A day in Assisi--Italy 4

Our next adventure was into the town of Assisi, which you might be familiar with as the town from which St. Francis of Assisi came (I only am familiar with St. Francis, because I went to a Catholic school which was called...St. Francis. So he featured a lot in our daily lives).  The roads to get there were so curvy and swervy that both girls were feeling ill and we had to stop to let Evie walk around even after giving her anti-nausea meds.

Assisi is a beautiful city into which one descends to reach the famous Basilica, where some of the best preserved frescoes reside on the walls and ceilings.  To get there, we took a back roads route through flower filled streets and stopped to listen to a pianist practicing for a concert later that evening.   We could hear her/him playing through a tightly sealed building and the girls clapped every time the mysterious pianist stopped.

I think that there were a lot of Italian grandmas in Assisi because the flowers were really beautiful.

Sampling some homemade potpourri:

A typical Italian shrine:

The girls were hungry, so we stopped for a panini:

And then to take in the sights in and around the main square:

 

 

 

We also stopped for lunch where, as usual, we ordered way too much food, and, fortified by gnocchi, a gigantic pizza (which Jim couldn't eat because he had been sick and lost his appetite), two bowls of 'kid sized' spaghetti bolognese and bread sticks, we headed to the Basilica.  

 I had been very careful to bring a modest dress, which reached to my knees, so I was shocked when I was asked to ‘cover myself’ as we walked in.  Apparently, not only are your knees supposed to be covered, but so are your shoulders.  Sinner that I am, I didn’t have anything to cover my shoulders (it was HOT), so I had to borrow a piece of cloth from the church to cover my indecency.  I was FUMING (because the guy who asked me to cover myself, did so in a very condescending way, as if I was dressed like a prostitute) and loudly exclaimed that THIS was why I didn’t go to church!

 But then I got over it and enjoyed the frescos and some of the relics (although I was feeling pretty annoyed with the church at that point still).  The frescos ARE Pretty amazing, beautiful colors and on the ceilings and walls.  Plus the view overlooking the Umbrian countryside was pretty incredible:

 

 

I scoffed at Jim when he suggested we take a taxi back up the hill from the Basilica...but he was right.  He had been sick (someone always gets sick when we go to Italy. This time it was Jim and Millie) and the hill was really steep and extra steep when pushing a stroller and/or carrying a 25 pound toddler on your back. We stopped for a break at a beautiful gelateria, with giant, lavishly decorated meringues in the window and loud swing music playing. It’s proprietor was Roberto and he was friendly, even when Evie knocked four glasses off our table and they shattered into a million pieces. Whoops.  Then, in the process of putting Millie into the sling on my back, Jim lifted up my dress and everyone on the street got a good look at my orange panties.  WHOOPS!  Good thing that didn’t happen in the Basilica.  I would have definitely gone straight to hell, with my exposed shoulders and my panties on display.

Back on the home front and after they had a long nap in the car, the girls were ready for the still frigid pool.  I sat on the side, monitoring while Millie played on the steps (twice tipping herself over and not able to get back up…it’s easy to see how a toddler can drown in very little water. Scary).  And when they were sufficiently blue, we headed back up for a warming bath and dinner. Then Jim and I had a date at the onsite restaurant, conveniently located next door to our apartment.  We put Millie to bed and left Evie watching a video and she checked in about every ten minutes by shouting for us from our patio.  We did manage to get through dinner and when we came back they were both sleeping and, most importantly, still there. Mission accomplished!

Lago Trasimano and Castiglione del Lago--Italy Part 3

After our restful day on the farm, we decided to go explore Lago Trasimano, the nearby lake (well, sort of near...it took us about an hour to get there). We had gotten mixed reviews from another family staying at the villa about the lake (the grandmother and kids loved it; the grandfather didn't), but we decided to take our chances and enjoy a day at the 'beach.'  It really did feel kind of like going to the beach, with flat, winding roads curving through bohemian style housing and the sun glaring down.  On our way we could see Cortona, the sight of our ill-fated 2010 Italy trip (extreme flight delays, crowded trains, flu...shudder).  When we got to the village of Castiglione del Lago, we climbed up some steep steps and into the walls of the town (castle), headed for the recommended restaurant, which had a nice view, but terrible service and surly waitstaff.  After forty-five minutes of my pasta not arriving and the girls about to implode from the effort it took to behave in a civilized manner for that long, we cancelled my order and headed out for gelato.

 ....which was served by the grumpiest server of gelato on the face of the planet who sneered, "It's pistachio flavored!" when I asked if Evie could taste his pistachio gelato.  It was too much effort to explain to him that she had never HAD pistachio flavored anything, but he had decided to indulge us by then and let her taste a sample, despite the fact that we were moronic tourists.  By the way, there were TONS of Americans in Castiglione del Lago...so maybe that was the problem.  Our reputation precedes us.

