Venice with kids is...

...not for the faint hearted. We made the call to do a "quick" trip to Venice on Friday and almost didn't live to tell about it. Ok actually the four adults probably would have been safe but the four kids each nearly found themselves thrown into the canal for excessive whining. To be fair, it had been a long week of exploring Italy with us, with numerous evenings that went far beyond their usual bedtime. Griffin hadn't had a nap all week, so frankly it was all catching up with us. And despite gorgeous weather most of the week, it was pretty hot that day in Venice, hotter in the non-air conditioned train compartment, and extremely crowded on all those narrow winding Venetian streets. And it's a lot of walking.  All the kids had been great all week, so we might have just pushed too far- maybe we should have done what they wanted and spent the day at the Italian water park/amusement park. But come on, it's Venice!!

Expecting some of this, we brought the stroller so Griffin could crash, and indeed he did and had a hearty nap mid-day while we continued to explore. The problem with that is that Venice is full of stairs, going to all those little cute bridges over all the cute side canals. Oh well, we just picked it up each time.

Here's Griffin in the famous San Marco square- he seemed to enjoy it. :) 

In the end, I'm still glad we went and so is Steve. It's a magical place and nothing can really describe it if you haven't seen it yourself. I love it. And I was glad for the extra time with family, as it was our last day in Italy. We had a nice lunch at an outdoor cafe there, and the two hour train ride each way gave everyone more time to hang out. 

Once back in Bologna, we had a nice family dinner and started packing up. Rylee read books to Griffin before he crashed in bed, and we said goodbye to the kids before our 4am wake up call to head to the airport. Griffin cried because he didn't want to go home, then cried because he did but wanted all his cousins to come too. Lucky for us they're headed back to the States in August and we'll see them all then! 

Thanks to the Little Family for hosting us on such a wonderful trip!!

I heart my SIL!

Mark had to work part of the day Friday unexpectedly, so we decided to make it a Bologna touring day. In the morning my sister-in-law Lynn suggested that she stay home with the kids and just Steve and I do a city bus tour. They've done it before and will do it again when Steve and Lynn's mom comes next month, and and she also didn't think it would be that much fun for Griffin. Plus he was really enjoying everyday could have been anywhere wrestling and playing with his cousins. 

Whoo hoo!! Freedom!!! Best sister in law ever! We worried we'd get home and find her tied in a corner with a ransom note- 4 crazy kids might be just enough to tip the odds against her favor. (Not that this fear stopped us from going, mind you)

We walked downtown to the center of Bologna, and bought our tickets for the open air double decker city tour bus. We sat at a cute cafe on the main plaza with coffees and sandwiches staring at the famous Neptune statue and people watching. Until. The inevitable. Italian child belting out that unmistakable tune, even in another language. Does Disney own the world? It seems so. I had an old boyfriend in college who got a job with Disney- wonder if he's a millionaire by now. 

The bus tour was pretty cool, we learned a lot about Bologna and saw great sights. Did you know the radio was invented in Bologna? And that Bologna has more fancy tombs and shrines to university professors than to heroes or leaders? The first university in the world was in Bologna, though we once went on a tour in India where they claimed the same thing, and I bet the Greeks might have something to say about it too. 

We finished the tour and explored a bit more, then settled on a snack at a cute outdoor cafe in a bustling, historic. narrow street shopping area. Steve went in to order and came back with a bottle of prosecco and a proschuitto and cheese platter. Did I mention how much I love my sister in law Lynn?? :) We could have sat there all day just enjoying the sights and each other's company. 

We returned to find all the kids playing a board game in relative tranquility. So we all headed to the train station to a town outside the city called Sasso Marconi (where the inventor of the radio is from, who was named Marconi) where Mark's company is located. We had dinner at their favorite place called "Luca's" where he eats lunch everyday and where the family stayed at Luca's guesthouse when they first arrived, before moving into Bologna closer to the international school. All I can say is that I'm still not yet tired of amazing Italian pasta! 

