Anghiari and Pisa, Italy

Anghiari

We  went to a small town in the hills in Tuscany. It was called Anghiari. There was a lady there making hand-made lace. She was using pins to mark her spot and pin it down. It took her a long time to make the lace. It was very expensive because it took so long and it was hand-made. 

The walls around it were in the shape of a boat. There was stone on the walkways. There was also a well that went down really far to the ground. 

Streets of Anghiari

Looking over the walls of Anghiari

Lady making hand-made lace

Looking over the hill in Anghiari

My dad and I are looking from inside the walls of Anghiari. 
It was really beautiful looking down from the town. 

                            Pisa

Walking the streets of Pisa

We went to the town that has the leaning tower of Pisa. It is leaning because of the poor architecture and the land it was built on. 

Il Borro and Siena, Italy

I woke up and my mom told me we were going to go get breakfast. I was excited. This was going to be the best breakfast since Rome (we have been eating really light breakfasts in Tuscany). We ate breakfast and I remembered I was going horseback riding! My dad was going too. Il Borro has horses you can ride. My dad's horse was a palamino. She was 23 years old but she was super spunky. Her name was Blondie. My horse we don't know her age or her name but we know she was an ex-polo player. We went on a trail ride with a guy name Masamilliano. He was sort of like our guide. We rode all over Il Borro. When we got back my mom and my brother picked us up and we went back to our farm house to freshen up. Then we headed for Siena.

When going to Siena there were lots of windy roads (worse than the grapevine in California) that made my whole family feel sick. We finally got to Siena. We went  to Piazza Del Campo.We sat there for a while then we went to get gelato. I got melon.

Piazza Del Campo

After that we got into our car and drove to Nonna's house. Nonna means grandmother in Italian. She had some people over and was teaching us how to make gnocchi and pasta (along with my family). We made the pasta on her wooden table and ate there too. She had made Ragu sauce earlier and she mixed it with the pasta. It was really good! We said goodbye and headed back for Il Borro.

We got back and wanted to watch tv. In Italy The tv is called a telefunken ( pronounced tele- fun- kin. I think.) We gave up after 198 Italian channels. My brother laidd down on the bed for two seconds and the fell dead asleep ( he's a REALLY heavy sleeper!) I played my itouch for a few minutes and then turned off the lights.

Nonna Ciana

Florence, Italy

 We went to Florence on the train from Il Borro. My brother and my Dad went to a science museum while my mom and I went to the Academia Museum. We walked in and saw David. He was super big! But he was completely naked. We also saw Michelangelo's unfinished prisoners. The unfinished Pieta was also there.

Bronze doors of the Duomo

It is hard to find the names of streets in Florence.
They are on the sides of buildings.

Next, we went to El Duomo. My mom and I decided to climb up the dome. There were 463 stairs! It was so tiring. When we got to the top we could see the whole city. 

Top of Duomo

El Duomo

We went to the Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio means old bridge. We met my dad and my brother there for lunch. It had jewelry stores everywhere! My mom and I went and got some gelato.  We also went to the Uffizi and saw some famous paintings.   

Gelato on the Ponte Vecchio

Il Borro, Tuscany

We went from Rome to Tuscany. We got to our hotel called Il Borro. It's in the country so there's no WiFi whatsoever. We have an apartment in a farmhouse. They have horses (which I am super happy about!).  Our farmhouse is pretty big. We have a pool and a pool house. There's also a swing set in the backyard. 

The yard in back of the farm house

The farmhouse where we are staying (in part of it)

 Il Borro is huge. It has 762 acres of land for apartments and farming. They grow grapes and olives. They make their own wine and olive oil. They have their own town and restaurants. They also have a spa and pool. They have a wine tour that you can go on. We went on the wine tour yesterday which has caves under ground. It stays very cool under there for the wine. 

My brother and I have our own separate room in the farmhouse. We have been talking and laughing about the door (for some sort of weird reason). We are staying here for 7 days and 7 nights.

Today we are going to Siena which is another town in Tuscany.

The sunset in Tuscany is so cool

Grape vines in Tuscany

Dinner at the Osteria

Rome, Italy Part II

St. Peter's Basilica
We went to St. Peters Basilica to meet a friend of Msg. Art who gave us a private tour. His name is Father Paul Vu. He took us around St. Peter's. He talked about all the sculptures. He said that all of the paintings weren't paintings, they were mosaics! We saw La Pieta. Michelangelo sculpted it when he was 24. We then went out and looked at the outside and how huge it was!

