Make-A-List Monday - Arrivaderci, Roma!

 

Hi, all!

Well, it's official - we are back at home after ten lovely days in Italy!  Jet lag is finally in the past, and I've been re-discovering my sewing room, among other things!  First, though, let me share some of the pictures from our trip....

A warning - my husband took lots of "tourist-y" shots, of the architecture and stuff.  Most of my pictures were of things that caught my eye, like this fabulous camel...

Doesn't he have the funniest expression on his face?  Or how about this prime example of parking in Rome...

We saw a lot of those little SmartCars in Rome, and lots of them parked just like this.  We wondered how they managed to get in and out of them when they were parked like this, and someone suggested that maybe they climbed out the back hatch.  Who really knows?

But we did see loads of the tourist-y places too - like the Colosseum, which is right in the middle of Rome, in between much more modern buildings.  

It was fascinating to ride around Rome and see, stuck between modern buildings, ancient ruins dating back to the time of Christ.  

We also went to the Vatican, which is overwhelming in size and grandeur.  The art collected there and the history it covers was fascinating.

After Rome, we headed to Florence by train.  Train travel in Europe is wonderful and I wish we had more of it here in the states!  And of course, in Florence we had to go see Michelangelo's David....

...which is SO much bigger than you would think!  The statue is almost 17 feet tall, and the detail is incredible.  

We also went to see the Duomo, which is an incredible bit of architecture.  

It's hard to get a picture of the inside of the dome that does it justice, but it is the largest dome in Christendom and is actually two domes, one inside of the other!

Outside, I spotted this guy, who looks like he's wondering if it's ever going to rain.....

And then I saw this guy, who looks like Lord Voldemort demanding Malfoy to give him his wand!

We took a day trip into Tuscany, and stopped off at Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.  It really leans a LOT, and is amazing to think that it manages to stay upright!  

They really like their steak in Florence, and this was not an unusual sight to see in the window of a restaurant.  We ordered a Florentine steak, which they brought to the table raw for us to approve - about 28 ounces of gorgeous aged beef.  They cook it very rare and request that you don't ask for them to cook it more well-done, which was fine with me because I like my steak rare rare rare!

Then it was off by train again, this time to Venice.  We were actually staying on the island of Murano, which is about a fifteen minute boat ride from Venice, and we spent our last two days there instead of traveling by water taxi back and forth to Venice proper.  

They had some pretty spectacular bakeries in addition to the glass manufactories and shops that they are famous for, and absolutely fabulous Italian pasta and seafood.

It was beautiful and bright and we ate beside the canals most of the time we were there.  Some of the most amazing pasta I've ever had, and it makes me want to up my cooking game with Italian food!

Then came our last day, which started with an early morning water limousine ride to the airport.  Can you believe there's a dock at the airport?

I think that early boat ride was my husband's favorite part of the trip, particularly when a landing jet flew across our path to the dock!

Hopefully I haven't bored you too much with this eclectic choice of pictures from our trip!  But now that we are home, it's time to get back to normal, so here's my list for this week....

1.  Work on Nathanael's annual quilt, made with Kelli Fannin's Pokemon design.

2.  Prep fabrics for a baby quilt for our niece's new baby.

3.  Fold and shelve some new fabrics I bought at a local sale.

4.  Clean up the studio a bit.

I'm going to leave it at that this week, because I'm really trying hard to complete Nathanael's quilt.  I've started it already, and here's what I've done so far... 

While it isn't difficult sewing, it does take a while - this afternoon I cut out the Pikachu block (135 pieces!) and sewed it together.  All in all, that took about four hours!  I'm hoping to get one block done per day, and there are seven more, so hopefully I'll be done with the top by sometime next week.  That's the plan, anyway!

Well, now I really need to know - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah