Assisi

We were so happy when we learned that our time here would overlap with Father Luke's visit to Italy. We were thrilled when we were able to make plans to spend the afternoon with him in Assisi. Below is a picture of the landscape that surrounds Assisi.

Like Siena, Assisi is built into a hill. This means many, many steep streets. Below is a very long staircase that we climbed with the kids.

Father Luke took us on the insiders tour of the Basilica of San Francesco. We saw the immense dining room where the priests have their meals.

Outside of the dining room is a 12-person ancient hand washing trough that is used before each meal.

The view from the upper floors of the monastery is amazing. Here we are on the outside walkway of the monastery. It was a foggy, misty day, but the view was still amazing.

Anna and Father Luke inside the Basilica.

The weather cleared up at the end of our tour and we were able to enjoy some time outside meeting some of Father Luke's Franciscan friends and having gelato.

After some dancing and twirling on the Piazza we joined Father Luke and the group he was leading for dinner. It was odd, but refreshing, to dine with such a huge group of Americans. We haven't heard so much English spoken in weeks.

Without Father Luke's visit, Assisi probably would not have been on our agenda. It was a picturesque and quaint little town. We were so glad to have a reason to visit.

More on our new place, and a trip to the beach

Many of you have asked about our new place. Below is a picture of the front of our new, suburban abode. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Residence San Lorenzo a Linari has had many roles in the past including private home, vacation home for a few Popes and monastery. Now there are about 20 apartments and a spa here.

Most people are here on vacation and stay here for two weeks. This means that our neighbors change regularly, which is quite different than our neighbors at Borgo Villa Risi. Anna continues to impress us with her ability to make friends with young people from all over the world. Below is a picture of Anna playing in the courtyard with Camille and Amailia who are from Denmark. She has also made friends with Nina from Holland and Muria from Mallorca. With a few weeks left, I have no doubt that she will continue to expand her circle of international friends.

At first it was a little hard to get used to the other neighbors present here at San Lorenzo. These little lizards are everywhere here, including inside our apartment every once in awhile. However, after 3 weeks here it is safe to say that I'm no longer startled when one runs across the floor.

The view from our front yard at San Lorenzo is below. The fields in Tuscany have slowly been turning yellow as the sun gets hotter.

Below is a picture out our back window in the evening. The surroundings here are lovely. It's a very peaceful place.

The kids and I took a little trip back to Castiglione della Pescaia today. While the pool at San Lorenzo is nice, we wanted to play in the sand, so we headed to the sea.

On our way to the beach I stopped and took this video of a field of sunflowers. At first I took a picture, but it was impossible to capture how large and beautiful this field actually was, so a video was the best way to get it all.

Tomorrow evening we are off to Assisi to meet up with Father Luke. We're all very excited to see a familiar face.

Ahhh, Cinque Terre

A year ago, Megan and I had a chance to vacation in Cinque Terre alone. It was wonderful. While we were there, we thought how great it would be to have the kids there with us. So, when we decided to come to Italy for the summer, we started making plans to go back to Cinque Terre.

We scheduled our trip for last weekend, following a week long Research conference that I was running at work. By the time that Saturday arrived, I was ready for a break from work and four full days with Megan and the kids.

One of the nice parts about Cinque Terre is that all five towns are connected by a local rail line. Each day we were able to hop on the train and go to explore someplace new before heading for the beach for the afternoon.

Here is the view from above Monterosso al Mare, where we stayed.

Vernazza

Each of the five towns has at least one playground. Here, the kids and I enjoy the offerings in Vernazza.

Anna in Monterosso

Anna and King Triton

Along the Sentiero dell'Amore (Lover's Walk) between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

Via Roma in Riomaggiore.

Taking a break after the walk to Manarola.

Since we arrived in Siena, Christopher has been asking for more trains. He got his fill on this vacation.

Here is a picture of the inside of San Francesco in Montorroso al Mare.

Anna plays hopscotch!

It was a wonderful vacation in a beautiful place. As we drove home on Tuesday there were sad faces in the back seat and requests to return. I only hope that we can honor the request sooner than later.

This one is for you, Dad

That's right, that is the giant mortadella at the Co-op. They brought it back so I took a picture of it for you. Enjoy!

Back to the city

Even though our new apartment is only 15 minutes away from Siena, sometimes we feel like we've moved out into the country. This is probably due to the fact that we can no longer see Siena from our windows, like we could in our old place. On days like these, when we get a little tired of the hay bales, the white roads of Tuscany and the rows of olive trees we head into the city.

The other night we decided that we were very much in need of a dinner in the city. We started out at the sculpture park that surrounds the Fortezza. Below are some pictures of the kids in the park.

Warm evenings in Siena are the absolute best. We tried a new place that was a little off the beaten path and were rewarded with a fantastic dinner at il Biondi. Christopher made quick friends with our waiter, Mario, and we had one of our best meals in Siena. We now have two favorite places that are truly local restaurants, il Biondi and el Bocon del Prette. There are a few tourists in the mix, but it's nice to eat where locals eat. The view is never as grand, but the experience is always better.


This is a big week at work for Wade. This week is Research Days, which means a lot of long days and long nights for him at work. Therefore, the kids and I have to fill our long days. We have met some more new friends at our new apartment. Nina and Luca are two children from Holland who live downstairs from us. They speak enough English that the kids can all play together without an adult translating for them...this seems small, but it's a big deal for Anna to play with children and not have an adult have to translate every word. We don't have a picture with them, but I'll post one soon.

