Me in Melange

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 44: Planes, Instacart and Glass 2/3 Full

Really, this is a recap of day 44 AND 45.  Got to love a two day travel schedule.  Since I’m a “glass 2/3 way full” kind of gal (actually, that’s questionable, but I will be one right now), there was some great things that came out of today.  One, I spent a full hour in flight fine tuning my grocery delivery orders.  I’m trying to fashion it so that I have the least amount of work to do in order to eat. This is mostly because we are returning to a house full of boxes, since we moved only a few days before we left. I think I unpacked some clothing before we left, but it’s really all a blur. 

We managed to get out of Venice after a long walk from our flat to where they allow cars to come (we hired a van to drive us to the airport, but short of a rickshaw showing up, we were going to have to walk with our luggage ourselves to get to the car). Ava had to stop several times because she was “almost passing out.”  Which translates to “I didn’t eat anything this morning, it’s 90 degrees outside, and I only slept 5 hours because I’m under some crazy assumption that it will help with future jet lag”.

We did get out of Venice  though, with all of our luggage checked, and snake cage on board.  So that was all very exciting.  The plane was ancient, so half the bathrooms stopped working sometime early on and my TV didn’t work.  Luckily only mine, if it was one of the kids—oh boy, bad news.  They all have Ipads but you’d think the in-flight movies were a necessity by their reaction to even the possibility of not having them.

So instead of watching movies, I read recipes (time to go back on my healthy anti-inflammatory diet…the new Amy Myer’s cookbook is really good, it won’t be hard), and I ordered groceries.   I have left behind my sadness that our trip is over, and I’m super excited to: 1) eat certain foods, and to KNOW what I’m eating (those eastern Europe labels especially…I could have been eating dog food, I couldn’t read a thing.)  2) Our house, we’re all excited for our new house which I LOVE and even though it’s going to be a zoo navigating boxes and all that there is to do, I don’t care, the house is amazing.  3)  Go to yoga. I really miss it.  Badly.  I did pretty good for about ½ the trip with keeping it up, but it got harder as we walked more (really hard to take a real yoga  class plus walk 12 miles), and some of our apartments just didn’t really have a great place to do it, which is mostly a cop out, but also true.  Terrace yoga is inspiring.  Hallway yoga, not so much. 

It also goes without saying that I’m excited to see my friends and family.

We got to Philadelphia, then made it all the way to Las Vegas, and as we are walking to baggage claim when all  of a sudden John says, “do we pick of our luggage, or do you think it goes straight thru?”  We were spending the night in Las Vegas so we just assumed we got our luggage—not a great assumption.  The baggage was checked thru so that meant we slept in our clothes, and didn’t brush our teeth.  We were also so tired we ate a gourmet dinner at 7/11 because that was the only place nearby. Gross all around. You just can’t feel good about your kids eating Doritos and Kraft mac & cheese.

We woke up, barely made it to the airport (Ava & Lucia were MIA for the shuttle call, so John had to wait with them and take an Uber while the little kids and I took the shuttle and went to the airport to check us in.. Irritation at 4:30 a.m.

Romeo and Gia both spilled their orange juice on the flight to Oregon, but other than that, it was an uneventful two hours, and a smooth ride home.  Back to real life. Responsibilities and stuff to do.  Big sigh…..

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 43: Half Marathons, Snake Cages and Farewells

Well, I’ve officially walked to half Marathons between yesterday and today.  That’s a whole marathon.  My legs are killing me, my feet ache, and when I stand up everything feels like lead. It was SO worth it though. 

I spent the entire day roaming the city.  Sometimes solo (like early this morning), sometimes with everyone, once with just Lucia, and once with just John.  I don’t think I stopped moving all day.  I couldn’t let even one minute go by wasted though.  I found a great market along the main canal….with bright produce, a whole official “fish market”, with live snails and gross things like that.  It was sticky and beautiful.

We had a great lunch all together, and then, as a special treat because it was our VERY last day in Italy, we made pancakes for dinner.  Yep, for reals.  The kids have been dying for pancakes and real maple syrup for weeks.  We keep looking for it, but the grocery stores just haven’t had it.  Today we were in a grocery store and spotted BOTH, along with peanut butter (which I also bought).  Three things we haven’t found in weeks.  We’ve stayed in cities where there are plenty of big grocery stores, but you end up going to whatever is closest, and that’s not always an ex-pat-loving store with foods Americans love.

