Traveling
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Florence: A Hike Before Sunrise and Finding Quality Time
“Quality time is found in the midst of quantity time” ~Deacon Randolph~ When thinking back on our trip to Florence, there is one memory that brings home the truth about quality time: it’s often found in the more ordinary moments and it can happen anywhere, at anytime, and it is the glue that holds family together. Sure — we were in Florence — and that isn’t an everyday occurrence for our family. But the memory that I am thinking about started off in a way that many family memories start out: a little conversation between husband and wife. We knew we hadn’t slept much since the beginning of our trip…
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Florence: What Art, Beauty, and Naked Statues Have to Do with Being Catholic
“This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair”. ~John Paul II, Letter to Artists~ One of the reasons I love being around kids is that they ask the honest questions that adults are too afraid to ask. When traveling to Florence with kids, a question that will almost inevitably come up is, “Why so many naked people?” I’m not talking about the people passing by, but everywhere you look — in churches, piazzas, and museums — there are naked people depicted in very life-like reality. It might surprise you that the Church was one of the greatest patrons of the arts — and without the Church,…
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7 Quick Takes in Florence
You may have read last week’s post about our time in Assisi. If not, you might want to begin here. For the second leg of our family pilgrimage in Italy, we chose Florence. Perhaps it’s not the first place you would think of for a family pilgrimage — but believe me, there were many unexpected blessings to be found in this city. Please come back next week for more about our adventures in Florence, but for now I am linking up with Kelly for my 7 Quick Takes of Florence. Enjoy! The winding streets of Florence all seemed to lead to the Duomo – I couldn’t get enough of them! One of the things…
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The First Leg of our Family Pilgrimage and 7 Quick Takes in Assisi
“Everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face”. ~Muhammad Ali~ “God doesn’t always give us what we want, but He always gives us what we need.” ~Me and about 10,000 other people throughout history~ If you missed my post last week, you may not know that we recently returned from a family pilgrimage to Italy. We had planned for months, and it only took the first leg of our trip to throw all of our plans out the window. We had to sit on a runway in Detroit because of rain in Chicago– really O’Hare — because of rain?! We were told we would have 15 minutes to run from one end of O’Hare…
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7 Quick Takes: The Do’s and Don’ts of Family Travel
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ~Charles Dickens~ I just returned from a two week family pilgrimage to Italy, and on the morning of my return, I woke up thinking, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” — though Dickens was actually writing about the French Revolution, his words perfectly encapsulate our family trip– it was truly the best and worst of times. But it was worth it! If you find yourself traveling with one child, or multiple children, I guarantee you will find yourself thinking and saying things that definitely aren’t your best thoughts and words — but you will…
