We left Venice early Saturday so we could stop at Osteria ai Pioppi, a magical place that I read about years ago. The entire place was built by one man, who had a dream of building a human-powered amusement park. All of the rides function on gravity, centrifugal force, and human power. There are slides, merry-go-rounds, toboggans, zip lines, a huge assortment of swings, and even a roller coaster. Mattea's favorite was the giant slide, and Arianna loved the zipline. The kids didn't get to ride the roller coaster, but they had fun watching me ride it! Arianna fell asleep in the car ride after, and Mattea stayed up to enjoy the ride to Parma and talk about how she was getting to stay up way past her bedtime. We arrived in Parma late in the evening, but woke up at the crack of dawn to head out to a Parmesan cheese tour the next morning.

Parma is the only place in the world where true Parmesan cheese is crafted. It's made by hand, from recipes that were passed down from generations. We got to watch the entire process from milk fermentation, to heating, salting, and drying. Some of the cheeses there had been aging for four years. Twice daily deliveries of fresh milk made for non-stop work for the three employees at factory "3333." After the tour we got to sample cheeses of various ages and also enjoyed glasses of prosecco. Then we headed back to our hotel for a late breakfast. The place we stayed at was actually a university housed in an ancient monastery that hosts artists who stay on-site to study and practice art. We enjoyed exploring the grounds and checking out the various sculptures in the garden.

Later that day we drove to Florence in the Fiat we rented. Our hotel was centrally located and within walking distance of Santa Maria. Our first day there we visited Michelangelo's famous "David." The girls thought it was funny that he shares a name with Daddy, but found the fact that he was naked even more amusing. Upon seeing the statue for the first time, Mattea exclaimed, "Oh, he even has curly hair like you, Daddy!" After exploring the Academia Gallery we ventured off to the DaVinci museum. It was outstanding! They rebuilt a bunch of the machines that he sketched out in his journals over the years and you could operate all of them. They also had a few of his journals on display which were fascinating to look at. All of his handwriting was done from right to left as a mirror image -- many theorize it was so that people couldn't claim his ideas as their own. Overall, it was a great hands on museum and definitely a highlight of our trip. The next morning we walked to Santa Maria and visited the cathedral. After that we walked all 414 steps up the Campanille. The girls did awesome and were the youngest ones by far. Later that afternoon we visited the Galileo museum. We were pretty disappointed after such a cool hands on experience at the DaVinci museum the day prior. We hurried through and then wondered out to the Mercato Centrale, a cool little market consisting of a bunch of food vendors and bars. Gelato topped off our final evening in Florence.

Tomorrow morning we'll wake up early to tour a Tuscan winery and then drive to Pisa.