Ciao Bella!

I am now posting on my personal blog again too. But here is the recent installment of my blog from Italy. We will post more pictures and thoughts over the coming weeks. I'll post them here with links from my personal blog for those who normally read there.

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We're back, in one piece, minus one piece of luggage (which we are assured will be returned to us this evening...).

Italy is a memory, but a bright, life-sized one that I'll hold in my heart until I'm gone. And while Italy itself is a gorgeous country filled with color, music, light and flavor, it was the joy of being a family that will stay with me even longer.

I am in love.

In love with our kids.

In love with my husband.

The two and a half weeks were spent all together with very few times where we split up. We played games, shared books, rode public transport all smooshed into too tiny spaces, hiked, made jokes, looked at world class art, were bored by too many churches from the 10th century, ate gelatto like there was only one scoop left, compared American pizza to Italian and voted for American, we snuggled and hugged, took photographs, danced in endless combinations of relatives, walked and talked, and played chess and cards.

The vacation was one long family love fest.

I am humbled. I wanted to bring my children to the world. Instead, the world brought them closer to me. Jon and I were in awe of how well they get along, how much fun we all can have together. It is the unexpected end result and it is why I'm in tears at this early jet-lagged hour.

I will miss my family, even as we live in the same house. That intensity of being that comes from shared travel, the togetherness of tiny apartment dwelling and the absence of TV, X box, five computers and the daily grind of work and school schedules cooperated to make our family time the high note of this trip.

Certainly, gelatto, ancient archways, Medieval towns, olive groves, the David, and Italian blue skies helped.

Oh and we spent a lot of money. That helped too.

But like the Mastercard commercials say: family time on vacation in Italy--priceless.

I'll share more soon with photos and reflections on specific parts of the trip. For now, I'm savoring the memory of being especially close to the six people I love more than anyone on earth.

Ciao Bella,

Julie

Lots of slide shows

Hi everyone.

We've been entirely too busy to write lots of blogs but Jon has downloaded slide shows of our last three excursions.

The first is Pisa.

The second is Lucca, a town in Tuscany.

The third is from our first trip to Florence.

Hats off to Jon for making the shows and Jacob and Jon for most of the photography with our little Coolpix camera.

Julie

Cinque Terre (aka Paradiso Italiano)

CinqueTerre Slide show
Slideshows are all Jon's creative work. He does it so well.

Took a trip to Cinque Terre two days ago. Brilliant little towns nestled in the craggy cliffs of the coastline. We enjoyed shopping in the little shops down the narrow European walkways with Italian underwear hanging off clotheslines over our heads. Why is it that orange boxers are so charming against those old, chipped buildings?

Jacob took a few more photos so here they are:


The little passage down from the train to the water where all the shops were.



Umbrella-ed ristorante


Coastline viewed from on top of an old tower


Stefano (Italian cousin) and Johannah


Caitrin looking out of a covered tunnel through a stone window

We hiked, swam, ate a picnic lunch, enjoyed bougainvillea, tomato plants, olive trees and lush greenery in every direction.

Went to Pisa today and hope to catch up with those photos, though we are now so busy it may be days before I get back to the blog.

Just know that we are having the time of our lives and love sharing it with you as we can.

Much love,
Julie for all of us

Bravissima for us!

We are here!!!!!

Here is a link to a slide show of our trip so far:

Italy Slideshow

The air (my hair looks incredible with no blow drying), the sunshine (can anyone spell Vitamin D deficiency?), the old red tile rooftops (reminds me of California), my AUNT (she is the most awesome hostess and guide) and the gelatto (which is amazingly inexpensive).

I'm on my aunt's computer and the place where the apostrophe is usually on the keyboard is an à which is fully annoying as I type making my possessives a bit odd. So if I forget to find the proper place, you will be gentle and understanding, wonàt you? :)

First of all, the flight was wholly uneventful which is just what we wanted. Kids had a blast in the airport running up and down the moving sidewalks. Then we spent time playing games like Solitaire on the airbus computer screens (for hours and hours and hours).

We landed in Paris after a long flight without any sleep. We disembarked and encountered a masterpiece of French engineering tout de suite. To exit our terminal to go to the next terminal in less than forty-five minutes, we had to go through a revolving door that not only revolved but revolved on a machine-run timer. It admitted pasengers from two perpendicular directions which meant that fourteen Air France employees had to man the revolving door to prevent bodies becoming smashed between the airtight glass door and outer frame.

Hundreds of passengers shuffled forward while French voices gave and witheld permission to enter the chamber. Of course, out family of seven didn't all make it in one go. Unbelievable.

Once through, and scratching our heads since said door served no earthly sercurity purpose... we were overwhelmed with what can only be described as a true Parisian smell: sterilzed hot milk and croissant, let me teach you. (A Room with a View reference) I couldn't stop speaking le français!

Oh the torture of running by the crossainterie!

However, that small sacrifice was more than compensated moments later...

We entered the very tiny gate area for our flight to Pisa when my daughter grabbed my arm: "Isn't that Andrea Bocelli?"

I turned my head and stared... graying beard, close cropped, flowing hair, sweater draped around his shoulders... the halfclosed eyes. Oh. My. God. It was HIM!!! We all squealed. Jon, my not-so-shy husband, pulled out the digital camera and three children and took the following picture (blurry due to feverish excitement).



What a great guy! Jon got to chat with Andrea on the plane for some of the flight. Such a wonderful gift. We were stunned at our good fortune.

For those that don't know, Jacob's love of Andrea Bocelli is what got us seriously thinking again about taking the family to Italy after giving up the idea due to living in penury as full time ministry employees. Jacob used to say he was saving his money to go to Italy to see Andrea Bocelli, so this was an amazing coincidence that gave us such a lift!

We flew over the Alps - incredible and landed in a gorgeous sunlit Pisa.

My aunt, all smiles and enthusiastic hugs met us at the baggage claim.

We then pinched ourselves and drove from Pisa to Viareggio:



We were led to our gorgeous little aprtment. The follwing pictures come from the rooftop where we are staying:





We've OD'd on gelatto already:





We've already been to the exquisite beach and have had wonderful strolls at night and during the day. Shevawn is an amazing cook. We've enjoyed two different kinds of fresh ravioli and penne with cheese sauces. Makes American mac 'n cheese look pretty horrid by contrast. Cantaloupe is tasty and in bursting with flavor. I always forget how good produce is in Europe. It's worth the price of the trip, easily.

Tomorrow we go to Cinqueterre. Will report more when I get the chance.

Missing you all (but not too much),

Julie