Trip Pics

Quick Note

Okay, plans changed.... and are still changing....

I went to Milan, Rome, Napoli, Pompei, Sorrento, Bologna, Florence, Perugia, Assisi, Siena, Livorno, Pisa, Lucca, and now Im in Florence again and going back to Rome tonight. I will post more later. Having fun, seeing a lot and taking a lot of pictures. Ciao Ciao!!!!

See you next week!

Alpine Adventure

So I have been up in the Alps for 10 days and am starting my week off, which is 10 days long..... :)

This computer doesn't work well, so pictures will have to make up for a lack of my normal ravings.

We were in a town called Pragelato where I expected to see a singing nun come running around every mountain followed by 7 children.

We did a lot of hiking and were accompanied by a Canadian flight attendent and her Italian boyfriend. I have to say, my stay would have been very boring if it hadn't been for them.

I spend the entire day (every day) with the family, so my nerves were a little edgy from lack of freedom and constant supervision (of me not Camilla).
it was good, the weather changing from hot to freezing, the distant sound of cow bells in the trees, wild flowers everywhere. I wish I could have done some exploring on my own, but maybe next time.


Their 'cabin' was a 18th century stone house made into four apartments. It still isnt finished being remodeled but they are keeping with the old school theme with antiques and old wood doors... (Dad- you would really like how rustic it is). The 'city' part consisted of a cafe/pizzeria, so there wasn't much to do.



We visited a beautiful little French town with delicious...and as you can see, children who don't behave here turn to stone.

Well, so much for it being short. I probably w on't be writing til after my 10 day break is over. I will be going down to Lucca, Napoli, exploring Sicily for 4 days then going back up too Napoli again, Assisi, Siena, and back to Alassio for three days before returning to California.

Wow! the summer is going by fast.

Soooooo...

Yet again, it has been a while since I have last posted. I have been busy with Camilla’s birthday party. She turned the lucky number 7, so let’s hope I’m the lucky one. The party was a bit different than what I am used to. I have to say that the biggest hit was my home-made paper piñata. Apparently, they don’t have them in Italy. Paola said that when she was an Au-pair she did one at a kids birthday party and thought it was the best thing ever, but she’s never found them in Italy. Anyways, it basically looked like a head. The kids were having difficulty taking turns, so it turned into a free for all hitting fest.

The actual family party was the next day. Oddly enough, it was not centered around Camilla. It was more of aunts, uncles and friends having a barbeque, talking, and drinking while I was with the kids.

We go up to the mountains Sat. morning, so I might not have Internet for a while. The housekeeper is gone for two weeks, so I am setting my mind to not take her place. They don’t pay me that much, and it won’t kill them to have to wash their own dishes.


(the island in this pic looks like a turtle)


I met a woman from New York in Alassio. We went on a long hike in the morning, and talked a lot about the mindset of people with “hired help.” We both have seen how they will make very distinct instructions which have to be followed, and they get the credit for having done it; however, when they have to do it completely on their own, it’s no where near the perfection they require of others.

In Alassio, there were more relatives visiting. Paola’s brother from Parma and his two kids. They were very sweet and actually listened. The youngest was four, and she would ask to play with me, would want to go swimming with me, wanted to hold my hand… It was the kind of interaction I would like to have with Camilla. I am hoping it rubbed off.

I said goodbye to my friends who work at the Internet café. I was a regular there so they got used to me. Not to mention, I spilt an entire cappuccino on the floor. What can I say, I had to mark my territory so to speak.

Paola has a sister with mental problems. She’s fully capable of doing everything a normal person would only she is more like a child. All the time, and I mean 5 times a day, she jokingly asks me, whats your name? or have you seen Marcie? Or Who are you? Then also everyday she wants to go for a swim where she will say, look Merrrrcie- a fish or a crab or a jelly fish then commence to pinch me several times. Today was the last day I will see her, so she made me promise to send her cds from California. I practice my Italian with her, and she will correct me if I am wrong. She gets upset sometimes too though. The woman from NY just ‘happened’ to walk by when we were having our birthday party and wanted so wish Camilla “auguri” The sister got upset and wanted to make sure that she knew it was Camilla’s birthday. She wanted me to ask her, in English, where the present was and insisted that she did not wish Camilla a happy birthday. It was an awkward situation.

