4 days in Puglia with kids:

Alberobello, ZooSafari, Itria Valley, Polignano a Mare & Bari

Hello! It’s been a while. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but it turned out quite a lot of things have been happening in the world lately. You’ll be shocked to know that some of those (and work, and kids, and laziness) got in the way of writing about our trip to Puglia in October.

So: we went to Puglia in October with the kids! It actually exceeded all my expectations, and not just because we obviously didn’t have much to compare it to in 2020, haha. We had always vaguely meant to go to to Puglia because we’d seen pictures from a lot of friends who’d visited Alberobello and the ZooSafari, but whenever it was time to book a trip we tended more often to leave Italy. Until, of course, covid meant we needed to stick closer to home and not risk getting stranded in another country.

A note about COVID — if you are reading this in the blissful future when this is no longer a thing, feel free to skip — at the time we planned and booked this trip, things were pretty well under control in Italy, particularly in our region and in Puglia. Things had started to tick upward at the time we went, but it was still a “green zone” at the time of travel — no restrictions. Obviously, things changed significantly later in October as the second wave began. 

How we got to Puglia: We flew into Bari on Volotea. Most people drive — I think it is only six or seven hours from Catania — but I hate driving and the flights were dirt cheap anyway. We rented a car to get around, which you will absolutely want to do if you are visiting Puglia with kids.

Where we stayed: We rented a beautiful three-bedroom trullo house about a 10-minute drive from downtown Alberobello. I can’t recommend this place enough! It was huge and the hosts were probably the best we’ve ever encountered. I recommend doing the bike tour with them as well! (See Day 2)

Day 1 in Puglia: ZooSafari in Fasano and downtown Alberobello

People have been telling us we have to go to the ZooSafari in Fasano* almost since we arrived in Sicily and, as usual, the masses were correct. It was amazing!

*A theme park, Fasanolandia, is on the same property and looked fun, but was closed when we visited.

The first part of our visit was the drive-thru zoo, which looks and feels like Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs, death and destruction. (On the day we visited, at least? Ha.) It was so much fun!

If you visit, buy peanuts from the vendors beforehand so you can feed the animals.

We basically could not stop laughing the entire time we were driving through. The animals know what’s up and many of them (the, ahem, herbivores) are able to walk right up to your car to demand peanuts. 

The areas containing more dangerous animals like the big cats were a little more secure going in, but it seemed to be up to the individual not to be the jackass who just leaves the car to go ride a lion. So trusting.

After the drive-through portion of the zoo, there was more to see on foot. (Also some rides, which also weren’t open). It was neat and we stayed for a couple of hours, but the driving part was absolutely what you go for.

LATER THAT DAY: 

Alberobello

Let’s set the scene: you are a lovely couple enjoying a glass of wine on what might be the most romantic rooftop in the most romantic town in all of Puglia. It’s the golden hour. Perhaps it is your anniversary. You are toasting to the good fortune that brought you to this place at this time.

Annnnnddddddddd then three kids and two adults come huffing and puffing up the steep stairs and throw themselves onto your rooftop paradise. The two big kids are bickering about whatever. The small one has randomly decided to pitch a fit because he isn’t allowed to throw himself back down the stairs. The adults look to be in desperate need of wine.

What do you do?

The only thing you can do.

You flee.

And that, my friends, is how we accidentally got sole custody of what turned out to be the most romantic rooftop in the most romantic town at the most romantic time of day. Regrettably, however, Owen, Fiona and Lochlan didn’t stop their shenanigans the second the couple left. The big two managed to corral Lochie for a couple seconds we needed to snap this pic, but that was about it on the romance front.

However, let’s back up. Alberobello is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its unique trulli homes. Trullo houses are dry stone buildings made with conical roofs, and you can find them all over the Itria valley in Puglia. Apparently there are different theories about the why so many of these homes were constructed, but one is that they could be quickly demolished when tax collectors came calling. I have no idea if this is true.

Regardless of the reason, the trulli of Alberobello are absolutely stunning. We parked in one of the many lots near the Trulli monumental zone, then spent a few hours simply wandering around (and terrorizing couples, obviously). We had a fairly forgettable dinner on a piazza, but the scenery made it fantastic.

DAY 2 in Puglia: a scenic bike tour in Itria and a visit to  the Grotte di Castellana

I’ve been wanting to try a bike tour for ages now, so when the owners of our AirBnB told us they also offered private e-bike tours, we jumped at the chance. Or at least, I did. But since I was doing the planning for this trip, that meant we all went along.

To cut to the chase: I was so nervous, but it was AMAZING.

First of all, e-bike. Electric bikes. I understand that these are basically cheating for real cyclists but HOLY COW THEY WERE FUN.* Our tour guide provided us with all the protective equipment we needed, including padded shorts for Chris and I. Fiona was a little too short for an e-bike of her own so she had to ride a pull-behind bike behind our guide, but Owen was able to ride one of his own. He did a great job! I was worried because he sometimes struggles with nerves in these types of situation, but he overcame a couple very minor spills and absolutely loved it. This ended up being deemed everyone’s favorite part of the trip, which is saying something considering we were petting giraffes the day before.

*Especially once Chris found out he could turn his bike to the same easy-as-hell setting I had mine on. He spent the first half of the ride working way harder than the rest of us, whoops.

The scenery was amazing and the weather was absolutely perfect for our ride, which was an enormous relief since I had a bad case of nerves beforehand. On a few occasions I’ve been known to make outdoors-y plans like this that ended up being deemed NOT OUR FAVORITE by the rest of the family.

Luckily, there was still time in the day for me to select an activity that everyone hated.

The Grotte di Castellana!

The Grotte di Castellana is a network of beautiful caves near Alberobello, about two miles of which you can tour. In my defense, no one would have hated it at all — we’ve enjoyed other caves — if we hadn’t made the critical error of deciding to go to the last tour of the day. After we spent the morning exercising.

It started off reasonably well, but after the first hour of walking around underground … not great. Luckily, there was nowhere to go! It’s a cave!

Fortunately, gelato can solve any problem afterward.

Day 3 in Puglia: Polignano A Mare

When planning our trip to Puglia, I really struggled with deciding what to do with what to do with our days. How can you choose between Matera or Lecce or Ostuni or Taranto, many of which had been recommended by friends and appeared to be beautiful? Ultimately, however, we settled on picturesque Polignano A Mare for a leisurely day.

We spent our afternoon walking around this sweet little town, especially enjoying the scenery along the lungomare. We stopped by the famous beach (see above) Lama Monachile, which I’ve seen listed in quite a few places as one of the “best beaches” in southern Italy. I’m so glad we got to see it! I will say, however, that my feelings on this are the same as every time I see “Isola Bella” listed as one of the best beaches in Sicily: it is absolutely insanely gorgeous, but I do not think it is anywhere near a “best” for actually sitting on/swimming at the beach. At least, not with kids. But we were there in October, so that wasn’t relevant to our trip, haha. By the way, Polignano A Mare is home to a cave restaurant you’ve probably see pictures of all over the internet, Grotta Palazzese. I actually looked into going there, but the prices were HAHAHAHA NO. At least for us!

We did, however, have my favorite meal of the entire Puglia trip in Polignano a Mare! I’m still dreaming of this pinsa from Malidea (Lungomare Domenico Modugno, 11).

Honestly, it was hard to walk around Polignano A Mare and not want to take pictures of EVERYTHING.
Every little street was adorable, and in the Old Town area you can find poetry all over the place. 

Day 4 in Puglia: a food tour in Bari

As I mentioned, we flew into Bari. However, we arrived late in the evening and didn’t have time to do anything but grab our rental car and make the one-hour to our house in Alberobello. Since our flight home on Monday wasn’t until late afternoon, however, we had time for one activity. We settled — I’m sure you are shocked — on a a food tour!

