Waking up in Venice was lovely. It is mostly very quiet, a nice change from the mornings in Rome and Florence. The quiet is occasionally interrupted by the sound of a boat making its way through the canal outside my bedroom window. The bed in the Air BNB is the best one yet – I didn’t want to get out of it, until I remembered WE ARE IN VENICE!! We grabbed our apartment key (with a flotation device) and headed out for the day.

The fog was better than when we arrived last night. We had plans to meet our tour guide, Romy, near San Marco Basilica. We were all shocked when we walked into the square and saw a gorgeous, huge, church – Saint Mark’s Basilica. We couldn’t see it at all the night before. Ty is over looking at the inside of churches so we skipped this one.

While waiting for Romy, I was standing under this gorgeous Venetian 24-hour clock tower, completely unaware of the pigeons overhead. I felt what I thought was a rain drop on my shoulder. Then realized it wasn’t raining. Yep. The pigeon shit on my shoulder. The guide assured me that was good luck.

Because our Burano tour was cancelled, we had to change plans and Romy walked us around the island, showing us so many highlights that we would have never noticed or known walking on our own. I’m going to try to share a few nuggets of information with you, but I highly recommend a tour with Romy. I can share her information if you are interested.

Venice was “born” on March 25, 421 AD. It started as 116 islands and 177 canals. Early settlers built wooden structures on the edge of the islands using wooden piles. The water and silt caused the wood to petrify – the perfect foundation for buildings that have lasted for centuries.

After our tour, the kids were ready for a rest. Not me! Jay and I got them situated in the apartment and we attempted to get lost in Venice. We sat down at one cute restaurant along a canal for a drink. We were having a lovely time, and the couple at the table next to us started causing a bit of a scene. Turns out a rat crawled up the table and onto the guy’s lap!!!!!!! His girlfriend was freaking out. Jay saw the whole thing go down, and then he watched the rat climb up another table. He chugged the last of his wine and we got up to pay the bill. I told a waiter what was happening, and we watched the rat head down an alley. The exact alley that Jay and I had to go down. We saw a guy stomping his foot in a doorway, the doorway to the restaurant kitchen. And then, just as you would picture in a movie, the chef saw what was happening and he shouted “MAMA MIA!!” It was perfection.

We fly home on Sunday. Three Italian cities in a week! We have seen so much, and I am blessed to have been able to experience this part of Europe. Lily’s favorite part was The Colosseum in Rome. Ty’s favorite was The Roman Forum. Jay’s favorite was wandering around Rome and seeing old stuff everywhere. Venice was my favorite. There is no place like it anywhere else in the world.

When you get off the train in Venice, you walk out of the station and see a canal full of boat traffic. Zero cars. Zero motorcycles. Zero bicycles. Only boats. It feels like another world. Venice has always been a bucket list destination for me. We are here!!!

I took a couple videos of the boat ride but they aren’t loading to the blog site. I will share them on Facebook separately.

Step one. Start laundry. We packed light (you may have noticed a lot of the same clothes – gross).

It is super foggy today so the views are not really views. We couldn’t even see the top of the bell tower at Piazza San Marco. I am hoping the fog clears a bit so we can do our Murano/Burano tour tomorrow.

All of the little alleys have shops. The Murano glass shops are all amazing. And the Carnival masks….incredible. When I booked this trip I didn’t realize that Carnival here was such a big deal. If I had, I would have flipped the trip and gone to Venice first. There are remnants of the party everywhere – confetti on the ground, decorations being taken down. And this lady.

We found a restaurant to have dinner – Ostaria ai Fabbri. Shearer Party of 4 gave it 4 Thumbs Up. Lily would have given it 3 Thumbs Up for her vote if she had 3 thumbs.

It is easy to get lost here. The alleys are all small, not a lot of landmarks, and lots of people (although our Air Bnb host said it is a quieter weekend than normal). It took us a bit to find our way back to the apartment. But we made it. Phew!

We are hoping that our clothes dry before morning. European laundry………*sigh*

Thursday was Activity Day. :). We had a reservation with the Roman Food Tour for a pasta and tiramisu cooking class at noon. We took our time in the morning, grabbed some coffees and hot chocolate, and made our way across the river to a restaurant that is closed during the off season for most guests – only open for cooking classes. Our guide, Sarah, was French and full of energy. She made everyone in our group feel like gourmet chefs.

