Dado Hotel International Parma

... punctuality here in Italy is a bit of a lost art, but I digress. <br><br>He pulls his black ford up to the taxi parking section and I walk over, we re-introduce ourselves and off load my burden into the trunk, I have now since noticed two fellows galavanting in the back seat, and determine I will ask about them later. Greg turns to me and the first things out of his mouth were. ''I thought you were blond.... How is your Brother!?!?!?!?!?.''<br>James ...

... the sky had turned a brilliant blue, and they were incredible looking. We got to the baptistery just as it was opening, and it was pretty inside, but nothing spectacular. Then we went to the tower. It was 500 some steps to the top but Nonna started the trek like that didn't even cross her mind. Mind you, she's about 70 and was wearing heels, but she walked like she wasn't even short of breath. We got to about step 100 and she motioned for me to ...

... All tasty and the parmiggano was the best we had ever tried. We finished up and headed for the station, we were done doing what we came here for. We stopped off in Modena on the way home. Modena is the home of Maseratti, Ferarri and Ducatti motorbikes and is also the place that most of the balsamic vinegar in the world comes from. They had a church, it was fancy. They didn't let us take any pictures.<br>

... and did a little shopping. On our way out of Parma we stopped at an Ikea yippee! (Where I accidentally set off an alarm by going out of the wrong door). We spent the evening at the apartment and said goodbye to Lorelei and Arthur. As a side note not sure if I mentioned this earlier you might want to ask David how the womens restrooms are in Verona and Parma haha

... boarded the plane and removed the sick passenger. We then refueled and were able to leave Detroit about an hour behind schedule. David and I watched &#8220;The Hangover&#8221; (again) and basically had a good flight. We landed in Amsterdam and boarded our flight to Venice with no other problems. We drove from Venice to Reggiolo through some ...

For a nice little day trip, Zoe and I decided to go to one of the main cities in Emilia-Romagna (the province where our father hails from): Parma.<br><br>The city is reknowned for parmesan cheese and Parma ham, or as we call it, prosciutto.<br><br>If you like quaint churches and little shops, this place is great to visit!<br>

... The center of the city is full of history. From its pink-marbled campanile next to a beautiful art-packed Duomo, its large park in the centro citta which was recently restored to its Napoleanic spendor, its rose, rust, orange, ochre, mustard and red stuccoed homes, to its sumptuous opera house, the center of the city is beautifully preserved, It's also a very modern city, with pedestrian-only areas served by a natural-gas propelled bus system ...

... pretty good nick. Next day we decided to do a hop on hop off bus tour around the city to see the rest of the sights - we jumped off early to visit the Sunday markets (bit like Shebu markets but BIGGER) and to do another gelati mission. Spent the rest of the day on the bus, being lazy and taking lots of photos like good little tourists. We did jump off to see the Pantheon then decided to head back to the campsite soon after that, all toured out. Day 3 and we meet Rachel at ...

Sorry about my last email which told you nothing about my trips, and instead did some purging of my soul. Please know that none of it was by any means saying that I needed to "get away" from any of you, especially David. I was just saying that sometimes, whether or not you are married or a mother, or whatever, you have to go for it. Anyway, so Bridget and I have had 4 classes so far. 2 spoke English very well, one had a translator and one spoke with a very thick accent ...

June 10, 2002<br><br>Back on the bus! This time to Italy!! We went to Pisa (and had pizza for lunch!) We saw the tower, of course, and the church. Got to shop in the souvenir shops and sit for awhile in the sun. Very peaceful day. I can tell I'm getting tired, because the travel journal entries are shorter and shorter!<br> <br><br><br><br>We were in ...