Show No Fear! DIS Exclusive Viva Italia+DLP TR Sept 2014*COMPLETE* New TR link added 7/3

[KathyTX]

Oh, that was a fun day in Florence, and such a wonderful and laughter-filled lunch!

Can't show it on the DIS, but that was the day Marco wore his David-inspired apron, LOL!!!

 

[silmarg]

Happy New Year!

And thanks for your trip report.

Today I pulled the trigger and have booked the Italy ABD for late July 2015!

 

[courtneybelle]

Totally understand about the lack of DISing. I thought I'd be able to catch up and post a lot over winter break, and yet things have gotten even busier Hope you and the family had a nice Christmas and New Year's!

The pasta dishes look great! But wow, that is way more stuffed shells than I would think!

Ughh those potatoes look amazing! We had similar looking ones at a different restaurant there and I inhaled them

I'm excited to hear about Pisa! I didn't go because I wanted more time in Florence, so I definitely want to see what you thought.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Just catching up on your trip report, which is a good remedy for my post-Disney depression! I laughed at the Dr. Seuss books in the gift shop at the Uffizi. I bought a "children's" book there called Dante for Fun: Hell. Not really kid appropriate but the cartoon renderings were pretty funny.

Laurie

 

[missangelalexis]

Happy New Year to you guys!

Mmmm all those courses look amazing!! Glad it was a great lunch

 

[MEK]

I like any meal that starts with the wine glasses lined up!

That food looks absolutely delicious. As I read all your reviews of the magnificent food you had, I can't help but wonder how much weight I would gain on that trip!

Looking forward to more!

 

[OKW Lover]

I like any meal that starts with the wine glasses lined up!

That food looks absolutely delicious. As I read all your reviews of the magnificent food you had, I can't help but wonder how much weight I would gain on that trip!

Looking forward to more!

Some compensation for all that food is all that walking you do while on these trips.

 

[Imagineer5]

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new year!!

The lunch looks amazing! Looking forward to seeing Pisa - we skipped that on our trip! Your pasta dish looks AMAZING. I am salivating over here about to eat my breakfast banana.

 

[k5jm]

ABD 07-039 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
And just a little wine…

I cannot confirm or deny that this event happened.

 

[k5jm]

Oh, that was a fun day in Florence, and such a wonderful and laughter-filled lunch!

Can't show it on the DIS, but that was the day Marco wore his David-inspired apron, LOL!!!

He was so "free." I know, low hanging fruit.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

As I read all your reviews of the magnificent food you had, I can't help but wonder how much weight I would gain on that trip!

Despite all of the pasta and wine and eating gelato 3 times in one day, I actually lost weight on this trip!

Laurie

 

[sayhello]

Despite all of the pasta and wine and eating gelato 3 times in one day, I actually lost weight on this trip!

Laurie

Good for you!!!

Sayhello

 

[fosterkittymom]

Your trip sounds amazing! I especially love all your pictures. My I ask what type of camera (I'm guessing a DSLR) and lenses your husband used? We are going in July and I'm trying to decide what camera to take.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

once again I love things like John and Kevin have been to Florence enough time to have a favorite restaurant for lunch

New Orleans has some pretty creative/different culinary offerings so little surprise you never had pate - but good for you in trying it and enjoying it! If you want to be brave again, try the Crock 'o Pate at Raglan Road next trip to WDW - it's really good!

Oh wow - those shells and cheese are huge! That could have been a meal by itself

I like the looks on John and Kevin's face in the back of the "little bit of wine" picture

 

[khertz]

Looks like an excellent lunch! I'm getting hungry just looking at the pictures.

It was really delicious. So thankful for Kevin & John sharing their favorite restaurant with us!

Mmmm, looks like a delicious lunch! I love lasagna, so I'd have to get that - but yours looks really good too. Way to be brave on the pate - I could not have managed that one.

All of the food was really good. It was hard to go wrong with any of the choices. DH and I did our best for all of the meals not to order the same thing so that we could try lots of pastas and entrees. It was a great decision! We got to try almost everything available to us at our family meals.

I tried not to think about what I was eating most of the time and just enjoy the flavors. It worked out more than once for me.

Yeah... lunch looks like it was ok.

I've had pate before. I'm not sure if I knew what it was or not. But I do remember that I didn't particularly care for it. I definitely applaud you for trying something new.

