Italian Adventure 2012: Day 13 Day at the Beach

AHHHHH….sleeping in. It was so greatJ We decided that we would sleep in today, take our time and head to the beach around 2pm. Camp Darby has a beach, but it is a short drive into the nearby town. But it has a private parking lot, that was full because we came on a Sunday late afternoon. It also has a bar and snack shack, equipment rental, lockers, dressing rooms, and showers. It was very nice. WE found a spot to throw our towels down and we hit the waters. Mommy only stays in the water a bit before heading back to the towel to catch some rays and pictures.

Danny and the boys decided to burry each other in the sand, it was very entertaining. We hung out for about 2 hours or so before cleaning up and headed to a local pizzeria for dinner. I know you would think we were getting tired of pizza already, but its cheap and pretty darn good. Not something we could get tired of eatting.

Danny really wanted a pair of those blue shorts :)

By the time we left the beach was crazy busy.

What we forgot was that most places don’t open for dinner until 630pm. But we were trying to get back so the boys could get to the pool. We thankfully found a nice spot right on the main square that proved to be more interesting than we would have thought. There was a man that apparently spent too much time in the sun and then too much time at the bar. He had passed out at the table and it got bad when he fell to the floor and when they tried to get him up he wouldn’t get up. So originally they called the EMT’s who took care of him for about 30 minutes and then the guy quickly sobered up and then was pissed off at the restaurant for calling people in to help. It looked like it was starting to get ugly, but then the police showed up. They gave the guy a chance to leave a few time and that was about the same time as we were heading out as well. So we tried to avoid him and just go straight to our car. So dinner turned out to be more interesting than we thought it was going to be. The pizza was pretty good, but the entertainment was better.

Tester Family marking our spot in Livorno.

The boys headed over to the pool and I hit the showers. I was trying to get everything together for the next day since we were planning on heading back to the beach in the morning for a bit. It was going to be a normal bedtime for us all and then we turned on the Olympics and what was suppose to be an early night turned into our normal 1130-12am bedtime again. But it was a great family day.

Italian Adventure 2012: Day 12 Travel to Darby

We really did not want to leave Rome, but we got up and packed it up at about 10am. I thought I was going to have to take on the crazy drivers since Danny was still feeling the effects of the night prior, but thankfully a trip to McDonald’s cured him. So it was off we went to Camp Darby. We pulled in around 230pm and got our keys to our cabin and headed over to the bowling alley to grab some lunch, CLOSED. We headed over to the Tuscan grill at 310, they just CLOSED at 3pm. So we were stuck grabbing some hot gods at the shoppette and eating them outside. We had to head over the commissary to get a few things for breakfast and dinner. We were trying to hurry so that the boys could play at this awesome pool that was right by our cabin. We got back at about 5pm and then we unpacked changed and ran over to the pool. Thankfully the last hour entry was free because for a base pool this place was very over priced. So our plan was to make sure we were back each night to take advantage of the free pool time.

The pool closed at 7pm and we showered and started dinner a bit late tonight, but everything was going a bit late today. After dinner we headed to the bowling center with the boys and I started laundry since it was much cheaper here than in Rome. So once the boys were done we headed over to finish up the laundry and then it was back to the cabin to hit the sack for the night. Pretty easy going day.

Mmmmm....steak, potatoes, and veggies

Our home for the next 4 days.

Italian Adventure 2012: Roaming Rome Day 2

So the boys thought yesterday was going to be a long walking day. Well yesterday has nothing on today. But we are going to make lots of fountain stops and get through it so the boys can hit the pool when we are done. We started today off at the Vatican Museum and man was it busy. Whoever said not to travel to Italy in August, has obviously never traveled to Italy in August. I thought that it was a great time to travel because apparently things were not as busy.

Brayden looking at hyroglyphics.

A real preserved mummy.

Another body fully preserved.

Brayden and Daddy acting out the statue.

So if this was not as busy, I can’t even imagine what it is like during the busy times. So we made our way through the museum and made it through to the end to what we really came their for, the Sistine Chapel. Wow, is all I have to say. The inside was just so breathtaking. You were not suppose to take pictures, but there were so many people doing it, so when in Rome, Rome, right?

