Italy Adventure, Final Day!!

Our last day in Italy was a very early morning checkout, then a taxi ride to the train station.  We had a strict timeline to keep...train to Rome, van from Rome train station to Rome airport, and then catch our flight from Rome to Stuttgart.

Everything went smoothly...we got checked out of the hotel in plenty of time, the taxi ride was earlier than expected, and our train arrived right on time.  The van ride to the airport was a bit scary, but it was the same friendly driver we had a few days before when we arrived in Rome.  The flight to Stuttgart was smooth and short, and we arrived back to R's apartment in the evening.  Then it was one full day to do laundry and get all of our stuff packed up to leave Germany and come home to the States on an early morning flight!!

All packed up and waiting on the cab!

GREAT hotel!!  It was right on the beach...and the air conditioning actually worked like American air conditioning!!  It was amazing!

3-hour train ride...first class...definitely my preferred way to travel!

R had a seat to himself!  Some peace and quiet on the 3-hour ride!

Leaving the pretty countryside behind...

Very sad to be leaving this beautiful area!  I hope it's not our last trip to Italy!!

45-minute van ride to the airport didn't bother Little R at all! : )  And yes, Little R is riding in a vehicle NOT in a car seat!!  I can assure you, this NEVER happens...but we didn't have a car seat on the trip, and the rental company didn't have them either!  I hated it, but I just prayed we would make it safely to our destination!!

Or A...they both slept the entire way!!

This entire trip was amazing!!  Definitely one of my very favorite trips...might be in a tie with Ireland!!  We enjoyed our time as a family, and it was just what we needed before this big, crazy, stressful move that we had coming up!!  (Little did we know just how stressful our next trip would be)!!!!

Italy Adventure, Day 7!!

Day 7 was a full day in Viareggio (the beach town).  We were all so ready for a relaxing day, with no timeline whatsoever.

The kids all LOVED the beach!!  We have decided that we need to take a yearly trip to the beach...our entire family felt such happiness there.

We started off the day with a walk into town.  We knew we had the whole day to get to the beach, but we also knew our white skin wouldn't last the whole day, even with sunscreen!  So we wandered around the little town for a bit, then headed to the private beach area near our hotel and had an early lunch.  Then it was a full afternoon of fun in the sun!!  I had a miserable cold during this part of the trip, so R was kind enough to let me relax and rest and soak up the sun for most of the day, while he kept an eye on Little R.

Ready for the day...not sure what Little R was doing!

This was the private beach area near our hotel.  It was awesome!

T taking a "shade" break!

This boy LOVED the water!  And considering a year ago he couldn't tolerate a drop of water in his face in the bathtub, this is a huge improvement!!

 

And of course, what do you do when you are at the beach, and oh so VERY happy????

Jump for joy, of course! : )

This is one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip!!

Pure, unrestrained JOY!!  I still can't look at this one without laughing!!

We kept telling R that he looked "girly" in the jump for joy pictures.  This was his solution...

The boardwalk area.  It was a really cute little town.  I highly recommend it!

He always has a pose...

Looking for a dinner spot...

Our last dinner in Italy!

Lasagna...in Italy!

And our last gelato in Italy...sad to say goodbye to this yummy scoop of heaven!!

These are some of my very favorite people in the entire world!  So glad we got to have this adventure together!

After dinner and dessert, it was a leisurely walk back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for an early morning train trip back to Rome.  This was my very favorite day of the entire trip...it was perfect!!

Italy Adventure, Day 6!!

Little R's shirt says it all!!  Our agenda for day 6...taking the train from Florence to Viareggio...the beach!!

We had tickets to the Academia for the morning.  T was VERY excited about this trip...seeing Michelangelo's David was at the top of her list!!  I don't have any pictures, because they weren't allowed, but it truly was impressive!  Little R was very unimpressed with all the naked statues...he kept saying "that's disgusting".

After seeing David, we had a few hours until we needed to be at the train station.  So we had a leisurely walk to the station, stopping anywhere that caught our eye. 

Fun with the Hulk mask in the Disney store!

Meanest Hulk...EVER!

Just scary!!  The mask looks A LOT smaller on R's head!

Bought a purse!!

And a quick lunch!

