Italy 2009

it is gorgeous here. slow. sunny. hills. mediterranean sea.

jelly fish.

luckily we didnt figure out the hard way, but some other people did. i had hoped we would spend the day swimming today but luck was not on our side since the water was infested with jelly fish allllllll day long. we saw one guy get stung real bad. paige was able to play in the water a little on the boat launch as they didnt come near there at all, but no deep sea swimming and fish watching. still a lovely, lovely slow day.

the word for jelly fish in italian = medusa

oh. and the anchovies here escape description. if you are ever in the cinque terre and you have always wanted to try an anchovy but were afraid, do it here. so fresh, sooooo good.

I am here….posting hasnt been happening because we have such long days that i am beat at the end of the day. i have a few written and will post them once we get to florence. we are having a wonderful time! in manarola along the cinque terre now and we have considered skipping florence and staying here…it is soooo lovely and sunny and beautiful. but, we will move on. i will post more soon….

stay tuned!

We had a three hour break between meetings on Saturday, so we went back to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for lunch. We sat in the park again and since it was Saturday there were more people milling about including 3 1/2 year old Enrico. A little blonde hair boy who was instantly interested in playing with Paige once he saw her chasing pigeons (her new favorite thing to do!). It was fun to watch these children play despite the not being able to communicate. Enrico could count to 10 in English as he proudly displayed his skills for us but there was no English beyond that. Paige tried a few times to ask some questions in Italian with assistance from me and our phrase book but I’m not sure we were doing so well. Still, I think they both had a blast and it was a wonderful experience for Paige.

Sunday we went to Varenna for the day. Varenna is a small town on the shores of Lake Como. We picked a gorgeous, clear day to go and did a whole bunch of nothing all day long. Paige went swimming in the lake most of the time we were there, I joined her every once in awhile. We walked, ate, walked some more. Stopped in some stores, ate, walked some more. It was truly a day of vacation! Varenna is a beautifully quaint town and I could certainly imagine spending a week of walking, eating and swimming there

I haven’t mentioned yet that about 80% of everything is closed. Stores, restaurants, hair salons etc. August is vacation month in Italy and I learned from Enrico’s father that it typically is the middle two weeks of August when people are gone. This has been a blessing in many ways as it allowed us to ease into Milan without the hustle and bustle and stress of big city life. Today (Monday) we should start noticing a difference around the city as folks begin to return from their holiday. What will be nice is having a wider range of restuarants to choose from for dinner!

Drew asked me last night I liked Milan. Milan is really wonderful. The public transportation has been so easy to figure out and has gotten us wherever we need to go. One ticket covers three modes of transportation (subway, bus and tram) and once you stamp your ticket you have 75 minutes to go in one direction on any mode. Not having to worry about getting new tickets for each system is great!  Being the fashion capital that it is, Italians always seem to be dressed as if in a fashion show. Ladies rarely are wearing pants or shorts, they can mostly be found in dresses or skirts and most often as short as possible. Shoes can range from spike heals to flat roman type sandals but not usually sneakers or other sporty type shoes for women. Men are wearing jeans, most often tapered legs, some sort of sneaker or fancy Italian shoe and mostly polo or button down shirts.

Because I knew it would loom over the whole trip until it happened, we ate dinner at McDonalds the other night. Paige slyly kept wondering aloud if McDonalds here tasted the same as at home. So we tested. She knew that she was allowed one trip to McDonalds and this was going to be it. The result - it tastes the same. Done and out of the way we can move on to eating more interesting Italian food

Slow day of meetings today. Stephanie arrives on Thursday and I’m looking forward to it for a number of reasons. First is of course that she’ll be here and sharing this experience with us but also we have tickets to see DaVinci’s Last Supper painting and I cannot wait to see it!

that is all for now. ciao!

maybe I say that to remind myself we had a really wonderful day of sight seeing and a little working for me. Slept in, breakfast at the hotel, showers and then we were on our way. We went into the Duomo today and since it has been 8 years since I’ve been in Europe I have forgotten the graduer of the churches here. The Duomo here in Milan is the 4th largest church in Europe. It is huge! And absolutely gorgeous. Also you can go up on the roof of the church, which we did and it provided some great vistas of the city and some awesome pictures!

