Part 1: Fourteen Days of Family and No One Fell Off the Boat!

After 8 years since we had all celebrated Christmas together, us Fischers (with a sprinkling of Gabinet and Oucheva) boarded a boat and never stopped talking! We basically talked the whole way through the Western Mediterranean while seeing the sights.  Seriously, we were loud! The endless Canadian Club on-board did not help either.

Our journey began in Rome where everyone had a chance to see the Colosseum, Vatican Museum and the endless supply of Roman ruins.

The beginning of a trend: running into the others while exploring in separate groups.  Here is everyone except Shea and I on The Colosseum tour.

Shea and I playing with our new camera!

Shea testing his lying skills at the Bocca Della Verita (mouth of truth).  Legend says that if you tell a lie while placing inside the mouth, it bites your hand off. It was made in the first century our of a piece of marble.

I have always wanted to see the Mouth of Truth!

We explored the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin.  Inside you will find the skull of St. Valentine.

Some Roman ruins!

Arthur, Mom, Velizar and Teodora (Vera's parents). This was the first time all 14 of us were in a room together.

We found a place that served gelato ice cream AND rye!  Best meal ever!

Yum Yum!

My two sisters, brother and me!

The best hugger in the world: Spider Dave!

After a few days in Rome, it was off to the cruise ship.  It may have felt like herding cats, but we all got on and began to explore the boat. 

Time for a selfie!

Spider Dave at dinner. Such manners!

This became our spot on the boat! Tankards Pub: where the drinks flowed and the conversations never ended.

Our first stop was Pisa and Florence. I had pre-booked a few activities for the group and was very stressed that things would not go as planned.  Let's just say Fischers do not handle stress that well.  We seem to panic when it comes to anything that relates to travelling by train (planning the journey, buying tickets, boarding the train, getting off the train).  

The best thing we did was to have taxi vans for our day of Pisa/Florence.  We also got to meet two wonderful people who we basically saw everywhere we went after that (Larry and Mary).  

The Leaning Tower of Pisa! We got there before the crowds arrived.

Enjoying the views.

A behind the scene look at how to create an epic shot with the Tower!

Here's mine!

Views of the Church and Baptistery of Pisa.

You would not believe how long it took to get this shot!  Group two up the tower.

We were lucky enough to prebook tickets to go up the tower.  There are the worn stairs.  It was interesting walking up as gravity and the lean worked to push you either to the inside or outside of the stair, depending on which side of the tower you were closest to.  

 Our taxis whisked us to Florence next for a view of the Duomo, a quick pizza lunch then off to make our date with David.

The Baptistery with the Duomo beside it.  The exterior of these structures are splendid.  

So tall!

The best part of Florence's Duomo is the irony.  It is meticulously decorated on the exterior and yet the inside is so plain.  

One of my most vivid memories of Florence from  2006 was seeing Michelangelo's Prisoners. These are slabs of marble that he began to sculpt but never finished.  I love the insight they give into showing the artist's process.

Then there is Michelangelo's David.  Some members of our group were a bit more mature about seeing a naked man than others.  

What do they say about a man with huge hands and huge feet?

The boys were stuck like glue to each other. Just like Spain.

The Pointe Vecchio: a wonderful bridge with very expensive jewelry stores.  

Most of the crew on the Pointe Vecchio. 

Jessie eating gelato like a champ!

 After Florence, it was back to the ship to celebrate an almost traditional Christmas Eve.

First order of business: the unveiling of the 2015 Family Calendar. Looks like the Dennis/Classic Dave masterpiece is a success!

This is the moment where Fat Dave realizes his dumb duck hat has not been missing but has been travelling the world for the last 6 months. A special shout-out to Chloe for starting the fun with the duck hat!

Unfortunately, the traditional Goofus Award was unable to travel to Europe (a rubber chicken). Fat Dave won the honour this year thanks to his "missing" hat and a little tale about his truck tire passing  him while driving down the road. He improvised an made a napkin chicken.

Spider Dave made bracelets for everyone.  He was super excited to discover that his matched Fat Dave's and Shea's.