We made our way out and we found ourselves in St. Peter’s Square.

Tester Family again making out footprint in the world.

Vatican guard

What we realized after we left was we missed St. Peter’s Basilica. I think we were so caught up in our picture taking and then the heat was starting to get pretty intense, so we tried to just get outta there and find some shade and a place for some lunch. We took a few pictures of the palace and bridge along the way, but we finally found a nice little place to grab some pizza for lunch. I could really eat this stuff every day, it is nothing like Pizza Hut or Papa John’s.

Looking back at Vatican city.

So we were off again and we entered into Piazza della Rotonda on our way to the Pantheon with three beautiful fountains. What we saw was a chance to cool off, lol. The boys were dipping their heads in and the next thing you know lots of people apparently thought it was a great idea, but not the police because there were officers blowing their whistles telling everyone to back up, lol. Well at least the boys are now a bit cooler. So on our way to the Pantheon we go.

Along our way we passed a few souvenir shops and Brayden really wanted a gladiator dress up thing. So he used his money and bought the one he wanted although we told him he should wait. Danny looked over and saw this awesome sign for Ryan. Him and all his buddies always say Spaghetti, so this sign was perfect and Ryan used his money to buy it. We get to the Pantheon and Brayden insists to put on his gladiator outfit thing. Poor little guy, it doesn’t fit him right, but he made it work for a second, but who got stuck carrying all the bag when he was done with it all, yep Daddy.

We went inside the Pantheon and it apparently it was the largest dome in Italy until Florence built the cathedral in 1436. The ceiling was very cool with its honeycomb shape that was once the only source of light for the Pantheon. It was free to enter and worth the stop for sure.

Next stop Treve fountain, but first we had to grab some gelato at a shop nearby. I am going to gain 20 pounds on this trip, lol. We finished our gelato and made our way over to Treve Fountain. They were doing construction on the left side of it, but it was still a wondrous site. Trying to take pictures was challenging because there were a lot of people trying to do the same thing. It didn’t help that this guy trying to charge for pictures kept putting his card in front of our camera and Danny let him know that he better not do it again and that he didn’t own the fountain so go away. The boys once again dipped their hats in the water to cool off, but had to do it quickly as their were police manning the fountain so people didn’t get in it I guess.

So the boys were about done at this point, but we had 2 more stops. We wanted to make it quick, so we headed over to the Spanish steps and did the photo thing and the boys saw this ship fountain thing in the front of the stair. People were walking onto this platform to fill up their water bottles, but what did my boys do? That’s right they held on to the side, got their balance in check and dipped their heads under the water spouts. Again giving people a great idea to cool off.

The metro was nearby, so Ryan led the way and we took the metro over to the Republica for our last stop of the day. In the center of the square was another fountain, but we made our way over to the Basilica where one of Michelangelo’s last sculptures is on display. I have been trying to look up more information on the sculpture, but can’t find anything on it. Thank goodness I brought an extra sleeved shirt with me today because all the churches we were going into required me to have my shoulders covered up.

We headed out of the Basilica and into over to the Fountain of the Naiads for one last cool down and picture opportunity.

We hopped on the metro and it was back to the campsite we went. The boys were ready to hit the pool. I had to get everything packed up and ready for our departure in the morning. I wanted to make sure everything was in line so that we could hang out at late as possible tonight. We met up with our Irish friends for dinner, drinks, and pool again. It was a great night. Brayden ended up falling asleep on me at around 2am. I think it is time for us to head back. I can’t believe that we didn’t take a single picture of us playing pool or hanging out with our friends, but this won’t be that last time seeing them. We have been invited to a traditional Irish wedding next summer of our two new friends and we can’t wait. We missed Northern Ireland on our trip last year so we are looking forward to going to Belfast next year for this once in a lifetime chance and we are so excited to see these two get married. Good bye Rome, thank you for changing our trip around.

RYAN’S CORNER:

Today we went to Rome again. This time we saw less things, but had to walk more. It took us the same time as yesterday. We saw the Vatican and the Spanish steps. We didn’t walk up all the Spanish steps. We walked up half of the steps. Well that’s all. Bye