The fun surprise for Chris was this turned out to be another ambush exercise activity, as the walking tour I’d scheduled was merged with a bike/rickshaw tour (we just rolled with it because covid). I’d originally been under the impression that we were all going to be in a rickshaw, but then found out that one of us adults had to take a bike.

For the record, I did volunteer to ride the bike but Chris insisted. And it turned out to be a very easy ride. Right, honey?

I love this tour — offered by Velo Service — because it gave us the opportunity to learn a lot about Bari in a short time and to visit places we probably would not have otherwise seen. For instance, our guide took us down a street full of homes where people sat out front and made fresh pasta by hand. Apparently they’ve been doing this for basically forever.

We visited a church (fleeing when we realized a wedding was happening inside), saw some great views of the harbor and stopped outside a castle.

There was also a fun, if overlong, visit with a street musician who got everyone playing some musical instruments. And then there was the FOOOOOOOD.

I should mention that everywhere we went in Puglia, we’d find the traditional focaccia bread, usually with tomatoes. I’ve seen it around in Sicily but didn’t know what all the fuss was about until our AirBnB hosts left us a huge pile of it on the first night we arrived. Yeah, I understand the fuss now. We DESTROYED it. Naturally, then, our first stop of the tour took us to a place where we acquired some phenomenal focaccia. Yessssssss.

Other stops included a deli offering platters of meat and cheese, a candy shop, some fried risotto cooked up outside a restaurant by a woman who seemed to be a very good cook with very little patience for her husband. Hilarious. 

The pasta ladies also gave the kids some dough to play with. 

The last and best stop, of course, was for ice cream! Lochie had his first ever cono gelato. 

On top of everything else, Bari turned out to be a lovely little town as well. Next time, I hope to spend more time there.

Well, that about does it for our trip to Puglia with the kids! It is strange that this was only a couple months ago, but already seems like it was ages.

As for conditions in Sicily right now: we have had lockdowns at varying levels of severity for the past few months. However, despite the second wave hitting our island dramatically harder than the first wave, the lockdowns have been significantly less restrictive. Mixed feelings about that, obviously. The base abruptly closed the schools for a month or so, but then just as abruptly decided to reopen two weeks before Christmas break. The base received the first round of the vaccine and started distributing just in the last week.

I feel hopeful for 2021.

Wishing you all a happy new year! 

The post 4 days in Puglia with kids first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

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A month. Really, since I’m writing this later than I intended, it’s actually been more like 32 days of lockdown. More than a month since our kids have left the property. Wow.

I will preface this, as usual, with a message for our friends and family: we are healthy, we are safe, we have everything we need. Adding: thank you all so much for checking in, and I’m sorry I’ve been so slow to reply to messages these days. I’m trying to get better about it.

I’ve been meaning to update sooner, but to be really honest, it has been difficult to find the motivation to write. However, I’m sitting on my balcony with a cup of coffee and a rare bit of solitude, so here goes nothing!

(Cue one of my children showing up to ask me to arbitrate a dispute like “who gets to be the murderer” in a game they want to play. Yes, that is an actual fight they’ve had recently).

On the news-y front, there isn’t a ton to update here. Every day at 6 p.m. we check to see the official death/new cases count out of Italy (a morbid ritual we’ve gotten into) and search for signs things are improving. At the moment, it’s hard to say. The number of deaths have fallen from the peak for several days in a row, but when you are talking about another 600+ people dead every single day, it is hard to feel encouraged. Numbers of new cases seem to be up and down. We are hoping those numbers continue to fall, but I think that I need to accept that it will not be a sudden drop off in cases as I secretly have hoped.

Lockdown is expected to be extended until at least May 3 here, with rumblings that it will go on in some reduced form for much longer. At the base, and now in all of Italy, you may no longer be out in public without a mask. For the most part, the Sicilians I’ve seen have almost all been wearing masks since the beginning anyway, but now it is official. The new mask requirement for the base started earlier this week. I’ve been so impressed by the great number of people on base who have been making up big batches of these masks and leaving them for anyone to come grab. Love to see people helping each other during these crazy times!

What we’ve learned so far: Observations from lockdown

1. We have to have things we “have” to do. While doing the e-learning stuff was a bit rocky for the first couple days as we figured it out, I have come to be glad we have it. As a group, we do not do well if we don’t have some kind of a “plan” for the day. I kind of knew this about myself, but holy cow is it ever true for the kids as well. Any day where we don’t have things to do, we all turn into absolute grouch monsters. The kids watch too much TV or play too many video games, which for whatever weird reason INVARIABLY leads to them deciding to fight all damn day. If I don’t have things to do, I get into a shitty mood, which makes me way less capable of dealing with the constant bickering. Then the sound of us all arguing gets to Chris, who ends up longing to be at work rather than in the other room listening to us all be cranky at each other.

   

On days we do have things to do, on the other hand? Honestly, it is such a difference that it is hard to even describe. I have no idea why doing school work or projects in the mornings makes them so much more capable of playing nicely together in the afternoon and evening, but is just freaking does. Having a sense of “crossing things off my list” also gives me a sense of accomplishment, which I honestly need. Especially as I am also not working at the moment because my freelance clients have taken all their work in-house.

This week was spring break for the kids, so I was very worried about what we’d do to stay sane. At the suggestion of one of my friends, we decided to do a “theme” for each day and various activities. It worked really well every day except Thursday when, after a bad night with the baby and a lack of planning on my part, we didn’t really do many of “Portugal” themed things. Unsurprisingly, Thursday sucked. Real bad. We got back on track yesterday though, and consequently it was a dramatically better day.

School starts Monday and I am SO RELIEVED.

2. It’s all jammies all the time over here. Having a “routine” does NOT extend to getting dressed, however. Owen, who has bizarrely shunned pajama days at school in the past, has declared that when they go back to school he wants to make EVERY DAY pajama day. I suspect he’ll change his mind about the fleece jammie pants when it is 100 degrees out, but in the meantime I’m all about it. Ha!

3. Exercise is crucial. Another discovery — every single one of us is a jerk if we don’t get some exercise. Preferably in the fresh air (which mostly means the balcony, since we aren’t allowed to walk outside our property. I’m so jealous of all of you in the States who have been going hiking). I started with my balcony walking as a way to get a bit of solitude, but now it is freaking ESSENTIAL to my mental health. We’ve had a lot of bad storms in recent weeks, some of which were so torrential that we couldn’t even walk on our covered balcony because of how slippery the tiles got. On those days, we all felt terrible. The kids are now required to do 30 minutes of activity as a bare minimum, and I definitely see a difference in them too.

4. The kids still like us. Ha! I guess what I mean to say is, while I know they miss their friends they really seem to be enjoying the opportunity to have more one-on-one time with us. While I’m SO READY for life to get back to normal, I do love the talks and snuggles we’ve had recently.

Every time they talk though, I realize how many of our verbal tics they’ve picked up. Whoops. I guess I should be glad they aren’t dropping f-bombs (yet)?

5. WE EAT SO MUCH. If there is one thing that is driving me a little bit crazy (audience: only one?) it is the absolute unending relentlessness of the dishes/cooking cycle. How is it possible for five people to eat this much? How is it possible to do so many dishes and yet ALWAYS HAVE A SINK FULL OF DISHES?

We did finally order pizza from this one local place that delivers starting at 6 p.m. (!!!) and it was a very nice change. We haven’t ordered much because not a lot delivers here and we tend to eat a LOT earlier than restaurants usually deliver. This pizza wasn’t my absolute favorite, but the owner spoke flawless English over the phone, it got here in probably 35 minutes and it was cheap. So, I imagine we’ll be having it again.

6. The low-budget carriers are a bunch of bastards. I won’t get into a whole big thing about my hours of efforts to try and get refunds for our cancelled flights to Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Lisbon, but it has been a mess. At this point, I’ve settled on vouchers since they’ve deliberately made it impossible to go through the process to get the cash refunds we are entitled to. Here’s hoping these airlines don’t fold before we get to use them, as Chris predicts.

