Mountain Hiking Dinner

We participated in an event that brought a whole new meaning to progressive dinners. We went with Fede’s parents (Fede was in Florida) up to this little church on top of a mountain to do this crazy hiking dinner. Jeff and I had no idea what we were doing, but said “sure!” as soon as they asked us if we wanted to go. We never know what we are going to end up doing here, but it’s always something cool.

So the way this worked was that you bought a packet of tickets for the meal. Each ticket had the name of the course on it (appetizer, first course, etc.) and every time we stopped to eat you had to turn in your ticket. It was all super informal though especially by the time we reached the dessert and everyone had been drinking wine at every stop.

We left the church on the hill and headed off into the forest as a group following some pied pipers who were playing various Italian folk tunes. Every once in a while we’d stop and they’d sing in dialect and people would join in and then some people would dance and then we’d continue on. We arrived at our first stop to find blankets spread out for us, plates of antipasti, and endless jugs of wine. We ate overlooking the valley below and then after a while the 2 musicians started playing again and off we went with the blankets slung over our shoulders.

It continued like that for all the courses including dessert and then we finished back at the church for cafè. It was super cool. We spent a lot of time at the “main course” site which was this huge meadow overlooking the surrounding hills. Everyone was wine-happy and we were all dancing and singing. It was straight out of a movie. Something along the lines of The Sound of Music meets Room with a View. It was definitely one of the cooler things we’ve ever done. Noah was in his heyday because not only were Nonna Manu and Nonno there, but all of their friends were also there and Noah loved playing with them.

La Cena Bianca

For the Summer Solstice this year we participated in the Cena Bianca in the piazza cloisters of the Duomo. The rules of the event were that you had to wear all white including accessories, bring your own food and drink, white plates and clear glasses, one white flower and one white candle. The sponsors of the dinner provided appetizers and wine for a toast at the beginning and then we all sat down next to each other to eat our picnic dinners. There was classical music playing in the background and everything was covered in white. Some people went all out with various courses of gourmet food, candelabras, and flower bouquets. Jeff and I were not in that group :). We had a great time and would love to do something similar in the States when we get back.

The List.

So every night Noah has a list of what he "needs" to take to bed with him. Depending on the night there may be one thing or a whole lot more. On this particular night he had to have his "ombrellino, passeggino, Dinosauro Dodò, valigetta, and qualcosa'altra" (little umbrella, stroller, Dodò the dinosaur, little briefcase, and something else). It made me laugh so I had to take a picture.

Last night he had to take his bug spray, itchy stick, keys, bracelet, and Dodo Baby to bed with him. Yesterday night, a bag of plums.

School Days

Every day we walk to and from school with Noah wearing his zainetto (little backpack) and pushing his passeggino with Dodo Baby. When we arrive he parks his passeggino next to all the bigger ones and then runs to meet his teachers Chicca and Elena.

Chicca is Noah's special teacher and she really helped him adjust to his new school when he started. Next to Chicca in the back is Anna. We saw a lot of Anna in Piazza Duomo and got to know her family a bit. Before she left on vacation she gave Noah a little bag which he calls his borsetta and he now takes it everywhere with him.

Elena is Noah's other teacher and he likes to tell us what Elena says. It's pretty cute. We've even noticed that he's starting to talk like her.

At the Kilpatrick Barber Shop

The day arrived to cut Noah's hair again so we set up Il Parrucchiere Kilpatrick in the hallway. Not too long before I had gone to get a hair cut and Noah came and watched for a while. This gave him some good context for our set-up at the house. I was the hair dresser and Noah had to come and knock on my door and then ask for a haircut. He also had to pay me with some coins. He was super into it and read a book with Jeff about cutting hair while I went to town with the scissors and the clippers.

After Noah's haircut, he decided that it was his turn to play "Parrucchiere" and next thing you know Dodo Baby was knocking on the door and giving Noah money! Then he combed her bald head before breaking out the clippers (they weren't plugged in so he had to make the buzzing sound himself). He cut her non-existent hair all the while talking to her like a hair stylist: "Okay Dodo Baby, girati per favore" (turn around please) "Ti piace il taglio?" (Do you like the haircut?) He played this game for hours.

Marrakech - Morocco: Part 3

The train ride to Marrakech was awesome in a very non-traditional sense. Jeff and I both voted it “The Dirtiest Train We’ve Ever Been On” and after a trip to the bathroom, Jeff informed me to “hold it” for the next 3 hours. The train appeared to be a recycled European train from the 70’s. It was exactly like an old Regionale train in Italy, but in way way way worse condition. The quarters were super cramped, hot, smelly, and dirty and yet I had a marvelous time because the countryside was spectacular. It changed consistently as we went inward so we got to see a lot. The land was exactly like what I had pictured of Northern Africa and it was really neat to see the adobe houses, palm trees, huge expanses of nothing, and even a camel.

