La Bella Vita: June 2012

June 20

Ben is finally catching up on his sleep after the grandparents were here. He had so much fun with them for almost a full month, but the traveling and crazy schedules were starting to wear on him. That week, he took a two-hour nap at daycare three times!

Ben still loves most everyone he meets (and everyone loves him, of course!). He is very curious and alert and aware of his surroundings. He is so good at using his hands, and always looks like he is trying to figure things out, like the back of his toys, the buckles on his seats, and the buttons on our shirts. He is getting pretty good at walking, as long as you are holding both of his hands. Two new foods he really likes are zucchini and cherries.

He loves attention, sometimes screeching to get it, but most often talking and laughing. He gets a huge smile when he first sees someone he knows (even if it’s only been two minutes since he last saw them), and a blank stare with people he doesn’t know or he sees infrequently, like when we give a coworker a ride home.

He likes reading books, playing, clapping his hands, playing peek-a-boo, and inspecting any shoes we put on him. It is easy to make him laugh, and it is the most wonderful sound. He can scoot across the room on his bottom, but he still hates it when you try to make him crawl. He usually sleeps on his side, but sometimes back or tummy. Recently he has been falling asleep sitting up. He sleeps through the night a couple times per week. Sometimes I hear him playing quietly in his crib when he wakes up. We haven’t used the monitor since we’ve been in Italy, because we can hear him in our apartment just fine, but we recently got it back out so we can see him on camera and make sure he sleeps laying down with all his arms and legs inside the crib.

Ben has fallen asleep sitting up a couple times recently. Yes, I used a flash, and no, it didn’t wake him up.

Saturday, there was a Summer Party at Ben's daycare. They gave diplomas to the kids who were about to leave for preschool, they sang songs, and there was a girl making cool bubbles.
A huge bubble. Ben loved it!

I think Tim had a nice Father's Day. Ben colored a card for him, and wrote him a message in his blocks. I got him a waffle maker. Now I just have to figure out how to make waffles from scratch without mix, and something to use other than syrup.

The Lakes

For our second and last weekend with Tim’s parents, we went north of Milan to the lake region. The three biggest lakes close to us are Lago Maggiore, Lago di Como, and Lago di Lugano. Lago Maggiore is the largest, and was the one we saw with my parents, Como is probably the most well known, and Lugano is the one we stayed on. Our hotel was in Italy, but most of the lake is in Switzerland.

Our hotel was right on the lake! The view and the flowers decorating our hotel patio gave it an idyllic atmosphere. We had planned on touring the area of Lugano the first day, but it was really raining, so we sat in our room, enjoyed our view, and played board games. Not a total loss of an afternoon!

Feeding Ben's Cheerios...

...to a swan!

Views from our hotel, patio, and dock right on the water

That night we found out that the road between our hotel and town was going to be closed for the Tour de Suisse. Our hotel director suggested we head the other direction to Lake Como. This was already our tentative plan, so that’s what we did. It was still raining when we woke up, so we were disappointed about that, but by the time we got going, it had cleared up, and by the time we made it to Como, the sun was shining bright. We boarded a touring ferry, and went around the middle part of the lake for an hour before disembarking at two cute little towns, Bellagio and Varenna. During dinner, the wind picked up and the temperatures dropped, and just when we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up. Tim and I made a mad dash to get the car for the parents and Ben. It was raining so hard we all got a bit wet nonetheless, but no harm done. We drove by several new waterfalls on the way back.

The boat we were about to board, Ben's first boat ride!

Bellagio from the boat

We heard it raining in the wee hours Sunday morning (when Ben was up), but again, it stopped before we went out, and we had a beautiful day. We went back into Switzerland to go to the castles of Bellinzona. We went to the highest castle first, the one we never made it to with my parents. Luckily we drove up this time, because it was neat, but would not have been worth the hike up. On the way down we stopped at the middle castle, then drove down to the big castle. We got paninis before going into the castle, and Ben ate a decent sized chunk of mine, in tiny pieces. Tim’s parents enjoyed the castle, and then we headed home so they could pack. They made it back to the US slightly delayed, but otherwise uneventful.

The highest castle, Sasso Corbaro

The middle castle, Montebello

The oldest castle, Castelgrande

On a side note, I am almost positive we saw Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and his new wife walking around at Lake Como. They had been honeymooning in Rome the week before. And then I saw pictures in People magazine of George Clooney on his boat there on Monday, two days after we were there.

Italian Riviera

Tim’s parents arrived on Thursday, May 31. Ben was surprised and happy to see them. The next day, we left for the sea. We had a few places we planned to visit, so we stayed in a quaint little town in between, called Sestri Levante. We always seem to get a late start when we travel, trying to work around nap time and P90X. So, after the two hour trip, we arrived late afternoon. Our hotel, Hotel Genova, was cute, close to the train station, and very close to the beach. It had a nice rooftop terrace with beautiful views. After arriving, we had time to dip feet in the sea, get gelato, and walk the long promenade along the shore before dinner.

Saturday, we went to the Cinque Terre, the “five lands”. This area was just south of where we were staying. We took the train to the southernmost of the five cities. The coastline here is rocky and steep. The towns are built into the sides of the mountains, making them very picturesque. They tiered off the farmland for grapes, tomatoes, olive groves, and fruit trees. The streets are a pain to walk up, but always reward you with views. The train trips, unfortunately, are mostly through tunnels. We walked from the first to the second town, and took the train to each of the others. They had bad flooding last October, and some of the hiking trails were washed out. The towns had varying levels of damage, really bad in two of them, but they seem to have recovered. We did not notice any signs of the flood.

1st town Riomaggiore. We walked up a steep hill through the town, then walked 20 minutes along the coast to the 2nd town.

My camera didn't pick up the blue of the water as much as I would have liked, but this is a good one.

This hat did not last long.

2nd town Manarola. This was the most picturesque of the towns. We took an hour long walk through the tiered orchard, that ended with a spectacular view of the town.

The tiers for growing grapes, tomatoes, and fruit and olive trees.

3rd town Corniglia, was up on a hill so we opted to take a shuttle. We did some wine tasting.

4th town Vernazza was a cute little town to walk through from the train station to the water and back.

5th town Monterosso al Mare. The largest of the 5 towns, where we ended our day and had dinner.

Ben ate the middle part of the bread, then swung the crust around like a helicopter.

Sunday, we took the train to Santa Margherita Ligure, another seaside town. My favorite thing here was the garden with several different types of palm trees. Late afternoon, we took a bus to Portofino, stopping at a beach along the way. Portofino is a very wealthy town, with yachts anchored out front. My favorite thing here was the gelato on the main piazza.

Along the waterfront