Anyways, I am super tired after party number two. I hope to hear from everyone who reads this (all two of you!) when I get back. Ciao Ciao.

This pic. reminded me of the newer version of Romeo and Juliet.

Better late than never

So, sorry it’s been so long since the last post. I went from nothing to write about to going to Torino for three days. Annamarie is finished with her six months, so I went to go see her before she leaves to travel around a bit. We stayed at the apartment of the housekeeper for the family she stayed with. She and her husband are from Bulgaria, so there are some words that all of us didn’t know how to say in Italian. It was really fun, sitting around drinking some beer and wine eating french fries and just talking about things. They were really funny. It was fun to think that I can tease and joke with someone in another language. I guess sarcasm is universal. She was very philosophical talking about how the family she worked for had so much money but basically left their kids to be raised by someone else and just constantly vacationing. She was like, you know we are having more here sitting around relaxing cause there are more important things than showing off and being social just for the sake of it.

Annamarie and I did do some walking around though, alright a lot of walking around. My poor feet are covered with blisters, but it was totally worth it. We walked to this huge park on the other side of town; there was a lake filled with turtles. You looked out and could see at least 50 little heads poking out of the water and turtles coming out on to the banks. It was really nice until some weird guy walked by and asked us if we wanted to buy some cocaine. Just so you know, I said NO!

Today I was back in Alassio at the beach with Camilla and her two cousins and their grandpa. Paola, the mother, came up to me and said she wants me to try and play with Camilla more. I told her that she frequently, all the time, tells me she doesn’t want to play with me, doesn’t want to do anything I suggest, and just says no. Paola told me that I should try more, so today I basically followed Camilla around, asking if she wanted to do this or that, if I could play with her and her cousins. It didn’t help. She usually doesn’t respond when I call her name or she puts her hand up to me, turns and runs away. Any suggestions? I’ve used English and Italian, asked her why she doesn’t respond to me, tried playing with the other cousins first to see if she will join…. Anyone have any ideas?

I’m focusing on the fact that I’m trying and it’s not my fault she’s a brat. I am planning what im going to do during my one week off in August. I wanted to do Greece or Sicily, but it’s high season, and everything is expensive. Now I am thinking about going down the west coast of Italy maybe all the way to Sicily. Any suggestions?

Well, I hope everything is well with all of you. Talk to you later.

I found this in Torino. They usually spell the last name Bautista or Battista, but I guess someone made a big mistake on this church.

whoops...adventure

So I went to Nice on Monday and Monaco on Tuesday. I thoroughly enjoyed my three days off. They come back tonight, and I would be telling a lie if I said I wasn’t a little sad. I didn’t really do a lot, just mostly walked around. Both Nice and Monaco were filled with tourists- mostly Americans in big groups. I was having fun speaking Italian to them and pretending that I didn’t know English. Both days my meals consisted of bread, cheese, beer, and fresh pastries eaten outside in a park watching the people. I am working on fulfilling my dream of eating my way around the world.

It was very obvious why it is called the Cote D’ Azure. Monaco was very, very clean and well kept. There were police everywhere monitoring people with whistles. I didn’t go into the casino because it looked really snooty and the cars pulling up were Ferraris and Porches, so I was afraid of being turned away for looking too poor. I don’t think they had penny machines inside. I think that I might have seen the prince or someone famous over there. There were armed guards and escorts waiting in a car with flags. I would like to think that this was the actual prince.
Speaking of celebs, I swear that I saw the guy from Grey’s Anatomy in Alassio. I cant think of his name right now, but the younger cute one. I think he’s Italian so it would make sense.