This morning we also took another trip to the Siena public library. We first went to the library back in May, when it was raining and we needed an indoor activity. Now that it is super hot, returning there is a great idea because it is underground and the temperature inside is very comfortable. And after all, where else can you find a library whose entrance is this neat?

After walking down the decline that used to be the entrance to an underground stable that is wide enough for a horse and cart and past all of the university students who are hard at work, you enter one of the neatest children's library rooms ever.

Most often the kids and I find Italian books and use the pictures to make up the story in English since I don't know enough Italian to translate most of the books. Once in awhile we'll find a book written in Italian that we know in English so I can read the story to the kids. However, today we found a new, itsy bitsy section of stories that are not in Italian. The picture below is the sum total of all of the non-Italian children's books in the library (so yes, this stack includes English, French, Danish, etc.). However, I had to take a picture and post it because the book on top is one of the kids absolute favorites. Elizabeth and Erin, this picture is especially for you. How could we have guessed that we'd come all the way to Siena and find Owl Babies right on top...and in English!

The Move

Most of you know that we moved this past weekend. Right before heading on our Swiss adventure we had to pack up our old apartment and move into the new one. We'll be here until we head home in August. The new place is significantly different from the old. The old one was run by a family and had only 5 apartments for non-family members. Most of the residents were Novartis employees who had been transplanted to Siena. The new place is a 20 apartment renovated monastery that is actually a spa. All of the people here are on vacation and I'm certain that Wade is the only one who gets up every morning and goes to work. These people are here to relax and enjoy Tuscany for their holiday.

For those who have asked, below are some pictures of the prior apartment.

Here is the view from the yard.

Here is the view from our balcony first thing in the morning...incredible sky!
And here are some pictures of the new apartment. Anna and Wade playing soccer in the front yard.

This is the view from our bedroom. We look out onto a beautiful courtyard. The pool is immediately beyond the white wall in the first picture.

Anna has already made some friends at our new place. Below are Poline, Charlotte and Margaux, the three sisters that live next door to us. They are from Belgium and speak only Flemish and French. Communicating with them has been interesting. Anna is getting very used to using hand gestures and drawing pictures.

We will definitely miss our prior apartment, but the move was seamless and we will surely feel at home in our new apartment very soon.

The hotel post

Let me start by saying that on the whole Europe has been very welcoming to the children. Everywhere we go, even in Siena where people are typically not the warm and fuzzy type, people are kind to the children and go out of their way to tell them how beautiful they are and to make sure that they are comfortable. The hotel where we stayed in Switzerland was an entirely different experience.

Those of you who are reading this who have no children, or whose children are grown up...this will probably sound like the most awful place ever. However, those reading this who have small children, this is going to sound like heaven.

It all started with the bedroom. A bedroom that sleeps four people in Europe is hard to come by. However, the kids were thrilled to see that they not only got their own beds, they got their own little room off of the main hotel room. It had bunk beds, a ceiling fan, a crib and a door that closed. This doesn't sound all that dramatic, unless you are a parent who has spent the night reading a book in the hotel room bathtub so as not to wake the child sleeping next to you. Here is a picture of the kids in their mini hotel room.

Eating in this hotel was also a kid-friendly experience. Dinner is served outdoors in a lovely space next to the lake. Below is a picture of the main outdoor dining room. We were surprised to see that the tables were all set with regular plates, silverware, etc. as well as Ikea plastic plates and cups for the children. You can just barely see the plasticwear in the picture below.


Next to the main dining room was the play area where kids could play while they waited for their food or while they waited for the adults to finish eating. This was such a fabulous idea! Nobody had to leave the table to walk any antsy children around outside the dining room. There was a similar play area next to the breakfast room, so Wade and I were able to sip our cappuccinos for an extended time in peace while the kids read books and played games.

Another wonderful feature, that I didn't get a picture of, was the breakfast buffet that was specifically for children. Both Anna and Christopher were so excited to see that each morning they were able to choose their own breakfast at a very low table that had kid-friendly food like dry cereal, nutella, biscuits, croissants, milk, yogurt and animal crackers. They even had a formula bar for the really small children.

Below is a picture of Christopher sitting on the edge of the baby pool. It had a wonderful umbrella over it that could swing around so that it blocked the sun. I'm sure this kind of thing happens at a lot of baby pools, but it was just another thing that made this hotel so wonderful for kids.
The other feature of this hotel was the Pinocchio Club. There were two clubs that kids could visit for anywhere from 1-4 hours that provided structured activities like arts and crafts, sand tables, dress-up, gym, etc. Parents could drop their kids at the Club for an amount of time and it was covered by the cost of the hotel room. The Clubs were open until 10pm, so parents could go out to dinner, for example, and know that there was someone to entertain their kids. Fabulous! We were not there long enough to take advantage of this service, though Anna really wanted to go. Perhaps if we go back she'll get to spend some time there.

Overall, this hotel was like nothing I have ever seen in America. If such a thing exists in the US, I'd like to know where it is because I'd definitely go for a visit. Jaime and I have been talking for quite a few years about the potential that exists for kid-friendly airlines and kid-friendly hotels. It seems like here in Europe they are a bit closer to that than I knew.