Spring break whirlwind!

I am sorry that I haven't posted this week.

Diesel, I am so glad you figured out how to leave comments- we commented back on some of them! It was good to hear from you. I will try and do a catch up and post and then try to post more regularly next week...when time slows down, again.

Nanny, I hope you made it home okay. The little engines were asking about you all day. We went over how you will be back, several times. I think they get it : )

Of all the weeks we have had here in Italy, I can honestly say, none of them have gone fast- except this past week. We drove Nanny to the airport this morning and it seems like we were just there to pick her up! This time, we went the right direction and it took much less time, fancy that. (You would think that with a map and a car we would be okay, but it is seriously difficult to get around here. You have to know several towns past your destination town that might be marked on the signs and then might not be. For example, you want to go to Venice, but you have to follow signs for Porto Guiraro for a while and then some to Venice. I mean, Venice seems like a biggy, why not put Venice on more signs especially when we are just an hour away- I mean, I can see not putting it on the signs down in Rome, but really, who is going to Porto Guiraro??? It is so frustrating.)

We had quite the mishap on her arrival. Suffice it to say that we didn't make firm plans about whether we were going to make the trek or whether she would take the bus and train to get here. Nanny has an international (read POS) cell phone, so we thought it would be easy pleasy lemon squeezy- yet, the Italian factor kicked in, and it didn't go to plan. I was wondering as we were driving to Venice to pick her up why our cell phone wasn't ringing? I tried to call her several times and there was no answer...hmmmm. What would have been really ugly would be for us to get to Venice airport and for her to be gone on the train to Pordenone! So, we arrived, parked the car- sounds easy, but not so much when you have little idea what the signs say....then got out. We wandered about down by the water taxis for a little while and then decided that maybe we should just forget about it, go home and see what happened. I thought the kids should stretch their legs, so we set off in another direction. As it turns out, we made it to the terminal, walked in, and I instantly saw her on the payphone! Even after I had said "hello" and touched her arm, she was still kind of talking into the phone- jet lag : )

It was so much fun having her with us in Italy. Of course, the little engines didn't miss a beat and started abusing her instantly, "Hey Nanny," was heard all day long, all week long. I will do a small re-cap of our visit- in and of itself it was chock full of Italian capers. Nanny got the full experience including hanging our laundry out to dry- literally.

We started off by dragging her to breakfast at the club. I asked her if she was tired and she said (in true Nanny fashion), "I can sleep in Ohio!" Alrighty, away we go. (Despite the picture, she really didn't fall asleep at breakfast ; )




We went to a little town called Barcis for a day. This day started off as Nanny and I going to Venice- big girls only, but the call of the grandkids was too strong and we all went on an adventure together instead. It was a wonderful day at a lake that is about 20 minutes' drive from here. I think the water is strangely blue- just like those trees....hmmmm. It's so funny how the days that aren't really planned can turn out to be the best. We walked around the lake and then had lunch at a lovely little ristorante. I think ordering food here is SUCH a riot because, well, quite frankly, we have very little idea what we are getting! I just hope it's good and, well, we are in Italy after all, and it almost always is delicious. It's just funny to me. I will definitely go back to this restaurant, very hospitable and good Chianti.





Well, I hope this post wasn't too long- next up will be our adventure to Pordenone- don't miss it as there was an extremely handsome Italian policeman (!) involved.