Maddie, Max, Mallory and Maguire's trip to Europe

Chinque Terre

MADDIE: One day while we were in Florence, we took a day trip to a place called Chinque Terre. Chinque Terre means five towns, and that's exactly what it is. All of the towns are off these cliffs with a beautiful ocean swirling beneath them. The water is the color of the ink I'm writing with. We walked across this walkway from the first town to the second. It was awesome because you could see the water crashing against the rocks under you. Then, we went to the fifth town which had a beach. We waded in the ocean and had a great time. Our dad said to only wade in water that was below our knees, but that didn't work out so well because one giant wave came up and soaked me! Chinque Terre was awesome!

Florence

MADDIE: After Rome we took a train to Florence. We met our Grandma there. Florence was really cool, unfortunately, we didn't have any WiFi in our apartment, so we couldn't blog there. The highlights of our trip for me were El Duomo, a church with a giant dome with a painting on it of hell, earth, and heaven. The painting is amazing, and the people that are painted are probably 3 times the size of me. You can climb to the top of the dome and I did with my mom. At the top you can look at the city down below. It was beautiful! On the way home from El Duomo my mom and I got lost. We went down one street and figured out that it was the wrong street. Then we went down another, and figured out that was wrong too. We asked a bunch of people for directions, but no one knew the way to our small little street. After awhile I got pretty nervous and we had no money or phone with us. It got really cold out and we didn't have sweatshirts either. But, then we saw my dad standing down the street and smiling at us. He was our hero!

The next day we went to the Leonardo da Vinci Museum. It was really cool because you got to actually turn the cranks and pull the levers on all of his inventions. There was a house of mirrors that Gui Gui loved. He went in again and again. The thing about the House of Mirrors was that there were 8 mirrors forming an octagon. You went in and stood in the middle of the floor and about a million images of you were in the mirrors and did what you did. The House of Mirrors was cool, but my favorite invention was a pulley thing. There was a block of wood and it weighted 33 pounds. If you used 33 pulleys to pull the load up it was effortless. Florence was great!

The Pantheon and more

MADDIE: Today was very rainy, from the time we woke up this morning and went to get pastries to, well, now. It's about 9:00 now and it's still raining. We went to the Pantheon today. That was planned but the rain wasn't. Neither was the amazing church we stumbled into on the way to the Panteon, or the gelato at about 1:00. Since it was rainig today, we didn't know if we would go to the Pantheon or not, but we decided to. We walked to the Pantheon because there were no Metro stops near it. We were almost there when we saw this big building. It was a church, so we decided to go in. We walked in, and it was breathtaking. It was one of the most amazing churches I had ever seen. The celings were covered with amazing paintings, and there were some awesome statues carved into the wall. They were so cool because  the marble the statue were carved into was different colors and it was carved so well that it looked like the robes were actually wrinkled with the cloth flowing down around the people. There was also a giant cross with Jesus on it on the wall. It was really cool and powerful to look up at. When we left the church we found the Pantheon and went insde. The dome on the celing was ginormous. Rain was coming through it into the middle of the Pantheon. We went to the bathroom at a McDonald's and a man came out of the women's  bathroom. It was very suprising. Then we got gelato at a place with about a million flavors after we had been wandering around in the rain for a while. I had the most delicious flavor ever, and I'm not even sure what it was. Then we hopped on a cab because it was so rainy and went home. This evening we had delicious pizza and pasta at a restaruant. Tomorrow we go to Florence.

     

Trip to the Colosseum

MAX:

Today we went to the Roman Colosseum.  We saw performers dressed up as gladiators outside.  It was HUGE.  It had a bunch of arches.  From the second level, you could see all of the old cages where they would keep the lions and bears that the gladiators would fight.  We also saw a big arch - the Arch of Constantine.   Then we ate lunch on the spanish steps.  After that we went home. 

We ate pasta for dinner and for dessert we had gelato which is italian ice cream.  Yum!

MAGUIRE:

I am such a super duper traveler. I ride around in my little portable stroller when my legs get tired, even as it goes bumpety bump over the cobblestones. I've mastered climbing aboard Metros and getting on and off escalators. I love eating coffee and berry flavored gelatto. I chow on margharita pizza. My favorite Italian word is "Buh" which means "I don't know." Today at the Collosseum we counted gladiators. We came up with 12. Yesterday, I got so worn out I conked out cold in my stroller on the way to the park. I woke up to see the arcade and my first awake words were "Mommy look at the blue rocket!" She said, "Do you want to ride it?" Of course, I said yes! This afternoon we laid low to slow down a little. I invented the game of Buffalo Turkey Chef! Everyone in the family played with me!  