And if you already knew you liked it when you found out it was chicken liver, there's no reason not to continue eating it. It isn't like they told you it was made from gum scraped off the bottom of the local bus seats or something. Chicken liver is perfectly edible...

As for the pate, it's probably not something I would order from now on, but I'm glad I tried it. And it was fun to say I tried something new.

I can't explain it very well except to say it's a picky eater thing. I'm convinced 95% of my pickiness is entirely mental!! Case in point, see Rob's comment below:

It must be so nice to have such well travelled hosts who know the area so well. But more than that, know of great places to add to the itinerary.

Haha, I have to admit, if finding out I was eating chicken liver, I'd be done. Then again, I'm a chicken when it comes to many foods, so in this case I would feel like a cannibal. Good on you for not letting it bother you if it actually tasted good.

"And just a little wine…" I have images of the rest of the group chanting "CHUG, CHUG CHUG!"

It was really great having not only our ABD guides to show us the highlights, but great guys like Kevin & John who know their way around and can share the little hidden gems they have found in their travels with us. Lunch was certainly one of those highlights!

Normally, I would have that same reaction. But at that point, I had already eaten a bit and I decided to just go with it! I was definitely trying to be more adventurous while in my dream country!

Oh, that was a fun day in Florence, and such a wonderful and laughter-filled lunch!

Can't show it on the DIS, but that was the day Marco wore his David-inspired apron, LOL!!!

That was definitely one of the better lunches we had. So much fun and great food!!

Oh I was soooooo tempted to share that pic of Marco, but I was mostly worried about getting him in trouble with ABD. Definitely a priceless moment of the trip! And don't forget, it was a little cold in there!!

 

[khertz]

Happy New Year!

And thanks for your trip report.

Today I pulled the trigger and have booked the Italy ABD for late July 2015!

Wow, that's really exciting!! Congrats!! You won't regret it, it's simply an amazing trip!!

Totally understand about the lack of DISing. I thought I'd be able to catch up and post a lot over winter break, and yet things have gotten even busier Hope you and the family had a nice Christmas and New Year's!

The pasta dishes look great! But wow, that is way more stuffed shells than I would think!

Ughh those potatoes look amazing! We had similar looking ones at a different restaurant there and I inhaled them

I'm excited to hear about Pisa! I didn't go because I wanted more time in Florence, so I definitely want to see what you thought.

We had a great holiday, Courtney. Thanks for your lovely card! Hope y'all had a great one too.

They were SO enormous! I definitely wasn't expecting that much food to come out for the pasta course! Too bad we couldn't take home leftovers. I hated to leave so much behind.

I am a big lover of all things potatoes, so I loved that we had delicious potatoes at almost every meal. They were so good!

Pisa is coming up.

Just catching up on your trip report, which is a good remedy for my post-Disney depression! I laughed at the Dr. Seuss books in the gift shop at the Uffizi. I bought a "children's" book there called Dante for Fun: Hell. Not really kid appropriate but the cartoon renderings were pretty funny.

Laurie

I loved seeing all your pics on Facebook, Laurie. Looks like y'all had a great time on your trip! The DIS has gotten me through many a post-Disney depression over the last few years.

That book sounds FANTASTIC! I can only imagine what's inside a book that has both Dante and Fun in the title!!

Happy New Year to you guys!

Mmmm all those courses look amazing!! Glad it was a great lunch

Thanks, Alexis! Same to you & your family!

It was so incredibly delicious, as was most of the food we had on this trip. But the company was also fantastic, which adds to the experience.

I like any meal that starts with the wine glasses lined up!

That food looks absolutely delicious. As I read all your reviews of the magnificent food you had, I can't help but wonder how much weight I would gain on that trip!

Looking forward to more!

Many of the folks on this trip shared that same sentiment!

I thought it would be a lot worse than it was as far as weight gain, but we balanced it with SO much walking that I pretty much broke even. Especially DH and I, we were always on the move and we never took a cab except for that first night after the food tour we took. We walked EVERYWHERE! It's the best way to see all of the sights on the way to your destination.

 

[khertz]

Some compensation for all that food is all that walking you do while on these trips.

Absolutely! It was a great way not to feel so guilty for having dessert with every meal.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new year!!