After a short train ride, we arrived at our hotel, checked in...and headed to the BEACH!!  This was Little R's first ever beach experience!  And the girls hadn't been since before Little R was born...so we were all overdue

We bought these flip flops for Little R at the Disney store, so he would have something to wear to the beach.  In previous years he has refused sandals, etc...if you can't wear socks with it, he wants no part of it!  But we explained that he couldn't wear socks and tennis shoes to the beach, so we thought Spiderman flip flops would do the trick!  I'll just say this...teach your kids to walk in flip flops BEFORE the age of 5, or it may just be too late!! : )
 

The Willis Family at the BEACH!!  We were all SO excited!!  And we were definitely the WHITEST people there!  The Italians take the word "tan" to a whole new level!!This beach wasn't a touristy place...I read that it was where the Italians go for the weekend, but not a big tourist town.  Which was perfect!! 

Having fun in the water!  He literally would NOT come out of the water...for anything!

Pretty!!  My ideal scenery is beach...R's is mountains...here we got both!

The girls were crazy about the water, too!  They only came out when they got hungry!

After enduring a long, brutally dark & cold winter, it was a-ma-zing to get my feet in the sand!

We stayed at the beach until we were absolutely starving, then headed back to get dressed for dinner and some exploring of the town.  The lady at the front desk of the hotel recommended a wonderful restaurant...marked on a map and everything...and after walking around for about an hour, we never did find it!!  First, R had the map...we walked and walked with no luck.  Then I took over the map...we walked and walked...went right to the spot marked on the map...and there was no restaurant!  So we had to choose a restaurant randomly on our own...but it didn't really matter...we were so hungry and tired, we just wanted food and to sit down!  Then back to the hotel to rest up for a FULL day at the beach!

Italy Adventure, Day 5!!

Day 5 started with early morning tickets to the Uffizi Gallery.  T was very excited to see all the Renaissance art!!  A...not so much! 

Up and ready!  We had tickets for 9:15, and we were walking, so it was a bit of an early morning for us.  But we were excited and ready to go!

Tower at Palazzo Vecchio, as we were walking to the Uffizi

After roaming the halls of the Uffizi for a couple of hours, we were hot, tired and hungry.  We popped into a fast little pizzeria for lunch, and the owners were so nice!!  We were surprised at how friendly the Italians were!!

After lunch, with the entire afternoon free, we decided to walk to the train station and see if we could figure out how to get to Pisa.  It was a nice walk, and getting the tickets and finding the train was quite simple!  Much easier than our bus experience in Rome!

Walking to the train station

The Cathedral in Florence is amazing!  More pictures to come...this was just a quick shot as we were walking by.

On the train to Pisa...with NO air conditioning...it was HOT!

The girls enduring the heat...but feeling blessed...because the young girls beside them were covered from head to toe!

We made it to Pisa!!

We got to Pisa, took a cab to the Leaning Tower, and took WAY too many of the typical "tourist" pics!  But it was so much fun!!!

Our first view of the tower as we were walking up...

And what do you do when you are in Pisa??  You guessed it..."jump for joy"!!

Little R got some major air on this one!

Not sure what R's up to here...

 Excessive number of outrageously cheesy pictures coming up...feel free to scroll through quickly! : ) We had a blast taking them!

A proving you can hold up the tower and still look glamorous!

Its...so...heavy....

T is just entirely too cool for all this nonsense!

Super Mom!!

And the big guy is going to straighten it right up!

Pretty cool to be able to see this in person!

T did NOT want to take this picture...but I love it!!  So happy to go on this adventure with this man!!

 After our photo shoot, we had just enough time to grab some gelato and head back to the train station and back to Florence.

My beautiful kids in front of some more amazing doors in Florence!  I want these to be my front doors at the house we build someday...how awesome would that be??

No explanation...he is just full of surprise poses!

The cathedral in Florence...it is huge and it is amazing!

All of the greens and pinks and whites are marble...it is even more beautiful up close where you can see the detail of the marble.

More doors...

Beautiful!

Dinner that night!  The only dinner of the entire trip that I didn't eat pizza or pasta!  Had balsamic chicken that was AH-MAZING!  And the salad was good, too...except Italian restaurants don't do salad dressing...only oil and vinegar...

A with the waiter...and her spaghetti with NO meat whatsoever!

Dinner was late, but close to the apartment.  So we headed back to rest up for another big day!!