Civita di Bagnoragio was really neat. You had to hike up this bridge/path to get to the village.

Everywhere I turned in Civita seemed like a picture just waiting to be taken.

Kindra, Megan, Mitzi, Brad and I had a fabulous lunch in Civita.

More flowers and neat ancient architecture.

And more!

Ian doing the obligiatory tourist shot of holding up the leaning tower.

Mitzi is turning into a little acrobat.

Me, Brad, Megan, and Ashley on top of the leaning tower.
6-26-10 Saturday
Although today was a very hectic and somewhat stressful day as it’s “travel day”, it was also a great day of seeing some great sites as a family. The day started very hectic as we had to get all packed up, clean up the place we were staying, and get on the road as soon as possible. We were all a little sad to leave here as we’ve loved this place and had some great times. Brecken has been tasked with taking pictures of the places we stay just before we leave each time so we can remember them. Today we are heading to Vargo, which is a small little town about 3-5 miles from the main highway half way from Genoa to Milan. Up to this point we’ve just been staying at places that we’ve rented for a week that I’ve found on http://www.vrbo.com/ or http://www.homeaway.com/. I’ve learned that traveling with a family, it’s so much nicer to stay at a vacation home rental than at hotels when possible. The next 2 places we are staying at are home exchanges that we worked out from www. Homeexchange.com. The next one in Vargo is a “non-simumlateous” exchange. Meaning that this isn’t their primary home and they are going to let us stay at their vacation home now and then come stay at our home or vacation home sometime in the future. They wanted to come stay at our vacation rental we bought with a few others as an investment in Midway, Utah this next winter to come skiing, but the husband had something like an aneurism and has been in the hospital, so we aren’t quite sure if they’ll be able to come this next winter or some other time. Anyway, back to the travel log. Our first stop today was at Civita di Bagnoragio. I think I spelled it right. A tip for someone coming to Italy. Spend a day visiting Orvieto and then Civita di Bagnoragio, they are both well worth it. Orvieto is a fairly large “hill town” with quite a few tourists and a magnificent cathedral. Civita is probably about the smallest hill town there is. I read that there are only I think 12 permanent residents. You park in a tiny parking area that holds about 10 cars, then walk up this very steep bridge that goes up to the town. For being so small, it’s amazing. Every where you turn you find a picture you want to take. It’s extremely old and well preserved. The residents keep it very well maintained and they have beautiful flowers. Some of the kids weren’t feeling too well, so they stayed in the hot car while Kindra, Brad, Megan, Mitzi, and I went up to the town. We had lunch in a tiny café and it was wonderful. Then we walked around, took lots of pictures, and marveled at the place we were in. We finally hurried back to the other kids. There was a shop and ice-cream place right by the parking area, and I had given Brecken 20 euros to get ice cream while we were gone, but they were still pretty hot and ready for us to get back. Then we hit the road heading to Pisa. I haven’t really explored much of Pisa except what they call the “Field of Miracles”. That’s where the leaning tower is. There is a large grassy area and besides the tower, there’s a pretty impressive cathedral and baptistery as well. Brad, Megan, Ashley, Brecken and I all climbed up the leaning tower. It’s fairly expensive to climb up the tower, but an experience you have to do. Brecken didn’t want to go up to the very top level as she was scared. She get’s scared of heights and has been a little freaked out several times on our trip as we’ve gone up cable cars in the mountains, up on cliffs, or up high on cathedrals or such. The views are pretty impressive, but wants neater is climbing up and then looking straight down when you get on top. When you climb, at sections it feels like you are climbing up stairs, but not even going up but feels like you are almost going down as the tower is tilted, then it feels extremely steep. The stairs are worn from centuries of use, and the worn areas go from in by the center then out to the outsides based on where in the “lean” you are. It’s kind of crazy. Then at the top you can look not just straight down, but actually under you with nothing below you as you are hanging off the end of the tower. After Pisa we headed to Vargo. Graziella is the name of the lady who’s house we are staying at, and she was going to try and meet us there. They live in Genoa, but this is like a family vacation home for them. We finally found it as it was getting dark and nearly 10pm. She was such a sweet lady. She showed us around and explained everything the best she could in her very limited English. I’d ask a question or make a comment and she kept saying, “si, si, si.”. She had gone and bought some food for us and made sure we were settled before she left. She was so kind. I hope they get to Utah so we can repay their kindness.