Roths in DK: Beautiful Italy

Like a cherry on top of our year in Denmark, we spent our first week of summer vacationing in Italy. I say "vacationing" because that is exactly what it was this time: a vacation.

We've been able to visit several countries this year, and we've enjoyed and loved our travels. But let's be honest, travel is a lot of work. It's often not even a vacation. Travel involves sight-seeing through long lists of attractions, navigating crowds, and managing tight schedules and itineraries. Travel means figuring out train routes and following a GPS into the middle of nowhere to find some monument. It involves trying to find food and making countless decisions in a country where you don't speak the language. And travel involves hours and hours of walking. It can be exhausting. Add to that the pressure of not wanting to miss any 'must-see's,' and you can go a little crazy. I have been tired enough to sleep on a stone step, sit down on an escalator, and pay $5 for a bottle of water. This time, however, the purpose for our travel was not to see stuff but to enjoy each other. In the process, we found ourselves really enjoying Italy.

Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera

The reason we had the opportunity to spend a week in Italy, was simply because we won a raffle hosted by Travis's company. We entered the raffle because there was nothing to lose, but never imagined we would win the chance to stay in a villa in Tuscany, just outside of Florence. What a gift!

We arrived after dark Saturday night, so when we woke up Sunday morning and opened the windows, this was our beautiful surprise!
Welcome to Tuscany.

We began our week on a Sunday and so found the Mormon church in Florence. Of course, I say that like it was a small, simple thing. It only took a few minutes of driving, though, to realize that driving in Italy is a different animal. We quickly learned that lane lines are really more of a guideline, that riding a motorcycle or moped makes you king of the land, and that speed limits are completely arbitrary. Travis--always one to learn from different cultures--drove our rental van like a Ferrari, so we fit right in.

The GPS got us in the right neighborhood for the church, but we didn't actually find the building until we spotted the basketball hoop in the parking lot. (I guess church ball is a universal thing :) Attending church in Florence was a great experience. We've now attended meetings in Denmark, Norway, France, and Italy. In the church services we've attended in these different countries, we have felt the same feelings of peace and happiness that we've come to know and love. It's beautiful to find this no matter where you are in the world.

The highlights of our Monday were Pisa and playing at the beach on the Mediterranean. Pisa is very touristy, but we just had fun with it. We took goofy pictures with the leaning tower, we bought little treasures in souvenir shops, and we ate pizza in Pisa--a must.

I always knew he was full of a lot of hot air! :)

We drove by lots of these beautiful fields of sunflowers
in the area surrounding Pisa.
Of course, they harvest the flowers for their seeds,
but I'd take any excuse to have an entire field of such happy flowers!

We found an awesome beach just west of Pisa. We frolicked in the soft sand and refreshing water for only a short while, but ended up wishing we had stayed longer. Short and sweet has its advantages, though. We weren't there long enough for anyone to get bored, hot, thirsty, tired, or hungry, so the hour we spent at the beach remains a favorite.

Monday evening we had a tour of the castle near our house. The house we stayed in was actually an old farm house for the castle, Castello Del Trebbio.

Castello Del Trebbio

The castle was built in 1184 by the Pazzi family. During the tour, we learned the long, somewhat dark history of this family and their fatal feuds with other wealthy, powerful people in Italy. Today, the castle is home to the Baj Macario family who have developed their extensive grounds into grape vineyards and olive orchards. They produce olive oils and wines that are sold all over the world. We were particularly interested to learn about the process of making extra virgin olive oil. Despite our prior efforts to incorporate healthy olive oil into our diet, we learned we've likely never actually enjoyed healthy oil. It turns out, the commercial labeling of olive oil makes it impossible to know it's quality. Here are the tips we learned for picking out the best possible oil:

1. Oil should be in a dark, glass bottle.

2. Oil should be younger than 18 months old.
3. Oil should be extra virgin olive oil, which means it was pressed within 7 hours of picking.

4. Oil should be very expensive.

Following the castle tour, we had a fancy dinner at the castle restaurant. Unfortunately, I don't think we're cut out for fancy. :) I'm afraid the lavender sprigs and salt on mousse were lost on us. We left hungry and a little disappointed but chalked it up to a funny memory.

The best part of our meal was the setting.
We had the castle behind us and the
beautiful hills of Tuscany in front of us.
During summer time in Italy, you always eat outside
and late. This is us at our "early" dinner at 8p.m.

FLORENCE

We spent Tuesday in Florence. It is a beautiful city! I just loved the architecture and surprise public squares with corner gelato shops, leather stores, fountains, and sculptures. We made two attempts to see a couple of the almost countless museums Florence has to offer and failed in both cases. We went to one of the Michelangeio and Leonardo Da Vinci museums, but couldn't stomach the 3 hour wait in the unbearably hot sun. Then, we walked and walked to find the Galileo museum but missed its closing time by one hour. Bummer. A little disappointed, we found the nearest gelato shop, some shade to sit in, and went back to vacationing instead of traveling.

This super cool street performer could solve a
rubiks cube one-handed,
in 12 seconds!

Jared wanted this for his souvenir!

GELATO. YUM.
We're not trying to look cool.
It really was that bright!

This could be fun!

Like I said, "king of the land."
And no driving laws seem to apply
when you ride one of these.

Ahh...shade and a place to sit.

"Good price for you. I give family price."

For some reason, I think Maurie is
enjoying this more than Jared.

