Monday, August 16, 2010

Our Holiday to Italy

This past week we headed to Italy for the holiday to visit Danielle & Toni at Toni's parent's house. We had a wonderful trip! Here are pictures and such documenting our trip.
As you can see from the map we left Manosque and headed towards Italy....on our way we first stopped in Monte Carlo.
Absolutely beautiful!
Okay....SICK yachts! 
I love Grace Kelly...wish she was still alive.


Our second stop was to Genova, Italy to visit my Aunt Linda and her husband Cal. We had a wonderful visit with them...I will post pictures later of this.


Afterward we headed to Bologna, Italy.
I love these ceiling shots...they are just breath-taking!


The next stop was Ravenna, Italy. I read an article about this place having amazing mosaic art in their Basilicas. This was totally worth the stop! I love mosaic art!


Here is an up-close sample of the mosaic art.
From there we started heading South towards Santa Lucia.
Seneca using her toes to eat a cracker! So talented...just like Grandma Sue!


After hitting crazy traffic we finally made it to Santa Lucia, Ortona, Italy.
Seneca with Alina, and Myla (Desi's daughters)
Dad and Seni watching a movie before bedtime.
Love this pic of the girls....
Seni & Aunt Danielle
Sasha & Uncle Toni
Us at the "Old Town" Festival in Ortona
Danielle & Toni
Our big group! So much fun!
Danielle and I hitting the market!
In Ortona they have Saint Thomas Basilica. He is supposedly buried here.
Love the ceilings...

Danielle & baby Jason cooking....
Danielle, Toni and Seneca

Spending time in Ortona with Toni's family was awesome! As most of you know my heritage is French (25%), English (25%) and Italian (50%). My grandfather ate pasta every night for dinner. We have a yummy homemade pasta sauce with homemade raviolis we make for Christmas. Other than this, I really didn't know the Italian food culture. Aparently, your first course is pasta, the second is some sort of protein and then dessert. I can't even get past the first dish-pasta....We have amazing pasta, fish, pork, gelato, etc. I need to totally exercise.
After basking in the sun for five days and eating great food we made our way back home.

Our first stop was Florence. Oh my gosh! I LOVE this town! So romantic! Matt and I decided we needed to come back without children.
Seneca kept playing with this door. She said "bye"...shut the door sat down and folded her arms.
The last and final stop before heading home was Pisa, Italy.
The leaning tower of Pisa!


Whew! We made it!

10 comments:

Scott and Megan said...

Oh Mesia, that is so awesome! I love Italy. Scott and I just went this past June. Oh man, you made a lotta stops! I love living vicariously through you and all your wonderful European adventures!

Alicia said...

I am so, so jealous of your life! Amazing!
I love your ceiling shots. Really, really beautiful.

Briawna said...

Your pictures make me cry. Seriously, I miss Italy so much. I served outside Firenze in Prato and spent every p-day in firenze. I think I went to the Uffizi ten times. I spent the last nine months in Livorno, right next to Pisa. Your photos of Firenze are beautiful. Yes, it is the most beautiful city. Maybe Roma could be close, but I love the history of Firenze. I'm so jealous. Give Italy lots of bacci for me.

the harrisons said...

What an amazing holiday! I LOVE seeing all of the fun things you are doing over there!

Karin said...

Italy? A-mazing! Your hair looks darling! And you can just sense the joy Seneca feels being with those girls! LOVE that smile!!! -she's almost 2!?!!!!!

Laurel said...

Oh, I LOVE these pictures, Mesia!!! I would do almost anything to make it ANYWHERE in Europe some day, and here you are hitting up beautiful cities every other weekend. So fun!

Tarah said...

WOW!! so glad you got to go visit your sister! What an amazing trip! Everything looks dandy for your fam. Love you guys! FYI I changed our blog to hemeons.blogspot.com

Anne said...

amazing!

Kricket said...

I am so excited about your family having such wonderful adventures. I am way jealous though.

Julia Harps said...

you are the luckiest people in the world. I am so jealous of all your travels. :) Maybe I will come see you while you are there.