Rome - Part 1

When people ask me what's the best part about Olmsted?  Or how do we choose where we want to travel to?  My answer is almost always people!  (However, I can also be strongly enticed by palm trees...though I feel like I'm constantly living in winter!)  We had planned to have the most amount of time during our trip in Rome because our great friends live there.  It was so amazing being on their home turf and getting the insider's view of Rome.  Like our whole trip, the weather was incredible!  Now, on to the photos!

The two cutest Italians I know!

And there was gelato...lots and lots of gelato!

The scooter brigade is not exclusive to Florence!

Racing around the Circus Maximus!

Love these kiddos!

Catacombs

Spanish Steps

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II

Amazing friends and guides...who we hope to see again very soon!  Love you guys!

Colosseum

Arch of Constantine

We wrapped up our day admiring all of the sposa's!  I'm still constantly fascinated by this European phenomenon of traveling the city in fancy cars and taking pictures in front of all the monuments.  So fun!

 Do zavtra...

Pisa

Taking the direct route from Florence to Rome wouldn't be too exciting would it?!  Well, it probably would be quite lovely, but we decided to take the scenic route instead.  We headed directly west towards Pisa for a little photo op!

Piazza del Duomo

The obligatory Leaning Tower of Pisa shot...

We decided to take the obligatory photo up a notch...

Seriously, the sweetest lawnmower ever...you need one of these, Mom!

Hulk Hogan in Pisa?!  Not quite...but so close!

After we departed from Pisa we embarked on a gorgeous drive down the coast of Italy heading south towards Rome.  I probably took hundreds of blurry pics through the car window...I'll spare you from those!  Since it was my first time seeing the Med, we stopped off in Follonica to record this momentous life event.  Two very happy and blessed girls right here!

Do zavtra...

Florence - Day 2

This was our only full day in Florence, so we hit the ground running early.  If you know us, then you probably also know that early isn't really all that early...so maybe it would be better to say early for us!

I guess in my sheltered life I had never seen one of these cute little things...

Playing tourist...

Taking sidewalk chalk to a whole new level...

Jazz hands for jewelry on the Ponte Vecchio...

Unfortunately, no photos when we went into the Uffizi (and you know, I am not a museum person, so if I were allowed to take photos they would all have been blurry since I was practically running though the place!)...so our 3rd David of the day will have to do...

Coop's living the dream...

My sweet family...even though it's sweeter than ever now!

The incredible staff at our hotel drew us the perfect map to climb up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset.  Wow!  This is probably one of my favorite memories with my husband.  Relaxing at a little cafe, drinking wine, enjoying the perfect weather, and watching this amazing sunset...all with that handsome man...and Cooper, of course!

We truly didn't get to spend enough time in Florence...but we were already pushing our RNLTD, so away we had to go.  This just means we have to go back right?!  Well, we're hoping that we will get to go visit the new Olmsted Scholars there this summer and really experience Florence right!

Florence - Day 1

In true Team Airhart travel fashion...we didn't make plans in advance.  We just showed up in beautiful Florence and drove around (dodging the scooter brigade!) to look for a place to stay.  Within minutes we found Hotel Liana and it couldn't have been more perfect for our two day stay.  Cooper was traveling with us, but they were excited to welcome her too.  We had the sweetest room overlooking an English garden, which Coop had a big time running through...and making friends with the hotel's bunny rabbit.  It was in a great location and everything was easy to walk to.

Just a glimpse of the scooter brigade!

The beautiful courtyard at the hotel!

You don't see archways like this everyday!

Our first up-close glimpse of the Duomo di Firenze!

Too bad I'm not good enough to photoshop that scaffolding out!

There was no shortage of gelato...for sale or in our bellies!

There was a sudden downpour...and there must have been a hundred gypsies that appeared out of nowhere selling umbrellas and ponchos!

Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of this restaurant that was suggested by out hotel.  This was just the appetizer.  It was one of the best meals I've ever had!

I love cities at night...just something about all of the lights!

We can't forget about Cooper and her new friend!

Venice

Be warned:  my camera is about to throw up all over this post!

The next stop on our trip was to the one place that I had actually heard of in my sheltered little world, and somewhere I definitely wanted to go!  We were still in week 1 of our Olmsted journey, so I guess you could say we were rookies...and learned the hard way.  We took the train into Venezia from Pordenone.  So, for any of you planning to take the train into Venice...make sure you validate your train ticket on the platform while you are waiting for your train.  Otherwise the choo-choo po-po are going to come around and give you a ticket!  Yes, because we did not validate our tickets we were slammed with a 100 Euro ticket...EACH!  As a precursor to arriving in Ukraine we decided to start practicing our negotiating skills right away.  We ended up paying 100 Euro for both of us...OUCH!  This hurt especially bad since the actual train tickets were something like 10 Euro each.  Lesson learned, my friends...we didn't forget to validate the next time we went to Venice!

Waiting for the train...with coffee in hand!

Both times I've been to Venice now the weather has been on the fritz.  (Read:  crazy, frizzy hair!)  However, both times the weather has been absolutely perfect while actually in Venice.  This particular day it felt as if the bottom was going to drop out at any second.  Thankfully, it waited!  It was clear that it had been raining a lot as the water was quite high.

Exhibit A - high water!

Exhibit B - Piazza San Marco was a little wet!

Hair in a braid = desperately trying failing to keep it under control!

Venezia is picture perfect!  (Which is why I have thousands of pictures of it!)

Bridge of Sighs, handsome hubby, and a really subtle advertisement!

One of the negatives of traveling solo...self portraits!

When in Italy...stuff yourself with pizza!

Windows with flower boxes are my weakness!

Masks everywhere!

Gorgeous building and flower boxes!

I love this guy!

We found this beautiful garden just around the corner from Piazza San Marco.

Gondola ride and Italian wine!

Getting ready for the closest call of the day!

Our gondolier working hard for the money!  He got an applause from all spectators after this!

Good to know!

More hanging out on Piazza San Marco!

Playing in the water like any small child adult would do!

Being such a tourist!  Ha!

When I look at this picture I drool over two things...my hubby and that Mountain Dew!  Oh, how I miss me some Mountain Dew!  Thankfully, I don't have to miss the hubs since he's sitting in the next room!

Electric blue leather jacket and white skinny jeans...this would be bad enough on a woman!

We ended our long day polishing off some huge pasta dishes and watching World Cup soccer!

We also made friends with this cutie during dinner!

When I look back at these photos I had no idea that one year later (almost to the day) we would be back in Venice...with our one month old baby girl!  We should probably go this June too...you know, just to keep the tradition alive!  Next stop...