Eight in 2008

One cool thing about Lucas's birthday is that it always matches the year, i.e. he turns 8 in 2008, will turn 20 in 2020, and so on. I know, I know. There are millions of kids who were also born in 2000, but still, I think it's pretty special (maybe because it helps me to remember how old he happens to be at any given moment.)

Last week we celebrated his eight birthday with gifts, cake, balloons and presents. He asked the day before whether we had called his teacher to tell her he would like the day off -- in Lucas's world, no one should be forced to attend school on such a special day. We had to disappoint him on that one, but the class took a field trip so it wasn't all hard work that day.

Earlier this week, Lucas impressed me by bringing home his first real chapter book from school, and reading all 140 pages in a single day. Being of the somewhat suspicious sort, I wondered whether he had really understood everything he read, so I sat him down and asked him a few questions from the book and had him read several pages to me. To my delight, he answered every question correctly and read without much trouble whatsoever. How this huge development happened over the summer, I have no idea. Perhaps it was the brain-building power of Italian pasta?

Matthew has started fifth grade with all the gusto he usually shows for school, with an added dash of excitement because he is now in the school's final class. He is serving as a crossing guard this year (so very proud of his neon orange cape with color-enhancing reflecting stripes when he dons it in the mornings).

Both boys will be doing judo and tennis this year, and Matthew will start on the swim team. In other words, The M&N (mom and Nicholas) taxi service will launch this afternoon and run basically non-stop through Christmas.

Nicholas is advancing by leaps and bounds -- literally. A month ago he couldn't go from laying to sitting by himself. Today he is pulling himself up onto the edges of furniture and cruising around from couch to table to windowsill to adult pantlegs to drawers, and standing for a few seconds without support. He is also rearranging my cupboards on a daily basis and it's all I can do to throw everything back in haphazardly before catching him in the next cabinet.

But he makes up for it all with his smiles and his emerging sense of humor. I mean, doesn't this just melt your heart?

Ciao! (Part 2)

Day 3 -- Sassoleone

After saying our fond farewells to Yolanda and Mario, we left Cannobio and headed west, aiming for the Adriatic coast. The region was filled with rolling hills and packed with beautiful, sprawling fruit farms. We passed apple groves, acres of wineland and hundreds of plum trees.


We spent the night at an amazing place called Ca'Monti, which is an apricot farm nestled in the hills with a view of the Santerno Valley. Matthew, Lucas, Steen and Grandpa all joined in a game of bocce ball, and while Nicholas and I cheered them on. (This is one of my favorite pictures of grandpa from the entire trip.)

At one point, the owner came out and showed us how the game is really played. Nicholas took the opportunity to have a few moments alone with his great-grandpa.


We truly enjoyed the friendly hospitality of this bed and breakfast. It is a place that I could easily imagine spending a month, writing a book as I enjoyed the cool breeze coming through my window. I will never forget the extraordinary dinner we had that night of fresh raviolis in a butter sage sauce, lamb chops and vegetables. All of this was consumed as we sat on the terrace, watching dusk fall over the hills.



Day 4 -- San Marino and Silvi

In the morning, we started off with a long scenic drive through the hills. When we reached the coast, we decided to take a bit of a detour into one of Europe's smallest countries, San Marino. San Marino is situated on the top of a mountain overlooking the sea. To get there, we drove part way up the mountain and then took a series of elevators up to the very top, where we wandered around the tiny streets, ate lunch at the same restaurant that hosts the weekly Rotary meetings...

...and marvelled at the amazing views over the cliffs.




After San Marino, we returned to Italy and cruised down the coast to Silvi, where we spent the night at Villa Rossi. This is a recently restored castle, filled with beautiful rooms and offering a very nice restaurant. After we arrived, grandpa rested in his room while we scoped out the local supermarket and took a quick trip to the beach.

I ended up eating my dinner at a small table in the hall outside our room, because Nicholas decided that sleep was the only option for him at that point.



At the mention of yet another place designed for the intake of food, I have to stress how important and fun eating was on this trip. Every meal was a new, delicious experience. I, at least, completely enjoyed the unlimited access to pasta, sweets and excellent bread. I know Steen and the boys loved the constant availability of gelato. And grandpa kept an ongoing ranking system of the many tomato sauces we tasted along the way.

If you want to please your sense of taste, Italy is the place to be.

Ciao!

In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

I can't begin to express how much gratitude I feel for the people we met during our Italian journey. Spending time in Italy with family members I have never met was an amazing, heartening experience. They opened their homes to us, indulged us at mealtimes, and most importantly, shared their stories with us.

At the same time, I was lucky enough to spend this trip with my grandfather, who has taught me so much about openess, honesty and love. He climbed every hill with us as we traversed the Italian countryside, laughed at every joke, jumped into the water at nearly every beach, and shared some wonderful stories of his own. I realize how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to take this trip with him.

Of course, being with the boys (Steen, Matthew, Lucas and Nicholas) for fourteen days was a tremendous highlight. I enjoyed watching them spend time with grandpa, and I treasured every hug, every sight we shared, and every crazy game we played.

I've decided to divide my description of the trip into several posts, which I'll put online as I get the time (i.e. when Nicholas naps and I've finished all of my other duties....). However, I must stress that no words of mine can ever relay the amazement I felt during the trip or the many thoughts about it that now fill my head.

So here goes!

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Days 1 and 2 -- Cannobio, Italy
Steen, Matthew, Lucas, Nicholas and I leave the house at 4 a.m. to make a flight to Zurich that leaves just after 6. As Steen and I were up packing until 1 a.m., we are tired, but any exhaustion is washed away by excitement. Steen carries Nick onto the plane, where he sleeps in his arms for the entire trip to Zurich.

After getting our luggage, we wait for grandpa to arrive an hour later. While Lucas and I are waiting for him in the arrival hall, I find my thoughts oscillating between excitement and fear that for some reason he won't walk through the doors. But he does, smiling and surprisingly awake after his trans-continental trip.

After a great deal of fuss with the car-rental agency, we finally get our minivan, load it up, and are on our way towards the Italian Alps.

Our first stop, and our first meal with grandpa, was in a small Swiss town. The boys stuffed themselves with pizza (a recurring theme throughout the trip -- we would be spending most of our time in Italy, after all), while grandpa enjoyed a soup.

After lunch, we headed for the Italian border -- it was the first of many drives where the beauty of the scenery was outstanding. Grandpa has never seen any mountain chain except those in the eastern US, so the Alps were a new experience for him.

We spent the first two nights at the Residenza Patrizia in Cannobio, Italy, a town on the shore of Lake Maggiore. It is a beautiful, apartment-style hotel with great service, a terrific pool and amazing views.

We chose Cannobio because my grandmother's cousin, Mario, and his lovely wife, Yolanda, live there.

I have heard about Mario and Yolanda all my life, but had never met them, despite the facts that they lived in Chicago for some 20 years and that they still visit their Chicago family often. We spent two wonderful days with them, enjoying Yolanda's delicious cooking, seeing the sights, hearing many stories and sharing a good many laughs. This is the first of many new links to my Italian heritage and I think it is precious.