Siena

After seeing the Leaning Tower, we arrived in Siena, which felt like we stepped into another world. The streets were made of stone and there were huge walls everywhere. We checked into our AIRBNB which was the most perfect place we could have stayed. There was brick on the ceiling and lots of green on the walls. I felt like I was in a fairy tail. To get inside, we were just walking on the main street and came to a huge wooden door.

It brought us to an open courtyard where we were serenaded by a saxophone player in one of the other apartments. At the far right corner, we entered another wooden door that led to our apartment. I absolutely loved this place!

Snack time! It seemed only right to get some pizza :)

We went straight to the main square II Campo and made reservations at Alla Speranza Restaurante for dinner (recommended by Rick Steves) then got some wine at Bar il Palio. We had a wonderful view of the square and the wine was decently priced....all great things!

We walked to the Duomo and admired it for quite some time. It was so beautiful!

Back to the square! There was something happening the whole day where dude's of all ages dressed up in sweet black and yellow tights marched around the city drumming their hearts out. It was quite the experience.

After a while of peace, we heard more drumming! This time everyone was orange! We ate dinner back on the square where we made reservations. Unfortunately, this place did not live up to our expectations. My view was block by a plant, the food was just decent, and it was more expensive than Rick Steves wrote about. Perhaps the prices have increased since he was there, but we would strongly disagree that it's the best view in all of Italy (which is what he proclaimed). All is well though! We had a good time and enjoyed every moment of being in such a beautiful place.

Next we went to Key Largo Bar where you order at the bar, then go upstairs to a balcony that overlooks the square. Best seats ever! We enjoyed a "spritz" which was an orange drink we saw lots of people drinking. It was pretty good! .... I have no ideas what was in it though.
We finished the night off with some sorbet from Gelateria Grom. Raspberry and peach...YUM!

Yes Pleasa, Pisa!

Friday, September 5, 2014
Here we are!! Two slumberlands, 2 carryons, 2 day packs. Europe...we're ready for you! 

Well...after a few scares we made it!!! Our journey started off with a delayed flight from KC to Chicago. It kept getting pushed back more and more due to a thunderstorm in Chicago. We thought our flight might be cancelled, or we would miss our flight from Chicago to Munich. Luckily, we made it on both flights! When we got off the plane in Chicago, we RAN to the gate for our Munich flight...which was boarding when we arrived.

 We made it!

Saturday, September 6, 2014

1st things 1st....food and beer :) We shared our 1st beer together in Germany! Everything was delicious. 

 We spent about 5 hours in the Munich airport (we thought we would go through customs here and it would take a long time). We discovered we only needed to go through passport control which took about 5 minutes. The guard looked at Cody's passport picture, laughed and said "go on through." (he has super long Kurt Cobain hair in his pic and looks way different). Then we caught our flight to

Pisa! Our 1st taste of Italy.

I experienced a magical moment on the plane. I had the window seat and as we were descending, I could see the city and the water in clear view, the Shins song "So Now What" was playing in my headphones, and all was well with the world. I was overcome with excitement, joy, and contentment and overhelmed knowing I was about to enter the enchanting oasis of Italy.

We made it to our first AIRBNB! It's so adorable and clean! 

We dumped our luggage and went straight to explore the city.

We absolutely loved Pisa! It is so charming and full of life! I'm so glad we arrived in the evening. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed an atmosphere of romance, wine and gelato.

My 1st gelato experience in Italy was absolutely unforgettable! As most of my close friends and family know...I'm not a huge ice cream person. Give me some sour skittles or sour patch kids and I'm good to go. I'm pretty positive I'll be happy to give up candy for a month and eat gelato...like every day in Italy. Oh my goodness it was incredible!!! We got cookie flavor and we can't wait to try more kinds! We also had an interesting experience ordering food....haha we just pointed to things and when asked something we didn't understand, we smiled and gave a thumbs up. This ended with us getting a yummy sandwich on foccacia bread...not super sure of what else was on it, and some delicious wine. The atmosphere was enchanting...I felt like I was in a movie. There was a bachelorette party going on and Cody said it reminded him of Mama Mia...we wouldn't have been shocked if everyone all of a sudden broke out in song :)

Sunday, September 7, 2014 - Leaning Tower!
On our way to the Tower, we walked along the River Arno and stopped at a quaint cafe for pastries and Fanta (which could be called sparking OJ). It was really good!

The Leaning Tower was really enjoyable! We went 1st thing in the morning (which I highly recommend) when it was still cool and not very crowded. We were the 1st ones up and on the climb there, we were completely alone in the tower. It was so peaceful and we were able to take our time and really enjoy it. The view from the top was incredible and we were able to just sit a while and take it in. We had a to take some tacky pics as well just because :)

Look who I found hanging out at the Tower???

Beginning our climb to the top!

Beautiful Tuscany!

 Ok that's all for now! The internet is difficult to use here :( I was planning on working on the blog on our trains but so far none have had WiFi. I'll post again as soon as I can!!

Bye Bye Babies!

On the way to Kelsie and Zac's house!!! 

 

What? You're leaving for a month?

I'll just be in here the whole time snuggling with all the other fuzzy babies.