"Agitato, non mescolato" - "Shaken, not stirred"

Sorry I forgot to mention the earthquake in my last post - but obviously you all know we're ok. We felt the quake and we've felt several aftershocks since then as well. The town of L'Aquila is about 150 km from Perugia, and that's where they had the worst damage and most lives lost. Our neighbour assures us that Perugia is solid, and since there are structures that have been standing here for 3000 years, I'll take his word.

So I'm back to blogging - I know it's been a while, but I've had fun going through the pictures to refresh my memory about the visit with the family.

More family in France (family holiday week 3)
On March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), mom, Judy, Pat and I headed for Lyon, France early in the morning. We arrived at our apartment a little early, but our landlord arrived only seconds after we did - he was coming to set up for our arrival. After he showed us the basic points of interest on the map, we headed down a looooong set of stairs to the square where we thought we might find the apartment where my brother and his family were staying. As we rounded the corner to the square, we saw Mike and Alison and their girls Holly and Charlotte standing there looking as dazed as we felt. (or even more, after all, they had just flown in from Australia, and we only had a short flight from Rome) Mike & Ali were looking at their phone, probably reading my "we're here" text message. We were able to sneak up fairly close before they noticed the 4 crazy looking women stalking them. The other people in the square were quite amused by the loud reunion that followed. Our second day in Lyon, there was a general strike that shut down most of the transportation and public services. I spent that day working in the apartment (I know, poor me!), while mom and the Aussies did some sightseeing, and Judy & Pat marched with French workers and sang anti-establishment songs. (really!)

The following day, I decided to meet up with Josie & Alaina for their last day in Paris. Well, not "in Paris", exactly, but rather "at EuroDisney". We had a great time being fools and taking pictures on moving roller coasters. Some of them turned out, some of them didn't - of course! We took the fast train back to Lyon and met up with everyone for another day of sightseeing. On our last day, we decided we absolutely had to treat ourselves to a nice meal out. When people think of French cuisine, apparently they are thinking of Bouchon Lyonnais cuisine. We were told that if a restaurant had "Bouchon" in the name, then the food and atmosphere - the whole experience - had been judged to meet the highest standards. I think we were all pretty excited, and maybe our hopes were a little too high. In spite of the bland soup, cold potatoes and tough duck, we enjoyed ourselves because we had good company. Mostly we just laughed about it - and we didn't even wait to leave the table to do that. Does anyone remember the name of that place? We should warn everyone in case they ever find themselves hungry in Lyon!



Italy with the siblings (family holiday week 4)
The next day, March 23, the kids and grandkids said good bye and flew to Rome. Mom and Pat and Judy had one day to themselves before flying home the next day. I spent one night in Rome with Mike, Alison, Holly & Charlotte and Josie & Alaina. We made sure we could find our way to the main places - metro, buses, vatican & (after a little trial and a lot of error) back to the apartment.

I made my way back to Perugia while they enjoyed the history, art & architecture, and food & wine of Rome. They joined us in Perugia and Meryck took over the role of tour guide. He can take a whole group of people through the holy city of Assisi and manage to avoid almost all the churches! Plus, he is very patient, and when the group mutinies against his itinerary, he doesn't fight it but just lays down and has a rest wherever we happen to be. I could take a lesson from him, I think! His favourite experience there is definitely the Rocca - what is left of the fortress around the city, including the walls and a couple of towers. The most exciting part is always the wind whipping up on the tower threatening to push/pull you onto the ground 15 metres below. Luckily there is a railing, even if it is small - and there's a sturdy flagpole to hold onto.

Our next big trip was an overnighter to Pisa which I skipped. Unfortunately Alison wasn't feeling well, and I had some work to do, so she slept and I worked while everyone else climbed the tower in the rain. We all met up the next day in Florence for another day shopping and exploring in the rain. Everyone was impressed with the marble sculptures in the piazza and we were looking forward to seeing Michelangelo's David. Apparently I had not learned my lesson when it comes to planning, as I had not reserved tickets for the museum. All the tourist sites say you have to do this, but every time I had been by the museum, I had never seen a lineup. And the one time I did go in, there was no wait at all. Soooo... it never crossed my mind. Faced with an hour wait, we decided we just couldn't do it. We even tried to call and book tickets from the lineup, but had no luck. The tour guide (me) felt really miserable about the whole thing, and THIS TIME, I really DID learn my lesson about poor planning. (I hope)

Our last day with the whole group was nice and sunny, and we spent all day walking around and seeing Perugia and eating gelato and came home to a nice dinner with chocolate pasta for dessert! Mike, Alison, Holly & Charlotte left the next day to go home to Australia with a couple day stopover in Dubai complete with camel rides and belly dancing and sand-dune snowboarding.

Josie and Alaina last couple of days (family holiday week 5)
For the last couple days with Josie & Alaina, we took it pretty easy. We did absolutely nothing the day that Mike & Ali left, so we went to Orvieto the next day. Josie and Alaina loved the tour of the underground, and St. Patrick's well, and even the cathedral with its black & white stripes. Alaina even said at one point that she would like to move there one day. (I'll come visit you often Alaina, so beware!)

Josie was a bit of a local celebrity, and got surrounded by a group of young met visiting from Calabria. One guy asked for a kiss and a picture and told her he loves English women. (Canadian/English, whatever) We walked for hours and bought some wine to take home with us before heading to la stazione to catch our train home.

There were some hints that the rest of the evening might not go exactly as planned.

1. I offered Josie something to read on our two hour train ride back to Perugia. It was a guidebook to get ideas about how to spend their last day in Umbria, and I advised her "Don't read about Orvieto, you don't want to find out that there was something you missed and end up going back tomorrow!"
   
2. At our transfer stop in Terontola, Josie asked me "How do you know you're getting on the right train?" to which I answered "Well, you check the schedule, and make sure you're at the right track at the right time." (d-uh, Josie)
   
3. When we tried to get on the train to Perugia, we couldn't open the first doors we tried. The second set of doors also wouldn't open. We were finally able to open the third set and got on the train which left a few moments later. (a few minutes early, if I had been paying attention)
   
4. I explained to them that all tracks lead to Rome which can make travel confusing because you can sometimes arrive in a station from one direction, and your transfer train can seem to take you back in that direction. Alaina had (apparently) been paying attention, because she said "oh, we're going the right way"..
   
5. Shortly before we were scheduled to arrive in Perugia, I jokingly said "oh my god, we're back in Orvieto!" pointing to a Bank of Orvieto sign out the window. (laughing because it's like seeing a Bank of Nova Scotia and claiming it means you're in Nova Scotia.)
   

It was dark by now, so I wasn't too alarmed that I couldn't see any landmarks I recognized, until we pulled into the train station and discovered we really were back in Orvieto. aaargh

It was too late to get a train home, so we found a hotel, then had a fabulous meal at a restaurant right across from the train station. Our very personable chef even sold us an easy-open bottle of wine since we didn't have a corkscrew to open the ones we had bought earlier that day! So we all sat outside and had a good laugh. I discovered that the wine helped me communicate better when we were joined by some Napolitanos (Napolitani?) that were in Orvieto for work. We all sat outside and drank wine and laughed at my incompetence.

We made it back to Perugia the next day, and Josie and Alaina packed for their last night in Rome, where they did a little more sightseeing before flying home.

It was a crazy crazy few weeks - we had a great time together. I hope you have fun looking at the pictures on smugmug.