It’s been weird not only not going anywhere, but not knowing when it will be possible to plan future trips. We did move one of our Bordeaux flights to be a flight to Lyon at Christmas time, but beyond that we are just waiting and seeing. At this point, I might start planning stuff for Summer 2021, just to scratch that itch. Ha!

7. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I would have thought that we’d have an excessive amount of free time now, but go figure — there still isn’t enough time to get everything done that I mean to. And when there is free time, I’m too damn tired. Oh well! 

Tell me: how are things by you? How are you occupying your time? 

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post LOCKDOWN: Reflections on 1 month at home appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

The 12 best day trips from Catania, Sicily

Living near Catania or just making it your home base for a holiday in Sicily? Great news: the world is your oyster. Day trips from Catania can take you to some of the best Sicily has to offer!

Well, at 33 weeks pregnant (read: huh? what? how? AHHHHH) our travel plans are officially done until the Newbie makes his grand appearance.

Cue me getting sad about the “end of an era” while Chris looks on, puzzled. 

Anyway, since we’ve got no plans (yet?) to leave our island before July, it got me thinking again about all the great places there are in our part of Sicily. I might be biased, but I especially like our area since we are a relatively short jaunt from what I’d consider to be some of the best places to visit in Sicily. While I wouldn’t personally want to live in the big city, there are a ton of great day trips from Catania — or really the entire province of Catania — that make this part of Sicily a great base for exploring the island.

So, whether you are lucky enough to be living here or just planning a Sicilian holiday, I wanted to share some of our favorite day trips. Obviously this list isn’t exhaustive — there really is a ton to do over here, guys! — but they are all ones we’ve done and enjoyed. Happy traveling!

Related post: Top 10 reasons you should plan a family holiday in Sicily!

Our favorite day trips from Catania

1. Siracusa/Ortigia

Driving distance from Catania: about 50 minutes

It was a tough choice, trying to decide whether to place Siracusa or Taormina first when it comes to the best day trips from Catania; they are about equidistant from the city and both AWESOME. But for whatever reason, Siracusa just has a little something extra that I love.

Siracusa, once one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world, is a place steeped in history (and the place where Fiona once smacked Owen with an ice cream cone on Mother’s Day). I’ve written about it extensively in this post, so you’ll find more details there. If you are going to Siracusa, my first advice would be to drive across one of two bridges to the island of Ortigia, where you’ll find the heart of this area. It’s also, apparently, the birth place of one or both of the twin Greek gods Artemis and Apollo. (I have questions about logistics if only one of them was born there, however).

I would suggest making your way through the Ortigia farmer’s market, stopping to take a look at the Temple of Apollo and then head toward the Duomo di Siracusa, which is well worth stepping inside. If you are going with kids, the Castello Maniace is a fun stop as well, plus it is right on the sea so you can definitely stop and look for fish! I’d also highly suggest taking a 1-hour boat tour around the island, which will include looking at various sea caves.

If you are interested in history, Siracusa’s archaeological park is absolutely worth a visit as well; you’ll want to set aside at least a couple hours for this.

Restaurant recommendation for Ortigia: La Volpe e L’Uva, a pizza place right across from the Duomo. We’ve been there several times and love it!

2. Taormina

Driving distance from Catania: 50 minutes

Taormina is probably one of the best-known spots in Sicily, and that’s for a reason: it is gorgeous. Its location only about an hour to the north of Sicily’s largest airport also makes it an excellent option for a day trip from Catania — though if you have the time, an overnight here would be a lot of fun.

Topping the must-see list for Taormina has to be its ancient Greek theater, which dates back to the third century BC. Not only is the theater in amazing shape — they still have concerts there! — but the views from it are incredible.

You’ll also want to stroll down the Corso Umberto I to take a peak in the fancy shops (for my Chicago people, this is like Taormina’s Michigan Avenue) until you hit the Piazza IX Aprile. Basically, if I said the word “Sicily” to you, this piazza is what your brain would come up with as the mental picture. There’s usually even an accordion player hanging out there, for crying out loud! Stop and grab a gelato or cocktail here, and enjoy some incredible views and ambiance.

Don’t miss visiting the city’s public gardens, the Villa Communale, if you can help it. This is a beautiful place to walk around, visit some exotic birds and (yes, again) take in the views. I’d also say the experience is enhanced by grabbing a couple cannoli from nearby Roberto’s as well!

If you are looking for some beach time, you can also visit Taormina’s beaches near the iconic Isola Bella. However, I will note that these aren’t particularly my favorite for visiting with kids because they are pretty rocky (we’ll get to some better ones at the end here). But if you are there on a hot day and the water looks tempting — go for it!

Eating, to me, is a big part of visiting Taormina and there are a lot of great options. Here’s a few of our restaurant recommendations:

For granita: Bam Bar. Seriously, don’t miss going here. Don’t bail if there’s a line. Don’t think you can get something just as good elsewhere. It is far and away the best granita we’ve had on Sicily. Also, don’t forget cream and brioche. I don’t care if I sound bossy, just do this! *CLOSED ON MONDAY, be warned. NEW REPORT: Bam Bar closed until March 1!! 

For cannoli: Laboratorio Pasticceria Roberto. Hands down, the best cannoli. I don’t even like cannoli that much, unless it is from Roberto’s. Then I eat them all.

For cheap eats: Da Cristina. Fabulous pizza, arancini and more, available for takeaway at a very reasonable price.

For a cocktail: Timoleone Cafe. This cute little garden cocktail bar is tucked away near the ancient Greek theater and is just the nicest little stop. We usually wait here while guests tour the theater, as we’ve been a few times now.

For a laugh: Bar Turrisi. A penis-themed bar near Taormina’s Castelmola area. I haven’t been yet, but the pictures from there are hilarious.

For a sit-down meal: Ristorante Granduca Taormina. A little on the pricey side, but delicious.

3. Mount Etna

Driving distance from Catania: It depends, but about 1 hour to Etna Sud

You can’t visit eastern Sicily without admiring our volcano. I’m pretty sure that’s like, a law. You just can’t.

Mount Etna is far and away the largest volcano in Italy (Vesuvius, you are a pipsqueak compared to our lady Etna!) and the second largest in Europe. It is also one of the most active volcanoes in the world, as it is nearly always smoking. We’ve been treated to  eruptions several times since arriving here in October 2016, and it is always thrilling.

So you have many options for visiting Etna, depending on your preferred budget and physical activity level. We’re cheap, so thus far we’ve limited ourselves to doing free activities, hiking on Etna and going up to Etna Sud (the highest point you can drive to on our side) to see the two large craters, the Silvestri Crateri. Our favorite hike is to the Val del Bove, pictured below, which takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the person. If you want to do that one, here is a pin for the start of the trail.

At Etna Sud, you’ll find several restaurants and souvenir shops, but the main reason we go is to see the Silvestri Crateri. Seeing these gives you the “feel” of hiking and the chance to admire the mountain from high up, but without the massive effort of hiking or expense of going to the tippy top. 

For those willing to spend some money, there are plenty of options for fun ways to see more of Mount Etna on a variety of tours. We know people who have toured Mount Etna on quad bikes or donkeys, and most recently some friends of ours have been trying to organize us to do an Etna hike with alpacas.(That one, however, will have to wait until this baby is out!).

If you’d like to go to the top of Mount Etna, you can drive to Etna Sud and take the funicular up higher, followed by a jeep ride to the summit. We’ve never done this because it is around 60 euro a person and the days we might have splurged it was cloudy, but I understand it is worth doing at least once.

If skiing on an active volcano is on your bucket list, you may be able to do that as well, provided you come at the right time of year. The people I know who have skied on Etna went to Etna Nord (the other side of the mountain); if you are interested check out STAR Nord. A good friend just went there recently and says that she’s also taken her children there for sledding! (Hi, Leigh Ann!)

