Dansie

Lets wrap this trip up already...

2011-08-21T17:09:00.001-07:00

Alright this is all out of order but who cares? This is at the restaurant the our last night in Italy. It is in Bergamo, the second city I lived in while in Italy, and it was the best place we ate. Rachel loved Bergamo. There are no tourists and it is beautiful.

They had a live band making the mood so romantic Rach could hardly stand it. Too bad we were still in our swimming suits from swimming all day in Lake Garda. We looked like idiots but I don't think we will see anyone from that night anytime soon.

I took a pic of the appetizer after I ate a lot of it.

Making the desserts.

This is from the ancient city on top of a hill. It is surrounded by a huge stone wall.

Rach enjoying the wall.

Another one of my sweet window pictures.

Bergamo the awesome. It is in the Pre-Alps and in the winter the entire town smells like roasting chestnuts. And yes... they are roasting on an open fire.

Part of the art museum in Bergamo. The main cathedral of Bergamo is in the background.

More of the center part of the old city of Bergamo.

I swear this little boy statues head was there when I lived here.

The main square in Citta' Alta (the High City) of Bergamo

This is a picture within a picture if you will. It is of a small peninsula that juts out in Lake Garda. It has a small medieval village called Sirmione on it as well as ancient Roman ruins you can see in the foreground. Its just a cool place that shows how long it has been inhabited by lots of different peoples for thousands of years.

The Duomo of Bergamo. It has huge tapestries on the inside which date back to the 9th century

Eating lunch at Sirmione on Lake Garda. That day had perfect weather with Palm trees and and clear water.

The beach near Sirmione on Lake Garda.

The castle of Sirmione

Tops were definitely optional at the lake.

This place had Olive trees throughout the restaurant and you had to go through a little cave to enter.

The moat surrounding the castle.

The gate to Sirmione

Rachel ready to storm the castle

Rachel in front of the Arena in Verona. This is where the story of Romeo and Juliet takes place.

Rachel effortlessly scaling the stairs. They were getting ready for an Opera there.

A window from the home of Juliet.

One of the arches of the Arena

The balcony of Juliet. Ah...L'amore...

Palazzo Ducale in Venice. This is the ruling palace of the Doge family. Before Napoleon the Ventians were very wealthy and powerful and were good at showing their power. They lost their empire and influence after their deleterious pact with Napoleon. Lets be honest though...Italy hasn't really been known for making the best alliances.

The water raises in St. Mark's square when the tide comes in.

The Basilica of Saint Mark.

Wow this is out of place. A statue of Juliet in Verona again.

Ok back to Venice. Sunset on the famous Rialto bridge.

Another couple enjoying a gondola ride.

The high tide in St. Mark's again.

We went for a gondola ride right at sunset. It was pretty awesome.

Don't rock the boat Rach!

Our gondolier. Can't remember his name.

Venetian window!

We went to a small island outside of Venice called Burano.

You can't tell by this picture but this tower is leaning over more than the one in Pisa. I don't hear anyone making a big deal about the leaning tower of Burano!

Burano

Gelato in Burano. This is where we got your necklaces Mom and Marcy.

She loooooves pictures!

These logs help to stop the boats that take you around. Pretty cool I thought but if you grew up on the coast you may disagree as to the extent of coolness.

A view of St Mark's square from a distance.

This is the Palo d' Oro or the Gold Wall in St. Marks Basilica. It is only turned to the congregation on Christmas Eve because it is sacred but is available to see by throngs of tourists daily for the basement price of ten euro.

I love to see the detail on the stone work in the churches.

The entire ceiling of the basilica is covered in plated gold.

This is the Ponte dei Sospiri or Bridge of Sighs. It connects the Judicial part of the Doge Palace with old prison and execution chambers. It got its name because for many found guilty the last light of day would have been seen from those small windows and the guilty would sigh as they crossed it. They had it all decorated for something with all these clouds.

Rachel being happy in front of St. Mark's

Palazzo Ducale again.

This tower actually fell. I think it was in the early part of the turn of the last century. The community held an emergency meeting the night after it fell and decided to start rebuilding it immediately. Its crazy that it didn't hit the palace or Saint Mark's.

This is our hotel.

Angelina Jolie was just getting ready to pick up Johnny Depp in this boat. You would have to have seen "The Tourist" to get that.

