Sunday, September 13, 2009

Italy/Switzerland Trip 2009

These past couple weeks have been cramazing (crazy and amazing). Daniel and I moved down to Savannah Georgia August 20th. Cleaned, unpacked, packed and then flew out to Italy on the 25th. We then spent two weeks driving around northern Italy and the southern part of Switzerland. It was amazing to say the least. Then we flew back to Georgia and finished unpacking.

Day 1 Milan, Italy
Our first day in Italy! I was so exhausted. The Milan Duomo is behind us and was so beautiful. We didn't climb to the top, which I regret now, but at that moment I didn't feel stable enough to go running around the top of a really tall building. We had just gotten off an eight hour flight.

Day 2-3 Remini, Italy
A picture Daniel took of the beach. We had fun playing in the water and collecting sea shells.

Day 4.1 To Gorizia, Italy
A rest stop we took while driving from Rimini to Gorizia. You can see our pee streems. (sorry grandma.) When in Rome do as the Romans.

Day 4.2 Birthday Pizza
I celebrated my 24th Birthday while staying in Gorizia, Italy, and yes Daniel ordered pizza with french fries on it.

Day 4.3 Birthday Gelato
I may not have had any birthday cake but I did get a total of five scoops of gelato through the day. It was awesome.

Day 5.1 WW1 Canon
We went to Redipuglia, Italy where there is a lot of WWI equipment and there is also a huge memorial.

Day 5.2 WWI Bunkers
These were really cool. We got to walk around in them. There were a couple other bunkers and it make me think how scared I would have been.

Day 5.3 WWI Memorial
This is a picture Daniel took of a WWI Memorial in Redipuglia, Italy. It is gigantic and is the actual burial for over 100,000 soldiers. It was very sobering.

Day 6.1 Fiat 500
A cute little buddy I wanted to take home. Some of you may recognize him from Cars as Guito.

Day 6.2 Venice, Italy
Behind us is the big canal. We couldn't afford a gondola ride so later in the day, when we were tired, we took a boat bus (like
the one behind Daniel's head) around Venice that made all the stops and took us back were we started. I don't think you are suppose to do that but...we did and it was awesome.

Day 6.3 Venice, Italy
There were canals and bridges like this all through the city. It has to be one of the most interesting places. It like the buildings just grow out from the water.

Day 7.1 Belcony Luch in Verona, Italy
The place we stayed at had a cute balcony and we ate a little picnic lunch on it. Its called stretching your budget. We had blood orange soda, speck (raw, smoked ham) fresh bread and ringos.

Day 7.2 Whale Rib
I am standing under a whale rib handing from the arch. They say if you have never told a lie and walk under the rib it will fall on you. It didn't fall on either Daniel or I. Sorry mom.

Day 7.3 Brick
This was some brick work on an old church in Verona. I saw brick work like this all over the place and thought it was so funny.

Day 8.1 Julliettes Belcony
This is Juliet's Balcony in Verona Italy. But not really because it was a fictional story. People rub her breast for good luck.

Day 8.2 Casetlrotto, Italy
This is the place we stayed at in Castelrotto. It is almost on the border of Austria and it was a lot more German than Italian.

Day 9.1 Horse Attack
We were hiking this huge alpine meadow called Alpi de Suisi. It had a lot of grazing cows and horse. We saw a little pony and tried petting it. The mom horse wasn't happy that we were petty her baby. She bit the camera bag that I had and tried to take it from me. After it let go we walked away slowly and then the little pony came running up after me and fluffed my frizzy hair with its face. It was so funny!

Day 9.2 Pony
This was after the attack. The pony just wouldn't go away.

Day 11.1 Roman Bridge
This was in Lavertezzo, Switzerland

Day 11.2 007 Golden Eye Dam
If you look you can see a little person in the middle of the bridge that had just bunge jumped off.

Day 11.3 Castle
Somewhere in Switzerland

Day 11.4 Draw Bridge

Day 12.1 Real Swiss Cheese
This cheese was so amazing. It was made in the mountains there from grass fed cows. Can't find that kind of quality in the US.

Day 12.2 Lake Lugano
This is where we stayed in Switzerland.

Day 13.1 100 Franks

Day 13.2 20 Franker
I loved the Swiss Franks. They are so much cooler than the dollar.

13.3 Alprose Chocolate
Daniel is feeding Rosy the cow a bar of chocolate from the chocolate factory in Switzerland.

Day 13.4 Cruise on Lake Lugano
We took a nice three hour tour around Lake Lugano.

Day 14.1 Swatches

Day 14.2 Cheese Factory
A three month old cheese from the basement of this cheese factory. We got to actually see them make cheese. Daniel told me its called Gotardo cheese and it was seasoned and aged for three months.

Day 14.3 Gotardpass Switzerland
The road out here really made me miss my motorcycle Suzy.

Day 14.4 Our Swiss Mom
Liliana was our swiss mom for a couple of days. We stayed with her while we were in Switzerland and she fed us some amazing food. She reminded us of Daniel's mom.

Day 15.1 Nimble Ford Fiesta
Daniel took this picture of our little Ford Fiesta. It was a good car and I think Daniel misses it.

Day 15.2 French Alps
This is a picture Daniel took on our flight home. You can see Mount Blanc. The tallest Alp.

Signage
These are some signs I took pictures of on our trip. It must be the graphic designer in me, but I just got a kick out of them.

8 comments:

London said...

how fun!!!! it looks like you guys had a BLAST!!! isn't getting out of the U.s. great?!? makes you come back and think the US is just plain ugly and boring. Love the pictures and I am sure there is more to come. it made me miss when i went to italy. did you eat lots of gelato?? i did.haha. and chocolate. glad you guys had fun. how is savannah? did you find a job doing graphic design?

Angela Dougherty said...

It looks like you guys had an awesome trip and I am thoroughly jealous! ;) Tell us about georgia!!

Lindsay said...

Hey I heard yall are in Georgia that is awesome. I hope we end up there one day, we'll see. I'm glad you guys are taking (or rather making) opportunities to travel and have fun. I have to admit it makes me jealous!! Just kidding, I love rexburg, who wouldn't want to be here? :)

Unknown said...

Wow Ellen! Those pictures are beautiful! It looks like so much fun.

Garrison Propaganda said...

ellen, i LOVE all your pictures. even though i only talked to dan a little bit about your trip i feel i know all about it through getting a glimpse at your pictures! you made me wish i was there. the food shots made me hungry, ohhhhh especially the cheese ones! cant say i salivated over fries on a pizza. too crazy! i think one of my favorites is of you being atacked by the horse. your face is so funny! dan captured such a raw reaction, i love it. (hope no serious injury/fear from horses occurred though)! at first i thought you were going to say that stone was a fertility thingie, but thought the lying story was different. love the juliet picture and story. glad youre back, safe and sound!

Stephanie C. said...

Oh. My. Gosh. I'm so happy for you. I think my favorite picture of all time is the one of the bricks. That's crazy that they just threw a building together like that. Hey, you're in the south, I'm in the south. How far is Savannah from Bentonville? Curious...

Halls Family said...

Ellen those pictures are breath taking!! I am so glad you are having fun!! I wish I could be there!

Spacebunny said...

The castles are in Bellizona a half an hour north of Lugano.