Day 4 and beyond

Day 4: Assizi - Matt's favorite place. Saw the tomb of St. Francis of Assizi, bought some Italian spices (sorry if I ruined anyone's Christmas surprise) and climbed the hidden tower of a crumbling castle on a hill in Tuscany.

Day 5: Drove to Rome - crazy experience. Saw country #11 on our European tour. Hint: it's the smallest in the world, the least populated, and has the best security. No immigration troubles here. Visited the Coliseum at dusk and had a great Italian meal.

Day 6: Saw the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, and a museum for which you had to have reservations a week in advance and could only stay inside for two hours maximum. Being the unplanning vacationers that we are, of course we were denied entrance. We did take pictures of the postcards in the gift shop, though.

Day 7: Back in the Tuscany region, we visited Florence and the Ufizzi. We can recommend the da Vinci exhibit. No, not the da Vinci Code exhibit, but the actual life of Leo.

Day 8: Excting day. Please be seated before reading. Or more appropriately, tilt your head to the right. First stop: Pisa and the leaning tower. A few photo ops later, we hit the road for Cinque Terra. Spent a few hours on the beach and then back on the road in search of Christopher Columbus. We didn't find him in Genoa, but we did find his hotel and a Burger King.

Day 9: The largest aquarium in Europe. Spent the morning petting sting rays, barking at seals, and laughing at penguins. Then back on the road to Geneva. The road maps were a bit fuzzy, but we made it to the Mont Blanc tunnel, entering in France and exiting in Switzerland. Don't try holding your breath through this one, kids.

Day 10: Bree went back to the UK while Matt stayed on.

3 day interval

Day 11: Bree returns to Geneva...late.

Day 12: Opting to explore Switzerland this weekend, first stop was the Red Cross museum. Interesting and informative. Drove around the lake to Lausanne.

Day 13: Olympic Museum. Saw the everglowing torch(es). AND...Shannon Miller's autographed gymnast suit!! [Mom - remember when I would make-up balance beam routines on the couch and then little Matt would do flips on the arm chairs? I still contend that it wasn't my fault he broke Dad's favorite chair.]

Then...highlight of the mini-trip. Tour of the UN site in Geneva - original site of the League of Nations and today second only to New York. Discussed nuclear profitization, er, I mean, proliferation with our tour group and then went to the carnival - Fete de Geneve. Matt got his hair cut at one of the "hip" booths. We would've stayed for the fireworks, but the rain storm struck in fury.

Day 14: Bree went back to the UK while Matt stayed on.


And so concludes the Swiss/Italian adventure of 2006. Sorry for the delay, we've had technical difficulties, but more importantly, we've been lazy.