mantra: no hamburgers outside the United States or Iceland. 

​Since we were already in La Spezia, we got up early, but not that early since we didn’t have to drive from Florence. The rain had cleared and there was a beautiful day ahead of us. We walked down to the train station and since Mike had purchased Cinque Terre tickets months in advance, we hopped on the train and took it to the last stop, Monterosso. It was great, because there were very few people there and we started our hike up the long ascent into the vineyards. The views were wonderful and the sea a mesmerizing mixture of blues. The air was fresh and the trail gorgeous. It was rather steep, and Abby started having second thoughts about being part of our family, but she dug deep and did wonderfully. Emma and Madeline raced each other from time to time. Madeline has an amazing ability to just go with the flow and never complain. She is a wonderful little hiker and did the entire ten miles without muttering a peep. Maybe the gelato and treats helped, but I think she would have been fine either way. The first town we came to was Vernazza. It was right out of the movie Lucca and the locals knew it and there were opportunities to capitalize on it. We grabbed some lunch (which turned out to be unbelievably delicious) and ate down by the waterfront. It was wonderful. From there, we hiked up the alleyways toward the next town. There were grapes starting to come forth on the vines, and lemons on the lemon trees. Spring was well underway, and it was a wonderful day to hike. Mike even got to speak French to some hikers and take their pictures for them. He enjoyed speaking Italian, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese on this trip. It was fun to watch him talk to people in their native language.
 
The next town we came to was Corniglia. This was the town where we got gelato and looked out over the water and enjoyed the creamy goodness. Having completed the hardest two parts of the hike, we were ready for the easy route, but they were closed due to landslides, so we had to take the train to Manarola. This was a very picturesque town and is the most photographed of all the towns in Cinque Terre. It didn’t have the same charm on its main street as Vernazza, but it did make for great pictures and the views from the point just north of town were spectacular of the rest of the coastline. We bought Nutella biscuits here and devoured those. We had to keep everyone’s spirits up. After Manarola, we stopped in Riomaggiore and walked down to the rocky beach and threw rocks in the water for a while. It was a magical way to end a wonderful day of hiking. We could throw rocks in the water for days and be happy. It seems to be one thing that all of our children love. Everyone was pretty tired, so we took the train back to La Spezia, picked up pizza for the girls, then Mike and Sara headed out to watch the sunset in Manarola and take nighttime pictures. It was pretty magical. Once the sun had disappeared and all the pictures were done, we headed to La Roma, a restaurant in La Spezia, and had a quiet dinner with the most unusual and delicious cheesecake of all time. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful and magical day. Thank you Cinque Terre, Gratzie Mille!

Sara and Emma got up early and went for a run along the river. It was a beautiful morning in Tuscany, and they certainly won out. Mike got breakfast going because his right leg was still swollen with 3+ pitting edema. Fortunately, he brought his compression socks and was able to wear those to help. After breakfast, we went to the Academia to see the famous Statue of David and marvel at the hordes of people. Mike had purchased tickets ahead of time and thank goodness because it was a zoo of humanity. But it was worth it. The Statue of David is truly remarkable. The detail, the pose, the beauty is quite striking. It’s fascinating that Michelangelo was able to create that out of the stone. One of the impressive things is that there are some unfinished or partially started statues in the gallery which allow you to see the process of creating from marble. It’s hard to believe it was possible. At seventeen feet tall, it truly is a masterpiece to behold. The rest of the gallery was not as impressive overall. Must stink to be a super talented artist and then have your stuff displayed in the same place as the most famous statue of all time. We did enjoy the hall of instruments which had a Hurdy-gurdy which is the wonkiest instrument ever created. It was definitely worth a gander. 
 
From there, we wondered back across the Old Bridge and got lunch to eat in Boboli gardens. We were hoping for a Versailles experience, but Boboli is no Versailles. In fact, it’s not that great overall. It was a nice place to eat lunch and there were some nice views over Florence, but it was a bit underwhelming. The city parks in Florence were better overall. We walked back across the old bridge and saw the missionaries (turns out it was the entire Florence Zone). We grabbed a quick picture for Peter, and they carried on their way. Mike went off to get the rental car and the rest of the clan went back to the tasty gelato store and then back to the apartment to get packed up. There was no reason to stay in that mold swamp. Plus, we had seen the highlights of Florence and there was no need to stay there with all the tourists. It was a bit overwhelming. 
 