Just a Gypsy guy playing the violin. he was really good.

This waiter was really struggling to debone this fish. I thought it was pretty funny. Well I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If anyone is going to Italy ever and would like to have us come with them and pay for us we will strongly consider the request.

The Hilltowns of Southern Tuscany!!!!!

2011-07-09T14:26:00.001-07:00

Buon' Giorno a tutti! Ok this may be the most pictures ever posted but I couldn't decide which to leave out. I actually deleted a lot of them. We spent 3 nights in southern Tuscany. It was our favorite place on our trip and its easy to see why. It made me want to find out if they are in need of a pediatric dentist there! The picture above is of a little village called Castiglione d'Orcia. It has a castle on the highest peak and we hiked up to it.

This is a little house on the way up to the old castle. I guess they are not too worried about the vines ruining there grout between their stone. Seriously though, when was the last time you saw vines that thick? If you look close there is a guy on the porch.

If you thought these are just sheep you are wrong. They are just sheep that are in Tuscany!

Cypress tree lined roads are everywhere.

Honestly, I would not mind if this was my driveway.

This is the main piazza in a tiny village called Montichiello. I can't speak for Rachel but it was my favorite place of the entire trip. There was not one tourist here. It was everything that I love about Italy.

An old guy in town told us that this is where they used to shoe the horses.

I took a lot of pictures of doors and windows. I just like them alright. Geez!

Thsi is me conquering the hike in Castiglione d'Orcia.

More of Montichiello

The entire village is based on this huge rock cliff. You can see how they built the stairs right onto it.

This is the old guy I was talking with. I can't remember his name now. He was mayor of Castiglione d'Orcia for like 21 years. He told me, "I have lived my whole life being good to people and if you do that, people, more often than not, will be good to you." Good advice.

Not a bad view. I would be more likely to want to throw hay on the trailer if I was here. Nah, maybe not.

My beautiful wheel of aged Pecorino cheese from Pienza. I took care of it all the way back to Ohio and it has been delicious.

Can't take salami on the plane or boy would I have bought some!

Rachel posing in Montichiello. We just spent 3 days relaxing and going to little hilltowns.

An Italian dryer.

The view from the village of Pienza

I wish I could buy it all. I did get some olive oil.

When you look at this little store its easy to see why things just taste better in Italy.

Can't you just see Russel Crowe walking through the field sifting the wheat through his hands on the movie "Gladiator"?

Rach and I rode this into town. The basket was a little uncomfortable for her but.....no we didn't ride the bike.

Would it be so bad if this was the house you came home to every day?

Rachel and the logs she chopped for winter.

The view from the gate of Montichiello.

A stacked Italian dryer.

I asked this little lady about her flowers and we immediately became friends for life. She talked our ears off. She was born in this very house 93 years ago.

That is Pienza in the distance. We are at San Quirico d'Orcia I think.

The road down from where we stayed.

This is Chianciano Terme near where we stayed. It is know for its spas and hot baths clear back to Roman times. It has little spas and places to stay all around it now, too.

Chianciano Terme again

The vineyards of Palazzo Bandino where we stayed in Tuscany. Everything they feed you at dinner is from the farm of Palazzo Bandino. It is famous for its wine but we had to take their word for it.

This is by the turn off to Palazzo Bandino. I just thought it was a cool picture.

This is where we had breakfast everyday. These are our Dutch friends who actually live in Norway, Hans and Jenny.

More yummy gelato in Siena

The cathedral of Siena

We had time to relax and there was a free spa at Palazzo Bandino.

Us at Il Palio di Siena where they have the famous horse races. A horse died this year in the race.

Siena at Il Palio

The best part of this picture happened after when I threw a coin to this guy and he moved. Rachel had no idea the statue was a real guy painted gold! Funny stuff.

The pics above are from Pienza

Here it is! Rachel's moment of glory....this is Montepulciano where "Twilight" was filmed!

My wild boar pasta. Buon' appetito!

The door where Bella saved Edward. Save him Rachel!

She told me to just take a picture of the plate. She was fed up with me.

The view from our window. That is the spa on the right.

This is Palazzo Bandino where we stayed

I know this was a lot to take in but stay with me. We will finish our giro d'Italia in Venice, Verona, Lake Garda, and Bergamo next time on the Dansie's Italian Adventures.

