The Many Faces of Italy

Venetian Carnevale Mask 2007

Wow! Where to begin? Italy is so much! So much culture, so much history, so much valued and beautiful art, so many vistas and views, so many options for visitors, so many pizzas and pasta dishes, so many ways to spend a lot of money!

The very best part of Italy for us was being with Laura, Robert, and Spencer and Ross. Honestly, as a parent that love well just never rests and is always running over with great things. Without our kids and their extended travels in the world for missions and work, who knows if we would have seen much of this planet at all. We have followed them to just about all fifty states as we brought Laura and Spencer out to CA before Ross was born. We have had the opportunity to spend lots of quality time in Utah, Mississippi and Virginia and New York and Scotland, England, China, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland. We didn't get to go to Brazil but got to live that experience through Chris' mission life. In our own defense we did go to Canada and Jim has been to Mexico, but for the most part our travels have always been family related. So a big thank you to our kids for broadening our horizons.

I think the best travel experiences require a lot of planning and research and learning both before, during and after a big trip like the one we enjoyed. All the travel books make so much more sense once you return and you have experienced what you are reading about. We had the opportunity to do the tourist things and also to live in a small village with our family and see the day to day real life Italy. That really broadened our experiences considerably. I can see that our impressions would have been very different had we only seen the big things. I think I want to tell you about it in categories. Some of the ones I have been mulling over in my mind are the people, the shopping, the fashion, the food, the art, the countryside and big cities and little villages, the religion, the antiquity. Our pictures are still on the flash drive so soon I can do a slide show or something comparable.

The Best Looking Faces of Italy!