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  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 68

    Our last day in Como

    May 20, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We had originally planned to spend the day on the lake. We were going to rent a boat and wake surf. This entire trip we expected it to be warm by now. Everyone has said this weather is usually cold. Since the weather didn’t cooperate with us, we had to change plans. We were all very disappointed. Gabe walked to the street market and found us a bag to pack up all our trip goodies! Did I tell you the 1st package we sent home is still in Lucca ? The Poste Italia sucks….the lady told us completely wrong and the package has never left Lucca. We are still working that out. I worked on some packing and the boys played video games together. We are all going to watch a minor league women’s soccer game. The game was cool. The stadium seating was covered. Which was good. Since is rained the entire day. After that soccer game we drove to Cernobbio. It sounds like “Chernobyl”. The traffic around Como has gotten so much worse since we first arrived. I cannot imagine it in the summer. It’s only a 2 lane road and in some places a 1 lane road. There was a car show going on in Cernobbio. So there were lots of cool cars driving around. We had a coffee and a pastry at a pastecheria on the lake. It’s Vitto’s favorite. Then we walked around a little bit. Gabe and I got a Bellini from the famous Harrys Bar in Venice. They have a little spot there that sells Bellinis, coffee and Chippriani products. Like pasta and sauces…We drove over to Franchi’s soccer game and watched his match. Then we finally made it to dinner. We didn’t get a proper lunch so we were all starving. We are super excited because we are going to a Lebanese restaurant. Vitto met the family who owns the restaurant at Tommis boxing class. The family has 5 boys and they all work at the restaurant. The food was wonderful. So homemade and tasted delicious. We were stuffed when we left. By the end of the night the restaurant was packed. They took a little while to bring our check and we really needed to get home to pack. Tomorrow we are leaving to go to Milan for the day. Ciao.Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 67

    Como

    May 19, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Rain Rain Go Away…Today we plan to just hang out with our friends, walk around and go to dinner tonight. Andrew, Renee and Tommi are going to have piadina’s for lunch. Gabe, Vitto and I went to a restaurant. I found a bean soup. It was pretty good. Tommi has a tennis tournament today so Andrew is going to go watch him. Then we will all go to dinner.
    We are going to our favorite pizza place tonight. It’s called Riva. We met in Piazza Volta for an apertivo before going to dinner in the rain. The pizza was fantastic!! We got a gelato after and went to bed. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow.    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 66

    Travel Day 4 back to Como

    May 18, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We began our day with urgent phone calls to American Airlines and American Express. Gabe requested an upgraded seat on the flight home and when he did that it changed all of our seats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So hopefully that gets sorted out. Have I mentioned I really want to come home ?
    After breakfast we walked over to the Arena. The line was so long. So we just took a look from the outside. We will have to rain check a tour of that later. It’s really cool. Looks like a mini colosseum in Rome. It’s still used all the time today for concerts and shows. A movie is actually being filmed there right now. Then we walked over to the Castleveccio. Its a medieval castle surrounded by what was a moat. It sits on the water canal and is connected to a bridge. The bridge is called Ponte Scaligero. We walked over the bridge and walked along the canal. The water is flowing really fast.
    Verona is a beautiful city. It’s not to big, walkable, has really nice stores and numerous churches and historical things to see. It defiantly deserves another visit.
    We are not able to stay at this hotel another night because its sold out. There was supposed to be a Formula 1 race in Bologna on Sunday. But the rain has been causing some very serious flooding to that area and they cancelled the race. We have experienced the rain but have not seen any of the flooding. After we packed up the car we grabbed a poke bowl for lunch. Renee got a chicken sandwich from the Amsterdam Chippys place. We actually didn’t see any of those in Amsterdam. We stopped at the Basilica Santa Anastasia before we headed out of town. We drove our final 2 hours and arrived in Como around 5pm. We have a really great apartment near the Duomo. Renee and I went to the store to get a few things for dinner. Gabe has calls tonight so we are staying in.
    *more photos to come    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 65