  MADDIE:  Today we went to the Colloseum! It was awesome! We hopped the Metro at about ten this morning to go to the Colloseum. When we got there, we went to the place to get tickets, then we walked to the Colloseum. The Colloseum was amazing! It was giant, probably double the size of the Reds Stadium! It was really cool! The floor was mainly destroyed so you could see where the lions and bears were kept. It was pretty deep down to the bottom. Anyways, it was awesome! Tomorrow is our last day in Rome. Then, on to Florance.

MALLORY

Today we went to the Vatican it was so cool i love Italy. I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pizza is the only food i've eaten for lunch 

The Vatacin Museum and More

oday we went to the Vatacin Museum and to a park. At the Vatacin Museum, there were beautiful paintings all over the place. There were paintings on the celing that might have been even better than the ones on the walls. The Sistene Chapel was at the end of the museum, and there were paitings covering the whole ceiling. They were all by Michelangelo. I  have always wondered  how the artists get up onto the ceiling to paint the pictures on the ceiling! There were some tapestries on the walls that were amazing. I know I'd never have enough patience to weave all of those lines! This afternoon, we went to a park. It was a long walk there, but it was worth it. First, we went to this little, old arcade, and rode on some mini  bumper cars. They were really fun! Then, we got these bike/wagon thing-a-ma-bob-ers. They were even more fun than the bumper cars, but these motors that they had to get you up the hills, didn't work, so we got stuck trying to go up a hill, and we had to call the people who rented the bikes to us, and they came and fixed it. We went down this giant hill super speedy, "full power" gui calls it, and we had absolutely no control! It was awesome! Here are some pictures from yesterday and today. We're having great fun here!

A Trip to Vatican City

MAX:

Today we went to Vatican City. We saw St. Peter's and inside St. Peter's is a big  dome and where St. Peter is buried. Then we got some pizza and went to a castle that is now a museum. Inside the castle there were swords, cannons, cannonballs, shields, towers. We got pictures taken with street perforers dressed up like Gladiators. We went home and had dinner. After dinner we went for a walk in the rain around our apartment.

DAY 2 IN ROMA

MALLORY: Hi class.

I'm having a great time in Italy. We went to St. Peter's church. Me and my sister share a room.

The food is the best in the world. I hope you all are doing good.

MADDIE: Today we went to the Vatacin. We saw the big square and we got to go inside St. Peter's Basilica. Amazing is not nearly as spectacular as it was, and pictures cannot do the justice. When we left the country  that was smaller than Oxford, we got some delicious pizza, then went to a awesome castle. There was some cool armor and weapons including a sword that was both a sword and a gun. It had the bullet hole of the gun attached to the blade of the sword. Athe castle there was also a secret  bridge thing that the pope can escape across if any enemies try to attack him. So far, it's been a great trip.

MAGUIRE: Today we went to a castle!!! I saw where the cannons were and could  look down through the grates to where I was onvinced I saw the dungeons. I loved seeing the armor and weapons. It was like all of my   Lego guys had come to life!! There were even epaulats for their shoulders. I saw the place where the lookout stood and a statue  of the king. I love watching the pigeons and eating pizza and going bumpety bump on the cobblestone streets in my stroller. Wheee! 

We're in Rome

MADDIE:After flying for hours and hours, we're finally in Rome. Here is what's happened so far. On Monday morning we drove to the Dayton Airport. We hopped on a flight to Philly at about 1:30 in the afternoon. When we arrived at the Philly Airport, we walked around for a little while and then had dinner. At about 6:30, our flight left for Rome. It was an overnight flight, and no one got much sleep, but the amazing thing was that we had our own TV screens! We arrived in Rome this morning at about 10:30 and took a bus to our apartment. At about 1:00 pm today, one of my dad's former students who is a missionary in Rome, and his girlfriend came over. We went out to get pizza, and man was it good! Then, we all went to the Trevi Fountion. It was amazing! This evening my dad and I got some groceries and some pasta and gellato. The pasta was some of the best ever, and the gellato was dilicious too. Tomorrow we will probably go to the Vatican. So far, our trip is great!

MAX: Our flight over was long, but we had TV screens. After we got to the airport, we took a small bus to our apartment. The driver was funny. He sang "jingle bells". When we got to the apartment the owner was there and she showed us around. One of my dad's students, who is now a missionary in Rome met us and we went to some famous steps, called the Spanish Steps. There were some street performers and some people trying to sell us weird things. Then we went to the Trevi Fountain which is a famous fountain with winged horses, Neptune and some mermen. Back at our apartment my Dad and my sister, Maddie, brought us back dinner and some ice cream, which is called gellatto in Italy, for dessert. It was very good.

Off to Italia....

In six days we leave for Italy. We'll be headed to Roma, Firenze and Venice. Stay tuned for details...