A Little Q&A

We are in Switzerland this weekend visiting with family, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to answer some questions!

How is the food in Italy?

We are happy for the change in cuisine…yummy olive oil! The food here is just like anywhere else…some is amazing and some is average and some is meh. One thing to know about meals in Italy is that they are designed to go on and on and are frequently 5 courses. If you choose to do it all, that can be A LOT of food and can get expensive. However, the meals that we have splurged on have been consistently good. We had a nice dinner in Siena with pasta and a main course and dessert. We did a fancy food tour in Parma, where food is like a religion and everything there was tasty. We’ve had really good pizza and not-so-good pizza. When we get tired of ham and cheese and carbs, we go in search of non-Italian food. We ate Thai food in Ravenna that was good and a nice change. I mean, a lactose-sensitive girl can only take so much!

What are you enjoying?

Just like everyone else in the world, we are charmed by the little hill towns and lovely piazzas. We have had a few days of glorious warm weather and that has reawakened our travel bug, so that’s been nice. We have enjoyed seeing art and architecture and the beautiful countryside. I didn’t know I was such a sucker for mosaics, but I am.

It’s nice to not feel rushed and crazy as we choose what to see and do here. We know that we will likely be back, so we just go where our interests lead us. We are choosy about which museums and churches to visit if they are super popular and charge an entrance fee. If it’s something we really want to do, we make the effort. If it’s a “maybe”, then it often ends up being a “no”.

What were you looking forward to seeing or doing in Italy? 

When we were here before, we were in Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence, the Cinque Terre, etc. We definitely did the “greatest hits” on that trip. For this trip, we wanted to see more of Northern Italy–maybe because we needed some time in the mountains after being in the very flat land of Leipzig? Anyway, we were excited to see some new places and learn some new things. We didn’t have a lot of “must dos”, so we are taking it week by week. We will probably see more of southern Italy next year.

What has brought back the best memories of your first time there? 

We had a good time reminiscing during our road trip last week.

A story…

…we had read about this “monster park” that has big, crazy sculptures that was supposedly a good day trip from Rome. We had a whole week in Rome, so we thought that might be a fun thing for the kids. We didn’t rent a car for that trip, so we were doing the train for everything. We took the train to the little town where this park is located, but I don’t think we knew how far the park was from the train station. It wasn’t close, but it was fine–we could walk it. So, we hiked up to this park in the heat and it ended up being pretty fun. I included a photo. As it got close to closing time for the park, it started to pour buckets of rain. We still needed to walk all that way back to the train station and it’s not like we could call a taxi in that tiny town. Anyway, someone who worked at the park took pity on the poor, silly Americans and drove us to the train station. It’s probably because the kids were cute. Anyway, it was a nice reminder of the kindness of strangers and made for a good memory. We have paid it forward a couple times to others who were in a tight spot and needed a ride.

Other things…

…being so jet lagged in Venice but having an absolute blast anyway. That was back when there was still a huge flock of pigeons on St. Mark’s Square and you could buy food for them…the kids loved it.

…sad Mitchell couldn’t climb the tower in Pisa because he was too young. He also got pretty sick one night. Poor kid.

…stuffing the kids with pizza and fruit and gelato to keep them happy and fueled during the warm September days. Lauren’s go-to flavor of gelato was limone (lemon). Every time.

…climbing the dome at St. Peter’s and sunset on the top of the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.

…playing in the black sand on the beach in Sorrento and getting splashed by waves on the jetty in one of the Cinque Terre towns.

…each kid had a book that we made with journaling and activities and stuff and it was really fun to do those. I’m pretty sure they all kept them into their teens.

…getting lost in Naples looking for THE church with THE sculptures…not exactly the smartest city to be wandering around in, but we found it and ate pizza and it was a great day. See the sculptures here.

…planes and trains and ferries and water taxis and trams and buses….

…how happy the kids were when we arrived in Zurich after spending three weeks in Italy and they got to eat bratwurst instead of pizza hahaha.

Anyway, we are enjoying our time in Italy. There are a few things we miss about Germany, but mostly we are a bit homesick for the United States. We miss all of you and the familiarity of the language and easy access to things we know and love. But, for now, we are living it up because this is the season for us to do it! We will be back next week with details from our trip to Switzerland.