Italy: Day 18 - Montecassino

Today was our last 'tour'. We met Aldo at base and took about an hour ride north. The Montecassino Monastery was founded by St. Benedict about 529 A.D. on the remnants of a pre-existing Roman fortification of the Municipum Casinum. The heathen cult was still practiced on this mountain site in the temple of Apollo and in a nearby holy grove to which a sacrifice area was adjoining. Montecassino became famous for the prodigious life and the Sepulcher of its founder. Through the ages, the abbey was looked upon as a place of holiness, culture and art for which it became renowned on a world-wide level. Around 577, the monastery was destroyed by the Longobards of Zotone, Duke of Beneventum, but early in the eighth century Pope Gregory II commissioned the Brescian Petronace to rebuild the monastery. In 883, the Saracens invaded and sacked the Monastery and burnt it down, causing the death of Bertarius its saint Abbot, Founder of medieval Cassino. The surviving monks first fled to Teano and later to Capua. Monastic life was only fully resumed towards the middle of the tenth century, thanks to Abbot Aligerno. The third destruction, caused by an earthquake, occurred in 1349. Nothing but a few walls remained of Abbot Desiderius' splendid building. Many new additions and embellishments were made during reconstruction so that the Abbey acquired the greatness and the imposing appearance it conserved until February 15, 1944, during the final stage of world war II when Montecassino happened to be on the firing line. This place of prayer and study which had become in these exceptional circumstances a peaceful shelter for hundreds of defenceless civilians, in only three hours was reduced to a heap of debris under which many of the refugees met their death. Reconstruction and decoration works took more than a decade and were exclusively financed by the Italian State. Here are some pictures that I captured during our visit there:
Picture of the abbey after we just got off the Autostrada.
Beautiful, peaceful grounds. You could stay all day here just to enjoy the peace and quiet here.
The grounds inside are beautiful.

Italy: Day 17 - Naples

We went into Naples today. Jenn has this great system where she drops the kids off at school and then heads down to the NATO base (free parking), walks across the street and jumps on the train to go into downtown Naples. It was great. She has done it several times, and really knows the system. We went up to this great museum with a great view of the city and a nice book store. We did not buy any books - they were all in Italian. We did enjoy the fairly clear day and the nice weather.

This is a view of Naples. It is amazing how crowded and close in everything is there.

Jesse enjoying the view.

Note the elevated freeways.

Italy: Day 16 - Awana in Italy

We needed a slow day after our travel day to Naples the day before. In the late afternoon, I took the kids (3 Woodson kids and 1 Short kid) to Awana. I helped out in the T&T (Truth and Training for 3rd - 6th grades) listening to verses (in English) and helping with the games.
After Awana - the adults went out to a fairly nice restaurant. It was wonderful food - but - more expensive than I was expecting. I think that we all had a good time today.
Strangely - as I look over my pictures - I found that I did not take any today. I should have captured some of the Awana games as they play different ones than we do here in San Diego.

Italy: Day 15 - Back to Naples

Today was the day we had to move out of or Tuscan villa and go back to Naples with our friends Peter and Jennifer.
We checked out and John and Liz drove us to the bus stop so that we could get to the train station. I had studied the map and the information in the villa about riding the bus. I assumed that there would be a bus/transit center where they could drop us off and we could get on the bus to the train station. No - it was just a regular bus stop! Well - when we were getting out of the Fiat - the bus shows up. The driver (obviously) did not want us to drag out our goodbyes to our friends. (Our friends were heading back to Roma in the Fiat - to take off the next day to their home country - we would not be seeing them for another year or so).
We hopped on the bus - and of course - you were supposed to have purchased tickets before you got on! I did not know this. The driver managed to say how much it was to the train station. Fortunately - I had enough cash and handed it over the wall to him. He was not too pleased that he had to do this - but - at least he did! It was amazing how fast the bus drove down the streets! We had been on some of the streets in days past - but we did not drive nearly that fast!
The train station was big - and we had to walk a ways to find the main entrance. We bought tickets at one of the automated ticket machines (it was rather expensive to buy tickets). We stood around waiting for our train to come up on the boards. After waiting around for about 45 minutes - I decided to go to the help/information desk. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes - I showed him the tickets I had bought and told him that I wanted to go to the Aversa station - he said that "That train does not leave from here!" I asked him what I should do. He then proceeded to write out a schedule on a piece of paper and hand it to me. I walked away very confused. I looked at what he had given me and found that it was an itinerary. We needed to get on a train (right now) and ride one stop, then change trains.
We found the platform that he indicated on his note, got on, got off and found that the next train into the station was bound for Aversa. We got on - but of course - did not have seats. We ended up sitting 3 in one compartment, and 1 in the other. I was able to find room for the bags above. The train ride was about 4 hours, and only 3 stops! It was nice - there was lots to look at as we went along. Lots of tunnels.
We arrived in Aversa around 2:00 in the afternoon. Peter came with the Suburban after we called him from Aversa.
Not many pictures this day.

