Siena

Siena, a charming little hillside village on the way to Rome, was well worth our quick stop.  It is beautiful, and is filled with lots of history.  

Look closely to see my dad and Briggs, on the steps of the cathedral. 

Piazza del Campo is the town square and hosts a famous horse race, the Palio, every year.

 

This is the church where St. Catherine's head is displayed.  It was smaller than I thought, and was very well preserved.  Relics are weird.

Check out the size of that pizza!

Siena's Duomo - it was beautiful, with lots to see inside.

This particular floor piece was Benson's favorite.  Maddie told him the story of the slaughter of the innocent, and he talked about the dead babies for days.  It was terrible.

Florence

I guess taking pictures 6 months before they are posted is crazy for lots of reasons.  It is completely nuts looking back at the kids and how much they have changed in just a short while.  Here is Benny, happy as can be to be out of the stroller.

 Our first view of the Duomo, definitely my favorite building in Italy.  It was fantastic.

 But the Duomo was not yet on our list, first we had to stop to see The David.  He's pretty fantastic too.  And very naked.  We had to wait for multiple hours to get in, but I guess it's a once in a lifetime thing, so we did it.

 It's pretty funny to hear my kids talk about Naked David now, because that's what he's called at our house.

 I'm not as mad as I appear in the picture, I don't think anyway.

 Stopping for a lunch break.

Stopping to drool over some high-piled gelato.

 It's not often we get pictures with both of us in the shot...so this is one of our favorites.

 Brigham ordered one kind of gelato, I ordered Nutella.  I thought it was Nutella gelato, turns out it was just Nutella.  So we switched.  And we were both happy.

 Inside the Duomo, where we hiked to the top.

 It was a tight squeeze on the way up, so it was very nice to get to the top, and to be outside.  And to put the kids down.

 It was also beautiful.

 Inside the baptistery.

 A snack, to keep me from vomiting.

 Cute Pinocchio.

 Back at our apartment, which was a gem of a place.  Slightly creepy, and smelled a little weird, but wonderful.  We played in the backyard until it got dark and until the mosquitoes got too bad for this little guy.

 A decent family photo after a long day of touring Florence.

 Here is a shot on our way out of town from the top of the city.

 The sun was super bright...don't mind the strange faces.

 El Duomo from afar.

And of course, we had to check out the souvenir stand on our way.   

Up next, Sienna.