We started by making the tiramisu. Did you know it means “pick me up” and was used by the military to help the soldiers find some energy to finish their shift? Lily and Ty mixed the egg whites and sugar. Sarah whipped together the egg yolks and mascarpone. Then we all took a turn at folding the mascarpone into the egg white mixture. It is a slow process, and now I have more appreciation for the dessert! We all began our layering process. With the lady fingers and the coffee, “first you dip it, then you flip it, then you dip it, then that’s it.” :).

Once our dessert was prepped and put in the refrigerator, we moved to pasta making. We made a spinach ricotta ravioli and tagliatelle noodles, served with a tomato sauce. It was delicious!! We enjoyed our individual tiramisu desserts. Yummy!!

It was a super fun way to spend a couple hours in the afternoon, doing a very Italian thing. And the best part? I didn’t have to clean up or actually cook it – we just got to do the fun part!

Lily and I decided to make a reservation for a Paint & Sip experience (more painting than sipping for her). The group chose to have the instructor walk us through a Vespa painting. Lily really wanted to do the beach painting, so she, being a professional artist, painted on her own and helped me. It was a fun couple hours of girl time.

The boys wandered around the city and had an OK dinner at Ristorante Romantico Il Paiolo. Shearer Party of 2 gave it 1 Thumbs Up. Ribeye was tough. Ty’s steak had way too much truffle sauce. We are pretty much food experts now.

On Friday we will check out of the Grand Hotel Baglioni and catch a train to Venice. Hotel review: it is a grand old building, lots of character. It needs some TLC and updating, though. And thankfully we were here in winter – no air conditioning. That means that we had to have the windows open all night – Florence is not a quiet city. I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you really value the historical experience.

Florence is a beautiful, energetic, clean city. But the Shearer’s all liked Rome better. In Rome there were “wow” moments everywhere you looked. Not so much in Florence. We will see where Venice ranks!

We are following Lily’s Florence itinerary that she planned out on Canva (with a couple tweaks). Unfortunately kids cannot do an e-bike tour so we had to cross that off the list. And we likely won’t go to the Uffizi gallery. But I love that she put time and creativity into planning things to do in Florence.

Everyone was tuckered after lunch (12,000 steps by noon will do that to you), so we went to the hotel for a rest. The kids didn’t want to go back out so Jay and I gave them the all clear on room service (Lily ordered a steak lol) and we meandered the streets of Florence.

We found a restaurant called Paoli that had an open table. Jay said it was the best meal of his life. That is saying a lot. He had Kobe beef and potatoes. I had Tuscan vegetable soup and Mezzelune pasta with truffles. A.maz.ing. It’s been a long time since Jay and I have been out for a nice dinner on Valentine’s Day. To happen to walk into one of the hundreds of restaurants and enjoy an incredible dinner was a gift. Shearer Party of 2 gives it FOUR thumbs up. Best rating yet.

Walking the streets of Florence at night is an entirely different experience. Maybe it is because it is Valentine’s Day. Or because it is Ash Wednesday. Or because it is a perfect Wednesday evening in February in Florence. But there was an energy all around us. Beautiful people. Talented violinists and accordion players. Incredible sculptures.

Buon San Valentino! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Our last morning in Roma. We had breakfast one more time at the cafe around the corner, walked to Circus Maximus, then back to the hotel so Lily could get a couple more Suppli before we left Rome. The train was really easy and a comfortable way to travel to Florence. I don’t get paid by any hotels or restaurants to give reviews, but we thought The Pantheon was a great hotel, amazing location. I would recommend staying there, for sure.

First impression of Florence (Firenze) is that it is less hectic than Rome, quieter. Lots of leather shops, gelato, and cafes. And magnets of David – Lily likes to point out all of them.

We had dinner at Lorenzo de Medici Ristorante Pizzeria. Shearer Family of 4 gave it 3.5 thumbs up, mostly knocked down because the bread was meh and the caprese was OK, but not amazing.

Monday morning we had a tour scheduled for 9:30 at The Vatican. Despite Jay and Ty getting less sleep than normal because of the Super Bowl, we made it to our meeting point just in time. We met our guide (another one from The Tour Guy whose name I don’t recall) and immediately skipped the massive lines and got right inside. (Worth the cost, for sure). We started outside and saw a bit of the gardens and talked about what we were doing to see inside. Then we toured the museum, making our way through the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, ending at St Peter’s Basilica. Here is our day, in photos.