Italy: Day 14 - Firenze

Today we went to the Firenze Duomo. We all piled into the Fiat and drove around the downtown section looking for a parking lot. We finally found one - yep - it was very expensive. At least we did not have to walk very far which was good for the little kids. We went first to the Firenze Duomo. On our way in - we lost Joe - the oldest Hess child. He did not see us duck inside the building. It was a fairly crowded square - and he must have been looking the other way when we all moved inside. Well - it took us a while to determine that we were actually missing one of the 6 kids. We looked all around inside the cathedral, then started looking outside. We found him in short order - he was still in the square outside. He had done the right thing - stayed where he was - so that we could locate him. Gotta hand it to him - he was brave for the 15-20 minutes that he was outside alone! After checking out the inside, we decided to climb to the top of the Duomo. Liz did not want to go and stayed with the youngest child. It took a good 30 minutes of walking UP to reach the top. When we got to the top - the view was very impressive! I took many pictures from the top. I don't think that Jesse really liked it - but I think he has fond memories of it now. Here are some pictures of the cathedral:

This is a picture of the bell tower attached to the Cathedral. In the next picture, I show that we are taller than the tower. Same tower as the picture above - but now we are on the top of the dome, looking down. It took a while to hike up. At times - the very narrow passageway was 2-ways. We were trying to go up while others were trying to go down. The kids did really well - I think they liked the adventure of it all.
Here is another shot looking down from the top of the dome. We are not at the very top - but - if you look at the shadow - we are where the dome meets.

After spending some time at the Duomo - we grabbed some lunch and walked about 4 blocks to the Accademia to see David. It was a most unassuming building. We were just walking along a street and came upon a sign that said that the line starts here. Fortunately, we did not have to wait long (10 minutes) like we had to wait for the Uffizi. They were pretty strict about no photos inside - so I don't have any pictures of David. All of the boys were very impressed of the statue. I think that they all took turns sketching David.
All in all - this was a great day. We did some shopping at the open air markets where we all bought some Christmas Presents.

Italy: Day 13 - Villa near Florence

Today was pretty much a 'stay at home' day. Jo and Liz took the car and went into Firenze to do some Christmas shopping. They were gone for the better part of the morning and half of the afternoon. John and I were home with the 6 kids. I took several of the older kids for a hike where we saw some crews harvesting olives in the fields. It was interesting to watch - they spread out some tarps on the ground under the tree, prune the tree and manually strip the olives and leaves onto the tarp. When they are done, they bundle up the tarp into bags. I was amazed at the amount of time and labor that must be. No wonder good olive oil costs so much in the store! I did not take too many pictures today - but here are some more pictures from around our villa:
Here is a picture that I took while we were on our hike. No - it was not a long hike - and it was a fairly warm day. The scenery was wonderful - no surprize there - we were in Tuscany. Caleb thought that he knew of a trail that took the back way to our villa. We could not find it easily.

After our hike, all of the boys were in our part of the villa. Our TV picked up local Italian stations, and the satellite picked up only German stations. In this picture the boys are all watching Sponge Bob Square Pants in German. It was interesting to see the kids all watching intently - but not knowing the words. (Do you really need to understand the words to enjoy Sponge Bob?)

Italy: Day 12 - Pisa and Lucca

One of my favorite days. We decided to go to Pisa today. Pisa was about an hour away from our villa. We found a parking spot not too far from the cathederal/tower. I was surprized that they actually allow people up in the tower these days. It was quite expensive - and the tours were very limited - and we did not go up. We did go in the cathedral and spent quite a bit of time walking around the chruch grounds. I was impressed. I was expecting that this would be quite the tourist trap. (well, it was that) The sights were very impressive. Here are some pics of Pisa:
We are driving towards Pisa - and I was able to get this picture from the car. I guess that I was not expecting the tower to have such a noticible lean.
We are just walking up to the chruch grounds. You can see the lean of the tower through the gate.
You really get the sense of the lean here.

