Last Two Days. Ciao Ciao!

July 29 was Owen’s 18th birthday, and the day before we left. I was determined to make it fun for him since his last eight birthdays have been spent packing and cleaning, or flying. So I took the boys to the lake again, came back home and packed up the boxes, went back an hour later to pick them up (spent two hours just driving!), came back and brought the boxes to the storage area, and the car to the rental place. The damage from the accident was only $272, and even at that, I believe my credit card will be reimbursing me. We had our birthday gift-opening ritual on the balcony with drinks and cheese and crackers, then left for our final dinner at our favorite place, The Garden of the Duck. The host was fantastic as always. Plus, ALL the students were there!  The boys had steak with Himalayan salt, a favorite of Owen’s. 

The Garden of the Duck

Argentinian steak

...with Himalayan salt. This year it came in a grinder and it was better because you didn't get a big chunk of salt.

Ever the teacher! 

Owen's cake.

^{And in the morning we woke up for the last time in Italy until next year. It's the day we get up at 6 am and walk through the streets of Viterbo dragging our suitcases along the cobblestones making a holy racket, but something inside me feels happy in a vengeful way because of the horrific sounds we’ve been waking up to all month. The bus brought us to Fiumicino, which was a bit unpleasant because we had to wait so very long… 3 1/2 hours… sitting on the floor… waiting for our gate to be posted. This, after a one-hour wait for our check-in line to open up. That, after a half hour trying to find our check-in line. And they could not seat us together even though I did everything the travel agent told me to do to arrange that.} 

^{Finally we boarded, flew to Paris, boarded the next plane, and got home at 6:15 to be greeted by Adam’s parents and Henry!}

Playing cards at the Paris airport.

A woman playing the piano they have set up at the airport for anyone who knows how to play (or not, for that matter!), and a trumpeter joined in with his piccolo trumpet. He/they were amazing! What a treat. It brought everyone together, smiling.

Rome by Segway

^{Today, the boys got up and took a train to Rome. They had 4:30 Segway tour reservations which we made yesterday. It lasted for three hours, after which they jumped on the train back to Viterbo. As I write, all I know is that they got there and were just at Piazza Navona having Nutella crepes. The texts were upbeat and cheerful. Whew.}

^{Fred’s sketching all day and I am preparing Owen’s gifts for his birthday tomorrow. I usually buy things here because he sees things he likes, but he’s getting a year subscription to Apple Music, so I picked up just a few smaller things in town.  Fred and I will have dinner out tonight for our second time alone this month!}

Post Script: The day in Rome was fantastic. They loved the Segway tour and can’t wait to do one again.

And they're off!

Apparently, the guide asked Owen to repeat her gestures for the folks in back :)

And.... they're back!

Vulci & Il Monastero

^{Slow morning today. I drove Frank to store his boxes at the school. The boys got a few slices of pizza for lunch, and we all drove out to Vulci, about an hour away. We took a scenic route through a road carved out of tufa (soft, volanic rock) with sides about 20 feet high. Once at Vulci, we passed on the museum and the boys went straight to the watering hole. It’s truly like a hole, surrounded by cliffs, with a waterfall that you can stand under. Fred went off to draw and had a very unsuccessful time. No shade, no good vantage point. Plus, he fell so he looked like a wreck when we saw him next. I went to the restaurant and set up shop. There was wifi, shade and a great steady breeze.  I was going to simply have coffee, but everyone around me was having lunch, and it felt rude to sit there for three hours and just drink coffee, so I went full out and had a salad, a glass of wine and a bottle of sparkling water. Doesn’t get any better than that.} 

^{The boys trekked back up the hill after about an hour and a half, and shortly thereafter, so did Fred. So we were back on the road a bit sooner than we’d expected. Once home, we recharged and went out to Il Monastero, home of the two-plate pizza for dinner. The tradition is to photograph each person with his dish, or dishes, as it were.}

Her hair was attached to that rosemary bush all night :)

