ITALY

Italy is a crazy but fantastic place.  They drive like maniacs, park anywhere they want, and it seems they enjoy making us confused.  :-)  Rosie said that Italians go by the motto, "If you can make something more confusing, why not?"  Luckily, she helped us out.  We just saw so many interesting things.  As crazy as it was, I would love to go back and check out the things we missed.  I imagine I will have to dedicate a few pages to Italy.

I guess I will start off with Tivoli (outside Rome).  This is where the group helped Lisa and I celebrate our one year anniversary.

Castle in Tivoli.
 

Lisa and me at the Villa D'Este Gardens in Tivoli.
 

Behind Lisa is a ton of little water fountains.  This whole place is on a hill, so all the water fountains are powered by gravity.  You can see some of the fountains better in the next pictures.
 

Later we went to an Italian dinner.  I made the mistake of mentioning to Marv (good guy, but quick to get you into trouble if he can :-) ), that it was almost Lisa and my one year anniversary.  He was quick to tell Rosie, who arranged a big to-do.  They brought out a huge white cake and champagne followed by a toast and dancing.  It was a little embarrassing, but lots of fun.

Here is a toast to a great year and many more to come!!!

LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN (and get some of this attention off me :-) )

They had these silly noise makers that they passed out to follow along with the band.  There was another group at the restaurant sitting a few tables over.  They sat there like bumps on logs while our group was noisy and causing a ruckus.  I think Rosie had something to do with that :-)

Italy continued