Restaurant suggestion for Etna Sud: Rifugio Sapienza. Easy place to grab a pizza or some pasta after wearing yourselves out on the mountain.

4. Agrigento

Driving distance from Catania: 2 hours

I’ll be honest, Agrigento almost didn’t make it on to the list as a possible day trip from Catania just because of its location: it’ll take you a two hours of driving to make it there. However, I’m told non-crazy people consider that to be a perfectly normal distance for a day trip and, on balance, it is such a unique place that I’d say it is worth the effort to go even if you only have a day.*

*Note: we actually have done this in a day trip and all the driving wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, but an overnight is still my personal preference.

The reason that Agrigento is worth a day trip despite the distance is simple: the Valley of the Temples. As my mother-in-law noted when she was here, this is a dumb name as the temples are actually located on a ridge. But if you can ignore that bit of weirdness, you’ll be treated to some of the best-preserved Greek temples outside of Greece itself.

I’ve written about Agrigento at length before (see this post about our weekend in Agrigento), so I won’t go on much other than to say it is pretty incredible. If you are a history buff, you won’t want to miss this. However, I strongly recommend against going in the heat of summer, as it is likely to be hot as hell. Spring, fall and winter are your best bets for Agrigento.

This city can absolutely work as a day trip from Catania, but if you have time I recommend doing an overnight there so you can take advantage of seeing the nearby Scala dei Turchi as well. If you do, I’d consider looking at the B&B Villa Carlotta Resort. It was comfortable, very affordable (I think we paid 100 euro for a two-bedroom “family room”) and had a great breakfast and a pool. And puppies to play with! Though I suppose that last one probably isn’t a permanent feature.

5. Modica

Driving distance from Catania: 1 hour and 30 minutes

We took a weekend trip to the next three towns on my list shortly after we arrived in Sicily, and loved each one. UNESCO World Heritage site Modica, however, gets a special mention — and a recent return visit when my in-laws were in town in November 2018 — because of its reputation as a chocolate town. Here you can find a unique variety of chocolate that dates back to the Aztecs, as conveyed to Sicily by the Spanish. If you want to visit, I’d suggest booking a chocolate tour at Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. And bring your wallet, because you are going to end up buying way too much chocolate. (Unless, I guess, you are one of those weirdos with that thing — what’s it called? Self control?)

Read more about our weekend in Modica here. 

After that, I’d suggest wandering the city to take in its famous Baroque architecture and (what else?) more chocolate samples at every shop you take. Don’t forget to get some hot chocolate!

Recommended restaurants: Osteria Dei Sapori-Perduti OR A Putia Ro’Vinu. Both delicious!

6. Noto

Driving distance from Catania: 1 hour, 5 minutes

We’ve got another World Heritage Site here — and this feels like a good time to mention that if you only have a few days, visiting Modica, Noto and Ragusa over the course of a couple of them can be an efficient way to see a lot.

The town of Noto is magnificent, in part because so much of it was destroyed by a devastating 1693 earthquake and, I have to say, they did a bang-up job on reconstruction. Noto has been dubbed “The Stone Garden,” you can cruise down the city’s main drag and see an incredible collection of beautiful Baroque architecture. Check out the Palazzo Nicolaci di Villadorata, Chiesa di San Domenico and Noto Cathedral.

Restaurant recommendation: Absolutely go to Trattoria al Buco! We had a phenomenal meal there one Sunday shortly after we arrived and I’m still dreaming about it.

7. Ragusa

Driving distance from Catania: About 1 hour and 25 minutes

The last of our three favorite towns in the Val di Noto (all UNESCO World Heritage towns!) is the capital of the province of Ragusa, helpfully also named Ragusa. If you are out this way, I’d definitely say it is worth a stop here because it is just a lovely little town. But I’d suggest bringing as small a car as possible — read why here.

Ragusa is divided into two parts, Ragusa Ibla (the old town) and Ragusa Superiore (the upper part of the city). The showstopper in Ragusa will be — you can’t possibly be shocked by this at this point, right? — the Duomo di Ragusa, the Cattedrale di San Giovanni Battista. Like the cathedral in Modica, this one was designed by master architect Rosario Gagliardi and is considered one of his best works. Definitely consider popping in, if you aren’t sick of churches by now.

Once you’ve made it to the piazza in front of the Duomo, you’re going to need to stop and get some wine-flavored ice cream, a signature dish here. We got ours at Gelati DiVini right on the square and it was phenomenal and WEIRD. I didn’t necessarily have high expectations of wine-flavored ice cream, but the moscato I got somehow tasted simultaneously like a) wine, b) ice cream and c) delicious. Yes, please.

We took the tourist train around Ragusa; these are pretty much ubiquitous in all the towns here, but we particularly liked this one. If you are in Ragusa with kids, friends of ours also highly recommend a stop at the Gardino Ibleo, an incredible city park with playground equipment, paths and (of course) great views. This is on our list to see when we go back sometime!

Restaurant recommendations: Obviously, hit Gelati DiVini for wine ice cream! But if you are looking for a more substantial meal, our other very smart friends (hi Amanda!) recommend grabbing sausage, cheese, limoncello and wine at Enoteco Il Barocco.

8. Caltagirone

Driving distance: 1 hour 

If you love shopping and gorgeous pottery, you’re going to want to head inland to Caltagirone. We’ve been here quite a few times now, and every time I come home with more colorful pottery. YOLO, I guess!

The main thing you are going to want to see is the Scala di Santa Maria del Monte, an enormous 142-step showstopper of a staircase in which each step is decorated with the city’s signature painted tiles. 

As you’re walking up the stairs, you’ll find tons of little pottery shops that you can pop into for a look. (There’s also a pottery museum in Caltagirone, but I always figure shopping is basically the same … right?). I always end up taking something home because I just can’t help myself.

A few times of year, Caltagirone will have festivals where they decorate the staircase with elaborate displays of flowers and candles. I haven’t been during one of those times, but it looks magnificent! Also, if you come around Christmas-time, there will be a lot of elaborate creche displays at all the (many) local churches. We haven’t made it out for that, but friends have told me it is neat.

At the top of the stairs you’ll find the church of Santa Maria del Monte, which is worth a pop in (and is free).

By the way, if you are looking for a laugh feel free to read about that one time we almost ran over Caltagirone’s most famous monument.

9. Alcantara Gorge

Driving time from Catania: 50 minutes

If you are looking to take in more of Sicily’s natural beauty, Alcantara Gorge makes for an excellent spot for hiking, lounging and even body surfing. I’ve written about all that Alcantara Gorge has to offer before, so check that post out if you are interested in a few more specifics.

But to summarize: the gorge is made up of these incredible basalt columns that were formed about 8,000 years ago when lava flow from Etna met cold river water, causing it to crystallize into various shapes and crack in some places. The columns are surprisingly smooth to the touch.

We visited the Alcantara Gorge Botanical and Geological Park in the height of summer, which was a perfect time for trying to body surf through the gorge because the water is incredibly, insanely cold. Chris, my cold-weather guy, wouldn’t even do it because the water was so frigid (also because he felt body surfing without pads was stupid because they offer tours that specifically require helmets, and he figures that’s for a reason). That makes it one of those rare places that we consider better to visit during the summer — UNLESS, that is, you want to hike. I really wish we’d done this, to be honest, because some of the paths laid out appear to take you to cool views. But at the time, it was too damn hot for anything but getting in the water.

Hot tip: wear some water shoes. Flip flops and going barefoot are both terrible ideas. SERIOUSLY.

10. Aci Castello/Aci Trezza

I’m going to lump two of the “Aci” towns here together,  as I think they’d be convenient to do on the same day if you are only here on holiday and don’t have a few years to thoroughly explore Sicily. (Also a fun fact, we used to live up in the “Aci” area before our move last summer!).

