Venice

It's our last night in Mestre tonight and our last night in Italy. It's all going a bit fast now - only 3 weeks now till we go to Australia. Plenty to see in those three weeks though: Innsbruck, Heidelberg, the Netherlands, Belgium, more France and then four days in Paris with the Griffiths family. Woohoo!

We spent the last two days exploring Venice from our base here in Mestre. We took the bus over there each morning and spent the days getting lost, window shopping, riding the vaporetti and EATING. Oh, and we spent yesterday carrying Daniel and the stroller over a million flipping bridges so today we left it at home in favour of taking two baby carriers... And then we left one of the ergos at home. Oops :o)

Venice was as awesome as you'd all lead me to believe. Not quite as difficult as people on travel forums would have you believe ;) but it was quite challenging with our boys being the ages they are. Daniel is now at the delightful stage of wanting to do everything HIS way and is extremely stubborn about it. He was a little subdued today though as he has developed a couple of dodgy looking spots.. I'm expecting more to show up overnight. But back to Venice..

Both the boys seemed to really enjoy it. Callum was intrigued by the lack of cars and all the different jobs the boats were doing (the rubbish boat today was a particular highlight). Daniel was excited by all the water and the boats too.

However the biggest highlight of their week was tonight's dinner. I made chicken and rice. Callum just about passed out from the excitement (I'm not kidding). Mother of the Year Award right here!

Umbria and around

> Lonely Planet describes Umbria as being oft overlooked in favour of its neighbour Tuscany. We were surprised to find the cities we visited were busier than their Tuscan counterparts. There were certainly more young families in the restaurants and on the streets.
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> On the first morning we drove to Passignano sul Trasimeno - almost all the way back to Tuscany and Florence ;) It's a very pretty town set on the shore of Lake Trasimeno. The boys were happy running along the promenade while we enjoyed the (weak) sunshine. We were the first customers in the restaurant we picked for lunch, so we nabbed a great window table with a view of the lake. Mike and I chose the same lunch - ravioli with Gorgonzola and walnuts. It was amazing!
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> The next day we planned to do a bit of a driving tour round Mt Sibillini national park, starting in Norcia which is famous for its salami (apparently the best in Italy), prosciutto and truffles. We did our best to try as much salami as possible and came away with about 3 weeks worth of food in the cooler bag.
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Catching up with friends x

One of the highlights of our time in Italy was spending the day with Janell and Alex last week while we were in Vico Equense. They are 3 months into their own NINE month Grand Tour and happened to be on the Amalfi Coast for the same 4 days as us - perfect timing!!

We weren't 100% sure things would work out right up to the last minute as we've all had issues with unreliable internet recently, but they had our address and I knew they were resourceful... And with a bit of luck and a helpful neighbour who happened to be in the right place at the right time, Alex and Janell arrived in time for tea and biccies on Wednesday morning.

We spent the entire day chatting under the sun and comparing travel notes (and Tom Tom disasters) on our terrace. We even convinced them to visit "Hercules" the following day instead of Pompeii.

As the sun went down, Janell and I said goodnight to the kids while Mike and Alex went in search of dinner. Somehow they talked the pizza lady out of selling them three small pizzas and came home with 1.5 metres of margherita, napoletana and capricciosa deliciousness. We all stuffed ourselves and still had the equivalent of one whole pizza (half a metre) left over for breakfast!

Despite all the wine and overeating, Alex and Janell made it home to Nocelle - a feat we really only appreciated the next day when we drove there ourselves in our much smaller car!

I'm still hoping that we might cross paths again while we're all still in Europe. But if not, I'll be looking forward to another day of wine, sun, laughs (and hopefully not too many tears) in New Zealand or Australia in the New Year xx

Herculaneum and Vesuvius (and driving around the Sorrentine peninsula)

We started the week by driving from Lazio to Amalfi. It was a short drive, but slow once we got closer to Naples.. And almost impossible once we arrived on the peninsula. Our trusty TomTom hasn't been so trusty since we got to Italy and was almost the end of us on Monday! It took us down the right street but at the wrong end of it.. It started off as a street and got narrower and narrower till we got round a corner and found a donkey track :O

45 minutes, lots of stress, a couple of scratches to the car and several new neighborhood friends later we managed to turn the car around and get out of the ninth circle of hell an back onto the main road.

The host of our new place was waiting for us and extremely apologetic about the dirt road we needed to go down to to get to the house.. It seemed like a motorway after the "road" we'd just escaped from!!

Callum's chicken pox were really at their peak on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday so that curbed our eating out and what we could do with the kids sightseeing wise. On Tuesday we woke late and decided to visit Herculaneum and Mt Vesuvius for the day. It was a great choice!

Herculaneum (modern day Ercolano) is at the base of Mt Vesuvius and was covered by lava flows in the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79. Unlike Pompeii, the uncovered archeological site is "only" around 4.5 hectares and very well organised and labelled. And doable with two strollers! We spent a very interesting morning there and then drove up Mt Vesuvius after lunch.