 Finally we made our way to the highly anticipated lake, taking the scenic route through hot olive groves and all the way around the castle walls...and then down a seemingly never ending staircase. It was hot and we were ready to swim (except for me. I forgot my bathing suit) and I'm sorry to say that the Lake was neither cool nor refreshing. I think I'm not really a lake person, because I don't like slime or the feel of slimy mud between my toes.  I also don't like walking on a beach that has glass all over it (which this one did).  But Jim and the girls walked on in despite the slime and other unidentified stuff and seemed to really enjoy it. No one got a bacterial infection or anything...but this was no Lake Annecy!

 The highlight of our visit to the lake was my purchase of a beautiful cutting board, which I got for a fraction of the price I would have paid in London.  Also, in purchasing the cutting board, we got to engage with the charming, older owner of the charcuterie where we bought it and he called Evie 'bella' and gave her a piece of salami (Millie was in the car with Jim).  Evie also talked me into buying some really yummy biscotti.  So it was a good day after all! 

A quiet Day in Casacastalda--italy Part 2

After our exciting day in Gubbio, we decided to have a quiet day at 'home' and just hung around Casacastalda a little bit.  Since playgrounds are the highlight of the girls' life, we made them extra happy by taking them to the town playground.

Here is me looking extremely bad and being extremely irresponsible by baking in the Italian sun without sunscreen at the town playground. I paid for it later...but it was worth it to feel the sun:

Then we hit up the slightly gruesome pork stand in town (that's a roasted pig there in the background).  All the carnivores thoroughly enjoyed chowing down on pork at 10:30 am.

More scenes from the village:

 Millie and Jim needed a nap, so Evie and I decided to take a walk down to the neighboring village of Carbonesca.  It was beautiful!

 We stopped off in a cemetary on our way down.  Evie was  very interested in knowing more about the people in the pictures.

 There were some nice houses in Carbonesca and a nice bar in which to buy ice cream...and a nice looking bar tender who called Evie "bella" and then took off on his motorcycle.

 On the way back up the very steep hill, Evie didn't complain too much and picked a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers for us to have on our dinner table.

 And when we got back, the lovely Millie was awake and happy and the flower girls played in the on-site playground to their hearts content.

 

Unfortunately, our evening was fraught with drama when I heard some scuffling under our bed and found a rather large scorpion traversing the floor.  Much hopping around with a broom ensued and we finally swept it out into the night, but I wasn't able to settle down for a while after that.  This reaction from someone who grew up with Louisiana cockroaches!!  Luckily it was our only scorpion encounter, although we did see a snake eating a lizard, which was exciting.  The lizard escaped, but was, I think, mortally wounded. The snake slithered off and probably came back for him later.  Ahh...nature!

Italy--Part 1

After many months of anticipation, we finally made it to our Umbrian holiday in Italy—the first trip to Italy with both girls.  I was sure that something was going to happen to prevent us from actually making this trip. Namely, chicken pox, which was spreading like wildfire through Evie’s nursery and from one after-school playmate to the other.  But luckily, we managed to get out of England and onto Italian soil with Millie unscathed!

The trip was as good as can be expected.  Gatwick has made major improvements in the ‘traveling with children’ department and we got to go through our own special security check and then hang around in the kid’s area (with kid shows on a big TV and lots of comfy kid-sized chairs).  The flight was short and sweet and while we didn’t exactly breeze through customs, everything went pretty smoothly until we actually drove out of the Rome airport in our rental car.  We aren’t really sure what happened, but somehow we went the wrong way and a 2.5 hour drive turned into a four hour one, complete with exhausted, screaming children and lots of bickering between adults. 

Finally, at around 10pm, we arrived at our destination…Pian Di Cascina near Casacastalada.  We were supposed to have dinner in the onsite restaurant, but we missed that by several hours, so our kind hosts brought our dinner to our apartment and we enjoyed fine dining after a very long day.  The girls, too tired to really eat their delicious pasta, seemed to find the energy to eat their ice cream sundaes and Jim and I forced down as much of our dinner as we could. Going to bed was a relief for all of us!

And in the morning, we woke up to this! What a view we had, overlooking the Umbrian countryside, from our deck!  It was worth getting lost to be able to see this for a week!

Our first day was chilly and overcast, so we decided to go visit the Grotte Frassasi, reputed to be the most spectacular system of caves in Europe.  Some cavers accidentally stumbled upon them when they were out wandering around in 1971 and they are so big that a cathedral can easily fit inside.  To get there, we had to wind through Umbria and into the mountains (not without yet another round of bickering about directions).  I drove with lots of impatient Italians in fancy cars tailgating me (and I was going 20km over the speed limit!). 