Rainy Day in Bologna

Yesterday was a rainy day in Bologna. We were lucky enough to have clear skies in the morning so that we could take all the kids to the park for bike rides. But towards lunchtime the sky opened up and it started pouring. So after lunch the kids piled up on these giant pillows they have, and watched a movie during the storm. But after it was over and they played a little, everyone was bouncing off walls so we grabbed a bunch of umbrellas and went out for a rainy walk. Luckily much of Bologna includes buildings with tall covered porticos. By the time we got to the city center and Piazza Maggiore, the rain had stopped, making way for a nice stroll through the old center and some yummy gelato. Later in the afternoon Steve, Griffin and I ducked into a wine bar for the last half of the USA World Cup game, before heading out to an amazing local dinner at a super cute place we found using the website/app Yelp. Despite the rain, it turned out to be a great day!

Rainy day play doh for the boys, and Boggle for Rylee, Olivia and I. After 12 years I finally found a game I can beat Rylee at. It's sad how many games I've lost to her over the years. The worst probably being a series of Connect Four losses when she was about 6. 

Go USA! 

Playing family "I Spy" at the restaurant as we were finishing dinner. 

The Dog House

I forgot to mention, when I was writing about the Ferrari museum, that in addition to the most elite cars in the world, they also make dog houses. We didn't ask the price. One would think our dog named Bentley would appreciate a Ferrari dog house, but alas it's a bit too big for the suitcase. 

Ducati and Ferrari

Yesterday we drove to a suburb of Bologna called Pangiare (Ducati enthusiasts will recognize that name) and toured the Ducati motorcycle factory. Ducati is an elite and famous type of racing and also touring bike, and has been around since the 40's. We toured both the museum and the actual factory, and personally as someone who could care less about motorcycles, even I found it all pretty interesting. The history of the motorcycle plus the sport of racing plus the evolution of the engineering was a lot more fascinating than I'd expected; for Steve it was just plain awesome. Ducati only puts winning bikes in their museum, and I enjoyed seeing a bike that won the Paris-Dakar rally and that part of the display- not many people have had the chance to see the race in person, in West Africa- before they moved it for security reasons. Griffin liked the display of the "cucciolo" which is "puppy" in Italian, for an early gasoline-powered bike made from about 1946-1958. I've never been that in to poster art, but I wouldn't mind one of those old adverts! (In case you're interested, Air Afrique is another one I've always wanted).

http://www.enjoyart.com/single_posters/motorcycles_scooters/Ducati-Cucciolo-Art-Print.htm

We spent the afternoon back in Bologna with Lynne and the kids. We took the kids to a nearby park to ride their bikes. Griffin borrowed one of their bikes and practiced riding on two wheels just like his cousins. They pretty much could have told him to ride off a bridge and he'd have done it! Rylee gave him a silly band bracelet and he's refused to take it off for two days and counting. 

This morning we got up early and took the train to Modena, a town about 25 mins outside of Bologna. From there we caught a shuttle bus to Maranello, the town where Ferrari is located! The Ferrari museum showcases the history of the Ferrari brand plus all the world champion racers. It also had a special exhibition of 60 years in the American market called "California Dreamin" which was fun and included a cool display plus movie clips of all the movies in which Ferraris have been featured. Remember Ferris Buehler's friend Cameron's dad's car? Oh yeah. 

We took a bus tour through the grounds of the Ferrari factory and through the secret Ferrari test driving track. We weren't allowed off the bus and couldn't take photos in the factory or track area. Did you know every Ferrari is 100% custom made to order, made by hand individually and can take 1-2 years to arrive? According to our tour guide, sales were up a lot last year and the Ferrari management decided they were selling too many cars- too many doesn't uphold the elite nature of the Ferrari, so they cut back production this year. Lots of interesting factoids.  We also bought Steve a ticket for the real F1 simulator which is supposedly the closest you can come to driving a real one without actually driving one! He is hoping that a driving scout will call him any day now to start race car driving school so he can begin his new career...

Griffin practically fell asleep in my arms walking out from the shuttle stop back in Modena so we sat at a cafe and he took a nap on my lap for almost an hour- something he never, ever does! We wore him out! After he woke with a second wind and we'd taken out a couple of coffees and a glass of wine each, we spent a couple hours wandering around pretty Modena before taking the train back to Bologna. (Again, apologies that I just have a few IPhone pics bc most are still on the other camera). 

