Travel Day to Rome

Whew- today was exhausting. At least it was for me. Travel days are HARD. So many tactical things to do and logistics to figure out- all while still getting all the basics accomplished. But we made it to Rome successfully, are all settled in at our beautiful hotel, had a great lunch, a great dinner- and even saw the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain in between. Well, at least *MOST* of us did: Lilly slept pretty much the entire time we were walking around Rome (in Joes arms) and though most of dinner (laid across Joe and my laps as if we were a mattress- much to or waiters delight)!

Arrival in Rome

All the people.
All the things.
And slippers for everyone.

The Sword in the Stone

The *actual* sword in the stone - placed there in around 1180AD by a man who, tired of being a knight and ready to surrender his life and possessions over to withdraw from society and follow Christianity. He later became a Saint and an Abbey was built on the site. Carbon dating done in 2001 has confirmed the histories surrounding the sword. 

In San Galgano, Tuscany, Italy 

More history and details here 

https://italychronicles.com/the-sword-in-stone-in-tuscany/

The Ruins of the Abbey in San Galgano

This formerly sacred space truly opens up to the heavens. It was an Abbey built around the Sword in the Stone that housed Cistercian Monks for centuries until lightening struck the bell tower which collapsed onto the roof, destroying much of the roof. The monks moved back to France and the Abbey was ultimately deconsecrated, leaving the remains of what was once a majestic place of worship on  beautiful grounds.

Truly a remarkable place.

Life Goals

Get a job in/near Sienna and live in/near Asciano or Chiusure or San Giovanni d'Asso so that I can make the drive twice a day every day. It is absolutely the most magical and breathtaking stretch of land I've ever seen.


Sent from my iPhone

Price Peregrination

Thanks to Sarah Whitley for the excellent SAT word 👏👏👏👏👏

I had to look it up. Just in case you aren't familiar with it, either:

Florence is kinda fun, kinda not fun...

From Jackson:

On June 21st, we went to Firenze or Florence, either one works. I saw The David by Michelangelo. For lunch, I had a croissant cut in half with ham and whitish-yellowish cheese. I liked it. After that we got gelatooooo and Lilly dumped hers on the floor and while dad was cleaning it up, Molly dumped hers on the floor. Lilly lost all of hers, Molly only lost a teensy, teensy, baby bit. I went to the bathroom twice to clean my hands. In the bathroom, there was a door that said "Privato" (phonetically—privatoooo) and I thought it meant bathroom because in our rental house there's a bathroom that says 'privato' on the door. And I opened it and there was just a bunch of cleaning supplies—pretty boring, really. Then I walked out of the bathroom.

After that, I went to go have dinner. I didn't really like it (Florence) because so many people were smoking and there was a bunch of smoke in the air from cigarettes and cars by themselves. Then, we went on the bridge with a bunch of stores on it. When I first went on it, I didn't even know we were on a bridge. I thought we were still on solid ground. On the bridge I got a blue leather bookmark. It was 3 euros and it says Firenze on it. The bridge was fun, the rest was meh. Except the gelato was still good.

Bye-bye. (shmeeme too)