Aci Castello is home to the Castello Normanno, where the kids and I explored just last year. I wrote about the Castello Normanno in this post, so feel free to check that out for more information and photos. Like many castles in the area, it is just neat looking because it is perched on a cliff overlooking the sea. All the better for defending, right?

Aci Trezza, meanwhile, is a small but charming seaside town that we love for just walking around and especially dining. Like fresh seafood? Yeah, this is your place.

You may or may not know that according to the myths, the cyclops of Homer’s Odyssey actually lived inside Mount Etna. After Odysseus and those of his men who were not immediately eaten managed to blind Polyphemus and escape by boat, they unwisely taunted the cyclops and he blindly picked up some boulders and started chucking them in the direction of the taunting. THESE are those stones.

Restaurant recommendation: One of our favorite places to take guests is Le Muse, especially when we get an outdoor table. Last time we went, they brought fresh fish to the table so my dad could personally select his victim. Afterwards, we usually grab a cocktail at Mythos Bar.

11. Enna

Driving distance from Catania: about 1 hour and 15 minutes

After two years in Sicily, we finally visited the inland town of Enna just last November. It was cute and an excellent choice for a little low-key exploring, particularly if you are in Sicily for the long haul. For us, the top priority was seeing Enna’s own castle, which is perched at the very highest part of a town that is already on a hill.

The Castello di Lombardia is one of the oldest castles in Sicily and one of the largest medieval castles in all of Italy. Castles have stood on this particular site for thousands of years, no doubt because it makes an excellent vantage point to watch for enemies (good time to remind you that Sicily has been conquered by different groups approximately a zillion times in the past few thousand years). This particular iteration of the castle dates back to about the 10th century.

This castle charges no admission, which also makes it an attractive stop for a day trip. It’ll take you quite a while to explore the grounds and peak into various areas, though there aren’t a lot of “displays” outside of one spot that shows off some period costumes and information about castle history.

You’ll want to climb the highest tower of the castle. It’s a lot of somewhat alarming steps, but it is worth it so that you can get views like THESE.

At the foot of the castle, near the exit, you’ll find a statue commemorating Euno, a slave who “2,000 years before Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves” (according to the plaque I recently had to translate since my Italian sucks) led a bold slave uprising in Enna against the Roman Empire. From what I understand, this was the beginning of the First Servile War against the empire, which ran from 135 to 132 BC. The last and most famous of the three slave revolts in this period was led by Spartacus.

After seeing the castle, it’s a short walk to the Duomo di Enna (there’s always a duomo, isn’t there?). Like a surprising number of churches we’ve stumbled across in Sicily, it doesn’t look like that much on the outside, then you walk in and BAM! Opulence.

I’m including this picture from the church just because Mary’s fed-up face (and belly) are currently speaking to me on a deep level.

Restaurant recommendation: Meimuna! Located super close to the castle, this restaurant is both convenient and absolutely delicious. As a bonus, they make pizzas during lunch time (not common in Sicily). Yes, please. Check out this post if you are looking for even more options for where to eat in Enna!

12. THE BEACH

Well, I realize listing “the beach” isn’t terrible specific, but any list of day trips from Catania would be remiss without including some beach suggestions. I mean, if you are here during summer that’s what you want most, right?

We’ve been to a fair number of beaches out here now, but at this point we’ve pretty much narrowed it down to three favorites. Which one we go to depends on our mood of the day. All of these are to the south of Catania, as we much prefer the sandy beaches there to rockier versions to the north of us.

For amenities: Fontane Bianche. We love the convenience of going to lidos because you rent a chair and are pretty well set for the day. If you don’t feel like packing a lunch or a bunch of drinks, you can just buy them on site for pretty reasonable prices. We’ve spent a lot of happy hours here!

For a basic beach: Cassibile Nature Reserve. This one isn’t a lido, so you won’t pay to get on the beach, but will need to bring your own chairs, blanket, sun shade, snacks, etc. Parking will set you back about 15 euro as of last summer, but you can park very close to the beach so it is convenient. (Here is a pin for the turn to get to parking, it is easy to fly past so be careful). We like this one if we are into a more low-key and low-cost beach trip. There are also cliffs you can jump off into the sea, if you are less concerned with your own mortality than we are.

For a splurge: Lido San Lorenzo Plus. I actually had to look up the name of this place, as we just call it “fancy beach.” This one is a definite splurge, especially in summer, and if you are coming toward the end of July or in August you’ll want to make sure you get reservations ahead of time. It is pretty expensive, but there is also an app that  you can use to have food and drinks delivered straight to your chair (when it is working, otherwise you have to flag a waiter). There are also a couple of on-site dining options. Plus, you can rent a bed like this:

Note: One of our favorite beaches is actually in Cefalu, a northern Sicily town little more than two hours away. I just can’t seem to bring myself to consider it a day trip from Catania though, even if it is practically the same distance as Agrigento. Spending a day baking in the sun on the beach, then driving home for two hours? Not for me, guys. But check out this post if you are of hardier stock and I am.

So, that about wraps this up! Friends who live here, what are some of your favorite day trips from Catania? Any recommendations to add for any of these cities? I’d love to hear them!

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What I didn’t write about in 2018: a day trip to Siena and more! 

We’re already more than two weeks into January, and I’m realizing there are still adventures from 2018 I haven’t written about. Among these were a day trip to Siena during our trip to Florence with my in-laws last spring, two days in Rome during the same trip and visits to Loch Ness and Pitlochry in Scotland! No doubt there are more — such as a day trip to Enna — but as it is, that seems like a fair bit of catching up already.

Anyway, it was a beautiful year! And for my own sake, if no one else’s, I want to make sure I’ve taken the chance to remember some of that. 

A day trip to Siena from Florence

Back in April/May, we visited Florence, Greve in Chianti (for our wine-tasting misadventure) and Rome for a week with my in-laws, Gail and David. We spent five total nights in Florence, but one of them we dedicated to a day trip to Siena. It was one of my favorite days of the trip, and even having only seen it on a short day trip I still think I like Siena better than either Florence or Rome. 

We took the train (a very pleasant hour and a half) from Florence to Siena, then ended up catching a bus from the Siena train station to the center of town. From there, we mostly strolled through the town, acquired gelato and saw a few sights, including the following: 

1. Piazza del Campo and Mangia Tower

 The Piazza del Campo is the center of Siena, its town square. It’s also where the famous Palio horse races are held every year — we saw some videos of them at nearby restaurants, and the races look intense! I’d love to go to that sometime, though I expect it must be a madhouse every year. I don’t recommend eating here though; we “accidentally” ended up doing that and got an enormous bill for a crappy meal. Ah well, live and learn! 

My in-laws (if memory serves) went into the Palazzo Pubblico, a museum on the square, but Chris and I opted to remain in the square and watch the kids chase pigeons instead. 

2. Duomo di Siena 

The Siena Cathedral was magnificent on the outside and, unlike its counterpart in Florence, did not disappoint us on the inside either! It was absolutely gorgeous and should absolutely be a must-see stop if you are heading to Siena. I’d rank it, after Saint Chappelle in Paris and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, as among the most beautiful churches in Europe. 

Like the Florence Cathedral, Siena’s has a lot of gorgeous black and white marble columns within it. But step into the adjacent Piccolomini Library and you’ll find an explosion of color; it was legitimately the most stunning ceiling I’ve ever seen. It was absolutely worth the wait in line to get in (this was sort of the theme for a lot of things we did in Florence and Tuscany!)

A quick stop in Rome  

Since both my in-laws and our family found it was considerably cheaper to fly into Rome than Florence, our trip ended with a couple days there soaking up that city. Of course, we’ve been there before so Chris and I took the kids to do a few different things while Gail and David got a look at the Vatican, the Colosseum and other can’t-miss sights in Rome. 