We arrived in Marrakech and decided to continue our public transportation adventure by taking a local bus. Of course we had to ask 4 different people who all indicated 4 different directions before we found the bus stop. Noah was all smiles wearing his backpack and clinging to our leg as we swayed back and forth with the bus.

The main square which serves as the hub of the medina in Marrakech is CRAZY! There was so much going on…snake charmers, moroccan music, dancers, monkeys on chains, henna tattooing, horses, donkeys, carts, etc. We joined the masses and wound our way through the medina to find our bed and breakfast. It was fairly easy following the directions and once we got settled in we headed right back out into the chaos.

The bazars/souks were beautiful! Each little shop was absolutely packed with stuff hanging here and there. You’d pass one filled with brightly colored linens and then right next door there would be a lamp souk with 400 lamps of every size and shape hanging every which way. Jeff and I quickly found ourselves under the shopping spell and started compiling a list over dinner of what we wanted to buy and what our price limits were. The next day we hit the souks for a super fun birthday shopping spree. I spent my 32^nd birthday bargaining my brains out. We spent hours going back and forth…we went back to one place 3 different times before finally agreeing to a price.

Our favorite experience was with one of the lamp guys who was about our age. We went back and forth playing the official game of bargaining and laughing the whole time with this guy because we all knew it was a total act. At one point the guy said “okay, okay, I said 600 and you said 200, let’s meet in the middle…500.” We burst out laughing and said “what!? that’s not the middle at all!” and he responded with a wink and a slap on Jeff’s back and said “that’s the Moroccan middle.”

On our last day, Noah seemed super run-down. We ended up carrying him in the Ergo Baby for most of the day and he took 2 naps for the first time in 6 months. We figured that something funky was up and did our best to keep him comfortable. By that night he had developed a pretty high fever so we had to go in search of a pharmacy that was still open. It was like being on an Amazing Race challenge. We had to ask people at every corner for directions since we were in the middle of the medina maze and then we diligently followed their directions until we finally found the one open pharmacy in the area.

Once Noah was asleep around 10pm we went out for my birthday dinner to one of the outdoor food kiosks. There were over 50 of them side by side and all of them were completely packed with both tourists and locals. We managed to squeeze in between a couple groups and we just started ordering random things. It was a really fun experience because the waiters were running around and yelling things out and it seemed to get louder and louder the longer we were there.

The next morning our alarm rang at 6am in time with Noah waking up vomiting. He continued on the Vomit Train for the next 7 hours…during our taxi ride to the airport, while waiting in the check-in line, the security line, the passport check line, the customs line, the line to board the plane (pretty much, if there was a line, Noah puked in it), and during the flight. Jeff and I were extremely prepared with plastic bags stuffed into every pocket with one constantly in each of our hands. We tag-teamed him as discreetly as possible with one of us covering the scene and the other one providing the bag. Having just gone through training 2 weeks before when Noah had a 48 hour stomach flu we had the procedure down pat. Along with the fact that Noah is the most silent vomiter that we have ever witnessed, we are 99.9% sure that no one ever knew what was going on.

By the time we made it back to Piacenza Noah was mostly good to go although his “African Sickness” (official diagnosis from the pediatrician) lasted for a good 2 weeks with the Big D and kept him out of school for more than a week. Jeff and I also had some interesting stomach issues going on, but after taking some of Noah’s medicine from the pediatrician, we too came out of it. It was a gnarly way to end the trip, but we chalked it up as a fantastic experience nonetheless.

In the end we finished our shopping spree with 3 lamps, 2 oil paintings, 2 tapestries, a leather satchel bag, shoes, a giant ceramic fruit bowl, a silver pot, and a pound of dried apricots. Then we had the awesome job of figuring out how to get it home with us. We were able to fit it all in our bags, but it was pretty tight due to the big globe lamp that I "had to have" so we decided to buy a cheap little suitcase and then to pack Noah’s backpack in the suitcase so that we’d still have the allotted 3 bags for RyanAir. The only problem was that the fruit bowl was so wide that it didn’t fit so in the end I put in in my Mary Poppins purse along with the 2 oil paintings and slung it across my back. When we went through check-in and bag check Jeff and Noah stayed at my sides to hide the crazy purse on my back. It was super funny. Here are the before and after shots:

Leaving Piacenza

Returning to Piacenza

When we got back Noah told his teachers that he saw donkeys and snakes in Morocco and that he had changed his name to “Noah Moreno Morocco.” We’re not quite sure how that happened but even a month later he still tells people that his name is Noah Moreno Morocco and then laughs hysterically.