The lunch looks amazing! Looking forward to seeing Pisa - we skipped that on our trip! Your pasta dish looks AMAZING. I am salivating over here about to eat my breakfast banana.

Thanks, Lauren, we definitely did! I hope y'all did as well.

All of the food updates are the hardest for me to post, because I am usually hungry and nothing I have here will ever taste as good as what we ate in Italy!!

I cannot confirm or deny that this event happened.

Well, like they say, "Pictures or it didn't happen." So, there ya go.

He was so "free." I know, low hanging fruit.

Marco was definitely letting it all hang out at that lunch!

Despite all of the pasta and wine and eating gelato 3 times in one day, I actually lost weight on this trip!

Laurie

Thank goodness for all the walking so we had more room for gelato, am I right??

Your trip sounds amazing! I especially love all your pictures. My I ask what type of camera (I'm guessing a DSLR) and lenses your husband used? We are going in July and I'm trying to decide what camera to take.

It was incredible! Thanks for following along.

I am clueless when it comes to DH's camera except that yes, it's a DSLR. However, check back soon, as I asked him and he will be popping in to answer your question.

once again I love things like John and Kevin have been to Florence enough time to have a favorite restaurant for lunch

New Orleans has some pretty creative/different culinary offerings so little surprise you never had pate - but good for you in trying it and enjoying it! If you want to be brave again, try the Crock 'o Pate at Raglan Road next trip to WDW - it's really good!

Oh wow - those shells and cheese are huge! That could have been a meal by itself

I like the looks on John and Kevin's face in the back of the "little bit of wine" picture

Right?! What a tough life!!

Pate is not something served at the restaurants DH and I typically frequent. We are much more of the burgers and seafood variety instead of anything too fancy. Thanks for the suggestion, I have always been interested in eating there but we hardly spend any time in DTD. Once the Springs is fully up and running we will be looking to spend more time there though.

Definitely!! The idea of multiple course meals was hard for me to get used to, especially having pasta and then an entree of some kind of meat and sides. I'm used to pasta being an entree in itself! I LOVE pasta so sometimes it was hard to pace myself and remember I still had a course or two to come!

 

[khertz]

Day 7 Continued: Sunday September 21st

When I left off, we had just finished up a delicious lunch at Trattoria San Lorenzo. We walked off the lunch back to the hotel, and we had a short time to freshen up before we had to be back in the lobby to get on the bus to Pisa.

This was another activity that is not usually offered, but John & Kevin were going to set up a bus for anyone that wanted to go. It was going to cost something like 35 Euro per person, and they told us we wouldn’t have to decide if we wanted to do it until we got to Florence. Instead, ABD ended up setting it up for us and we were able to use the same motor coach we had used to get to Florence from Rome so we didn’t have to pay! This was another thing that not everyone decided to do, so those of us that were interested met us in the lobby a little before 3 pm to get on the bus.

Marco got on the microphone as we started moving on the motor coach and began describing what we would happen once we got there. We would get off of the bus and board a train, only he kept calling it the “shoo shoo train” which had us all amused. He also kept us laughing when he would say iPhone and iPad and it came out as “HIphone” and “HIpad.”

We arrived in Pisa at 4 pm, and sure enough, there were 2 “shoo shoo trains” waiting for us when we got there.

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ABD 07-044 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
The other train


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Our train mates, along with Dusty who wasn’t on yet


07-216 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
I don’t think anyone bought the CD…​

Dusty was GREAT entertainment on our train ride! He broke out his portable speaker and began playing the parade music from Tokyo Disneyland, complete with dance moves, to keep us entertained on the short train ride over to the Tower.

When we got off of the train, we first had to walk through a sketchy area of tents of cheap merchandise set up, and I think there was also a McDonald’s there too. None of the merchandise was even worth looking at, but Dusty did spot some Disney princesses. Totally licensed, of course!

ABD 07-063 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Then we made our way into the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles), where the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa is located!

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The guides led us closer to get some family photos with the tower in the background before sending us off for some time to explore on our own.

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Most people took the same traditional photo, but not everyone! John was trying to hug the tower.

ABD 07-068 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

And Roger tried to push it over!

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We had about 20 minutes on our own to walk around and visit the piazza. Although you can pay to climb to the top of the tower, it was sold out for the day we were going. Also, normally you have to pay to go inside of the church, but because it was Sunday we could get in for free. Here again, I have in my notes that we couldn’t climb to the top of the bell tower there either, but I don’t remember what the reason was for that.