Mike got to enjoy listening to an Italian/Belgium duo talk to the rental car lady for 20 minutes. It would have been annoying, but it was so animated and exciting. It reminded Mike of a Seinfeld sketch. They were in a hurry, but wanted to make sure they had time for an espresso before they actually got their car. They were in a hurry, but not enough of a hurry that there wasn’t time for an espresso. Mike eventually got the Volkswagen and then began the journey to the apartment. The apartment was in the special zone, so he couldn’t drive back to the apartment, so he parked by the river and then walked back to help get all the bags. It was a bit of an undertaking, but at least all the bags fit in the car and then we were off to La Spezia. 
 
The weather was a bit rainy, but we were able to navigate the toll roads, all the trucks, and little cars everywhere. Driving in Florence was a nightmare of possible disasters, but the highways were much better.
 
We arrived in La Spezia and stopped at the grocery store to get milk, granola, and some cheese, grapes, and crackers. Then it was off to our apartment and the mystery parking lot which we successfully navigated. The lady couldn’t meet us, so she sent her dad, Pino. Pino was the highlight of the day. He was this cute little old Italian man that didn’t speak any English. Mike got to bust out his Italian and they hit it off. Pino helped with the luggage, showed us around the apartment, recommended a trattoria for dinner, and off he went. The apartment was wonderful. Modern, clean, and best of all, no stinky smell. It was a blessing. Plus, we didn’t have to drive back to Florence except to drop off the car. Phew! We unloaded our stuff, and then headed to the trattoria for dinner.  The food was delightful, the rain just fine. It was a wonderful conclusion to our evening. We went back, took long hot showers, and slept wonderfully in clean, nice, comfy beds. Grazie Mille!
 

​Bonjour no Venezia! It was a good morning to go for a run along the waterfront. Sara and Emma headed out for a run and Mike hobbled out for a run/walk. Sara couldn’t keep up with Emma, so she was a bit put out. Then she saw Mike hobbling around and it made her feel better. After the very pleasant run along the waterfront, it was time to get ready for the day and head out. Once we had packed up, Mike carried all the luggage down from the third floor and then we rolled over to the Vaporetto station. We just missed the boat, but that turned out to be lucky because Mike realized he still had the apartment keys in his pocket, so he had to run back to the apartment. Feeling confident in his navigation skills, he disappeared into the alleyways and promptly went three times as far to get back to the apartment than he needed to go. Once he got back, we hopped on a very crowded Vaporetto and took it up to the casino stop and then walked back over to the Jewish Ghetto to our favorite little bread shop. We got pizza (which was excellent), Madeline got a croquette, and everyone got to choose their favorite pastry. Sara and Mike both got the lemon merengue, Emma and Abby the cream puffs, and Madeline the mango tart. At least today, everyone was full of good food. Mike wanted to buy some of the Jewish action figures (especially the one with the rabbi acting our Leviticus 14 – killing the bird as an act of atonement, it was quite graphic), but Sara put her foot down. From there, we rolled our bags over to the train station, going over one last bridge in Venice. At the train station, a young man asked us for money in Italian, but Mike spoke to him in German. Exasperated by the prospect of dealing with a stingy German, he went to the next group of Americans. Emma said that Mike’s pronunciation was terrible, but it got the desired effect, so it probably doesn’t matter that much. Our timing worked out pretty well today and we boarded our train and sped off toward Florence.
 
One thing is for sure, Americans can be annoying when they are in other countries. No wonder people don’t like us overseas. I guess the good thing is that they all want our money, so here we are. I would rank tourists in levels of annoyance in the following order: 1) Chinese 2) Russians 3) Spaniards 4) Mexicans 5) Americans. The best tourists: 1) Norwegians 2) Swedes 3) Fins 4) French 5) English. That’s my ranking right now, but it is subject to change. 
 
We arrived in Firenze (Florence) and walked down the cobblestone streets to our apartment. It felt like we were in a renaissance fair with everyone else on earth. There were tourists everywhere. It was quite the zoo. We found our place and met the guy who gave us the keys to the apartment. He was a shady looking dude, but oh well. We got up to the apartment and it smelled so bad of mold, that he instantly opened all the windows to try to air it out. But it stank. There was all kinds of mold on the ceiling, the bathroom, it was pretty gross. We thought maybe it would air out, so we stowed our stuff and headed out into the city to go to the Duomo.
 
