Hot and Sticky Adventures In Italy: Off to Bologna

On day 3 we packed up and walked to the train station in Rome. We took the two hour train ride to Bologna. Bologna was our hub. It was actually a really great place to stay because it's in the middle of everything. A one to two hour train ride to some of the most important cities. Uncle Pat got us a hotel that was a 10 minute walk from the train station, and 5 minutes from good shopping and dining. The Albergo Atlantic was a small, quaint hotel that was clean and comfortable, and very affordable. The breakfast left a little to be desired, unless you were alright with croissants and nutella EVERY morning. I was ok with it most of the time. Nutella for breakfast is a TREAT!

This is our group leaving the train station in Bologna to walk to our hotel.
Quite the sight. We are a herd of "farners".

"Farners" with LOTS of luggage.

All those people waaayyy back there... they're with us too.

Sorry, more pictures of food. This is the balsamic vinegar being poured on Jessie's dessert. She said it wasn't bad. I'm not so sure. She also would eat bernnaise sauce on her ice cream.

We attended church at Pat's ward. There wasn't enough space for us to sit in the chapel, but we weren't sad because the room they put us in had much better air conditioning and we could let the kids play as loudly as they needed.

This is a picture of my Italian cousin Ethan, my cousin Michael's son Robbie, and Tabitha during sacrament meeting. I took three of these pictures and Robbie was blurry in each one. He doesn't sit still for long.

After church there was a "Family Meeting" where Grandma showed a slide show of all the major happenings since our last reunion in 2002. This is a pic of half the room. Not the most flattering picture of my family. Sorry bout that. I didn't take this, but I'm sure glad I'm not in it.


After the meeting we had our first Italian pizza. It was fine, but I am definately accustomed to the way we do pizza here in the good ole' US of A.
A not-so-great picture of Brandon and I in front of the church in Bologna.

My Aunt Jen (mom's youngest sister) had her birthday so we got her a gelato cake from our favorite gelato shop Gelateria Gianni. There were days we went there twice, even though it was at least a mile walk each way.

Monday was a day trip to Florence. From the train we walked to the Duomo.

It is enormous. I struggled to get the entire Campanile in this picture. It is 276 feet tall, and the dome in the background is 20 feet taller. Here's a stock photo of the Florence skyline... just to get an idea of the size:

This is a picture of a procession coming out of the baptistry. It was going from here to the Duomo when we arrived. I know nothing about the costumes and such that the Catholic clergy wear, but there were a lot of people in different religious clothing. We never did find out what this was all about, but the Duomo was closed until later in the afternoon. We decided to go scope out Michaelangelo's David in the meantime.

Oh, and this is the Gate of Paradise (or a copy since the real ones are in a safe place). It took the guy who made them 28 years to do so. These are also the doors in the previous picture on the baptistry.


On the way to the David we stopped for a minute. I turned around and this is what I saw. If you look closely you'll see three sleeping babies. Tabitha, Gabe, and Joshua were taking one more nap-on-the-go.

When we got the the place where the David is the line was about 2 hours long. Pat (our tour guide for the day) told us that the David is the only thing in that museum that we'd recognize so he recommended we spend our time waiting in line at the Uffizi instead, and we could see a copy of the David on our way. Since the line was in full sun most of us agreed that was a good plan. We walked to the Uffizi which is Italy's most famous art gallery. On the way, we passed through the Piazza della Signoria where we saw this:

This is the copy, but it stands in the place where the original stood until 1873.

We also saw this:
No, not the weird lady in the middle of my photographic masterpiece... it's the Rape of the Sabine Women. Carved by Giambologna in 1583. That's one piece of marble, people. Just stunning.


Oh, and one more thing before we got to the Uffizi. This is my mom's favorite glove store. We all know that Italy is known for it's leather goods. Florence is known for it's leather gloves. It's quite the luxurious experience to buy gloves here. They actually have you put your elbow on a pillow with your hand up in the air, and then they slide them onto your hands. Apparently gloves have a perfect fit.

OK, now onto the Ufizzi. The line here was two hours as well, but it was in the shade. Unfortunately, there was no picture taking allowed inside, so I'll just tell you that the most famous piece of art that I got to see was Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus".
After the Uffizi we went back to the Duomo to try to get in. Another 2 hour line. Ya'll are probably thinking we're slackers, but no one was interested in another line (this one was also in full sun). We decided to call it a day. On the walk back to the train station we came across a woman who had collapsed at the bottom of the stairs. Aunt Terri to the rescue:
My Uncle Kevin (Terri's husband) shamelessly took this picture. Forget that I'm shamelessly copying it. That is my Aunt Terri helping the woman. Terri is a PA on a small island called Tinian which is way in the middle of the Pacific. She's amazing at diagnoses and treatment. Remember my whole "PUPP" episode while I was pregnant? Terri is who kept me sane through all that. She determined that the woman was dehydrated and had passed out. It was definitely hot.

"More bars in more places," my cousin Ellie (in the middle) says. She's a crackup.