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!