The Duomo was enormous and quite spectacular. The marble they used really gave it an impressive color and the terracotta roof was spectacular. We went over to the entrance to the stairs and climbed up to the top with a school group from the Netherlands. That was one thing about this trip that was noticeable, every school age kid from Europe seemed to be in Italy for some sort of school trip. There were kids from everywhere, and they travelled in packs like wolves, only loud and full of zits. On our way up to the top, we stopped inside to see the dome paintings up close. They were disturbing to say the least. I don’t think the Middle Ages was very warm and fuzzy. The scenes of people in hell getting stabbed with pitchforks was disturbing, but then Lucifer eating the damned was a nice touch. Yikes! No wonder people were willing to buy indulgences to be forgiven of their sins. Who would want to be eaten by the devil or run through with a pitchfork? The view from the top of the dome was spectacular and Florence is unique in its appearance. I can see why people love Tuscany with its lush rolling hills, terracotta rooftops and quaint little inns. On our way down, there was a guy that was debilitated by the heights. He took courage from Madeline and survived the descent. After the hike up and down we went to the Lindt chocolate store and bought tasty chocolate. It’s so much better in Europe. Curse you waxy American chocolate!
 
From the Duomo, we walked over to the Old Bridge (the only bridge to not be destroyed by the Nazis in the war) and then walked over to the Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunset. About ½ of all the college kids in Italy were there drinking and singing as the sun went down. It really is an iconic view, but the college kids were a bit much. 
 
After watching the sun go down, we walked back down into Florence and had dinner at the Four Lions. Every restaurant seems to have some guy working hard to look like every Italian mafia stereotype known (gold chain, greased back partially bald head, track suit) sitting in the restaurant doing absolutely nothing other than barking orders at other people. This was a theme repeated throughout Florence and Rome. Dinner was pretty good and then we headed to get gelato at what Mike thought was the best gelato of the trip, La Carraia. The people were nice, the gelato creamy, and the cones fresh. Good heavens gelato here is good. Madeline would later say that she wanted to move our house to Italy. Mike asked her why and she said because our ice-cream is not any good. The other interesting thing about food here is that the girls had no issues with the cheese or milk at any point during the trip. In fact, everyone felt pretty good. The flight attendant on the way home noted that it’s because in America they use chemicals to age the cheese. He knew lots of people that can’t tolerate milk products in America but do fine in Italy. Fascinating. 
 
After our delicious gelato, we headed back to our apartment which still smelled like mold. We tried to air it out, but there were bugs, the girls woke up with bug bites, the place smelled like old wet socks. We had to get out. The company gave us no love and were a bunch of turds, so we adjusted fire. Mike found a place to rent in La Spezia, it turned out to be a great blessing, but we had to wade through the misery first. 

​Bonjour no Venice! Sara and Emma were up early for a run along the waterfront. The rest of the clan laid in bed until they got back and woke everyone up. Thanks, early morning runners. For breakfast, Mike bought granola and milk from the local grocery store and an assortment of Nutella cookies which were divine, dangerous, and devilish. These will clearly be our Achilles heel while we are here. Once fed, we headed out to wander the streets of Venice and just get lost in the back alleys of this ancient city.
 
We first headed out toward the Libreria Acqua alta so that we could funnel through the small bookstore with lots of other tourists. From there, we headed over to Ponte Chiodo which is a bridge with no side rails that is kind of cool. We meandered into Cannaregio and ate Cicchetti from a cool little bar (our favorite was the pumpkin / sweet potato with brie cheese on top). They were really quite delicious. From there, we wandered into the Jewish Ghetto, which was very somber, but full of Jewish people, Jewish restaurants, and delicious food. We ate desserts at a little Jewish bakery, and it was divine. We continued our wandering through literal neighborhoods with not a tourist to be found until we wound up at the Vaporetto station to take us over to Murano Island.
 
After passing the cemetery island, that no one wanted to visit, we landed on Murano. We were quickly ushered into a glass blowing factory to watch a little show on glass making. Overall, it was pretty cool watching the guy form a vase and then a cool horse out of a blob of molten glass. Seems like it would get old to make things out of glass, but maybe not, maybe it’s the best job in Italy. Either way, Madeline enjoyed it and she really enjoyed looking at all the little glass ornaments that you could buy in the gift shop. We started walking down the Murano canal and Sara declared that she was about to die of hunger, so we stopped in the first little pizza place we saw with a cute little courtyard. The rest of it from there sucked. The service sucked, the food sucked, and in the end, it was not good in anyway. I guess the good part was that everyone was full, so no more complaining. From there we wandered down to the clocktower looking at all the displays of Murano glass and then got back on the Vaporetto and headed back to Venice. We wandered back to the apartment so Sara could charge up her camera battery, then eased out to the Academy Bridge to get photos of Venice at sunset. On our way, we got Madeline some little glass figurines (three to be exact). Sara staked out her place on the bridge, and the girls and Mike wandered down to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. We had a lot of fun in the little alleyways, took some amazing pictures of Venice at Sunset and since it’s the girls, used a bathroom in a swanky hotel much to the chagrin of the hotel staff. Once the sun had set, we met up with Sara and wandered back to the apartment, grabbing some granola for dinner since we were all tired and ready to turn in for the evening.

