Grandkids x3

Being a grandparent is truly grand...and these past 2 weeks has been wonderful for the grandparents and the great grandparents. Greg and I know we are blessed to have our parents still alive and well enough to enjoy the kids. We had Camden and his mommy last week and they went home on Monday. On Tuesday, Tyler, Ashley and the boys came. We've had great weather and they have enjoyed being outside most every day! They had a ball playing in Grandad's freshly tilled garden. One day we went for a picnic at our local city park area by the Calfkiller River. Just too much fun! I will continue my fun with the boys as I go back to Florida with them on Tuesday. I will be babysitting the week-end for them and then back to Tennessee on Monday morning! I am so thankful for retirement right now to enjoy these times! God is so good!

Warren in Grandad's garden...he loved the feel of the dirt...all boy!

Ben found a shovel (just his size) to dig with!

More fun in the dirt!

Warren at the playground

Ben on the fun slide

Warren and Poppa walking!

Poppie with Camden last Sunday!

CiCi having a talk with Camden

Allison and Camden Home!

Mamaw and Camden's first meeting

Nannie and Camden having a chat!

Grandad's first time to hold Camden

Aunt Dianne

Poppa's first time to hold Camden

Mamaw was so excited to see her "red-headed baby"

He is happy to be in Tennessee!

Aunt Susie and Camden

Allison's new haircut!

Allison and Camden came home from Florida Wednesday morning. David had to stay home for work and dog care! This was the first time for most of the great grandparents to meet Camden and obviously they were very excited.
Allison was also very excited to get her hair colored and cut....it was very long and in fact she had so much cut she was able to donate her hair to make wigs for cancer patients. She looks like a different person!
Tomorrow will be another fun day for Dad and Allison as they travel to Knoxville to go to the UT/FL Game. Allison was just hoping CiCi would babysit so she could go and enjoy the game as she used to!

Home Sweet Home!

As always so good to be home. Yesterday was a difficult travel day to say the least. We left our hotel at 8 am and our flight left Milan at 10:35 am. All was well with that flight, but our flight out of JFK was delayed to Chicago and we BARELY made the connection to Nashville, but we did and were thankful! We were on the road, plane or bus approximately 24 hours, before laying our heads down in our own beds last night!
Thanks again to Phil and Deanna for being great tour guides. Thanks for the many, many laughs and the "making of memories!"

P.S. I am now downloading the rest of the pictures that I've talked about!

Happy to be heading home!

Another happy pair!

View of Lake Garda

View of the lake as we drove down the east side

Another fabulous Italian meal!

One of the many confusing roundabout signs!

One of the many signs in Italian and German

A cute pair in Sirmione

Castle in Sirmione

Street Market in Bolzano..beautiful flowers everywhere!

Fruits at the market...so appealing!

Thursday and Friday 11-12

I've tried to load pictures from these 2 days and our connection is just not fast enough...sorry...will try when I get home! Thanks for checking in on our travels.

Our home away from the hotels

Thursday
Another interesting day in Italy. Earlier in the trip we had thought about writing about our bathroom adventures but then decided against it, but after tonight we decided we had to share our experiences with all. First of all the bathrooms outside of the US are nothing like what we are used to. We’ve had buttons to push for number one and number two business on the wall and the top of the toilet. We’ve had knobs to turn, chains to pull and even a hole with foot indentions to straddle over. Tonight was the ultimate experience. This was at a restaurant in Riva del Garda. The seat had to be lowered to sit on it and then it immediately raised after use and a sanitizing mist automatically sprayed the seat! Never have had that experience. Also you might be interested to know they are called WC’s here (water closets) or Toilettes. Most of the time there is one door and behind that 2 stalls, one for men and one for women and a common hand washing area. We are just not used to that in the US. We drove from Caldero to Rovereto, with a side trip to Bolzano today. We went to the Archeological Museum there and saw the “Ice Man.” He was discovered in 1991 and they have determined him to be 5,300 yrs. old. It was fascinating to see what they learned about him as far as what he ate, his tools and his clothing. They could even determine how he died and approximate age. Bolzano was a charming little town with an unbelievable city market right on the street. Great little shopping area! Tonight was drove to the lake area. Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. We walked around the town, ate some fabulous pasta and had our memorable WC visit. Afterwards walked around the lake back to the car. Our room tonight might be a little warm…we are not in the mountains and have no air conditioning. Again we had a hard time finding a room…lots and lots of tourists! We left a wake-up call when we came in from dinner last night and then noticed we had no phone when we returned to the room….of course we assumed they would knock on our door…guess what ? NO wake up notice of any kind…luckily we woke up early from all the road noise. We then discovered the ONE person there was serving breakfast and anything else that needed to be done!


