As the birthplace of gelato, we expected Florence to have the very best gelato. It did not disappoint. For this visit, we were in town forless than 24 hours, so, we had to hit it hard. First, Dei Neri – Via dei Neri, 9/11, 50122 – had one of the best pistachios ever, and, the Read More …
“When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.” – St. Ambrose. Our interpretation of this astute quotation is – since gelato was created in the 16th century, for, no less a being than Catherine dei Medici, and we’d love to live like a Medici, we must eat all Read More …
We spent an afternoon learning how to become gladiators. Did you know that a female gladiator is called a gladiatrix? They had female gladiators 2000 years ago, and, our teacher was a gladiatrix. First, we learned all about the history of being a gladiator. I learned that, if you were a slave and you won Read More …
Pompeii is a super huge abandoned city. There used to be 250,000 people living there before Mount Vesuvius erupted. It is a big volcano that you can see from Pompeii. The city was covered by pumice and ash. In some places it was covered with 10 meters of ash. That was good for two reasons: Read More …
The Roman Colosseum was huge. The line to get in was even bigger. We were lucky that we went to Palatine Hill before the Colosseum, so we didn’t have to wait in line. I made a video there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcLPV9ysMlo Here are some tips for when you go. 1. Before you go, get tickets in advance. You Read More …
We visited the top 4 gelaterias in Florence, and, we tried a lot of their flavors. My dad almost always gets half pistachio and half chocolate or vanilla. My mom goes a little bit crazy and orders different flavors depending on I don’t know what. I usually get Cinnamon or Stracciatella if they have those. Read More …
Today we went to Pisa. It was super cool. Did you know it is 6 degrees off of being straight? After almost 300 steps that go around and around, we made it to the top. It is weird when you are going up there because on some parts you feel like you are sliding over Read More …
Today, we tried and failed to get the Florence card. In Italy, they call Florence, Firenze. The Firenze card is this little, blue card and it lets you skip the lines at the major museums for 3 days. We learned, at the hotel, that kids are free. So we went to this place called Palazzo Read More …
Today we hiked up this really hard path that was overlooking the ocean. I was breathless at the top of the steep, stone steps and we still had 2 hours of hiking to get to the next town over. Did you know that the low trails were washed away in landslides and floods a couple Read More …
I liked visiting Monterosso al Mare because I got to take a break from academics. To celebrate, we had a beach day. The beach here is a rocky coast with umbrellas and chairs. They also had “cabins,” which were lockers where you could change clothes. My day would have been really perfect if-this really good Read More …