From the carpark, just under a K downhill from the crater, we lugged our two 16kg boys in Ergo carriers, all the way to the crater. We got several comments from people coming the other way about being super parents, which only just made up for all the elderly people overtaking me on the way up :-/

It was worth the walk though!! What a great view and it was interesting seeing the crater as well. As the clouds closed in, we walked back down - a much easier stroll downhill.

Rome with kids - and chicken pox.

After a quiet, chilled out day on Friday avoiding the rain and cooler weather, we were ready to hit Rome bright and early Saturday morning. Or we would've been if we hadn't discovered a funny looking spot on Callum's shoulder on Friday morning. A spot that had several equally suspicious looking friends by Friday evening..

By yesterday we were in no doubt about the culprit. Chicken pox has found us all the way over in Italy! Fortunately Callum was still in great spirits and under the impression that he just had a few mossie bites (which has been great as he knows not to itch those!)

So we set off for Rome as planned, the trip in was a bit.. er, interesting in parts but we found our chosen car park in the end. We checked out the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon before lunch (more pizza) and then made our way to St Peters and the Vatican museums for the afternoon.

By the time we turned around to come back to the car it was almost 4, and nearly 7 before we made it to the carpark (including a gelato stop and pasta for the kids' tea). We did a LOT of walking yesterday!!

This morning we headed back into Rome for another day of sightseeing. The kids were suitably impressed by the Colosseum and running around Circus Maximus. We found lunch in a kosher restaurant - excellent rissoto and great fried artichokes! And then had another long walk back to the car, with Callum's spots multiplying by the minute.

This afternoon we're taking it easy at home again. Callum seems a little more under the weather today and has realized the spots are NOT mossie bites (but is still being great about not itching). Tomorrow we leave Lazio and head towards the Amalfi Coast for four days where we'll hopefully meet up with Janell and Alex again.

Parenting on holidays 101

How to wile away a rainy afternoon in Italy? Put the littlest one down for a nap, the slightly bigger one in front of Looney Tunes and then open the chips and beer :o)

(this one's for you C.H)

There's David!!!

One of the highlights of our time in Tuscany was our trip to Florence on Tuesday.  For the first time in a week we set the alarm to wake us up in the morning and planned to be out the door and on the road by 8am as the drive is around 2 hours from Chris's place.  We successfully navigated our way there and to our chosen parking lot and even found a lovely, big supermarket to explore on our way to the Duomo and our day of sightseeing. 



Throughout this trip, we've had to forgo some of the "must see" sights in each city because we don't want to put the kids (and ourselves) through hours of queuing and painfully attempting to contain them while the rest of the world enjoys whichever museum, art gallery or church we want to see.  However, even for us, there are a few things that we have been prepared to risk pain and humiliation for.  Michelangelo's David is one of them.

The four of us arrived, without reservations, at the Accademia gallery around 11am.  The queue seemed to be moving at a decent pace and we were hopeful we'd be in within an hour and out again in time for a late lunch.  HA. HA. HA.  Not quite three hours, 2 slices of pizza, 2 paninis, 3 bottles of water, one nappy change, two toilet breaks, one nap (from Daniel) and countless walks for Mike to keep Callum occupied, we were allowed in to the gallery.  All I can say is, it was worth the wait!

Even more amazing was the fact that despite all that waiting, the kids didn't have a meltdown and Callum was excited to see David too.  In fact, for the rest of the day he had a ball spotting David images and replicas all over Florence.  I would never have picked it as a highlight for the kids before we went there, but they both had fun and because of that, so did Mike and I :)

Of course no trip anywhere in Italy is complete without a gelato stop, so we went to Carabe after the gallery which Lonely Planet recommends as one of the top five gellaterie in Florence.  It was certainly delicious!  Although I thought the gelato in San Gimignano was even better.

The rest of the afternoon flew by with lots of walking, carousel rides and then a trip to the supermarket again for picnic tea supplies.  We drove up to Pizzale Michelangelo and enjoyed the fantastic view and music from a concert while we ate sandwiches for tea.  The perfect end to a wonderful day.

A few photos - France

I've been a bit lazy about posting from the laptop (ie I'm not), so all of the photos since we left Thailand have just been quick iPhone snaps.  Here's a few from my real camera ....

 

Callum and Mike contemplating the route map on L'Open Tour in Paris

 

I had tears in my eyes the first time we saw the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe!

 

La Tour Eiffel

 

 

Baby boy x

 

Looking much older here at Clos Luce, Loire Valley

 

Another picnic lunch

 

 

Rocamadour

 

Pont du Gard with two cheerful children

 

The boys had a ball at this Borie village

 

 

Driving to Italy through the Alps in the rain..

 

 

 

Gelato tasting

In the past two days I've tried apple, crema, strawberry (twice), grapefruit and sparkling wine, limone, passionfruit, banana, caramel and nutella. One benefit of having two kids - to help increase the number of flavours you can buy :o)

Meanwhile, we've also visited Volterra (fun), San Gimignano (busy, but great and delicious gelato!!) and Montepulciano (where they filmed the crowd scene in New Moon).

