I nostri amici (Our Friends)

Tyler, how do you open a bottle of wine?

We began this adventure three countries ago in Austria with Lynne and Tyler and their family. Before we left, I was looking forward to seeing them and spending time with them. As we traveled, I started to realize how much more comfortable I felt with them around. Lynne and Tyler lived in Italy for almost two years a while back, and had just spent six weeks teaching in Italy before we arrived. On top of their fantastic company, we basically had private tour guides to help us with language and culture. They are amazing.

More kids = Benefit!

Traveling with kids is definitely an adventure. There were many, many times during our days of multi-country travel that I appreciated the fact Ben and Ethan can pretty much get themselves from place to place. We can even count on them to transport a bag or two, so they are starting to pull their weight.

They may have been arguing over who got to push.
I'm going to remember that they were working as a team.

One thing Oscar and Alma
learned more about
due to our boys.

Lynne and Tyler's kids are four and one. They are an absolute joy, though I was reminded of how much harder traveling was when Ben and Ethan were younger. My feeling is that having extra kids and adults around usually helps with kid-wrangling, because as a parent you get at least a few moments of a break and have a few more hands to make sure that nobody dies. (We only lost a child once, and only one child tried to leave a train at the wrong stop.)

More education passed on by our boys.
Look at the view!

The interaction between the kids was fun to watch. It took a few days for them to warm up to each other, but after that they were good buddies. Ethan enjoys playing imaginary games in a way that Ben never did. Having Oscar around to pretend with him allowed him to be a young kid instead of trying to be grown up with Ben. At the same time, Oscar picked up some of my boys' interests and habits. He had more exposure to technology (screens) than normal because of my kids, and hopefully he will forget the fighting games the boys were playing. Ben and Alma were good buddies- Ben loves babies and toddlers, and seeing him interact with them is when I love that kid the most. He puts up a hard shell most of the time, but got right down on Alma's level to play and talk with her. Her understanding of Italian helped Ben try a few words and gain some exposure to the language, which will help him moving on into school. Finally, all four kids got involved with playing soccer by the time we left. It was pretty chilly on the last few days, but they would be outside for long periods of time playing together.

Mike and Liz joined us in Piemonte. We all know Mike from grad school in Ann Arbor, and he and Liz live in Portland now. They spent some time in London and the Milano area before joining us, as it was Liz's first time in Europe. We enjoyed checking out the surrounding area with them and hearing about their longer-distance adventures (they took a few day trips that we opted out of due to the kids) over dinners of fresh pasta, polpette, salsiccia (sausage), etc., etc. We spent a few evenings playing cards and watching basketball, when Tyler, Mike, and Dave weren't enjoying the evening view from the rooftop terrace.

It wasn't until everyone was leaving that I realized we will be completely on our own for a bit. Our first visitors are not scheduled to be here until later in March. We may not have anyone to speak English comfortably with until then! It's a weird feeling not to know when you are going to have a relaxed visit with friends- much less friends that are like family. This was the perfect start to our Italian adventure!

Ciao, amici. Ci manchi già!

Later, friends. We miss you already!