Gramma/Pa Visit

We had another set of visitors come to Italy to see what it is all about. Gramma and Grampa flew directly in to Venice, spent a few days there, then trained to Florence and Pisa before visiting us in bella Napoli. We tried to pack in as much as possible - we saw some of the sights are around Naples and took a short trip to Rome. Gramma and Grampa were also to see some of the girls' school activities like cheer practice and school programs. They even assisted LC with her big living museum school project. She selected Amelia Earhart. She had to learn all about her, write down a lot of facts about her and her importance, memorize a speech and transform into her in order to present themselves to other classmates and parents. We were so proud of her and she worked really hard! The weather has been great and we've been able to spend a lot of time outside which may be a sign spring is coming.... here are some pics: 

We went to Herculeneum. This is a small town that was also devastated by the Mt Vesuvius eruption. It is not as large and spread out as Pompeii is, but it is essentially the same thing, just easier to get to and a more intimate setting. You are able to walk around the tug-out city and see how the people used to live prior to the eruption. You can see it is much lower than the modern day city, which was built on the buried remains. 

The end of the walk was a shock - there were skeletons of people who never made it out. 

This was the old beach area... the four openings were boat houses on the beach (inside is there the skeletons were). And the water is the old beach. You can see to the right of the photo the amount of ash that buried the town. Pretty crazy. 

We hoped on the train to Rome and checked out all the sights. We haven't been to Rome since we've been here - we have been saving it for when family would come. So it was nice to be able to see all the sights!  First stop was to the Coliseum. Always impressive! 

Trying to get a perfectly timed photo of the girls doing a cheer jump. We were never able to get the timing down correctly. 

Behind the Coliseum is the Forum. 

Then on to Trevi fountain. 

.... and the Pantheon.... 

Outside of the Pantheon... 

We also went on a tour of the Vatican museum and the Vatican grounds. We only saw a fraction of the museum but were able to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basillica. 

Gramma really wanted to see the Pope, but we weren't that lucky. 

The Spanish steps. 

And ontop of the Vittorio Emanuele II monument ("The wedding cake" building)... which offered spectacular views of Rome.  We crammed a lot into the 2-3 days we were there. There is just so much to see in Rome that it would take over a week to scratch the surface. 

It was also Carivale week while they were here. The girls got to dress up and parade around the school. Ellis was a sheep. 

And LC was a Siren. Both of their costumes were all hand made at school. 

E's Class. 

LC's Class.

Something that we also haven't got around to was climb Mt Vesuvius. It was a perfect day for an easy climb to the top. 

Inside the crater! There was some steam coming out too.... scary. 

The views from the top were fantastic! 

Here is E and LC in their Cheer uniforms. They cheered for Basketball in the spring and seemed to like it. 

Here is LC... I mean Amelia Earhart. She did so well memorizing her speech and completing a poster with all the facts. 

This was as school-wide project for all the second grade classes. There was a program in the cafeteria where they sang songs about their people. 

And then after the program all the kids went to their places around school and waited for parents and other students to come up to them. Then they would rattle off their speech and explain the life of the person they chose. They each had a poster that they made that presented pictures and facts about their person. She did so awesome and we were so proud of the hard work she put in.