White Winter Hymnal

Here's a pretty song we all like that is perfect for Christmas - I really like the film clip too. It's by Fleet Foxes. If the link doesn't work put it into a search engine!

http://youtu.be/DrQRS40OKNE 

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Phoebe x

Christmas in Roma

The Romans really love Christmas! There are lights everywhere, Christmas trees in all the piazzas and even buses covered in fairy lights.

In Piazza Navona the square is filled with stalls selling witches on broomsticks (an Italian Christmas thing) and also Mela Stregata (poisoned apples) which are basically toffee apples and chocolate covered apples. We are going to buy our Christmas stockings there.

Almost every night outside the Fendi store there is a show - trapeze artists and even fake snow! Outside Fendi they give away toffee apples to kids, so we have been going as often as we can.

There is a huge tree at the top of the Spanish Steps that they have slowly been decorating.

We are going to be in Venice for Christmas so if we don't get the chance on Christmas Day I will say Buon Natale! Mum says Santa WILL find us in Venice...


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Phoebe

Giolitti Gelati

One of my favourite things in Rome so far was eating gelato at Giolitti. 

 

It is a famous gelateria which opened in 1890 and also appears in an old film about Rome called Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn. I let the man choose the flavours for me. He got very excited about this and he even put cream on top.

 

Some people think ice cream is for hot days but I don't. But you can't have ice cream if you're asleep.

 

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Phoebe x

Jet lag

Well we are in Italy! We are all very excited to be here on this new adventure.

 It is freezing here in Rome and we have been dressing up in our coats every day as we explore this amazing city. Here we are at the Spanish Steps, very near our apartment on via della Croce.

When we left our home in Brisbane it was very hot.

We watched movies ALL the way to Italy. Leo thinks the seats are huge in Economy.

This is our apartment in Rome where we will be for nearly three weeks. We are having breakfast.

We all had terrible jet lag when we got to Rome. This is what happened every night...

 Pasta

Going...

Going...

Gone.



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from Phoebe

Ciao Italia!

It's time to start my blog again! My family and I are off to Italy on Monday for five weeks. We will be in Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan. We will have Christmas in Venice with our friends Raffaella and Francesco.

Some of the things I am excited about include: pasta, pizza, gelato, gondolas and...gelato!

Handel's Messiah

Because it is Christmas we went to hear a special performance of Handel's Messiah inside the most beautiful church in Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar. It was a very cold night and the church was full of people all rugged up. All the candles were lit and incense was burning. It was very special to be in such an old church. There was a tenor, a soprano, a mezzo soprano, a baritone and a full orchestra.  

Santa Maria del Mar is a Catalan Gothic cathedral in the Barri of Born.

It only started at 9pm at night and finished very late so Olympia fell asleep. My dad took her up into a sacred crypt to sleep the sleep of the dead. 

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Phoebe

Montserrat

It's all about churches this week! We took Papou, Maria and Philippa up to Montserrat, a Benedictine monastery carved into a mountain outside Barcelona. Around 80 monks still live here. I saw some!

There are amazing views of Barcelona. If the weather is good you can see as far as Mallorca. I came here with my Grandma Chris 6 years ago.

To get there you have to take a train and then a cremallera, a rack train up the mountain. Montserrat is home to the Black Virgin (La Moreneta) and she is very special to Catalunya. She is kept in a 16th century basilica, and people queue to kiss the orb she holds in her hand. She is actually black from centuries of dirt and candle soot but Catalunyans are in denial about this.

Olympia and I lit a candle for our families and thought about those we miss and love.

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Phoebe