We are off to Greece! Check out of AirBnB – Check Fuel up rental car – Check Return rental car – Problem The rental car company is claiming there is damage to the car. They claim that while the car was in our possession someone probably attempted to steal it and inserted a wrong key […]
Not an Ideal End to Italy Read More »
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 »
Pompeii and Herculaneum were both well established cities by 79 AD. They were both near to the sea and had strong shipping routes and money inflow. There was an abundance of nobles who came to the cities to watch the arena fights and bet on who would win. The slaves were probably less thrilled about
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
Who likes sweets? I know I do! We’ve had lots of fun trying all the yummy confections around Nice. We had ice creams, chocolates, candied fruit, and my personal favorite macaroons! The places to get the sweets were also very nice. There was a flower market that was open almost every day and it didn’t
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 »
As the third phase of our trip, for the past week the family has been staying in Barcelona, Spain, with friends of ours, the Casarez family. The first full day we were here, we went on a Spanish civil war themed tour of the city. Our guide knew lots about the war, and had many
Civil War of España Read More »
