The Big Italy Trip

Well, after nearly a year in Luxembourg I finally had my first visitors from Seattle (with apologies to Timmy, who is now technically visiting from London). And yes, it was my parents coming along with Aunt Cathy for a great visit to 5 different countries over 2 weeks. Without spoiling the ending, let me just say it was a great time. Caution, long post ahead.

The Seattle crew flew into Amsterdam on Thursday morning. They spent the next 1.5 days enjoying the splendor of that wholesome city, and then took the 2.5 hour train to Brussels. Secil and I met them at the train station, and teamed up with their Belgian daughter Cat for a brief tour of city, along with the numerous sites and treats.

Don't worry, that did also include waffles. Sweet, delicious waffles.

After this brief tour it was up to the Dumonts for another great dinner (and who you might remember from my September trip):

On Saturday, we took the train to Bruges, the Venice of Belgium (and an extremely underrated city in its own right). It was almost a perfect day and we got to take the boat tour through the canals. Beautiful city, great company.

That night I packed everyone into the Focus and made the drive back to Luxembourg in time to take a night walk and see some of the many things Lux has to offer. Unfortunately on Sunday it was pouring down rain, so they had to settle for Ryan's Car Tour of Luxembourg.

The rain did let up a bit so I stuffed the kids onto the hokey train tour of the city, which they seemed to enjoy.

With the rain still falling we embarked on the cultural highlight of the trip, the viewing of The Simpsons Movie...yes, I was trying to ensure a completely European experience for everyone.

On Monday the team packed up and headed to the Tuscanny region of Italy. We flew into Pisa, then immediately hopped on a train down to Cinque Terra. I know that many of you have been to Italy have experienced this amazing area (and most say this is their favorite part of Italy), and I must say that I agree. We were staying in Monterosso, the western most of the 5 towns. The view out of the train station:

We were staying on the even more picturesque other side of town (in the building pretty much in the middle, down on the beach):

What a gorgeous place. We were right on the beach and had some amazing views. All 5 of the Cinque Terra towns are fairly small, with Monterosso being the biggest. Each of the towns are built along the hillsides, and one of the popular 'tourist' activities is to do the hike on the trails between the towns. Let's just say that these trails aren't for the faint of heart. The first leg to Vernazza takes about 2 hours, in the sun, up and down very narrow and barely kept up trails, but you do get some great views:

After that hike, we decided to take a break and partake in our at least daily gelato break.

The women decided they had enough, so they toured the rest of the towns via the train, while my dad and I took the barely shorter and shadier trek over to Corniglia. Almost exactly halfway between the towns there is a bar which again offers great views, and much more importantly a chance to sit down.

That was the end of the line for us. It was getting late and we had important plans to sit around eating delicious food and drinking wine, so we headed back on the train skipping the last 2 towns. Oh well.

After our 3 nights in Monterosso, we headed over to Florence. While we clearly left most of the relaxing on the beach in a small town atmosphere, Florence was full of some amazing buildings and even better museums. We were staying right by the Duomo:

and we were within walking distance of almost everything Florence had to offer. And yes, that includes the statue of David shown above. Even better, I was finally given the chance to break out my man capri's. Hell yeah.

And even though we were in the big city, we kept up our diet of gelato and wine (although almost never at the same time):

Our last overnight stop in Italy was in Siena, which of course everyone knows from their crayon boxes for the color, burnt siena. This time we stayed outside of city in an almost perfect (albeit kinda pricey) bed and breakfast on a hillside looking back into Siena.

It was almost exactly how you picture Tuscanny, with vineyards, olive trees, and lots of old stone houses that have so much character.

On Sunday, we took an almost all day tour with a great guide Roberto where we got to explore a bit of the surrounding areas and have maybe one of the best meals of my life. And shock of all shocks it was 100% vegetarian and organic, at a farm where they grew and made everything for the meal right there. Craziness.

Then we ventured into the city to enjoy the Piazza del Campo:

and learn a bit about the Palio di Siena, which is a horse race run around the Piazza del Campa and which sounds insanely intense and something that we missed only by 2 weeks! Oh well.

That night it was back to Frances Lodge for our last meal in Italy, and it did not disappoint as we sat out and watched the sunset over the city.

On our way back out we made a quick detour at the Pisa train station mainly only to be able to say we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And of course to take this picture:

While we had now left Italy, we still had 1 more stop on the agenda, Trier, Germany. We had a good time trying to decifer a German menu, drink German beer and wine, and most importantly run the finally tally for my parents 5 countries slept in over 13 nights. Not bad, not bad at all.

So that was it, my first big trip in Europe and getting to see my parents and aunt at the same time. Not only that, but they got to meet Secil and she got to live every Europeans dream: to tour around Europe for 11 day with a bunch of loud Americans. Good times, good times.

Cheers!