Day 4 - Positano

 It's hard to believe it's only day 4.  It feels like we have been away for at least twice that at the moment. 

Last night when I went to get into bed I noticed that on our bed was only a sheet.  I said to Jay "no blanket?" No.  So I opened a drawer in the dresser and lo and behold a thin comforter, perfect.  There was another wool-like thicker blanket too but we don't need it.  I went into the girls room and said "do you just have a sheet?" And Sophie turned over and was like "yeah" with a surprised and slightly disgusted inflection. I checked their closet and there were two thick comforters they didn't want and said "do you want a blanket? We have one in our room"  Paige said "I'm ok, I have this one".  Little shit had found a blanket, folded it in half and put it in bed over her and under the sheet so Sophie wouldn't know. When I brought back in the big blanket and spread it over Sophie Paige said "You wanna share that?"  Jesus Paige.  So I spread it on top of both of them and got satisfied little hums from them.

We all slept until 10am this morning!  I probably fell asleep at around 10:30pm so a really good night sleep.  I woke the girls up and we all left the house around 11:30am to head back down to shop, have lunch and grab some meat, cheese and bread for dinner tonight.

When we got down to the bottom of the MANY stairs, we enjoyed another lemon slushy.  

I told myself I was going to take some pictures today.  I did not.  I took this one which is right at the bottom of the stairs back to the house. 

Those weren't even the pretty postcards, the pretty ones were in the next display to the left but 3 guys stopped in front of it right as I was about to take the picture and I lingered uncomfortably long waiting for them to move on until I left, lol.  I think Paige took a photo of the nice ones so I'll ask her for her pictures.

After some shopping (we got Jay a short sleeve and a long sleeve linen shirt) we stopped for lunch.  It was fantastic, we sat inside in the AC and enjoyed feta and watermelon salad with arugula and then Jay and I shared a focaccia flatbread with proscuitto and parmesan on it while the girls shared a margarita pizza and a salad as well and we got fries for the table.

We stopped at the market at the base of the steps on the way home and picked up buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and bread for dinner and figured we would get meat and cheese at the market at the top of the stairs at our road.  Ahhhh, shit.  That one is closed, lol.  

Sophie really wanted to go to the beach (all the way back at the bottom), so Jay took her.  My calf is bothering me a little bit after all those stairs yesterday and this morning (plus there is no way I am voluntarily going back down those stairs again today.  As Paige said when Jay was working out this morning doing push ups "Why is he doing that? He has free will" - his free will just tells him to do push ups at 10:30am in the scorching sun on vacation - the same free will that he's using to do the steps again to keep daughter #1 happy). We talked about them grabbing the other dinner items while they were down there but they didn't take money because they planned on going in the ocean.

Paige and I enjoyed the terrace, sitting under the umbrella I read my book while she baked in the sun for a bit then headed inside.  I went in the hot tub, which is really just a tub full of circulating water, it was about 30 degrees which is cooler than my body was so felt nice.  

When Sophie and Jay got home and Sophie sat out with me I said "How were those stairs again?" She looked at my side eye and said "Dad wouldn't let me stop to rest, he kept saying 'just push through it''just one more step'" but she said the beach was warm, the sand so hot it burnt her feet and the 'secret beach' was not, in fact, where she thought it was so they walked extra far for nothing.

I did some more laundry this afternoon and hung it out to dry on the terrace, I purposefully booked a place with laundry for mid-trip so that we can get everything washed and fresh for the last few days.  Since it's been stinkin' hot (literally) it's been especially helpful because you really can only wear something once before it's not really super wearable again.

