Second Honeymoon in Italy!!

22/6 - 28/6

Now, this is something! P was going to Italy for his work and since we had the excellent sitters at home, I went to. We had a second honeymoon, really. (we did fly separately and I was very happy with that!) I flew 1st class, thanks to P's miles. My trip started with champagne! I was on AA to Philly and to Venice. In the seat next to me were the pilots resting in turns. That gave me such a confidence. I don't like to fly, but I thought if the pilot was not alarmed at some turbulence, it should be OK.

I was supposed to arrive earlier than P and wait for him, but my flight had some delay and we ended up almost at the same time in Venice.

First we were at Vicenza, a small town where P was attending a conference. We had a beautiful hotel, Hotel Michelangelo, just outside the city, on a hilltop. Beautiful views. The man who was the chairman/host of the conference recommended the hotel to P. Later I heard that the man actually got married in that hotel. The prices were very reasonable, too.

For 3 days, I walked and walked in Vicenza. For the first time I felt homesick to Europe. The narrow, winding streets were nothing like the blocs of America. The first day(Monday), we went to the conference with P. There was an opening concert, I met his Italian colleagues etc. His colleagues invited us for dinner. Marco was driving us and we were a bit early. There was an old building up on a hill and P asked what it was. Marco didn't know, but since we were too early, he decided to leave the main route and bring us first to that building. All the old building in Italy look like monument anyway, but this was some monument for the world wars. We got back in the car and Marco went to ask where the restaurant was. Well, we were actually parked right across it. What are the chances! We had a very nice dinner and the company was good. It was time to time a bit difficult to communicate, but that made the dinner just more informal. Doctors, P's colleagues and me. Especially P's colleagues are very nice people, it was nice to meet them.

The next day, I visited some churches and the Olympic Theatre. Palladio's design and, I can't remember who finally built it etc, but I'm sure all the info is on Internet. It is the oldest surviving enclosed theatre in the world. Very impressive, beautiful. Later that day, I could show P what was nice to see, where the nice squares were.

Wednesday, I went to downtown again and we decided to meet with P at the villa La Rotunda, a famous villa build by Palladio. I went by bus, nice adventure. I was there on time, bought the tickets and I started waiting for P. He called and said he arrived. I went to the door...no one. I thought maybe there was a second entrance...no. We kept on calling with P, but somehow, I couldn't find him. Then I realized, I was at the wrong villa. There were 2 villa's, with similar names, just 5 minutes from each other. Finally I was there. It is quite strange to be in a house where people actually live in. Every Wednesday, they apparently clean up and remove almost all 'normal day stuff' and leave or go upstairs. Well, you can only see the 1st floor. (reminded us to Annemieke, cleaning up the house every weekend for endless showings.) P was a bit disappointed, I was too, I guess. It is very beautiful, but I also wanted to see more, to feel how it is to live in some kind of a museum. You only get to see the museum part of it.

Thursday, I shopped! Then we went to Verona to see an opera at the Arena Di Verona. How special can it be! We rented a car in Verona, because it was the only way to go back to Vicenza. We bought the tickets and had a dinner on the square facing the Arena. The birds started flying like crazy and dark clouds filled the air. When it was time for the Opera (Aida, by the way), it was raining. They announce to the to the square what they are planning. They said they believe the rain will stop, then they will start. It didn't really look like that rain would stop, but OK, we had to wait. The thing is, if it rains, they cannot play. The instruments get damaged, they say. If they cannot start at all, they have to refund all the tickets. But....if they can start, and then they have to stop - because it rains again - they don't have to refund. Nice trick. So, the rain stopped after a long wait, we all went in, the Opera started. We saw 20 minutes of it. It started raining again. The artists left...We waited.... The orchestra came back for 2 more minutes, when it wasn't raining for just a short time. Then. of course, it started raining again... Around midnight, they called the thing off. Very VERY disappointing. Before the show started, we were sitting in a cafe and we were talking to a couple from England. They had bought their tickets months ago. I am sure they were even more disappointed. So, that's how it is. The arena looked nice and wet! That was the day that Michael Jackson died.

