the zoo!

Hendrik was smitten with the giraffes

We went to the zoo on Thursday and oooooh! our visit included a safari drive! It was actually pretty neat, feeling closer (being closer) to the animals and driving through their territory. After the short trip we had lunch and tackled the walk-around zoo which Hendrik enjoyed for oooh about 45 minutes before falling asleep. Steve and I enjoyed it too - it was a nice day and good to do something different.

not so smitten with the baby rhino

sandwiches are the best! ham and cheese, yum

I wish I could have captured Hendrik's squeals of delight - this was a highlight of the trip for all of us, for sure!

babysitters

And then, since we were (sort of) in the neighborhood, we went back to visit the sanctuary of the Madonna della Corona, but tackled it from the top instead of the bottom. The walk down was 10 minutes, and the walk back up was, understandably, a bit longer. But it was nothing compared to the stairs we walked up and the ones we didn't - we saw those below the sanctuary and they were steep-I-mean-business stairs; not for the faint of heart that's for sure.

strawberries... happy happy happy!

And it's late and I wanted to be in bed long long ago... so I'll keep this short. Nao comes tomorrow and I'm exciiiiiited! I'm thinking of hitting the mall in Verona before I pick her up, but we'll see. And then it'll be a week of fabulousness... stay tuned!