Tag: family travel

Can’t sleep.

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Missing the sunrise and peeking over the balcony as early workers stroll by, conversing in native tongues over the rooster’s crow. Stretching out my legs and feeling the heat on my skin before daylight has fully broken.

Stirring the perfect cappuccino —

— under the latticed patio roof, flanked by lush vegetation and pretty florals. We pretend it’s all ours. There’s nowhere to be and nothing to accomplish. No one to appease but each other.

Then,

Heading oceanward to plunk down our bodies, laze about and brown deliciously all over. Dunking full selves into the surf when it gets a little too toasty. Hearing the wind, the waves and very little else.

The sun’s gone.

A peaceful respite though the bugs are biting, but we’ve learned not to notice. Sharing a tasty meal, not skimping on dessert, then heading out to where…

…they dance into the night.

Perfectly en pointe, in tune, attuned. Mesmerizing and seemingly without effort, commanding attention and deserving adoration.

Yet sadly,

It’s over almost as soon as it began, when the realization hits that you’re caught up and will do

Whatever
It
Takes

To feel that way again.

— the love of travel
— by dianne c.

an ode to hotels

hotels

We love hotels!  It’s hard to imagine who doesn’t, really.  You arrive to a freshly made bed and (assumed) spotless tub. When you leave for the day and come back, everything’s cleaned up for you.  The pillows and covers are like heavenly soft marshmallows, and when you hang a sign on the door, no one bothers you.

We love hotels.

Dani and Stella, as soon as they get in, unplug the phone and start to make pretend calls on it.  It’s hard to pry the Gideons bible out of Stella’s hands before she rips pages out of it.  There’s satellite TV with tons of current movies to watch (though we never, ever end up seeing one), room service (which we’ve never ordered), and wake up calls to be arranged (that never get arranged, because with experience I’ve learned to trust only myself to get up promptly in the mornings).

We love hotels.

You head downstairs in the morning, having freshly rolled out of bed in our pantulog (pajamas), so succinctly our style, and grab some light breakfast. There’s coffee which is mandatory for us parents, oatmeal which is mandatory for Stella, who eats nothing else, and hard-boiled eggs for Dani, who eats only the whites and always asks for more (guess who gets the extra cholesterol hit because I don’t waste yolk).

We love hotels.

When it’s the night before checkout, it’s time to pack up.  We must peek in every drawer, under each nightstand and couch cushion, and in the crevices of the bedposts to make sure the kids haven’t dropped or hidden anything valuable.  There’s hair in the tub, nubs of toothpaste in the sink basin, and scrunched-up covers on the bed and strewn on the floor.  Tomorrow, we must leave this wonderful abode.  Where we’re going, no one is going to clean up our messes, pay for satellite television stations, or have breakfast hot and ready when we decide to wake up.  It’s time to re-welcome reality and it bites!

The end.

Disney HOLLYWOOD Life

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I SWEAR I had this post all written up and ready to go on a note app on my phone weeks ago, but then I cut the text to paste it and deleted it by accident =(  So here we go again!

The 3rd and final Disney installment covers our trip to Hollywood Studios.  The admission is the same as the other Disney parks: $99.00 for those age 10 and over, $93.99 for ages 3-9, and free < 3.  We had purchased both Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios tickets online at the same time, so when we previously went to the Mickey Halloween party, they loaded both admissions conveniently on the same reusable card.  The day was very hot, perhaps 32 degrees Celsius, and not rainy (at first).  A little trick we do is to tell the ticket person that it’s our first visit every time and then you get a cute “1st Visit!” button to wear, so you can imagine how big our collection has grown =)  Hey – at $99 admission, I feel entitled.

As we entered the park, we were given Olaf cardboard fans to cool off.  They were much needed.  Our first stop was to the “For the First Time in Forever” Frozen sing-along show.  We had to get an advance ticket and pick a show time, and then wait in line (about 30 minutes).  The show consisted of a male and female host, with special appearances by Anna, Kristoff, and of course Elsa at the end.  Basically, it was a gigantic screen that played the entire Frozen soundtrack, complete with lyrics, dazzling lights and special effects.  It was about an hour and it was “so-so.”  Nothing too exciting.  It was cute hearing all those young voices singing word-for-word, though.

