The Girls graduated from high school this year and so what a great excuse to go on vacation! The only rules - you have to agree on a destination and it’s just going to be the 4 of us (one of the first vacations we have done without bringing a friend of the Girls with us since they were really little).
Sophie was stuck on Italy and would not move off of it (for the aesthetic) so eventually we said to Paige, because you can travel around Europe so cheap, that she could choose another Europe beach spot but she really didn’t care, she just wanted relaxing beach so ultimately I planned so that we stay in Italy and just drive to 3 different locations.
Day 1-2 we’ll be in Rome and then pick up a car
Day 3-4 we’ll be in Positano
Day 5-8 we’ll be in Baia Delle Zagare, Puglia
Day 9 we drive back to the Rome Airport area and stay the night before flying home.
Today is the day!
I got up and went to the gym this morning, met the girls to get their nails and toes done after grabbing them a Starbucks because they hadn’t had any sugar this morning to help raise their blood pressure a bit before.
Have a few last minute errands to run - head to the pharmacy for deodorant, ginger Gravol, sunscreen and Aleve. Everything is packed Carry-On for all of us - I have a small rolling suitcase and my tote - I LOVE this tote, it's really wide. I travelled to Vancouver recently using my Poppy and Peonies tote and it didn't hold nearly as much as this one does and this is quite a bit smaller size wise. Its from an Australian company called Murph and Murph and this is the medium which is a great size and held SO MUCH stuff including my travel CPAP, computer, all my toiletries (liquids, pharmacy bag, makeup), a steamer, a travel fan, the passport holder and it has this flap that you can put over the top of the bag and zip it to cover if you want or leave the top open..so handy! My only complaint about the bag is the handles are too short to put over your shoulder - I usually remove the shoulder strap and just keep the loop straps but on this one I've kept the shoulder strap on it for if it's not on the rolling bag.
Avery is staying at our place with the dogs tonight and my Mom is staying the rest of the time we’re away so we had to put clean sheets on a couple of beds for them.
Paige had to do her course selection at 1pm and we planned to leave for the airport at 1;30pm so we have 30 mins to figure that out. That didn't go as planned (at all). First semester Paige didn't get a single course booked. She has 3 mandatory classes, one is waitlisted and 2 have priority access for people in Psychology and something else. Her 2 electives (linguistics and media) were also priority access but they didn't say that in the Registration Guide we looked at. Second Semester she got 3 courses booked, 1 waitlisted, 1 she couldn't sign up for because it has a pre-requisite of Psych and she can't get into the Psych and the other I can't remember what it was but out of 10 courses she only got 3 total. So we have to figure that out - the Advisors on the web call we did last month said not to stress, if you have mandatory classes you'll get them - she has 7 mandatory classes and I think she got into 2.
We got to the airport, through Nexus super quick, into the Lounge which was packed and decided to go down to the AC Cafe lounge to pick up some little snacks for the plane instead of eating in the main lounge. We picked up cookies (they have the best chocolate chip cookies!), fruit, veggies and overnight oats and then walked to our gate which was a hike. At one point we said "it's an 11 min walk to our gate" as we were looking at the board "why is there a little shuttle picture beside our gate?" Jay thought maybe because it was so far we could get a shuttle to it. Nope - when we got to the gate we got on a 10 min bus ride to some terminal that isn't 1 or 3! We're flying ITA Airlines (Italian Airways) straight to Rome, apparently they rent a gate in Terminal 1 but then you shuttle out to where they keep their planes. You wouldn't want to be running late for your flight not knowing you needed a shuttle to your real gate.
As we were waiting for the shuttle to leave, Paige is holding onto the handles that dangle from the cross bar and Jay's resting his wrist on one beside her. I said "Dad doesn’t touch those because of germs." So both she and Sophie proceed to wipe their hands all over him, lol.
We made it to the sketchy terminal and to our gate just as it's supposed to board, around 4pm. We should be called in one of the first groups after people with kids and needing extra time to board so we don't bother to sit. We're waiting and waiting and waiting and finally they call families and there are a shit tonne of babies. I said "well, Italy is a family destination". Paige said something like "I wouldn't want to travel to Italy with my kids" and Jay and I both said "neither do we" but here we are, lol. All those families with kids moved into the gangway and then just stopped..I guess there was thunder and lightening and the ground crews don't work during lightening so everything got delayed.