Casablanca - Morocco: Part 2

Catching the train to Casablanca was a trial. We ended up leaving the Medina super late due to a last minute dash to find Noah’s lost keys. We had 5 minutes to find a taxi and then get to the station and get on our train. Of course there were no taxis in the square where there are normally a ton. A guy came up to us and said he was a taxi and could give us a ride. We knew he was not a taxi, but we had no choice so we did it. We got in his dinky car and told him to hurry. I felt like we were one of the contestants in Amazing Race because we were telling him to hurry in every language we could come up with…non of them being Arabic though. Anyway, when we arrived on the boulevard in front of the station we told the driver to stop there and we’d run because there wasn’t even time for him to drive around and get us closer. The ride to the station normally cost 11 Dr…we know because we’d just done it that mornng to buy the tickets. We didn’t have any change though so we decided to be generous and just give the driver 20 Dr. So as soon as we pulled to a stop I jumped out of the back seat with Noah on my hip and my purse, Jeff’s backpack and Noah’s backpack slung over my shoulders. I immediately took off running with Noah and the bags bouncing all over the place. I heard the driver say “no!” and I turned around to see the driver grabbing Jeff’s shoulder and them arguing. Apparently the driver wanted 60 Dr! While they were both yelling Jeff rolled down the window and shouted “Rhia! Let me out!” It turned out that there was no handle on the inside of his door so he couldn’t get out and the guy was holding on to his shoulder. I was already a fair distance from the taxi having expected Jeff to also jump out. I ran back, opened the door, and Jeff popped out. We started a mad dash to the train all the while with the driver yelling after us from where he had stopped in the middle of the main street. We sprinted (well as best as we could in 100 degree heat with a child and bags) into the station searching the billboard schedule as we ran by to see where the train was. Jeff asked an official who pointed to a train. We jumped on it, found seats and then sat there sweating to death. We were 2 minutes late and the train was still there. In the end the train left 20 minutes late…apparently departure times are a suggestion. Arrival times are the same. We were supposed to arrive in Casablanca after 3 hours…we arrived 6 hours later! THREE hours late! There was no air conditioning and we did not prepare for a 6 hour ride. Noah definitely reached his limit, but given that there was nothing else to do we just hung on hoping that train would speed up and stop stopping in the middle of nowhere for what seemed like no reason.

Upon arrival in Casablanca we were happy to find that the temperature was about 15 degrees cooler. We stayed in a really cute hotel and spent the evening eating at a great fancy-schmancy place and then walking along the beach to the mosque. The mosque is one of the more impressive sites that we’ve ever seen. It’s the largest mosque in Morocco and the 3^rd largest in the world (the other 2 are in Saudi Arabia). At night the entire mosque and square were beautifully lit up and full of Casablancan families hanging out until late at night. Noah slept in the Ergobaby while we strolled around and around the square.

The next day we decidedly spent most of our time back at the mosque which is perched right on the edge of the water. We spent hours playing in the square and also took a tour of the inside (it’s the only mosque in Morocco that is open to non-Muslims) and while we were inside they opened the roof which was a really awesome thing to see.

We didn’t do much else in Casablanca because we enjoyed being at themosque. We did manage to squeeze in a super chic lunch at one of the beach front resorts costing us a grand total of 15 bucks and then we took a series of taxis to the train station to head to Marrakech.

Two other lasting memories in Casablanca were our adventures with the little red Petit Taxis and Noah’s guide book. Jeff and I have never been big taxi-takers preferring to walk if possible, but given our lack of time, the super low cost of the taxis, and Noah’s sudden obsession with taking red taxis, we took every opportunity to jump into one. The fun part was that we had to haggle. They’d start out by asking us where we were going and then how much we wanted to pay. Having no clue about distances and costs, we would respond with something ridiculous like 5 Dr (.50 cents) and then act like that’s exactly how much it should cost. Then the taxi driver would appear offended and the haggling would begin. We’d go back and forth and then finally agree to taking a 1 or 2 dollar ride.

Noah’s “guide book” was actually a train ticket that he folded into quarters. He would open it up and read it and then tell us where to go. Sometimes he would just read it randomly and then fold it back up and put it in his pocket. He got miles of entertainment out of the ticket with Jeff and I smiling the whole way.