Pizza, Pasta and Gelato

We've had our fair share of pizza, pasta and gelato these last few weeks in Italy. Klas has made it a habit to have at least one serving of gelato a day...his favourite flavours? Nutella, bocia, ciocolatta, nucciola...all have something to do with chocolate. My (Melissa) favourite flavour is pistaccio. So we compare each place to see which gelateria has the best gelato for each of these flavours. Oh, what a life!

We've spent this week on the Sorrento peninsula and Amalfi coast in the south of Italy. We've visited the archaeological site of Pompeii and climbed to the top of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that buried Pompeii. We toured the island of Capri, including the Blue Grotto where the water inside the cave appears flourescent blue. We spent a few hours walking through Naples (Napoli) - our least favourite place in Italy and probably the whole trip as it felt dirty and in decline. Finally, we took a windy but very scenic bus ride on the Amalfi coast, having lunch in Amalfi and swimming in Positano.

We've really enjoyed our visit to Italy. Tomorrow we head to Greece for ten days. Klas is worried that he'll lose ten pounds...what is he going to eat?

Colosseum at Pompeii

Volcanic crater at Mount Vesuvius

Inside the Blue Grotto, Capri

Amalfi

Positano

Trying limoncello

Ahhh...Tuscany

Perugia - outside Kylie's old apartment


Pienza, Tuscany



Avignonesi vineyard

We've had a wonderful week in Tuscany (Toscana) but it's to move on. We enjoyed our fabulous apartment and are glad that Steph and Bart were able to share it with us for a few days. They left for Rome mid-week.

We rented a car so we could make day trips from Montepulciano to the hill towns of Montalcino, Pienza, and Cortona (where the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" was based) in Tuscany, and Perugia and Assisi in Umbria. The roads were windy but we had beautiful scenery along the way. The grapes are ripe for picking. We enjoyed sampling the wines from this region.

The highlight for me (Melissa) was being able to do a walking tour that my sister, Kylie, had put together of Perugia. Kylie studied there for one semester in late 2002. It was fun to see where she lived, went to school, and socialised.

Tomorrow we're off to Sorrento to experience southern Italy.

Ciao from Italy

We've had a fun week in Italy with our friends, Steph and Bart. We met in Milan from where we caught a train, ferry and bus to reach Lezzeno, which is one of the towns on Lake Como. We spent a few days in Lake Como seeing the towns of Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio. We saw a villa where scenes from the latest James Bond movie and a Star Wars movie were filmed. And we enjoyed swimming in the lake. Check out this video of Klas jumping on a trampoline on the Lake...

Then we spent a couple of days in Venice. It's a very romantic city. The highlight was taking a gondola ride through the smaller canals.

We spent the last two days in Florence where Steph and Bart bought enough leather goods to kill several cows (you might want to call PETA). We saw Michelangelo's statue of David, which was very beautiful. We also went to Pisa one afternoon where we climbed the Leaning Tower.

We arrived in Montepulciano in the region of Tuscany today. We have a two-bedroom apartment with amazing views. We are spending a week here touring the region...and drinking lots of wine.

Here are some photos from the week.

In Milan, waiting with our bags


Relaxing, listening to Harry Potter in the park in Milan


Traveling to Lake Como




Bellagio, Lake Como


Bellagio, Lake Como


Steph relaxing in Varenna, Lake Como


Lenno, Lake Como


Bellagio, Lake Como


Dinner in our apartment in Venice - thanks to Bart for cooking


Aahhh, so romantic...gondola ride in Venice


Grand Canal, Venice


Piazza San Marco, Venice


Leaning Tower of Pisa


Ponte Vecchio, Florence


Ponte Vecchio, Florence


Steph and Bart have drunk enough wine for all of us, Montepulciano


Montepulciano, Tuscany

Off to Italy

We've had a really nice relaxing time in Sweden with our family. Now it's time to travel again for the next few months. We're leaving for Italy today. We're excited about meeting our Chicago friends, Steph and Bart, in Milan tomorrow. We'll be traveling with them for the next two weeks. Until the next post...

Ohrts - Välkommen till Stockholm

Anyone who knows us also knows about the infamous Ohrts - the Chicago family who adopted us when we became good friends with Amy during university. Chuck and Jerelen (Amy's parents) took a cruise from London with their neighbours, Janie and Steve, so we were fortunate to meet up with them on their stop in Stockholm earlier this week. It was so nice to catch up with them and show them around the town.