Retreat! White Flag! Freeze!

Do whatever you gotta do and get to a ladies retreat!

I am never disappointed whenever I take the time to go on a woman's retreat. It's so refreshing no matter where, when, or how.

We spent the night in Michigan City, heard from two godly women, spent time laughing until late in the evening, shopped Saturday, and met for ice cream in the evening.

Mom and I spent Saturday with Karen, JoAnna and Sue in Chicago

 All of the ladies at Sherman's

I'm so thankful for my church family and the emphasis that's placed on being an inter-generational community. We all have so much to offer one another, it's a beautiful thing.

When's the next outing?!

Heading Up North

Interestingly, (at least to me!) there are a lot of similarities between Michigan and Italy. Both are well known for their agricultural crops, are recognizable shapes, are peninsulas, and they share a similar latitude on the globe. I wonder if they talk about 'Up North' like we do? Anyway, that's where we went next, up the boot! We left Florence, went west to Pisa, then headed back east to Venice stopping at a winery for lunch along the way.

Pisa! The tower is a prayer tower, there's a Baptistery and a Cathedral there also, and that's about it, except a bazillion tourists! We had an hour there, but only needed 45 minutes.

I like this photo because you can really see the tower is angled compared to the other buildings.

See all the people with their hands in the air? They're getting the classic 'pushing the tower over' or 'holding it up' pictures. And they were everywhere! it was pretty comical to watch :)

Yep, it's still leaning and so are we!

 Ahhh I'm shoving it over! Peter's being behaved.

We did get McDonald's in Pisa. I've never been to McDonald's internationally, and yep, the fries are the same! yum!

Lunch was at a picturesque winery. I say winery, but it really was more of an Italian Farm. Grapes, olives, herbs, etc. We were given a tour and then a full course lunch. Note to future travelers: Our host told us it was a wet summer and poor harvest this year and the wine wont be great next year!

Grapes on the left, olives on the right, beauty all around.

After a long cross country haul, we made it to Venice at about 8:30 pm. We checked in to a very lovely hotel and then headed out for a quick bite along the canal.

In the morning we were up and at 'em starting with a tour of a Venetian glass factory. This was actually a factory tour, we watched him form a beautiful vase and horse figurine. They explained to us how they color the glass and some of the other techniques.

After a short boat ride, we were dropped off near the city center, just in time for a tour of their palace and then Cathedral.

A prince in his palace

Venetian = gold leafed or it should! Their palace was interesting because it's 'newer', and has features in it for weather and earthquakes that we hadnt come across yet. Art was done on canvases and there were fireplaces throughout because of the damp, cooler climate in Venice.

This was on the Bridge of 'Sighs'. It's the bridge connecting the palace and the prison, so prisoners would sigh at the last sight of the city and then at the first upon their release.

When we left the palace and walked to the Cathedral, it was nearly high tide, meaning water was bubbling up through the sidewalks and forming huge puddles in the city center. This is the foyer of the Cathedral, built specifically to manage the water.

Their Cathedral was also unique from what we'd seen. It was all done in gold and mosaics. Also, St. Mark's bones are supposedly buried here, talk about a watery grave! ;)

It was a lovely town, we were thankful to not be dodging cars and Vespas that's for sure! We spent the remainder of the day getting lunch and winding our way through the streets back to our hotel, it was actually more of a trick than we imagined!

This was as close as we got to a gondola ride. The weather was giving us trouble, and spoiler alert: it's not really as romantic an experience as you see in the movies!

We are very thankful we met some wonderful people on our trip, interesting to talk to and good traveling companions.

That evening was a farewell dinner with our group at our hotel, it was such a nice time, we talked late into the night and didnt want to part! Here I am with our fearless manager Letezia. Don'ta Worry!

The next morning it was a water taxi to the airport, a hop over the Alps to Zurich and then the long haul to O'Hare, before touching down in GR at about 9:30 pm, I think it was about 20 hours in total.

Ciao Italia! You were beautiful!

Under the Tuscan Sun

So, raise your hand if you realize Tuscany is a region in Italy? I guess I never really thought too much about it, mostly just read it on menus and bottles of EVOO. Anyway, it's a region just north of Rome, and includes Florence and Assisi, both places we visited!

We left Rome in the morning and headed to Assisi and the Cathedral of St. Francis. The views along the way were breathtaking! Our guide in Assisi was very good, one of our favorite lines from him was: 'We've been killing each other around here for centuries! But we're good now!' I think that was in reference to why every city seems to have a fortress and Italy's unification in the 1800's.

The view from Assisi! ooooo!!! Interestingly, the town was originally built on the hill to avoid malaria. Apparently the area pictured was a bit of low lands, but those ingenious Italians figured out how to dispel the water!

St. Francis' Cathedral and Monastery. If you know anything about St. Francis, he was very humble, and the first Pope 'for the poor', so a grand cathedral for him? Seems odd! It was built in honor of him, after he passed. Now everyone say, 'ohhhhhh' :) St. Francis had ties to N. Europe, so his cathedral is built in more of a gothic style, nothing like we saw in Rome. It's also the first place where painting in 3D was tried. The murals, while lovely, did look a bit like a school boy's compared to what we had just seen in Rome. Fascinating to think that style, (which we take for granted) wasnt even thought of at one point!

'Sup with the Monk?! They were all over, and young too, we wondered where all the 'real' monks were. Ya know, the old ones, with big beards and such.

The hedges on the grass behind us say Pax or peace.

Assisi was my favorite place we visited. Much quieter and offered lots of little Italian nooks and crannies I was hoping to see. 

Delicious meat and cheeses too!

A back alleyway, ooo lala lovely!

The city square

I took this to show how not so PC they are. If you didnt know the meat is pork, there's a plastic pig in the case and a real head in front to enlighten you! I'm thinking of suggesting this tactic to our Merchandising team... :)

After Assisi, it was on to Florence! City of Romance and Art! We got there in the evening with time to check out our hotel, explore a little and find some dinner.

Twisted staircase in the hotel room! So glad I told them it was our honeymoon!

City of bridges

This cathedral at the end of the Piazza was my dinnertime view, the guy in the photo too :)

The next morning we toured their art museum, mostly to see The David! It really was fascinating even for those of us who arent exactly artsy! 

The unfinished piece of marble was one of Michaelangelo's. He used to say that the figure is in the block, he merely finds it. The trouble is, Mickey was the only one who could find them...

Go ahead laugh, giggle, make jokes; we sure did! and so did the guide! :)

It really is amazing, his work is just unreal. He completed The David when he was 29. Let's not talk about what I've completed in that same time...

After the museum we made our way through the rain and PACKED streets and piazzas to their cathedral. On the way we stopped by the baptistery, I'm standing outside the famous golden Gates to Paradise. That building was under construction, so that's all you have folks!

Once we made it out of the rain and into their cathedral, (little dress code snafu on my part), we saw this. Which doesnt look like that much, but it's the largest painted mural surface in the world! Ohhhhh cool!

Florence is also known for its ornate jewelry and fine leathers, so they took us to factories (stores) for both of those, I'm sure the tour group gets a kick back for these outings! Nonetheless, things were very beautiful, cool to see, and interesting to learn about.

Grace Kelly made the purse in my hand quite famous, I can see why she loved it. Peter and I both picked up a little souvenir at the leather store and took advantage of having our initials pressed into it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon poking through Florence, seeing what we could see between the raindrops. For lunch we had gnocchi and lasagna - both very tasty. Something about how fresh their ingredients are.

It's a country FULL of Vespas!

In the evening it was group dinner time! They took us outside the city to a restaurant where we were served a full Tuscan dinner. Veggies, meats, breads, and dessert all while being serenaded with classic Italian music. That's Amore!

To bed! to bed! tomorrow we go to Pisa and Venice!