Back to my days off. So this is the Royal Palace. I don’t think Princess Grace designed it. Its not much to look at. I would say that the casino was the prettier of the two. I thought it was funny how the entire county is basically a tourist trap. Everything was really expensive and there were idiot-proof signs everywhere. This one is just for tourists apparently, cause real “Monacans” would know not to walk around naked. And this one, I thought was funny, just so you are absolutely sure. The enormous church-like building right behind this sign is the cathedral. My legs are very tired from all of the walking.
So funny thing happened. I went back to Alassio both days at night to save money rather than staying in a hotel. Monday was fine, but Tuesday, I accidently got on the wrong train. It was going to the same city as the train before, so I assumed it would make the same stops; however, I was wrong. As soon as the train started pulling out, I noticed we were going in the wrong direction. I thought, its okay, I will just get off at the first stop and jump on a train back. Well, 40 minutes later, the train stops. Not only am I back in France, I am in a little mountain village with basically nothing. The next train going back to the Italian border station isn’t for 2 and a half hours. So I walked around and explored, soaked my feet in an ice cold alpine river…It turned out to be a nice little detour, and luckily no one checked my ticket, so it was like a free mini-trip.
Today, I slept in, walked to a neighboring town, laid on the beach for a while, went home to take a nap, went back to the beach for a while, then walked around.
Talk to all of you later!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I have officially stopped brushing my hair.

Italy-Random Stuff

Watching soccer outside...

So, I’ve been trying to be at least semi-entertaining for those who read this, but lately I’ve been having trouble coming up with anything super interesting. We’ve got a regular schedule now. I get up every morning get Camilla dressed, get her breakfast, do some homework with her, then send her to play with her cousins, or her cousins come over. They are always concocting some sort of spectaculo. At around 10:30 we leave for the beach. We stay there pretty much all day. We swim, look for crabs, play foosball, eat lunch, build stuff in the sand, she likes to be buried in the sand…. So far we have only caught one crab. We usually bring our own lunch of fresh pasta, salad, and some sort of fruit. I have discovered a new love of fresh ricotta cheese. It is seriously the best thing ever. I’ve never been a fan of ricotta in lasagna, but this is like a dessert. I eat it with a little olive oil and vinegar. SO GOOD!

It’s nice having her cousins around cause they go and play something which gives me time to just sit there or go float in the water for a while. The water has been really nice lately. Its clear and there are big waves. I’ve been going out there with the kids, holding the air mattress while the waves fling them up and down, a few times the waves have been so strong that they’ve knocked me down too. I saw a small jellyfish today. There are a lot of them further out. I take the kids out with the peddle boat to swim and go off the slide, but we are constantly moving to another place because there are jellyfish (meduse). They are huge, or at least I think so. I would say twice the size of your head.

At around 4 we head back to the house, play for a while, have a snack…Dinner is at 7. They have a special type of zucchini here called trombete. I guess is only grown in this region. I eat it in pasta, by itself, or pureed into a soup. I think im going to try to bring some seeds home, so I can grow it. I don’t think it will throw off the eco-system or anything. We still eat in courses starting with a soup or pasta, followed by a protein, then vegetables or salad, then bread, then fruit for dessert. Almost every night we watch Camilla’s favorite tv show (Veline) at 8:30. (It’s a skanky girl dance-off. There are 6 girls from different regions or even countries. First, they have to do some sort of game. They are really random. Doing gymnastics, quoting a movie, guessing types of fish blindfolded… Then they dance for about 30 seconds and the winner is chosen. We try to guess who will win.) Then she goes to bed at around 9. That’s basically my day everyday.

And speaking of weird tv shows, I saw one the other day. It was a competition between housewives and transvestites. They had different competitions, obstacle courses, pole dancing, and a fashion show. The judges were a crowd of loud rowdy men. The funny part was that the transvestites won the competition for being sexiest. I don’t think that would happen in the US!

Old men playing bocci ball.