Driving through Toscana

First off, I loved driving in Italy.  We'd heard all sorts of horror stories about the crazy Italian drivers that made us a little worried, but I had a great time.  Nobody uses turn signals, or follows the lane markings (unless it's convenient, of course) or follows the speed limit (unless there is a speed camera) and I thought it worked remarkably well all told.  It reminded me a little of driving in CA (the speeding) and a little of UT (lack of turn signals) and was not at all like driving in Deutschland.

Aquaduct near Viterbo

ocean near Civitavecchia

Our first meal in our rental apartment
Note the fabulous chandelier

We failed to throw money into the Trevi fountain, I guess
this means we have to go back to Rome!

Ben got tired of me comparing Tuscany to California, but with all the cherry trees in bloom and the big fields, it really looked a bit like CA.  Except for the mountains.  We saw the marble mines from a distance and drove to the ocean to let the kids play for a while.  Too bad the beach was more trash than anything else.  Italy is a little dirty with litter, which was quite a nasty shock coming from very clean Germany and super clean Switzerland.

We parked the van at the airport and took a taxi into town.  Our first night after feeding the kids we walked around to see the Emmanuel monument, Trajan's column, Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps.  I was worried that our big group would have a hard time staying together, but we did just fine.