Friday September 12
Finally we are at our aeroporto hotel…again with our driving skills it was not an easy task! We’ve lost count of all the wrong turns. For your information US towns are mostly laid out on a grid pattern. Our streets run parallel and cross each other. These towns run on a spoke pattern and the small towns may have 5 or 6 different spokes and lots and lots of one-way streets. Lets face facts the initial placement of many buildings here is from the medieval time period. You can get in a town one way, but cannot exit it the same way! Today we had a beautiful drive as we came down the eastern side of Lake Garda. We then stopped at a town called Sirmione. It had a beautiful castle and old town directly on the lake. There we had our cappuccino and bought cheese on the street for our lunch. We then journeyed on to Milan to find the hotel and then to return the rental car. Just finding the hotel was a challenge but we did. Hopefully getting to the airport will be easy tomorrow because someone else will be taking us. This has been a wonderful trip and we’ve seen an unbelievable amount of Italy. Phil and Deanna did an excellent job of planning and preparation for the trip. To them we are forever grateful. This has been such an enjoyable trip! Anyone wanting to come to Italy be forewarned; it is a captivating country, wonderful food and nice people. Come once and you will want to come back! Tomorrow we start our 18 hour trip back home...milan to jfk to chicago to nashville! Long travel day!

Past Pictures Ravenna and Venice and Journey to Cortina d'Ampezzo Sept 10

Vineyards on hill

Apple Orchards

View of hairpin curves

Pinocchio a picture for the boys

On our journey to Castelrotto

Alpine Suis

One more beautiful view

View from le Tofane

View from Cortina

St. Mark's Square

Side Canal in Venice

Grand Canal in Venice

Beach Chairs on Adriatic Sea


Another church

Fiat in Mosaics

Ravenna Mosaics

Tuesday day and night was spent in Cortina. A striking town to say the least! The only thing Greg and I can compare these vistas to are the Canadian Rockies, yet these mountains are bigger. We are actually in the Italian Alps and the mountain peak we rode up to today was over 10,000 ft. That is what we think with us refiguring meters to feet (3244m). The 1956 winter Olympics were held here and the ski slopes, bobsled track, ski jump, and hockey rink are still here and in use during the winter season. Our trip to the top of le Tofane was on a gondola which we had to change 3 times before reaching the top…with Phil and Greg slightly afraid of heights that made the trip even more fun! It is cold here also…when we went to buy gondola tickets the girl indicated we MAY want more clothes on. We quickly returned to our hotel and pulled out long pants and jackets. At the top it was cold enough to see our breath. Tonight is actually very chilly. We forgot to ask for heat in our room so we have none. We are sitting around with our jackets on! This area of Italy has a great German influence; in fact most of the towns have the German spelling and the Italian spelling to their town names. Many Alpine type buildings decorated with beautiful flower boxes filled with trailing geraniums. It is just a scenic little town.

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Wednesday – "A Step Back in Time"
Today has certainly been that! We left our "apartment with 2 bedrooms" and headed out of town on the wrong road again! We did discover after only 4 kilometers we were wrong. We headed through the Dolomite mountains and on into the Alpine Suis. This is Europe’s largest high-alpine meadow. We stopped at a little town called Castelrotto (Italian) or Kastelruth (German). It was a scenic small town of 2000 just nestled in the mountains. We then journeyed on to Bolzano. We drove the scenic route that had no less than 57 hairpin turns, no center line, and many turns had mirrors to see what was coming from the other direction. Fun driving for daredevils and racecar drivers! We met many tour buses that took both lanes on the curves just assuming you would wait for them! All of this and seldom getting in 3rd gear in our 5-speed car. We have not had reservations for the last 3 nights of our trip, because we were not sure where we would end up. Phil and Deanna have not been to this part of Italy so we’ve just picked out places on the map to go. Tonight we thought we would not have any trouble finding a place, but we were wrong. We are in a SMALL town called Caldaro (Italian) or Kaltern (German). No one speaks English and most speak German. Just when we had learned to read Italian menus, tonight’s menu was all German. Go figure…but we are making memories and and enjoying every minute. After checking 5 different places for "zimmers" (rooms) we settled for an older hotel. Interesting to say the least! Although it looks like everything here is old! They do not have an Internet café or anyplace to get internet! The last place didn’t have Internet either. We haven’t quite figured out what the attraction is here for there to be no rooms, although we are surrounded by grape vineyards and apple orchards. It may be the Napa Valley of Italy, but it is definitely not like 2008 here!