The kids were SUPER excited. They are officially sick of Italian, and have been for weeks really. So, we made lots of pancakes, and then John and I walked two minutes away to this great little restaurant in a courtyard by our flat, and had dinner.  There was a man playing the guitar in the courtyard the entire time, and it was beautiful music (Gypsy Kings type music), and it was a wonderful farewell to Italy dinner.  We toasted a successful trip, and talked about highlights.  All around wonderful.

I think we are mostly packed up, but Romeo has lamented his “snake situation”.  You can’t bring a 40’ snake (ok, it’s not THAT long, but I swear it’s ridiculously long), and notdevise a snake cage plan. The bag it came in has long since broken, so now we are trying to make another bag work and it’s real tricky.  Romeo suggested maybe the snake could just ride with the other animals in cargo in the, “special animal place.”  I can’t wait to explain to Romeo why I have to jam him into the overhead, de-fluffing him (Romeo’s greatest fear.)   

Tomorrow might very well be travel day hell #2.  We leave at 9:15, go to the airport, hop a plan to Philadelphia, land sometime late afternoon, have a layover, then hop a plane to Vegas, where we spend the night. We then have a 6 a.m. flight the next morning to bring us home.  Correction, the kids and I have a 6:00 a.m. flight.  John’s headed straight to LA.  Temps are going to be 98 at home, so at least it’ll be like going from an oven to another oven. 

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 42: 12 Miles, Cats and An Afternoon Spritz

We walked 12 miles today, per my watch, which I’m sure wouldn’t lie.  It is 85 degrees right now at 10:30 p.m., but with humidity feels like 91 (and that stat is from somewhere official, not my guesstimation).   Can you even imagine how toasty it was mid-day?  It’s a true testament to how much I love this city that I wasn’t safely indoors under AC protection all day.

It was a super fun day though, I really, REALLY, love this city.  The key is to stay away from every busy street.  You might think that’s impossible, that every street is busy, but it’s really easy to actually avoid the crowds.  When we had to, by necessity, pass thru the tourist area to get to another area, we literally cringed.  It’s just mobs of people; it’s hot, crowded and miserable (well, at least for me, but I hate crowds AND heat.)  What amazes me is how few tourists actually venture off the main thoroughfare to side streets. We walked lots of streets that were very quiet—you’d think you were in a completely different city.

We had a great time shopping, stopping for drinks and lunch, and getting lost in the little canal streets. We let ourselves find dead ends left and right…it was part of the fun (unless there was no shade on the street, and then it wasn’t fun.)  You can’t help but take beautiful pictures here, the lighting is beautiful, and everywhere you look it’s just so breathtaking.  The only bummer was the heat, which clearly, I talk about nonstop. The kids lasted about 4 ½ hours this morning, and then we dropped them off at the apartment to rest and re-hydrate. John and I kept walking for the next three hours, stopping for a Spritz (I just like the name of the drink…John gets them, but I actually stick to dry white wine, but I like to say, “let’s stop for a Spritz” because it just sounds so much better.)

We found some really beautiful glass vases today, and I’ve got my eye on some artwork that I’m pondering. Plus, I found my sister a birthday present which was fun and it was a family event, everyone weighing in on the color and style.  There is definitely some good shopping here.  There is also a LOT of glass here, and therefore, lots of potential for glass damage.  Plus, there are 5 million signs saying “please don’t touch”, for the obvious reason that everything is so breakable, but for some reason, having those signs makes it THAT much more tempting for the kids to touch.  Romeo walking around with his little backpack, trying to buy glass animals (which he is obsessed with almost as much as stuffed animals), nearly bumping into things left and right.  Danger everywhere.

The kids are in love with the three cats that live in the garden at the apartment.  Romeo and Gia are constantly trying to coach them out from their hiding places away from the heat.   They have even managed to succeed a few times.  Our landlady is the sweetest thing, she saw us in the garden this morning and had a stack of cards and bookmarks for us that were reproduction prints of her husband’s artwork (the entire apartment is filled with his art—he’s a professional artist locally).  It really is a fantastic flat, I would stay here again in a heartbeat. 

