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Abshire’s Abroad
  • Veronica Abshire
  • Gabe Abshire
  • Veronica Abshire
  • Gabe Abshire

Abshire’s Abroad

Gabe, Veronica, Andrew and Renee are spending some time traveling around Italy and hopefully visiting a few new places along the way, Read more
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  • Abshire’s Abroad

    Travel Day to Taromina

    May 5, 2023 in Italy 🌙 17 °C

    We have loved our time in Ortigia! Across the bridge in Syracuse, there is a famous basilica that displays a picture and napkin with the tears of Mary. We drove past it but did not go inside. It is called the
    We drove about an hour north along the east coast to a small town called Ragnala. It’s at the base of the Etna volcano. I was introduced to a very nice Sicilian tour guide who has helped us arrange several of our tours. She set up a private cooking class with some local Nonna’s. When we arrived we were given an almond cookie called a Paste di Mandorla. It translates to almond paste. They were delicious. Something we have never had before. The class is being held in a very old mill house that was used to make wine and crush grains. They have added a kitchen and turned it into a private space to host things like cooking classes. We began by preparing the tomatoes for the tomato sauce. Their method is very different that the one taught to us by our Nani. They also have beautiful looking tomatoes. We are going to prepare pasta alla Norma. It’s named after an opera. A famous Italian actor tasted the dish and created the name. It’s typically made with a short pasta, tomato sauce, fried eggplant and salted ricotta. We worked really hard on the making the pasta dough. Then we let it rest and fried the eggplants. The hardest part was making the dough into long macaroni. We were not very good. The ladies had to finish the pasta so we could eat. We (the 4 of us) don’t really like this type of pasta. We have had it other restaurants. It’s typical of the area. But the sauce and eggplants were very very good. We had so much leftover. The ladies of course didn’t understand why we didn’t eat very much. We got to take most everything with us. Then we made cannolis. My grandmothers cannoli filling was always my favorite. I prefer plain with maybe a few chocolate chips. Sicilians prefer pistachios on everything!
    After we said goodbye to the ladies we drove to Taormina. It’s the last city on our tour of Sicily. The city of Taormina is high up on a hill side. The water and beach are far below. We are unsure of how this will affect our apartment. It was very hard to choose a location. Once we found the parking garage for our apartment, we lugged all our staircases up 2 different elevators and into the apartment. I was not feeling well and immediately went to sleep. When I woke up Gabe said he was also not feeling well. We didn’t eat dinner and went to bed early. Gabe did some research and he thinks the eggplants possibly didn’t agree with us. I hope we are better tomorrow.    Read more

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    Taromina Day 1

    May 6, 2023 in Italy 🌙 16 °C

    Time to explore Taormina! After a late start to the day, we all got dressed and made our way out into the city. Our first stop is finding something for lunch. We found a small place to eat lunch and then made our way to the Greek Theater. We got our tickets and began to explore the theater. It’s currently still used as an outdoor theater for concerts and they erect a screen to show movies for the Taormina film festival. They were doing some repairs to the floors and modern seats have been added. The theater was completed in the 3rd century B.C. Its high up the top of the town. After we took all the photos we went to walk the Corso Umberto. As we have learned in all the previous towns, the main streets run east to west. From the outside “wall” there are Gates or entrances to the main area of town. Taromina is known for its shopping. It’s also become popular because of the HBO show White Lotus. The 2nd season was filmed at the 4 Seasons in Taormina. When we were looking at places to stay here, I of course looked at the 4 Seasons. Besides it being extremely expensive, the location is not anything they portrayed on the show. I was hoping to at least eat at one of the restaurants but we could not get a reservation. They won’t let anyone but a hotel guests into the bar. So I didn’t even get to see it. After a full day of shopping, gelato and lots of walking we finally went home. I made the kids pasta from our leftover pomodoro sauce. Gabe and I went to an off the beaten path Michelin guide recommendation. It was different….The stuffed and fried artichoke was exactly like my Nani’s. Yum! Gabe LOVED his rabbit. I ordered asparagus pasta against the servers recommendation of artichoke pasta and she was right. I love asparagus but this was wild asparagus. Very bitter tasting.
    We went to a slow walk home to enjoy the awesome moon and went to sleep. We are super excited to Boat Day tomorrow!    Read more

