Keys to your heart.

There are several spots along the river where people put a lock with their names on it and throw away the key into the Arno.

Uffizi

Sitting in the cafe at Galleria Uffizi and just admired some if the most famous art in the world including Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and well what else needs to be said.

You say Florence I say Firenze!

Ciao. After quite a long trip by plane, train and automobile we made it last night about 6:45pm local time.
I have a story about Ashley not believing I got her to Florence.
So, I had studied up on how to get here and upon our arrival in Rome and the hours spent in Italian customs (the customs is literally a sign posted with no agent anywhere, just walk on by) we headed to the train from airport to the crazy Rome Termini station, at which Ashley stated "your driving" which means get us there or else because I am tired. I had luckily read somewhere that the trains only state the end point city and not necessarily the stops between and luckily I had read that the "Milan" line is the one to Florence. However, in Italy Florence is called "Firenze". I said here is where we get off the train (I could see the doubt) we go out into the station and she says "are you sure we are in Florence?" She did not believe until finally one sign said "Florence Taxis". Thank God for that as I was about to get a beat down!
FYI Hotel David is very cute and the folks here run a nice little place.

Airport Bars

I love airport and hotels bars. Best places to people watch and engage in conversation; always interesting stories to be found.

Some of the things Andrea wants to do in Italy!

1. Drink VINO
2. The Uffizi
3. St. Patrick's Well
4. Assisi
5. Pantheon
6. Drink the water in Rome
7. Run Circus Maximus.
8. Vatican City
9. Sacred Steps
10. Turn 40.

Welcome

"The world is only a book and those who do not travel only read one page" - St. Augustine

I believe this probably sums up how our feeling about traveling and why this blog has been created by us (Ashley and Andrea) as a virtual diary of our adventures big and small, past, present and future. 

We had discussed creating a version of the "Mudflap Girls" for quite some time; of course we decided that if we could not afford to produce, shoot and star in our own travel show (which included tasting and listing the best Margaritas in the world) this blog would be a good start (however, we will still have the Margarita list and tastings).....so here we are!!

Ashley and I each have our own personal stories of what, when and where we were bit by the "bug" and mine started with early memories of the family road trip each year to Greenfield, Missouri for the annual "Buffalo Days" celebration. Why Greenfield Missouri you ask?  Of course like all good mid-western families you have family that lives in some great old small town that has changed little in 50 years.  My maternal great grandparents lived in Greenfield and I loved going to see them and the "Buffalo Days" celebration every year. 

Later, there was the big family road trip to Washington D.C. hitting historical sites all along the way from Oklahoma City to D.C. and it was the grand learning experience  (mind you that in my family going to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Smithsonian Museums, The U.S. Capital etc...is mixed with historical sites such as the Jack Daniels/Jim Beam Distillery and the R.J. Reynolds factory) the "American Experience" as I call it!

Finally, when I was 15 my mother was asked to teach as part of an exchange program with Oklahoma City University and Bunka Women's College in Tokyo, Japan; as a part of that trip we also went to Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand.  This was the first time I had been on a plane and from the moment it took off and thru the next 24 hours of planes and airports finally landing in Tokyo, I was hooked.  I don't think I slept the whole time!  It was this trip that opened my mind and challenged all my assumptions, perceptions and beliefs not only about the world but about myself. 

I believe that travel teaches us something about ourselves like nothing else can, it forces us to often see things outside what is shown by media and politics and most often forces us out of our own comfort zones, I usually learn something about myself, though not always something flattering. 

This blog is my virtual diary to these past adventures, what I can recall of them and to those adventures to come. 

"Like all great travelers I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen"-Benjamin Disraeli


Andrea

Some of the things Ashley wants to do in Italy

 

The Sistine Chapel

This is on my bucket list to see.  My goal is to lay down and look at it, I have been told that is frowned on. So I will do it on my way out of Vatican...

Grave of St. Rita

She died on  May 22, 1457 and she is in a glass coffin. 

In a nut shell: She was married against her will when twelve, to a husband who was both cruel and negligent. After her  husband was murdered Rita then found that her two sons were entertaining thoughts of avenging their father's murder; she feared they would put their desires into effect in accord with the evil custom of the Vendetta. With heroic love for their souls, she begged God to take them from this life rather than allow them to commit this great sin. Not long afterward they both died.  She applied for admittance to the Augustinian Convent in Cascia. She was refused three times. But she got in... Long story later (to late I know) On death bed she asked a friend to get her a rose from her family's estate. In the depths of the January winter, the friend found a single rose on a bush at the estate. Innumerable miracles took place through her intercession, and devotion to her spread far and wide. St. Rita's body in the shrine at Cascia, was preserved perfectly incorrupt for several centuries, and at times it gave off a sweet fragrance. At the beatification ceremony, the body of the Saint raised itself up and opened its eyes. We got to see this however if she dose sit up and open her eyes, I think I might freak out (to say the least)

Florence Cathedral

The Duomo, as it is ordinarily called, was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.