Florence, Pisa, and Northern Tuscany

2011-06-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Andiamo! On to the land of the Etruscans! I could have sat and watched this guy paint all day. It would have been neat to paint a picture of him painting the dome on the bald spot on his head.

The basilica in Florence

The was a medieval toilet in the palace in Florence. There is a hole that drops all the way to the street where someone would supposedly sweep up whatever dropped out. This was like on the 4th floor so whatever dropped would drop with some speed.

This is a view from the bell tower in Florence at the Palazzo del Popolo.

The dome of the cathedral of Florence

Not sure if that gold ball or my forehead is shinier.

Rachel on the way down from the bell tower

This was one of the last stones placed on the tower with the stonemason's name and his age. I thought it was kind of cool.

The tower we climbed and Smiley

I took this from a window on the way up the tower

No wonder we couldn't find a place to park our scooter!

Rachel wanted these shoes and they were a mere 3 grand

Rach couldn't decide whether she was happy or sleepy.

The cathedral again

This is not the famous David but it was too long of a wait to go to the galleria and we were not going to wait in lines on this trip. I overheard a guide saying that many appendages were aggrandized to celebrate the gift of the body. Try to pick out which were aggrandized and which ones weren't.

Pretty creepy but this is for if the palace is attacked then archers could shoot through at the backs of as attackers as they came up the stairs without being seen.

Nothing like a good ol' fashioned wrestling match! I guess they were playing by prison rules.

The palace in Florence had paintings covering every inch of the interior.

Eat up Rach its been a long day. Its difficult to tell whether that pasta is going in or coming out.

Us in front of Ponte Vecchio which is full of stores selling gold jewelry made in the region.

You can see Rachel's disgust above about where they are storing the wine

Ponte Vecchio

There were frescoes all over the walls of this building in Pisa. I don't remember what it was called but it was like a cemetery

I hope my sepulcher is this ornate

That cemetery building in Pisa again.

The door of the basilica in Pisa

The baptistery in Pisa in the Piazza dei Miracoli

Boom there it is! Just like I promised! Those people up top of the leaning tower don't have to worry now that they are in the strong arms of Rachel. Next time we will travel to the southern hill towns of Tuscany and the village of Montepulciano where Bella saved Edward from revealing himself to the people in the timeless classic Twilight...the second one. You can imagine how happy Rachel was about that.

Cinque Terre and the Ligurian Coast

2011-06-20T15:43:00.001-07:00

Let us continue our journey of Italy to the basil patched cliffs of the Ligurian coast. This is the birthplace of pesto, the fairy tale of Christopher Columbus, and the true story of a small wooden boy named Pinocchio. It was also my first area of my mission! We stayed in a small seaside community just outside of Genova called Nervi. We spent an entire day hiking between the Cinque Terre which are five small villages that are wedged in between the mountains and the Mediterranean sea.

The weather was perfect the entire time we were here. Rachel loved the sea but felt like it was too cramped so we scratched it off the possible places we will live if and when we become American ambassadors to Italy.

Rachel, much like Christopher Columbus of old, was inspired by the winds of discovery!

The village above is Manarola. It is one of the smallest of the five villages but may be my favorite. We spent a lot of the day hiking around it and eating here, too.

Rachel with her palm tree hat

We hiked to the top of this hill and Rach didn't say "Ugh are we still going up higher?", more than seven to ten times by the time we got to that yellow building.

The whole village is on a foundation of rock and there are caves and archways throughout the coast.

This was my lunch. That is lobster ravioli and I dare say it rivals even the version at Olive Garden!

Now you tell me that if that isn't a pretty dang cute pic of Rachy! She loves her caprese salad.

Rachel holding up a wall

We took the train to the Cinque Terre from Nervi cause there is no parking. It worked out perfectly.

Rachel had the trofie with pesto al genovese. Even she admitted that the pesto there is just better in every way.

This is from a rock tower in Vernazza.

Ok these guys were jumping in the water and then letting the waves bring them back up to the dock on their feet! I should have recorded it cause it was cool. You can't see in the pic how hard the waves were hitting the rocks.

There are little paths all through the hills to the vineyards and vegetable gardens behind the villages.

