Merry Christmas

The Pdub on Christmas Eve, playing with his new drums (yes, we're not the brightest parents ever to have a toddler).

Pdub busting down the language barrier

Ciao, bello!

He couldn't resist the Italian women (he can't really resist American women either, and the other night at dinner had an adorable encounter with a six-month old baby girl)...and they couldn't resist him either. As a result, the little guy learned about waving while we were over there--he won't do it if you say "Bye Bye"--only if you say "Ciao Ciao".

Alas, no Pdub

But here's a bunch of kids playing soccer against the wall of the parish church in Burano, an island in the Venetian lagoon that ostensibly specializes in lace-making (but most of the lace you find here and in Venice is actually machine-made in Taiwan).

We took a day trip out to the islands of Burano and Murano from Venice (we tried to go to Torcello, too, but the language barrier foiled us). Burano is just about the cutest place you could ever hope to go, and Murano, well, Murano has lots of glass shops.

I'll dig around and find some pictures of the islands and flesh out my story a little later.

Finally, A Picture!

Here's Abuelita and the Pdub taking a little walk and checking out the shops that surround the Piazza San Marco in Venice

Big Bad Cellphone Pictures from Italy

We made it home, each of us in one piece. The Pdub was incredible...you couldn't ask for a better baby. We'll get some of the "real" photos from the trip up in the next couple of days and I'll write a bit about what we did and saw and all that good stuff, but in the meantime, enjoy some of the fruits of modern technology.
Pdub enjoying a snack in St. Peter's square, our fist full day in Rome:


The dub tanked out in the backpack while we wait at Termini, Rome for our train to Siena:


Our "villa" at Siena--technically we just had one room, but we were the only people there:


Our view of the Duomo from the rooftop garden in Florence (and yes, Brandon is the devil):


Brandon and Pdub outside the Uffizi:


The cloisters of the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence:


Waiting for the train at Santa Maria Novella, Florence:


Riding the Vaporetto in Venice:


A vacation from vacation on the island of Burano:


Pdub met up with the grandparens and went for a walk in the Piazza San Marco:


Tasting our way across Italy en route to Bologna:


Bologna was tough, so Pdub and I took a nap:


Hanging out in the cloisters of the enormous Basilica San Francesco in Assisi:


Somewhere along the way, Pdub and I took some time out to learn a little Italian from a lovely book from Abuelita:


On the way home, we had plenty of time to kill in the Frankfurt airport:


And finally, we made it back home:


(edited to make pictures smaller ~B)