2nd Day in Venice

Today our trip started out with a boat ride to the island of Murano, that was after our train ride to get to Venice! The glass is unbelievably beautiful and expensive. We did lots of window shopping and got to see pieces that were in the 10,000 euro price range. It was extremely interesting. We then came back to Venice and shopped around some there. We went to a church called Frari. It was interesting and so different than all the others. The book described it as "interesting to see the art work in the setting it was designed for." Beautiful old paintings, marble sculptures and wood carvings by such masters of the Renaissance, Bellini and Donatello. Tonight we went for Italian just down the street from our hotel. Enjoyable as always. We have found the small family owed Italian restaurants are the very best! Tomorrow we leave for the Dolomite area of Italy. Our next 3 nights will be there and then Friday night will be in Milan, before flying home on Saturday the 13th. I am not sure about what internet will be available for the rest of the trip...so if no updates you will know why!

Sunday in Venice

Before our travel began today Greg and I walked a few minutes to the beach from our hotel on the Adriatic Ocean. It was so interesting to see rows and rows of beach chairs with individual umbrellas. The rows went back from the water's edge to the establishment that was renting them. It was interesting to see so many rows of beach chairs lined up behind each other. It was hard to imagine that many people would be willing to go to the beach and just see the back of other people's chairs! Then we traveled to Venice and much to our amazement it was a direct trip....no wrong turns and Greg didn't even kill the engine on our VW Passat straight shift! (killed it 3X his last driving day!) Venice was unbelievably crowded because it was Sunday and they had a Historic Regatta today and it's a yearly event that even the Italians attend. We did get into St. Mark's Basilica easily thanks to Rick Steve's travel hints and then walked around many back streets of Venice. This trip has definitely not been for the "faint of heart", because we have WALKED and WALKED many miles every day! Europe definitely is not handicapped friendly! We had a light sprinkle of rain today and it was very welcome because it has been HOT! Tonight we discovered we are in the Asian part of Mestre (which is right outside of Venice next to the train station) so we had "Cinese" food and it was delicious! Tomorrow we will take a boat to Murano and looking forward to that! Have I mentioned Italy is not cheap? Greg paid $9.50 for a McDonald's Big Mac meal today! All the bathrooms or WC's or Toilette's as they say, charge $1.50 to use! Greg said he stayed a few minutes longer than he needed just to get his money's worth! It has been fun though and we are all well and still having a great time! Cannot download pictures from this hotel! Sorry!

Saturday 7th day

Before we left our little town of Colle val d Elsa we toured the old city...yes it was beautiful as everything has been in Tuscany. We thought we had a direct route on the "autostrata" to our night's stay in Ravenna. All we needed to do was go to Bologna and then down to Ravenna on the east coast. Only 1 problem, Italian road signs that make no sense to Americans. We actually went to Modena and that was just about 25 miles out of the way, so we turned around and came back, after our lunch which was very amusing. We are in the country and go in and order 2 panini's (sandwiches). You pick your meat and cheese and it's heated and served. Of course, they speak no English and we speak very little Italian...so we order the sandwiches with Proscuitto, pecorino cheese, mozarella cheese, tomato and arugula. We get 2 sandwiches and one has tomato, arugula and mozarella....the other one has proscuitto and pecorino! We were obviously "lost in translation" because they had no idea we wanted all that on each sandwich...we had a good laugh about that before journeying on! We finally made it to our destination and toured the Byzantine town of Ravenna. The churches were filled with mosiacs depicting Biblical events. The artistry of these structures are amazing from 540 AD. We had a wonderful seafood dinner and tomorrow we leave for 2 days in Venice.

Tuscany Pictures from Day 6

Pecorino Cheese in Pienza


Montalcino



Mozart "sangiovese" grapes

(see day 6 explanation)

Vatican Pictures

St. Peter's Square

Michelangelo's Pieta

St. Peter's Tomb in the Basilica