Rimini Beach Day and San Marino

After a nice drive from Bologna to Rimini, maybe an hour and 15 minutes and a dozen loops of "Let it Go," we arrived at the adorable town of Rimini. It's definitely a town I could stay a while in. Another place I'm tucking away in my "for when I need to escape my life" file, or for my "when I write a dissertation or novel or some other silly writing piece that will never actually happen" file. I took so many photos of flowers- every window box of every window was overflowing with bright colored petunias, geraniums, roses, etc! We checked in to our little guest house-style hotel and walked a few blocks down the cute little streets to the beachfront street, outdoor Italian restaurants and posh shops on one side, the beach on the other! We all filled our bellies with delicious pizza (and wine for the grown ups) then headed to the beach. Griffin and Brady played in the sand and shallow water while I went into the waves with Rylee and Olivia. After a couple hours, we convinced Griffin to go into the waves with us and for the first time ever, he loved it! He dove and crashed and rode the waves with his cousins and I, and had such a blast. I was so happy to see him loving the ocean so much- finally!! He's always loved the beach but never wanted to go into the ocean itself. It also helped put him to bed early and easily that night- aha!! Steve stayed back with our early to bed monkey and I went to dinner with the rest of the family, where I had some fantastic clams with garlic and white wine sauce...yum Italy!

We woke up yesterday and took a bus from Rimini for about a 40-min trip up windy hilly roads to the tiny mountain castle country called San Marino. It's actually it's own country within the borders of Italy. It's like a little castle wonderland with adorable Italian cafés and Rodeo Drive caliber shopping. If I thought it would ever be remotely possible, I'd totally put this place on my list of places to escape to too. You probably have to have several centuries of genealogical papers though. Oh well. The kids had a blast running free and climbing on everything, and with any luck I took a few good photos too. (The ones below are from Mark). We had a nice lunch at a little outdoor cafe surrounded by flowers, and topped off the meal with a little gelato of course! We got a few pics of the 4 kids, and one good one of Lynn and Steve (I think their folks will love it!) but ran out of time for the whole entire family pic. Fingers crossed for Friday or Sat on that one. We rode the bus back to Rimini, picked up the cars and headed back to Bologna, waving but not stopping (knocked out boys in the back seat) at the town of Imola, where the famous Italian Grand Prix is held!

Family Vacation in Italy!

Here we are in Italy!! Griffin, Steve and I flew over to visit Steve's sister Lynn, her husband Mark, and their kids Rylee (12), Olivia (10) and Brady (6). Griffin, who just turned four last week, fits in with them like the perfect fourth little duckling! He adores his cousins. Their family is living in Bologna, Italy for a year for Mark's work. 

The flight over was probably my biggest worry- an overnight flight with a 4-year old, long layover in Paris, then a flight to Bologna. Griffin did well- I'd packed a million activities and didn't need a single one, since he was fully zombified the entire trip by the endless loop of Disney movies on his personal seat video screen. None of us slept much, so the layover and rest of the day once we arrived was a bit rough, but we all got back on track pretty quickly within a day or so. 

Their family lives right in the center of Bologna, right near the gate to the old city. They live in a gorgeous 1900's old 4 story building, in a spacious apartment with huge old windows, tons of natural light and fresh air. I love it! The owner of the building lives on the ground floor and has a huge, gorgeous garden that spans out from his patio, where he apparently throws big fancy parties! We walked around Bologna a bit the first day, saw the Piazza Maggiore and had an amazing pasta dinner (family style so we sampled lots of different kinds)! We spent most of Saturday just hanging out- we slept in then the kids played, we all caught up and planned out our week. Griffin added The Lorax to his Disney repertoire, after watching Tangled and the Little Mermaid (plus numerous showings of Frozen) on the plane. He's right at home with the kids here, as they can all belt out every word of "Let it Go" just like he can. Clearly we live in a global "Frozen has invaded the world" community. 

Yesterday (Sunday) we rented a car and piled in to our rental and their Volvo and all drove a little over an hour to a super cute beach town called Remini. Bologna is in the Emilio-Romana region known for parmasean cheese, proschuitto, balsamic vinegar, and of course, Ducati, Ferrari, and Maserati. But we are just close neighbors with the Tuscany region, and the drive from Bologna to Remini was postcard-like gorgeous. A taste of Napa, if you've been there, but you know, so uniquely Italian. Rolling hills, Italian farmhouses, farms of olives, grapes, and sunflowers, and color tones that barely seemed real. 

Stay tuned for more...my wine glass is empty so I'll have to write more later!! 

Below: building to the left, their apartment. Others- fun with cousins!! (And Uncle Mark in one of them!) 

Note: brought my borrowed DSLR camera but not a laptop so the photo options for this blog may be lackluster for the time being!