Italy: Day 11 - Firenze

Today we (well - most of us) went to Firenze. John drove while Jo navigated. We found a great parking lot not too far from the Arno. We walked to the downtown district along the Arno. In one block, Jesse counted 178 motor scooters lined up one after another. I loved taking pictures of the bridges over the Arno. We went to the Uffizi (we had about a 2 hour wait). For those of you who don't know - the only way to get into the Uffizi is to wait in a long line. We met some interesting people in the line. John was able to try out his new language skills with some people in the line. We finally made it to the front of the line and were able to go into the museum. Bummer - no photos were allowed. (I kind of suspected this anyway!). We saw many of the pieces that the boys had studied. I really liked the place. It was really neat. You could be very close to the pieces. They had guards, and as John found out, they had electronic sensors that buzzed when you crossed too close to any one piece. At the end of the art section - there was a big exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci. It told of his life and some of the ideas he had. What a brilliant man! I think that the 3 boys who were with us had a better time here than seeing the art in the galleries. We went out for pizza tonight. Remember about reposo? Well - this place did not open until 7:30. We showed up just after 7:00 and had to wait outside until they opened. I think that they were pleased that we only ordered pizza - as they had several large reservations coming in at 8:00 or so. As it was - we were in and out in less than 45 minutes. It was expensive - but good. I think that all of the kids liked the pizza.
Here we are walking along the Arno to the Uffizi. What a great day for pictures.
One of the many bridges over the Arno.
The Ponte Vecchio from inside the Uffizi.

Italy: Day 10 - Siena

I went for a run today. I had a goal to run each day - especially when we were in the Firenze area. I got out of bed around 6:45 and took off. Running in Europe is much different than in San Diego. The roads do not contain any room to run! There is room for cars - and that is about it. I ran 'against' traffic - but the roads were so narrow - I did not feel comfortable. I ran about 5 miles - and much of it was on a fairly busy road. I spent more time watching where I could go when a car came around a bend that it was not a lot of fun. Today we went on a day trip to Siena. We all piled into the Fiat Ducato (notice it is not a Ducatti - which would have been really cool - but would not fit 10) and went to Siena. The drive was nice and the town was interesting. We were able to find a parking spot in town just inside the wall. I have heard that parking can be really bad. We walked about a mile up to the Duomo - and the kids were none to thrilled at the prospect of the walk. Anyway - when we got to the Duomo - it was covered with some scaffolding - and they wanted quite a bit of money to go in. Instead - we spent time in the Square and had a picnic lunch. We looked in some of the shops, and looked around for a place to eat lunch. We ended up not spending too much time in the town. Liz got carsick on the way back to our villa - she was pretty green by the time we made it home. John and I ran down to the village and picked up the last loaf of bread at the market. Here are some pictures from that day:

Here is a picture of the van that John rented and all of the kids. We were there early enough that we found a great parking spot in a parking garage.

Here is a picture of the Siena Duomo. It was about a mile walk from the parking garage to the Square and the Duomo. The town provided many photo opportunities.

Finally: we made it to the Duomo. This picture does not show the scaffolding - but you don't really get the sense of the size of the entire building. It was fairly large.

On our way out of town - we spotted a nice park and were able to find a free parking spot. The kids loved it. In fact - I think that they liked it more than seeing the town! Kids - what are we going to do with them?

This is one of the buildings in the town. I loved the colors of Tuscany.

Italy: Day 9 - Good Friends

Today - we spent the entire day around our villa overlooking Firenze. We walked to the small village near our villa where we purchased some bread, enjoyed some cafe and let the kids play. About 3:00 in the afternoon, our friends that used to live on our street in San Diego met us. At this time - there were 10 kids and 6 adults. I am sure that the owners of the villa were wondering what they were getting into when they rented to us! We had a great time of seeing some of our best friends together again. Here are some special pictures of that memorable day:

Views on the walk to the small village from our villa. The road was very narrow - interesting to keep 6 kids on the straight and narrow for the 1 mile walk. The cars went by very fast, and very close!

Peter and Tess
10 Kids; 6 Adults! It was nearly time to harvest the olives. At the end of the week - we saw some of the trees being harvested.

Italy: Day 8 - Bed and Breakfast in Umbria

We spent last night in a Agritourismo (bed and breakfast based on a working family farm). We had a wonderful meal. The rooms were small - and pretty cold. In the morning - I got some great shots before we left for Firenze. Peter, Jenn, Jo and I took a walk to see some of the countryside. It was really nice. We left all 6 kids in the rooms where they had a good time together.
This is a picture of the farmhouse. Most of the rooms and the dining room is in this building. The setting was most beautiful. This is taken in the early morning. There was a slight rainstorm over night - but it is not raining at this time.

