Italy

As most of you know, Phil and I, and Phil's parents went to Italy this month. It was such a great trip! We started the trip a little shaky, as there was a snow storm in DC the night we left. But after sitting on the plane for 2 hours, we finally took off and made it to Italy. We started our trip in Milan (the mission Phil served in). Here is a picture of us on the roof of the Duomo. We could see the whole city from there. Next, we headed to Lake Como. We went to church here in a ward where Phil served and he was so excited that everyone remembered him. This is a picture of us at Bellagio, a city about 30 minutes away, and where the two branches of Lake Como meet. It was beautiful (although a little foggy). We didn't find George Clooney's villa...too bad. After Lake Como, we headed to Verona, another city where Phil served. This was my favorite city, becuase it looked just like I thought an Italian city would look like. It was very quaint. As you should know, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet took place in Verona. This is us at Juliet's house under the famous balcony.

After Verona, we headed to Venice, the city on the water. It is much harder to get around Venice on foot, becuase the whole city is made of alleys and bridges, and there are a lot of dead ends. But we got to do so much here. We went to the Doge's Palace and saw the largest room in Europe. We also hung out in Piazza San Marco for an afternoon and got to see a glass blowing factory (Venice is famous for it's glass blowing). And of course we went on a gondola ride! Our cute gondolier was named Mario.

After Venice we ran to Florence, which is the city where the Renaissance started. Here we went to the Uffizi Meseum, where we saw several famous pieces of art by Botticelli. We also saw the David, which is AMAZING! This is Phil posing as the David in Piazza Vecchio. I was upset in Florence however, because the Gates of Paradise (the bronze doors at the baptistary of the Duomo) where being restored.

The final city on our tour was Rome. We had a little trouble getting there, because the there just happened to be a train strike on the day we needed to take the train. Luckily, we were able to get a taxi. My favorite venue in Rome was the Colloseum. It was so big and mind blowing. Phil and I decided we need to watch Gladiator again, now that we have been there. In Rome, we also saw the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain (where we of course threw our coins in) and the Vatican. Although it took us 2 hours in line to get in to the Vatican, we finally got to see the Sistine Chapel.

What a great trip, and thanks to mom and dad Broadbent for taking us. Also, happy birthday to our new niece Charlotte who was born when we were on our flight back!

I couldn't post all the pictures, or tell you all everything we did, or you would get bored, but if you want to see more pictures, you can view them at

http://picasaweb.google.com/pcbroadbent/PhilJenMomAndDadGoToItaly