After that, we headed to the “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” playground.  Overhead was a giant “spider web,” or jungle-gym type rope maze for kids (and parents) to climb through.  There were slides and even a gigantic “Antie” just like in the movie.  It was one of my favourites as a kid, so I definitely wanted to check this one out.  I always dreamed of being a child actress and starring in such an adventurous film as this one.  As the day was getting progressively hot and expectant mommy was starting to get hungry, we headed to the nearby food court to grab sandwiches, hot dogs, and ice cold soft drinks.

We spent the rest of the day on pregnant- and toddler- friendly rides and shows such as Muppet Vision in 3D, the Great Movie Ride, and the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular (this was my favourite of the day – who didn’t love Indy in the 80s?!).  We had wanted to take Dani to the Jedi Training Academy, where apparently kids get to do Jedi training with light sabers and all, but she was too young and/or short.  I had always wanted to check out the Tower of Terror, so perhaps we’ll need to come back once the bun is out of the oven =)  Also, there was a 2-hour wait for the Toy Story Midway Mania ride, so we said forget that.  By that time, it had begun to rain (yes, we donned the Disney ponchos yet again), so we called it a day.

All in all, I’d still prefer the excitement and crowd participation of Universal Studios, but maybe when Dani is at least 6 or 7, because DHS proved to be the more toddler-friendly option.

Until next time, Mickey fans… hope you got something useful out of your reading and enjoy your next trip to the happiest place(s) on earth 😉

DisneyLIFE

fam at LEP

Happy 2015 everybody!  Thank you to all my visitors all over the world.  I haven’t been posting nearly enough as I should be, but that’s one of my resolutions for the new year.  Thank you again for all your support.

Orlando Florida family vacation:  September 20-27, 2014
There’s just something so happy and exciting about Disney Magic, and Dani just can’t stop talking about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

The weather was just perfectly suited to my taste: high in the mid 30’s (but not often) and low in the mid 20’s (mainly due to the rain, which came down 5 out of 7 days of the week).  In the dead heat of sunlight, I felt particularly suffocated because I’m not a “summer person.”  Plus, being pregnant, I’m always hot.  I welcomed the cooling sensation the rain brought, and strolling the air-conditioned malls almost every day was fun too, not to mention the swimming pools at the Orange Lake resort complex where we stayed for the week.

I shall rewind to day one and the adventures of happily married couple, adoring almost-three-year-old daughter, and 4-month-old baby swimming around in utero.  Leaving home at 5:30 am, we crossed the border and arrived at Buffalo International Airport around 8:00 am.  Flying out of BIA saved us at least $300-400 off typical fares out of Pearson.  We also parked across the street from the airport at the Hampton Inn for $5 a day, opting to take the $2.99 cancellation insurance (if something happens and your flight is cancelled or you can’t arrive within the next 24 hours, you’re not charged a late fee).  A 24-hour on-demand shuttle was ready at the door to take us over, and they provided us with a phone number to call a driver upon our return.  We were very pleased with the polite and efficient service.

Our first flight was to Atlanta, with a little over an hour to catch our connecting flight to Orlando.  No complaints or remarks to make here, as the flights and transitions were both speedy and smooth.  The first flight was under 2 hours, and the 2nd was just about one hour.  Even the wait at the rental car counter was fairly quick, although I’ll heed a warning here.  Car insurance for the week cost over $300, which was a surprise to us since we paid a third of that the last time we rented in Orlando.  Perhaps booking your car rental separate from a flight package and opting for their insurance is the safer bet.

After collecting the car seat and installing happy Dani into our black 2014 Ford Fusion (John wasn’t happy with the choice at all), we headed to Orange Lake West Village.  Our room exceeded our expectations.  We had used RCI exchange points to book and, listed as a Studio, it had a full kitchen minus the oven (stovetop, mini fridge, microwave, kettle, pots and pans, dishes, etc.)  To save some valuable shopping/Mickey dollars, we bought groceries at the nearby Target and Walmart stores and cooked a few dinners and even more breakfasts.

If you’re an Orange Lake timeshare owner, beware that you’re whisked to a separate desk to book your “return visit update” (aka Timeshare sales presentation).  The incentive was 50% the resort’s play-all-week package: mini golf, use of tubes for the lazy river, etc. for one hour of your time (we didn’t even end up buying it).