Tomorrow is our last day, and I’m going to try and enjoy every last minute and not be too sad and too greedy.  We’ve had so much time, and it’s been such an amazing trip, I know it sounds positively spoiled to even think of wanting more (which doesn’t really deter me obviously.) I don’t want it to end…not just the traveling (which I love), but the time with John and the kids.  Life is so busy at home, it seems like 7 weeks goes by before you even have a chance to pause from the “daily grind” of stuff. I’ve got to build in ways for the family to slow down and be together more.  It’s hard to duplicate this kind of intense family time together though and that's what I'll miss the most.

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 41: Train Inferno, Water Shortage, and Venice Canals

We knew it was going to be a long day, but it was even longer than that.  Every trip needs at least one travel day from hell, and while we’ve had rough days, I can’t really call any day “hell”...until today that is.

Our drive to Milan was about 3 hours, and our intent was to be off and driving at 9:00 so that we could be there around noon, and hopefully catch the 1:15 pm with plenty to spare.  It was a rushed morning, and hard to get everything packed up, but we did it.  Then we somehow got jacked up with google maps and went the wrong way initially, and the whole thing ended up delaying us…and then you add in a stop for gas, and we didn’t roll into Milan until 1:00 p.m.  We found the car leasing place, and were all set to get into their shuttle bus to get to the terminal to catch the train, when John asks me where the second car key was.  Huh? 

John, in unusual and stellar calculative planning, had given me the second set of car keys so that in case he lost the one he had we’d have one separate and safe.  That was 7 weeks ago.  I had literally NO idea where that key was or what I had done with it.  Then I had to spend the next 20 minutes in the scorching sun digging thru everything, trying to find the key.  I did find it though, so that was very exciting, but not before I swore up  and down that I had given the key back to John and he had to look thru all his crap too. Memory is a tricky thing.

From there we went to the Milan airport and bought tickets to take the train to Milan centro, and then to Verona, and then finally to Venice.  John bought the tickets from an electronic kiosk, and it’s super confusing because there are a lot of different times, a lot of different prices, and a lot of different trains.  He read that there was air conditioning on all the trains.  Big. Fat. Lie.  The first train to Milan Centro was only 30 mins, and there was AC on that. Then we had a very short little layover (10 mins), and we’re rushing thru the big train station, past all kinds of fantastic trains, and then we arrive at ours and it’s the mostrun down, old train imaginable—it was like the train they were about to put out to pasture because it kept breaking down.  All the windows were down…which turned out to be a very bad sign because not only was it super old, it had NO AC.  We had no choice but to rush on, literally, no time to do anything but get on the inferno train. 

Thereafter we were trapped on the inferno train for almost 3 hours during which time we were all about to pass out, sweating profusely, dehydrated, and starving.  John had mentioned a possible food cart….definitely not one on this train, I think that was on the super fast, brand new trains---that we walked by.  Ava (ever the dramatic child) said, “I’m passing out  mom, I’m literally passing out right now I’m so sick.”  Our response was, “well, then at least you’ll be out of your misery and will most likely wake up when this ride from hell is over.”  We had no water with us, and there was no water to buy on the train.  We were dying.  There is a serious problem in Europe with body odor to begin with (they think we take too many showers in the US and our deodorant is giving us cancer and Alzheimer), and on this inferno train it was off the charts toxic.  I thought they were going to have to carry us off on stretchers.  Oh, and did I mention it’s “that time of the month” for Lucia and I?  Again.  I feel like that is valuable info for setting this entire picture in your head.  So we are extra dehydrated, extra bitchy, and extra in pain.

We arrived in Verona, changed trains, bought vending machine water as fast as we could, and lucky for us, for the last hour we were crammed on a trained (all sitting in random seats), but it did actually have AC.  We arrived in Venice, and managed to navigate our 7 suitcases (since we grew an extra one), thru the crowds, over a couple of bridges with stairs, winding thru cobblestoned streets, and eventually finding our little Venice flat.  It’s amazing though, our landlady is adorable, grew up here in Venice but was educated in England so she speaks perfect English, made us a Tiramasu, and gave us the inside track on where to go to avoid all the tourists and find great art. The apartment is beautiful and huge, with a  view of the canal.  I love this city and all the water.  How can you not?  The tourist areas are mobbed and horribly intense, but it doesn’t take much to get off the beaten path, and then it’s wonderful and dreamy. 

