The Christensen family adventures: April 2014

"Fun times & Sweet memories"

It’s been a while since I last updated our blog. Maybe way too long!! I will try to do better I promise. Anyhow, this Spring Break our family decided to continue with our tradition of camping for spring break. And it was a success!! So glad we did it!! It was amazing to explore a few fun places in Tuscany that we haven’t visited. We stayed at a camp side in Livorno. The cabins were great! During the day we toured a little and at night enjoyed the wonderful camp site. First, we headed to a small town that lies in a green valley just north west of Florence. This almost perfectly preserved jewel of medieval architecture and buildings, emanates charm and shows layers of history from every corner of its narrow winding streets Lucca, a living testimony to past times, kingdoms and dominions, so beautiful everywhere we looked. We rented a bike that took us to explore the beautiful sights of the city. And it was here were we had the best Italian food ever!! We had some Ravioli and of course Kenny and Kamillah shared a plate of their favorite food "spaghetti” The weather was perfect every day we were there.

Then after Lucca we went to the Land of Pinocchio and to one of the oldest European Gardens with a butterfly arcade. Collodi, is a small medieval Tuscan village in the community of Pistoia. This place is so amazing and fun for the kids. If you like to breathe pure air and enjoy a quite time away from the tourist area this is the place. We didn’t know that the story of Pinocchio originated from Tuscany. “The Adventures of Pinocchio” was a novel for children by Italian author Carlos Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial, in 1881 and 1882, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. We got a copy of the original story and we all read it in a day. Love reading with my kids. The story was so interesting that we just want to finished after we stated reading the book, is a great book very different from the Disney movie. It make us laugh a lot!! I love that once were a family of pinocchios, pinocchio the father, pinocchia the mother and pinocchions the children and they were all so lucky!! Find the book then you will know what I am talking about (wink)

The next day we went to a local aquarium in Livorno and a port La Spezia, a few Kilometers where Christopher Columbus was born. The “Acquario di Livorno” is perfect if you’re travelling in Tuscany with kids, they will love to do something like that. Even though the aquarium is not very big is worth visit. I like that it has a lot of writing and tells you about some of the myths of the Mediterranean Sea. The price is adequate for the place. In La Spezia, we took the time to enjoy our visit and walked thru the port then we stopped to let the kids get some energy out on a local park where I am sure we were they only tourists. It’s so fun seeing the Italians enjoy life. In a good way. Yes, they sure take their time for everything (twinge) but, is not what life should be: Live and enjoy the simple things in life!

On the way back to the to the camping site we hear was a beach very close by but didn’t find it, and instead stopped and get some more delicious Italian food. Tuscany has the most delicious and real Italian food we had ate.

The following day, we went to Vinci. Amazing and beautiful city where Leonardo Di Vinci was born. Vinci is really a very serene landscape. Lots of olive trees around. We now know where the almighty genius was brought up, we are so amazed by all his work and contributions to many things. The kids were very interested in his museum, well Kamillah not that much (Smile) we are looking forward to see some of his paintings in the future in Milan and Paris.

The last city we saw in our fun adventure was the gorgeous city of Siena. This place is my favorite city now in Italy. Beautiful all the landscaping around it just gives a real taste of Tuscany. I will call it the city of hills. The historic center of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, and medieval cityscape. When we arrived in the town you can feel a sense of calmness in the city even though there was a lot of people in the center of la Piazza. We sat and enjoyed the view for a while and just admired the amazing architecture and let the kids chase the pigeons.

We had an amazing time, after we visited those places every day we came to the cabin and burnt some marshmallows. Yay!! The very favorite thing for the kids. Our Kids had a blast for sure. Life is all about memories and spending time with the people your love. So happy and blessed to have the opportunity to enjoy time with them! The older they are becoming the easier it is to travel with them. I am glad they finally are at an age where they will remember most of the fun places we visited. I like that we tried to go beyond the tourist trail and unique places like Monte Carlo, or Collido. It shows a place that is unique and not many touristy, just the local Italians. Sometimes people forget that there is so much to see and even more beautiful places than the tourist ones. We like the nature far more than the big cities but enjoy seeing how much history is in every city. I had a conversation with my girls that sometimes is hard to believe on the savior Jesus Christ but not too hard to believe all of those things that said took place in these cities. Anyway, hope to keep better with updating our family blog. Come visit if you can, will love to have you!!