Day 5 - Cinque Terre

Today we were up bright and early to catch two trains to the town of Monterosso in Cinque Terre. Even though she would swimming outdoors in just a couple of hours, Ellis insisted on wearing her gloves to the train station.

The kids did lots of activities with their grandparents and took naps on the train rides.

The train station in Monterosso was right on the beach and the morning sun was blaring down when we arrived.

The very popular beach was nearly empty, and the kids started off by wading into the sea, contemplating whether to swim...

...but that didn't last long. The three kids were splashing in the waves and swimming in the water within minutes.

I also went in the water. The sea temperature was about as warm as Lake Huron ever gets, and the air temp was about 22 C, so perfect temperature for Canadian kids to go swimming. The locals probably thought we were crazy.

Penny stayed on dry land, preferring to fill her brace with little tiny shells and stones.

After a beach snack, we walked along a promenade and through a tunnel over into the old town of Monterosso.

We had a quick play at the park in the town square, before heading back to catch a 4 minute train to the next town, Vernazza.

Vernazza is another very picturesque old town centre with a natural harbour at sea level.

We hiked for about 10 minutes along the seaside trail to reach our lunch restaurant.

The kids did really well on the walk, but we realized that we were not going to be able to walk the whole way to the next town with the kids. 

They could probably have done the walk (about 3km), but were already tired from the travel and swimming and other walking.

We ate lunch at ristorante la Torre, which is build right into the side of the cliff, with amazing views of the sea and neighbouring towns.

Oscar loved his spaghetti with meat sauce.

Penny also loved slurping up the noodles.

We attempted to take a family photo on the way back from the 

Then walked all the way back down to sea level in Vernazza.

We wound our way through alleys and stairways to make it down to the harbour.

The kids found some jellyfish and saw a man catch an octopus with a giant fishing rod.

There were some rocks at the end of the point, to Jasper and Ellis of course had to climb them.

The town looked just like a postcard.

Of course, we had to get some gelato for energy for the long train ride home.

After three more train rides, we finally made it home to our apartment in Lucca. We grabbed some takeaway panini and everyone went to bed.

Italy Day 4- Torre Guinigi

Today was a rainy day in Lucca, so we spent the day exploring the city in the rain and climbed the Torre Guinigi, which is just steps from our apartment on Guinigi St.

The tower is 43 m tall with 233 steps to reach the top. It is unique because it has trees growing on the top deck of the tower. 

Oscar did really well climbing the stairs. He made it all the way up and back down by himself.

Penny didn't have to work so hard to get to the top of the tower.

We could see the whole walled city of Lucca from the top of the tower, as well as into the surrounding hills.

There are a surprising number of other towers also visible. 

We walked down some very narrow streets today, and saw one car (clearly a tourist), get quite stuck down a very narrow alley. I'm glad to not be driving a car here!

We passed through the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, which is an oval shaped piazza, having been a roman ampitheatre before being a piazza.

We stopped for a snack in an outdoor cafe with a huge umbrella to escape the rain.

The kids got warm milk with cocoa sprinkled on top and were thrilled. 

Jasper's shoes broke, so we did some shopping for some new shoes. Pat took this opportunity to buy himself a red Adidas tracksuit. 

Jasper and Oscar have been loving exploring all of the unique cars and trucks here, like this three wheeled dump truck. 

Ellis used her artistic skills to help make lunch look pretty today. 

Later in the day, we went to yet another park on the other side of town. 

The boys were occupied counting acorns and we stayed until after dark.

Tomorrow, we're trying a day trip to Cinque Terre.

Italy Day 3 - Lucca Big Bike

This morning, I wasn't feeling well- still recovering from the trip here- so, everyone else went out to explore some of Lucca's streets and parks. 

The baby swings here have a different design, so that Penny can fit in with her brace.

There are several parks around the perimeter of Lucca, and we visited three of them today. 

I'm sure we will discover several more during our stay here.

The kids also enjoyed collecting nuts, much like our previous trip to Canary Islands.

We also got a bit more used to the layout of Lucca, with the mazes of narrow streets and surrounding city walls. The circumference of the city wall is about 4km, so you can't get too lost without running into the wall.

After a break back at the apartment for naps and school work...

...and lego,

we went back to the city wall to rent some big family bikes and cycle the perimeter of the wall.

There is a large multi-use path that runs along the top of the wall that is very popular with cyclists, joggers and walkers.

To fit all of us, we rented two big bikes, one with space for 2 adults + kids and another with 4 pedaling adults + kids.

Even though the kids couldn't reach the pedals, they enjoyed "racing" the other bike.

It was a fun afternoon family activity, and only somewhat scary heading back down from the wall when the driver wasn't sure how to use the brakes!

We finished the day with more gelato on the way back to the apartment. 

After gelato, we were back to the apartment for dinner and baths. Each room in our apartment has its own shower, but there are no bathtubs, so Penny got to have a sink bath in the kitchen.

Italy Day 2 - Rome to Lucca

Today was mostly spent traveling from Rome to Lucca where will be spending almost 2 weeks.  We hopped on a train after breakfast and got to the walled city of Lucca in time for a late lunch.  

There were some dicey moments passing through tunnels...

...but we always emerged smiling on the other side!

Penny investigating the rival baby clinging to the outside of the moving train.

The airbnb is called "Medieval Penthouse" it is pretty fancy, even has a roman looking jacuzzi room.  Lots of space for the 10 of us.  Way too much fancy breakable decorations though, had to spend the first hour putting away all of the glass vases before the kids activated smash mode

The Medieval Living Room

.

The Medieval Jacuzzi

The Medieval Napping Couch

Not too much else to report for today.  We will get out to explore the city a bit more tomorrow. 

Back on the road- Italy 2022

We are resurrecting the old Jasper on the Road blog to document our trip to Italy. It has been a long time since we have used this blog, and a long time since we have travelled. 

It was a nearly 24 hour long journey by minivan, shuttle bus, plane and train to get to Rome but we made it! On our flight from Toronto- Lisbon, I was seated in the middle seat with Penny, away from the rest of the family. Despite not being able to move or eat for the whole flight, it didn't go as badly as I expected. My seat neighbours may tell a different story, especially since Penny's brace made her very hard to to contain within the borders of the seat. 

Our connecting flight in Lisbon was cancelled, so we ended up with a nearly 7 hour layover in the Lisbon airport with some very tired and excited kids. 

Luckily, there was a great little kids play area in the airport. 

The next flight was uneventful, and we landed in time to catch the train into Rome and grab a quick bite before heading to our hostel. 

We are staying at a movie-themed German hostel near the main train station in Rome. The kids were excited to pick their own foods (including Nutella) at the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast we went for a walk down to the Forum and Coliseum. We didn't go inside today, but will probably do a tour when we are back in Rome in three weeks. Today was for getting our bearings in the city, and resting off some jet lag.

Our hostel doesn't have a kitchen, so we ate lunch and dinner out. The kids were starving at lunch- eating 5 pieces of pizza each (for reference the adults sharing with them only got 3), and were very well behaved.

After an afternoon rest, we went to get gelato right around the corner from our hostel. Oscar has been looking forward to gelato since we told him that we were going to Italy.

Gelato was also the highlight of the other kids' day. 

Dinner time was a bit rougher, with tiredness kicking in and the novelty of eating our wearing out. In the future, I think we'll try to stick to one meal out or less a day.

Everyone was sleepy by the end of the day, and hopefully by tomorrow we'll be able to be more on Italian time, as we head by train to Lucca.