Halloween!

We went trick-or-treating in a small townhouse neighborhood and it was perfect for the toddlers. Andy, Kela and Aislyn Smith came with us and then we all went out to New Fong's for some Chinese afterwards.

These last two pictures were taken a couple days before Halloween. Nate HATED his costume at first, but Uncle Andy was able to coax him into wearing it for trick-or-treating thankfully! I thought it was so cute, he just HAD to wear it, right girls? Women understand this.

Pisa

We decided to take a short afternoon trip to Pisa and found it to be a perfect, little half-day trip. Not much to see...just the Leaning Tower, but it was relaxing and fun.

Italy Continued...The Cinque Terre

The last few days of our trip we visited the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) situated on the coast. The Cinque Terre is a World Heritage Site full of cliffside fisherman villages. We hiked to all five villages and it has to be one of the prettiest hikes we've taken yet. It took about 6 hours I think. The only bummer was I got sand in my shoes and had raw ankles by the end of it :(.



The first part of the hike was a cake walk on a paved, guard-railed pathway called Via Del Amore or 'Lover's Lane'. Lots of people declared their love on these rocks with 'Ti Amo' or hanging a lock. There's a popular young adult novel in Italy where the lovers proclaim their love by hanging a lock on a bridge...so it's all the rave in Italy.

San Gimignano

The other medieval hilltop town we visited was San Gigminano. It used to be called the 'town of a thousand towers'...but now, as you can see, it only has about 9 left. It's still gorgeous and impressive. I think I loved this town so much for it's charm as well...though it was much smaller and quaint than Siena. My favorite thing was how the vines would climb all over the rough stone buildings. It's just what I pictured Italy looking like.

Mmm Gelato! (Italian Icecream)...Supposedly we ate the best gelato in all the world at San Gimignano. Every year this association judges gelato all around the world and chooses the earth's best tasting gelato. San Gimignano is the current champion...but Aaron and I thought we had some just as good in Florence.

Siena

On our third day we took a tour of some medieval hilltop towns in the countryside of Tuscany. Siena was the first and then San Gimignano. I think Siena may have been my favorite place on the whole trip. I'm not sure why. I guess because it was just charming, and full of medieval history.

In Siena, we got to see the artwork of a famous medieval painter named Duccio. His masterpiece, the Maesta, is an incredible 13' high alterpiece painted with gold, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and other fine pigments mixed with egg yoke. It's still in quite good condition. Seeing the things I've studied up close was just unreal.

Maesta was in the museum next to this very interesting cathedral. The dark green and white stripes reminded us of Beetlejuice a little.

These are some frescoes for the private chapel of a wealthy Sienese family. They've never been restored but look like they could have been painted yesterday. Phenominal!

Siena has a tradition of rivaling neighborhood clans called 'contrarios'. There's about 9, I think. For example, the Eagles, the She-wolves, the Turtles, etc. Every year they hold a famous horse race dating back to medieval times called 'Il Palio'. There are no rules...you can try to knock others off their horse if you want. Whoever makes it around the shell-shaped plaza three times before anyone else is the winner. Shopkeepers put king-size mattresses in front of their windows for protection...it's crazy!

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The writer of the children's tale Pinocchio was from Siena, so the town is full of little "Pinocchio" dolls.