Elena (our landlady) pointed us a short block away to a great family Italian restaurant, we had a wonderful meal (and they even had gluten free pasta and I was so grateful I nearly cried.)  Really great dinner, and now I’m just so exhausted I can barely stand up anymore, let alone type.  I’m going to sleep nice and early ( before midnight), and wake up so that we can explore!  Last time I was here I remember seeing all kinds of really cool art, so I’m on the hunt tomorrow to find something beautiful,

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 40: Medieval Pole Dancers, Owls, and Haircuts

Since I know you are dying to hear about the medieval pole dancers, I’m going to save it until last.

The first thing I did today was get my hair done.  I needed my roots touched up (because apparently it looks bad, just about everyone in the family has told me by now.).  It’s so hot I’ve been contemplating cutting it, and I mentioned it to Ava last night and she said, “don’t cut it, long hair is better, otherwise it’s like you are giving up.”. Huh?  Clearly, she’s been drinking the cool aid that says long hair is better. Challenge accepted Ava, challenge accepted.  I had passed a salon a couple of days ago that looked good, and made an appointment with someone at the desk, basically praying they didn’t screw up my hair (although, really, how could it be worse?)  When I went in to make the appointment, the woman asked in Italian what I wanted done and I leaned my head down and said my “roots” and John was next to me saying, “oh, don’t worry, she can tell.”

I hustled it to my 9:00 a.m. appointment, getting lost in the process and showing up 10 minutes late. I came in huffing and puffing, and already sweating profusely from my short run (I managed to walk in the opposite direction by mistake and then had to back track asap.)  The woman who colored my hair was very nice, spoke very little English and twice consulted with an older gentleman on the state of my roots.  There was rapid fire Italian going back and forth, and I can only guess it was regarding the outrageous American hair situation they were dealing with.  I then showed her a picture of what I was thinking for my hair length, she gave it a thumbs up and next thing I knew I had hair a couple of inches below my chin.  I pretty much dig it though, and Ava said she liked it, so that did make me feel better. I can almost guarantee if she gets mad at me though, she’ll probably tell me I gave up on looking good and that’s why my hair is short.

We also ran errands today and were very productive. We needed to buy another suitcase to help carry our overages.  We vacuumed the car so we wouldn’t get fined the 60 euros that they promised to fine us if the car was a mess (and let me tell you, it was pretty disgusting pre-cleanout.)  Then we wandered around the city with the kids, having lunch, doing some shopping, eating gelato.  Normal Italian stuff. 

Later in the afternoon we went to a medieval fair that was going on along the bike path around the wall of the city.  It was a street fair, art market, food thing…but very odd all around.  There were people dressed up in period outfits, and there was some kind of medieval terror theme going on (one booth had skeletons, and there was a booth called the “horror family” that I could never quite figure out). One booth had live birds, in particular owls (sadly chained to their perches and I can only imagine, not happy at all.)  We saw guys re-enacting sword fights with enormous wooden swords.  There were odd street performers, like the super tall man on stilts that walked right over Lucia and scared her to death.   Then there was the pole, in the middle of the small grassy area with some women doing what I can only presume was medieval pole dancing.  Gia asked me, with an entirely straight face because she was totally serious, if pole dancing was a “real sport”.  Uhhhmmmmm, not that I have heard of, no.

John and I came home and did some pre-departure stuff around the apartment with the kids, and then we left around 10:30 pm to go have a drink.  It was a beautiful night, warm and TONS of people out.  I love how at 11:00-11:30 p.m. the streets are completely packed, and there are kids too…I don’t know how any of those kids get enough sleep (are they sleeping until noon. the next day because I’m pretty sure 5 year olds need at least 10 hours??), but I still like it.  We had some good Italian wine at the bar down the street and hammered out next Summer’s plans.  Why?  Well, we realized that we had booked our tickets for this trip right when we got back from Costa Rica the Summer before, so we figured we’d better keep up the tradition of booking a year in advance and start planning next Summer.  Plan is Madrid, Portugal, up thru France, and over to England.  I’m going to push for Belgium too, but who knows.  We came home, and booked miles tickets to fly into Madrid June 17^th—of next year.  Done.

Tomorrow will be a full day of driving to Milan, dropping the car, taking a train from the airport to the train station downtown, and then taking the train to Venice.  That should be smooth.  Or totally not.  