Under the Tuscan Sun

^{Got up today in Arezzo and prepared to drive to Cortona. We decided to drive home slowly and see the Tuscan countryside. Breakfast was nice. We thought it odd it that they asked for our room number when we ordered cappuccino. I asked at check-out and it turns out, they do charge for extra coffee at breakfast (it’s a B&B) because some people were having seven or eight cappuccinos and it was costing them too much money. Fred and I had two each. She said one comes with the room, but if you want two, that’s okay. Breakfast is 8 to 10, and check out is at 10. Made for a bit of a rush because usually they end breakfast with a little extra time to gather your things. At check-out she handed me an evaluation form to check off my satisfaction rating, 1 to 10. AWKWARD because of this one complaint I had about the fact that there was no where to sit and just “be.”  As I wrote, I told her that everything was great but the chair in the room was a little low and that when my husband sat in it he was too low to reach the desk level where his iPad was. She said, “Oh, that’s because we are so short.”  ? Whatever. The chair was stupid. Case closed. It was an easy chair, not a desk chair. We drove home via Cortona, which was amazing. [Later found out it’s the setting for Under the Tuscan Sun.] Found a place for a quick slice of pizza, which I passed on and had a LARGE cup of gelato which allowed me FOUR different flavors. Heavenly. And my first [and only!] gelato of the month. On the way home we stopped at a lake for a spritz and some chips to break up the drive. The boys did not find this necessary. Got home at 6:15. All of us completely zoned out for two hours. Fred made some pasta. We had dinner. The boys played Minecraft while I washed dishes. Now Fred and I are in bed reading, blogging, etc., while the boys watch for shooting stars and satellites, calling us out to the balcony at every spotting.}

Cool flea market!

Four flavors!

An Italian relic.

Funny pigeons. Very still. All staring in the same direction.

A Beautiful Life

Before the wedding, we went to some famous churches. I shopped and walked—mostly walked because stores were closed due to the time of day. I’m not a museum or church person, and I need my alone time, so I let them go on ahead with the museum/church stuff. We were separated for only 40 minutes. 

We lunched at a cute spot which we had seen on the way in—just a little panini place—but ended up having Caprese salad (me), lasagna (the boys) and pizza slices (Fred). It was nice and JUST about to rain. After that was when we came upon the wedding. 

Chinese-Italian kids. 

A Beautiful Live was filmed here, apparently.

Finding the Villa was a bit challenging, but Ad^{am had a thought. Since the spot on our GPS for the villa seemed to be between two roads, and the road we were on seemed not to have a road TO IT, maybe we should go down the other road. Sure enough, there it was. A long cypress-lined road lead up to the Villa. We parked and were given the keys to our room. Fred and I took the “superior” room, while the boys got the standard. I felt very tormented by this, but in the end, the rooms were almost identical. I have no idea what made one better than the other, except that ours had the complimentary Chianti, which leads me to believe they had assumed the married couple, and the person making the booking, would be the one to get the Chianti.}  

The boys spent the afternoon at the pool, ignoring the rules to take a foot bath and a shower and wear a bathing cap before entering. There was much PDA by some Italians at the pool, which Owen found awkward. This is the case in the entire country. Funny how customs are. You would not see such PDA in Ireland.  The boys later took out bikes and road around the area.

Fred and I tried to find our refueling methods—his being drawing, mine being writing this blog. But there was not a spot on the grounds (ACRES) to sit in the shade, with wifi. The biggest drawback of the place (which was otherwise quite like paradise) was that there was no place to simply “be.” The room was too hot, sadly, and the only chair was a very low slung one at a desk. Sitting in it preventing you from having any relationship with the desk because it was too far away. It’s obnoxious to complain about a “villa,” but it was not expensive, and it’s clear why it wasn’t.

^{Dinner was another adventure. The Villa’s dining room was full for the night. I had not intended to book there, but was sorry that I didn’t think to ask if the boys could have a bite there because they wanted to take advantage of the pool, and the grounds. But then again, the pool closed at 8. We left at 9:15 for a pizzeria Fred found on Trip Advsior in a neighboring area of Arezzo called Poggio. It was an 18-minute drive and when we got there we were psyched to see that we were the only non-locals (bingo!) There were probably five or six tables, one of which was quite large, and possibly adjoining another. We surmised this because the people at the tables were talking to each other. But then, the people at the other two tables struck up a conversation too! It was impossible to figure out who knew each other ahead of time, and who was just friendly, (aka Italian). An hour or so later, we were back on the road to the Villa.}

Funny, this would never be on an American coke bottle.

The Villa's restaurant.