They allow us to have children

Milan, Italy

It's about time I wrap up this Italy trip.

We spent a day in Milan!  Again the weather was lovely, a little chilly but lovely just the same. 

The first stop was the Milan Cathedral. 

A few facts:

• It's the 5th largest Christian Church in the world.
• Construction on the church began in 1386 and has been in a state of construction ever since. 
• It was more statues than any other building in the world - 3,400 statues, 135 gargoyles and 700 figures.

• It has 52 of these enormous columns inside.

• There is a gruesome statue of St Bartholomew carrying his skin!

You can see it a bit better here.

Next we did a quick walk through of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - the oldest shopping mall in the world, home to all the very expensive name brand shops.  That's the original Prada store.

We saw a tiny car.

A pretty fountain.

And some kitties at Sforzesco Castle, always a favorite with the girls - you can see our shadows on the railing.

Finally, no trip to Milan would be complete without visiting Da Vinci's Last Supper or as Alison likes to call it, "the Dinner Before Heaven".  You couldn't take pictures in the actual room, so this one in front of a small version had to do.  The original is about 29 x 15 feet!  As you can see, at some point a doorway was put in, removing Jesus' feet. 

There is also a larger, more impressive and well preserved painting on the opposite wall.  This is the Crucifixion by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano.  Unlike the Last Supper, this is a true fresco painting and has stood the test of time much better.  In fact the only two areas of the painting that have deteriorated are the two praying figures on the bottom left and right.  These were added in by Da Vinci using his new technique.

Last but not least, Milan was still celebrating Carnival.  This time it was less about adults in masks and extravagant costumes and more about little kids dressed as princesses and super heroes, chucking confetti around the square.  You can see a bit of it in this picture of Ali with the Lion on the statue in the square in front of the Cathedral.

As always, stay tuned for more adventures.

Gondolas and Stairs

No trip to Venice would be complete without a Gondola ride.

The beautiful sunshine and blue skies made it even better.

We went to see the Rialto Bridge, it's the oldest and largest bridge across the Grand Canal and lined with shops.

We didn't buy anything there but did take in the lovely view.

Ok, now onto the stairs.  We stayed on the top floor of a really cool hotel that used to be a palace.  However, there were 74, yes 74 steps to our room and we are sure, because we counted multiple times – it was brutal after a day of walking.  Here are the girls on the first flight.

And the second.  It looks the same as the first but trust me it's different - note the window on the landing.

Then the third – the top of this one was where we often stopped for a little breather.  And by "we" I mean Chris and I, the girls ran all the way up everytime.

Then onto the fourth and into the apartment.  Not sure why I felt the need to preserve this in pictures because I’m pretty sure my legs will never forget.  I did it mostly to show my Mom because we thought the 63 steps up to our Amsterdam apartment was bad, so I couldn't wait to tell her about this.

Once up there it was worth it.  You stepped right up into a huge room with a bedroom area to the right and a sitting area to the left.

The girls room was separate and had a really cool play area.

It also had a great view!  There were better windows to look out of but they had screens on them.  Yes, we finally found some screens in Europe! Probably because they get massive mosquitoes certain times of the year. 

Oh, also on the way down the stairs I snapped a picture of our door.  Here are the girls pretending to be caged animals.  I love staying in places like this, they just add to the adventure of it all.

All good things must come to an end and after a handful of lovely days, it was time to leave Venice. 

However, our Italian adventure was not quite over.  We went on to spend a night and a day in Milan, then one last night in nauseating “Flower Suite” in Bologna and home.

Venice, Italy

Venice was beautiful - sunny and spring-like every day.  We were so fortunate, because only a week before we arrived many areas of the city were flooded.

These raised walkways were still stacked and ready all over town.

We arrived when carnival was still happening.  We bought the girls masks as soon as we got there.  Here they are in one of the squares, playing on an old well.  For a city on the water, they had to have a lot of wells to collect fresh, drinkable water.

Rio may have the biggest carnival and New Orleans does a good job, but Venice is where it originated.  People come from all over the world to be part of it and plenty of them take the dressing up part to a whole new level.  So you saw a lot of this. . .

And this, as you can see very elaborate.  Entire families dress up, we even saw some with matching pets.  There were costume competitions and lots of festivities.

The girls walked around in their masks most of the time we were there.

