We were supposed to go on vacation the day before Quinn graduated Italian Asilo (the equivalent to preschool/Kindergarten) and I told her we would be missing it because we had already planned a vacation. I honestly didn't think she would care and promised her that our house had a big pool! To my surprise, she started crying and said, "I can't miss it, these are the best days of my life!" So what is a parent to do??? Dave looked at our reservation and we could move it back a day and still get in all the vacationing we wanted to do. So we were able to attend Quinn's graduation, where I cried like a baby and tried to hide it under big sunglasses and then left for our road trip really late.
Singing a song in Italian, it was really cute. I don't know if she knew all the words but she did a great job mouthing along with the music!
We are truly so proud of her. We threw her into a school in a foreign country where she did not speak the language and expected her to fly.... and she did! There were many days where she did not want to go because "she is an English girl and doesn't speak Italian!" I know it must have been hard some days but she made friends and tried her best to learn a new language and grew up so much over her two years at the school. I am glad we have another year at the school with Leo and Finley because we love that little school and all the teachers. Onto first grade for our big girl!
This year for the picnic portion of the event, I brought a fruit tray which people seemed to enjoy. Last year I brought a Strawberry poke cake and nobody would even touch it! I think I will stick to fruit for next year also since Italians aren't big on trying new things. Also, in true Italian fashion, there is no line really, it is just a free for all at the food tables. I have gotten used to the lack of lines and we are getting pretty good at holding our own! :)
We left right after graduation to start our drive to San Marino (our #14 country) about 3.5 hours away. We forgot to fill up before all the gas stations near us closed (they are all closed on Sunday except a few but those are only open until 6pm...) so we had to fill up our tank without using our gas coupons, it was painful! We spent $150 to fill up our tank!!!!!! We tried really hard the rest of the trip to get to a station that would take our coupons.
San Marino is completely surrounded by Italy and used to be a country-state of Italy and is now it's own country. We got there late and checked into our hotel. In true European style, our family is too big for a typical and family suite hotel room so we needed to book 2 rooms. We all slept in the family suite and just stole the pillows from our second hotel room. Traveling with 4 kids is more difficult than I imagined because we have to get bigger accommodations which makes it more expensive and sometimes harder to find. The picture above is us trying to corral the kids in front of the hotel while we unload the car. It is never really a relaxing vacation going on a trip with so many dang kids but it is fun!
The next morning we got up and enjoyed breakfast in our hotel. It was a typical European breakfast which included brioches, fruit, yogurt, delicious cappicinos and lunch meat. I will miss the amazing coffee in Italy, it is just so good! Our kids eat so much food that I am always a little nervous at the small hotels breakfast because our family is bigger than European families and eats a ton of their food!
Dave and I were laughing because we thought Quinn looked like the girl from Jurassic Park with her little hat on.
After breakfast we drove to the old town of San Marino to explore. We originally wanted to take the cable car up to the top but were unable to find any parking near the cable car lot so we drove up the hill to the town (not really on purpose but that is where we started going so we went....). Finding parking was a bit of a challenge and it isn't even the busy season yet so I can not imagine when it is busy how hard it is to park. We ended up finding a spot and after putting sunscreen and hats on everybody (which feels like it takes FOREVER.... we have so many kids!) we started the climb to the town. The views were beautiful.
About 5 minutes into the walk, Finley fell for the first time of the trip (many, many more falls were to come) but after a little bit of crying we made it to the top. It was hot and at this point the kids were already begging for gelato and to go back to the car.
Trying to get pictures of everybody is always a good time and often we yell, "just look at the damn camera and this will take 1 second!" After about 15 tries we just give up and move on.
San Marino even had it's own license plates.
We stopped at the tourist office to get Dave's passport stamped with a San Marino stamp. We were going to get everybody one but with it costing 5 EURO a piece, we decided we just needed a "family stamp." That is becoming a "thing" for us. When we don't want to buy 3 or 6 of everything we just say, "this is a family snow globe, this is a family balloon, etc." I am pretty sure our kids hate this but we travel too much to buy 3 of every piece of crap the souvenir shops sell!
After we did some exploring we stopped to enjoy the promised gelato and a Spritz for Dave and I because we survived another hot day of city exploring. And one of the many reasons I love Europe is because our gelato shop served alcohol, had a playground and views of the castle walls.
We bought a painting for our travel wall from this guy.
Quinn is able to start taking pictures of Dave and I so we might actually be in some family photos.
I forgot about the restrictions of entering churches with summer clothing but luckily this church had shawls you were able to borrow so I was able to walk in. It was absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite churches because it was so simple yet stunning.
Strolling through the streets of San Marino, Italy.
We had a great time exploring San Marino and within a few minutes of the drive down the coast all 4 kids were out. It was a long day in the car for us (about 6 hours) and by the time we got to our Trullo (the house we stayed at in Puglia) everybody was ready to be out of the car!
We needed to stop at a gas station to fill up, feed the kids/change the kids, feed Reid and crab a coffee. After about an hour at the AGIP station (the only kind of gas station that will take our NATO coupons!) we were back on the road.
We spent the drive making PB sandwiches with a Swiss Army Knife, shoving Reid's pacifier back in his mouth, switching the DVD 7 times and reading travel magazines. It wasn't easy but we made it! Our Trullo (pictures in another post) was the coolest and our host was super nice. After checking in (around 9:30 pm) we drove to the nearest city, Locorotondo for dinner. It was one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen, everything was white, it was beautiful!!
We found a great pizza spot that had tables and enjoyed a delicious dinner at 10:30 pm. The crazy part about that is that there were people everywhere! They really do dinner late in Southern Italy.
Everything was white!
Leo can't hang with the Italians.
Even though we had a second bedroom with beds, the kids preferred to sleep together on the pull out couch in the living room. Our Trullo was the cutest and it was really neat to be able to stay in one.
The roof of our living room in our trullo.
The first day of our trip was perfect and it got us excited for the rest of the week!