We stayed in the Trastavere neighborhood, a little further from the center of things than we were in the past. However, I highly recommend this area! We had some good meals and found it to be a little less hectic than the more central places. 

Our favorite activity was a self-guided food tour of Trastavere through BiteMojo. Basically, the BiteMojo premise is that you download the app, then pay (in our case, 25 euro) for a food tour of an area at your own pace, between specified hours. Along the way, it also tells you about some sites you are passing. If you don’t use all your “bite credits” you can save them for another day or even another city. 

We’ve now done this in Berlin and Rome and the verdict is: we like it, but do think they may still be sorting out a few kinks. In Rome, we had a few problems with two of the places not being open as advertised. (Luckily, we did not have this problem in Berlin).  The places we did get to stop, however, were excellent and the portions were ample. By far the best was this incredible burrata creation from Da Enzo, which was so good that when Fiona dropped her portion onto the cobblestones we seriously considered eating it anyway. (Don’t worry, we did resist this particular impulse.) 

We also took the chance to visit a place we’d missed on our previous trip to Rome, including the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a Roman temple-turned-church that dates back to the 100s BC. It is one of the best preserved Ancient Roman temples in the world. 

It is also the final resting place of two kings of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I.

And this photo is just Chris and Fiona being cute in Trastavere. 

A monster hunt on our Loch Ness tour 

I wrote a fair bit about our trip to Scotland (Edinburgh with kids, visit to Stirling Castle and Oban and the Isle of Skye), but with so much going on this summer I never got a chance to write about our trip to Loch Ness.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide on the best monster hunt on Loch Ness with kids, and ultimately settled on the two-hour Loch Ness by Jacobite tour on the Freedom boat. It was cute! 

We drove to Loch Ness from Balamarca, stopping briefly to take a look at the Eilean Donan castle near our AirBnb. All told, I believe it was a little more than a two-hour drive to get to the Clansman Hotel, where our boat was to depart. 

The lake itself was much bigger than I was expecting, and people weren’t joking when they said the water was black. It is easy to see how people could believe a mythical creature could plausibly be hiding in there! 

It was pretty chilly the day we went, but we still rode on the open-air top of our boat so that we could get a good view. Along the way, the tour guide told us a little about the lake (for instance, that the water is black because of the high peat content of the ground) and the history of the quest for Nessy. 

The trip included a one-hour stop to see the ruins of Urquhart Castle, and learn a little about its fascinating history as well. On the whole, our castle interests usually extend more to the intact versions vs. ruins, but it was still interesting to see. As a side note, we stopped in a coffee shop and I got to listen to a fellow tourist being absolutely incredulous that the cashier could accept neither Euro nor U.S. dollars for his order. Face palm. 

On the way back, we opted to sit inside the boat so the kids could play with the activity sets that came with our admission price for our monster hunt on Loch Ness! They were more impressed with that than the “radar” you could use to monitor for signs of Nessy, which I had expected they’d think was cool. Go figure. 

A stop in peaceful Pitlochry, Scotland 

Our final stop in Scotland was in Pitlochry, a place I originally chose mostly as a good stopping point between Loch Ness and Edinburgh for a couple nights before we had to return to Edinburgh for a morning flight. To my surprised, we ended up being quite charmed by the little town — other than Edinburgh, it was probably my favorite. However, this is stop was one place where our lack of planning kind of bit us in the ass. 

I’d intentionally left our last day in Scotland blank as a “wing it” day, thinking we’d be exhausted from the previous 11 days on the road and eager for downtime. However, if I’d looked into things ahead of time we’d have saved a lot of time and aggravation on our “downtime” day. Pitlochry and the surrounding area have a lot of nice walking/biking paths, and since we were lucky enough to get beautiful weather we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to bike. However, the bikes we needed (a pull-behind one for Owen and a trailer or seat for Fiona) were all booked up at the local bike shop, and another one on site of a nearby castle was open by appointment only. Darn! If I could go back in time, my Pitlochry one-day itinerary would look something like this: 

What to do in Pitlochry

 1. Breakfast at Escape Route, a cute cafe near a bike shop

2. Morning: rent bicycles on the nearby Blair Atholl Castle estate grounds and ride around the many pretty trails in that area. 

3. Tour Blair Atholl castle and enjoy the kids’ activities there, which includes a scavenger hunt, dress-up and outdoor playgrounds. Lunch: a picnic, or a visit to the castle restaurant

4. Return to Pitlochry for a tour of the Blair Atholl distillery. Part of this is adults only, but the kids were able to join after about 15/20 minutes. Tastings are included!

5. Dinner at the Old Mill Inn

6. A walk in downtown Pitlochry or, better yet, along the nice walking trails nearby. We took a path that led us to Loch Falskaddy and the “Fish Ladder.” The fish ladder — a series of water “steps” that the fish can jump between — was built specifically to give migrating salmon a way over the dam. Unfortunately, the Fish Ladder Viewing Chamber was closed when we were there. Next time!  

What we actually did on our one day in Pitlochry … 

Well, we wasted the morning trying to track down bikes, for the most part. But we did visit the Blair Atholl Distillery (Chris went on the whole tour, while the kids and I joined where we could) and did the walk to the Fish Ladder, which was just beautiful. I just wish we’d planned ahead and could have really made the most out of our day there! 

One fun thing about Scotland: we were there in early June, and it stayed light out until so late. This picture was taken at about 10:30 p.m. Consequently, the kids stayed up very late every night because we just didn’t realize how late it was getting.  

Well, I’d say that about wraps up this recap for now. My conscience is eased, ha. 

Now on to 2019 adventures! Our first trip of the year is quite soon, then we’ll be on a bit of a hiatus until Baby Boy arrives in March! (Hopefully March and not April, anyway!)

The post A day trip to Siena, and other 2018 adventures first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post A day trip to Siena, and other 2018 adventures appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Adventures in wine tasting in Tuscany with kids

As part of our five days in Florence with my in-laws, we decided to take a day trip from Florence for a Greve in Chianti wine tasting. To make this even more exciting, we decided to do it entirely by public transportation. Tuscany with kids by bus — what could go wrong? A fair amount, it turns out, but the end result was fabulous Chianti wine tasting at Viticcio Winery. 

Related: Check out our adventures in Florence with kids!

Our Tuscany with kids misadventure: In medias res

It was raining, it was muddy and we were stuck on the side on the road at a “bus stop” in Chianti that was a) not in the right town and b) apparently not home to a single taxi. With two small children. And my in-laws. Our decision to spends the day on a Greve in Chianti wine tasting was not, I had to admit, off to a great start. Nor was our decision to visit Tuscany with kids without a freaking car. 

I was pretty sure that every adult member of our group was ready to kill me.

Act 1: The run-up to our Florence to Tuscany day trip

So, backing up. When we decided to make Florence our home base for the majority of week-long trip to Tuscany and Rome, it was always our intention to break things up with a couple of day trips — including a trip to go wine tasting in Greve in Chianti. After all, what is a visit to the heart of wine country without going wine tasting?!

I considered a bunch of options for our Tuscany wine tasting day, and the front-runner for a long time was doing a wine tasting tour with a group. That got nixed based on  worries about whether the kids would be accepted, cost and lack of freedom to explore. Then it was on to the idea of renting  a car and doing a self-guided tour, but renting cars large enough for six is expensive and I was terrified to drive anywhere near Florence after a friend’s horror story about getting a million tickets. In desperation, we even considered hiring a driver for the day like some family members had for a recent Tuscany day trip from Florence. I’m sure you will all be shocked to know that we also deemed that too expensive.

Chris likes to joke that I hate buses. I like to pretend that it isn’t true. However, it eventually became apparent that taking the bus from Florence to Chianti was our only economical option. I quickly convinced myself it would be fine,and by the time we climbed onto our bus (we took bus 365 A from Florence to Chianti), I was feeling very pleased with out decision. It was comfortable, cheap and there weren’t many people on it. Go me!