We dined at Ponderosa for our first evening (my how it has changed – pricey, and they eliminated the full buffet, boo hoo) and checked out some nearby stores i.e. Ross and Target, heading to bed early to recover from the 2.5 hours of sleep we had gotten the night before.

We were up early to catch our 8:00 am sales presentation, which we wanted to book first thing in the morning to just get it over with.  I’m extremely proud of Dani lasting the entire time, and of John and myself not upgrading or buying anything.  The last time we had attended such a presentation, we walked out with a timeshare =)  We had breakfast buffet at Sizzler, and after resting a bit that afternoon, headed to downtown Orlando’s Lake Eola Park.  We saw some swans and plenty of baby lizards (BUTIKI!  My favourite word!  LOL) and did some more shopping in the evening.

The next afternoon, after sleeping in again, we headed to Walmart to grab some groceries for the day: a barbecued chicken, salad, and some bread, and drove about 1.5 hours to Daytona Beach.  It was a perfect day: not blazingly hot or sunny, and quite empty on the beach.  If you’ve never been before, it costs $3.00 to park directly on the beach for the day.  Because it was overcast and rainy, there were only a handful of other cars nearby, which was just fine for us =)  On the way there, we passed the Daytona International Speedway and Vince Carter’s high school, for all you millions of Raptors fans out there.  =P

It was a lovely time.  Dani enjoyed playing in the not-so-packable sand and wading in the waves, although she caught and swallowed a mouthful of saltwater and vomited up some mushy strawberry remains (gross).  Afterwards, we headed to Toys R Us to pick up Dani’s Cinderella princess dress and the much coveted Shopkins, which were hard to find in stock back in Toronto and almost never available online.

I realize I’ve written quite a lengthy passage here, so I’ll save the rest for parts 2, 3 and maybe even 4 =)

Happy reading… don’t forget to come back!

Marbell-ous

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It is nearing the end of day two here at the Club Marbella Crown Resorts here in this small town (of the same name) near Malaga, Spain. What an excellent decision to leave this leg of the trip for last, since for the past week we’ve been commuting, sightseeing, and sleeping very little. These past few days, however, have consisted of eating, having a siesta, heading to Dani’s kiddie pool, eating, having a siesta, and so on. We are quite relaxed to say the least.  Perhaps a little too relaxed, as my belly jiggles and giggles and I can barely get up a few flights of stairs without panting (it’s also quite hot, teehee).  There is no AC in this apartment and the temperatures reach 30 degrees, so perhaps that’s why we’ve been really sluggish. Even Dani has been sleeping uninterrupted and for long stretches at a time (hope I didn’t jinx that).
Up until this afternoon, we’d eaten at the on-site restaurant and at a few places down the hill from our resort, and then we took the resort shuttle bus down to the supermarket and did some grocery shopping. It’s nice to have a fully-equipped apartment, complete with kitchen, washing machine, two bedrooms, and full bathrooms. The only thing lacking is a dryer, but there are is a communal drying facility somewhere onsite. In an effort to save a few bucks, the environment, and the strenuous task of hauling bags of wet laundry goodness-knows-where, we’ve been hanging our clothes out on the drying rack on the balcony. Now, the clothes don’t smell Bouncy fresh; rather, they barely smell like anything at all, and they are clean. Smelling of fresh florals doesn’t matter much anyway, since five minutes out the door, you’re damp from sweat and not noticing nor caring how greasy your skin is.  I’m breaking out in pimples on the left side of my face, dammit.
We don’t have much planned tomorrow (Tuesday) other than heading to the nearby Cabopino beach which costs 2 Euros return, payable to the resort shuttle bus driver. I’d also like to check out some of the sister resorts, of which there are four, since one apparently has a really cool playground that Dani should enjoy. She’s the only child I’ve seen using the playground here, and it’s so hot that her juicy butt sticks to the slide, so it’s not very fun at all. There’s also a shopping centre I want to visit, though my spending  urges haven’t been too great throughout this trip. Just having enough energy to see what we need to see and having full and content bellies at the end of the day is enough reward for me.
On Wednesday, we have a day trip to Gibraltar in the United Kingdom, for which I have a few reservations.  All over the news and as forewarned by the PR representative at orientation this morning, Spain and Britain continue a 300-year-old war over ownership of the Rock, and are slowing down border crossings with extremely long checks and waiting times. If driving, we were told to park vehicles on the Spanish side of the bridge and just walk over. We’re taking a guided tour, so I can only hope and pray we make it across in a seamless fashion for my sweet, impatient little Dani’s sake.
Thursday is our full-day excursion to Tangier, Morocco, for a tour through the markets, lunch and mint tea, and perhaps even a camel ride.  For both trips, we are being picked up at our hotel via air-conditioned coach (cue heavenly music), so we just have to sit back and enjoy the scenic ride. We booked both trips with Viator along with our previous excursions (see Paris post) because they had seemingly good reviews and are well-known.
For some off-topic news, we’ve had a breakthrough with Dani, who pulls at her diaper and says “yes” when we ask if she’s “poo-pooed.”  I like to always keep the bathroom door open when I go, don’t ask why (it’s just ’cause), and she likes to walk in and say “poo poo” and laugh  whenever I’m using the bowl.  When we return home (noooooo!!!) someone’s going to start potty training!
 Gosh, how I love this munchkin. Some of the locals fell in love with her when we passed by them in the street, and whenever there are other youngsters in the pool, they go up and talk to her and instantly become BFFs. Life in Spain is just amazing.
Wifi is limited here, so the next time I post might be a few days. Thank you for reading, wherever in the world you are!
X’s and O’s

