flexibility...

So I knew that there was a train strike happening from Saturday at 9:00pm to Sunday at 9:00pm and was prepared to make adjustments. What I didn't know was that nobody at any train station really knew what that meant. So we bought our tickets from Lugano to Levanto, Italy (at the famous Cinque Terre). The lady at the ticket office told us there would be no way we would make our 15 minute connection in Milan and that we would need to take the next train, 2 hours later. I believed her, so I bought that ticket. Well, of course we could have made that connection and watched the train go while we waited for 2 hours at the train station.

Finally enjoying the train ride!

We finally made it to Levanto and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Oasi. It was a charming little house with 14 rooms, clean and bright yellow. We decided around 6:30 to take the quick train to the next village in Cinque Terre. We also wanted to purchase our return tickets at 8:30pm since we knew the strike began at 9:00pm. The ticket agent said that it may or may not be running at 8:30. Not wanting to be stuck without transportation back (and a 2 hour hike back), we decided to spend the evening in Levanto and hit the villages hard in the morning. We had a lovely evening walking around the charming town, looking at the coast and having amazing pesto lasagne. (Part of my "preparations" for this trip was to know what food each area is known for and then try it.) We had to try fococcia, pesto and nonna's cake here, as that is what they are known for.

The beautiful seaside town of Levanto

Gelato at sunset.

The next morning I woke up early and ran to the bakery down the street to get fresh fococcia - delicious! We packed up our suitcases quickly and had a great breakfast on the patio (he made eggs and bacon for us!). We jumped on the boat which took us to Riomaggiore (the farthest village) so we could do our little hike to Manarola and then take the boat back to catch our train, if it was running. The boat ride was beautiful! When we got to Riomagigore, we discovered that the boat did not return to Levanto until evening, which was too late as we needed to be in Rome to check into our hotel. So we decided to check the trains back. Again, nobody at the ticket office knew if each scheduled train would actually be coming or not. Their advise was to just keep checking as each train was scheduled to leave. It didn't take long to realize NO trains were coming in or out. So we decided to just keep heading closer to Monterosso, the village nearest Levanto and figure out a way back from there.

Monteresso al Mare

Vernazza

Corniglia

Manarola

Riomaggiore

The walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola was beautiful. It is incredible how those isolated villages are just set on the side of these cliffs. The weather was gorgeous. We took the boat back to Monteresso and on the boat called our hotel and told him of our situation. He arranged for a taxi to pick us up at Monterosso with all of our suitcases and then take us to La Spezia, where we could catch a working train to Rome.

It all worked out fine until we got to La Spezia.

Again, we missed our 2:00 train and many other trains were cancelled because of the strike. So we waited until the 4:00 train when they assured us it would be going. We spent the 2 hours in McDonalds (Andrew had his breakdown there) until the train. The 4 hour train ride was very pleasant and all the kids enjoyed playing Plants vs. Zombies on the ipads. (Had no idea that would be their favorite game.)

We checked into our little apartment right next to the Campo Dei Fiori. We had a large room with a kitchen and then another, smaller room which you had to go out and around to get to. The rooms were separated by another room with a couple. We asked if we could switch rooms and they said we could not. It wasn't ideal to walk back and forth and have the girls and little farther away, but again, the theme here is flexibility. It worked out fine. We spent the evening walking around the streets of Rome and everyone was happy to eat pizza.

down time...

As Jon was at his conference most of the day today, we decided to just relax and not have a busy schedule. We slept in late, got ready and realized that we had missed the breakfast (by a long shot). So we went by the conference room to say hi to Jon on our way to get something from the market for lunch. He asked if we had eaten, and when we said no, suggested that they had lots leftover from their lunch. So the conference arranger spoke to the dining staff and they said they would feed us. They took us to the top floor of the building to a restaurant overlooking the lake and basically opened it up to us. They were so cute and accomodating. We were served three courses with fine china. Matthew said, "why is everyone giving us such special treatment?" Again, not to be expected once we leave here I am sure!

Jon in front of his conference.

We went swimming after that. We decided to go in the inside pool (again, the only ones around and certainly no other children). It is part of a spa where there are several different type of steam/sauna rooms. In the middle of all the rooms there was a large bucket above with a string. You pull the string and the bucket pours cold water on you. The kids thought this was hilarious and did it probably 50 times....bucket, hot tub, bucket, hot tub. I'm not sure anyone has ever enjoyed the bucket as much as our children!

When Jon joined us we decided to hike up to a church overlooking the lake. It was gorgeous! 432 stairs were worth the view.

The walk through Marcote (where our hotel is).

The steps up to the church.

Taking a break on the hike.

The church....(wish I knew what it was called).

The area around the church.

Jon went on a boat ride to the other side of the lake for dinner with all of the conference people last night and enjoyed it so much, he wanted to take us there for dinner tonight. It was so fun. We took a water taxi and arrived at this little restaurant on the lake. It was nothing fancy... The waitress brought us our menus and we were deciding what to eat when the chef came out (in a t-shirt and jeans). He spoke perfect English and asked what we wanted. He specifically talked to the kids and asked them what they wanted. He said "anything but chicken nuggets". So the boys said they wanted fettucine alfredo. He asked what was in American fettucine alfredo (different than Italian) so we told him. He then asked Lauren and then Ali. He was so cute and accomodating. He asked if we liked fish cakes and I when I started looking at the menu for them he said "it's not on the menu, but I make them homemade." We loved everything we ate and the service was perfect. It felt like we were at a friend's house for dinner (except a really really nice friend who will make lots of different dishes for you!). The minestrone soup was incredible. It was a perfect ending to our time here and a perfect beginning to Jon's vacation.

