It was a beautiful day, so we headed inland to a well known hiking spot. Pantalica is a prehistoric settlement that was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2005. The civilization found here dates from 13 to 7th century BC. The main part of the settlement that is still visible is the cliff […]
Hiking amongst History Read More »
The west side of Sicily is famous for its salt pans. These areas are large man-made shallows where salt has been produced since the time of the Phoenicians. Pools of gradually decreasing depth were built to bring in salt water and allow evaporation to occur thus leaving the valuable salt behind. We toured one of
Making Salt in Sicily Read More »
Another region of Italy = another food tour! We are only in Palermo for four days so I found a combined tour that allowed us to tour the markets AND the cultural sights of the capital city. Our guide, Paola, has a degree in architecture and museum studies and was quick to immerse us in
Culture & Food in Palermo Read More »
We boarded a train in Pompei to head to Sicily. A train is definitely not the most efficient way to get to the island, but it sounded like a fun way to travel! Our first train of the day was a quick 40 min ride to take us from our apartment in Pompei to a
We were sad to be leaving Rome because even Chris, who hates most cities, found a love of this vibrant place. We took the kids to ALL the typical Roman tourist stops. The Colosseum The Forum All the Egyptian Obelisks The Pantheon Castel Sant’Angelo aka Hadrian’s Mausoleum This place was originally built by the Emperor
Across Rome from where we are staying, is the small country of Vatican City. Two months ago I set a timer and frantically clicked through their official webpage in order to buy tickets to tour the Vatican museum and Sistine chapel. No tickets are issued for St. Peter’s Basilica, so we decided to head over
The Heart of Catholicism Read More »
We loved our week in Barcelona. We found an AirBnb about 30 minutes outside the city for an amazing price and booked it with the knowledge that we would enjoy a train ride into the city center for the days we went in. Our town, Montmelo, is where the Formula One track is located. We
Barcelona was Amazing Read More »
We are moving on to Italy from Barcelona. Rather than shove ourselves and our gear onto a cramped plane, we decided to stretch our time and our legs by taking a 21 hour ferry across the Mediterranean. Our ferry is not quite what I am accustomed to courtesy of the WA State ferry system. This
A Big Boat to Italy Read More »
We had a wonderful week in Nice with all of the family. We spent hours exploring the market, playing at the park, eating socca and drinking fresh fruit juices. We took a walking tour of the city and learned some of the history along with a greater understanding about their close ties with Italian culture.
Family Time Abroad Read More »
We are spending a week in Nice, France. Beyond soaking up the sun after a few weeks of rain in Britain, we are here for the opera. Kathryn Lewek has the titular role in Lakmé at Opéra de Nice and we didn’t want to miss her performance. To the world she is a headline making
Grabbing some Culture in Nice Read More »
