So last Tuesday morning, Andrew and I headed out to St. Louis to begin our travels to Italy. Everything went smoothly until we got on our connecting flight in Newark and they notified us after everyone was boarded that they were having some communication problems and we would be stuck at the gate for maybe an hour. This was an issue throughout the whole terminal, so all the plane were just waiting to take off and then when we finally were able to head to the runway, we had to wait our turn to take off. But we made it to our first stop, the Milan Malpensa airport in decent time. Andrew and I agree that we are not fans of Malpensa airport. It took a while to find an ATM to get some euros. I knew we didn’t want to use want of the exchange booths because their rates were more. Then I tried three different bathrooms-one didn’t have toilet paper, one was just plain nasty and then the other one was out of order. I finally found a fourth one that was just okay. And to top it off, we had to wait probably 1 ½ hours in line to get our rental car. They just didn’t seem to be in a hurry at all. But we were good when we finally got on our way. The first place we were staying was up in the Italian Alps, close to the border of Switzerland and France. We stopped in a town called Aosta to pick up a rental bike for Andrew. We didn’t get there at the right time though as they take a 2 ½ hour lunch so we walked around town for just a little bit waiting on the bike shop to open. Once we had the bike, we went to our hotel, Auberge de la Maison, which was about 30 minutes away. It was in a hamlet called Entreves that was just north of the ski town of Courmayeur. It was a beautiful area and reminded me of what you think of when you think of the Swiss Alps more so than when you think of Italy. The hotel was a cute mountain chalet hotel. It was adorable, smelled wonderful and was very clean. The smell was one of the first things I noticed when I got out of the car and we were happy to realized later on that they actually sold the perfume oil they had sitting out around the hotel. We ate our dinners there and we realized on our second night there that they always gave Andrew a menu with prices on it and mine didn’t have any. It was a nice day when we got there, so while I unpacked, Andrew went for a quick exploratory ride. I think he just went five miles that day but the steep elevation had him going at a pretty slow pace. It made him very excited to go the next morning though.
We really enjoyed our time in Entreves/Courmayeur. Andrew only got to go on one more bike ride because some rain came in the other day he was going to ride. But that second ride he went on, he deemed the best ride ever. It also happened to be his 40th birthday, so I think he felt like that was one of the best ways he could have spent his birthday. He got some beautiful pictures along the way.
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| The only picture I got of Andrew on his bike. |
And while he was on his ride, I got to have a massage at the hotel. Their spa area was very relaxing. Andrew enjoyed spending time in the sauna and steam bath while I enjoyed the comfy couches in a warm area above their pool where I read for a bit. The staff at the hotel was so friendly and accommodating. I had contacted them previously about doing something for Andrew’s birthday and they offered to make a cake to serve him after dinner. But earlier that day, they left a card and a small bag of chocolates for him in the room. And Andrew was actually surprised when they brought out his cake with a candle in it. And it was a cake he actually really enjoyed. They had asked me what flavors he liked and I just said he likes chocolate and berries. So they came out with a small chocolate cake that had layers of berries and cream. It was pretty good and they put the rest of it back for us to eat the next night after dinner.
We spent some time walking around Courmayeur and eating lunch. And while we were there, an endurance trail race, called the Tor des Geants (Tour of the Giants), was going on. It starts and ends in Courmayeur and the participants have 150 hours to go 205 miles with 24000 meters of elevation. Though it had just been four days, the first place guy ended up coming through town to the finish line just as Andrew and I had sat down for lunch. It was fun to see him and the crowd that had gathered with him run towards the finish line. They had ladies dressed in local historical clothing run the end with him and everyone was ringing bells. The next day we got to see a few more finish.
And we also happened to meet a group while we were eating lunch who were actually from Des Moines. They were on a hiking tour and had the day off to rest in Courmayeur. Since Andrew chooses pretty obscure places to visit that aren’t typical for Americans, it is always nice to run into some J. Along with walking through Courmayeur, we also enjoyed walking through the little “hamlet” of Entreves that our hotel was in. We did our own bit of hiking in part of Val Ferrett. It was a bit overcast when we went but it was still beautiful. Andrew and I both discussed that the mountains in this area are unlike any others we had seen (and I had read that before too). It is like they got straight up-a severe increase in elevation. We didn’t do a huge hike, but it had rained earlier so it was a little slower going making sure we didn’t slip on the trails.
We also took the new cable car called Skyway Monte Bianco. It is a like a gondola that actually rotates 360 degrees while you are going up so you can see all the different views of the valley, Monte Bianco and the mountains. Sadly, it was pretty overcast when we went so while we did have decent views as we went up to the first stop, it was starting to cloud over pretty well while we were up there and we didn’t even try to go up to the top stop since it was shrouded in clouds. It was neat to see all of it though. They even had a playground on the first stop, on the edge of the mountain :-).
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| Going up in the Skyway |
We left our mountain chalet early in the morning on Friday to head to a different Milan airport which was actually in the city of Bergamo. We did get to experience a bit of Milan rush hour though as we made our way to the airport. We got our car returned and got checked in for our flight. We were taking a Ryanair flight down to southern Italy and I was a bit nervous. Ryanair is like Europe’s Allegiant or Frontier-cheap but not always the most reliable. I was thankful I decided to go ahead and pay to reserve our seats because everyone started lining up to board the plane pretty early on, but we didn’t have to. Once one the plane, Andrew and I were intrigued about who was sitting in front of us. There was an older guy that people were taking pictures with all throughout the flight. Even the pilot came out of the cockpit before the flight to get a picture with him. At one point, Andrew heard someone say he was an Italian comedian so he did a Google image search to see if he could figure out who it was and we never could.