    Travel Day 3 back to Como

    May 17, 2023 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today we are going to drive 4 hours north to Verona. Verona is of course most famous for being the location setting for 3 of Shakespeares plays. Did you know Shakespeare never even went to Verona ?
    On our drive north we are going to stop at a place called “The Mall”. It’s a designer outlet outside of Florence. And when I say designer, I mean Gucci, Valentino, Ferragamo, YSL…all the major brands are there. After doing a little shopping, we stopped at a sandwich stand on the side of the road and grabbed some paninis. We wanted to get to Verona to see some of the city today. We checked into the hotel, parked the car and walked over to Juliet’s house. Not to be a total let down, but remember Romeo and Juliet is a fictional story. The balcony on the outside of this house was built in the 20th century. It’s in a cute little courtyard and there is a bronze statue dedicated to Juliet. The courtyard was made really famous by the movie Letters to Juliet. It’s really cute.
    By this point a few other monuments were closing and we would just have to see them tomorrow. We sat for an apertivo and then started our 22 minute walk to dinner. Our friend Ricardo sent us some dinner recommendations and we wanted to experience a very local restaurant. Dinner was different…we could hardly translate the menu and they had stewed horse as a dish. We took a cab back and got a gelato. We don’t have a place to stay tomorrow night so that should be an adventure…..Ciao.    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 64

    Travel Day 2 back to Como

    May 16, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    When we drove into Sulmona last night it was dark. So this morning we woke up to mountains. This area is surrounded by beautiful green mountains. The mountain range is called the Apennines. After our breakfast at our hotel to started driving towards Mount Sibillini. Near the town of Assisi. It looked like a cool mountain to explore and had lots of drivable roads around the mountain. But the rain got heavier as we approached the mountain. We decided to stop for lunch and see if the rain would let up. We found a cute trattoria along the road and knew it was going to be good when the fire truck was parked here. If the local municipal workers eat here that’s a good sign.
    After lunch we decided to change course and drive to Assisi instead. This town is of course famous for its connection to St. Francis of Assisi. There is a huge basilica there dedicated to St. Francis. It is also where he is buried. The basilica is beautiful. Its 3 stories. St. Francis tomb was built underground, in a circular room and it has its own alter and alcoves and pews to pray surrounding the tomb. There is a oil fueled hanging lantern that stays lit all year long. The oil is given to the church from a different region in Italy each year. The 1st floor basilica is dark and windowless but was the most beautiful in my opinion. We were told that long ago when it was only eliminated by oil flames. Its very dark and mysterious. It was meant to make you think deeper about your journey with God.
    The upper basilica is filled with stained glass windows and a huge arched ceiling. On all the Walls of the upper basilica the walls are covered with frescos each one depreciating the life of St. Francis from birth to death. The upper basilica is meant to have you feel uplifted and create a positive spiritual connection to God.
    St. Francis is the patron saint of Italy. The basilica was built two years after St. Francis death. So very quickly. Construction began in 1228. Finished in 1253. The city of Assisi is preserved in its medieval era. There is a lot to see in Assisi. In better weather, its a beautiful city to explore all the different churches and monuments dedicated to St. Francis.
    We arrived in the town of Perugia. The rain did not let up. We took the car and drove to dinner at a cute pizzeria. The pizza was delicious! On to tomorrow….    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 63

    Travel Day 1 back to Como

    May 15, 2023 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    We woke up on our last morning in Amsterdam and rode bikes to very local bakery famous for their Apple pie. We got a coffee and a piece of pie to share. Then we walked around the street market. We brought stroopwaffles and chocolate croissants to the kids. Then we got our bikes and went to St Nicholas Basicilla. The Catholic Church. It was really pretty. They were about to have mass so we had to be very quiet. The church had beautiful frescos of the stations of the cross. My favorite was the last supper image.   The kids wanted to go to Riplys believe it or not. We let them go explore the museum and we sat in the square and waited for them. After they were finished we went to lunch at the Irish pub. It’s close to the hotel and has something for everyone. We got all packed for the airport and took an Uber. Our flight was delayed again. Once we landed in Naples we rearranged the car and started driving to a small town in the Abruzzo region called Sulmona. We stopped for dinner at Trattoria Pepe. It was outside of Naples in Casserta. There is a beautiful palace in that town that I wanted to go see but unfortunately it didn’t fit into the timeline. The plan was to go to a town called Bucchianico tomorrow. I had done some research several years ago about my great grandfather and identified that he may from that town. At the very very last minute I logged into my ancestry.com account that I had set up years ago and found I had all these new “connections”. Ancestry connected me with 3 family trees from other people who have my great grandfathers name on their tree. It also had quite a few new sources / documents to help me determine what information is correct. I can see his draft card, marriage record, citizenship record and several census records. Those I can agree are all correct. I’ve hit a wall with the passenger manifests and what city he arrived into. That’s where the spelling of his name gets changed or not? I cannot determine on my own. I need to show my family this information and see what they can help confirm or deny. So ultimately we are going to alter our course and continue driving north. I want to get this part of my family history researched so when we come on our next trip we have a true Sandone family history.
    *We are going to take a few days to drive back to Como. We are going to call each day a “travel day”.    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 62