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Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 7 Continued: Sunday September 21st

Once we had looked inside of the church, we wanted to go get closer to the reason we had come there in the first place, the Leaning Tower! History lesson time. The tower construction was started in the 1100’s, and started tilting during construction because the ground was too soft to support it. Over the decades it took to complete, it continued to tilt. In the late 20th to early 21st century they figured out how to stop the building from tilting, and even corrected the tilt a bit.

07-236 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


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Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Tower Selfie​

We met up and walked back to the train to take it back to the bus. What followed was hands down the BEST bus ride of the entire trip! It started off unintentionally when Marco got up to the microphone to tell us about Chianti. He started off by telling us all of the bottles have a little black –word for a male body part that rhymes with dock and the DIS filters would catch – Dusty immediately interrupted him as we all burst out laughing to tell him, “Marco, it’s a ROOSTER!” We were just dying laughing, and Marco was definitely embarrassed.

ABD 07-082 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

“It’s a rooster!” definitely became the catch phrase for the Pisa-goers. Once we calmed down, Marco finished telling us about Chianti, but honestly I couldn’t tell you why there is a black rooster on there. Then, he had us all take a picture holding a Pinocchio puppet and a hedgehog (Anyone remember why?

ABD 07-088 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
​

DH is going to kill me for saying this, but he actually asked me early on in the trip why Pinocchio was such a big deal in Italy because we kept seeing Pinocchio toys everywhere.

But then, we got stuck in traffic, and it became Marco’s Stand-Up Comedy Hour. He started telling us a ton of stories of when he first moved to America and started working at Alfredo’s in Epcot as a server. I was laughing so hard I had actual tears flowing down my face uncontrollably and Dusty, who was sitting next to us, actually told Marco, “You are KILLING Kristy back here!” Some of the highlights included someone asking for an Arnold Palmer and he went back into the kitchen to ask around if Arnold Palmer was working, someone ordering a Screwdriver and he checked the table for them to see if it was loose and why they needed tools, and going to buy tickets to see a movie, only the ticket seller didn’t understand what movie he wanted when he kept saying UULK instead of Hulk. And he had a “who’s on first?” type of story when someone asked him the name of the Arno River on an ABD and he says it so fast with the rolling R that it sounds like he is saying, “I don’t know.” So the guest kept asking and wondering how could he be a guide on these tours and not know the name of he river? So now he always spells it after he says it! Then Dusty kept the comedy gold coming when he talked about some of his experiences working at Disney World, such as losing his costume during a performance of Festival of the Lion King, and a bird pooping in his mouth when he was performing as the Snow Prince in a stage show and he finished the show!!

It was easily the most fun and memorable bus ride of the entire trip!

Overall, we had been unsure of whether or not to take the trip to Pisa. We knew it would be a long bus ride there and back with not a lot of time actually IN Pisa. But, you really don't need a lot of time there unless you are climbing one of the towers. Since we had so much extra time in Florence, it ended up being a great choice to go to Pisa. It's something so iconic to see, and we may never be in Italy again (although I hope that isn't true!) so it seemed like something we shouldn't miss if given the opportunity. Again, big thanks for Kevin & John for starting the wheels in motion of getting this started and to ABD for taking it over. Having our guides with us was even better than just doing it on our own!

We got back to the hotel around 6:45 pm, and some of our fellow adventurers were LITERALLY holding open the leather store across from our hotel for us because they closed at 6:30 but they assured the owners if they waited just a few minutes, they would make some sales when we got back! They were right, and although I found a leather jacket in there I really liked, I couldn’t stomach the hundreds and hundreds of Euros it cost. Pete & Dustin found something they liked!

ABD 07-098 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We stopped in the room to freshen up and Skype at home with DS before heading out to enjoy our last evening in Florence. I was sorely tempted to head back to Acqua Al 2 for another amazing pasta tasting for dinner, but we were still SO stuffed from lunch that we couldn’t even think about a big meal.

So instead, we just headed out to explore Florence on our last night and see where the evening took us.

UP NEXT: Last night in Florence

 

[leshunlenese]

I just reading this and seeing these pictures! I have to say our boys would get a kick out of that train!