​Surprise, it’s daylight savings in Italy! You get one less hour of sleep weary travelers! With that nice surprise, we were up at 6:00 AM to get ready for the day. The best part of the morning was the ridiculously amazing breakfast offered by the hotel. There was fresh squeezed orange juice (by fresh, I mean you pressed a button and the oranges got cut and squeezed into your glass in that very moment), delicious fruits, croissants, granola, cheeses, meats, yogurts, eggs, bacon, and every food imaginable for breakfast. After the gluttony of last night, it’s hard to imagine how we were going to make it up the cathedral stairs. 
 
After breakfast, we headed out to the metro on our now very familiar walk to and from the hotel. Every time we crossed the road, we saw the little trolley coming down the road. At 9:00 AM, we entered the cathedral and were instantly taken back by the vast interiors, massive columns, and ornate stain glass. It felt like we were in the Mines of Moria. After taking in the cathedral and poor St. Bartholomew, we headed back outside and started the climb up to the terraces. Aside from its vast interior and exterior, the intricate nature of the cathedral is quite stunning. With its 3,400 statues, 200 reliefs, 150 gargoyles, and 135 spires, it is difficult to take it all in. Even the main door is amazing in and of itself with its depiction of the joys and sorrows of Mary. It was truly a marvel to behold. 
 
After taking in the terraces and rooftop, we headed back down to the metro and then went to explore the quiet quadrangle (mostly for the pink flamingos). At this point, Emma’s metro card wasn’t working well because she had crumpled it and covered it in grease, but we made it work for her to continue to ride with us. After seeing the flamingos, we walked over to the park and played on the slides, swings, and then just walked around. The trees were starting to bloom, and spring had started to arrive in Milan. People were out enjoying the parks with their dogs, kids, and since its Milan, everyone was well dressed. 
 
After the park, we headed back to the hotel, gathered up our bags, said goodbye to our nice little haven, and then made the journey to the train station one last time. We tried to switch our tickets to an earlier train, but there was no such luck. With time on our hands, Mike busted out his Italian and ordered a bunch of sandwiches and calzones and we ate tasty food in the train station until our train arrived. From there, we boarded the train and made our way smoothly toward Venice. 
 
Upon arriving in Venice, we were met by waves of tourists and people trying to get us to take a taxi ride. It was quite confusing at first on how to buy tickets for the Vaporetto, the little water bus that takes you around Venice (unless you are a super-rich person, then you come by water taxi). Even as a regular person, the Vaporetto tickets for a 48-hour pass were pretty spendy at 30 Euros each. Fortunately, Madeline was free because she is still a little bambina. We took the waterbus to the Rialto bridge station and the walked through the narrow alley ways to our apartment. The crazy thing is that the narrow alleyways are full of first-class stores that you would see in Manhattan, not in some crusty old alleyway. The apartment was on the top floor and so we had to carry our luggage up to the top floor, or at least Mike had to carry it up. The apartment was pretty fun with a little balcony at the top that overlooked St. Mark’s Basilica. 
 
After dropping of our stuff, we headed out and walked over to St. Mark’s Square and saw about 1.2 million tourists mulling about. From there, we headed over to the Ponte dell’Accademia and then to a little restaurant down an alleyway for some dinner. Mike got squid ink pasta, which Emma nicknamed the pasta you eat in hell, and the girls got spaghetti carbonara with Abby rounding things out with a pork cutlet. The walk home was in the pouring rain. Fortunately, we had three umbrellas, so everyone stayed pretty dry. Mike had to go without in the rain to navigate our way home, which is hard to do in the dark, when it’s raining, in the narrow alleyways of Venice. However, we made it home, warmed up in the shower, and tucked into bed. It had been quite a long day from the streets of Milan in the morning to the canals of Venice in the evening.

​Friday March 24, 2023
 
One day, we will be able to sleep in, but not today! Today we have things to do and places to go, and it’s not work and it’s not school. Sara and Emma got up early and went running and Mike got on the Peloton and went biking. Then we finished packing and cleaned up the house and got things ready to go. Abby did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, Madeline made sure her room was clean, and everyone else did everything else they could think of. Then at 9:30 AM, we were off to the Denver Airport. Of course, Mike had to make use of the time by having the girls stuff envelopes for him for work. They did a TON in the car and when we parked at the airport, he mailed them while the rest of the clan got in line to check the bags. Then it was through security and onto our flight to Atlanta.  Fortunately, we were flying Delta and not flying Frontier or, heaven forbid, Allegiant or, never in a million years, Spirit. Our flight took off a bit late, but we zoomed in comfort toward the east coast and our tight connection in Atlanta for our flight to Milan. 
 
