Wanderlusting Woman

If you are into scenes of babies being murdered and people being skinned alive and heads being severed, and blood squirting from gaping chest wounds, and oodles and oodles of uncircumcised noodles (and by noodles, I'm talking more of the penne sized, not cannelloni), then you will surely enjoy the works of Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaello at the Uffizi and the Accademia Gallery, and at least a few pics in this post. Today Michael and I drove back to Florence and went to these two famous museums to take in all the art. Please browse through the pics and enjoy all the gore, torture, and nudity :) Tomorrow morning, we head home.

Decided at the last minute to spend our anniversary day in Rome, so off we go, 2 hours down the road to walk around and take in the sites. Halfway into our drive, we heard a knocking in our trunk as we are zipping down the highway. I thought we had a half-dead body in our trunk and we were going to be the next "Foxy Knoxy" story of Italy. As I am envisioning prison life in Perugia, Mike looks in his side-view mirror and starts yelling expletives. No dead body. Instead, our bumper is coming off the car. So all kinds of excitement today, both scary and good. The good news is, we made it safely there and back, and lived to tell of our exciting 10-year-anniversary celebration in Rome.

Under the category of "Things I will never hear again in my life": "And how much for the vagina?" (Sister asking artist about his sculpture she was interested in buying...and yes, she bought it.)

Just about anywhere we go around here, the views don't disappoint. I want to be Diane Lane in that "Under the Tuscan Sun" chick flick. Did some wine tasting at a few places in Montepulciano today, but since I'm not a red wine girl (of all the places we went, only one had a white wine to sample), I was happy to be the photographer. Along with the views, there were lots of cute little shops and one horribly frightening Torture Museum that had all sorts of Catholic torture devices from the old days..including what you see in the last pic. I'm sure some of you will be sad to hear that we skipped that tour).

Last sunset in Quito before heading to the airport. Thank you to my good friends and the good people of Contigo Foundation for making me feel so welcomed. I hope to return next year.

Spent the day exploring downtown Quito and climbing the towers of the Basilica Nacional del Voto with Denise and her fam. The climb was over 375 feet up. It consisted of stairs, a rickety wooden bridge that you had to cross that extended across the church arches, then up ladders that went straight up, as well as a few narrow spiral ladders. It was an adventure to say the least. Oswaldo and I kept waiting for an earthquake and plotting how we were going to survive it if the Basilica came crashing down. Good times!!!

A sampling of my friends' Contigo Foundation crew. We were popcorn baggin', sandwich stackin' fools today in Pisuli. (And I think the kids had a good time, too 😊).