To Italy and Back Again

I am officially recovered from two weeks in Italy! 

Once again, I got to go with Jennifer, my favorite Italian partner in crime:

 Between the two of us, we know just enough Italian, people, and interesting tidbits to make the experience work for our students.

This time, I also got to take my favorite person in the world:

 Brad served as a third faculty member/resident dad/my sanity for the trip. I am so grateful to have shared my favorite place on earth with him.

Our first major outing was to Assisi:

 I have no idea how, but somehow I managed to get us there via the top, which made for a pretty striking entrance:

 Brad and I send the kids a picture everyday, and this was our first one outside of Sansepolcro:

 The kids in return sent us pictures of the dogs. So...we sent this one of Brad making a new friend in Deruta:

 This very clever dog has learned to drop his ball through the fence at the pottery academy:

 We found a great view of the duomo in Florence:

 And I love this picture Brad grabbed of me:

 I don't have very many pictures of me teaching, and at that moment I was talking about the history of Florence and Pitti Palace. This group really liked to stay with us, which was fun. Jennifer and I became famous for our tidbits of information. Brad became famous for making stuff up when we didn't know.

Of course we visited the chingale to ensure we came back to Florence:

 And Brad finally found truly amazing gluten free pizza:

 WE ended our adventures in Rome:

 And Brad and Jennifer took part of the group up to the top of St. Peter's for this view of Rome:

 I stayed solidly on the ground with those who share my aversion to heights.

Brad and I took a small subset to the Forum:

 This was my first time there, and it is my new favorite place in Rome. We spent 2.5 hours there, but we could have wandered so much longer.

The whole group toured the Colosseum:

 Most of our time, though, was spent in the little slice of Heaven called Sansepolcro. We could not asked for a better group of girls to travel with. They were fun, thoughtful, and eager to engage with each other, us, and the town. They even made us flower crowns while we were waiting on the bus:

 We had one sick kiddo who couldn't travel on the weekend, so she stayed with we grown-ups. Once she was starting to recover, we ventured out for dinner:

 And did things I've never done in Sansepolcro! We saw the lace museum, whose women are part of the UNESCO trust. It was amazing to watch them make lace. We went to the herb museum, which was super fun for me, and we climbed the bell tower, which was significantly less fun for me. See...this is my I'm doing it but I'm freaking out face:

 Brad was very proud of me:

We also got to see the famous flag bearers of the town in action that weekend:

 Once everyone returned we returned to Il Faggetto to learn to make bread, see how olive oil is made, and spend an amazing afternoon with a dear friend:

 And we got to to the archives to see written histories. These broke our hearts:

 Each packet is the record of a child left at the convent because the family couldn't care for them. Most of them had a trinket left, often half a coin. The family kept the other half in case they could ever come back for them:

 I loved sharing this little town with Brad:

 It has so much to offer, including hikes to the river:

 One of these kiddos might have grabbed stinging nettle on the way:

 And so much history and love. And I loved sharing it with them: