Florence

Florence (Firenze is the real Italian name) is a really beautiful big city. Most people go to see the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Gallery where you can see the statue of David and other famous works of art, but we found out that it would cost 84 Euro for our whole family and decided no museums, famous or not, are worth that price for a tour with kids, but my mom actually went with Jessenia. We saw the city via double decker bus. It was a hot day, but we really enjoyed the 1st bus route which was about an hour. We decided to do the other bus route, which was a huge mistake. It was a 2 hour plus tour that went up to Friesole where our bus driver then parked in the sun for ten minutes while we were stuck in our positions with 2 sleeping kids.

Brayden was really cute on the bus ride. He danced to the elevator music and "fished" over the side of the bus with his headphones. Some lady tried to tell him to stop fishing, but I let him do it anyway. It was on our long bus tour that he started doing it, and I could totally see his need to entertain himself.

This bridge is a really famous original bridge with a specific name that I can't remember. The buildings on it stick out over the water.

View of the Duomo from up above the city.

The Duomo

We ate a lot of gelato while we were in Florence, and just after Kayla dropped her entire ice cream on the ground because "it was a little heavy for one hand"(yah, I was incredibly annoyed), she started chasing the pigeons. It was so cute to watch her chase the pigeons when we were all so hot and tired and out of energy.

Allen next to the chapel right outside the train station.

The Beach

We went to the beach almost everyday while we were in Italy. It was so warm in the water, and the beach that we went to had a really long sandbar, so the kids could go out really far and really enjoy the water. Both of the boys had much better things to do than take pictures, so these were the best I could get.
Spencer

Jessenia

Kayla

Allen

(In case you were wondering, we were definitely the whitest family at the beach.)

Montenero

There really wasn't much to see in Montenero that couldn't be seen in 30 minutes. We saw the church, rode the cable car and saw the ocean view.

The Cable Car

Ocean View

Brayden went behind the gate and it looked like he was in jail.

Volterra

We really loved Volterra. It's an Etruscan walled city as well as the fictional home of the infamous Volturi from the Twilight Series. We were even able to get a "New Moon" tour map from the tourism office.

My mom and me in front of the clock tower.

The narrow shaded streets.

This is a really silly picture of Kayla and Jessenia, and even though there was a better picture of the two of them, I really like that they look like they are having so much fun.

Overlooking the valley from the top of the city.

Tuscany, Italy

We stayed in the Tuscany region of Italy for a week this summer. My mom and Jessenia came too. It was really beautiful and hot, which was wonderful since Germany is often too cold even in the summer.

We loved seeing the giant sunflowers growing all over, so we stopped to take some pictures.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Inside the Cathedral in Pisa

The baptistry - beautiful on the outside, but there's really nothing to see inside.

The Cathedral

It was really fun to see the leaning tower. It's amazing how much it is leaning and that it hasn't fallen over.

The boys!

The girls!

The other pictures of the leaning tower don't show it leaning quite as much as it is in this one, but it was definitely great to see it.

The Princess and the Pea

Jessenia the Flower Gardener!

Jessenia was a citizen of Riverdom. Notice that the pea is a person.

Kayla was a dust bunny

Kayla and Jessenia were in a Missoula Children's Theatre production of The Princess and the Pea. It was a really cute and different version with two different kingdoms - Glacierdom and Riverdom. There was a prince in one kingdom and a princess and her pet pea in the other kingdom. The prince and his family invited the local princesses over for sherbet, but then they had to do a real princess test with the pea on the bottom of lots of quilts and mattresses. The dust bunnies came out from under the bed and did a little dance. The story teller was a leprechaun and he had 2 comic side kicks and both kingdoms kept having problems with Jack Frost freezing everything. It was a super cute play, the kids learned their parts in a week and it was even free!