At the Atlanta airport, it was all go, go, go to get to our connecting flight to Milan. We landed at the B concourse and had to get to F. We got there, grabbed some snacks, and then got on our flight. It started boarding 10 minutes after we landed in Atlanta. That’s cutting it close! Fortunately, we had good seats in comfort plus, which is what economy used to be before Airlines got super cheap, so we had a bit more leg room. 
 
Saturday March 25, 2023
 
Friday blurred into Saturday as these trans-Atlantic flights tend to do. Comfort plus is not that much comfort nor that much plus, but it sure beats the cheap seats in the back. Regardless, it was still hard to sleep, unless you are Madeline, then there was lots of sleeping. The food was pretty decent, and they gave us pillows, blankets, and ear plugs, toothbrushes, and eye covers. Overall, it was a good experience, until the Alps. As we were descending over the Alps, the plane started descending rapidly and then it was turbulence city. The purser got on and told the flight attendants to sit down in a very worried voice, which was a bit alarming. Then he said, “brace yourselves” and I thought, “this isn’t good”. Overall, it was like coming over the mountains into Denver, but it leveled out and we landed without too much fanfare. 
 
Passport control wasn’t that bad and then we grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. We missed the first train by seconds, and then the next train got cancelled, so we ended waiting a solid 40 minutes to get on the train to Milano Centrale station. The train ride was pretty crowded and not that great. The first thing we noticed was how much graffiti there was everywhere along the way. There was also this really annoying lady speaking Russian with a loud kid. Definitely not comfort plus. 
 
Milano Centrale was quite the train station. It felt like being in a movie with its grand ceilings, numerous platforms, and trains to everywhere. There was even a train to Frankfurt (made us think of Andrew). We exited the station and Abby was entranced by all the guys riding skateboards (by entranced, I mean that she was instantly embarrassed of her family). We walked a couple of blocks to our hotel and were instantly grateful for our little Hilton home. Every time we come to Europe, we stay in a Hilton hotel the first night, which makes things easier because we can check our bags, and then go explore the city while we are ultimately jetlagged.  
 
So that’s what we did, checked the bags, then headed back to the train station to head out into the city. We bought 24-hour metro passes for 3 zones, and then hopped on the metro for the Duomo. It was a zoo! But we like the zoo, and we eventually made our way through the madness after not having slept much. As we were exiting the station, the Duomo came into view, and it was breathtaking. It was such a large, intricate building that dominates the plaza. It was truly breathtaking. The plaza was full of people and clearly the place to be in Milan on a Saturday. Since we were starving, we headed straight to Luini’s for a panzerotti. We took our fried dough and mozzarella goodness back to the Duomo and ate on the steps overlooking the plaza. One of the things we noticed quickly was how many people in Europe still smoke, especially young people. I guess throat and lung cancer haven’t made their way here yet.  
 
Once we were full of food, we headed into the shopping mall to ogle at the super expensive clothes at Prada, Dior, Louis Vuitton, and so forth. The girls took their turns spinning their heals on the bull’s testicles on the floor so that they could be blessed with good luck and a few thousand dollars to spend at the stores!
 
From there, we got back on the metro and took the red line over to the church Santa Maria delle Grazie. We got there a little before our tour time, so we exchanged our vouchers for the actual tickets and then headed over to the Sforzeco castle and park where we grabbed our first gelato of the trip. Everyone got chocolate. After our quick detour, we headed back to the church for our tour. The Last Supper Painting was pretty great, and everyone was pretty intrigued by the things we learned about this famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s a miracle that it survived the bombings of World War II and the photos of the destroyed building with the two wall still standing is impressive. 
 
Once done with the tour, we headed back to the hotel and saw a flash mob of 1,000 teenagers riding bicycles down the main street. Mike got a high five. From there, we checked into our room, took showers, and then took a power nap. At 7:00 pm, we headed back out for dinner at a little trattoria called “Alla Cadrega”. It was recommended for its traditional Milanese food, and it did not disappoint. We had meatballs and ricotta stuffed zucchini flowers for appetizers. For our “prima” course, Sara and I got risotto Milanese, while Emma got spaghetti, and Madeline and Abby both got pizzas that were a little bigger than they thought.  It was all delicious. For dessert we all shared apple pie and a molten chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream. Divinely fed, we headed back to our hotel for a well-deserved rest.