One more sleep

Although I highly doubt I'll sleep much tonight.

And the next time you hear from me, I'll be across the pond, blogging from Paris!

Just a few details to work out, though. I got an email this morning saying that the hot water heater in the apartment we rented has broken down and needs to be replaced.

Which means, we must find a new place for a few days... but how do I do that? The owner of the apartment has contacted the agency through which we rented and they are supposed to be contacting me with another option.

I leave tomorrow at 10:00 am and so far I haven't heard anything.

So, I could be landing in Paris homeless. Oh mon dieu!!!

I had to go and get a new phone tonight because mine doesn't work overseas and I need to be able to get in contact with the apartment owner (and to be contacted so I know where I'm supposed to be going). Another $75 I could have spent on my trip...

I'm not panicking... yet... but I do like to know what's going on, so I will be checking my email until the wee hours and then checking it again as soon as I get up tomorrow morning.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that everything works out.

A plus tard...

My to-do list

Only three more days until I take off for Paris, and I've been trying to chip-away at my to-do list. It's getting to be quite extensive, which means that some things probably won't get done.

Who cares, eh?

Yesterday, I had to take my car in for servicing. The "Service Engine" light came on just before I left for Italy and I thought I should get it checked. Two and a half hours later... all is well. What a waste of my time.

Then I drove to the other end of town to pick up a little bolt to fix the shoulder strap on my laptop case. That experience was a bit more satisfying - the man at the store found me just what I needed and gave it to me for free!

I registered my boarding passes so I can get Aeroplan points (and save for next year's flight...).

I wrote and mailed a letter.

I made another gathered clutch (these are a bit addictive because they're so easy, fast and CUTE).

This one is a bit more formal, with a wrist strap and a red, raw silk lining. But still playful because of the polka-dot band on the front. I love it - so I'm keeping it for me!

I also played around a little with some sea glass I picked up on the beach at Vico Equense.

I washed it again to get more salt off it, and it is now displayed in a jar.

I still need to:

• fix the OnlyChild's work pants and mend a hole in her dress
• pick up a prescription at the pharmacy
• do my nails
• laundry - must leave clean towels for the family
• iron and pack
• clean the bathroom (I did the rest of the house yesterday)
• create and mail August ATCs
• learn to speak French fluently (haha). Actually, I can speak French but I wouldn't say I'm fluent in the language. At the very least, though, I'd say my French is much better than my Italian. That was quite obvious on the last trip when I was trying to have a conversation with the bus driver. Between the two of us, we spoke four languages; unfortunately, none of them overlapped.

Mr. P is trying to get me to do some painting (the trim in the house) this week. So far my resistance has proven successful. I will have to schedule activities for the next couple of days to ensure I am not made to do that despicable chore.

Mostly, though, I've spent a lot of time daydreaming.

The day we spent in Sorrento was probably one of the most peaceful experiences I've ever had. I sat by myself in a little park across the (narrow) street from a church where a wedding was just finishing. I read my Italian phrase book (out loud) and pretended I lived there. I want to go back soooo bad.

Am I crazy?

Filling time

I've been home for three days... probably the loooongest three days of my life!

It has been a challenge to fill the time.

The OnlyChild and I got pedicures.

Pink for me; orange for the OnlyChild

I got my hair done. My poor hairdresser (a former student) had to listen to me rattle on about Italy for three hours.

I picked up my sewing machine (she was being cleaned while I was away) then went to the library with the OnlyChild. Afterwards, we had coffee at Starbucks and did a little shopping (yes, because I need to spend more money). I bought an Italian-English dictionary (gee, that would have come in handy two weeks ago - duh), a re-usable metal water bottle, a book for the OnlyChild and a dress. I need to put away my debit card before someone gets hurt (me, probably).

Bernice and I made another gathered clutch from Anna's tutorial. This one is for my friend Sandi and is made from fabric she bought me in Australia.

Funny story about this - I needed a black zipper to make this clutch but didn't have one so I decided to put off the project until another day. Instead, I started to alter a dress I made last summer (before I lost 15 lbs). In the process of altering the dress, I took out the zipper. Voila! A black zipper I could shorten and use in the clutch. Killed two birds with one stone (my apologies to bird lovers everywhere).

I haven't been sleeping well so I was up at five o'clock this morning. I took AbbyDog for a long walk in the River Valley... as soon as we got home, she went back to bed. I didn't.

I went to a WW meeting. Then spent some time with my friend Kim and her sweet girls.