This is the backside of Corniglia, the middle village. The only way to get there from here is a stairway that winds up those rocks.

Dinner in Nervi the night before Cinque Terre.

My rosy red cheeks and smirk may suggest that we tried the local wine, but that is water in my glass and my cheeks are almost always rosy.

This is Adriana. She was the first person in Italy that accepted our invitation to baptism and she is very special to me. I learned to love the Italian language as well as the Italian people from her. Also, I look like I am an NBA prospect when I stand next to her.

Well I hope you enjoyed our second installment of Rachel's trip to Italy 2011. Next time will be Pisa and Northern Tuscany and just as a teaser we may or may not have a pic of Rachel holding up the leaning tower......ok ya we do have one.

Italia 2011!!!

2011-06-19T17:39:00.001-07:00

Get ready to embark on the greatest vacation that has ever been taken since the invention of vacations. I am only going to post about 1 or 2 days at time cause I'm already sleepy and I just started. The pictures are not all in order and I'm too lazy to figure it out. The picture above is the first thing I saw when I sat up in bed the first morning in Lake Como. Pretty serene if I do say so myself. Buon' Viaggio!

This is the gallery in Milan by the famous La Scala opera house. This was actually the second day but again too lazy.

Rachy just munchin' some gelato. We had our fair share of gelato breaks.

You are supposed to spin all the way around on this bull's danglys without putting your foot down for good luck. Needless to say good luck was not achieved by Rachel.

We climbed to the roof of the Duomo in Milan on the second day. This church took around 400 years to complete and is pretty awesome.

Ok so when we arrived in Italy we went straight to Lake Como in the base of the Italian Alps. I took a pic of a couple making out and Rachel near them hoping the idea would rub off on her.

Just one of the hundreds of beautiful houses surrounding Lake Como. We stayed at a fishing village called Lezzeno in an old fisherman's wharf and lodge that has been renovated to a bed and breakfast called Nest on the Lake. I mean Jim from the office got married in Lake Como so you know its gotta be sweet.

This is the way into our room from the street. Who needs room to not get hit by cars I always say. It was way quiet believe it or not though. That is our car on the left Silver Lightning.

It was a little rainy the first day at the lake but overall the weather of the trip couldn't have been more perfect. I was still sweaty the entire time but for normal people it was perfect.

The hunchback of the Duomo of Milan.

This is a little restaurant where we ate twice. It was amazing! I had pasta all' amatriciana the first night and a creamy risotto with local caught fish the second. Rachel had a Carbonara and something else. This place was definitely one of the best places we ate.

The right view from our balcony

We went to Bellaggio and Varenna on a little boat the first day. We were both dead tired from jet lag though.

The left view from our balcony

It was really peaceful in Lezzeno. We wish we would have spent another night on the lake but you know what they say...hindsight makes you wish you had spent another night on the lake.

This is Bellagio or Varenna. We were pretty out of it right then.

Rachel on the way to Varenna. Bellagio is in the background. She never really did get over jet lag as evidenced by the amount of time I spent singing to myself in the car while she was dead asleep. the picture below is of these flowers that I feel like all of Northern Italy smells like this time of year. Not sure what it is called but it smells great. Stay tuned for the Cinque Terre and the Ligurian coast....or don't. whatever.

Halloween and Trick or treating

2010-11-04T18:05:00.001-07:00

Hulk, Woody and two witches

Watching some of the kids out trick or treating

Go Buckeyes!

2010-11-04T17:52:00.001-07:00

I finally went to a game with Brian. I called one of the
young women in our ward to watch the kids and we went. it was
such a nice day too. It was great to get out and do something
different. Brian thought I was bored at the game but
I'm pretty entertained by people watching.

Leeds Farm

2010-11-04T17:20:00.001-07:00

One Saturday afternoon the kids and I went with some friends
to another pumpkin farm.

Don't we look so cute?

This was a big pumpkin jumping thing. It was awesome!
Davis wouldn't really know because he spent most of his
time trying to climb up. It was way to slippery with
those darn socks. All the other kids who were a little bit bigger
ran to get on before little Davis could. It was kinda sad.
Finally, I told him to take his socks off and he was able to jump
for a minute. It was a waste of time waiting in the long line.
Reece was so mad she couldn't get on. I wished we would have
went with everyone else we were with to the corn boxes.