After getting another rental car, we made the 1 ½ hour trek to our next hotel on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Hotel Capovaticano Thalasso & Resort. It was the same one we stayed in a couple years ago. Not much had changed and we even tried to get the same room but it was already taken, so we got the one next to it. It was pretty much the same, but the views were quite as good-still great views though. One of the employees came to help with our luggage and when he started to say that Andrew’s English was really good, we realized that he wasn’t Italian either. His name was Ed and he was originally from Manhattan. He moved to Italy 18 years ago with his wife who was from the area but he met her in New York. He said we were only the fifth set of guests there that year from the US and he was happy to see us. He helped us get our luggage to our room and Andrew immediately got ready to head to the beach. While I unpacked a bit, he went down to the beach, saved some chairs for us and hiked down to his favorite part of the beach where the rocks jut out of the water. He did a bit of exploring over the next couple of days and resumed his activity of collecting sea glass like he did last time.
We had talked previously about possibly trying to visit Tropea again while we were there but once we got settled in at our resort, we knew weren’t leaving until it was time to go. While Andrew explored, I did a lot of relaxing and reading. He actually read a bit too. And even though I hadn’t really planned on it, I actually got on the treadmill a couple of times. We both really enjoyed our breakfasts there-I was looking forward to the chocolate croissants. Andrew loved the dinner buffets and I was generally always able to find something to eat except for the last night which seemed to be an all seafood night. While I have simple tastes and don’t need a lot of variety, Andrew really appreciated being able to try so many different kinds of food and usually ended the night saying he ate too much J. We did enjoy hearing all the Italian kids talk. We decided that maybe if our kids fought and whined in Italian (and we couldn’t understand it) it wouldn’t bother us as much. One night after dinner, we just sat on our patio and listened to their entertainment for the night which was a guy singing and playing the piano. He was really good and sang a lot of American songs which was fun. And our last day there, on our way back from the beach, we noticed some people gathering on the other end of the beach. There was actually a wedding starting down on the beach just past the resort. We got to watch the bride walk down the aisle. She had a huge smile on her face on she walked down with the guests clapping. We didn’t stay t
o watch all of it, but it was still fun.
We had great plans to do what we did last time on our last day at the beach-go ahead and check out of our room but stay on the beach until later in the afternoon. They would keep our luggage for us and they also had bathrooms and showers available to use if we wanted. But the weather changed our plans. It was very windy and the waves were huge. We sat on our patio and read until it was time for us to check out at noon. We thought we may try to stay but then more rain rolled in and we decided it was probably going to rain off and on most of the day so we headed out. We thought about turning around a couple of times and going back as it seemed it cleared off but then it would cloud up again. Then we thought maybe we would stop in Tropea but as we tried to find our way through the town and the traffic was crazy, we just headed back towards the Autostrada (interstate).
We got to our hotel in Lamezia Terme around 1:45 and went ahead and checked in. I even looked into seeing if we could get earlier flights because at this point we were just ready to get home, but nothing was going to get us there any sooner so we just settled into the hotel. It was definitely a business hotel and they had a few conferences going on at the time. We were able to grab a late lunch before their restaurant closed and then Andrew was determined to find the pool. He finally found it but he said it was really cold and pretty noisy being by the road. He even tried the spa area but couldn’t find anyone there at one point and then had a hard time communicating with anyone later on, so he gave up. I spent the afternoon focusing on what I needed to do when I got back. I got my grocery list ready, a to-do list, worked on this blog and downloaded pictures.
While we were gone, my parents and Molly had the kids (and Buddy) and made sure they got to school and all of their activities which is quite a commitment. We got to video chat with them a few times, which I really appreciated because I was really missing all of them. Thankfully, some of the practices/games were cancelled so the schedule wasn’t as busy. Miles and Bennett had their first soccer game which I guess was entertaining to watch. Bennett made a few baby steps out to the field and I think that is where he stopped and stayed for most of the game. Miles would play a bit here and there but also found other ways to entertain himself. Thankfully my mom took some pictures of it all because I hated to miss it.
Jackson had his first game the next night. I texted him beforehand and told him good luck and I loved him. He actually texted back (he isn’t the best at replying to texts) and first told me thank you and then a little bit later I got another text that said, “Love you too.” Made me tear up. The next morning I woke up to some texts from my mom that said that one of Jackson’s teammates had been hurt during the game. He was running the ball and tried to stiff arm a defender and went down on the arm and ended up with a compound fracture of the humerus. They even called in Lifeflight to take him to Columbia to do the surgery there. Jackson was on the field at the time and saw it :-(. They ended up just calling the game after the helicopter took off with the boy. But before all of that, Lincoln did add a little bit of humor to the game. The Primary School was having their Family Fun Night and Lincoln could see a couple of the bounce houses they had set up behind the school from where they were sitting at the football game. Molly has a video of him asking why they couldn’t go to the school and then some whining and crying to follow. Thankfully they all found it entertaining instead of annoying. And then on the way home, Lincoln said that he was glad that Jackson didn’t get hurt because he was a good brother to him. Then one of the twins agreed that he was a good brother while the other said he wasn’t good to him. They weren’t sure who said what though :-).
And my mom sent me this picture to ensure me that the kids did play outside some and not on their Kindles the whole time.
Andrew and I were so fortunate to be able to go on this trip. It was great to spend time together and see a different part of the world. And we couldn’t never have done it without the help of my family-so, so appreciative. Thank you!!!!!
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