From the Raphael rooms we went into the Sistine Chapel. No photography was allowed in the room that was painted by Michelangelo – first the ceiling when he was in his 30’s, and then The Last Judgment when he was in his 60’s. Michelangelo didn’t want to paint it. He said he was “a sculptor, not a painter”. It took him 4 years to finish the ceiling. I like art, but I’m not an artist, not an art history expert, not one that can look at a piece of art and critique it. I can’t tell if something is worth nothing or millions. I like art that makes me feel something. We have seen a lot of art on the ceilings of churches in the past few days. But the Sistine Chapel….wow. Despite being herded like cattle through the room, surrounded by hundreds of people, I just kept thinking wow wow wow. For not being a painter, I think he did a pretty good job. A+ for effort, M.

Jay and I have had a couple conversations about the extravagance of what we saw today, which seems to contradict what Jesus stood for. For centuries the leaders of the Catholic Church spent incredible sums of money on material items. I do not want to get into a religious debate so I won’t go there in this blog, but I’d be happy to have an actual conversation in person about it with you.

We wandered back to the hotel and ate a late lunch at a lively little sidewalk cafe. A musician sang some songs in Italian and lots of people were joining in. It was a cool vibe. We ate a lot, so we decided to bail on dinner reservations and the kids just ordered a little room service. We were all pretty worn out so a night in was appreciated by all.

Tomorrow afternoon we take the train to Florence. We could probably spend more time in Rome, but I think we are happy with the highlights that we were able to see.

Sunday was a big day. We met our tour guide, Bogdan (The Tour Guy) outside the entrance to the Colosseum at 9:30. We spent the next 3 hours listening to him tell stories about Ancient Rome. I learned more in 3 hours than I did in all of my years at school. It was incredible to hear about and see so many things that I have read about during my lifetime. Also, pro tip, paying for a tour guide to allow you to skip the lines is totally worth it.

The building that we all know as the “Colosseum” was built on the site that was originally the estate of the Emperor Nero. He had a giant bronze statue made of himself (he wasn’t exactly a humble leader). After Nero’s reign (life) ended, the Colossus statue was moved outside the Flavian Amphitheater. People referred to the statue as a meeting point, and over time, the amphitheater sort of adopted the name “Colosseum”. Kind of cool that we spent Super Bowl Sunday touring a giant stadium.

I learned so much more than I want to share in this blog. I wouldn’t be able to fact check everything, so if you were debating about booking a flight to Rome, do it.

Until you book your own tour, I have noted a few fun facts in the photo captions.

After finishing our tour of the Colosseum, we headed toward Palentine Hill, which was the first of seven hills that became Rome. Well, until the Emperor decided to buy all surrounding property and build his palace, often times on top of existing homes.

We walked down on a part of the Roman Road to the Forum.

Again, I’m not a history expert, so use this as more of a guide than a Bible. :). But, wow. This place is impossible to put into words. Pictures don’t do it justice. Even TV shows and movies only sort of prepare you for what you will see in Rome.

Jay and Ty stayed up to watch the first half of the Super Bowl, which started at 12:30 AM here. They watched it on local TV with Italian commentators and no commercials. Ty fell asleep at halftime.

Monday is a tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.

The first stop on the Shearer Family Roman Holiday was Rome. Frankfurt to Rome was a super easy 1:45 flight, over the top of the Alps. Wish I had a window seat for that view!

We arrived at the hotel – The Pantheon Autograph Collection – early afternoon and wanted a light lunch. We grabbed a table at Ginger and it scored 4 Thumbs Up. Although dining while staring at pig feet isn’t exactly my definition of appetizing.

No Italian meal is not complete without some gelato. Yum!

Unfortunately it was a super rainy day, and we tried to make the most of it. I mean, WE ARE IN ROME!!! A little rain isn’t going to stop me from exploring. We walked to this area that was discovered under a park in the 1920’s that was where Julius Caesar was assassinated. How the heck does that just get buried by a park?!?!?!

We wandered along the streets and stopped inside a couple jaw dropping churches. Memaw thinks Lily should paint the ceiling in her bedroom just like the churches we saw. 🙂

Jay and Lily walked by the Pantheon and somehow Ty and I got split apart from them and missed it. We will go check it out again when it is not raining.

We grabbed a taxi to take us to dinner at Taverna Trilussa. We sat outside under a covered patio and listened to the rain hitting the metal roof. It was cozy and relaxing. We warned the kids that it might be a 3 hour meal and they were so patient. It ended up being less than 2 hours, but we all ate some delicious Italian food served in a skillet. 3.75 Thumbs Up for the Shearer vote. It would have gotten 4 if Lily’s pasta didn’t have quite so much pepper.

We didn’t have birthday cake to celebrate Aunt Jekka’s birthday (send her a happy birthday note!), but we did get dessert. Creme brûlée for me, homemade vanilla ice cream for the kids, and a special complimentary side plate of “the best cookies I have ever had” -Lily.

