When in Rome, do as the Danahy O'Hanlons do...

After our wonderfully relaxing week in the Greek Islands, it was time for a new adventure, Italy. Our Italian adventure had actually been planned for over a year as a family trip to celebrate my mothers 60th birthday. The best part about our "family vacation" is that we have a HUGE family! So we had the joy of being able to experience Italy with twenty of my family members.

When Pat and I arrived in Rome we grabbed our rental car and decided to do a quick tour (ha ha) of the Rome sites. Luckily the day we arrived in Rome was an Italian holiday so there was plenty of parking around the Coliseum. All of the historic sites were also free to the public that day too, yipee. Check out our quick to Roma!!



After a bit of a stressful drive out of Rome (hitting Rome traffic = TERRIBLE), we were on our way to the Tuscan region of Italy. Driving in Italy was a bit like driving in a video game, it is as if there is no such thing as a speed limit (Pat = HAPPY). It was so wonderful to have an IPhone driving in Italy as its GPS got us everywhere with ease.

When we pulled up to our Tuscan castle both Pat and I knew this was going to be such a neat experience. As we climbed the Cyprus tree drive up the hill to the castle, we could not wait for our Italian adventure to officially begin. My mother did such an amazing job of locating the perfect place for us in the Tuscan countryside. Villa Maiano in Monte San Savino was the most unbelievably beautiful castle I have ever seen (and definitely ever stayed in). Enjoy some photos of Maiano and Monte San Savino.



The first couple of days in Tuscany were filled with relaxing at the pool, walks around the villa, day trips to the small towns around Monte San Savino, big dinners with endless toasts and stories and lots and lots of vino! Enjoy some photos of the other Tuscan towns.

Cortona- Where the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed.



Moltepulciano- This Tuscan village is known for its wonderful, regional wine tastings. Although it became very interesting for me for a different reason. I became OBSESSED with the Twilight saga on this trip and literally read two of the books, New Moon and Eclipse in a week. Well for those of you Twilight lovers, in the book New Moon, when Bella goes to Volterra to save Edward from the Volterri, she runs around Volterra looking for Edward. Well Volterra is a town in Italy, but they actually filmed this part of the movie in Moltepulciano!! So for all of you counting down the days until New Moon on Nov 20th, you may just recognize these places.



Siena- This is a wonderful city in Tuscany! It is booming with Italian culture, history, shopping and dining. We took a day trip to Siena with Meredith and Adam. They went to search for a Synagogue because it was Yom Kippur and Pat and I went into the Centro to explore. We were about a month late for the famous horse races, but the Il Campo was still perfect for people watching. We sat in the Il Campo and enjoyed some amazing pizza, while reading the history of the town. After lunch we wandered through the beautiful streets, filled with expensive boutiques and designers, wonderful restaurants and decadent gelatto shops to find the Duomo. We met up with Mere and Adam here and then headed back to the villa.



Lago Castello- We ventured just outside of the Tuscan region into Umbria one afternoon to visit a beautiful lake and state park. The guys enjoyed a rock skipping contest at the lake before we headed for the castle on the other side. We explored the Centro of Lago Castello popping into shops and doing wine and cheese tastings. We settled on a nice little restaurant for lunch and had wonderful wine and a lot of food while sharing funny stories about the terrible teenage years. After lunch we found a fountain and did a quick euro toss for luck!



We decided to take a day trip to Florence with Meredith and Adam a couple days later. Florence (Firenze)is such a beautiful place. We began of Florence day figuring out the bus line, which surprisingly was very easy (logistics were not really our friend on this trip). We started at The Accademia Gallery, home of The David by Michelangelo. Seeing the David was amazing up close. We had the opposite reaction to seeing the David then we did to seeing The Mona Lisa last year in Paris. The David did truly live up to all expectations. There is a reason people wait for hours and hours to see him. After that we headed over to the Uffizi Gallery, to continue our museum filled morning. Between the two museums we were able to take in the amazing Florence Duomo. After the museums we headed over the famous Florence bridge over the river filled with beautiful jewelry vendors. We finished our Florence day with a great lunch and then headed back to the villa.



Pat and I decided to leave to leave the villa a day early and head north to Venice, as both of us really wanted to spend an evening in Venice. So we packed our stuff and said "Arrivederci" to the family and got ready for our two hour drive to Venice. Once we arrived in Venice we parked the car and boarded a water bus to our hotel. We spent the day in Venice strolling the canal streets and sightseeing in Piazza San Marco. After a nice candlelight dinner on the canal we headed back to our hotel to turn in for the night.



Our last day in Italy was spent in Pisa and Lucca. Pisa really does not have much to offer outside of the centro that holds the famous leaning tower of Pisa. This was something we really enjoyed and along with the hundreds of other people we played with making some fun pictures.



After seeing the tower we headed for Lucca, which was recommended by several friends. Lucca was really neat because it seemed like it was really popular by Italians and a place where they come to get away. The centro was completely surrounded, like many other mid-evil towns, by a wall around the town. The cool thing about Lucca's wall is that you can walk on the top of it around the town. Lucca is some ways actually reminded me of Colorado, the landscape was very similar and in the distance were foothills like you see here. It was a perfect town to see before we headed home, because it gave us a reminder of home!



And after two wonderful weeks in Greece and Italy we headed home!