Fall semester

Well, the fall semester is in the books, and here are the stats:

• 88 school days, completed;
• 9 countries, visited;
• 24 separate apartments/hotels, stayed in;
• 10 of 17 chapters of the social studies textbook, completed;
• 2 famous domes, climbed (St Peter's and Florentine Duomo);
• 1 Galilean finger, seen;
• 13 books of historical fiction, read (mirroring the social studies curriculum);
• 4 Roman amphitheaters, visited (Luna, Roma, Pompeii, Italica);
• 5 long-distance ferries, ridden;
• 141 days, away from home;
• 1 active volcano, climbed;
• 6 days of practice Math Olympiad, completed;
• 3 converted mosques (to churches), visited;
• 1 converted church (to mosque), visited;
•  Many liters of gelato, consumed.

Here is the map of our travels:

Lessons learned:

• The world is large, even in five months you can only see a bit of it.
• Even kids who love to read and love to travel need an occasional gelato and a day at the beach.
• Climbing things (churches, bell towers, castle walls, volcanoes) is really fun.
• Bikes > Trains > Boats > Planes > Horses > Buses.
• The Romans were really good at building things. (And the empire was large--we only left it for a couple of weeks in Ireland/Scotland.)
• We need to make enough time for Katie to blog, since hers is the most detailed and complete.