I truly almost forgot the date and when my mom called me this weekend to ask me how the packing was going, I said to her, “From Paris? I was only there for a day Mom” and she said, “Not Paris, you idiot for Miami” and that is when it hit me that in about a weeks time I would be off to visit my friends and family..

I have so much to do, and I really have until Friday because we are leaving right after work to spend the weekend in Madrid, since we leave from there on Monday. We are going to take advantage and see the Beauty and the Beast musical while we are there..The kids are very excited.. well , I think I’m more excited than they are.

I hope I will be able to see all of you there. Margie, are you ready for Disney?, Ana Marie, I don’t have your phone number I know you have given it to me on numerous occasions, please do so again, Tom and Wanda, you lost souls I hope you re appear, Alberto and Patricia, I know you will make time to come see us, Ana can’t wait to see the little new one, Leonor we will need to catch up.

Here are the details we get there Monday February the 4th, we will probalby be exhausted. I think the next day we will go up to WPB to visit Tony and family and also Evelyn will there from LA, Wed afternoon we leave for Disney and will be back on Sat, Sun the 10th is Tristan’s Baptism after that we are pretty much free, so please call me to book some time. I will not have a car and will not be able to get around, so I hope you can all pass by my dads house at the beach.

Can’t wait to see everyone there..

photo thanks to bridgepix

I’m planing our trip to Miami the week of February the 4Th, so we could be at the baptism of my nephew and future Godson.

Well, let me tell you there are a million websites out there that promise to fly you to the moon if you like for a low, low cost.. yes, and as we all know it’s all BS. I’m not sure if you have tried some of these websites but they are a little misleading. First of all they give you the price before the taxes.. You see “cheap flight to Miami $200″ and you say WOW, let me reserve it NOW and when you hit the reserve button is when you get the big surprise!!

regular fare $200
taxes $800
sur charges $100
Internet usage charge $50
a misl charge because we can $20
electronic ticket charge $40
discount if you fly on the wing -$20
TOTAL $2,000

None of it makes sense. There are also the websites that offer you different flights some with a starting price of $200 (which we now know is really about $2,000) and some with a price of $3,000, (imagine how much it really is after all the extras) for the same flight..now who would be stupid enough to say.Hey I want pay $3000 for a flight even though there is the same flight for $200.. Give me a break, why do they even include them.!!!

As you can see I’m a little frustrated right now, but I will keep searching in the hopes of finding the perfect flight where we don’t have to make 6 stops and wait about 12 hours during each one.

If you guys have any suggestions or favorite travel websites let me know, I’m in desperate need!!

photo google

think more than Florence I liked the quaint little town of Pisa..even though there is really not much to see other than a huge courtyard where you find a church, dome and the famous leaning tower of Pisa, that is very much leaning. Matt & I climbed to the top and it was awesome. It was magical to be on top of place you have read about all your life. It was really amazing and one of the best parts of the trip, because it was very relaxing and we didn’t have to walk a lot.

Marco loved running through the huge green courtyard, and looking at the tower. When you take a look at our pictures from the trip you will notice that Matt took more pictures of the tower than anywhere else on the trip. I think he got a little obsessed. anyway. We are glad to be home and are still enjoying the rest of the summer..

see picture here

t’s taken me a while to get back into the routine after our Italy trip. I must say although it was a lot of fun, we need a vacation from our vacation. Also, I think I forgot to mention that Isabella was sick the entire time we were in Italy and when we returned we found out she had a pneumonia!! poor thing.. She is all better now..

Ok, now for the Rome story.. first of all, after the roach motel hotel we stayed in Florence, Rome’s hotel was amazing.. They welcomed us with tea and cookies and the hotel was beautiful. It was right in the center of town and we were able to walk to many of the sites like the Roman Ruins and the Coliseum.

The three days we spent there were awesome, the entire city in enchanting, there are statues, museums, cathedrals, churches, fountains, everywhere. The entire city is just enchanting.. I don’t want to bore you with all the details..just to say, Rome is a city you all need to visit and soon.

view all pictures here

Florence was our first stop after the couple of days in the middle of nowhere (which don’t get me wrong was even more beautiful that some of the sights we saw). My first impression of Florence was not very good. Everything seemed a little dirty and I don’t know, I guess because it was the first “real” city we were visiting in Italy and I had heard so many great things about it my expectations were a little high.

There were parts that just didn’t appeal to me but it was beautiful. The churches and specially seeing the statue of David made it worth while. Our hotel was not so great because I’m not sure if you know in Europe if you reserve a 3 star hotel it is really a 2, a 4 is a 3 and so on.. We were told that, but we didn’t quite believe it until we got there and experienced it for ourselves. (we didn’t make the same mistake in Rome or Pisa.)

Overall, our stay in Florence was good, but not sure its a place I would return to…

I’m not sure if you all know that the main reason we went to Italy on our vacation was because Matt had been working there for a while as the Music Director for the soon (October) to be released Andrea Bocelli DVD special from PBS. We took advantage and met him there.

In our photo gallery you can see a couple of the rehearsal shots I was able to take. The show was in the Teatro del Silenzio in a town called Lajatico (the middle of nowhere). They had planned to record two shows so my mom and I were going to take turns taking care of the kids while the other saw the show but on the night my mom went they cancelled the show due to very strong winds so i told her to go the next night and that I would go to the rehearsal..so even though I didn’t get to see the actual show, the rehearsal sometimes is even better. I was able to hear Bocelli sing along with one of my favorite singers Sara Brightman.

Matt did an excellent job, it was very impressive to see him directing the entire thing..My mom loved the show which you can all see in PBS soon.

Did you miss me? I’m sure you have been patiently waiting for my return to hear all about our trip to Italy. Needless to say I will have to write our experience in several posts due to the great amount of information I have to share with all of you. So I will break it down by city then by special points of interest.

Overall, we had a great time, it was hot but at night it cooled down and the weather was awesome. Poor Isabella was sick the entire time with a cold and fever but in a way that was good for us because she didn’t have her usual energy. Marco was a real trouper, he walked many miles with us never once complaining that we were going to see another church or museum.

My mother came with us which allowed Matt & I to have a couple of evenings dining alone, very romantic. The food was great but after eating pasta, pizza and salad for 8 days I was ready for a big old hamburger.

You can view all the pictures here.

I never thought planning a vacation was going to be so stressful, Matt has been in Italy working and I’m alone with the kids, well my mom finally came down yesterday to help me out as she is also coming with us to like Marco calls it NITALIA… hahah (not sure why he calls it that). Between figuring out airfare, hotels, packing, finding a place for precious to stay while we are gone, working, and overall trying to maintain the household, I’m not going crazy, I’m officially crazy…

If any of you have any Italy traveling tips please comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you. I ‘m not sure if no one reads this or if you are too afraid or don’t know how to leave a comment, either way email me and let me know..well, I guess if you are not reading this you can’t email me, well yes you can email me but that is not the point here..you see I’m crazy.. yes, and you might ask, if you have no time for anything why are you taking the time to write this..and that is an excellent question and the answer is that writing is a great stress reliever for me and helps me get things off my chest.. OK, there I feel much better. See you all soon.

photo florence