Then to a coffee date with the other Italy trip chaperones to exchange photo disks and relive some memories (before we forget all the fun we had - as if).

Mr. P and I went out for Vietnamese noodles tonight. Most of mine came home in a box. Very good, but the serving was just too large. Dinner tomorrow night, perhaps.

At some point in the next few days (before I fly off again), I will have to do something productive. No hurry, though. I'm on vacation and just filling time while dreaming of this:

Ahhh... Sorrento. When will I see you again?

I left my ♥ in Italia

I'm baaaack!

Why do I always feel such a sense of loss when I return from a great trip? Real life is so boring!

Despite the issues with the tour guide and the other groups, we had a FANTASTIC time with our 30 kiddies. They were wonderful - fun, excited, energetic, polite and very entertaining.

After 10 days of travel, constant walking, incredible heat and amazing sights, I should be exhausted. But I'm not. I'm ready to go back.

So what did we do?

We went to Venice

I look fat in this picture, but I don't have many other photos of Venice so...

We went to Florence

Not the real David - I couldn't find him, remember?

We went to Pisa

And then to Florence again.

At the Palazzo Pitti

Then to San Gimignano, a wonderful medieval village, where we saw the Torture Museum and ate the BEST gelato in the world. This was one of my favourite places that we visited.
 

Such beautiful scenery!

Then we went to Assisi

And on to Pompei

This was my group - love these kids!

Then to the Amalfi Coast - Vico Equense and Sorrento.

Dipping my feet in the Bay of Naples - Heaven on such a hot day!

My other favourite stop was Sorrento. I could quite happily live there!

And finally to Roma!

One last group shot (a couple are missing). I am in the bottom right corner.

I didn't take as many pictures as I did on last year's trip, but I will be meeting up with the other chaperones this week and we are all going to exchange photos. I hope someone took a picture of the bus driver...

Sigh... bello!

In search of David

Yeah, David...the naked Italian guy who lives at the Academia in Florence.

Couldn't find him though. Partly because my map-reading skills leave much to be desired and partly because the Academia was closed today due to a strike. How inconvenient.

What did we do today? We went to Pisa for the morning, toured the cathedral and baptistry, then wandered around taking touristy photos of each other holding up the Leaning Tower, bought tacky souvenirs, and got sunburned.

Then we went to Florence for the afternoon. The kids had some free time and quite a few of them climbed Il Duomo, the dome of the cathedral. I would have liked to, but I didn't have time. I went to the Palazzo Pitti and the Giardino di Boboli, then of course there was the hunt for David.

Next time, my little marble friend, next time.

P.S. It was 40 degrees in Florence this afternoon. That's 104 Fahrenheit. HOT!

Free WiFi!

Here I am again... We are now in Montecatini, just outside of Florence. It's a nice little town. Much nicer than Jesolo, in my opinion.

We spent the day in Florence and will go back there tomorrow afternoon, following our excursion to Pisa. Shopping is GOOD in Florence!

The kids are doing well, and behaving for the most part. (did I say the same thing yesterday?) We were combined with two smaller groups of high school students and it seems our poor little junior high kids are being blamed for all noise and rule infractions. We are a much larger group and the maturity level of junior high students is light years away from those who are three years or more older. I don't think the tour guide likes us very much - but I don't care. The guide we had on our trip last year was so much nicer and better with the students. Plus the chaperones from the other groups keep trying to add optional side trips to our itinerary but our kids don't have extra money to do these things because we didn't agree to them. I would NEVER use this tour company if I were planning a trip. They are very well known across Canada and the US for school trips, but I do not like the way they conduct their business.

Anyway...no complaining, right? We're having fun - and cooking in the process. Boy, it's been hot here.

And, no, it's not just those Italian men...

Saluti da Italia!

Hello from Jesolo, just outside of Venice. The weather is hot and so are the Italian men... Haha... As if I'm looking.

After what seemed like a week of travel (an 8-hour flight to London, a 4-hour stopover in Heathrow, another 2-hour flight, and a 5-hour bus ride)' we got here last night, tired and bedraggled.

Today was a busy day sightseeing (and some shopping) in Venice. I wish we'd had more time there, but tomorrow we head to Florence.

The kids are behaving (for the most part), but i keep thinking how much more fun it would be without 30 little responsibilities. Oh well...

Sorry - no pictures. I wasn't able to pick up that special gadget for the iPad. I haven't taken many anyway. I still have 800 to scrapbook from last year's trip.

Internet is hard to come by here and expensive. 4.50 euro for 1 hour! I will try to post again in a couple of days. Until then, ciao!