Ciao from Italy (they say Ciao for hello and goodbye - strange, but easy for us!)
We left the Wood-Floyds (which was sad) but we were on our next adventure to Italy! Exciting as we had spent so much time in France. It was weird not to speaking french so Mum downloaded an Italian language app and as we drove to Italy (only 2 hours!) we learnt some new words.
Our first stop was in an actual hotel! It was the first one we had stayed in! Up till now it was campsites so we were very excited. Unfortunately Mum was not as she got a bad case of tonsilitis and had to see a doctor at the hospital. She got better after that. Anyway the hotel was really cool and on the Italian riveria. We had sushi too - odd.
The next day we travelled up to Lake Garda (another campsite), we were spending two weeks here. It meant we could do day trips to famous places like Milan and Verona. We also spent two nights in Venice with was a really big highlight.
Lake Garda was cool - the campsite was right on the lake and was a half an hour walk from a very cool village called Lazise. We had a flash dinner there one night and had one of the best spaghetti ever!!! Mum and Dad had seafood and it looked gross but they said it was amazing!
Our campsite was awesome - it had 7 pools and some really cool water-slides. There was so much to do with amazing playgrounds too. Most nights we did the Happy Disco which was just for kids. We learnt new euro-pop songs and all the moves. Dad brought us the CD which we have been only allowed to play once in the car as it's a little bit annoying. Me and Vi don't think so.
One day we hired a boat that Dad got to drive. He was in heaven. We loved being able to drive all around the lake and see all the super rich houses and beaches. We also got to swim off the boat and feed the white swans. We spotted a cool restaurant right on the lake which we ended up having lunch at. It was nearly 1000 years old. That's hard for my brain to compute! It was owned by Monks - they are bald god men - they made wine and olive oil.
We did a day trip to Verona - a town made famous by a play called Romeo and Juliet. They were 'star-crossed-lovers" - that just means that they were boyfriend and girlfriend who's parents would not let them be together. We went to see the balcony that Juliet stood on. It's only a made-up story but you should have seen how many people came to see it! Weird. They also left love notes and put there chewing gum up on the wall. Kinda gross really but it's a traditional now.
Our other trip was to Milan. It's a huge fashion and design city so Mum was excited. We went by train which was really fun. We visited a design museum which we all loved - especially Mum because it had lots of colour. We looked at all the flash shops but did not buy anything except a magnet we have been buying one in each town all through our trip!)
Our last trip was to Venice - we decided to stay two nights as it was a place that we wanted to spend more time in. It was our best place! It's so freaky about all the roads being water and we had to catch a water-bus from the train station!!! Crazy bananas. Our hotel was really cool too and we had a view out too the canals. They are famous for making glass things and masks, which were EVERYWHERE and were a bit scary. We did a gondola ride in the evening as they sun was setting and it was so beautiful. We ate such good food (more spaghetti for me and meat for Vi) and had the best time. We were sad to leave it.
BUT we got to go to GARDALAND! Weeeeehoooo! Italy's Disneyland and it was really good! It was 15 minutes from our campsite and we got there for opening and didn't leave until closing! The ride were AWESOME and we had so much fun. Violet did her first ever roller coaster and after that she was hooked. Our favourite was the Mammut which was a train roller-coaster that went through a gold-mine. It was super-cool. We rode that one a lot!
We left Lake Garda ready fro the next place which was Tuscany - another famous place for it's food and wine. We stayed at an agrotursimo hotel which just means that its a vineyard that's organic and people stay at! We had a cool room up by the olive groves - we did have to walk a wee way to eat breakfast and use the pool but the funny thing was that every time we had to walk past a goose that honked very loudly at us! Vi was really scared of her but I loved her. We did lots of cool day trips from there too.
One day we visited Sienna which is another town that they don't allow cars to drive in (and the streets are so narrow it would be hard to anyway). It was fun getting lost in the small streets and we got a fright when we came to a large piazza (Italian meeting place or square) - it was huge with a high tower. They love their towers.
Another day we tried to visit a goat farm (Dad was not keen as he hates goats and thinks they smell of wees) and it took us agers to find and even Darl (our SatNav) had trouble. Finally we did find it and when we arrived they couldn't speak english very well and told us that they don't do tours but we could look around if we wanted (by ourselves). Luckily two of the farm dogs liked us and showed us the donkeys and horses. All the goats were in the forest which Dad was happy about!! Haha.
We also got to visit a cool Sculpture Farm. You walked through a path that was 1km long and saw all the sculptures by artists from all over the world. Some were freaky, some were weird, some were exciting and surprising and some were beautiful. It was a cool place. The lady that ran it even had giant capsicums in her garden. If Mum could fit them in her suitcase they would have come home with us!
Back at our vineyard we made lots of friends with other guest (they were from America and Canada) and got to play with 3 kittens. We spent hours with them - they were so much fun! They were very naughty and playful. We did a vineyard tour and had a special dinner cooked for all the guests - it was fun but very late so we had to walk back to our house in the dark. Lucky the goose was asleep!
After that week we were excited to go stay with friends of our parents called Georgie and Kricko. They had three kids - Jonty, Lulu and Max. We had so much fun with them and stayed fro two nights in there villa by a town called San Gimigiano. We made fires and played all sorts of games. We were sad to leave them too!
After that we drove to the tippy top of Italy (as were about to go to Switzerland) - it took 5 hours as we went via the leaning tower of Pisa (very leany) and Carrara (where they get marble from the mountains). When we got to Stresa (On Lake Maggoire) the hotel asked us fro all our passports. It was at that moment that Mummy realised she had left our two passports in Tuscany. Woopsy! The lady said we couldn't get into Switzerland without them so we would have to go back and get them. 13 hours later we got them. It was a long day!!!!!!!
Phew - that was long! Sorry about that but we are nearly home and we wanted to write this all out before we forgot it all.
See you soon, love Isla and Violet xx
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