Some of the views of nearby.

Here is a picture of Jennifer and JoEllyn on our hike.

After our wonderful day in Umbria, we drove through the rain to Tuscany. We arrived in Firenze around 2:00 - but could not get into our villa until 4:00 that afternoon. The kids were hungry (when are they not?). We got off the autostrada in the town of Scandicci. Driving around attempting to locate where we were on the map - we came upon a pizzeria. We decided to stop for a meal. They were happy to see us (it was amazing that they had not yet closed for riposo). We had pasta, pizza and Jo had this monster steak (traditional Tuscan style - which means rare). This was a bit more than she was expecting - and we were able to all enjoy the steak! We then decided that it was close enough to 4:00 and decided to drive to our villa - our home for the next week. It took us a bit of time to find out where we were. The owner of the villa had provided a fairly good map that I had printed before we left the US. When we finally found it - it was pouring rain. They let us in the gate and showed us around. Very nice. I was really pleased with the grounds and the shape of the house. We could not enjoy the view at the moment because of the rain. The owners were not concerned about the money - nice - they welcomed us and showed us around and explained how things worked. They provided keys and a remote to open the gate. Here are some pictures of where we stayed and what we saw around this area.


This was our villa for the week. It was a single house - but broken up into 4 complete living quarters. Our friends were on the left - they had sleeping room for 6. The owners were on site, as well has his parents. Our apartment was on the back side.

The views from the villa were spectacular. We spent many hours just gazing at the sites of Firenze in the distance. The grounds of the villa were very well maintained. We had to watch that the little ones did not get too near the pool. Caleb tried to swim in the (unheated) pool and got out after about 2 minutes.

This was the view from the back of our villa. This is looking into Firenze. Center Right - you can see the Firenze Duomo. What a great view!

Italy: Day 7 - Orvieto

We got up early this morning. Caleb W. needed to get a permanent cast on his finger that was broken. We were done with this by 10:00 or so. Peter was able to get the weekend off! We had planned on taking the train to Firenze to spend the week with our friends John and Liz. Since Peter was able to have 3 days off in a row (one of a few times he has had 3 whole days off) they decided to drive us! What fun! There was a little bit of rain as we were driving. We spent about 3 hours going North. We wanted to go to a place in Umbria called "Monster Park" where the kids could climb on the old statues and stone carvings. We got there and it really started raining. Since it was quite expensive to get in - we sat in the car, discussed our options and had a picnic while still in the car. We decided to go to Orvieto instead. It was only another 30 minutes. Wow! I am so glad that we did this instead. This was Europe like I was expecting it! There was a bit of rain when we first got there - but then it cleared off and we had a great time wandering around this great little town perched on the top of a hill. We parked at the bottom, rode the tram to the top and were able to go in the Duomo. Here are some of my pictures from that day:

The town is so small that they really encourage everyone to park in the large, free car park at the bottom of the hill. You pay a minimal fee, ride the funicolare to the top. The price of the ticket also includes a bus ride to the Duomo.

The town was great. I did not feel rushed, or hurried in any way like I did in both Roma and Napoli. By the time we were done with the Duomo, the rain had stopped. We loved looking around at all of the shops.

There were great opportunities for photos. I took many!

Italy: Day 6 - Mt. Vesuvio

Today we had a bit of a slow morning. Stayed around the house in the morning. In the afternoon, once the kids were done with school - we all piled into the Chevy Suburban and headed for Mt. Vesuvio. It is about 40 minutes from where we were staying. We went up a fairly steep road with lots of switchbacks. At the top we came to a parking lot - several tour buses were just leaving (good for us). We paid our money (this is a national park - so Italians don't need to pay).
The hike up to the top is steep for the first 1/2 mile or so. It then levels out for the next 3/4. You can see down into the crater of Vesuvio. It is incredible to see the steam still rising from various points inside the crater. The surface of the trail is a red pumice just as you might expect. The mountain is constantly monitored for movement. There were several stations with very modern instruments shooting lasers across the crater.
Here are some of my pictures that I took that day:


Here we are unloading all 6 kids from the Suburban. Driving a vehicle the size of this generates very strange looks throughout Italy. Remember - in Europe - the average size of a car is what we consider a compact. There are very few SUVs in all of Europe.

Mt. Vesuvio is still an active volcano. We could see steam and smell sulphur as we hiked around the rim of the crater.

