Eatalia

Marion – We spent 5 weeks in Italy and I have to say that it was a nice surprise for me.
I don’t fit the Austrian pattern of spending at least one holiday a year in Italy since childhood.
For the children it was their “real” first time as we have already done stopover in Italy but it was only on the way to and from our annual roadtrips.
The kids were over the moon because Thais has been asking us since she could to go so she could eat more pasta and ice cream, and Louis because Thais was happy.
As for me, I was reluctant at first because I don’t like ice cream or pizza and pasta, it’s not like we never eat it at home.
That said, we had plenty of fresh vegetables/fruits. A real paradise, especially for me after my operation.
We plan to go back in 4 years so we can all climb the Pisa tower as children under 8 are not allowed. We’ll do Florence at the same time, it was so hot we stopped there for an ice cream only (I even had a chocolate mint one, the only flavour I eat when the mercury is over 40 degrees).
We were lucky enough to have Mamitou with us and to do the Cinque Terre with her, especially by boat.
Without the boat, I’m not sure we would have really enjoyed it. It’s nice but oversold in our opinion.
Afterwards, like everywhere else, going to unknown places changes everything, especially in a positive way.
We were in a small village by the sea in the Abruzzo region and it was really nice.
We really enjoyed it, as well as the Tuscany region.
For Puglia, even if the little village was great, we didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we wanted because of the heat.
As a result, it didn’t make as much of an impression on us as the rest.
Thais did, however, see one of her dreams come true in Bari when she saw the old ladies making pasta by hand.
On the other hand, it was the first time that we had so much difficulty in communicating.
We could understand what they were saying and we could read without any problem, but as they didn’t speak English, it was impossible to make ourselves understood without simultaneous translation. This was complicated on the few phone calls we had to make where we simply had to hang up without getting an answer because nobody understood what we were saying.
I am interested to know what it will be like in 4 years time when we go back as we promised to do it as a birthday present for the children.
See you soon!