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    Taromina Day 2

    May 7, 2023 in Italy ☀️ 20 °C

    Sunday Funday! The weather is beautiful and we are going out on the water. Finally! We are all so excited. We have a few things to do in town this morning before we leave for the boat. After we got all packed up for the day on the boat, we drove over to the marina in the next town Naxos. Naxos is the 1st Greek town in Sicily. They have a true beach front bay and marina. Taromina is high up on a hill and the beach/sea is way lower. Taromina does have a cable car that will take you up or down but its not working. The beaches in all of Italy are very different the sand color, the texture or they could be pebbles or huge rocks. Taromina has small pebbles at the beach directly below the town. Then around a huge point towards the East there are 2 beautiful bays with huge sandy beach’s. This beach can only be accessed by one of the beach clubs that manage the beach chairs. We were very excited to see all this from the water. We got on the boat and met our captain and crew person. Andrew was so excited to get in the water. He found a cave that he wanted to swim into. We cruised over to the bay of Isola Bella. If you have watched White Lotus this is the little island that is featured on the show. It’s not even visible from the 4 Seasons because its around a huge point in another bay. The island is connected to the mainland by a sandbar. I really wanted to go out and walk on it. But the captain said that the only way to do that was to swim. And that wasn’t going to happen. The water felt like an ice bath or cryotherapy. Apparently the water isn’t actually comfortable until July. But then you can swim until December. We were told the best time to come to a true beach town in Italy is October. We had a fantastic appertivo with Aperol spritz, salami, cheeses, olives and mini pizzas. There were several boats out because the weather was beautiful. So we got in some people watching. We moved around the next point to another beach called Mazzaro. We saw a really cool hotel and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. The kids found their first cliff to jump off of. Tatiana, the crew assistant grew up in Taormina and she used to jump off this rock with her friends. So its perfectly safe. The kids had a blast and have no fear. We were proud! After we got back to the apartment the kids had been asking for pizza. Gabe found an awesome take away place really close to the apartment. He and I went out for a late dinner. He always manages to find the places dedicated to meat. The restaurants in Taormina have a very cool vibe. I loved the tables and chairs at this place. I decided to order some fried anchovies to give them a try. They were actually pretty good. Gabe even ate a few. We had a very light ricotta cheesecake that reminded me of my grandmothers recipe. It was just missing American graham cracker crumbs. Tomorrows weather is looking bad. Not sure what we will get to do.

    *That photo of the mountain is Mount Etna. It’s the 2nd tallest active volcano in Europe. At 11,000 feet. This photo shows it with the least amount of cloud coverage that we have seen since Ortigia. It has snow on the top of it. And we found out it has 2 ski resorts. What!    Read more

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    Travel Day to Naples

    May 8, 2023 in Italy ☁️ 18 °C

    We woke up with the intention to go to Mt. Etna early…but someone slept in. Gabe has gotten up to watch the sunrise the past 2 morning and then he goes back to sleep. Just as we were stepping outside to leave it started to rain. We checked the live cameras on the mountain and they looked like rain. We decided to drive there anyway to at least get to the base. You can drive up to 2500 meters and then the cable car will take you to 8000. There are also lots of easy hikes to craters. We really wanted to do this. But as we got closer to the mountain the rain got worse and we texted our friend who lives there and she said today was not a good day. As we pulled off the highway to turn around, there was a McDonalds. So we stopped for an early lunch. We drove back towards Taormina and decided to drive up the mountain to a town that’s even higher than Taormina. It’s called Castlemola. We you look at it from the water you are like “who said lets go build a town way up there ??” We got a delicious granita. Sicily is more famous for their granita than gelato. It’s water based and not milk based like gelato. And its a little thinner consistency. I like it better than gelato. Also because they are all fruit flavors and not things like Nutella or Oreo. Since its going to rain all day we have decided to pack up and go ahead and start our drive to Naples. It’s about 7 hours so we want to split it up. I did a good purge of kitchen/cooking supplies because we aren’t going to be in another apartment until the last 2 days of our trip. Which doesn’t sound very fun. Lots of eating out. Gabe had bought us 6 bunches of Bietola so we could have it with our dinner tonight. Since we are leaving I cooked it and we had a snack before we left. We packed the car and got on the road. We are going to sleep in Tropea tonight.Read more

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    Traveling to Naples Day 2

    May 9, 2023 in Italy ☁️ 21 °C

    This morning we went for a walk around Tropea. The town is small but super cute. The view and the beach looks so fun. We had a delicious ricotta stuffed croissant and a coffee while we walked around. After the kids had breakfast at the hotel we got back in the car and hit the road to Naples. Gabe picked the best place to get gas. It was not an AutoGrill. The gas stations in the Calabria region have awesome food. We all got some sandwiches and had lunch in the car. I had Bietola and ricotta on focaccia. SOOO good! We arrived in Naples and the crowds are crazy. It’s Tuesday! We walked around, got some street food and shopped a little. After we were over stimulated we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We are going to a restaurant on the rooftop of the Grand Visuvius Hotel. It was very nice and a little formal for the kids but they did great. Gabe had calls and wanted to take the long walk back so we got a scooter and an e-bike and rode back to the hotel. It was late so we went straight to be. More Naples exploring tomorrow.Read more

