One Word Wednesday: Homecoming

So I lived in Perugia from 1991 to 1994, right after I graduated from College. I had spent a semester in Florence during my Junior year and instantly made plans to return as soon as possible. I attended an Italian University for Foreigners and eventually ended up teaching English and horseback riding. I also made some dear friends and I couldn't wait to visit Emanuele and his family - now a father of two boys!

  Seeing Emanuele as a father: Touching

     Everyone Sharing lunch together at 

      Emanuele's house:  Milestone

      Listening to Emanuele play all

      the old songs: Nostalgic

      Seeing Elliot and Frederico overcome

      their language barrier:  Awesome

    Elliot on the new ropes course along

    The Tiber River:  Focused

                  Nadia:  Obsessed

         Lucas on the course:  Natural

 

           Elliot on the Zip Line:  Zippy

     Seeing Nadia also work through the

     struggles of a language barrier:

     (Also) Awesome

     Emanuele and his youngest son

         Leonardo:  Twins

 

    Finally showing the Family the main

    center of Perugia:  Thrilling

Much more to come on Perugia. 

Ciao e Baci

Nancy 

Martha and Fred

We're staying at a B and B in the countryside outside of Perugia and our female host seems to be the Martha Stewart of Italy. I'm still trying to figure out who the male host is. It's confusing because he looks like a gray haired Fred Armisen of SNL and Portlandia but he couldn't be more different. I think I will have to settle on him being the male version of the Italian version of Martha Stewart (but for simplicity sake I will call him Fred).

Believe me. This has its downsides. But in an effort to be fair, I will try to keep a balanced view. 

On the upside, our guest house is so clean we could eat off the floor. 

On the downside, we have to keep it that way. 

  

On the upside, not a bad place to be if we all get the stomach flu again. 

On the downside, would you really want to barf in Martha's bathroom?

On the upside, Martha and Fred think our children are well behaved. 

On the downside, Martha and Fred think our children are well-behaved. 

On the upside, there are lots of yummy sweets for breakfast in the morning. 

On the downside, Martha does not seem to understand the importance of protein. 

On the upside, Fred is not always here in the morning. 

On the downside, if Fred is here in the morning he likes to chat and if anyone knows me, I am not a morning person and I save all five of my words for my children. 

 

Oh, let's end on a good note. Shall we?

On the upside, there's a pool!!!!!

Ciao e Baci!

Nancy 

Anatomy of an archeological excursion

It's hot. The air won't move. Sunblock just slides off our bodies with sweat. We buy bottles of cold water but half way through they are lukewarm. We've already lost an hour getting lost in a small town looking for a place to eat. The kids are spent and asking when we can return to the pool. It's our last day in Sardegna and we have ruins to see. 

 

The island of Sardegna is dotted with thousands of Nuraghic Ruins - remains from a civilization that lived here during the Bronze Age from 1900 - 730 BC. The ruins range from beehive shaped towers to semi-circle shaped tombs to entire villages. There is still much to uncover and understand.  

We've driven by dozens of sites - never stopping but now we are in the heart of some of the most significant remains. We've picked the hottest part of the day though. 

 

We scurry from shady spot to shady spot. Lucas is reminded of Asterix and Obelisk - the French cartoon he used to read. Although they were Gauls. 

The doorway at the "entrance" is not really an entry point although the kids crawl in and out of it. It is supposed to be a symbolic doorway for the living to preserve a connection with the dead. 

  

Italians always remind us that Sards are attached to their land - not the Sea. They were Shepards and only became fishermen when it was imposed on them. It is clear that these inland settlers were also attached to the interior. 

We've only driven about 20 km inland but between the heat and getting lost this is feeling like a major excursion. 

The kids are asking if we are done yet but we move onto one more down the road. Archeologists are actively excavating this impressive village. The description of its various parts are in shakey English. 

  

The temperature feels five degrees cooler inside of this tower. We linger awhile. The kids are playing some kind of "gotcha last" game. 

  

We finally pile in the car, blasting the AC. We make our way back. It is clear the kids are attached to the Sea. 

We're hoping that some day, they are drawn back to this place - maybe in the cool of a library with their nose in a book about Nuraghic culture. 

For now, they are asking if we can change the radio station because they have already heard this song. 

Ciao e Baci

Nancy

Where we've been

I guess Brad and I really did have our wits about us when we planned the third leg of our adventure in Sardegna. We put countless hours into researching where to stay and considered dozens of locations. In fact, if I failed to return your phone call last Spring, it was probably because I was on Trip Advisor reading about vacation rentals.  My apologies!

We knew we wanted "easy" for this part of the trip. Little to no driving. Access to the sea and a pool. Something scenic. And we got exactly that. We ended up in a condo community called Punto Volpe, right below the start of the exclusive Costa Smeralda (I originally reported that we were on  Golfo Atanci - had that wrong!).  

The development was built about 25 years ago and it was so well planned. Each little house had a lovely established garden with total privacy and mature plantings. The architects worked around the natural slope of the property and preserved the original flora and fauna. 

They also constructed wonderful pathways down to the Sea with a string  of stone platforms built into the rocks jutting out of the sea, providing an inviting gateway into the water. 

There were several sand beaches within walking distance with just a handful of folks to share it with - big difference from the over populated beaches. 

I already introduced you to the pool. 

We obeyed siesta hours, finally allowing us to sink into some good reading. The kids made some headway too on their summer homework. 

Best of all, were the views from our porch and mealtimes outside. The kids even slept outside a few times on the cushions. 

It was so hard to leave. So hard. 

Oh that Sea. We'll be back. One day. 

Ciao and Baci

Nancy