First of all, let me introduce my family and I. Nadine and I (Melanie) met when I joined the babysitting co-op in Cochrane in 2007. My husband Jack, our children Aimee, Lauryn, Tristan and I had just moved to Cochrane from Canmore and had no family or friends in Cochrane, so the co-op proved to be a wonderful opportunity to meet new people and, most importantly, other moms! Surprisingly enough, we were not the only family with 3 children! There were almost even more with 4 in the area!!
Living in Nadine and Rhoneil’s neighborhood, we met regularly for play dates at the park, bike riding lessons or coffee. Then the husbands met and we discovered our shared love for cooking! Play dates became full-on 4 or 5 course meals with the whole family and when we decided to move back to Holland in 2009, it took us almost a week at their house to say goodbye!
So when we heard they were coming to Holland during their 3 month tour of Europe (ahem!) we were extremely excited! We had two weeks of vacation in May, so we suggested spending 2 weeks elsewhere in Europe together and then spending a week in Holland after. We decided on Italy, because it was warmer than Croatia (hahaha!).
Many e-mails later, everything was planned (you should ask to see Rhoneil’s super duper spreadsheet) and we were on our way.
I could describe our trip day by day, but considering that today is our last day in Italy I would like to make a list of 30 things I will not forget about.
1. Seeing the Velasco’s for the first time in two years in person. My – how the girls have grown in to beautiful, fun, kind and polite young ladies!
2. Sipping wine on our Rome apartment patio while the kids got reacquainted and kept each other busy with hide and go seek. Within a half an hour, Tristan and Isy were organizing a shared closet together!
playing Ninja outside our Rome apartment
3. The endless amount of clapping, singing and tag games (no slime backs!) while we walked to the subway, down the street, or standing in line anywhere.
4. Having a delicious meal in Rome for the first time at a restaurant that looked very local (fluorescent lighting and no English translations on the menu) and ordering things of which we had no idea what they were! Oh, and how do you say 11 in Italian???
5. Eating sandwiches on the Spanish Steps and reading after that it was illegal 😉
6. Endless amounts of selfie-stick and squishy toy street salesmen stalking us wherever we went and my first lesson in bartering in Italy. They will sell it to you for a quarter of the price if you walk away a few times first!!!
7. The Trevi fountain unfortunately being under construction.
gelato in Rome
8. The yummy gelato everywhere we went… 2 scoops please!
9. The Pantheon being closed, because it was Liberty day on April 25th. We peeked through the door though, and it was amazing! Lol!
10. Telling the children we were walking to a subway station to ride it back to the house, but actually walking back to the station closest to the apartment!
11. The Minecraft building, I-Pad playing, spoon playing, cheat playing children before bed (or whenever they could!)
12. Skipping the line at the Colosseum, because Jack was using crutches for a sore foot!
13. Nadine wanting to steal the pan of tiramisu from a fridge close to our table in the restaurant near the Colosseum when the waiter wasn’t looking!
14. Buying black pasta to try, and not tasting any difference from regular pasta.
15. Seeing the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican, and sending a few postcards from a whole different country!
16. Seeing the line for the St Peter’s basilica and deciding against going in.
17. Nadine wanting to become a nun, so she could smuggle a tiramisu in the wimple of her habit.
designer living room of the Watch Tower
18. Seeing the former watchtower in Florence for the first time which was completely renovated by an interior designer and featured in January’s issue of Home and Garden! Having the luxury of being able to stay there for 5 days was priceless! Sometimes, traveling with a large group has huge advantages!
Amy holding up in Pisa
20. ‘Leaning’ on the leaning tower of Pisa.
21. Having a course of a meal and a game in each of the outside eating areas/courtyards of the Florence house, five in total! Ever heard of the Dutch game called Nail Pooping??? Ask Aly, she is the champion!
22. Spending Nadine andRhoneill’s anniversary in a Tuscan vineyard and getting a tour and tasting byMauritio.
vine yard in Tuscany
23. Finding a very old, German, risqué book in the vast collection of books in the Florence house and presenting it to Nadine and Rhoneill as an ‘anniversary present’. Lol!
24.Isy and Lauryn losing one of the playing cards in the Mediterranean while playing a game of spit on the ferry toLerici after visiting the beautiful Cinque Terre villages.
Riomaggiore
25. Choosing to play and swim in the waves at the beach in Monterosso, instead of a 2 hour hike during a hot, hot day – sorry Rhoneil 😉
26. The high-fives after all 11 of us were on time to be somewhere, or after getting out of the train without leaving anybody behind!
27. The first sight of the stunning Venice canals and buildings from the train station.
28. Getting ‘lost’ in all the little streets in Venice trying to find a specific gelato place the girls had seen the day before.
29. Watching the glass master at work making the girls’ own glass pendants and bracelet.
30. The final dinner in Venice, reminiscing about the vacation, and where we would someday (maybe) return. Good food, a little music, a beautiful location and most important of all, our great Canadian (Filippino, Chinese, Mexican, Nicaraguan…. just where are you “really” from Rhoneil???) friends 🙂