Act 2: Things start to go south

After a while it occurred to us that our bus driver wasn’t announcing where we were when we stopped. Since the bus ride from Florence to Greve in Chianti was only supposed to take about an hour, I was given the job after about 50 minutes to go ask the driver to tell us when our stop — Greti Chiesa, according to our Google directions — was approaching.

I have no idea what it was about Florentine bus drivers or whether we just got unlucky, but every bus driver we experienced this time around was rather surly. This one was no exception. I asked him about Greti Chiesa, and he grunted “Greti, si. Next stop.” I verified, “Greti Chiesa? This next stop?” “SI.”

OK, buddy. I cheerfully herd everyone off the bus and onto the side of the road. Fire up the old Google maps and … my stomach dropped. Somehow our walking distance, already pushing it with our crowd, had doubled.

Also it was raining. Also it was muddy. Also the beginning of the route, at least, was taking us along the side of a busy road that conveniently didn’t have much of a shoulder.  A quick call to our winery, where our tour was scheduled to begin in 20 minutes, confirmed that there were no cabs to be summoned and that we were “at least” a half hour walk away and also, what were we doing in Greti? Viticcio Winery is only a 15 minute walk from the Greve in Chianti bus station, why hadn’t we gotten off there?

Stupid Google maps. That’s why.

My husband was convinced we were going to be run over by cars. My in-laws, Gail and David, were concerned about the length of the walk. I was worried everyone else was going to shove me off the hill for making them march so far. It was not a great moment to be the primary trip planner for the Tuscany with kids portion of the trip.

So, the walk did prove to be long. And it was somewhat alarming when we were on the side of the road. BUT! At some point it turned off the main road and everything was absolutely green and gorgeous. It even stopped raining, which seemed fair enough. The walked ended up being fairly pleasant (Chris disputes this point in the strongest possible terms), except that the winery also happened to be at the top of a hill. (Chris suggests I change this from “hill” to “small mountain.”) 

Because of course it was.

Act 3: Arriving at Viticcio Winery for Greve in Chianti wine tasting

We didn’t end up making it to Viticcio Winery* for the 11 a.m. Chianti wine tasting I’d scheduled, but made it we did! Even luckier, we happened to be six of only eight total people there for the wine tasting and tour that day.

*After a tense moment where I ran ahead to verify that a house-looking building up the hill was indeed the correct place, and ended up having to walk through a gate that warned “PRIVATE RESIDENCE. ATTENZIONE AL CANE” into an area I was half-sure was actually someone’s home. Eventually me and a random guy selling pavement I ran into managed to find the right place to go on the not-abandoned-after-all property. 

And this is the part where our visit to Greve in Chianti, the “gateway to Chianti,” became not only our favorite day trip from Florence, but our favorite part of the whole week.

Our tour at the Viticcio Winery could not have gone better. We started with a tour of the vineyard and the wine cellar, which took perhaps 30 minutes. Since we were the only ones on the tour, we could ask whatever questions and spend as much time looking as we needed to, as well as pausing for the inevitable kid bathroom break halfway through. It was great to learn the background of the chianti wine the area is famous for, and the kids were very amused to see the “baby grapes” on the vines.

From there, it was on to the drinking tasting. We sampled one white wine and three reds, and we liked every one of them. Viticcio also supplied a lovely plate of cheese, meat, bread and fabulous olive oil that we all devoured with the ferocity you’d expect of people who’d just walked a million miles and up a hill.

But the main thing, honestly, was that it was just fun. The six of us sat around talking and joking with our guide, who was very amusing and worked hard to engage the kids as well. I feel like I’ve given this disclaimer before, but I know taking kids to a winery might seem odd to some people. But to be honest, the wine tasting was basically just like a regular meal with an added friend joining us. And the vineyard/cellar visit? Like visiting a farm. If you are going to Tuscany with kids, doing a wine tasting doesn’t need to be off your radar.*

*I will admit that it was helpful that it was just the six of us at this wine tasting, but I honestly think it would have been fine even if it was a bigger group. Although one of us would have missed part of it because we had to take Fiona to the potty. 

The Chianti wine tasting and tour at Viticcio Winery cost $25 per adult, and we considered it money well spent. You can check out Viticcio Winery here.

Act 4: The return home

It was with considerably higher spirits that we endeavored to begin our return journey to Florence — having decided to abandon our plans to take bus to the nearby town of Panzano first — but we did still have a considerable walk ahead of us. Albeit, a downhill walk this time.

Still, the crowd determined we needed some wine for the walk into the town of Greve in Chianti, where we intended to find some lunch. The good news was that our lovely guide was was willing to open a bottle for us, the bad news was that she didn’t have any plastic cups. I had a nasty cough at the time (which now seems to be bronchitis), and while I was away taking a kid to the bathroom Chris, David and Gail came up with a solution to keep my germs away …

So this happened.

Suffice it to say, the walk into Greve in Chianti was considerably nicer than that walk from Greti to Viticcio Winery. And Tuscany with kids — especially if you are doing a Greve in Chianti wine tasting — gets a big thumbs up from us.

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3 days in Florence with kids (and my in-laws!)

Ah, Florence. It seems like I hear more love for this city than just about any other in Italy, but up until last week I’d only spent a couple tumultuous hours there as an 18-year-old (that’s a story for another day, I think!). This past week, we changed all that with 3 days in Florence with our kids and my in-laws, Gail and David. We actually ended up staying in an apartment the city for five days total, but two of those were spent on day trips to Siena and Greve so for now we’ll focus on our 3 days in Florence itself.

This was our second 3-generation trip (we were in Ireland together last year!) and we had a fantastic time. That said, I can’t say that Florence was my favorite Italian city. It was absolutely beautiful, but with our off-peak travel this year and living in Sicily I somehow have gotten much more annoyed by crowds and long lines than I used to be. Florence had a lot of both. I guess we are spoiled?

Still, I’m so glad we got to see beautiful Florence at last. I definitely would say it is worth a visit sometime, and if you go with kids you’ll need a minimum of 3 days in Florence for sure (though adult groups who plan strategically could see a lot with two days in Florence!). Before I started researching, I had no idea how much there was to do! Today I’ll share our suggested itinerary for 3 days in Florence with kids, some words of advice on planning, our favorite restaurants and plenty of pictures from our own trip.

This is not entirely representative of what we ended up doing — lines, illness and foul weather intervened — but it was what I came up with before we left. With luck and adequate preparation, I believe this itinerary can work great for 3 days in Florence with kids! For more details about each place I mention — and suggestions for lunches and dinners — see below.

3 days in Florence with kids: An itinerary

Day 1 in Florence with kids:

1. Cross the Ponte Vecchio.  This iconic bridge spanning the Arno River dates back to the 1300s (though records of bridges at that site date back to at least 900). It was the only bridge not bombed by the retreating Germans fleeing Florence, allegedly at the express order of Hitler. It is interesting because it still has shops lining its sides (as many bridges used to), which are mostly jewelry shops these days,

2. Visit the Duomo di Firenze. (9 minute walk from the Ponte Vecchio). Undoubtedly the most recognized building in Florence, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore is a masterpiece. Its dome is the largest brick dome ever constructed. If you plan to go inside, I’d suggest booking ahead — more on that later. You can also climb the 400+ steps to the top of the Duomo, but be aware that reservations are required, not just recommended, for that. For the record, we waited in line for two hours to go inside and didn’t think it as particularly worth it … it is much more impressive on the outside!

3. Visit the Palazzo Vecchio. (6 minute walk from the Duomo). A palace built to impress, this structure’s uses have varied over the years but it is now the seat of the Florence city government as well as a museum. If you are with kids, consider taking one of the age-appropriate kid tours — such as the “The Story of the Turtle and the Snail” for ages 4 to 7 — at the Palazzo. Sadly we didn’t have time to make it there but I’ve heard rave reviews.