Here we are driving back to our house. This picture shows how much of the mountain was removed in the eruption.

Italy: Day 5 - The Vatican

Today we were up really early: I think I set my alarm for 3:45 to catch our tour to the Vatican. Our tour bus was scheduled to leave at 5:00 in the morning. The boys did really well - I am so proud of them - they never complained once! Anyway - our trip to the Vatican was kind of a bummer. There was some sort of train/metro accident the day before - and the roads were absolutely packed with traffic all around Roma. It took us more than 5 hours to get to the Vatican from Napoli. When we got there - we were told that we had to be back at the bus in about 3 hours. What a rip. We spent some time in the Vatican museum (this was crowded also). We had a guide that explained some of the things we were seeing - he was good - but since we were there so late - he had to rush and I feel that we did not get to hear all of the things that he would have liked to tell us. The Vatican allows pictures anywhere except in the Cistine Chapel. They made me put my camera in my bag once we got to the Chapel. Here are a few of my pictures from this tour:

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took - it is sans people!

The Vatican museum is amazing. They have so many artifacts here - many are original - and there are some that are reproductions on display - while the original is somewhere else. I was impressed by the volume of pieces on display. The museum was crowded - and we ended up going through it 2 times as we were looking for some specific pieces of art. Yes - we found them - but it was hard.


We did not get to go in St. Peters - remember - it took us nearly 5 hours to get here - and we did not have as much time to explore as we would have liked. Here are Caleb and Jesse in St. Peter's Square.

Italy: Day 4 - Tour of Napoli

Today we went on a tour of Historic Napoli. We met the tour at the base - and they took us all around Napoli. What a great tour. We really enjoyed the sights, the sounds and the smell of Napoli. We learned much from our tour guide. He was very knowledgeable in all areas of Napoli. Napoli is amazing. There are 2.5 million people living in the area - and it appears that they all live in apartments. I did not see many single-family homes during our entire tour. Traffic is very busy - all the time. The roads are narrow, winding and many are one way. Several of the motorways are 'elevated' with no shoulder whatsoever, and very steep. The engineering is amazing. Our tour guide explained that in the 20 km by 20 km area of Napoli there are approximately 1000 churches. We saw 2 of them in quite some detail. I was able to get 1 picture of the first one before getting yelled at (no - I was not using flash). Here are some pictures of the sights we saw that day:The Bay of Napoli is behind us and we are looking to the North. We cannot see the downtown section of Napoli - but this is looking at some of the hillsides that comprise the city. We were in a beautiful point that overlooked much of the Bay.

We are heading to the downtown section of Napoli. This is just one example of the buildings in this area. The Bay of Napoli is to my left. This was taken in mid-morning - and the sun was very bright to my left. It was difficult to get good shots of the Bay at this time of day.

Flats looking onto the Bay of Napoli. What a wonderful place to live (if you don't have to have a car!) All of the flats and apartments looked really nice.

Italy: Day 3 - Our Home in Napoli

Today was a slower day. We stayed around our friends house in the Napoli area. Our luggage arrived around noon today! Yay - we finally have clean clothes. Here are a few pictures of the area where our friends live.

This is the 'street' on which our friends live. It is dirt - and very narrow. All of the houses have the gates that swing inwards for cars to park inside the 'compound'.

Trash pickup is kind of hit and miss in this part of Italy. When we were there - there was a trash hauler's strike going on. Interesting in that every once in a while - they light the trash on fire.

Beautiful colors and landscape. Our friends lived fairly close to a high voltage power transmission line.

Italy: Day 2 - Tour of Rome

Well - since we still did not have any luggage - our friends that we were staying with loaned us clothing and necessary items we needed for the next day. We scheduled a tour to Rome which left from the base about 10 KM away from where we were staying. We were able to get up easily enough as we were still not adjusted to Italy time. We met the bus with no problem - it was still dark. The bus did not go as fast as I would have liked - and it took close to 3 hours to get to Rome.
In Rome - we saw the Coliseum, the Trevi fountain and drove around and saw lots of neat sights. I took lots of pictures. (Yes - I did have all of my camera gear with me - that did not get lost - I carried it on the plane).
Needless to say - at the end of the day - we were pretty tired. I think that the boys both slept on the bus ride from Rome to Naples.
Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took that day:



I loved these guys. They knew enough English to have a good time. They really wanted people to dress up with all the gear - take a picture - then give them 5 Euro. I just took the pictures anyway.

Even though we were in Roma in October - it was still really crowded. I have cropped out most of the people from in front of the fountain - but the square was completely filled with people.