After coming in to change I looked up "markets near me" and aside from the one that we went to go to this morning at the top of the stairs that was closed there are 2 more on our road just a 100m further down and around the bend so Jay and I walked down there and at the first one we got some fruit; Grapes (not seedless), peaches and cherries here and then went to the second one and got parmesan and salami and then picked up a can of pringles for the girls and a carton of pineapple juice and at the third one we got some provolone, 2 slices of lemon cake, a croissant for Paige because she said she wanted a pastry and they only had 1, 2 kit kat bars for the girls and a few Coke Zeros for the apartment.  We have to check out by 10am and probably won't eat all this but maybe we'll have a mini fridge in the hotel room and can snack there or on the way.  My calf was bothering me today, I should have put on my compression sleeve as soon as I felt twinges today - the last market had a step down that I missed so I landed on that foot with a hard step and hurt it.  Not so bad I'm limping but enough that I have my sleeve on now - in fact I had it on when we went for the walk.

Turns out the croissant was stuffed with lemon cream so I got my lemon cream stuffed croissant after all (because no way was Paige eating it), it wasn't super fresh but was delicious!

Did another load of laundry so that everything is clean - it dries so quickly here because there is a nice breeze and the sun is frickin' hot.

We had our terrace dinner, caprese and bread for the girls, meat and cheese with bread for Jay and I and then we shared some sliced peaches (which it was good that I ate mine while I chopped up the peaches because I went in to throw Paige's blanket in the wash and came out and all the peaches were gone!). It's cool once the sun isn't overhead anymore and with the breeze it's quite comfortable out even though its still 28 degrees at 9pm.

It's early but we haven't really done anything else today so not a lot to report!

Only 6,485 steps today, 4.21 km and 17 flights of stairs (the stairs are a killer).

Day 3 - Travel to Positano

 We got up by 7am this morning and out the door by 8am in order to get to the market.  Pretty sure the taxi ripped us off as half way there the meter turned off and he took the long way and charged us 25Eur but on the way back we took an Uber and it was 19Eu so he didn't rip us off that bad if he did.

Sophie had success, she wanted a dupe Dior bag and found it.  Originally 70Eu and got it for 50Eu (after about 30 seconds of me looking at her I think the guy thought I was going to walk away).  She had a Prada bag in her hand as well but he said it was 200Eu.  I told Sophie that in a place known for selling fake bags you don't buy a Vintage bag or one they say is real.  Fair enough.

The market is about 2km long and there are about 10 different stalls just on repeat.  Leather bags (Paige got one), fake bags, leather shoes, used shoes, random clothing and small electronics, then again the same things.  We walked the whole 2km in case Sophie found another gem but she did not.

Yesterday I asked Claude "Where is a picturesque place to stop for lunch between Rome and Positano (driving a car) that has good reviews.  Can be by the water, in the country, doesn't matter.  But doesn't add more than 20 mins to the shortest route"  

Claude's Reply:

Claude did us dirty.  Here was his reply to my comment back:

Jay and I have done the math 6 ways from Sunday and we aren't sure how the trip took that long, we've dropped pins at the highway and tracked down to Sperlonga, we've dropped pins and tracked from Sperlonga to Positano and from Rome to Positano and Claude  and the trip should have been only 4 hours...we have ZERO idea how it took 5, but it did.

Anyway, the girls weren't super happy about the long detour, we had some pretty scenic views, a shitty lunch at an overpriced ocean view restaurant and got back in the car for another long drive to Positano.  We couldn't check into our Villa in Positano until 4pm anyway so it doesn't really matter but they could have done some more walking around here.  And I don't know what they complained about they were both sleeping for the car ride!  Because of all the naps yesterday they were up until 3am last night they said.  At MINIMUM it was a pretty view from lunch.

Jay and Sophie right before we left both got the RingConn rings and they've been tracking their sleep and stress and oxygenation levels since they got them.  Paige and I are feeling left out so I think there are some rings in our future.  Jay says that the data it provides is pretty astonishing.  

We arrived in Positano and the property manager had an issue with her scooter so she was a little late meeting us. We were really careful not to go past the unit because turning around to come back would be a nightmare.  They gave very clear instructions on how to get here which I appreciated.  We have parking and a really nice terrace which is why I booked this place.  It's only 8 mins walk DOWN to the shopping streets (there are 2 main ones) and there is a little market just down the street.

Some pics of our place, which I booked on Airbnb.

