Through her Eyes

I handed down my Sony Cyber shot to Eva a few months ago. She loves taking pictures. Her favorite subject so far seems to be Audrey . . . being silly. She brought her camera along to Venice. I love to look through her pictures to see what exactly caught her eye. It is always interesting. Have a look~

At a rest stop in Alsace, France on the drive to Venice.

Waiting for our water taxi and being silly

Self portrait in the water taxi

Looking out of the water taxi

Campo Santa Margherita

Water fountain with mermaid design

The girls room in the apartment

Some of her reading material

reflection in a store window

New mask from Grandma

Gondola Bling

Our gondolier

Passing by the only remaining gondola workshop in Venice

View from the gondola

From the Gondola

There was no way we were leaving Venice without a gondola ride. The girls were set on it! Of the 500 gondolas reportedly in Venice I think they commented on *every* one - LOOK there is a gondola! LOOK there is a gondolier! So my mom and I coughed up the ridiculous price for a 30 minute ride and took the girls one evening. It was incredibly special. After throwing his hat to my mom, our gondolier took us down some quiet, peaceful canals where we felt like the only people in Venice. We enjoyed the silence and took in the experience (once I put the camera down.) Our evening on a gondola in Venice will be stored away in our memory vaults forever.

One of the ways the girls learned about gondolas and gondoliers was from this book, Gabriella's Song. I found out about it on Lucia's blog. It is a charming story that takes place in Venice.

Magical Venice

I've been thinking about how to describe Venice to you. And decided to show you the things that make Venice feel so magical. Here goes ~

Quiet, hidden canals

Masks

Gondolas

Perfectly shabby buildings

Expansive squares

Colorful Clotheslines

Stripes

Granitas

Evening aperitifs

Bridges

Have you been to Venice? What do you remember as magical?

buonasera

Back from an amazing 4 days in Venice! I'm happy to report the drive went very smoothly. Yeah, I know, who drives to Venice? Just doesn't seem like a destination to be reached by car. May as well drive to the moon. But, thanks to an overnight in Switzerland and one in Austria on the way home we did it!

Friends, Venice was magical. I can't wait to share it with you. I'll collect my thoughts and polish up some pictures and see you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

{Italy} Pisa

Pisa was beautiful. It was small, charming and felt, well, very Italian. Which is a ridiculous thing to say, I realize that, but it did. Perhaps Pisa felt so Italian because it didn't feel as touristy as Florence. Which is a also a ridiculous thing to say as it houses one of the 7 wonders of the (medieval) world. But it did. Pisa felt more "Italian" and less touristy than Florence. Doesn't make sense, I know. But how many feelings actually do?

Pisa should definitely be on your list of places to see in Italy. Not just for the Leaning Tower, but for the town as well. This is what we arrived to in Pisa. Don't worry we didn't get soaked. We decided to wait out the rain over cocktails. The next day was beautiful. This is Santa Maria della Spina. It is right on the Arno River.
After reading your comments, I feel a bit of regret for not taking a "pushing" picture. hmph.

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I've been busy this week! And to think I believed I would have all the time in the world once my youngest was in school 3 times a week. Ha!

This week I've been having a cyber baby shower for my sister! It has been fun. I set up a private blog for the shower where there were introductions, games, refreshments, gifts and even prizes! My cousin is so great to send little gifties to the game winners. Right now we're in the middle of gifts. Shower guests have sent me pictures of their gifts and I'm posting them on the blog. It's been a great way for those of us who don't live near Emily to celebrate her leap into motherhood. BTW, her leap could happen *any* day now. I'm can hardly wait!

I've also been making this pumpkin bread. My youngest and I could pretty much eat the entire loaf ourselves. It is delicious.

And I'm going into both girls classrooms to talk about Thanksgiving and do a little project. I've been trying to get that all sorted out. Pilgrim hats and bonnets for the 3 year olds and the 5-6 year olds will be making a Tree of Thankfullness. They are also making apple turnovers, which I assumed would be more well recieved by that age group than pumpkin pie.

I finished 2 quilts - the handprint quilt and Orion's baby quilt! Pictures soon -

And -I've had a head cold. My face doesn't hurt anymore, but I'm still a bit stuffy.

Um. So that's where I've been this week.

{Italy} The Tower Pose

Hilarious! Do I even need to tell you where these were taken?

There is a whole flickr group devoted to these "pushers."

{Italy} Things that caught my eye

If you read this blog with any regularity you know that strange, unusual, and, well, confusing things interest me as much as beautiful things do. Here are some of those types of things ~ Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you? (in their white hats and matching bags) Florence PoliceA street performer in Rome. He was pretending to be a drunk. He was actually quite good. Not that I'm a connoisseur of street performers pretending to be drunk. This little girl was just fascinated with him.
Love Locks. Do you know about these? I didn't until our trip to Rome last spring. You can read more about love locks here.

Eye glasses shop - love this sign.
Graffiti on the Metro in Rome

Teeny tiny truck that looked like it belonged in Busytown.

Big Gelato.
Whaddya buy when you go it Italy? Polish pottery of course. We saw this at a craft fair in Florence. Yes, I bought a piece. A darling little butter dish. I know it's wrong.

I can only assume this Porccetteria can be compared to a gelateria or a pizzeria. A shop where Pig is sold? I have a handful of friends and a husband who would *love* to patronize a house of pork. These Romans hang around the Colosseum and Pantheon selling photo opts for euros. Um. If you know me, you know how *mortified* I was by this whole ordeal. If you know Julie, you understand how we ended up in this situation :)

Coming up . . . PISA. The final destination.