Italy, Part 3

Wow, this is getting long. :) I just can't decide what to share, and what not to!

After visiting the Civita di Bagnoregio, we decided to venture up to another hilltop town in Tuscany, this one the beautiful town of Orvieto which is known for it's amazing ceramics. Orvieto is another gorgeous little town on top of a hill, with tiny cobblestone streets that are all one way, and we did end up getting terribly lost before we found a parking lot. :) Orvieto also has an amazing cathedral in the center of town, so big in fact that it looks like it doesn't fit into the town at all. It had amazing architecture and a beautiful story surrounding it.

Then on Tuesday, we decided to visit the local street market, which was a lot of fun. It was very interesting to listen to us try to barter with people in a mix of English and Spanish, knowing no Italian what-so-ever. :) Then later that day we did another hilltop town visit, this time to a little town named Trequanda, just a little away from where we were staying. This town was pretty tiny, and had absolutely NO tourists, so it was great to walk around all by ourselves and take in the beautiful scenery and architecture. We also found a great overlook where we took some fun pictures of the family.

That night we took some family pictures outside of our villa, that turned into a really fun photo shoot. :) Here is the whole family in my favorite shot....doesn't my Dad look just perfect with his little smirk on his face and all of us around him? :)

The next day was a long (and wonderful!) one! My amazing grandparents hired a tour guide for us in Florence, so we drove up there for the day. Our guide was simply fantastic, I am so thankful that she was there with us, as I do not know much about art history and would not have gotten nearly as much out of the trip if she had not been there to hold our hands! :) We saw the statue of The David, went to the Uffizi Museum and saw many Rafael paintings, Michelangelo's only painting on wood, etc etc. She explained so much about the Renaissance era and how certain styles of painting came about, etc. It was just amazing. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from Florence, as you are not allowed to photograph any of these paintings or sculptures.

The cathedral and baptistery in Florence.

One of the things that my Dad wanted to do most of all was to see the Mediterranean Sea. So, we drove from Florence over to the coast and all put our feet into the Mediterranean! We didn't stay long, and it was quite a trip to get over there and back, but we were very thankful that we did it, it was very worth it!

We missed Dylan and Lucas just a little bit...can you tell?? :)