We got changed, put some stuff in the wash, and the Girls and I walked down into town - it's about 6pm and we have dinner reservations at 7:45pm so we don't have a lot of time but wanted to see what was down there.  As we were walking down Sophie was complaining about her calf cramping and at the bottom we all felt our legs shaking.  I hadn't had anything to drink today with the exception of a Coke Zero at lunch so we grabbed a lemon slushy from a street vendor which was SPECTACULAR!  I love anything lemon and they're known here for their lemons and lemoncello in the Amalfi.  It was just the right amount of sweet and tart.

The Girls did a bit of shopping, they each got a makeup bag and Paige got a pair of sandals.

On the way back up, at the top of the one million stairs (no literally, my watch says we did 19 flights of stairs today and in Rome we only did the 2 up and 2 down today), I grabbed 2 Coke Zeros and a big bottle of sparkling water at the little market at the end of the street.  I noticed that there was a bottle of lemencello in the fridge and I'm a sucker for anything lemon, so maybe I'll have lemoncello and a sparkling water later - sounds refreshing!

When we got back I quickly drank my Coke Zero and sat on the terrace to start the blog but didn't get very far.

We decided we have to do an Italy Glow Up on Jay because all he brought is Lulu so tomorrow's goal is to get him a nice pair of shorts and a linen shirt.

I told Jay I'd like to have a meal today or tomorrow just on the terrace, meat, cheese, oil, maybe some fruit or a caprese salad.  Not tonight though, we made reservations at a restaurant called Roc Steak and Pizza because it had good reviews and was super close to our Airbnb (just 200m away) .  Oh. My. God.  Listen, the prices were not low (which I did not check in advance) BUT, the service, the food, the drinks they were all fantastic!  Paige had a Positano Spritz which was like a peach bellini and I had a Lemoncello Spritz (it's not lemony enough for me so I probably won't get one again but its' good - I haven't really been drinking much for the last 6 months so 3 drinks in 3 days is a lot for me these days), Jay had a glass of Brunello and Sophie had water.  Jay said this would rank in his top 5 meals of all time (for steak), the steak in St Maarten a couple years ago was phenomenal.

Jay had the Angus - you buy it by the Kg

Sophie had a margarita pizza - they won 3rd in a National Pizza contest.

(I feel like I've written a lot of this already but I can't find it here but I did have a whole Lemoncello Spritz so sorry if this is duplicated, I checked 3 times, it's possible I wrote it in the 2 reviews I did because they brought QRs to the table for Google and for TripAdvisor).

Paige got an Irish steak that was served with creamed potatoes and we asked for the Leak sauce on the side.

I had a Steak Tataki appetizer.

Every steak is cooked to rare and then they bring a hot plate so if you want to cook it a little more you can.

We just got home after walking back - this won't be a super long blog today because we didn't do too much.  I'll try to take more pics tomorrow!

Told the girls if they pose for 1 picture that's the one that goes in - I took 6 in quick succession and this is the best one of me, lol.  Just kidding there were better ones of me but by the 0.8 seconds it took for the 4th to 6th picture they were rolling their eyes. haha.

Sniped (this is in our parking area)

10,896 steps, 6.99Km and 19 flights of stairs (straight up) - considering we drove 5 hours that's not too shabby!

Oh, and I caught my fingers in between the gate and the thing that the gate slides into, they're sore - so that's fun.

Oh, haha, notice the ring sizer coil on my ring?  I've lost a bunch of weight so even with the sizer balls added it isn't enough so last time I went to the jewellery store they gave me this plastic, ghetto coil to put around my ring but it keeps it in place so that's what I'm using!  And my callus is from working hard at Curves!

Last shot from the terrace before bed!  9:30pm here, that's more like it.

Rome Day 2 - Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

 I do, in fact, look like Medusa.  I couldn't stay up any longer, it was about 10:30pm when I went to bed with my hair wet.  But nothing a little water and a fluff won't fix.

