Italy Vacation with Dana's Parents

I haven't updated the blog for several weeks and that's because I've been in Italy! I went for a work trip for a trade show in Bologna and then my mom and dad met me in Bologna and we traveled all over Italy together for the next 9 days. They stayed in Italy until April 14th and I had to come back to the real world on Easter Sunday, April 8th. We had a great time as the pictures below show.
This is a picture of my co-workers eating some yummy gelato in Bologna. They also attended the trade show which brought me to Italy. Caris and Diane were fun travel companions. We'll have to do it again, right ladies?



After meeting up in Bologna, my parents and I went straight to Venice for 2 days. Here's a picture of my dad as he wandered the Venice streets with his laptop trying to get wireless connection so he could Skype his granddaughter Elly on her 6th birthday. We found a connection and sang her happy birthday from the top of a Venice bridge. The locals walking by gave us some strange looks. If I could read minds, I think they'd be saying "Crazy Tourists". Happy 6th Birthday Elly!

This adorable dog Sissy lived at the apartment we rented in Venice. When I saw her, I knew it was a good sign the vacation was starting off on the right foot.




After Venice, we headed to the Cinque Terre. We stayed in the town of Vernazza and celebrated our arrival with a bottle of wine on the beach followed by a delicious dinner of the local delicacy, anchovies marinated in lemon. Yum!









The best part of the Cinque Terre is the 5 towns along the coast strung together with an amazing 7 hour hike. Very proud of mom and dad for making it through the whole up and down hill climbs with virtually no effort at all. (Okay, there was some huffing and puffing, but that was coming from both the 34 year old and the 64 year olds)






















This was my first vacation without Mark. Looks like my dad caught me in meloncholy moment missing my hubby and my dog.






After 3 days in the Cinque Terre, we decided to rent a car and drive through Tuscany. We followed our pattern of staying in "V" towns (Venice, Vernazza) and decided to stay in Volterra, a very medieval and cool town. Then we went to Assisi for 3 days including Good Friday. Being a very religious town (known for St. Francis of Assisi), Assisi had many interesting Easter festivals and events that we witnessed. One was this very disturbing, but fascinating parade on Good Friday where priests, monks and other religious folks reinacted the crucifiction of Christ, marching through the street in bare feet, carrying crosses. The only sound was a solemn drum beat and it actually felt like we all were part of the sick crowd assembled to watch a real crucifiction.

The best part of Assisi was all the animals! Everyone seemed to have a dog and the apartment we stayed in had tons of cats that loved to crawl in my lap and purr. Of course, I'd stop to pet the dogs whenever possible, and the really cute ones had me kneeling on the ground making a spectacle of myself.


The last stop of my Italy trip was Rome. We had to drop off our rental car and my brave dad actually drove the streets of Rome! We were happy to get rid of that car after 1 hour of one way streets and useless street signs.

We were in Rome for Easter Sunday and went to the Vatican for Easter Vigil mass. It was packed, but a good experience even though we left early since we were in standing room only and couldn't see or understand a thing (we stayed for 1.5 hours so have no idea how long the mass lasted. I can tell you, sitting through a mass this long would have been one of Mark's worst nightmares.)




This was definately a much needed vacation and a fun break with my parents who I hadn't seen since I left Portland for Hong Kong back in August! Thanks for the fun mom and dad. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your week on the Amalfi Coast.