The next morning was actually the beginning of our real vacation. We drove in our rented car to VENICE. Everybody says Venice is beautiful. Believe them. It is everything people say and more. We came there tired, still had to find a hotel, return the car and had no idea how to get to places in a city where you cannot drive. It all worked out OK. We found a hotel, brought the car to the office by the station by Mette, took the train to Venice, chit chat with an Australian family (two teachers who did an exchange with an American teachers family. They swapped houses for 1 or 2 years. Since the Aussies were just around the corner from Europe, they decided to travel for 2 months with their 3 young daughters), arrived to Venice, bought tickets for the water bus (whatever it is called) and arrived to our hotel just 5 minutes to Piazza San Marco. Our view from the hotel room was a canal with Gondolas. We walked that day for hours and I couldn't feel or accept my tiredness. By chance, we saw a fish restaurant and we decided to come back there to eat dinner. (we had to reserve.) That was destiny. OK, that was very melodramatic, but the dinner was so heavenly! The restaurant is called the Trattoria Corte Sconta. The entourage in the garden was beautiful. Then the owner of the restaurant, a middle aged lady came to tell us what they had. (they don't have a paper menu). She insisted tat we had the starters plate. 'That's how we do it here' she said. That starters plate was so amazing. They brought like 5-6 different dishes, one after the other and everything tasted like nothing I ate before. After a small main course (we were almost full after the starters) I had a tiramisu. I tried tiramisu many times and I just couldn't figure out why people are so crazy about it. Now I know. I never had tiramisu till that day. With the energy that we got from all that food, we walked couple more hours before we got back to our hotel and collaps!

Saturday started with rain. It rained liked crazy. The whole night, I kept on waking up to the thunders. We left the hotel to get a Venice book and decided to take a boat to anywhere. We ended up by the Galleria dell’Accademia, the art museum of Venice. Very nice to see. Even P liked it. When we were outside, the rain was gone and the sun was shining. We went to Murano to see the glass work. Unfortunately, in the weekends, the ateliers are not open. You cannot see how they make the glass. Still, it was nice to be there. We did some shopping and went back to our side of Venice for dinner. Again, a nice dinner, this time by the water. Again, tiramisu. Not as good as the night before, but still better than any tiramisu I had till Venice. We had a short nigt ahead, we were going to leave the next morning at 4.30a.m. And we left! I could spend couple more days there, just walk on the streets and get lost in alleys. Unfortunately, it was time to go back.

We had different planes again. I was going from Venice to Vienna, to Warsaw to Chicago. I had 8.5 hours delay in Warsaw. Did I say before that I was flying 1st class? So I spent those hours mainly in the lounge. I really cannot complain. It was tiring though.

P was at home much earlier and he took a cab to go home. He was going to pick me up with the kids but of course, because of my delay, it was not possible. The kids had prepared little flags for welcoming. I think they were quite disappointed that I came so late. I saw them when they were already asleep. They came one by one to our bed in the night. Then I don't want to be anywhere else than home.

A's MRI

A has been complaining about her eyes so many times, and since the eye doctor didn't find a thing, the pediatrician decided to send her for an MRI. Just after Italy trip, on June 30st, I took her to the Lake Forest hospital. Nice that P's parents were still visiting, I could leave F to them. Our experience with the hospital has not been very positive, so I was quite nervous about it. She had her appointment at 10.30, the MRI to begin at 11.00 am. She wasn't supposed to eat or drink for 6 hours before the MRI. I just couldn't understand why they would make an appointment with such a young child so late in the morning. If she get thirsty or hungry, how could I explain her that she wasn't allowed? On the other hand, in the Netherlands, we would wait 2 months for the MRI, no actually we would never have an MRI, so I shouldn't complain. Plus A did OK with not eating/drinking.

At the hospital, they did an infuse in A's hand. She didn't say a thing. She just turned her head and looked surprised. While they were giving her the medication, we were reading. She reached for some picture on the page. went back and forth, and fell asleep. I should have warned them. Our little A, probably feeling she was taken from me, started waking up and screaming the moment they entered the MRI room. A little more drugs, and no crying anymore.

She woke up well and the results say that she has nothing wrong with her brain. Wow, that was one scary thing, that went by, and went OK.