Over and Out…

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*crying
As I type, it is Sunday night at the Sheraton in Dusseldorf; we had left our casa in Spain this morning and just returned from visiting this quaint German city for the evening.  It’s been too expensive and inconvenient to connect to wifi in Spain, so I’ll be posting a few days’ worth as I sit here in the Sheraton lobby, in my Spongebob pajamas, past 11:30 pm.
Yesterday, our last entire day, we headed to the nearby Cobapina beach for a few hours, having fun in the sun and jumping in the surf. I tried to get my dark on, well, as much as I could within two and a half hours.  Dani really enjoyed playing in the sand, and just relaxing to the sound of the ocean was heavenly. This morning, we checked out and blessedly had a return airport transfer, so a private taxi picked us up and drove us to Malaga airport. Our public transportation adventures hadn’t ended yet, at this point, but more on that later.
At the check-in counter in Spain, we encountered a totally slow and/or confused lady who took over an hour to check in three guests, and here was Dani, screaming her head off, impatiently strapped into the stroller.  I won’t even get into the little argument we had, since we had gotten on and off the plane with our bodies and luggage intact after all. But-  pfft. I’m still annoyed.
The flight seemed very quick, with Dani asleep about half the time. And the nice thing was that after grabbing our luggage, we only needed to cross the airport parking lot and take an elevator to the fifth floor, and we were at our hotel!
A little before 5:00 pm, we took the tram (subway) to Dusseldorf HBF, what seemed like a major station in the middle of the city. From there, we walked for about 40 minutes in the rain until we reached the Rhine River, and found there was a neat Urban Art Festival happening, with live music, exhibitions for the kids and, most importantly, a little stand selling curry wurst (a curry-sauced sausage) and pomme frites (French fries). Yes, we had centered this entire layover on curry wurst! We had also wanted to take a Rhine boat tour, but didn’t look too hard for it since it was already raining and getting a little late.  Back to the train station we headed, with some really shady looking, possibly strung out/ drunk/prostitute types hanging out nearby.  We did a little running around the station, getting more Euros from a bank machine (we had run our wallets DRY at this point), getting change for said Euros (the ticketing machine didn’t accept anything larger than a ten-dollar bill), and trying to select the correct of many options of destination/train/platform etc.  When in doubt, ask for help!  One thing I’ve noticed is that in all of Europe (that we’d visited, at least), everyone was able to accommodate us in English!
Though it was our shortest stay, I found this little town most intriguing. It’s so friggin’ OLD but preserved so beautifully. And I can’t help but think back to the days when Germany was at war, and how lucky we are to be of many ethnicities sharing the streets, restaurants, and other public areas today.  What could it possibly have been like back then?! I’m so glad we don’t know firsthand!
Pics are below. It’s been an amazing two weeks. Please feel free to add any comments or ask questions about anything relating to our travels- tips, directions (look at me attempting to offer help with directions- haha! ask at your own risk!) -anything at all. I will answer each and every inquiry!
Real world, here I come (back). I got a lot of effin’ homework to do!
See you soon.
X. O.
Di.