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 39: Italian Grandma, Selfie Moment, and Cliff Hangers

I had no motivation to try and get out of the house early today, so I made no concerted efforts toward that end.  John and the kids were the biggest proponents of the beach day, and it’s not necessarily high on my list.  Which meant we didn’t even start moving until noon.  Without a task master, the family is L-A-Z-Y. 

We arrived at around 1:30, the most sizzling part of the of the day….and it was indeed smoking hot. We drove to Levanto, which is nestled down from the hills along the water, protected from wind (and any sort of cooling assistance.)  All along the drive there are these hilltop towns that really are just clusters of cliff hanging houses forming towns.  It’s hard to tell how anyone actually gets into the town, and they look like they are just sandwiched side by side holding on for dear life--cliff hanging.

Levanto is was a cute little town, and the beach was just fine.  The kids got a snack and waters, and headed to the beach with John, and I strolled around for about 20 minutes until I couldn’t stand the heat anymore, and then headed to meet them.  John rented chairs and an umbrella (which offered just a little protection), but you couldn’t really leave any valuables there and walk to the water—someone had to be watching the stuff at all times because there were a lot of transient sales people walking the beach (selling random stuff like towels, and bracelets)—it just didn’t feel all that safe, even though maybe it was. I parked it on a chair and tried to relax, but it’s like breathing in a sauna.

Ava was dehydrated and came to sit next to me at one point feeling yuck, and she even rested her head on my shoulder for a few minutes which prompted me to take my very first partial selfie of the trip because it was truly a photographic moment.  When they turn 15, they don’t, generally speaking have moments of lasting tenderness, calm, or come even close to cuddling or being vulnerable.  At least not Ava. This was it though, my one moment (or maybe 60 seconds to be exact), and I took full advantage by recording it digitally.  You can almost see it in my face, I'm trying to not move a muscle so she doesn't move.

There was a vacant couple of chairs next to us, and this little old woman came shuffling along the row, looking at the numbers on the umbrellas trying to find her number.  She peeked at ours, and then concluded she was the one next to us—number 76.  I don’t know how old she was, but I’m guessing around 75-80, conservatively.  She took her little bag, and settled into the chair, and was trying to adjust the back of it.  She was struggling to figure out how it worked, and so I offered to help her and set it up for her.  After that, we were best friends and she became my adopted Italian grandmother. She talked my ear off, entirely in Italian.  Did she think I was Italian?  No, she first thought I was French, and when I said no, “American”, she registered with lots of words in Italian and then Americano at the end.  I repeatedly said that I only spoke English and a little bit of French, but that didn’t dissuade her at all.  She kept talking to me, and nodding as if miraculously I understood. There was a younger Italian couple on the other side of her, and at one point she said something to guy because she was trying to explain something to me and I was clearly not getting it.  He spoke a little English—enough to know I didn’t understand her, and he TOLD her that.  But again, not a very big deterrent for her, she just kept telling me things and smiling and trying to interact.  She knew that the kids were my kids, and when they walked up (Ava was already sitting with me), she made some comments about them (and fortunately this time the Italian comments probably weren’t something along the lines of “shut your kids up” because they were all quiet in the face of her hurricane of words. I kept hearing bellissimo and I’m pretty sure that’s a good word.

She told me an entire story, and I’m fully aware that I probably only understood 10% of it, but I think it was something about her and her sister wanting to go to America, and her father saying “NO!”   Seriously, she was the cutest thing ever and when we left she was down by the water scooping it up onto her aged besotted legs to cool off (she was actually wearing something resembling a grandma bikini.)  I waved down to her and she gave me a big smile and a frantic wave back.  Bye-bye Italian grandma, I wish I would have understood you.

Besides our beach adventure, we had another riveting family discussion on the way home from the beach about Ava’s new philosophy of life (involving parallel universes and some version of Karma), government conspiracy theories, potential alien sightings, and where we would want to travel for Christmas if we went somewhere.  I count these types of discussions as one of the best thing about our long family trips.  We tend to get bored at points, and yet are trapped together, so there ends up to be lots of weird discussions that I think might never occur if the kids had someplace to easily run to (like back to their room, a friend’s house, or anywhere away from us.)  Yesterday at dinner we had one about the max capacity of human emotions…for example, is there a finite amount of happiness or sadness a person could digest at any given moment, so that any more of either would just spill over like an overflowing cup.  I’m still pondering this topic to be honest, it was heavy.

