Pisa, Elba, Roma, Bologna and Verona… the Italian dolce vita !

The road trip continued… until we had to go back to France for some school tests

The famous leaning tower (see Raphael's blog)

which is next to a beautiful basilica and baptistry

And then we are off to the Isla de Elba!

The house of Napoleon is closed but Porto Ferraio is still very picturesque!

Huge pool for the holiday condo

and nice beach as well

And we are in Rome!

View on the St Peter Basilica from the Vatican museum… which we have almost to ourselves, unheard of! At last one positive from Covid😷

Mask… worn Italian style!🙄

The children loved the museum which has a great children audioguide, we stayed for almost 4 hours!

On the right, the gallery of maps

And the marvel of the Sixtine Chapel

Gelati every day!

The St Peter square and basilica

Swiss guards

Victor Emmanuele II monument

Raphael is hot and bored!

Coliseum: the children are disappointed by this wonder of the world, as the visit is an express one with a chaperone who is just there to make sure we stay together but not too close to each other, and doesn't want to explain anything! (see Apolline's blog in English, and Eleonore's one in French)

The Roman forum, with a Renaissance basilica on the right and the 19th century monument to Victor Emmanuel II in the background… so much history in one place!

Vestals' statues on the left

Piazza del Campodoglio, designed by Michelangelo, and a priest garments' shop on the right… only in Rome!

Pantheon

The great Piazza Navona

Very late Bday present for Apolline: portrait by a street artist

The result is great!

Castel Sant'Angelo

Piazza del Popolo with the twin churches

Piazza di Spagna

Only in Italy can you find a Nutella burger in McDonald! and on the right, more our style: a typical trattoria

Trevi fountain, we could stay and watch it for hours!

and so we do, eating crepes, as a change from gelati!

Fun street art

Barberini palace: the museum closed early so the children play in the fountain

The palace is deserted, the garden overgrown, we can't hear any noise from the city, apart from the seagulls overhead… it really feels like we are in a ghost town, in an apocalyptic post covid world!

Sunset over Rome

Trevi by night

We zoomed around London on Lime scooters, not very safe but a lot of fun!

We go back to France stopping in Bologna, we didn't expect much but actually loved the 'red city with one thousand arches': it's beautiful and we wished we could have stayed longer

This fountain was scandalous in its time, with the water coming out of breasts!

The cathedral with a permanently half finished finished facade… and a huge ad for Barilla!

Mortadella, ragu, pasta, great cheese, the city has it all food wise! Everything was yummy and yummier

The rival families in the city used to outdo each others building taller and taller towers, we climbed the tallest one still standing: 498 steps!

Arches and more arches

We stopped for one night in Verona to visit Sara, Paolo and their children Maddalena and Alessandro