This morning we earned the icecream by doing a 3hr walk from here, up the hill and then back through the valley and up a STEEP hill to get home. Callum walked almost the entire way (which is why it took us three hours instead of about 1.5) It was great fun, but since we decided to visit Montepulciano for lunch and a look around this afternoon, I am REALLY looking forward to an early night tonight!!

Siena and more relaxing

After a late night drinking wine with Chris, we were a bit slow getting out the door this morning :o) Daniel's latest party trick (waking and talking for several hours in the middle of the night when we're all sharing a room) didn't really help the bleary eyes either.

We set off for Siena without much on an agenda but a bit apprehensive about spending a day there with two active boys. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about! We parked outside the city centre and walked to Piazza del Campo where the boys ran wild for ages before we sat them down on the sloped piazza for morning tea and some people watching.

After fueling the kids, we wandered the streets for an hour or so. I was worried Callum wouldn't be very happy about the steep hills and staying close but he was great today after an initial moan about wanting a shoulder ride when he saw another wee girl being carried by her dad. Callum was excited to explore the different twists and turns and look out for interesting buildings, statues and fountains. Daniel was entertained, as always, by spotting planes, ma-bikes and ee-mouse (motorbikes and Mickey Mouse).

We had pizza and pasta for lunch back at the piazza and both boys ate really, REALLY well. Then after one last walk to admire the Duomo we set off for home and spent the afternoon by the pool and in the garden. It's a tough life!

In Tuscany at last

What a mammoth drive down to Tuscany today. I'm pretty sure Mike is glad we won't be doing that again! I wish we'd counted the number of tunnels we went through, it was insane. Windy, narrow, busy and two lanes through tunnel after tunnel after tunnel. Fortunately the weather was fine for that part of the trip but we hit rain again once we got on the road to Florence which was a shame.

Lots of rain welcomed us to Monterongriffoli but it didn't bother the kids in the slightest - as soon as we arrived at Ankhura the boys were introducing themselves to the dog and off into the garden, completely obvious to the rain.

We've just eaten the best meal of our trip so far, cooked by our lovely host Chris (with a bit of help from several sidekicks). Traditional Tuscan pici pasta in a beef and pork ragu washed down with plenty of local wine. Yum.

Italy - Alba

We drove across to Italy yesterday and the weather got progressively worse as the day went on so we've now had the first couple of cold, wet days for the trip - only 40 days into it!!

Once again, we've gotten extremely lucky with our accommodation choice. This one was only booked a few days ago, we hadn't decided till then how we wanted to get to Tuscany, just that we wanted to stop somewhere for a couple of nights on the way to break up the trip.

So, knowing nothing about Alba or Rodello (nearest town to here), we booked this "farmhouse" on airbnb. Probably the only disappointment is that there is no outdoor space, just a shared carpark with four or five other houses. Fortunately (?!) it's been wet anyway so we've kept the kids inside most of the time so it hasn't made a difference.

Apart from that, it's AWESOME. Lots of space, warm, immaculate, it has everything we need (although the Internet connection has been pretty dodgy) and we've also been thoroughly spoilt by the host's Aunt who met us in town to show us the way here and let us in. She speaks NO english so we had to get by with travel guide Italian :o) and hand gestures which was pretty entertaining! She welcomed us with local wine, food, drinks, fresh fruit, chocolate for the kids and then came back again with fresh bread and milk (after we asked where the nearest supermarket was)!!!

Tomorrow we move on to Tuscany where we're staying with Mike's old workmate's family in a small village called San Giovanni d'Asso. They have a pool, three kids and a dog so I'm expecting it to be a busy few days but hopefully lots of fun for the kids :) as well as a nice introduction to Tuscany for all of us.

Just found these photos Callum must've been taking at lunch today...

Avignon

I am so tired tonight. Mike thinks it's the wine. Perhaps I need to drink more of it?

We had a late start today as we planned to take the train to Avignon (about a 25 min trip) but missed the 8:45 train and there wasn't another till 10:10. A far cry from the days when I got mad about a 3 minute wait for a train in Singapore huh!!

We did a bit of a walking tour around Avignon centre, taking in churches, great shops and restaurants and Palais des Papes before we found a place for lunch. Considering we arrived at our chosen restaurant at 11:55, were the second table to sit down for lunch and yet didn't pay the bill till almost 1:30, I thought the kids did pretty well! Hardly any dessert for me though - the boys thought it was for them and I couldn't convince them otherwise :-/

After lunch Mike took the boys on the carousel (they loved it) and then we walked to Pont d'Avignon. It was so windy and cold today that I kept thinking we were in Wellington.. Especially when we walked past the kebab shop!

You'd also think we'd have learnt our lesson with the trains and timetables this morning but no, we managed to miss the train at 2:23 by 4 minutes and then had to wait another 2 hours. Fortunately there is a great park about 5 mins walk from the station so the boys spent most of those 2 hours in the playground :) We mighn't be seeing as many famous sights as we expected but we're certainly discovering a LOT of new playgrounds!

We went to see Pont du Gard yesterday - one thing I definitely wasn't going to miss. Mr Burney would've been proud! Couple of photos below. And also from our evening walk for icecream :)