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    Naples Day 1

    May 10, 2023 in Italy 🌧 17 °C

    It’s raining its pouring! Today was a wet and rainy day in Naples. We started with a sugar filled breakfast and hazelnut coffee at Gran Caffe Gambrinus. It’s a famous coffee shop in the Piazza del Plebiscito. We have a personally curated list of Naples To Do’s from our friend JP. He was born and raised in Naples. His parents still live here part of the year. Andrew and Renee didn’t wear their rain jackets and Andrew wore his Birkenstocks. Renee bought an umbrella and Andrew got a poncho. The umbrella broke and Andrew damaged his Birks. It was a great day. We ate some fried pizza, a fried pasta ball, an arancini and of course gelato. We did a little shopping and then went back to the hotel to take a rest. We walked 15 minutes a cute little Osteria that Aunt Paige suggested. It has only 6 tables and 1 owner/waiter. The food was delicious. We had fried zucchini flowers, fried mozzarella and fried cod. We had 2 delicious pastas and Andrew had pork with lemon sauce. Gabe is going to take the kids to ride bikes and scooters late tonight while I repack all our bags for Amsterdam tomorrow. I will be going to wash clothes at 7am in the morning. Yay!Read more

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    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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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    Our last day, Milan

    May 21, 2023 in Italy ☁️ 15 °C

    Its the last day of our amazing adventure. The last day we will explore Italy. We woke up today with home on our minds. We are excited to spend the day in Milan. We had an espresso at the apartment and grabbed a yogurt to eat in the car. Gabe got the car packed up for almost the last time. We dropped off a bag at Vitto's house and hit the road. Milan is about a hour from Como. We drove straight to a restaurant to have some breakfast. We had pancakes, avocado toast and a cappuccino. Right next door were all our favorite shops. OVS, Yamammy, Intimissi. We stopped in for old times sake. I found a really cute swimsuit that Gabe said I just had to have. We drove over to check into the hotel and leave our bags so we could get out to explore the city. We have "fast passes" for our tour of the Duomo at 2pm.
    Milan has always been on my list of cities I wanted to visit. It's a very large city, with so many things to see. Some highlights are, the Duomo, the last supper painting, several luxury designer brand headquarters, the oldest mall in the world "The Galleria" and so much more.    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad

    Milan

    May 21, 2023 in Italy ⛅ 24 °C

    We have finally arrived to our final day in Italy. We packed up the car for the last time and drove about an hour to Milan. We stopped for a late breakfast and checked into the hotel. This is our 3rd NH Hotel. Gabe said we will never stay at another NH hotel again. Ha!
    We walked about 8 minutes to the Piazza Duomo and marveled at the enormous gothic cathedral in front of us. We came up from the back and found the Fast Track entrance. Thankfully we have fast track tickets. We got in the elevator and it took us straight to the roof. Wow! Amazing. The statues and detail of the marble facade is so impressive. Parts of the exterior are being restored. Basically they are power washing the marble. That’s what Andrew said. It’s true. Most of the marble has brown or grey stains on it. And then the portions that are done are bright white and pink. We climbed down the stairs and ended up in the main church. It’s the largest interior we have seen so far. There are 5 “naves” or branches off the center of the church. Each one is dedicated to a different female biblical character.
    It holds 30,000 people, Only 2nd to St. Peter’s in Rome. 12,000 sq meters. 3,000 statues are on the outside of the church. The holy nail of the cross is kept high above the alter. A red flame is kept lit to signify its presence. It was a gift from Emperor Constantine. The arch bishop of Milan takes the box down to the alter and places it there for everyone to see for only 1 day per year during mass. The St. Barthmelew statue is also a very impressive sculpture. There are 2 organs, one on the left and right of the alter. It’s the largest organ in all of Italy.
    After we got some photos, we were starving. So we found the closest restaurant. Which is not always a good idea. Very touristy. But surprisingly we all enjoyed our food. Gabe chose to eat just a little and went to get a sandwich after. He knew about a famous shop here so we split up and he went to go find the shop. I took the kids to the famous “mall” for a quick stroll.
    It was raining when we started walking this morning. So we all have our jackets. Around 3pm it got very warm, so we went back to the hotel to rest. I went out to do some last minute shopping. I wondered around and found the Dolce and Gabana home store. It was beautiful! We met Vitto for dinner. The restaurant is one of the most famous in Milan because of the views. We sat outside on the balcony and got to marvel at the duomo at night. It’s all lit up. Our dinner was amazing. It was the perfect end to the trip. We all rode scooters one more time and got gelato of course. Tomorrow we will wake up and go to the airport.    Read more

  • Abshire’s Abroad

    Traveling Home

    May 22, 2023 in Italy ⛅ 17 °C

    We have so many memories and stories from this trip that its almost impossible to write it all down. This app has allowed us to record our days in real time. I am forever grateful that we took this trip and proud of us for actually documenting it. Please don’t judge our writing or spelling. I’m sure most of this is not perfect. But getting typed and printed was a huge accomplishment. We will never forget these places, never forget the experiences and will forever remember Italy together. I’m writing this on August 17, 2024. I am such a procrastinator and never posted our last day. It’s hung over me for more than a year. I hope who ever takes the time to read this understands us and gets why we did this. I hope you can have an experience like this with your family.
    Ciao, Veronica    Read more

    Trip end
    May 23, 2023