We finally boarded, we're flying business - the first time the girls have been in a pod. Sophie couldn't wrap her head around how the seat transitioned from sitting to laying flat and kept trying to envision it. We got little packages with hand, body and face lotion, sanitizer, shampoo and shower gel and then a separate little package with a toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, a mask and lip balm. The standard pillow (these pillows were thin and awful) and blanket. It's 6pm, the flight is 8.5 hrs, we land at 8:30am Italy time (if we don't make up time in the air), the goal is to go to sleep around 9pm and get 4 hrs sleep so that when we wake up it's "morning", 7am and not 1am. It doesn't work. We're all tired, some more cranky than others! (Paige)
We go through customs really quickly, the EU has adapted a digital system where you scan your passport, then your fingerprints and have a photo taken. Then later you read your passport, fingerprints and face ID again. Jay and Sophie went through and lit up green and said "you've been granted 90 days stay" mine said "you've been granted 0 days stay" and Paige's said "see an attendant". There are no attendants, we asked someone sitting behind glass scrolling on her phone and she said 'No, you're good' because the light went green and it let us through the coral doors you were between.
We walked through the airport to the exit and met our driver, the Airbnb in Rome we're staying in is owned by a sister hotel, the Hotel asked if we wanted a ride arranged from the airport, which is 40 mins away and after a long overnight flight we figured it was the easiest so met him and he brought us to the hotel. Because it's so early we figured we would drop our bags at the hotel and have to wander until the apartment was ready but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was ready! So we checked in and walked the 4 minutes to the building. Its HOT but it's not so bad in the shade and there is a breeze. We're staying about 3 mins from Trevi Fountain which is one of the main things Sophie wanted to see.
Today, because we wanted to get right into it, we booked a 2 hr driving tour - there were some tours that had max 3 people per car and some had 4 so I booked a 2 hr "Emily in Rome" tour that Sophie wanted in a 4 person cabrio Fiat. I got confirmation yesterday that said 2 drivers were meeting us and so I emailed the company and said I thought that I had booked for 4 of us to be together. They replied and said it depends on the cars they have available but if we wanted to be GUARANTEED that we would have a certain type of car we could pay 150Eu more (it was already not a cheap tour) so that we could be together. Yeah, no, worst case we are in 2 cars, that's fine.
Once we got checked into the apartment we did some fiddling with the AC because it didn't seem to be on, got it working, Jay had a shower and a cat nap and we set off to see Trevi Fountain and a few other sites before stopping for lunch. Trevi was really busy, which we knew it would be - Sophie took us into United Colours of Benetton and upstairs into the Men's section where she found a window overlooking Trevi - good photo hack!
First Photo is from the window and the others are from ground level as we walked around - Sophie wants to come back in the middle of the night and get some photos when there are no people. I said I would come with her.
The last picture is an outdoor mall, the girls have said at least 10 times they want flip flops - there is a Havanas store there, nothing but flip flops. Nope, not the flip flops we want.
After some more walking around we decided to grab lunch. I asked if they wanted me to look up some places that had good reviews or if they just wanted to stop somewhere and stop along the way was the decision. Probably the worst food I've ever had in Italy. It wasn't bad food, but not what you come to expect here. We shared bruschetta, Jay and I shared a Caprese salad and the girls each had their own and Jay and I shared a pizza. The Caprese the tomatoes had no flavour and it was mostly lettuce and shaved carrots (which is weird), you had to add the olive oil and balsamic yourself but the oil was really light and loose and the balsamic was too vinegary somehow. I don't usually salt my food, everything needed salt, including the bruschetta. Paige is in a wicked bad mood. She's hot, tired and has done something to her foot so it hurts to walk on the uneven cobblestones. Originally after lunch Paige and Jay were going back to the Airbnb for a nap/veg and I said that I would walk around more with Sophie but Sophie decided she wanted some time to just be a zombie too - so I did some work, now writing the blog before we get ready to head out for the tour in 40 mins. 20 mins now since I put the photos in - so time to get ready to roll!
