Roma was the first stop on this year's trip. Here's Joe at the Trevi Fountain.

Here's Ed at the Trevi Fountain. Each year we toss a coin in, and each year we return -- there must be something to the old legend!

Little Orsino. We carried Orsino with us as a part of a Travel-Bear project for our friend Callie's 4th grade class back home in Dallas, Texas. Here's Orsino enjoying some lasagna and a glass of red wine on our first night in Italy.

Here's Joe at the Colosseum in Roma (AD 72). Although we've been here a couple of times, we still go back. It's amazing.

Inside the Colosseum.

The Vittorio Emmanual Monument, honoring the first King of unified Italy (1870).

The Pantheon (AD 118), one of the most well-preserved structures from ancient Roma.

Civita Bagnoreggio is a small town in the Tuscan hills south of Firenze. The only access to the town is via this bridge built in the early part of the 20th century.

In the town of Civita Bagnoreggio.

Joe in the town of Civita Bagnoreggio.

The Campanile (belltower) in the main piazza at Siena.

Piazza del Campo in Siena.

Stained glass in the Siena Duomo.

The Duomo in Siena; construction began in 1136.

Crowded via Casato di Sotta in Siena.

Volterra, another of the small towns in Toscana that we visited.

The Medici Chapel and the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Firenze, built to honor the many generations of the Medici's that ruled Firenze during the Rennaisance: Cosimo (il vecchio), Lorenzo (il magnifico), Giovanni, Lucrezia, etc.

Firenze, looking north towards Fiosele from the top of the Duomo.

Inside the great Duomo in Firenze, built to hold more than 20,000 people.

Firenze: the Baptisty (foreground), the Duomo and Campanile, and Brunelleschi's great dome (background).

The Duomo dwarfs the rest of Firenze, seen here from Piazzale Michelangelo south of the city center.

The Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, the oldest bridge in Firenze.

Michelangelo's tomb inside of Santa Croce (Firenze was his home).