Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend for us was an immersion into the Italian culture. Our notorious night time driving successfully took us from Kusel, Germany to Vicenza, Italy leaving at 9:00 in the evening and arriving before anything was open. We parked and slept in the car for a few hours. Waking to the horrifying sound of Gracie saying, "My tummy feels ishy," and then the follow up sound and then the clean up.

Well, at this point we needed some reinforcement and Aaron made his first contact with the loveable Italians. He ventured into a small cafe and ordered cappuccino. The waitress came to meet all the children and she talked and talked and asked us questions and raved about 4 children, "Bravo, Amore, Bravisimo!!!" We didn't understand her words but we understood her meaning. She wasn't at all daunted by our inability to participate in the conversation except with profuse nodding and silly smiles. This type of incounter followed us the rest of the weekend.

Our first night in Vicenza we went downtown. We walked around looking at people and window shopping. The stores are outrageous! It's like being in a chic magazine where the product is never actually purchased. We found Baby Armani...$500.00 baby outfits. No joke, a pair of baby mittens were $350.00. We had to laugh at least a little when Greta licked a window.

Restaurants don't open until 1900(7pm), so when you need to take a break and there is no hope for food, you sit in an outside cafe and order drinks for grown ups only, because soda and water purchases will send a young couple to the poor house fast. Glasses of wine are served with potatoe chips.

Dinner is a special challenge when you travel with little ones. They are tired and it is dark when the food comes. After the prima piate(can't remember spelling), Greta crawled into the stroller, kicked her shoes off and went to sleep. She's my hero. Dinner was good and the wine was even better. After dinner, we tried to find the car. There was a parade at 9:00 at night and the streets were blocked. The parade was girls with batons and brass bands. We couldn't believe how many different clubs were represented. It was like seeing Marsha Brady through a flies eyes.

Verona, the next day, was very relaxing and pleasant. We were again in a resort area with surreal shopping. We sat for an hour and a half at an outside corner cafe drinking wine and eating foccaccia bread pizza. We watched another parade...a reenactment of some Italian war. The troups came through the cobblestone streets on horseback. There is something transcendent about the sound of hoofs on cobblestone. After amazing coconut gelato(ice cream) and coffee we found a park and let the kids play. The other Italians found the park to take their daily nap. That night we went to the town square for dinner in the piazza. Fabulous. The piazzas are these ancient marketplace settings scattered throughout the towns and they are generally large cobblestoned or brick open places lined with cafes and ristaurantes all with outside seating. It is generally found deep inside a city and is often a surprise when you find it. There are a lot of them in Venice. We have found that a really good way to enjoy Italy is to sit in these outside cafes and order a bottle of wine.... sit there for as long as you can stand it.... and then wander around for a while.... just to find another piazza and sit.... people watch.... etc. Pretty neat.

Venice (Venezia) surpassed the majesty of both Vicenza and Verona. We parked in Fusina and ferried over. Having the wind in our hair and the ocean sprayed on our faces was the best way to enter this amazing city. Greta was so thrilled with the boat ride. She stood up, giddy, squealling, to our dismay, with delight! It was contagious.

We met street merchants we had products we could actually buy. I haggled a merchant down from 2 euro to 1 euro for a little cheapie toy for each kid. Yeah Me! We watched a man use reeds to make origami bugs. We bought a grasshopper and a praying mantis.

We found our way to St. Marc's square. The great Basilica, the incredible museums...all overshot by us as we played with the pigeons. We had great fun feeding them corn and having them land on us. Grace and Gabriel were able to catch and hold a few. We will have to go back and visit.

We enjoyed the Murano glass shops. So beautiful.

We went for a ride on a gondola. Hearing the Gondolier give a shouts of warning as we made blind turns, his songs and his affectionate hellos to other Gondoliers made the ride very memorable.

Our favorite time of the day was after dinner sitting out on a small piazza watching some Itallian children play hide and seek. We were enjoying our "to go" gelato listening to the children play and cheering two men who were hoisting a bed frame up a few stories and into a window. The whole piazza cheered when they finally got it in the window.

Oh yes. The kids were thrilled with the actors who looked like statues and would come alive when money was put in their box. We have seen these things in San Francisco.

The trip was just a surface scratch to what these famous cities have to offer.