Euro-Trippin’ Part.. Something. Lol

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It’s Wednesday and we’re at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar! Contrary to my fears that we would be stopped at the border, we actually drove straight to the front of the line and barely waited 10 minutes for our passports to be checked.
I also thought I’d mention that, since the tour bus picked us up straight from our hotel door, they collected our Viator vouchers and there was no need to exchange them for tickets this time. Yay!
We went from our tour bus to a minibus, which drove us up the rock, nearly 500 meters high, steep and kinda scurry due to the lack of sufficient roadside shouldering, and periodically stopped for picture-taking. At the top of the hill, we entered St. Michael’s cave and all around the cave and in the souvenir stores were the monkeys!  Their true names are Macaca somethings- I lack wifi still and can’t google.  They were everywhere… jumping on and into cars, on people’s heads, some fighting each other, some carrying babies on their backs… I gathered my courage to step close enough to this rather large one for a photo and I won’t lie; I was worried he’d park his patchy red ass on my head!
Tangier, Morocco tomorrow!

Trip Trippin’ Part IV – Bonjour Bon Bons

Wellll let me say that our transition from the Beauvais airport to the Port Maillot Metro station was not a difficult one – Mommy walks really fast so we beat the lines to get the bus tickets and were on the next available bus before those lines got ridiculously long.  THEN came the stress I’ll call the Paris Metro Stroller Haul.  It’s not that difficult to get around the subway system, rather just like Rome, accessibility is another issue.  There are faster and more efficient elevators, but they’re not on every floor in every station (at least not the ones we’ve been in).  Thus, we again began the juggling act of Dani, backpacks, carry-ons, stroller, and the like up and down many flights of stairs.  This time with less sleep than ever.  One of the exits was strange, because you had to insert your luggage and stroller through a hole in the bottom left of the partition before going through the small turnstile yourself.  This took some strategic planning but we managed somehow without having to stuff Dani or our own butts through the hole 🙂

After tons of sweat and passing through many a urine-stank-soaked elevator, we arrived at our hotel 1.5 hours early, so we went to a Chinese restaurant across the street for lunch and to kill some time.  That was a big mistake.  Snobbiest waiters ever, who had these “get out of my way” looks about them when Dani got up to walk around.  They seemed annoyed that we weren’t speaking French, and took forever to deliver our ultra-chintzed, child-sized portions that ended up costing 20 Euros, or $28 HARD-EARNED CANADIAN DOLLARS!  For LUNCH!  Man, I’d have a shitload of fried tentacles, chicken’s feet, scramp rolls, tripe, siu mai, etc. etc. back home (Tremendous or Perfect, take your pic.  HOLLA!) for that much.  Now, I never, ever, get homesick.  But one thing I’ve been missing here (okay, two) are Timmy’s and FOOD.  GOSH all we ate in Rome was pizza and all we’ve been eating here is sandwiches and crepes.  We’d like to branch out into the smaller neighbourhoods and experience more of the local tastes, but when working with a child’s schedule and temperament, we’re lucky to sit and grab a bite at all!  That goes for shopping as well.  We barely bought a thing in Rome and we haven’t hit the department stores or any of the shops on the Champs Elysees (not like I’m able to fork out hundreds of Euros as it is).

I start to miss Rome when I see how SOME (not ALL) people look irritated when they see Dani running around.  Others think it is cute and will smile and wave at her, but that’s rarer than the former.  Also, it seems like no one waits in line, rather just rushes in and out of whatever lineup, doorway, subway train, etc. like it’s every man for himself.  In Rome, your children are LOVED.  Most people of all ages stop and smile and chat to your child, and there isn’t one time that a seat wasn’t offered on the subway because we were pushing a stroller or carrying her.  I have yet to see that here, although most of our servers and the shop keepers have been very nice.  Perhaps we’re just picking up the vibes of irritated locals during busy tourist season 🙂