Jay got up around 6am and went for a run, I couldn't go back to sleep so I read for a bit in bed, opened up my phone to a plethora of text messages, got myself caught up (even though it's midnight at home) and now it's 7:26am, I've woken the girls up no less than 3 times so they can get ready because we have to leave here about 8am to walk to the Colosseum this morning for our 8:30am entry tickets.  One, because we wanted to try to get on this time zone as quickly as possible and two, because it's fucking hot.  We will likely spend some time back in the apartment mid-afternoon before heading out again later.

These are Jay's pictures from his run.

Yesterday afternoon I forgot to put in that we signed Paige up for another of her courses, an online version of Psychology - so that if she doesn't get the in person one she can do it online and she'll likely just attend the lecture regardless but do her assignments online.  Thanks for that tip Julia!

Also, the water bottles here the lid is attached by a little extra piece of plastic that won't tear off, like it's not perforated all the way around when sealed and I said I found that annoying.  Paige said "It's not annoying, it's so that your lid doesn't fall off and you have to hold it, it's innovative".  She's right, I found it much less annoying that I couldn't tear it off, even with brute strength, when I knew it had a purpose.  And I also remembered that when I tore my lid off with gusto on the airplane and promptly dropped it and it slid under my seat so then I had to drink my entire bottle of water before take off or risk being drenched when the plane accelerated.

Everyone was miraculously ready to leave by 8am so we set out to walk, about 18 mins, to the Colosseum. We saw a breakfast place Paige asked if we could come to tomorrow for breakfast and stopped for a croissant and water at a local patisserie (20Eur for 3 pastries and 4 waters - I got an apple streudel (which I thought was a croissant but that turned out to be a lemon cream croissant which now I must try), Jay got a pastry with cream and chocolate chips and Paige got a nutella stuffed croissant) which we enjoyed on the way.

When we got to the Colosseum there was a big line to join but it went pretty quickly, I had received an email with our tickets but also instructions to download an app and insert our separate ticket numbers into the app so we had to show both the app and the tickets a number of times to get in - the last time I think was to activate the time because you have 75 mins at the Colosseum and a 2 day pass for another Museum (which we don't plan to go and see).

The Colosseum is pretty incredible, it was built by Jewish slaves in 8 years, thousands of them were brought to build it.

I think the only thing left on Sophie's list of things she wanted to see is coming for photos of the Colosseum at night when it's lit up and Trevi Fountain either at night or early in the morning.

A HUGE thank you to my client, Susan, who I had told I bought hand held, rechargeable fans for the girls Graduation ceremony because it's notoriously hot and said "Take those with you to Italy, you'll be happy you did".  We are SOOOOOO happy we did.  The fans make it downright civilized to walk around and dry the sweat off your brow before more can appear.  We're walking back to the apartment, Jay is going to go and cool off while we shop except the shops don't open until 10am so now we're all back at the apartment at 9:30am for a top down wardrobe change.

My calf has been surprisingly good considering the uneven footing and number of stairs we have done.  Last night all those stairs were even in my little wedge dressy dinner shoes because I didn't know we were going to sprint up to the top of the "birthday cake" as the Roman's call the Palazio.  I strained it about 2 weeks ago at Activate with Jay and the Girls on Fathers' Day and went straight to physio and acupuncture treatments within 48 hours and it was feeling good at home but I wasn't sure how this would be and it's been great.

So...after this we all napped until noon.  Even me, and I don't nap.  I was on the couch, Jay in our room and the girls in their dark cave at the back with the AC pumping.

Paige wants to go to Brandy Melville and Sophie wants to shop for a purse so we ventured down the Avenue to a shopping district. Its so hot.  An IG video came up when we got back and it was kind of an IG vs Reality thing where the girl had some beautiful photos of her in Rome and then her talking to the camera - her direct quotes "makes me feel like I've just crawled out of Satans asshole after a heavy night of vindaloo; the eggs in my fallopian tubes are hard boiled; my nostrils are sweating; I am moist to the touch; Darling, I love you but don't touch me because your hands feel like they've been dipped in hot lava". lol.  Pretty much sums it up.