Tomorrow is our last day in Lucca, and besides buying another suitcase for the stuff that isn’t fitting into the tiny suitcases we bought, we are going to start packing up and preparing for the journey to the final city of our summer adventure.  I have mixed emotions about Venice.  I love the city, as long as you stay away from the crowds, but some of it will unavoidable, and then you throw in the ridiculous heat.  It’ll be a lot to deal with.  Plus, I know it’s the last few days of the trip, so that makes it hard to look forward to as well.

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 38: Flashing Life, Market Bust, Cloud Reprieve and Ubaldo

I was all excited this morning to head to another town nearby to go to an outdoor market.  We had asked our property management gal what the market schedule was and had this particular one all picked out because it was conveniently on Thursday AND in a cute town.  So we spent considerable time getting everyone up and out the door with promises of market fun--keep in mind, it’s really hot and the kids know it, so rallying to do anything  takes extra effort.

Sometimes we go to markets though and they are SO fun…with art, local specialties, fruit, antiques etc. –and the kids know this too which made it slightly easier.

We did it though, everyone was in the car, and on the way by 9:15.  Nice and early based on the premise it would be more fun to walk around when it was slightly less of an inferno outside.

We get there, we park, we walk to the market.  It was a market alright, but not the kind of market anyone would really want to go to. It was a flea market of NEW goods.  So basically, loads of cheap, unattractive clothing, and weird odds and ends like bathroom rugs, plastic buckets and rolls of twine.

I thought the kids were literally going to go berserk. It’s already 90 degrees at 10:00 a.m. and they are surrounded by people pushing to get to the tin potato peelers, and the men’s denim shorts (for some reason men really dig denim shorts here and it’s actually quite scary.)   I thought there might  be a revolt right then and there.

Then John has an idea that we go to another town called Pistoia that is about 20 minutes away and supposed to be really pretty.  We’re already this far, so why not?  The kids were already complaining about wanting to go immediately, so we decided to not specificallyexplain the geography of our eventual return home. That did not go over well when after 10 minutes or so they started to notice we weren’t headed home.

The town was indeed darling, with these amazing black and white checkered buildings and Duomo (which reminded me of Siena a little).  We walked around for about 30 minutes while the kids non-stop complained, and then we went home.  When I say non-stop, I mean literally, non-stop complaining.  It was crazy hot, and they were either fighting with each other, or complaining about the heat, or complaining that they had been kidnapped and taken against their will on this car ride to Pistoia in the first place.

Overall, very exhausting morning.  The good news was that as we were driving back, some cloud cover crept in, the winds kicked up and the temps decreased a bit.  Even lowering 5-7 degrees (I’m just guessing) was like a gift from the gods. John and I dropped the kids off at the apartment for them to wallow in AC, and we walked around for a couple of hours in the positively “cool” (relatively speaking) weather.  This was lovely, and much more enjoyable than the buzzing of unhappy and sweaty kids in our ears.

We eventually convinced the little kids to go biking with us around the wall of the city (which is a nice big bike path), and that was really fun….also, really dangerous.  Both Romeo and Gia wanted to steer of course, and John sat up in the front with them while they did it.  Basically, with one of those 4 person bicycle carts you are navigating a large piece of machinery, sometimes at fairly good speeds.  Most of the time they did quite well, although I’m not sure Gia ever understood the concept that when you passed a pedestrian, you should not immediately swerve back to the right lane nearly cutting them off (or at the least scaring the crap out of them.)

It wasn’t until the very end of the biking experience that my  life flashed before my eyes.  Gia was driving, we went down a large hill, she was applying the breaks (which literally  made my teeth hurt because it made this horrible, loud, metal against metal sound). She’s using the breaks, on and off, but for some reason as we entered the square/parking  lot (the one place with cars), she somehow released the breaks at the wrong spot, or maybe a combo of bad steering and no breaks.  All I know is that we came within an inch of smashing into a little car (honestly, it was pretty little…not much bigger than our bike contraption, but it was still a legit vehicle and it would have really hurt to hit it).  I don’t think our insurance covers bike on car accidents?