On day 1, after we finally checked into the hotel, we took a nice long nap, were out the door by 10:00 pm, and hit the city.  We visited the Louvre, Palais Royale, and even the local carnival for some crepes and churros.  Photo ops along the way were inevitable.  The next day we slept in, made it in time for our Seine city bus tour (as you can guess, we got lost, LOL – prepare for PLENTY of getting lost whenever you’re in a foreign land), went to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower, to Leon de Bruxelles for some dinner on the Champs Elysees, and then back to the Seine for our evening cruise.  We had booked this tour (which includes the bus tour/Eiffel Tower visit/Seine River cruise) through Viator.  Our Disneyland (which is where we went today) tickets were booked through the same supplier.  Let me exercise some caution.  When you order online, you’ll be emailed a voucher with a barcode.  Do NOT mistake this for your ticket.  We were lucky to find out in time that you need to go to Information and exchange the vouchers for actual tickets before you can join the excursion.  I’ve seen some people turned away and have to re-enter really long lines for this reason.  Also, don’t mistake your printed RECEIPT for a voucher, either.  Mommy had a dum-dum moment and for that, we had to return to our hotel after already getting to Disneyland.  Dani had a nice nap in between this fun little setback and the lines had disappeared when we got back, so it all worked out in the end.  Heh.  Heh.

I’ll stop blabbering away now.  Tomorrow we will spend our last day in the red light district (woo-hoo!), visiting the Sacre Coeur- my favourite, and what I find to be the most beautiful place in Paris- and the department stores Galeries Lafayettes and Printemps for some shopping, if we can get there in time.  All in all, Paris is beautiful as always.  We’ll be very sad to leave tomorrow night.

Pics are below.

Au revoir for now.

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Part 2-FCO

Trip Trippin’ Part 2-FCO

When in Rome… be prepared to be tired and stressed out when travelling with small children!!

Day one: arrive Leonardo da Vinci/Fiumicino airport. Baggage pickup and the Leonardo Express train to Termini (Rome’s central train station) were relatively smooth,  except for one incident in which we discovered that elevators in Rome are shoebox-small, slow, and don’t reach every floor you want or need them to.  The rest of our journey was quite stressful and tiring.
After arriving at Termini station, we headed to the TerraCafe (also in the station) to pick up our OMNIA Rome and Vatican cards, which allow unlimited use of public transportation including the hop-on, hop-off bus systems, and, most importantly, entrance to the Vatican, Colosseum, and one other main attraction without having to wait in line. If you’ve ever seen that massive Vatican lineup (I’ve stood in it once before, actually), you’ll know what value this holds.  Waiting to pay regular admission could take two hours or longer.
Back to picking up the OMNIA cards, or lack thereof. Apparently they’d run out completely, and the only other place to get them was at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.  After a long flight with about three hours of sleep (not to mention a 45-minute initial delay, insignificant at this point), each hauling 25-lb. backpacks, carry-on luggage, and pushing an unhappy Dani strapped into her stroller, we decided to just pick up the passes the next day.  We search for the elevator.  After a few attempts on our own and asking a local store clerk (apparently no one knows where the eff it is), a police officer finally points us in the correct direction. Too bad it’s under maintenance and appears to be the only one.  Regretfully, we end up waking up Dani, who is not pleased with us, and yells out her unhappiness as we now balance a stroller, two large backpacks, two heavy carry-ons, and a 24-lb infant down the escalator.  After purchasing two day passes for the Metro, we begin the arduous elevator journey down to Metro Line A- direction Anagnina. It is arduous because, yet again, it is shoebox-sized, and takes three of them to get down to subway level.  Apparently, it is mastermind Roman urban planning that allows such elevators to descend only a few floors each time.  In travel books and on online forums, “they” say that Rome is not child-friendly, but I wasn’t expecting this.  I’ll never complain about the Eaton Centre’s “inefficiencies” ever again.
By this time, around 2.5 hours on foot since exiting the plane, our entire bodies are drenched in sweat in yesterday’s clothes, and our shoulders are caving in and defeated.
We make it to our stop and exit, look around, ask two locals for directions to the hotel, and somehow end up walking in a gigantic extend-a-route square path in the 32+ degree Roman weather with the aforementioned baggage, until we finally find our hotel.
The rest of the day was spent walking around the city, visiting the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and major shopping streets Via Corso and Via Condotti, with a stop for some mango and kinder egg-flavoured gelato along the way, obvi.  I almost fell asleep two or three times while waiting for a meal or just getting a chance to sit.  However, none of those details were as exciting as even getting here, so I’ll leave it at that. ‘Til the next…
Ciao!