    Amsterdam Day 3

    May 14, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Mothers Day in Amsterdam was beautiful. We slept in and then rode bikes to brunch at The Avocado Show. I had such high hopes for this place. I got avocado toast with truffle. The kids got spirulina pancakes with bananas and bacon. Gabe got poached eggs on top of avocado halves, hollandaise on the side. After lunch we went to work on our posts from the past few days. We were enjoying the city so much we forgot to post. We grabbed a snack and headed out to a park that Gabe was told was super nice. It was 15 minutes from here by bike, in a much more residential neighborhood with beautiful huge tall homes. The park was huge it had 3 nice restaurants and several carts selling ice cream and hot dogs. We stopped and relaxed in the grass while Andrew played frisbee with some local guys. We stoped at one of the restaurants to eat outside and enjoy the park. We rode back to the hotel and decided what we were going to get for dinner. We all wanted hibachi from the other night that we missed. Hibachi is really expensive here. They have one hibachi restaurant that has a Michelin star. So we opted for a local Chinese restaurant instead. It was great! Exactly what we were wanting. Gabe is taking the kids to ride electric scooters tonight. I am going to sleep early. We have a half day tomorrow and then we fly back to Naples. Happy Mothers Day!
    Ciao, Veronica    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 61

    Amsterdam Day 2

    May 13, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Saturday in Amsterdam. The weather is sunny and beautiful. The morning starts out a little chilly and then by the afternoon a tshirt is all you need. We started out the day with Dutch Pancakes. They are very similar to a crepe just a little thicker and larger. Gabe got his with bacon baked into it and a fried egg on top. They have all kinds of different fruit toppings. We are loving riding bikes around the city. However, we have gotten some looks and several corrections on “proper” bike etiquette. Andrew has managed to get separated from us multiple times. After breakfast we rode over to the Anne Frank Haus. Back at the beginning of the trip, when I figured out how to use Amazon Italy, I ordered the kids Anne Franks Diary to read. The plan was they would finish the book before arriving in Amsterdam and then we would go to the museum. For some reason, nothing told me to go to the museum website and look into the tickets. If I had, then I would of discovered the tickets are extremely hard to get and are only released on certain days. A few tickets are released each day. I set an alarm every day and checked the website everyday to try to get a ticket. No luck. I tried to buy them on a site like Craigslist. Nope. So we only got to see it from the outside. We listed to a My WoWo about it. It was still a very nice experience. Renee and I decided to go to the flagship 4 story H & M. Gabe and Andrew went back to the hotel. After shopping we all went to lunch at The Butcher. It’s a burger place. I had fish and chips but they said the burgers were awesome. We took a little mid day rest and then got our bikes back out to do more exploring. We went to Ouse Kerk. It’s a 14th century Protestant Church. Originally it was a Catholic Church. It’s in a prominent place in the center of town in Dam Square. The outside is very Catholic cathedral looking. But the inside was looted, striped, and painted over to be converted to a Protestant church. This happened in 1578 when the Catholic Reformation occurred in most of Europe. This was my first time in a Protestant Church. The organ is original and the acoustics are apparently wonderful. Gabe and I are going to dinner tonight on our own. The kids are going to have Papa Johns pizza and try to watch the Mario Movie. Gabe and I are going to The Duchess. I am very excited. We got ready for our very European dinner at 8:45pm. The menu is shared small and large plates. We had tuna tartare, a scallop with hollandaise, a cold zucchini salad with Parmesan and shaved truffle. Followed by lobster pasta and 10 kinds of mushroom risotto. Everything was amazing. I would eat here again. Hopefully we can try to find that hibachi place tomorrow. Gabe got me some beautiful flowers to enjoy. I don’t want to leave them here. Ciao!Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 60

