Watch Out Italy, Here We Come!!

Friday, August 10

We drove this morning to Locarno, in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Justin found a fantastic Lido where we spent the afternoon swimming in the indoor pools, outdoor pools or lake, going down the water slides, reading and napping on our lounge chairs. It was pretty relaxing for everyone!! 

Not a bad view for the afternoon!

Then we headed out for Italy, aiming to get most of the way to La Spezia. We are meeting Lea and Maui Calcone tomorrow and staying with them until Monday. I am excited to see them as well as to show the girls the towns in Cinque Terre, which are special because that’s where Justin proposed to me!

We decided to take a side trip to Andermatt. The temperature was only 12C up in the mountains! IT was so beautiful and I cannot wait to see it again when we go there to ski.

On the roads in Italy, we learned that the speed limit is only a suggestion. “We’re not in Switzerland anymore!”

We stopped in a little town after passing a couple of potential (but sketchy) hotels along the way.  We settled at Hotel Salus; Piazza Ponci, 7, 43048 Sant'Andrea Bagni PR, Italy

Who doesn't love a pink accented bathroom?!

Pizza leftovers....still delicious cold the next day!

It is a small town - very small - and in true Italian fashion, the kids and people came out in great numbers after 10pm. Ristorante Piccadilly served us the best pizza - THE BEST crust I have ever eaten, for sure. Shannon even got hers with fries on top! Super delicious and not a foreigner other than us!  

Saturday, August 11

Off to La Spezia today!! We started the day with a delicious croissant, filled with a little peach jam. Mmmmm. And a cappuccino!

Keys to driving in Italy: 

• use more accelerator than brakes 
• proceed at least 50km/hr above the speed limit and ignore the cars that are passing you at alarmingly fast speeds. 
• Use lots of hand motions and minimal indicators 

We met up with the Calcone’s this afternoon! We drove a short distance from our hotel to La Spezia and arrived in the morning in La Spezia. 

Then we went to Monterosso (one of the villages in Cinque Terre) for the beach. We rented 2 beach chairs and an umbrella to lounge on and to escape the intense heat of the sun. We got pounded by the waves!! They were big and really hit just a few feet from the beach. It was a fabulous introduction to the beach. 

The beach was PACKED with people!! A sea of umbrellas and beach chairs.

Somehow, the girls are always hungry enough for some ice cream, and how can you blame them? They have done a good job at sampling gelato and ice cream wherever we go!

 After the beach, we headed to the Calcone's apartment and got caught up before dinner.

We waited for the train back from Monterosso and it was late - THUNDER DOME - chaos trying to pack onto the train. We were non-conformists and waited for the second train which came within 5 minutes and we got a seat no problem and rode it in comfort, rather than being squished like sardines! Still, the 20 minute ride took us over an hour and we were all excited to meet up with Lea, Maui, Maddy and Ben.

Dinner on Saturday night was delicious! A little restaurant where I had Trophie pasta with pesto (regional speciality) and tuna and shrimp (seafood is also a local speciality).  Trophie pasta with pesto is what I ate the night Justin proposed to me, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. 

Sunday, August 12

This was a heavenly indulgent beach day with the Calcone’s. We started the day with coffee and pastries, hearing about Lea’s travels from years before. Shannon, Maddy and I were in stitches laughing and enjoying her trip down memory lane. Here’s what I learned: Lea has a wealth of experience travelling and should never be underestimated!  She will go up against soldiers when needed, and dodge an international search in the name of travel.

We started with a short walk around Vernazza, to the pier for a re-creation of Justin’s proposal!! It was beautiful. The town has changed a lot and a landslide/big storm changed the pier in 2011. But it still has the quaint feel of a small village on the Italian Riviera, and the beautiful buildings are just as I remembered. We couldn’t find the exact alley where we spent a couple nights in an apartment, but it all looked familiar. 

Ben got in a little fishing, we got some photos, and then it was on to Monterosso for the beach day. Today the waves were much calmer, and even I spent a long time swimming. Sarah and Ben spent the longest in the water - maybe 6 hours at least! Shannon and Maddy spent the next longest, which was maybe 5.5 hrs! The kids bought inner tubes to float in and we made a flotilla in the water, catching perhaps a little too much sun, and a lot of fun.  2 for Euros 7!! Much better than renting them for  Euros 5/hr. 

The train back was delayed again... delayed and then delayed again.. Ah, the Italians…. the 20 minute train ride ended up taking us 1.5 hrs. And we have no idea why it was delayed. 

Dinner on Sunday night was pizza. Beautiful pizza since it was Maddy’s choice because we were celebrating her birthday a day early.  Lea even had candles put in Maddy’s pizza to celebrate her birthday and we sang at the restaurant. So much fun!

We drove back to Switzerland on Monday. We picked up Murphy on our way back. 

Murphy has been outstanding settling in. He had a real bout of jet lag for the first week, but luckily, so did I, so we were up often and outside often. He went to a kennel while we travelled to Italy - it seemed like a summer camp for dogs!! He came back dirty, and tired....just the perfect combination! Get this: they find the dogs adjust better if they have a friend, so he had another black lab as his roommate for the few days! ha! Totally a summer camp experience!