The taxi ride back to the hotel made me giggle. Imagine this. Pouring down rain. Cobblestone streets. No defined sidewalks, and in many places no defined roads. And a taxi driver that wants to be a Formula 1 driver. At one point I was certain he was going to run over people walking in the street (or at least what I assumed to be the street). Being a taxi driver in Rome should come with Hazard Pay.

Today’s German sign quiz:

Fact Check Update: The old stones that we have been noticing all of the place are in fact very old, but they are NOT headstones marking graves. They were used in ancient times to mark borders of private properties, and serve no purpose today (other than confusing non-Germans).

Air Shipment Update: Our shipment left Kentucky and made it to Cologne, then got put on a truck to Frankfurt where it must clear Customs. Unfortunately the Customs team got hit with a COVID outbreak (of course) so it will take “longer than normal” to clear Customs. #sigh.

And on the 39th day, the electrician gave us LIGHT!! I feel like I have a whole new energy level. I am actually looking forward to cooking dinner tonight because I will be able to SEE what I am doing. Y’all. I am happy. 

To kill some time while Ty was at baseball practice, I went to Toom, which is a hardware store somewhat similar to Lowes. It’s so fun to see the inventory and compare to what you would see in the US. For example, there is a whole section of wallpaper here. And toilet seats…..how does anyone choose only one? It’s truly an art piece, a conversation starter, a personal statement on your private throne.

How I did not come home with this “hairy moo” seat is one of life’s great mysteries… If you could choose only one, which would you pick? 

In one store, I learned that Detroit is a State.

I cannot believe I forgot to tell you all about my sauna experience at my last massage. Sauna is apparently a big deal in Europe. I got to my massage about 45 minutes early and thought I would take advantage of the time to experience the sauna. I am very modest, so my plan was to keep my robe on. And I hoped that I would be the only one there. I opened the sauna door, and had a full-on naked lady encounter. #awkward. I shut the door and walked away. Thankfully there was another sauna that was unoccupied. And, I quickly learned that it was a much better fit for me because it was “cooler” than the first one I attempted to go in, which was basically a degree or two cooler than the depths of hell. I could only stand about 10 minutes in the empty sauna. Maybe I could have survived another 3 minutes without my robe, but #notgonnahappen. The picture below is of the sauna area in my gym. This is only half of the room, there are more lounge chairs and a smaller sauna on the other side of the wall. I sat in here after a workout and did a little 8 minute meditation. It wasn’t hot at all, think I need to push a button or something to turn it on. In addition to the sauna, the gym has a Solarium. I opened the door to find out what the heck that was. It’s a tanning bed room. Apparently Germans don’t care about skin cancer.

Speaking of cancer. So many people here smoke. One morning I was walking home from the gym and the high school students were out on a smoke break. Lots of them. The bus stop is disgusting – you can’t walk through without getting lung cancer. 

Lily had a Fasching celebration at school this week. I thought Wikipedia could do a better job of explaining it than me: Germans celebrate carnival in late winter. Depending on the region, carnival is also called “Fasching”. Both terms have their tradition in the exorcism of winter. People in elaborate costumes dance their way through the city.

Check out Jay’s new Anti-Roman-Pickpocket-Purse, err, I mean, satchel. Flight leaves for Rome Saturday morning. Lots of fun things planned for the week!

In other words, NO SPEED LIMIT. The recommended speed limit is 130 KPH (80 MPH). And the rule is to stay as far right as possible unless you are passing another vehicle. This is Jay’s favorite sign. Now that I think about it, they could put this sign on the sauna door. ”End of All Restricted Clothing”.

I’m sure all of you are wondering if this is going to be the post where I share that our air shipment has arrived. Sadly, you must wait a while longer. Somehow our already delayed shipment was not put on a direct flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Instead, it went from Chicago to Louisville, then got stuck in Kentucky due to a strike in Cologne, Germany (which was it’s planned 3rd stop before coming to Frankfurt). If I read, “I apologize for the inconvenience” one more time I might lose my mind. What can I do? Nothing. Ugh.

I thought it would be fun to start a game. Some of the German road signs make sense. Many do not. I’m going to start posts with a traffic sign, you try to guess what it is, and I’ll post the answer at the end of the blog. Here are some that I see everywhere and have no idea what they mean. 

I think I have talked about these Jewish Stumbling Blocks in a prior post. I found a set in Königstein, just a half block away from our house. They are a subtle reminder of the horrors that Jews experienced in the not so distant past, and seeing them so close to home makes me stop and think about what these poor people went through. 