This was called the banana train. Reece was also
mad when I had to ride with her. She wants to be a
big girl.

The fun corn boxes. They are like a sand box but it's
corn instead, and less messy and a lot of fun!

Circle S Farms

2010-10-15T12:02:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went with some of our friends to pick
pumpkins at Circle S Farms.

All these girls are born within days of each other. So cute!
Reece, Emeri, Abby, and Averi.

The little girls are racing through the straw.
Emeri was the winner!

All the dad's were just letting there little girls
go down the slide by themselves but us.
Are we lame parents or what? I think
we make our kids scared of stuff sometimes.
Davis wouldn't even go down the slide with
Brian or me. At least Reece would. She didn't
have a choice.

Just being cute!

Farmer Davis- He looks so sweet and innocent in this picture.

This little farmer has 4 sets of fingers. Crazy!

Don't even think I'm pregnant because I'm not. I really
didn't want to put this picture in but I'm not really in any of
the other ones.

Davis and Abby

Trying to find some good pumpkins

There's a cute one

found some

Does she like to cheese or what?

I'm back

2010-10-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

I know that it has been months since I last posted, 8 months to
be exact. I don't really know why I stopped blogging. Well
I was just lazy I guess. I went back through and posted 15 posts. I didn't
write about most of them but I wanted to put pictures up because
I want this to be like my scrapbook. I'm sure if you look at this
you won't go back through and look at all the pictures but I had to
mention it so you know I didn't give up completely. I hope to be better
at keeping up but I we'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Birthday Brian!

2010-10-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is late but Happy Birthday to Brian. He just turned 28.
Wow! What an old man. We had some of his friends over for
cake and ice cream, It was a party!

Utah

2010-10-13T17:03:00.001-07:00

After Brian's parents came out we all flew back to Utah
for the last 2 weeks of Brian's break. It was great to see our
families and just hang out. Brian and I were going to take a road
trip from Utah to Washington state. We wanted to see if it could potentially
be a place for us to move when he finishes school. We decided not to
do the long trip and we went up to Park City for a couple of days instead.
It was great! We shopped and we each got a massage (which was heavenly.)
We ate out and went down the Alpine slide and coaster.
It was so nice to not have our darling little kids for those couple of day.
Thanks mom for watching them.
After we got home from PC we headed down to good old Green River Utah,
home of Brian's sisters family. They weren't able to come up to Nephi so
we went down there and got to experience Melon Days! It was great!

Reece sitting with Aunt Heather, Lauren and James at the Park.

My dad's friend let him borrow his fun machine one Sunday
afternoon and all the kids had a blast riding around the yard.

Grandpa, Laynee and Reece going for a ride.
Davis and Reece had so much fun playing with cousins
all day everyday.

Ashlyn gave Reece a bath all by herself. I loved that I
didn't have to do it. Thanks Ashy.

Going up the ski lift to go down the Alpine slide.
He looks excited doesn't he?

Davis catching candy with Easton at the Melon Days parade.

You can't tell in this picture but Davis had the worst cold while we
were in Green River. He looked miserable and his nose kept running and running.
He wasn't going to miss out on catching candy at a parade though.
What kid wouldn't?

Reece hugging Great Grandma Mary's doll.
She would give her hugs and kisses. It was
so sweet.

Cheese Please

Visitors

2010-10-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

Brian's parents came out to visit during Brian's fall break.
We went on a little trip while they were out here to Kirtland,
Niagara falls, and to Palmyra.

Kirtland Temple

This was a big bowl of Mac n cheese and Reece was starving and
ate almost the whole thing with that big fork. She was pretty proud.

Temple grounds at the Palmyra Temple.

In front of the Smiths log home.

First day of Preschool

2010-10-11T10:28:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to Davis!

2010-10-02T12:49:00.001-07:00

Franklin County Fair

2010-10-01T17:43:00.001-07:00

Tee-ball

2010-10-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

Summer Fun!

2010-10-01T17:25:00.001-07:00

Ouch!

2010-10-01T12:09:00.001-07:00

Soccer time

2010-10-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

Washington DC

2010-10-01T11:47:00.001-07:00

Easter!

2010-10-01T11:40:00.001-07:00