We had lunch up there, I checked reviews on 3 places before we went to the 4th.  Jay and Paige want to sit inside where it's got AC - Jay and I shared a chicken salad sandwich (which came on a crustless thin wonder bread type square cut into triangles with a thin amount of chicken salad in it) and a diavola pizza (thank god for the pizza because the sandwich was just a nibble.  Sophie got a caprese salad, so did Paige but Paige also got a margarita pizza which was delicous. It was an expensive lunch though, a bottle of water and 2 coke zeros and it came out to 98 Eur which is almost $160.

We got back and I FaceTimed my Mom a little bit, Jay and the Girls are in their rooms.  I've made reservations at 2 different restaurants near the Colosseum tonight so that we can go there and get some night views and then come back and do Trevi on the way home.  I sent the menus to the Girls and Jay and they can decide which one to cancel - one is a rooftop but we're not guaranteed the rooftop because they also have an interior and the other is on the street across from the Colosseum.  We can also just go and see what we find.

I'm on bra #3 for the day, these prosthetics might be light weight but they're not breathable.  I almost only brought 2 bras and at that last minute put a 3rd one in because I had the space.  Thankfully they're machine washable (the bras and the inserts) and at home I've thrown them in the dryer too but we don't have a dryer here just a washer.  At the next place we have a big terrace outside so assume we can hang clothes - right now we have the wash from this morning strewn around the kitchen chairs and table to lay out to dry.

We figured out while we were out that the best place for Sophie to get a bag would be at the Porta Portese Market which is only on Sundays (tomorrow), so we are going to get up early and take a cab over there, go through the market and then come back, grab our luggage and take a cab over to the car rental place to get the car and head to Positano (about a 3.5 hr drive but we'll stop somewhere on the way for lunch), I asked Claude where is a picturesque place to stop and he said Ivri is close to our route but if we wanted to go further (about 20 mins from our route to the ocean, then Sperlonga is a good stop on the coast so we'll see what the day looks like.

My whole fam had naps again - really more like went back to bed, I think the girls slept for 3 hours this afternoon.

We briefly discussed taking a cab to the Colosseum and then walking back (because it's still stinking hot) but they all napped all afternoon so when I said we should walk, we walked.  I never regretted my life choices but it was close.  Thank goodness for the fans, they have been a complete life saver.

We decided to go to the rooftop restaurant with the view of the Colosseum..it definitely has a view (not like a hang around this corner kind of view, a real view), but it's not really close.  I'll put 3 pics below.  1 is a nice picture zoomed, 2 is less zoomed and 3 is reality. (I had to edit them because they were dark so don't mind the yellow sky!)

Dinner was really good - I had steak with a peppercorn sauce and Sophie had it without the sauce and we ordered roasted potatoes to share (with rosemary, so good), Jay had the lamb and got grilled veggies on the side and Paige had a pasta in a red sauce.  Jay and I also had a smoked duck appetizer that I'm sure is exactly what it was supposed to be, I enjoyed it but not something that I would order again.  It was recommended in a few reviews of the restaurant so I wanted to try it.  The girls wanted to try an Aperol Spritz so I ordered one, they each had a sip and then that was it.  So Aperol and Hugo spritzes aren't their things.  I think that's it for cocktails, lol.

We skipped dessert at the restaurant and decided we would have gelato when we got closer to Trevi fountain after taking some night time photos of the Colosseum.

The walk somehow was just as hot as the way there even though now it's only 29 degrees at 9:30pm. Paige said "it's still warm out, but not like I want to die anymore".

Trevi was a lunchbag letdown again - Sophie didn't even stop to take a photo of it this time, but the gelato was good - I had coffee this time, Jay got chocolate and the girls each got strawberry.

We're back at the apartment and everyone has taken a cool (cold) shower, it's just before 11pm here and I'm finishing this up and going to bed.  I'll pack up my suitcase in the morning.  We plan to leave the house around 7:45am to go to the market.  I said to Jay when I got out of the shower, I think one night in Positano I'd like to just pick up some meat and cheese, bread and olive oil and just eat on the terrace.

21,701 Steps today, 14.38Km and 16 flights of stairs (pretty sure that's just up and isn't counting the downs!)