Viva Italia!

Bongiorno Family and Friends!

Whilst living in England we really wanted to take advantage of being super close to Europe. So when Italy came up in conversation, our friends, Al & Mike, whose house we are renting mentioned that Alicia's brother has a holiday villa in the Marche area and we would get the family & friends' rate (we only had to pay for the cleaners!) We checked the home out online and it looked amazing - we needed to use this hook up! I've also wanted to go to Venice since I did a French class project on the city in Grade 11 so it was decided - Venezia and San Ginesio Italia! To prepare for our trip, we drank lots of coffee and ate lots of pasta to use up as much of our food possible since we only had one more week in England on our return. We also told Liam it was going to be a week full of pizza, special ice cream called gelato, pasta and salami ('lami') - we were all excited:)

Strolling Through Venezia
We flew out to Venice from Manchester on Krystal's first of two Mother's Days this year - UK Mother's Day is in April (for any UK readers - Cdn Mother's day is in May) - total score! Our low cost Jet 2 flight left late and kept us on the plane about an hour before taking off - annoying, especially when the flight is only 2.5hrs. Upon arriving in Venice we decided to buy tickets for the coach style public transit bus for 5€ (euros) each taking us to Piazza Roma - the last stop for vehicles in the city. After that to get around it's either water taxi, water bus, gondolas for touring or walking - what we did as our hotel was close to this area. We read online of many people who had trouble finding their hotel because the main sign was either on the canal side and not visable from the pavement or it was on the most obscure narrow street. Fortunately, we had no trouble finding the Hotel Antiche Figure which was great since we arrived around 7:30p and we were all very hungry. Our hotel was right on the Grande Canale and a few restaurants were close by - we had antipasto, wine and gelato for the kids on one of the patios before heading up to sleep. The room was quite small, especially since Liam had his own bed (Gemma slept with us this time) so we left our pram on the main floor in the storage room.

We had heard that having a pram in Venice may be a nightmare with all the bridges and their steps. There was only one bridge that gave Mark stress and that was the Rialto - it's the main bridge with tons of steps and is super busy.
Whilst in Venice we did exactly what we wanted to do - ride the canal, see the large squares, drink coffee, and eat gelato, pizza and pasta. We didn't really want to do any inside stuff with the kids (and pram) as they would be bored and the weather was super nice - unseasonally warm (low-mid 20's). 

We did our canal excursions on the water bus system - vaporettos. We got a 24hr pass for 18€ euros each (kids were free) and went on 5 times, including a nighttime 'cruise' where we went to the large San Marco square and just stayed on to take us back on a round trip:) We had the luckiest timing with this water bus trip because as it got dark, we saw lightning and began to hear thunder as we got nearer to our stop. During the walk to our hotel it started to rain and once in, it just pounded down. That's the only time it rained on our enitre trip!

We had also heard that Italians love kids, and we were like, sure, doesn't everyone? But they really do. Liam and Gemma were commented on constantly by Italian women and men of all ages. I think it was the blue eyes and blonde hair;) Actually, I'm pretty sure an Asian tourist took a photo of Liam running through a narrow street. 

Venice wasn't too busy at this time of year, but we've heard it gets ridiculous in the summer. There were tourists from everywhere and lots of Italian tourists too. Some of them even thought Mark was Italian and started asking him directions in full-on Italian (he gets this a lot - happened in Iceland too!)

It is very hard to describe Venice in words other than amazing - the photos do more justice.

San Ginesio
After 3 nights in Venice it was off to the Marche area to San Ginesio. To get there we hired a car from the airport and got a Mercedes A160. Without stops, the trip was to be about 4.5hrs - with stops it took us about 6hrs. Italians know how to do rest stops - the food is fresh and delicious, served on real plates with real cutlery and bottles of olive oil and dressings are available to take to your table. One stop even had a little 'Balls Room' for the kids which they loved.

We followed instructions to get to the Casa Scrucchi Villa and almost went up the wrong farm road that would have got us stuck on a steep, long gravel road that's really only for farm traffic. The road didn't feel right so Mark got out to try to speak with the farmer, who only spoke Italian (which we don't speak at all) whilst his dogs were barking at our car. We decided to reverse and try the instructions again and got it right the second time 'round. 

The renovated farm house was situated deep inside a lovely valley just outside San Ginesio. It was so deep in, our ears popped each time we got to or left the house in the car! The surroundings were just incredible as was the actual home. The home is rented out steadily throughout the summer season for a week or two at a time. The couple who own it provide a handy binder full of information on just about anything you could want to know about the local area. This area is not touristy at all, and most locals speak no English, although we did find a few that surprised us. There are a handful of British people who have purchased old farm houses and have renovated them. From what the older Italian man at the local coffee/gelato bar was telling us (all in Italian) he didn't like the trend - he kept pointing out people in the square and saying "Inglesie" (sp?), as in, English people ;) He seemed to really like us and the kids. He asked if we were American and we were quick to find a maple leaf on us somewhere:)

We had amazing meals out in this area and all for very reasonable prices. We did have to eat later though as most restaurants did't serve hot food until 7:30p, which we found out on our first night out. Our best meal in Italy was on our last night at a local San Ginesio restaurant situated just before the walled part of the town and it was only 25€! It was the same restaurant we tried to go to the first night out but got there too early and were only able to have antipasto.

Whilst in this area we also took a day trip to the coast to Civitanova and spent the afternoon on the pebbled beach. They really cater to families in this area - each restaurant and cafe has some sort of playpark attached. We stopped here again on the way back to Venice airport.

Mark went for a run one morning from the house (he tried to run in Venice but it was too busy with people traffic). During his 1hr run, Mark asked a farmer (with lots of hand gestures) if it was okay to run up the hill on his farm and the farmer got so excited that he was going to run up, he yelled something like "Fasta fasta fasta!"

It was super hot here too - mid to high 20's - it's supposed to be cooler than Venice, even though it's further south due to the Apennine Mountain Range. The kids spent lots of time while we were at the house under the large willow tree in the back garden that provided just enough shade.

By the end of our trip we got quite good at the basic Italian we needed and even threw in an accent to make it all sound better (thank you Woodbridge and The Sopranos) - "due cappuccino" (two cappuccinos), "arrivederci" (formal goodbye), "ciao" (casual hello/goodbye), "latte freddo" (cold milk), "cioccomenta" (mint chocolate chip), "cioccolati" (chocolate).

Again, it's quite difficult to describe this amazing location in words - the Photos will do a much better job.

Arrivederci Paesanos,
The Nicholson Family