Venice is a pedestrian and a boat city ONLY - there are no cars, buses, motorcycles, Vespas, bicycles or push chairs.  Instead there are police boats, taxi boats, public transport boats, boats that deliver your mail, collect your garbage, very odd and something I didn’t think about until after we were there.    The no bicycles and strollers surprised me the most but there were a few strange dolly type things that workmen and delivery guys used, but they had some extra modifications that made it easy to get up and down stairs.  Other than that there were no wheels at all.  On the map you can see that the only road into the city is the one in the upper left and you pretty much have to turn around or park your vehicle there until you leave.  Like I said it shouldn’t have surprised me, but it was just one of those things you don’t really think about until you see it yourself.

In addition to touring the city, mostly on foot, we took a boat to the small island of Murano, you know, where all of the pretty and expensive glass comes from. 

Here are the girls in front of a neat sculpture.

The museum and factory itself were sort of a let down.  I guess after being to Dale Chihulys "Garden and Glass" in Seattle, anything else glass-related would be. . .

We also went on a tour of the Doge's Palace.  Here are the girls jumping in the courtyard.

With a strange mouthed guy which was essentially a complaint box back in the day.

Like many of the other palaces we've seen, it was elaborate and over the top and there was gold everywhere.

This one did have a painting of heaven.  I know, you're probably thinking the same thing I was - heaven is very over crowded.

That's it for now, more Venice to come.

Bologna, Italy

This February for half term we went back to Italy!  We began our adventure in Bologna.

First stop:  The Ferrari Museum in nearby Maranello.

Yes that's snow on the ground.  It was sort of exciting as it was the most snow we've seen all winter.

There were lots of Lovely cars inside.

This was the trophy room with all the Formula 1 cars - all Ferrari red of course.

We bought some silly souvenir pictures for the girls.

They each chose their car and background.

Then it was onto Enzo Ferrari's house, which is also a museum and where all the really cool cars are.  This is Daddy's favorite.

And this is mine, the Dino, a good color too.

The next morning on our way out of town we went to the Lamborghini Museum to see more beautiful cars.  This was the only part of our whole trip where we were rained on - not too bad for February.

Not as big as the Ferrari Museum but they had a nice collection of cars.  Here's one that was mounted to the wall.

This was Alison's favorite, orange of course.

And Zuzu's.

The hotel we stayed in was lovely and looked completely normal until you got to the, insert horror movie sound effects here, the FLOWER SUITE.

Everything was covered in flowers - walls, rugs, furniture, beds, you name it.  They weren't even pretty flowers, they were blah.

The girls room wasn't too bad - it had the nicest painting in it and the bed spreads were spared the flowers.

But look at the inner door.  Completely camouflaged into the wall with flower wall paper!  And check out the key, yes it's attached to the giant wooden heart.

Every time we walked in, I swear there were more flowers than before, like they were growing or something.  Funny thing is that it isn't even the most hideous place we've ever stayed.  That prize goes to the suite we had in Strasbourg.  It was sort of the same idea only covered in mustard yellow flowery fabric.  Yes, fabric on the walls, curtains, bed linens, lamp shades, everywhere and all the same fabric.  Somehow we left without taking any pictures, we must not have wanted any reminders. 

Ok enough of that.  Later that day we were on a boat to Venice!  More on that later.

World Book Day and Scarlet Fever

I'm a little behind as always.  I should be posting some pics from our half term holiday in Italy, but that will have to wait.

Last Thursday was World Book Day and UK schools celebrate by dressing up as a book character!

This year Alison wanted to be Charlotte, from "Charlotte's Web".  It was a good use of old school uniform tights. 

Here she is with her book and with our friend Flat Simon, from Wisconsin - he was dressed as "Flat Stanley" obviously.

Zuzu was bummed that she couldn't go to school that day, which brings me to the Scarlet Fever part of the post.  Yes, Scarlet Fever!  For weeks we've been getting letters from school warning of Chicken Pox, Impetigo and who knows what else.  Thankfully my kids are the only 2 in their school who have have the Chicken Pox vaccine, as they don't give it here in the UK.  Many kids are out with flu, again no shot here, so it was only a matter of time.  Anyway, Zuzu went down and she went down fast.  The first day was just fever, sore throat and sore ears.  By the next morning she added super high fever and vomiting to the list and by the time I could get her to the doctor, the rash had started. 

She's been on antibiotics for 4 days and she still has fever and is generally feeling unwell.  She missed 3 days of school last week and I'm not even sure she'll be able to go on Monday.  Our poor, poor girl.

Anyway, she didn't want to miss out completely, so she dressed up as her character for a few minutes, so she would have a picture.  She was a little fairy, from the Rainbow Magic books.  Under those clothes it looked like she was wearing a red vest!  The rash is still sort of there but not as bad.  Now I'm just watching and waiting for anyone else to get sick.  I've had a low grade fever the last couple of days, but Ali seems ok for now . . .