So funny story. You know how charcoal is supposed to be a whitening agent, like in toothpaste? We have not found any Tide in Germany, and none of the other laundry detergent brands are recognizable to us, so we are going through the fun of trial and error to see what we like. We picked up a bottle of detergent that had charcoal in it and used it for several days. One day as I was pulling the clothes out of the dryer, I panicked and thought that the dryer was burning up because the clothes smelled like smoke. I was about 5 seconds away from calling the rental company about it when I thought that maybe it was the detergent. I ran down to the Rewe (grocery store) and bought a different brand, as well as a washing machine cleaner. I ran the cleaner through, then did a load of clothes, and amazing! They didn’t smell like smoke! 

Basketball is my favorite sport. I loved playing it as a kid, and I have loved coaching it as an adult. Imagine my disappointment and sadness when both of my children informed us that they did not want to play basketball in Germany. *sigh* OK, I can respect their wishes. We went almost a month before Ty sent a note late one Saturday night after watching ISU basketball and said “I want to play basketball.” WOOT WOOT!!!! I immediately found the coach’s email address and sent a note. He had his first practice last Monday evening, and first game on Thursday night. Most of the junior high boys at FIS play basketball, and for many, this is the first time they have ever played. The ref was pretty lenient on blowing his whistle, and it was a good thing because the game would have been stopped a lot for travels, double dribbles, etc. Because there are so many boys on the team, they pretty much play one quarter. And since Ty had only been to one practice, he sat on the bench until the 4th quarter. That meant he had 3 quarters to sit and watch and realize that he could dominate the court. And he did! I have never seen him play with so much confidence and intensity, ever. #proudmama

Jay and I were able to get a membership through my language professor to Selgros, which is like a Sams Club/Costco. They had a great meat selection, we broke down and bought tupperware and a good knife (even though we have some coming in the air shipment), and really big wooden spoons. I almost bought it to threaten my kids like my mom used to do to us – don’t make me get out the wooden spoon. It’s hilarious to think about how terrified we were of that statement, even though mom never once used it on us. :)

Isn’t this just the cutest little bush you ever saw?

Sunday we decided to go for a hike, and maybe I was a little ambitious, but what else were we going to do all day Sunday? I found a hike on the app Komoot that was just over 7 miles. What can I say, I was excited to try out my new hiking shoes (that I had to buy because mine are in the air shipment in Kentucky). 

One thing that I have observed is that people seem to walk everywhere. I don’t just mean walk instead of drive, I mean if there is a piece of land with grass or woods, there are people on it – even if it is off the trail. I asked Jay if it was all public land, and he told me that there isn’t really such a thing as trespassing in Germany. Land is basically all public use. I did a little fact checking on this concept and found this explanation. So basically land is privately owned, but you must allow people to walk/bike/ride on it. 

Observation. Most people that I pass by on the street don’t smile, or say guten morgen. So I have decided to bring my most midwest nice self to my outings and be overly happy to say good morning to people. I also am introducing the “farmer wave” to German drivers. There is so much give and take while driving on these roads, that giving a little wave to say “thanks for pulling over and letting me through this tiny little street” seems like the right thing to do.

At about the 3 mile mark, Lily said she was starving. I was hoping that one of the little towns we were going to walk through would have a cafe open. We walked a little further, and she only said “I’m hungry” about 10 more times, before we stumbled across this adorable restaurant with a huge biergarten in the middle of nowhere, called Rote Mühle. We didn’t have reservations, and since it was 50 degrees out we went ahead and sat outside. We were apparently all pretty hungry and everyone just about licked their plates clean. Here are some photos from our Sunday adventure.

Lily had fun playing with different camera settings on her phone. The next few are shots that she took.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home, so we laid low the rest of the afternoon. I have done most of the major bookings for our Ski Break trip to Italy next week, but I didn’t schedule anything in Florence. I asked the kids to do a little research and pick out what they want to do. Lily super shocked both Jay and I when she showed us her Canva presentation! She artfully laid out things that we should do, including a museum visit, an E-Bike tour and David, and a pasta-making class. :) 

Another observation. On our hike we saw two gravestones, unmarked, and covered in moss, along the trail. There were no other graves around them, just lonely little blocks of stone. On my walk to the gym I noticed this headstone – with initials – located alongside a fairly busy road, next to an apartment building. This is not something you would typically see in the US, so I’m trying to get more information. 

And now, the moment you have been waiting for….the answers to the street sign quiz! Did anyone guess correctly?