OMG that tour was SO FUN! I would highly recommend a tour with Facile Tours - we are in a lot of peoples photos as everyone stopped to look at the cars as we drove past. Sophie found this tour, it's in electric Fiat cabriolets and they were super cute. Hotter than hell, but we looked cool (see what I did there).
Here is a photo bomb and a little bit of info I got from our driver - Jay's driver, Claudio, was talking to them non-stop with his arms waving around. Our driver (Sophie and me) not so much but we enjoyed just vibing. If I was with Claudio I would have been writing on my phone all the notes and funny things he said I'm sure - Jay absolutely loved him so that's good because he was tired and I don't think super pumped about going. I did a video on IG but videos don't insert here well.
I do know that this picture below (because it's a crappy picture but I kept it anyway) is where Julius Cesar was killed, stabbed 32 times in 44BC. Now it's a cat sanctuary. lol
We're back at the apartment now cooling off again before dinner. I asked for recommendations for good food and they said either Tullio or Dilla both not touristy but good food. Tullio doesn't open until 7:30pm (the real restaurant) where Dilla at the Spanish Square opens at 6pm. I looked them both up, too fancy and too far away so we're going to one just down the street that has great reviews and a big menu with lots of pictures called Sciarra.
Jay and Paige went out and grabbed gelato, there are a million and one gelaterias close by so they weren't gone long.
Soooo..my crew is all asleep again, hopefully they can all sleep through the night because I'm the only one who hasn't had multiple naps today. With the Girls you can see it coming because the minute we get back into the apartment they change into a pyjama short set and lie in bed. We have just under an hour to get ready for dinner - I would only need 5 mins except I need to steam one of my dresses and maybe have a shower to make sure my hair is dry for when I go to bed later. I asked Jay to steam my striped dress while I hop in the shower and he plugged it in and the voltage clearly was too much because the steamer spit a stream of water at my dress soaking the front and then quit. End of life. The Girls had wanted to bring their Dyson hair dryers on our trip and Ashley had said not to because the voltage here, even with the converter, fried her good straightener so they didn't bring them or their good straightener so that's probably a good thing!
Dinner was excellent this time - similar stuff but so much better. Everyone agreed that the place for lunch was awful, some of the worst food we've ever had anywhere. For dinner Jay and I split an antipasti plate of fresh mozzarella and some proscuitto and a greek salad. Then Paige and I shared a margarita pizza and I had a bite of Sophies pasta which was with pecorino and pepper and a small pc of Jay's veal milanese. The Girls are old enough to drink here but Paige didn't want to waste a drink so I told her to order something and I'd have it if she didn't like it so she ordered a Hugo Spritz (she didn't love it but drank some and I drank some and between us it was gone).
After dinner we planned to walk to the Colosseum so that Sophie could get some photos at night with it lit up but as we were walking past the Piazza Vittoriano (right at sunset) we decided to get the 'sunset shots' off the promenade and walked up like 10 or more flights of stairs only to find out that the ticket booth is on the other side (down 3 flights and across to the other side. Sophie was bummed so I said "ok lets go" we boogied to go get tickets - I bought 2 and told Paige if she wanted to go up with Sophie they could go together or I'd go if she didn't want to climb the stairs again. The two of them took off back up the stairs and Jay and I walked the middle level and took some photos waiting for them.
On the way back down I remembered that I have my wireless fan in my bag (because at 9pm it was still over 30 degrees) and that was a game changer. Paige had hers in her purse too - Sophie asked me to use mine and I reluctantly gave it to her and said "you didn't want to carry yours in your purse?" Oh no, it's in my purse. Lazy bugger - so I took it back and it was glorious.
Final stop of the day as we walk back to the room - Gelato. I can't believe I didn't get coffee, but I asked to taste the salted caramel and it was amazing. And I haven't slept more than 3.5 airplane hours of sleep in over 32 hours so I don't want anything keeping me awake!
Back in the room, a cool shower and now I have to wait for my hair to dry before I go to bed so I'm finishing up the blog for the day.
Tomorrow we've got tickets to the Colosseum for 8:30am and Sophie still wants to see it lit up at night up close (with a different outfit on than today, lol) and Paige wants to do some shopping.
14,753 steps today, 9.78 Km and 29 flights of stairs! (Our apartment is up 3 flights and we were back here 3 times). Definitely deserved that Gelato!
