Friday, May 31-Parma, Carrera, La Spezia

We took a tour of a small farm/cheese making factory in the Parma region.

Parma is the only place in the world that is allowed to make Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.  

They claim the flavor can not be re-created as everything (the milk and the grain the cows eat) is local to the region.  

And also the guide claims they have the 'passion' that makes the flavor just right.  The sprinkle of love that goes into a recipe that no one else can imitate.

We got to taste the difference that aging has on the cheese.  1-2 years is just right.  3 years makes it a much stronger "spicy" taste.  Any spicy food we've had since then Preston has asked if it was aged 3 years.

After our tour we found a park for a picnic.

We then continued to Carrara where we got to take a jeep ride up to the top of the mountain where carrara marble is quarried.

This marble is famously used for many statues and buildings included Michelangelo's David, Bertel Thorvaldsen's Christus, the Pantheon and the Rome Italy Temple.

The mountains in both directions are all marble, so despite exporting a millions tons of marble a year, they said it would take 450 more years before they reach the limit of 5% they can quarry.

After leaving the quarry we stopped at the beach for another picnic and time to play before heading to out next stop for the night in La Spezia.

Thursday, May 30-Lugano, Milan, Parma

Before leaving Lugano we spent our last morning walking along the lake.  We had planned to stop at the shops to get some swiss chocolate, but found everything was closed for Ascension Day.

Our next stop was Milan.  The Duomo there is spectacular.

Preston didn't care about the cathedral.  He was just excited about feeding the pigeons.  There are a lot of locals that walk around selling bird feed, but we had some nuts in our backpack that worked well.  

We had a little hiccup when we tried to go through security.  James was carrying his drone (didn't feel comfortable leaving it in the car for the day), and it was not allowed.  Luckily Ian has a friend that works for security at the Duomo museum that was willing to hold on to it so we could explore.

The detailed carving was incredible.

St. Bartholomew with stained glass in background

We then went to San Bernardino alle Ossa known as the "bone church."  Apparently the cemetery ran out of room for burial during the plague, so a chapel in the church was used to hold the skeletons.  It was very cool, and creepy.

Santa Maria delle Grazie is the church where the Last Supper was painted.

We went through a series of rooms to dehumidify before we were allowed in the room to see the painting, and once we were in the room we had exactly 15 minutes.  The history displayed along the walls walking in is also fascinating to see how most of the building was destroyed during World War 2 but the Last Supper was protected by sandbags.

Europe has many interesting vehicles, a lot smaller than we're used to in America, but these 1 person cars were our favorites.  James was trying to figure out if he could fit in one.

After more the 20,000 steps our family was more than willing to have gelato as an appetizer.

Which gave them extra energy to play on the playground of the park outside the pizza place we found for dinner in Parma that night.

Wednesday, May 29-Lugano, Switzerland

Lugano was spectacular.  Wednesday we went to Mount Tamaro for more great views of the alps.

We rode a gondola up the mountain.  

It just kept going and going and going.  

The kids were thrilled with the playground at the top.  We had a picnic lunch overlooking the valley after they had time to play.

After lunch we went for a short hike starting with visiting the chapel.

The hike went along the ridgeline and included a rockpile perfect for kids to stack and play with.  

We then rode on the alpine slide.  It took you over the edge as fast as you wanted to go. 

Preston was very resistant to trying it out, but then loved it and wanted to go faster, and faster!

The attendant was from Portugal and appreciated James being able to converse with him in portuguese.  So he let us all go an extra time.

From there we went down the mountain and over to check out the Verzasca Dam (made famous by James Bond in Golden Eye). 

The Ponte dei Salti double bridge was a great place to get out and explore some more.  

The surrounding village had much more of the swiss feel with the beautiful stone buildings.

As is typical, Ethan was most interested in catching frogs in river.

Tuesday, May 28-Lugano, Switzerland

 We could tell as we were driving the night before that we were going through a beautiful area, but it was too dark to see.  The view from our Airbnb was incredible to wake up to.

 We had a slower morning, giving everyone a chance to rest a bit after the past couple of busy days and late nights in Venice. Preston slept in until 10:30!!

We drove up the mountain to the Mount Bre lookout.  The roads were very skinny as we snaked up the road.  What looked like a single lane road would suddenly have a bus or trash truck coming toward us.  

 There was a playground and some hiking trails at the top for everyone to enjoy.

 We then went to the Castelgrande Bellinzona which was really cool to explore, but at this point it was raining pretty hard.

The boys didn't mind and wanted to just keep climbing the rocks, despite being cold and slippery.

We made it back just in time to head to dinner.  A friend from Ian's mission was kind enough to invite our entire group over to eat in their home.  They had a huge spread of food including cheese, meat, fried cheese, bread, roasted red peppers and tomatoes.  And then as we had almost finished eating informed us that was just the appetizers and brought out lasagna and then 2 huge cakes.

The family lives in a small section of Italy that is enclosed within the country of Switzerland.  The wife was originally from portugal, so James was able to speak portuguese with her with Ian and his friend spoke Italian.  The kids were all happy to play despite the language barriers. They were such gracious hosts.

Monday May 27: Venice, Bergamo, Lugano

Our hotel in Venice was a historic 17th Century noble home which was later converted.  There wasn't a dining area, so breakfast was brought to the room which the kids thought was pretty incredible.  Warm pastries, hot chocolate, yogurt and hard boiled eggs.

We were also impressed by the chandelier in the bedroom. Murano glass original to the home.

We went out to the island of Murano that morning to see the glass blowing ourselves.

This was one of our kids favorite parts of the trips.  It was amazing to see how quickly the artists could create such beautiful pieces.

We continued on the boat to Burano Island.  It was raining, so we didn't take time to do much, but the colors of the homes were stunning and made for some great backdrops for pictures.

I read that citizens have to turn in an application before they paint their homes and are given a choice of a couple colors they could use.  

And also that the history of Burano is a fishing island.  It is often foggy and historically the houses were painted brightly colored so that the fisherman could more easily spot their home while out at sea.

 We had just enough time back in Venice to jump on a Traghetto as our "Gondola" experience before it was time to leave the island.

We then made the drive to Switzerland, stopping in Bergamo for dinner and a chance to explore the "high city"

There were beautiful views from the castle walls overlooking the valley.