After eating our favorite pasta meal of the week and some good ole' Italian haggling over leather belts and purses, we ended our Florence day with an Italian cooking class. Two chefs with charming Italian accents taught us the secrets to making great pizza and gelato. We sat at marble slab counter tops and learned to make pizza dough from nothing more than a pile of flour and some water and yeast. We had fun trying out their techniques for finessing the dough, building our own pie, and baking it in a 700 degree oven.

We thought about incorporating a little "Cutthroat Kitchen,"
but it never happened.

Men at work.

Making the gelato was especially fun because the chef told us stories of having grown up in his grandparents' restaurant and making gelato by hand. He also shared with us the secrets for finding the best gelato:

1. Gelato should be cheap. "No Italian would ever

pay more than 3 euro for gelato."

2. Gelato should be bland colors. "If pistachio is green, something

has been added to it. Natural colors are not bright."

3. Gelato should be stored flat, not mounded up like a mountain.

"Pure gelato will melt if it's mounded."

After our cooking class, we deemed ourselves gelato experts--and maybe snobs. We spent the next several days hunting out the best gelato available. Just to be sure we had adequate sample size, we had gelato twice, sometimes three times a day! It really is that good, and our gelato quests remain a favorite memory.

Wednesday: on the road to the Italian Riviera

Grant and Trav getting the Ferrari ready.

Italy has tons of mountains and hills
and almost as many tunnels!

Along the northern Italian Riviera are five cities known as the Cinque Terre. They are centuries-old towns built along the rocky, picturesque coastline. They have colorful homes, beautiful views of the Mediterranean, great seafood and pasta, and fun little shops. We spent Wednesday exploring these quaint cities by foot, train, and ferry. The day was a scorcher, so we cooled off with gelato and swimming. We really enjoyed this day but wished we had been given a private viewing. The hot summer weather brought tons of tourists--it's always such a bummer when you can't be the only tourist!--so we heard more English than Italian that day. We had a fun day and felt good and tired by the end. It was a day of a little vacation and a lot of travel, but how else could we have earned these amazing pictures!

We hiked up to this impressive look-out.

View from the ferry. I love all the terraced hillsides!

So beautiful!

Time for more gelato!

The sign of a good day.

Thursday morning we slept long and late and loved it!

We didn't even leave the house until evening.

Our farm house.

We spent most of the day playing in the private above ground pool in our "garden"--the European word for yard. The pool was a blast! It wasn't heated or big, but neither mattered. It was a refreshing escape from the heat and so fun to just play in! Aside from playing in the pool, we tracked geckos living inside and out of the house, we relaxed in lawn chairs while enjoying the view of the vineyards, we cooked pasta, and watched some episodes of an old Zorro.

Our garden and lovely view.

Business as usual.

Time for some homemade Italian cuisine.

Home sweet home--for the week.

Our only planned event of the day was a sunset guided bike tour from the top of Fiesole--a small city in the hills of Tuscany--into the heart of Florence. It was a 15 mile ride that took us through Tuscany, into olive orchards and vineyards, along the river, and into Florence just as the lights and music of the night were coming to life. It was all spectacular!

Our guide was named Giovanni, and he was awesome! He was born and raised in Tuscany, so he shared stories of working in the orchards during harvest season and friendly neighborhood competitions of whose homegrown and pressed olive oil was the best. He brought the hillside to life as he showed us date trees, picked pears for us to sample, and pointed out rosemary and other spices growing along the roadside. Since Ben was a little young for the journey, Giovanni rode right next to him the whole time. As we passed other bikers on the road, it was fun to hear them call, "Ciao, Giovanni!" Several also shouted "Complimenti!" ("Great job!") to Ben as they passed. It all made for a really fun atmosphere, and it was a little surreal, too. Riding through beautiful Tuscany, hearing "ciao" this and "ciao" that...I loved it!

We kept Giovanni pretty busy that night. He ended up fixing a bike chain, repairing a flat tire, and mending a cut-up knee after a crash. I had been worried about Ben on the trek, but he ended up being the only kid who didn't have an issue on the ride! Several times we have talked ourselves out of biking in Copenhagen because we thought it was too dangerous for Ben. So we had to shake our heads a little when we found ourselves taking him into downtown Florence where there are no bike lanes and the drivers are crazy! Ben's a trooper!

I loved riding into Florence that night! As we rode into one of the main squares, we passed sculptures, people were sitting at tables eating pasta, and the music of a live symphony performance was echoing off the Italian buildings. Riding through the square, it felt like I should be writing poetry, or singing...or something! I looked at my family ahead of me. We were all tired. It had been a long, eventful ride. We had covered a lot of miles. It hadn't gone perfectly--Maurie still had blood running down her leg--but we had had a great adventure and had enjoyed it to the end. The metaphor was not lost on me. Our week in Italy. Our year in Denmark. Our lives, in fact. The highlights. The low points. It's all quite a ride. It's never perfect. But it's all a great adventure and worth enjoying to the end.

Turning 8 in Italy

Friday was Ben's birthday. Italy's a pretty cool place to turn eight! For his special day, we played in the pool and "vacationed" all day. We had a birthday dinner in a tiny nearby city. We ate at a restaurant called "Nappino"--it means "big nose." The gregarious Italian owner does have quite a big nose, and a big personality to go with it! He didn't really speak English but seemed happy to have a large family of Americans at his restaurant, so he gave us one of his restaurant T-shirts. It says, "Nappino" and has a drawing on it of 'the nose.' Perfect! Our pasta meal was complete with seafood that still had its eyes and body parts.