Ciao, Bella

Bonjour!

I have a little more time to post, right now, so I hope to tell you all about Italy, finally!

So, from where we last left off, I awoke in Tournai, on the morning of April 11th, at Catherine's parents house. It was very early and I was severely out of it. It was hard to meet her parents and the girls all in the same morning when I was still so tired and confused and understanding French felt very difficult, like trying to see to the bottom of  a murky pond.

After a light breakfast, we departed by car to the Brussels South Charleroi Airport, which was about a one hour drive from Tournai. It is a small airport, not the main Brussels airport that I had flown into the day before. After corralling up all the luggage and the girls, we got into the airport to check in. We were going to be flying Ryan Air, a well known discount airline in Europe, from Charleroi to Brindisi, Italy. We were going to be visiting the region of Puglia, which is the heel of the boot shape that is Italy. After going on my third airplane in two days, we landed after a two and half hour flight.

Daria, the family's previous au pair, met us in the airport. The girls were very happy to see her, and she them. Daria is Italian, and lives in Puglia in the village of Cisternino. After meeting her, we went to pick up our rental car and followed Daria for about an hour car ride to the city of Lecce, which was farther south. We met up with her friend Barbara, and together we all went out for lunch. The restaurant was a tony stone hole in the wall, but Daria said that these were the best places for food, because they were old and local, not a tourist trap. The food was great, I had lasagna al forno and the second course was all types of meat. I was so full by the time we left. I was also still feeling very tired and very confused. I wasn't really undersanding a lot of what was going on with the family, and I was beginning to feel very down and sad because I felt stupid for not speaking better French.

After going around Lecce a little bit, we departed by car, again following Daria, to Gallipolli, a city on the sea known for it's beaches. This is where we would be staying for the week. Once we arrived, it began to rain. This made for a mess lugging our suitcases down the cobblestone streets. But even in the rain, the view of the sea was beautiful. Our Bed and Breakfast was located right on the water. The girls and I had our own room, which was more like a mini loft style apartment. The girls slept up in the loft, and I slept down below, which held a small kuchen, breakfast nook, and bathroom. Everything was white and old looking, but in a good way. A way that felt ancient and full of secrets.

After unpacking a little bit, the landlord of the B&B told us that the wifi wasn't working. Of course. I knew that everyone in my family was waiting for me to tell them that I made it safely to Italy, and I did not have a way to do so. This made me feel even more down and sad. Feeling tired, I went along with the family for a walk through Gallipolli and we got some gelato and then went to dinner. Daria left, and we went back to our rooms for the night. I was exhausts, but because of the jet lag my internal body clock was thrown off and I could not sleep very much that first night.

The next morning, we had breakfast on the roof of the B&B, overlooking the sea. It was a lovely view of the rocky beaches and the endless blue expanse of the water and sky, blending together in a harmony of hues. After breakfast, we hopped in our rental car and headed back north an hour to Lecce, and we met up with Daria and Barbara. Lecce is a very old Roman city, and it has an amphitheater where the gladiators used to fight lions. It was very cool to see this, as well as all of the baroque style architecture and cathedrals. There was a farmers market of sorts in the main square, and I tasted all kinds of meats, cheeses, breads and oils. Catherine bought a little of everything that the girls liked. After getting some lunch at another small, authentic Italian restaurant, we rented two bike/cart things to ride around the city in. Sebastien and Catherine were in one, and Daria, Barbara, Emma and Elise and I were in the other. We raced around the city, bumping and swaying through the shaded cobblestone streets, laughing and screaming as we raced each other around, narrowly avoiding dogs, kids, and cars on the tiny twisting streets. In that moment, with the wind flying through my hair, and the sun shining on my face, the sound of laughter and three languages all around me, I finally felt a moment of happiness. Maybe things would be okay, after all. After about an hour of riding around like crazy people, we brought the carts back and got some gelato. As the sun was setting over the town, we said our goodbyes to Daria and Barbara, and departed back to Galliolli. We had dinner in our room, with all the bread, cheese, olives, meat, and wine that Catherine had bought in the market in Italy. It was delicious. We went to bed, and I felt slightly better, even though I didn't sleep very well, again.

On Sunday, we spent the day in Gallipolli, going through the historic city center and admiring the cathedrals and the sea. Then, by car, we drove along the seaside through many small villages close by, just wandering and enjoying the views. We stopped at a stretch of beach, and the girls ran along collecting literally every shell they saw, dumping them into my tiny purse, which was soon overflowing with sand and sea life. We left the beach after about an hour or so and made our way back to Gallipolli where we ate dinner and went to sleep.

