Our Trip to Italy

At the end of April, we packed our bags for three glorious weeks in Italy. Thane speaks fluent Italian (due to the two years he spent in Italy a decade ago as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints http://www.lds.org/) but he was a bit rusty. So months ago we started to read together in Italian and practice when we could. Annie did well and picked it up right away, perhaps because he knows some Spanish.

Overview

We flew into Rome April 29 and stayed X days. We saw the typical things: the Vatican, the Colliseum, the Roman forum, the X fountains, the Spanish steps, etc. Thane's favorite part was intentionally trying to get lost. You could turn around and run into the most amazing cathedral or fountain without ever intending to find them.

Next, we went to Florence. The highlights of Florence were the Duomo, one of the most beautiful buildings we've ever seen. The exterior is done in pink, green, and white marble. And the baptistery has the Ghiberti's fabled bronze doors. We also saw the Uffizzi galleries, one of the best collections of art in the world, the Bridge of Sighs, the Boboli gardens and Ponte Vecchio.

Verona was next on the list and a much more "chill" city. Verona has a lot of natural beauty but we didn't feel there was as much to do as Florence or Rome, but a good needed vacation from our vacation was much appreciated! We did see the Veronese arena, like Rome's Collosieum but only smaller, yet much more kept together that it's still in use for operas and concerts. Verona is also the setting of Romeo and Juliet and houses both Juliet's balcony and Juliet's tomb. I'm not sure how a character actually has a house or a tomb, but perhaps I just need to brush up on my Shakespeare. We also got to eat lunch with the Ascione family who Thane knew from his mission.

Cinque Terre is a collection of five villages on the (West) Italian coast. Some of the most beautiful sites we saw in Italy happened here. It was also a lot of fun to hike around and check out the original Lover's Lane.

Pompei was next up. We were both surprised by the sheer magnitude of the city. There was so much to see and so much of it had been carefully restored. In fact, there were even plaster casts of some of the victim's of Vesuvius' wrath.

Crotone was the first city Thane serve in as a missionary and the next city we visited. We spent most of our time here visiting Thane's old friends, but only got to spend an afternoon soaking up rays on the beach, and a fun evening at a nearby castle with the Sarcone family.

Catania was just a quick stop for us. We got to walk up and down the main drag, see the Bellini Gardens, the old ruins, Catania's Duomo and have the best Sicilian pastries and foods ever.

Licata was the last stop of our vacation appropriately as it was also the last stop of Thane's mission. Here, the Catania family was kind enough to offer us a place to stay for the three days we were here. Licata has some beautiful beaches and great vistas. It was also fun to wander the streets, dine on pizza and indulge in gelato and granita.

What follows are individual posts about each city taken for our trip journal. Feel free to read them or just look at the pictures.