Derek presented a paper in Venice for the Renaissance Society of America on Kepler's musical background and how it affected his views on Astronomy.
Highlights of our trip include:
Being in a place with no cars/traffic (how amazing to go everywhere on foot or by boat!)
The history, the churches, the beauty....
The art...and the music(we were able to attend a performance ofVivaldi's [who was from Venice] 4 seasons in the most beautiful church)...
the food....and the sunshine....
....and our layovers in Spain (see post below) and Chicago. 
But the very highlight for me (besides being with Derek in the most beautiful and romantic city in the world) was the people. Alessandra (our Italian exchange student 07-08) and her parents flew to Venice from Calgiari, (in Sardinia) to spend the week with us. I fell in love with her parents. They are such dear people; they treated us to amazing Italian food and accompanied us on excursions always insisting on covering the bill. Alessandra's Dad doesn't speak any English and we don't speak Italian...it was so fun trying to communicate with him!!
It was so great to see Alessandra all grown up!
Even though we had had such an amazing week, I was so excited to get back to our boys and (oddly) to get back to Rexburg and our routine. How thankful I am to all of the family members who helped with the kids while we were gone!
p.s. of the hundreds of photos I took 98% of them were of the beauty of the city (architectural elements etc.) to see more check out my design blog.
http://interiordesignbysara.blogspot.com/
How can that be real! Those pictures were amazing! I am so happy that you were able to have such an amazing experience and you look SO BEAUTIFUL in all of your pictures. What a dream! Steffani
ReplyDeleteWhat a great time! I'm so glad you got to have that experience. Anyway we can read Derek's presentation/paper?
ReplyDeleteWow, you a such a jet setter! that looks like awesome trip ;)
ReplyDeleteVenice is one of those places that is arrestingly gorgeous. I think it would blow fuses in my brain if I magically woke up there one morning.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see all the pictures. I'm going to have make a trip up to Rexberg!
ReplyDeleteHow fun! I need to get back to Europe, but with the baby coming--it will probably be a while. I'm glad you got to go.
ReplyDeleteone of these days i must go to italy...so beautiful! i bet that vivaldi concert was amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Wish I had gone. Wait I did! I wasn't dreaming after all. (Sorry, we are reading Descartes right now in the philosophy class I teach and he had me convinced that I might have been dreaming. This blog proves I wasn't).
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous dreamy trip! Fun to finally see some pics! I still want to see and hear more! What a beautiful place!
ReplyDeleteTeresa
These are some amazing pictures. Isn't Venice amazing? It is so lucky you got to go together! :)
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