European Vacation June 2008

On Monday June 9th I left Salt Lake and flew to London, arriving on June 10th. Debbie, Lizzie and Jamie met me at Heathrow Airport and took me to their home. Jamie was all smiles, but Lizzie was very tentative about me.
Debbie had asked me to bring a travel bed for Lizzie so she got in it to see how it worked. She tried to get Lizzie excited about it, but Lizzie's reaction was to escape as fast as possible.
Lizzie had on a California shirt. They will be moving to California at the end of the year.

I went with Debbie to enrichment that evening for lessons about 72 hour kits and how to crochet. We then enjoyed some delicious salads.

Thursday, June 12 , we flew to Pisa, Italy. It was a short flight to a different culture.Italy, the land of the scooters. They are probably needed because the roads in the cities are very narrow and the towns are far apart.
They needed some help holding up the leaning tower. I was surprised to find out that the reason it is such a famous building is that it was built leaning. The first 3 floors were completed in 1178. Then because of wars and such they didn't work on it. Meanwhile the foundations and subsoil settled, causing it to lean. But in 1272 someone came along who thought it was cool and that he could build it higher and stabilize the lean. After 2 more floors were added they had other wars and it was not finished and the bells installed in 1372.
Debbie, Jamie, Brian and Lizzie in front of the tower.

Lizzie and I in the city, I think this is a better view of the leaning bell tower of Pisa.
We then drove south to Volterra, a lovely old walled city. Sunny Italy was not very sunny when we first got there. We saw a lot of very heavy rain the first few days we were there. These clouds are behind the Villa, Il Poggino, where we stayed.

Here are my traveling companions, Debbie, Lizzie, Brian, and Jamie.

In the garden at Il Poggino is a very large solar panel. We saw a lot of solar panels in Europe, mostly on roofs of shops and houses.

Friday we went to see Tuscany with a visit to Siena and my introduction to Italian ice cream - gelato. We had to have gelato, it was raining and we had to dip into an open shop.
Lizzie enjoyed the ice cream and the mirror wall in the shop.

We then decided to visit a little walled town up on a hill and walked around Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is a fun little town with few tourists and no new town springing up around it like the other towns we had visited. The local artists live above their shops. We really enjoyed the beautiful little place.
Monteriggioni is very small with a plaza in the middle, surrounded by buildings.
In back of the buildings facing the plaza is a small alley with houses and gardens lining the inside of the city wall.
Debbie enjoyed looking at the surrounding country from the parking area. This is Tuscany, row upon row of grapes, and the hills fading into the mist.


Saturday we drove to Colle di Val d’Elsa. Brian and Lizzie are crossing the mote to the entrance. This is a wonderful place that helped me understand the city of Jerusalem being built on 3 hills. The town was built on top of 2 or 3 hills, the roads and alleys go up and down these hills.
But around it a modern city has sprung up below the wall.

The little family posing in the street. Elsa has tiny cobblestone streets that go up and down and the houses and shops are all built touching each other.

There are a few little alleys, some of them covered. We found a cute crystal shop where they do their own glass/crystal blowing and then engrave pictures and designs on it.

Here we are looking back from the road below Colle di Val d’Elsa. It seemed that through Tuscany there was either a walled city, some surrounded by more modern city, or a villa, surrounded by grape vines, on top of every hill. The roads were not built at the bottom of the hills, but along the sides. When it rains it really comes down and fills the streams through the valleys.
Next stop was the Residence San Rocco in Soiano del Lago. When we arrived, Heinz Sprenger was waiting for us. The management had left a key for us with him. We stayed for 2 nights in these beautiful condo style accommodations. Heinz and Erika are German and Heinz's hobby is genealogy research. We have been emailing for a couple of years. He has helped me find information on the Neff famiy and the Mennonites living in Germany.
They had a swimming pool here, as in the last place, but again it rained all the time we were there. This is a view of Lake Grada from our window.
We attended church Sunday morning in Verona. The ward was in a residential area with a beautiful arched entry way and very little parking. The cars were packed in very tightly and Brian let us out by the door before going to the street to park. The people at church were delightful, very friendly and helpful. A young women translated in RS and a young man, who had served a mission in Scotland, translated in SS and Sacrament Meeting.