On Monday, we headed out early after breakfast for a long day of driving north to other cities in Puglia. Our first stop was Otranto, which was an awesome city on the sea with a wonderful cathedral and a castle! We explored the city, and did some shopping. I treated myself to a new purse, because as I quickly learned, nannies need big bags to carry around every single thing in the universe that kids want to give you. So, after buying a large with a sturdy cross body strap, Duck, the girls beloved stuffed duck, rode around in it. The girls were insistent that he come everywhere with us so that he could see all the sights. We stopped at a restaurant to eat some lunch, and I had a pasta with a strong ricotta and tomatoes sauce, and Catherine and Sebastien enjoyed some seafood, which is amazingly fresh here. After lunch, we got in the car and drove another hour northeast to the village of Ostuni. You must google  pictures of this city. It was amazing. It is called a "citta bianca" or a "white city" because all the building and homes are white washed, and the streets are also light in color. When we were driving up the mountain to get to it, it was all white and glimmering from above. We met Daria here, and she showed us all around the historic center, and we admired the views from high up above. Italy is like one giant watercolor painting. The countryside is shades of green, dotted with wildflowers of yellow, red, purple and white. The views of the sea are a soft blend of blues, swirling together in soft waves. After exploring Ostuni, we went to Daria's home, which was about a twenty minute drive to the small village of Cisternino. She has a lovely traditional Puglian home, with the Touilles, as they are called in French. These are sort of cone/spiral shapes tower like things that are on many of the houses in the region. At her home, I was finally able to access wifi for about five minutes. It made me cry, because I realized how much I truly missed my family and friends. The girls wanted to know why I was sad, but I didn't even have the words to explain, which made me more sad. I quickly had to make myself stop crying as we got in the car and drove three hours back to Gallipolli through the night.

Tuesday, the 15th, was Emma's tenth birthday. Her parents got her a huge chocolate egg with Violetta, a Disney channel Europe character from the show, aptly titled Violetta. She is Emma and Elise's favorite. We had breakfast at a cafe and had some amazing Italian pastries with lemon, apple, raspberry, and chocolate! Then we got in the car, and drove back to Cisternino to meet up with Daria. She showed us around her village, which was also very beautiful, no surprise there. Everything in Puglia was beautiful. These cities and villages are literally five hundred years old, and still standing. It goes to show how secure the architecture is. However, the down side is that cars did not exist at that time, so many village are not meant to handle lots of traffic, yet somehow they do. Just like when I was in Spain, I wonder how cars, people, bikes, motorcycles, and animals can all fit down these narrow streets at the same time!
We went out to lunch with Daria in Cisternino, at a restaurant where she knows the staff. She secretly had a cake prepared for Emma's birthday, and the chef came out with it and sang to her, in English, thankfully, so I could sing along. After we all ate some cake, the waiter brought out three small bottles of different liquors. Apparently, it is common in Italy to take shots after eating large meals because it aids in digestion. I sampled a small taste of Limoncello, a traditional Italain liqour, but decided it was too strong and too sour and I didn't like it very much. I didn't bother to try the other two liquors. However, at this meal we did have the most amazing red wine that we had on the entire trip. It was smooth and soft on the mouth, very light and fresh. I wish I would have thought to buy a bottle!
After lunch, we said goodbye to Daria, and we went a half hour by car to a zoo safari park. It was a combination of an amusement park with rides, a zoo, and a safari zoo, which was a part where you could drive through with your car to see all the animals up close. This was very fun, and a giraffe licked our car and zebras ran alongside with us. The girls threw peanuts to the goats and the antelopes, but they were scared of the lions and tigers. After the safari, we parked and got out to enjoy the rest of the zoo/amusement park on foot. However, after about twenty minutes, the sky grew black and it began to torrential downpour and hail! It was insane! We all ran under an awning of a building to seek shelter, not knowing what do it. Thankfully, after a few minutes, a zoo bus came to the rescue. It was packed with wet Italians and everyone was cold and unhappy. The bus took us to the reptile house, which was indoors, to wait for another bus to take us to the parking lots. Great, I have to be cold and wet and be forced to stare at alligators for twenty minutes! (*I am terrified of alligators and crocodiles, for those of you who don't know*) But eventually, the bus came, and we piled into our car, wet and cold and tired. We returned back to Gallipolli, where it was also raining, but not as bad. Catherine and Seb went out to pick up pizzas, and we ate in our apartment. We had good conversation in French about music, movies, and soccer. I was beginning to feel better. More connected, and more in touch with the family, learning about things they like. After the parents left for bed, the girls and I played a smurf card game (FUN FACT: smurfs are from Belgium. So naturally, everyone here loves them). We also made a giant pillow/blanket fort and had a pillow fight. Finally, I wore them out enough to go to bed. I was still missing my family a lot, but I went to bed feeling better.

