Blockbusters

In Provence we became very accustomed to finding pleasures in small things. Suddenly ivy weaving its way through iron shutters seemed reason enough for a family stop, combined admiration and a photo shoot. No wonder my phone tells me it has come to the end of its storage capacity.

Our time in Italy has been quite a contrast. Today as we drove down our cypress-lined driveway and looked back on our Italian mansion I mentioned to Jamie that I felt as though we had hardly been at the house. Jamie and I didn’t even make it in to the pool.

There were just too many other gems just waiting to be discovered.

George is constantly inquiring as to something’s level of fame - a bridge, a building, an artist, a celebrity. What is the most famous painting in the world? What are the ten most famous bridges in the world? I can seldom offer informed answers for him and have committed to writing down all these questions and answering one each dinner time on our return. No harm in keeping the dream alive in some way or shape just a little bit longer.

For George it is all about the king hits (despite the reality being that he appreciates the creeping ivy more than any of us). He wants to be able to say he’s been to famous places and seen famous things. Fair enough. He is a nine year-old boy afterall.

And we have provided him with plenty of Italian material to work with.

Highlights abound. Probably the biggest was the surprise day trip we had planned to Venice. The children had been told we were going to Florence for the day (that in itself created enough excitement). And that was not a lie. We made our way to the train station and then confessed that we were in fact heading to Venice. Those big smiles and excited little jumps will never be erased from my memory. They were happy children. We were happy parents. It seemed as though the entire day was sprinkled with magic and will long be talked about in family discussions. (We popped a video of the children chasing pigeons in St Mark’s Square in the video section - we will enjoy watching it from time to time).

We have made the most of Tuscany’s incredible history, architecture and art. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Siena’s Piazza del Campo, The Uffizi Gallery (the location of another video - Art Appreciation), duomos and churches. We have mixed them in with other interesting outings - not necessarily ones on everyone’s bucket list: Biking around the wall in Lucca, the Vespa Museum at Pontedera, Leonardo’s Machines museum and, a personal favourite, Pinocchio Land. The latter was like stepping in to a 1950s Italian holiday park complete with an ‘expressive reading’ of the story itself in Italian and a mock gondola roundabout (still enjoyed despite the fact they had been on the real thing on the Grand Canal just a few days before).

And today we have driven to Rome for our final stop in Europe. We drove Martha (our beloved GPS voice) to her final resting place and had an emotional farewell.  She has largely kept us on the straight and narrow, from time to time taken us down wrong ways or streets designed for Fiat Bambinis certainly not our Citroen Space Tourer, but we had grown quite affectionate towards her and consider her calm, melodic voice a significant part of our adventure. She directed us along 6500km of road (that’s the equivalent of over 13 times from Wellington to Auckland). And most importantly her AC provided a refuge from the heat!!

We are up for a few action packed days before boarding our flight to Singapore on Sunday - and we certainly have one more blog entry in us before we leave Europe. But for now we thought we would share some of the photos and memories of our time in Italy so far. It has been perfetto!