We took the kids to dinner, got them fed, and then John and I went to dinner ourselves.  We had a restaurant picked out, and when we got there we waffled because the menu was pretty small, so we investigated the place right next door, Trattoria da Ubaldo.  The menu posted outside was fairly extensive, so by then it was nearly 8 p.m., I was starving, and my patience was at a solid -5.  So we went in, sat down, and only then did I look up at the décor with a closer eye.  I’m not sure what the deal was, it was the oddest place I’ve ever been.  Apparently Ubaldo is an actual person, and he has something to do with motorcycle riding.  He looks like a cross between a devil worshiper, spiritual guru, and Harley bike rider.  The restaurant I’m guessing was either owned by him, or in tribute to him.  I never could figure it out even with the help of google.  There were upside down Christmas trees, weird spooky decorations (like all the chairs had these plastic covers that had skeletons on them).  There were creepy dolls everywhere, and I even noticed tucked away on a shelf behind us what appeared to be a whole collection of carved wooden male genitals.  Yep, a shelf-o-penis right there. Look to the right of the doll in the picture, you'll see what I mean.  It was crazy weird, but by the time we digested the weirdness, I was already committed to a glass of wine and the funky ambience.  We took a romantic dinner away from the kids, and we flipped it on its head. My vegetarian plate was actually pretty darn good though, and when we looked up the restaurant on Trip Advisor later, it had pretty great reviews.

Can barely believe we only have 4 days left (2 in Lucca and 3 in Venice).  The little kids have mixed emotions, they are having loads of fun but they are excited to get back home to our brand new house (we literally left 3 days after moving in, so they have yet to get their rooms organized and enjoy the house.)  The older kids I think are mentally done.  They have “trip short timers” now…and I think are knee deep in planning their glorious return to the social scene (in their vision of it the world stops for a moment and everyone applauds.)  The hot weather doesn’t help either, it gives them an excuse to be extra lazy. 

Me?  I could do this indefinitely.  If I could find a way to keep traveling, make money writing poorly worded blogs and visit everywhere in the world I’d do it in a heartbeat.  I’ll settle for trying to get all the kids to do this next Summer.  Tomorrow we’ll take them back to the beach though, and that’s always a global hit.

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 37: Lazy Heat, Chick Pea Pancakes and Melted Eyeballs

It was 98 degrees today, but with humidity it felt like 106 degrees (and I didn’t make that up, it was on some official weather site.)  That means, it was hot, real hot.  I woke up earlier than anyone else, and was up and out of the apartment by 10:00 a.m.  It was like a wall of heat as soon as I walked outside, but still tolerable.  I strolled around and did some shopping solo, the town was definitely up early.  Found some cute pants in Fall’s fun burnt yellow (Italian pants always fit me perfectly.) I was literally sweating from the minute I walked out of the house, until the minute I got back.

The kids could not be budged from their cozy AC enclave.  John woke up and made them breakfast, and eventually met me in town but couldn’t rally any of the kids to come along.  They stuck one hand out the window and that was enough of a deterrence. Honestly, I couldn’t blame them. When it’s that hot outside, it’s just not pleasant.  Everyone in Lucca was talking about the heat wave, and everyone was saying it’s crazy hot, crazy UNUSUAL hot.  I remember being in Italy a couple of years ago and it was hot, but 90 and 106 are a big difference.

So,  it was a quiet day, filled with very slow, lethargic shopping. We picked up lots of Italian goodies from the deli just down from the apartment….salami, prosciutto, olives, ragu, focaccia bread and wine.  I’ve also grown a little addiction to this chick pea pancake that is a specialty in the area (and happens to be gluten free).  It’s greasy as hell, but really good.  Basically, the heat didn’t kill our appetites.  We made the kids lunch and dinner—at home.  The older girls declared early on they were having a “hooky” day from traveling, and Ava I know was binge watching Modern Family until her eye balls melted.  Both her and Lucia were tucked into their room, with the door closed and the AC on frigid.  They are literally using a blanket.  The little ones we managed to get out of the apartment late afternoon and we walked to the river for a look at what the water situation was.  It was a hot 15-minute walk there, they put their feet in the water (it wasn’t really the park/river situation we had hoped for), and then we walked back to where it was safely air conditioned. 