Gelato! 
We got lots of Gelato and saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. The gelato comes in all kinds of flavors. My favorite is mango and chocolate.

Ancient Rome

We went to the old City in Rome and saw the Colosseum and the Forum. We also saw the Arch of Constantine.

At the Colosseum, 50,000 people could fit in there. People watched gladiators and wild animals fight each other. It was started when Vespasian was the ruler. It was finished 8 years later when his son Titus was the ruler in 80 A.D. Titus had slaves (many were Jews) finish building the Colosseum. Titas is the ruler who destroyed Jerusalem and brought Jews to Rome as slaves.

Romans worshiped many different gods. The Pantheon was a temple dedicate to these gods. Then it became a church where people worshiped one God.

The Forum is near the Colosseum. It was a big public square. It had shops and offices. Many orators came here to make speeches. Crowds of people would gather to listen to speeches. Cicero was a famous orator in ancient Rome.

The Arch of Constantine, who was the first Christian emperor. He was one of two sons who were emperors, Constantine and Maxentius. Their fathers ruled together just fine. But Constantine and Maxentius did not rule well together. They decided to fight to have the whole empire to themselves. One night before going into battle to see who would rule Rome, Constantine saw a vision of a flaming cross in the sky. He won the battle the next day with Maxentius. Because of this, Constantine became Christain. He allowed people to worship one God and not be killed for it. The Arch shows different scenes of his Constantine's life.

Rome, Italy - Part I

Day 1 in Rome! 



Our Hotel
We are staying at a cool hotel. It's called Boncompagni.
It has a very small elevator (excuse me it's a lift). There are shutters that can open. They bring us breakfast every morning. The first morning I had a croissant with Nutella! Italian people love Nutella. I've seen it everywhere!
Also, there is a window that I like to sit on
to read books and text all my friends!

St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum

 There are swiss men who guard St. Peter's Basilica and they
wear colorful uniforms. They have a changing of the guard every hour or so.

The Vatican Post Office is next to these men and it was very crowded. There were coins and jewelry in it too. We bought some post cards and mailed them at the Vatican!

Mailing post cards at the Vatican

At the Vatican Museum we saw lots of art. It was kind of boring. But there were some really old things there. The Sistine Chapel was quiet and was painted on the ceiling by Michealangelo. That was pretty cool to see.

We also went into St. Peter's Basilica. It was huge! The things there are meant to look small, but they are really big. This is where Pope Francis or Papa Francisco (as the Italians call him) lives. We saw the balcony where Pope Francis came out the day he was elected Pope.

St. Peter's Basilica

Bean

 Bean

This is Bean. He is traveling with me everywhere I go. You may see him a lot while I am in Europe. This is a picture that I took of him at the Newark airport just before I left for Rome.

Fresh pasta----Yum! 

Riding the Subway and Dinner

We rode the subway. It is called the
Metro. There are lots of pickpockets
there. It is always crowded.

For dinner we ordered pasta. It was made fresh!
Mine had salmon in it. My dad had gnochi.
We had to pay for the bread.
It did not come free with our meal like it does
in California.

Manhattan, New York

TIMES SQUARE

In New York, we got to our hotel and checked in. Then we went to go eat dinner at Grand Central Station. I got pizza and so did my brother. We walked back to our hotel and on the way we stopped and got cupcakes from Baked by Melissa They were so small! They were really good! I got triple chocolate fudge, so did my brother. My mom got red velvet.

The next day, we walked to Times Square. Then we walked to breakfast. It was called Junior's. We saw lots of horses that the New York Police Department (NYPD) uses in the city.

HORSES AND THE NYPD

Next, we took the subway to the place where we were going on a boat tour. We met a family that was going on the same boat. They were British! We hung out with them the rest of the day. On the boat we saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the Williamsburg Bridge. Then we saw the Statue of Liberty that is made of copper.

STATUE OF LIBERTY

After we got off the boat, we decided to go to the World Trade Center Memorial. On our way there, we saw some street performers. One of the guys pulled my brother out of the crowd. He told him to stand in one spot and then he jumped straight over his head! It was so cool!

STREET PERFORMERS

We went to the World Trade Center Memorial and looked at the fountains. It had names written on the railing. There was one tree there that survived the World Trade tragedy! It was super cool! The new Freedom Tower is being built in the place close to where the twin towers used to be.

WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL WITH OUR BRITISH FRIENDS

FREEDOM TOWER

We went on the subway back to Times Square and went to the M & M World! It was three stories high! It was super fun! We looked around and got some M & M's (pretzels and minis).