Pisa/Modena/Verona

 I kept a journal on the trip, so for this entry, I’m just going to copy/paste what I wrote there:

Yesterday, we left La Spezia about 9:30 and drove about an hour to Pisa.  We dropped off the kids and then found a place to park. We enjoyed taking goofy photos and watching other people take goofy photos.  I was surprised at all the other pretty buildings around.  They were also leaning - they’re just larger so it’s not as obvious. 

We drove to Lucca for lunch because I read that it was a better spot than Pisa.  But I imagined a little village with a cute town center.  It was actually a large town center with a wall around it, and we had to park and then walk in.  It would be a nice place to spend more time in, but I found myself a little aggravated because I just wanted a simple lunch.  Noah enjoyed it, though.  He got a margarita pizza AND a Nutella pizza.  I got a bean soup that was good but caused me quite a bit of discomfort later in the day.  

We decided to go to the Gelato Museum in Bologna on our way to Modena.  Turns out you can’t see anything without a reservation made ahead.  But they had a gelato store next door that we visited.  We all had some excellent gelato there!  Turns out that Noah loves pistachio gelato best, Dad and Meredith go for chocolate, and Caleb and I like lemon.  

 

We found our place in Modena easily, and it is very nice.  Turns out there is a luxury car show going on here, so we walked to the town square to see it.  This town obviously has more money than other towns.  I enjoyed being in the crowd of Italians and not an obvious tourist.  

Turns out there is a Burger King right around the corner from where we’re staying, and that sounded good to all of us.  I had hoped to do some farm to table eating here, but Caleb (who was the one most interested) didn’t choose a place, and I just didn’t want to spend that much money for something we might not even enjoy. 

The next morning we stopped by the Ferrari museum, and I drove a simulator with Caleb and Terry as my “Mother’s Day present.”  I was terrible at it!  The best part was hearing Noah and Meredith laughing hysterically in the background.  Caleb won the race, but Terry had the most consistent driving, if that makes sense.  I didn’t even finish!

We stopped by Verona on the way to Mirano, where we will stay while we visit Venice.  Here we are at Juliet’s Balcony.  I think that this town owes its popularity to Shakespeare.