Where To Begin?!

Oh, the places we will go!  

The Backstory:    The desire to take our kids to Europe for experiential learning began long before they were even born; although I don't necessarily think we ever thought it could really happen.  I suppose it's like when I used to say, "it would be amazing to travel through India," but I didn't think I'd ever really go there.

Technically, we took the first step toward this trip (though we didn't know it) when we decided to homeschool in 2009; and then, when we'd homeschooled for a bit, we realized that if we didn't do this soon, we'd lose our best window to do so.  We've studied the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, the Reformation, (among many other eras) and we're headed into the modern age this year with WWI, WWII and more.  Actually going to where so much of this history took place, is a dream come true, and one that didn't start with ourselves.

The Italy Piece:   We have dear friend Denise Comoli to thank for urging us to take the opportunity for this trip seriously.  She and Chris worked together years ago at JD Edwards, and she's been living in Italy for the past ten years.  She sends inviting Christmas cards every year and has continued to extend her warm hospitality; this is the year that we (& our budget) are finally taking her up on it!  She keeps a steady flow of support, advice & planning coming our way, and we know this trip couldn't happen without her.  Really.  It couldn't.  It's one thing to get excited about taking an amazing trip, and it's another to plan every day of it, & she's helped with so much of it!  Five weeks equals a lot of days of traveling with children, regardless of their ages.  It costs so much just to get there however, that it seemed crazy to go for any less time in light of the fact that if we were willing to make a variety of sacrifices, we could pull it off (and as long as Chris stayed working in the office for 3 of those weeks, we could pay for it!)  In Denise's words, "you will go home very broke and very happy!"

The London Piece:  This part of the trip is such an over the top bonus!  It turned out that getting our tickets to Milan were cheaper if we went via London.  While we were still in the idea phase of all this, Chris was at a business conference in Vegas where he crossed with former neighbor Chris Walsh, who along with wife Wendy, were both relocated with their family to London a year ago for both their jobs; he was the friend who suggested we go via London & said, "and if you do, you could stay with us."  And of course, we're taking them up on their generous offer!  In addition to seeing as much as we can, we will get to meet up with Ashley's online Shakespearean literature teacher to have lunch & catch a show (Taming of the Shrew) at the Globe theater, and the biggest highlight for me will be attending former Shalimar student, Jessica Villeda's wedding at the close of our week!  It's far beyond amazing to me that all these experiences lined up so perfectly; the fact that this was the summer for London to host the Olympics just made me laugh!  Watching nonstop coverage for those two weeks added greatly to our excited anticipation!  Our hearts are full and we are grateful.