    Amsterdam Day 1

    May 12, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Today we had to wake up SUPER early to catch a train and then a bus to get to the flower garden Mom wanted to go to. Andrew wanted to ride bikes as soon as we to got to the hotel, we will ride them soon. Unfortunately, we were to late to take the train, so we had to get an Uber. We walked to get some breakfast, a sugary waffle called a Stroopwafel. My stomach was hurting, so I didn’t eat it. They made them hot and fresh right in the shop. Andrew ate them and he really like them. We took an Uber to get to the bus, then we had to wait a little while for the bus to arrive. Andrew walked away to go look around, and he took to long and the bus showed up. We all got on but he still hadn’t come back, so Dad had to stay back and find him. They got on the bus right after us. It’s about a 40 minute ride out to this garden. After we got back together, we started our adventure. There were tons and tons a beautiful flowers and small buildings. There was even a playground and a zip line! It was super fun and I loved watching Mom and Dad take pictures and looking at ALL the pretty flowers. I was starving by then, so we got some fries, they were delicious. Most Europeans eat fries or “Chips” with mayonnaise. But their mayonnaise is different than ours. It’s thicker and creamier. We walked around the entire garden. The sun came out and it started to get warmer. We got back to the hotel and we got some bikes. We biked to the Van Gogh museum. We have a timed ticket entry at 3:15pm. Vincent Van Gogh is a famous painter who painted the Starry Night. We didn’t see it tho. Van Gogh had a brother, Theo who was a big part of his life. Van Gogh was mentally ill, so he was in a mental hospital for awhile. He even cut off his own ear! Sadly, he died by committing suicide. After the Van Gogh museum, we were all very tired, especially me. But we decided to have linner, a mix of lunch and dinner, kind of like Apertivo. We met a guy who gave us a good hibachi place to eat dinner. We tried to go there, but we got separated from Mom and got lost! We tried to call her, but Dad’s phone died. We biked to a convenience store who let us use his phone charger. We gave up and decide to just head back and wait for Mom back at the hotel. I fell asleep in the room, and Mom came and brought Andrew and I meatballs and pizza. I fell back asleep and slept for a long time.
    Ciao, Renee    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad
    Day 59

    Travel Day to Amsterdam

    May 11, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Today we are flying to Amsterdam. My mom woke up super early to go to the self service laundry. Then we repacked only the clothes we would need for the weekend into 2 suitcases. We are flying Easy Jet airlines and they charge for each bag you bring. After we woke up and ate breakfast we went straight to the airport in the car. We got to the airport and ate lunch there. We got on the flight and the flight wasn’t bad. It was only 2 hours. Renee and I sat together and watched Young Sheldon. When the drink cart came by you even had to pay for water. But they had a lot of food options. You could buy hot pasta to eat. We took an Uber to our hotel and got checked into the hotel. We are staying at the W Amsterdam. We got jackets because its a little cold and went straight to our boat tour. The tour was great and we learned a lot about the canals and the city. It was just the 4 of us on the little wooden boat. The captain Willem, brought us snacks and Mom and Dad had champagne. We saw a lot of tours along the canals and go to see the house boats up close. Once we got off the tour we walked around the city for a while and went in a couple stores. My Dad found us a Chinese restaurant for dinner. While we waiting for our table I went to Ripley Believe it or Not. There was a statue of Robert Wadlow the worlds tallest man standing at 8 foot 11. There was also a wood carved Bugatti and some other stuff but you had to pay entrance for that.
    The Chinese food was ok. It’s not on royal china level though. The dumplings were good but the fried rice was not fried. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. We have an early morning tomorrow.

    -Andrew    Read more

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