European Escapades: Lucca and Pisa

Our first full day on the Bella Tuscany tour took us to Lucca. It was here in my first trip to Lucca, that I took my one of my favorite picture of the "bikes"...take a look...

So going into the trip, Holly, Molly, and I decided we take "collections." (bikes, doors, door knockers, food, signs, etc.)  So, keep your eyes open for them!

We didn't have a goal in Lucca, but just hoped to walk around and soak up Italy. We tried to stay with the group up to the Church, but somehow we got separated by shopping! Oops...we did run into the Stahl sisters b/c I was SUPER jealous of Jamie's fabulous orange coat (I totally saw it in the window and didn't go in b/c I didn't have room in my suitcase for a coat!!! LOL)

Fabulous right!?!?

Here are just a few other pictures that I LOVE from this day...

 In the church, we discovered that St. Zita is the patron saint of Lucca. This was especially intriguiging because Molly's mom's name was Zita (my kids' great-grandmother).

Lucca was the hometown of the great composer Puccini (Madame Butterfly). This was in a square near his home. Yes, we totally posed with the statue and cutout!

Good stuff, right!
While in Italy, Amanda Knox was acquitted. I found a paper...which was a goal for the day!

Here are a few other pictures...of our first slice of pizza, etc.

It was a good first day.

We then went to Pisa and took the regular pictures that the twenty thousand other people were doing....holding up the tower.

And, this is one of my favorite statue posings that we did the entire trip.

European Escapades: traveling thru Italy

Sorry for the delay on my European Escapades...I believe I left you last when we got to the train station in Venice! We took the train to Florence that morning, my first ride on a European train...I wouldn't say it was fast like I've heard. I'm sure those are somewhere else. When we got to Florence, we headed over to the airport to meet the rest of the Bella Tuscany tour group! We boarded the bus and took off for the resort town of Montacatini Terme. 

It is such a neat little town...originally a resort town because of the hot springs. There are spas in town, and I need to return there so I can go to one. Didn't quite get there this trip! Here are a few pics around MT.

Here is Ali Edwards...taking pictures herself! LOL

Molly and I at the taxi tree

A bike...lots of bikes everywhere, you'll see more of them in my posts I'm sure!

The train that we were supposed to wait to pass every time the bars went down...except the bars would go down for 10 minutes before the train was visible...so we often ducked under the bars...always very cautiously. (The train moved SLOWLY too!)

And here is the Papa Smurf window display...it was our landmark to turn left when we were walking back to the hotel. 

After the little tour Jim West took us on of MT, we went back to the hotel for our welcome dinner. 

Paolo was pouring Holly some juice....she didn't drink champagne like the rest of us!!! 

This was the beautiful view from the hotel restaurant! I love Tuscany!

Halloween...

I should be finishing up my European posts...and I have every intention of doing so...but I'm behind in life. I just keep adding things to my life and getting busier!!! Oh well...I still took time to enjoy my kids and friends on Halloween. Here are some of my favorite pics from last night...aren't they cute!
Madysen was a scarecrow princess. Hunter was a hunter. (Please note this is only a beebee gun. It is not loaded. My friend Syl called tonight and was wondering why the heck we were letting him carry a gun around. He DID not carry it trick-or-treating. He only had it during these photos! LOL)

European Escapades: Venice, Italy

We flew to Venice late Sunday night....arriving at our hotel at 1am...after a taxi, then a water taxi. So TIRED!!!! We decided to sleep in Monday morning so we wouldn't kill ourselves. The hotel (Hotel Flora) was quaint and fun. We had several pictures of it, but I decided on one....to show you HOW SMALL the elevator was! Truth? We could only ride one person with our suitcase/carryons when coming and leaving the hotel. With no luggage, the three of us could barely fit. Awesome!

We had so much fun in Venice...but since we got up late, it was already too crowded to tour St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace....but, we did get a few pictures outside.

The one thing Holly wanted to do in Venice was go to Burano. It's such a cool island with all the colorful houses! But, as we walked up to the water-bus area, we learned that they were on a 24 hours strike. Yes, the 24 hours we were there. Lovely! There was one place you could catch a water-bus, but it was on the other side of the island! Only a 25 minute walk!!! LOL Yeah, right...if you knew the way. Now, I'm a good map reader, but Venice is insane!!! Let's just say, we had a fabulous time getting lost in Venice on the way to the water-bus! it took us about an hour, but we had some fun photo ops!

 

Now, I must tell you the story of this picture. This lady, in the boat, with the dog...we saw her like 4 times on our journey through Venice!!! If only we'd knows she would eventually end up near the water-buses, we totally would have asked for a ride!!! 

So, we FINALLY got our tickets and onto the HOT water-bus ride to Burano...we ate lunch and roamed the streets. I just love this little island. I loved it when Heath and I went, and I loved it again this time!

When we returned to Venice, it was nearing sundown. And with the perfect light, Holly captured this amazing photo...one of our favorites of the entire trip.

We were actually on the way to the Rialto Bridge....where we got these pictures.

This last one...was right before I fell down a couple of steps on the bridge...I was quite embarrassed, and still am not sure exactly how I slipped on the marble and concrete steps! EMBARRASSING! (I was totally okay, didn't hurt at all, outside of my pride!)

We were SO tired at this point...but had to wonder through Venice to find St. Marco Piazza...it was just around the corner of every turn...right!?!? We walked so long, we had to find food before we got to St. Marco's! And eventually made it back to the hotel! 

Tuesday morning, we woke SUPER early so we could catch our private taxi to the train station! (we were taking the train to Florence to meet the ScrapMap group!!) This pic of me is riding through the canals of Venice....to the airport!!!

Yes, you read that right...the taxi took us to the AIRPORT...we needed the train station!!! Luckily, we left SUPER early b/c of our bad luck in transportation so far...so we had PLENTY of time to get to the station. Here we are happy when we got there!