Bell'Italia!

Italy is truly a beautiful country. We took advantage of Jennifer and Grant's visit, to do some sightseeing in some of the most gorgeous areas in Italy (though there are so many!): Tuscany & Umbria.

We drove to Florence, spent the day there, then drove to Arezzo (still in Tuscany) for dinner and spent the night in an old "Torre" that was renovated by some friends' of ours. Emily had a blast! She even got to drive a tractor!!

On the last day we went to Gubbio, a medieval town in Umbria. The town was built on a mountain and all the buildings were made in the same color stone as the mountain so it blended in perfectly. We were very grateful for the internally built elevators that took you all the way to the top of the town!

Here are some pictures I took of the weekend:

I like to ride my bicycle...

Now with the nice weather, one of the best things to do in this area is to go and ride your bicycle in the Monza park (the park right in front of my house). I had the bright idea of taking Emily for a ride in the Park after a day of school. My mom had fixed my former bicycle (yes, can you believe the bicycle is 23 years old??!!) for Emily to ride when she's here. Emily wasn't too convinced but she decided to give it a try. Take a look at some of the pictures.

The ride started off ok (by the way, check the bike out. Not bad for being 23 years old!)

Towards the middle of the bike ride, Emily was asking herself why she had allowed me to talk her into the ride. By the end of it, she took a dandelion stem and made a wish. She asked me if I wanted to know what she had wished (she knows how curious I am and she would have told me anyway), and then said "I wish never to come for a bike ride around the park!"... I was secretly getting her trained for a biking holiday. Oh well! There goes my biking holiday in Austria!

First Visit from the US and A

Jennifer and Grant just won the award for being our first visitors from the US. We had a great visit with them. Emily and I went to pick them up at Malpensa airport two Fridays ago. They were lucky they got there in there on Friday since they had missed their connecting flight from JFK. Anyway, here they are!

Jennifer was our travel buddy when we were in the US. We took many trips together, including one of our favorite in Boston. It was great to get to travel with her and Grant whilst they were here in Italy.