Our trip philosophy

Yes, Brian and I have been to Italy before, but never with kids and certainly never for the length of this trip.  So, we are going to approach it quite differently.  First, we will be staying in apartments instead of hotels.  No room service but also no exorbitant bills for having laundry done.  All apartments have washing machines (and air conditioning!!).  We will eat at restaurants, sure, but we will also shop for ingredients and cook for ourselves some times.  We will do our very best to follow the pace and culture of life wherever we find ourselves.  So - here is what we want to try to see and do while we are there:

• Food.  We love food.  We love exploring, cooking, trying.  Not just new foods but new ways of enjoying it.  We will have our daily gelato, many picnics, breakfasts standing at the local bar and in Sicily we will try granita with brioche for breakfast like the locals  http://www.lovesicily.com/blog/food-and-drink/2004/07/28/the-perfect-sicilian-breakfast-granita-and-brioche .
• Science.  This is, after all, Galileo, Tesla, Marconi and Fibonacci's homeland.  We would like to find some of the lesser-visited places that honor these and other noteworthy Italian scientists.
• Music.  Live music - anything from a free concert in the park to Don Giovanni at the open-air arena in Verona  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verona_Arena.
• Art.  Yes, I know, everyone goes to Italy for the art.  We are no exception.  But, because of the kids we are going to take it in bite-sized pieces, avoiding a lot of the churches and dull museums, preferring to find the art in parks, piazzas and public places.  We will attempt a well-rounded view with different eras and forms.  
• Public places.  We want to enjoy Italy for Italy as much as we can.  The grown-ups can sip a cappuccino or beer at a piazza while the boys run around the fountain.  That's fine by us.  I have no problem spending a few hours at a local playground while the boys strike up friendships with local kids. I will not consider this a waste of vacation time.
• Kid fun  pools water parks factory tours amusement parks.  We WILL go into some museums, but we will also do some purely child (or child-at-heart) oriented stuff.  Amusement parks (we plan to go here for Nate's birthday:  http://www.gardaland.it/resort-en/ , water parks, factory tours are all allowed.
• Time for discoveries.  Except for a few mandatory pre-booked museum reservations and 2-day side trips, we will be unstructured and have time to explore.  Go walking in Venice until we are "lost", take a side trip to see the town of Vinci or follow our stomachs and noses to Bologna for a gastronomy day.  With cameras and journals in our backpacks, we want to be free to discover.  

And, through it all, lots of pictures, as many blog posts as I can manage and memories for a lifetime.