We depart for Kyiv tomorrow morning. 3 days of driving: Italy-Slovenia-Hungary-Ukraine. Road trips with a giant dog and a 3-year-old tyrant are not quite what they were when my sister and I would hit Route 90 for our drive up to Dartmouth. And the junk food options are so limited compared to the roadside options in the US. Boo. Before we leave, here are some last images from our last few days in Italy...
First, a video of Gio and Paolo horsing around in the "big boy" pool in Castelnovo:
Last night we hit a town fair in Gatta (translates as "female cat").
Cotton candy, most of which ended up melted all over his face, hair, shirt and my dress. I suppose that is better than it all ending up in his bloodstream....
I so wished they had these swing seats in my size. I love this ride!
Gio rode this for an hour straight.
Gio has developed quite a love of dancing. Here are a few of his signature moves...
Today Gio sat down in this car at our local gelateria and then patted the seat to invite this passing girl to join him.
All of you with young daughters, beware. You might want to avoid "that Belli boy" in 10 years or so.
Gio and I just returned from driving Nonno and Nonna to the Bologna airport. It was only upon returning home and not finding them here that Gio panicked. "I do not WANT them to go back to Washington. Go back and get them NOW!". Tears, sobbing and hysterics for a good hour followed. They should take comfort that their visit was certainly one Gio enjoyed thoroughly. And now the long wait for our own visit to Washington. How does one explain "two months" to a 3-year-old??
Here are some images from our final week with the "Nonnies".....
One afternoon we drove up to Lake Ventasso. Yep. You have seen this before.....
Nonna taught Gio the fine art of rock skipping.
Enzo spent quite a bit of time swimming. Here he is drying off his beautiful fur in the sun, hoping for a few highlights, no doubt.
This just about sums up Gio's summer.
We hung out at the town pool quite a bit.
This past weekend we took a road trip through Piemonte region and then on to the Alps for a dose of cooler air.
Dinner our first night at a very fancy restaurant. Yet they allowed Enzo to sit at the table with us. Love love love Italy.
Our hotel in the Alps was so high up that we needed to transfer ourselves and our luggage to this Land Rover to do the final leg of the journey. Gio tickled the driver the entire ride up. He was a very good sport about the pest.
Here we are in this fantastic setting. The hotel is actually built into what was once an abandoned village. On the outside the buildings appeared weather-worn and rustic, yet when we entered there were beautiful rooms with cozy beds, large tubs and everything you might expect in a 5 star hotel. Amazing.
Yep, they are at it again. This water was COLD. Neither fellow seemed to mind in the slightest.
Yep, a huge glacier. Gio wanted desperately to "go play in the snow." We somehow convinced him that it was just too far away.
Inside the first building here is a luxury spa and indoor pool. You can guess what Gio did the next morning. 2 hours of swimming = a good long nap in the car on the way home.
Dinner again included Enzo. He lay next to Paolo the entire meal (2+ hours), unleashed.
And then it was time for one more coffee with Nonno and Nonna before they departed. We soon will be leaving Italy ourselves. Friday morning we will hit the road for the 3-day trip back to Kyiv. It all went by too fast, as summers tend to do.
Today we visited a local "adventure park." Once outfitted in a harness and helmet Gio had a lesson in how to clip his carribeniers and then he was off on "Baby Course #1"! While Nonno and I stood nearby around to help, Nonna hovered a bit out of sight (remember that she tends to worry!). And he was off....
This spinning wheel obstacle was a favorite. More on this later....
Clipping on.
He caught on quickly to the important rule to move only one carribenier at a time so that he was always clipped on safely.
The tunnel obstacle.
My brave boy.
Nonna was relaxing a bit by now.
Remember that spinning wheel? Gio could not get enough!
And how to make a morning at the adventure park even better? Discovering a giant empty sand box full of buckets, wheel barrows and shovels!
Ice cream to end the morning....
....and why have just one when you have two hands??
We have been very busy showing Nonno and Nonna what our lives are like here in Italy. Here are some glimpses of our last few days' adventures....
A brilliant family shot. Well, except that Paolo is missing......And the shot is a bit far away.... And Gio is too busy digging a hole to participate. Oh well. Here we are anyway visiting a monastery near our home. Some days, I must admit, I think about dropping Gio off here for good.
Another day, another naked boy. Here we are at a local ski area.
Gio has gotten his stripping time down to about 5 seconds.
We did eventually get him clothed again and into the restaurant for dinner.
After a lot of practice Gio has finally perfected the pump on the "big boy" swing.
My arms are grateful.
Nonna could not watch. She tends to worry...
While we were admiring the mastery of swinging, Paolo and Enzo headed up one of the ski slopes. Enzo was certainly in his element at last. He did leave a "present" behind on the slope- a mogul for the winter, I suppose.
The next day we headed up a trail to show Nonno and Nonna the dinosaur eggs. Nonno was scared. Gio was quite surprised that they still had not hatched since our visit in May. Mysterious....
Gio insisted that all of us whisper and walk on our tippy toes so as not to alert the "Mamma Dinosaur" to our presence. He did not exactly follow his own rules....
That night we attended a traveling circus. Gio adored it. His favorite part? When they put two boa constrictors and a python out in the ring. We caught him JUST before he stepped out into the ring himself.
Mom and Dad are thinking, "We came all the way to Italy and you take us to THIS?"
I think Gio was a bit disappointed that the photo opportunity was not with the snakes, but he was willing to do this just to get the chance to go into the ring at last.
Saturday night there was a giant festival in town: every store was open, there were live bands in all 3 squares of the town, food booths all along the main street, clowns, dancing and THIS. A bouncy house climbing wall!
This was set up to promote a climbing park nearby. We are planning to take him there today so look for a new post soon on that adventure!
How did we get him to finally leave the climbing wall? With french fries, of course.
Eating them by stabbing them with a stick? What a fabulous idea. This kept him busy for a good 30 minutes.
This photo was taken at midnight. Yep, we are keeping very "Italian" hours with our 3-year-old. I am not looking forward to the return to school mornings in September!
Another lake, another naked Gio. This time at Lago Santo near Tuscany.
Enzo took his very first swim in this lake! Here he is in all of his glory. His doggy paddle was performed nearly vertical, which made it so funny to watch...
Post swim we had a picnic. Since we forgot to bring glasses we took swigs from the wine bottle.
Yesterday we visited the huge castle we can see from our house. This bizarre contraption intrigued us., but since it was 1pm and no one was about (remember that 3 hour lunch thing the Italians enjoy?), we never learned what it is. Oh well.
What is THIS you ask??? Well, I just wanted to throw it in there to remind myself and all of you that we will be returning to Ukraine in about 2 weeks. Classy, no? This is how many of you wait for the metro train to go to work, right? Sigh....