Then we made our way up to the convention center so I could pick up my conference materials so I could triple check what time my meetings are tomorrow. It was a challenge finding the convention center but eventually we did, I picked up my stuff (AWESOME conference bag!)  we walked around the neighborhood, found a supermarket and had our first picnic lunch. Lunch consisted of proscuitto and cheese on a baugette, some chips, a peach for each of us, banana yogurt for me and choclate pudding for Paige. It was delicious and cost half of what we would have paid in a restaurant. We ate lunch in the park across the street from the supermarket and there were these ladies sitting on the bench and during our time there the group kept getting bigger and bigger until they took up two whole benches. It was much fun to watch!

Speaking of cost…prices are a little overwhelming. $5 for a soda! Paige is learning to do without the soda and we have been primarily drinking water. After some loose calculations gas runs about $7 a gallon. Which answered Paige’s question as to why the cars are so small here and why people are riding buses, trams and the subway!  It is a little over $1 per trip each for a ride on the bus, subway or tram. We mostly have been taking the tram as we can catch it just down the road from our hotel and it takes us everywhere we need to go.

Tomorrow is a day full of meetings, I am looking forward to seeing all of my international colleagues again and hoping it is a good conference!

well here i am, it is 12:30am and i’m wide awake despite efforts to sleep!  I imagine the lack of air conditioning in the hotel has something to do with it as well.  Luckily Paige sleeps soundly next to me, I think the heat and excitement has her more worn out than me. I have the heat but less on the excitement front.

So far everything is running smoothly. Paige is excited about everything and asks some great questions about things I apparently never think about. Why do we have passports? How do planes fly? Why do we keep waking up like this? Explaining jet lag has been one of the most difficult things. She understands the time difference but doesn’t understand why she keeps waking up, or why I wanted us to try to stay up until at least 7pm tonight. Makes me have to use the brain.

All of our flights and connections went well, getting the bus to the central train station in Milan from the airport was a breeze, finding the city bus to take to our hotel was even easy. I can never say enough good things about Rick Steves, he seems to always have all the details anyone would need for getting around and has been a tremendous help to us already on this trip!

It is HOT. For some reason I was not expecting it to me this hot in Milan. I think maybe I was hoping that since we are closer to the Alps up here it wouldn’t be so bad. It is in the 90s, but looks like storms coming our way on Saturday and it will drop down into the 80s. Checking Venice weather for next week looks like it will be cooler there…I’m glad cause as I’ve gotten older my heat tolerance has plummeted!

Traveling with a child has been an interesting experience so far. I am reminded of the first time I traveled abroad and everything was new and awe inspiring. From the different looking police cars to the swarms of pigeons in the squares she is soaking it all in and seems to be having a good time. It also takes more energy from me! I am used to a very quiet existence, insert a 10 year old who talks nonstop and that changes!

So, as far as day 1 is concerned we are good :) Only about 23 more to go! 

more later…

Finally I’ve gotten our itinerary all hammered out. It is going to be a very busy three weeks. We will get to see lots of things but also have some down time to relax and enjoy Italy!

For Paige and I days 1-8 will be spent in Milan. Four of those days I have a full conference schedule so we’ll be busy. That means then we have 4 days to explore Milan, participate in some of the library visits offered through the conference and maybe take a day trip to Turin or up to Lake Como.

Stephanie arrives on day 8 so I will start the itinerary from day 9:

Day 9: Venice

Day 10: Venice

Day 11: Cinque Terre

Day 12: Cinque Terre

Day 13: Head to Florence, visit Pisa along the way

Day 14: Florence

Day 15: Florence

Day 16: Sienna

Day 17: travel to Sorrento/Sorrento

Day 18: Sorrento

Day 19: Sorrento

Day 20: Rome

Day 21: Rome

Day 22: Rome

Day 23: Rome

Day 24: home to US

As the days get closer my excitement is growing. I’m excited for Stephanie and Paige to have their first international experience and I’m excited for myself - finally getting to Italy!  Since the trip is getting closer, I’ll be writing more!

Ciao!

Paige and Stephanie are joining me on this adventure. Paige and I will be in Italy for three weeks, Stephanie will be joining us after my conference for the second and third weeks.

Leaving: Wednesday August 19, 2009

Return: Saturday September 12, 2009

Itinerary coming soon!