We parked about 1km from the caves, had a fun, casual, Italian lunch and then walked up the hill to the caves.  I offered to take a picture of these people with their daughter and then they wanted to have a picture with OUR daughters as well.  Evie, of course, was thrilled to oblige. Millie wasn't so sure about this complete stranger picking her up.  It was pretty funny.

 We opted not to take the bus up to the caves (partially because the really crabby guy who sold us our tickets had no interest in giving us any guidance.  The coversation went, "Deutche!?" "No, English." "2:45!  2:45!"  Upon pressing him further he replied, "2:45!"  So at least we knew when our tour was going to be!)  Walking up was fun and scenic anyway.

And when we got to the caves and had time to kill before our tour, we knew just what to do:

When 2:45 finally arrived, we almost took off with the German tour, but one of the Germans clued us in to the English tour and off we went to explore the caves...in English. They were spectacular with gigantic stalagmites and stalagtites, which looked deceptively small in comparison to the hugeness of the caves.  Some of them were 7000 meters tall and looked tiny from down below.  The coolest part (to me, at least)were the "candles", which were accessed by a bridge between two caverns and sat in magical looking pools of water.  Millie got tired of being in the sling and we were running out of snacks, so we ended up leaving our group and walking back through the caves to the beginning on our own, which was really special.  Without the tour group, the caves were silent and we could hear the water dripping.  It felt like we had it all to ourselves...and we could take pictures that we weren't supposed to be taking! But we also had a professional, legal picture taken of us in front of one of the biggest Stalagtites (our scanner is broken, so it won't be displayed on this blog).  

The Candles:

When we got back, I decided to hand wash our laundry, which was quickly piling up.  To use the washing machine cost 5 Euros per load, so I wanted to save money, but after scrubbing our clothes in the tub, I now understand why women in the olden days were a lot fitter! It was hard work...and the clothes weren't exactly clean either.

 

 The next day, the weather was warm and sunny, so we headed to Gubbio, a nearby city, for the Tuesday morning market.  To get there we drove through the countryside and the hills and the windy roads…Evie somehow didn’t get sick, but we did have to make a pit stop and let her pick some flowers so that she didn't toss her cookies. Even I was feeling a little green by the time we arrived at Gubbio!  

We parked near an old Roman ampitheatre (circa 15^th century) and joined the crowds at the Gubbio market.  On one end were fruits, veggies, cheeses and stands selling pork buns.  There were also lots of Truffle themed foods, as the region is known not only for it’s special pork, but also for it’s truffles (black and white).  We sampled some truffle cheese and bought some truffle olive oil (the latter delicious, the former too ‘pongy’ to put it the British way).  

 On the other end of the market were clothes, purses, shoes, toys and a pet store (not my favorite thing to see five or six bunnies pushed into one small cage).  Evie picked out some delicious cherries for us all and we happened upon a fruit and veggie stand, which was apparently having a clearance, because all the old grandmas suddenly started shoving and throwing the fruit and veg into their shopping bags willy-nilly and then mobbing the people at the cash registers.  Not knowing Italian didn’t keep us from joining in and we managed to get enough fruit and veg to last us for at least three or four days, all for the bargain price of 7 Euros.  Evie put on the requisite plastic gloves that one must wear before handling fruit and veg in Italy and helped me bag our food.   

While we were waiting in line, we watched an old Italian Grandma type get screamed at by the guy at the registrar after she paid and then started slinking around some produce she clearly wasn’t supposed to be messing with. She just kind of sniffed and then walked off, mostly unfazed by his verbal assault (or what I assume was a verbal assault.  The tone seemed pissed off, but maybe he was just speaking Italian).  

After all that drama, the girls took a ride on a merry-go-round...which was not the highlight of Millie's day:

 

But Evie loved it, and the nice guy operating the carousel let Millie get off and let Evie have two turns. We waved at Evie as she zoomed by in her Formula One car and everyone was happy again.

After the market, we wandered around and stopped for lunch.  The sullen, young waiter could barely contain his eye rolling when we asked if we could sit in the outside area of the restaurant (which required him to open up a different section and unroll some plastic windows). But in the end it worked out because the girls were a little uncontainable and we had the whole outside area to ourselves.  And by the time we left, our waiter had warmed up to us, although he had no interest in looking at Evie’s bo bos and clearly did not think she was “Bella” like all the other men we encountered that day.

Learning from our mistakes, we took the less scenic, shorter and less winding way back home and as soon as we got back, the girls wanted to get in the pool.  It was the coldest pool I have ever been in and I am not exaggerating. Despite that, we all swam, the girls getting bluer and bluer as time went by.  After everyone was purple, we forced them out of the big pool and into the warmer baby pool and Millie staged a temper tantrum like never before seen, hitting Jim and shrieking like we were torturing her.  But in the end, the adults prevailed and after a few more frigid minutes in the water, we got everyone bundled up and out of the pool area before hypothermia set in.