I set my alarm this morning for 8am and slept right until it. I woke up the girls and Jay just after 9am because we have to check out and get on the road by 10am. I had to pack up, have a shower, get everything off the line, wake up the girls, check the bathrooms, check the fridge (I asked Jay before I got in the shower to just make sure all the garbage was in one place and pack up the rest of the food), make sure the girls were up, make sure we left the keys, make sure the girls were up and finally head up to the car.
I forgot my phone.
I realized really quickly but when we were out of the parking area and about 50m down the street. These streets are narrow and not really condusive to 'turn around and get it' so Jay pulled over as best he could a little ways down and I got out and walked back. Thankfully when I left the keys on the dining room table and pulled the door closed behind me the door didn't lock so I could get back in (I knew in advance it wasn't locked), I just said to Jay "if you need to move just go further and pull over again, I'll keep walking this way until I find you". The only way he would have had to move was if a bus came by and couldn't pass him but he was in the same spot when I got back.
It wasn't too long into our drive that Sophie complained about being car sick, then Paige complained about Sophie complaining that it was making her car sick (they have zero empathy for eachother but it's mostly because one does seriously trigger the other, it's not a twin thing it's an anxiety thing). We stopped a little while later and I got gravol out of the back and gave her a real one and a ginger one and said to take both as the real thing was probably better for her at that point. Unfortunately it was too little too late, so after being sick we moved her up to the front seat with the AC blowing on her and I moved to the back.
Jay said he was getting hungry and we got onto a part of our drive where we weren't getting off the road we were on for 113km so I turned off the GPS, clicked into Trip Advisor, did a map of restaurants "near me", searched an area about 10 mins ahead of us for a while and finally stopped on a restaurant in the middle of no where that had 31 reviews and a 4.8* rating. Set the Maps to the location (not quite, so tried again and got it) and Trip Advisor didn't steer us wrong (it rarely does). I have no idea how anyone originally found this little restaurant but now it has 32 reviews so that if anyone is ever searching for a good restaurant off the highway they'll find it. When we parked Paige said "I can do without stopping" she was being judgy, it was actually quite nice outside. The staff didn't speak a word of english. The one server came over and then called the other one over who ALSO didn't speak any english (but he understood), I had pulled the menu up online and translated it (how did we survive without THAT too!), so we did a lot of pointing and nodding and got exactly what we ordered. I had fusilli with pecorino and grilled zucchini, Jay had fusillli with tomato sauce and basil, the girls just shared fries and Jay also got a sauteed steak with mushrooms and cheese on top - he didn't need it because the pasta was bigger than he thought but it was good! The fries were homemade with real potato but also crispy and light - some of the best fries I've ever had actually, the perfect amount of salty. The fusilli Paige said "why does it look like that?" Because it's homemade pasta. 5* from us. Plus the whole meal came to 57EU which is the cheapest meal we have had! You know it's authentic when the menu has no english and all the people in there are workers in uniforms - good food, like Nonna makes.
I didn't take pictures so went back to the website - I had looked up the website on the road so I was fairly confident that it would be good.
After about 3 hrs of driving Jay asked to switch...because of the stop for lunch that puts us getting there at 3pm instead of 2pm and I have a client call at 2:30pm to review some mortgage documents before sending them off to DocuSign. It's now 1:30pm...we can switch but you have to switch back in 45 mins.
At just after 2pm we came across a gas station with a restroom so I pulled over to switch with Jay and use the bathroom. Sophie said "you just went to the bathroom" - thank you Sophie, I also had a Coke Zero and half a large bottle of sparkling water, mind your own fucking business.
3pm and we arrived at Baia Delle Zagare resort and it's LOVELY. This is my jam. I'm happy we did Rome and Positano but I've been to both before (though didn't see the same things as we did this time so that was great) but I do enjoy relaxing at the end of a few hectic days.
We got checked in and our rooms were ready, the girls are in their own room and we are in 110 in the same building. I asked at reception if the rooms are the same and the attendant said yes, so I said then it doesn't matter which room the girls are in and we are in. The rooms are not the same, ours is on the first floor (which I prefer) and theirs is above ours but they said theirs is larger. We still have a pretty big room and don't need any more space do I really don't care and they're happy on the 2nd floor. Paige as we checked in said "this is my part of the vacation, I want to eat, sleep and do nothing".
The girls want to go down to the beach, Jay wanted to go to the gym, so I got changed to go to the beach with them. Its a short walk around a couple other buildings and to the elevator or stairs down to the cove.
On the way down the elevator they asked about the beach grill and restaurant and I said "Anything you get here you just charge to our room" and Sophie said "Oh, so it is all inclusive" and Paige sighed and said "Oh, I am going to like it here". lol
We gave our name to the attendant who double checked the manifest and then gave us 2 sets of 2 chairs and an umbrella.
The girls dumped their stuff and then went to kayak around the rock formations and across the cove
This is more like it. I do like to relax at the end of a trip - I enjoy 2-3 nights and then move on and this is a perfect relaxing ending.
We sat down at the beach for probably about 90 mins, Jay came down and joined us and went in the ocean for a quick dip. The girls were too chicken to order anything from the bar (a lot of the staff don't speak english so it is a little more difficult) so waited for him and then they ordered a sandwich with tomato, mozzarella and basil on fresh bread that was served warm and really good. I had a sparkling water and a Coke Zero, none of the cocktails really appealed to me.
We came back to the rooms and relaxed for about an hour and a half before dinner. At 7:10 I said to Jay, Ok I'm getting changed (I was in my pyjamas, a pair of light striped shorts and a tank top, no boobs after coming up from the beach) and he said "for what?" For dinner? "Into what?" Something nice for dinner? I brought mostly 'nice' clothes, even my tanks aren't tanks - his 2 linen shirts we bought for him are still packed so now they're creased and there is no steamer or iron in the room so we'll try to steam them in the shower tomorrow.
The Girls came down and met us by our room, and when we got to the restaurant and perused the menu we all looked at eachother kind of side eye - there really isn't a lot on the menu and the 2 things I thought might be steak because they said 'fillet' were, in fact, fish per the google machine. Overall no one was overly impressed with their meal, which is a huge let down because the rest of the resort is so nice. Paige had veal which was overcooked and not seasoned, it looked grey but tasted good; Sophie ordered burratta with tomato and basil gazpacho, I know that gazpacho is a cold soup but I thought it would come with tomatoes and a basil gazpacho (like a sauce). No, it was a ball of burrata cheese and then a spoon full of cold tomato soup with a few leaves of basil. Like WTF, who eats a ball of cheese like that? I had the eggplant parmesan which was actually delicious and Jay ordered a ravioli which was also good but they were literally the only things on the menu we would contemplate having. The Town is about 20 mins away so tomorrow we will go into town for dinner, maybe the day after we'll just get a bunch of late snacks at the beach we'll see.
I started googling places to eat as soon as we got back to the room because that meal was 200Eu (about $325) and not worth it AT ALL. Paige had a pina colada (and I know my pina coladas) that was just sweet but no coconut or pineapple flavour (and when we asked if they had pineapple juice for Sophie they said no so that should have been our first clue now that I think of it, I had a glass of rose which was really really good. But no other alcohol for $325!! No thank you. I looked at the Trip Advisor reviews for the restaurant after and they're only 3.2*, no freaking kidding. I'll review once we leave, lol.
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