Thursday may have been my favorite day of the whole trip to Italy. After breakfast, we drove to small village close by called Santa Maria. We went to a nature reserve and hiked up through the forest and the hillsides to get to the sea. If you have ever seen Italian renaissance paintings, you may have an idea of what the forests look like. The trees are tall, thin, and curving. They bend in playful and whimsical ways, beckoning you into their depths in a way that it both awe inducing and slightly frightening. I felt like the forest was like Alice and Wonderland, Tim Burton style. Slightly creepy yet also very, very interesting and exciting. Finally, we made it to the sea. Coming through the trees, there was a view of the mountainside, which had a castle on its peak in the distance. The beach was rocky and smelled like salt and sea air. The air was fresh, and the sky was blue and clear. And the sea, oh the sea. The Mediterranean will always be my second favorite body of water, Lake Michigan being the first. The sea is beautiful and un tamable, wild and free. The sound of its turquoise waves crashing down along the rocky shores sounds like a sigh of relief, and a cry of reckless yearning. After exploring the crystal clear lagoons and tide pools for a few hours, we departed because the sky began to turn gray, threatening rain, again. We drove into town to a very well known and historic restaurant for lunch. It was amazing! We had an olive and cheese platter for an appetizer, and I had risotto with spinach and gorgonzola for lunch. I left feeling like a round beach ball.
We drove back to our B&B after lunch, and since it had become cold and rainy, we rested in the room and watched some very interesting Italain television shows, and the girls played the smurfs on their ipads. Finally, the wifi was working in the hotel so I got to talk to my family and friends for a little bit, which was wonderful but it also made me very sad, again. Later that night, we went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by Alberto, the owner of the B&B. When we got there, they told us that he had bought us a bottle of champagne. That was very, very kind of him! We ate dinner, and then we went back to the hotel to sleep.

Friday was cloudy and rainy and just generally not nice. However, there was a moment of sun in the afternoon so we went to the beach for awhile because the girls wanted to get more shells. It was sunny but there was a ton of wind and it was very cold. The girls were loving it, but I was literally frozen by the time we left the beach, and then they wanted to get gelato! SO cold! Since we were going to leave the next day and it had started to rain, we went back to the hotel to pack up all our things. If you know anything about kids, you know that this is a huge process that takes forever. After packing, the girls and I watched a ton of videos online about Violetta.

For my American friends, who will probably not know about Violetta (I didn't), let me fill you in. Violetta is a television show that is on Disney South America and Disney Europe. It is about a high school girl named, obviously, Violetta. Her mother was a famous singer but she died when Violetta was very young, so the father took Violetta to Madrid and never told Violetta that her mother was famous. However, Violetta began to show talent for singing and dancing in her youth and her father wanted to suppress it, so they moved back to their native Buenos Aires, Argentina, However, here Violetta began to attend a music school and discover her true talents plus she has two cute boys fighting for her love! How dramatic! Anyway, the girls love this show. It's interesting for me, because the show is originally in Spanish, but in Belgium it is dubbed over in French. Yet, since it is a show with lots of music, the songs are still in Spanish, with French subtitles. Talk about a brain teaser!

Friday night passed without much interest, and we went to bed after dinner.

Saturday was our last day in Italy, and luckily it was sunny and nice outside again. We had breakfast on the terrace and enjoyed the last views of the sea from Gallipolli. Then we loaded up the rental car, and headed to Polignano al Mere, a city about two hours away from Gallipolli, to meet with Daria one last time to say goodbye. Polignano is probably what you will see in the pictures I posted on facebook, the large arches and rocky beach coves. It was truly spectacular. We had lunch in literally a cave in the rocky sea cliff side. It was a stunning view. Then we had our last Italian gelato and said goodbye to Daria. We got back in the car to drive another forty or so minutes to Bari, the city from where we would depart to Belgium.

Our flight left at 8pm on Saturday night, and once again I felt overwhelmed with emotions. I have come to realize that flying is a very good metaphor for your life problems. On the ground, everything feels very real, very close, and very hard to deal with in the moment. As soon as you board the plane, and begin the ascent, the pressure begins to mount in your head and chest and you feel as if your heart may burst and your head may fall off. The pressure continues to build until you feel as if you literally can not handle it for one more second. And then suddenly, you're in the air, above the clouds. And from up here, everything looks so small and feels so insignificant and you can literally soar above your troubles, temporarily, for they are far, far away now. If you're lucky, maybe you can meditate here, and by the time you land, you'll be a whole new person with a whole new outlook on life.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for the girls when we landed in Belgium. It was about 11pm, and they were really really tired and cranky. We had to wait for Seb to get our car back from the parking garage, and then we had to drive another hour in the very cramped and crowded car full of luggage back to Catherine's parents house in Tournai. By the time that we finally got there and got all of our bags in the house and got ready for bed, it was almost 2am. Needless to say, everyone was tired and cranky after a long vacation in Italy. The girls and I went to our room and fell fast asleep.

There is so much I could say and tell about Italy, but those stories will have to wait till I see you all again, until then, I love you all!
XOXO

Next post: Easter faux-pas