The upshot is that I did a ton of walking, accumulated a lot of boob sweat, and had an all- around lazy day. I just can’t help but be really, REALLY happy that we’ve been so lucky with the weather until now.  It’s just totally unpleasant when the weather is like this, and keeps you from fully enjoying any place.

We are going to drive to a little town tomorrow morning nice and early for a market that is supposed to be good.  Our time is running out for going to great little open-air art markets. I don’t expect anyone to last too long, but if we can just get moving for a bit I’ll be happy.

Signed, ME {lv}

Euro Trip 2018 – Day 36: Fortresses, Fuses, and Fantastic Plates

It’s like being in two worlds in one day.  We started in Porta Venere with swimming, a hotel breakfast buffet, and playing in the sun along the beach.  By 1:30 we were tucked into our walled city of Lucca in the country, in the most fabulous little villa—sans the sea.  It doesn’t feel like it’s possible to have both those contrasting worlds all packed into one day, so the day felt long, and FULL.

Our breakfast was really quite nice, and we ate poolside and relaxed while the kids swam.   We stayed at this old school hotel, badly in need of a total revamp, but trying to hold on to its glory days of years past.  You could tell by the fact that the bathroom was stocked full of complimentary accessories like toothbrushes, shoe buffs, sewing kits, shower caps etc., and there was really nice stationary on the desk in the room, yet the hotel room door still opened with an old-fashioned key and the furniture was ‘70’s (and not intentional retro, just old.)  The sleep was crappy because we never figured out the air conditioning.  We came into the room and it felt “sort of” cool, but the thermostat didn’t  allow you to change it, so we figured it was centralized and we couldn’t control it -- and it just sucked.  We had a restless sleep, with Romeo in between John and I, feeling stuffy all night. The next morning the woman at the front desk told us there was a black dial near the door that turned the air on higher.  Really? That sucks.  Another example of what they need to fix in the revamp. That’s Romeo and John in a sweaty sleep pose.

Our drive was an easy 1 ½ hour, during which all the kids slept because they woke up early to get maximum swim time.   Lucca is nestled in the rolling green hills, and completely surrounded by this ancient fortress wall.  Within the wall only a very isolated zone allows cars, the rest is walking/biking only.    Our apartment is just blocks from everything (shopping, restaurants etc.), and it’s fantastic.  Gorgeous old ceilings of wood, and amazing tile floors.  It’s a perfect place to come back to on these hot days since it has AC in all the rooms.  Only problem is, it’s still Italy, so if you have allthe AC units on, plus the washing machine, and some other electronics, you are going to blow a fuse.  We’ve done it twice already.

We strolled around late afternoon and stumbled upon this kitchen store with these fantastic plates that we fell in love with.  The problem is they are heavy, and big.  Shipping is crazy expensive, so we are trying to decide how we can bring home 24 dinner plates and 24 salad plates as carry on.  It’s quite the dilemma…but these are amazing plates, how can we NOT get them?  They were fantastic colors (we’d get a combo of 4 colors probably), and they would be so much fun.  I feel like we’ve had white plates for far too long, maybe it’s time to change it up?

I love little Lucca so far. It’s darling in every way, and I am so excited we get 4 more days in this town and in this beautiful apartment. I don’t know if the kids have fully embraced it yet.  They miss the water already (a taste was not enough).  Lucia is currently obsessed with what she says is acne (just a few zits)…and I mean obsessed.  Ava says she’s too dehydrated to walk around and just wants to stay in the apartment and binge watch whatever she is currently watching. Gia was just fine, but Romeo is a compulsive shopper and gets whiny when shopping isn’t all about him and/or I dissuade him from buying something ridiculous. I grounded him for being super naughty—the punishment was not being able to buy anything  for the day while we were shopping, so that led to more crying/annoyance .  If you are wondering, no, not the smoothest of afternoons shopping and strolling. 

Our restaurant for dinner (that’s the sign in the picture), had been opened since 1865, but I can’t understand why because nothing was particularly great about it.  Gia actually went during dinner and bought me this darling washable paper (so unusual) little container.  I had seen it earlier in the afternoon so she spotted the store near the restaurant and went to get it for me.  Seriously, could that be any cuter?   That part was great.

Tomorrow we’re going to have to try to rally them despite the heat so that we can bike around the wall which is suppose to be loads of fun (and there is literally a bike rental shop just around the corner.)   It’ll be upper 90’s……

Signed, ME {lv}