Switzerland around the Lake.

Lugano, Switzerland

Andrew loving the boat ride.

Ali and Matt on the water taxi.

Dinner at sunset....beautiful!

The perfect little restaurant.

Everyone loved their personalized meals!

we did it!

So the two things I was most nervous about on the this trip were the plane ride over (could the kids handle it) and taking the kids to Milan by myself (could I handle it). Jon was busy all day today with his conference and I had planned to take the kids on the hour train ride to a place I had never been.

It worked out great.

We loved the train ride and even sat by a girl and her grandmother from Canada who were so sweet to the kids. We then took the metro to the Duomo. What an impressive sight. It is a disorganized group of thousands of spires - all with random statues and gargoyles on top. We climbed the stairs to the roof and walked around.

Something that we all thought was cool (and expensive) were the bathrooms in the metro station. You had to put a euro into the slot and then the doors opened for a few seconds and you could go use the stall. They were actually very clean.

After the Duomo, we walked over to the Galleria Emanuel (a huge, beautiful shopping center). Although the shopping was over our budget, we did take advantage of the tradition of the bull. In the middle of the floor is a mosaic of a bull. The legend is that if you spin your foot around on the part of the bull that makes it a bull, you will have good luck. Matthew was the only one up for the challenge.

The kids were very supportive for our next stop, which was the Teatra di La Scala - or La Scala Opera House. This is the most famous opera house in the world and has been around for ages. We went into the museum for a few minutes. You cannot take pictures inside, so I will try to explain what we saw. They let you peek into the theatre, which is amazing. The entire sides and back of the theatre are box seating. It is beautiful. They were setting up for a ballet that night. In the museum, we saw costumes from operas, musical instruments (including Liszt's piano) and many artifacts and librettos. Even the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Our final destination was to see The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. I was really looking foward to this since I worked so hard to get tickets months ago. The background of the painting is that the church commissioned Leonardo to paint the scene of the Last Supper in the dining hall of the monks at the church. Leonardo, always thinking outside the box, decided to try a new method of painting where you paint on a dry fresco. Although his method was beautiful, it also began decaying almost immediately. There has been much restoration, but it is still very faded. There is a portion near the Savior's feet where the church decided they needed a bigger door. They just cut right into that painting and put a door where Jesus's feet used to be. I don't understand the reasoning that would facilitate cutting into a masterpiece to enlarge a door.

When you enter the building, you go through a few rooms which adjust the humidity of the group (25 allowed at a time), and then you enter the hall. It is so striking and beautiful. I was very touched and felt the spirit. I cannot imagine the serenity of those monks to eat all their meals looking at that painting. His perspectives and the way he makes the painting look like an extension of the very room it's in, is incredible.

reward for the journey

Wow. That was long.

After traveling to New York, 3 hour layover, 1 hour delay on the runway, 8 hour plane ride and hour taxi drive... We are here! The kids did great. We are all tired, but lunch and a dip in the pool has revived us enough to make it to bedtime. This hotel is incredible. It is right on Lake Lugano in a village called Marcote. When we booked the only room large enough for our family, we had no idea it was the "Presidential Suite". It has a living room and two full bedrooms. Every time we leave the room, we come back to chocolates, or fruit. We can't wait to leave and come back again. We keep reminding the kids that this will not be the way the rest of our hotels will be!

We went into Lugano this evening to walk around the village. It is so charming...lots of clean, beautiful shops and restaurants. The view of the lake is incredible. We had our first gelato! Mandarin orange was the winner today. Jon met up with some people from work and is preparing for his presentation tomorrow. We are all hoping for a long and deep night's sleep!

The boys were so excited to have so much room to relax.

The girls in "their" room.

The view from our balcony!

Another view of the lake.

Just too tempting....

I think this really helped the jetlag.

I loved how the lake was a reflection of the beautiful houses.

This is the charming village of Lugano. I absolutely loved the little shops and restaurants.

It was so quaint.

Another view of the streets in Lugano.

The boys were so excited to see Swiss army knives while actually in Switzerland!

Ali is obsessed with the cute little cars here.

She has built up quite a collection of pictures of little, tiny cars!

away from the world

There is something beautiful that happens when we arrive in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden the things that take such a precedence in our mind at home suddenly do not seem to matter quite as much.

In fact, they often don't matter at all.

That is the feeling I get when we go down to Moab. And it only takes a couple of days to feel that way. We are not actually in Moab, but 25 minutes outside. There are no stores... there are barely streets. There are no neighbors, really. Just really big rock formations, red mountains and the Colorado river. We love to bike, hike, raft, kayak and just sit and look at the amazing view.

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa for such an incredible place to relax and enjoy the beautiful world!

riding the red rock

Near Grandpa's house in Moab, there is a mule and horse ranch. The owners take people out for rides around the canyon. We decided to take an afternoon adventure on horseback.

Matthew really learned how to control that mule and did a great job!

Lauren loved cantering with her mule.

Ali preferred trotting with her horse.

I could not believe how well Andrew did! He talked and sang the whole time and

did not even get bored for 2 1/2 hours! We had to give our guide a big tip for

all of the listening she did!

What a gorgeous place to ride horses. We really enjoyed our

afternoon taking in the beautiful scenery from horseback!