3a. See Florence’s “outdoor museum” at the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Palazzo Vecchio sits on the Piazza Signoria, once the home of Michelangelo’s David before he was moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia for his own safety. You can still find incredible sculptures that date back to as early at the Roman times and as late as the Renaissance, many of which are tucked under the arched Loggia dei Lanzi (sometimes called the Loggia delle Signora). The Loggia provides a roof over the statutes, but is open on the sides.

From here, you have a choice (unless you are ambitious and do both!) depending on the mood of the crowd … 

4. Visit the burial place of the greats at Santa Croce. (6 minute walk from Palazzo Vecchio). Described by fellow blogger Maggie as a “hidden gem,” this church is the burial place of the likes of Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo. Read Maggie’s Tuscany itinerary to learn more.

Alt. 4. Take in views at Piazza Michelangelo. (20 minute walk from Palazzo Vecchio). Generally know as the best view of Florence around, fellow blogger Alicia recommends watching the sunset at Piazza Michelangelo. This one will be a longer stretch of walking, and riding a bus only gets you so close. Still, those views looks like they are worth it! Also a great choice if you are with kids who need more of a place to run!

Day 2 in Florence with kids:

1. Hit the Mercato San Lorenzo for breakfast. This two-story farmer’s market, otherwise known at the Mercato Centrale, is a place where you can buy fresh foods of all kinds in the traditional style. There are also many bars and restaurants in the market to grab a bite. This is a great place to grab some healthy snacks for the kids!

2. Visit the Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell’Accademia. (7 minutes from Mercato San Lorenzo). You know how famous icons sometimes seem like they don’t live up to what you expect they’ll be? (I’m looking at you, Ms. Mona Lisa!). David is the opposite of that. Plus, if your kids are anything like mine they’ll get a laugh at the naked butts of the statues. I’d say, “kids will be kids” but there was some joking and snickering from me and Chris too, so I guess not. Buy tickets in advance for this.

3: Check out royal living at the Palazzo Pitti. (20 minute walk, but you’ll stop for lunch or gelato somewhere!) This palace, once home to the wealthy Pitti family, later became the seat of the Medici family once they’d effectively seized control of Florence. It houses four museums as well as Royal Apartments that you can tour, though if you are in Florence with kids I’d obviously suggest you be selective in what you want to check out. For my part, I’d suggest seeing how the other half lived in the Royal Apartments. Buy tickets ahead for this.

4: Relax in the Boboli Gardens. (Right behind Palazzo Pitti). Depending on the mood of your crowd, you might want to do this before the museum. The Boboli Gardens are just behind the Palazzo Pitti, and by all accounts should be high on your list for a visit to Florence with kids since it gives them the chance to run around or even have a picnic. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it here because of terrible weather most of the time we were in Florence. Next time!

This might be a good time to stop at Enoteca Pitti Gole e Cantina, just across the street from the Palazzo Pitti, if you are in the mood for some upscale food.

Day 3 in Florence with kids:

1. Ride the Antique Carousel in the Piazza Della Repubblica. Florence with kids isn’t always going to be the easiest — lots of churches and museums to tour — but you can help keep the kids happy with a visit to the Antique Carousel at the Piazza della Repubblica. It costs only a euro each for the children to ride, and both times we went there was somehow no line.

1a. Check out street performers near Piazza Repubblica. Also in this area, you’re likely to find chalk artists, musicians and living statues, which can be fun for everyone.

2. Visit the Uffizi Gallery. (6 minutes from Piazza della Repubblica). One of the largest and most famous art museums in the world, the Uffizi surely tops most people’s must-see lists in Florence. I approached it with some trepidation considering how overwhelming I find the Louvre, but in the end I’m glad we didn’t miss the chance to see famous works like The Birth of Venus in person. That said, have realistic expectations for visiting with kids — there are only so many paintings of an inexplicably blond baby Jesus that a kid can deal with. My best advice is to see what you want to see immediately so you can bail as soon as necessary, and to really discuss what you are looking at with your kids as you visit. BUY TICKETS AHEAD OF TIME, SERIOUSLY.

3. Visit the Antique Carousel (yes, again). (6 minutes from Uffizi). Your kids were good in the Uffizi? If you are anything like us, you’ve promised them the carousel again as a reward. Enjoy!

4. Whatever you missed before. This is actually a wish-list item for me. We’ve never once had an trip where we’ve seen absolutely everything on our proposed itinerary, so it recently occurred to me that I should really plan more time to try and cope with that. So, that’s what I’m advising you to do here. Let’s see if I take my own advice next trip, eh?

Tips for planning 3 days in Florence with kids

Points 1-5: Book ahead. I know, I know. I used to be resistant to doing this because traveling with kids can be a bit unpredictable. But unless you are somehow going at the very bottom of tourist season, Florence with kids is going to be rough without reservations to get into attractions.  I booked ahead for what I thought of as the “Big 2,” Accademia and Uffizi, figuring the lines couldn’t be that bad anywhere else in late April/early May. Wrong. When you are with adults, standing in line for TWO HOURS is annoying but not earth-shattering. When you are with young kids, it pretty much means you aren’t going (I’m looking at you, Palazzo Pitti). The only reason we were able to get into the Duomo di Firenze was because we had four adults with us, so one of us waiting in line at a time while the rest kept the kids chill at a restaurant. So, yeah, book ahead.

Point 6: Try to keep it to one reservation per day. Two, at the absolute most. Because of my lack of timely planning, our itinerary ended up with Galleria dell’Accademia and Uffizi back-to-back because those were the tickets that were still available, and that arrangement was far from ideal with kids. Luckily, we were allowed to walk into Accademia a good half hour early, which helped loosen up the schedule.

Point 7: Research closure days. Be aware that many Florence highlights are closed on Mondays, and plan accordingly. We opted to take a day trip to Siena on Monday for that reason.

Where to eat in Florence with kids

Ah, eating. Basically my favorite topic. We had some fantastic meals in Florence, and I’d urge you to check them out!

For dinner: Al Tranvai (Piazza Torquato Tasso, 14r, ). This cozy restaurant offers delicious fare at fairly reasonable prices. Owen is STILL talking about the Florentine steak he got there. (Yes, we got the 5-year-old steak, but he doesn’t eat pasta or much of anything generally so when he’s willing to eat something we try to accommodate it.) They didn’t bring the half-portion that we thought we were getting, but it worked out because he devoured the majority of it. We all agreed this was the best restaurant we visited on the trip.

For a cheap lunch: I Fratellini (Via dei Cimatori, 38). This is basically just a window where you order one of 20-something delicious sandwiches, then devour them on the curb. Simple, but very good, cheap and fast. The brothers make the sandwiches with lightening fast efficiency! I suggest the roasted pork with parsley sauce. You can also buy a glass of wine, then return your glass to a receptacle next to the service window.

For an upscale drink: Enoteca Pitti Gole e Catina (Piazza de’ Pitti, 16). We made reservations for this upscale wine bar and enjoy an amazing glass of Chianti while looking onto the Palazzo Pitti across the street. They have a kitchen as well, but we opted not to have dinner there as the portions were small and prices a little high for our taste. Still, I’d highly recommend as a stop for a drink or a kid-free evening.

For gelato: Gelateria La Carraia (Piazza Nazario Sauro, 25). Hand down, the best ice cream we’ve ever had. Do not miss this place if you go!

Getting to Florence for your trip

Florence has its own airport, and if you go that route you can take a taxi to the city center (22 euro fixed rate, extra charges for holidays and stuff). Alternatively, you can catch the Volainbus, which is a 20 minute shuttle to the city (more on that here).

But, if you are like us or my in-laws, you may find it cheaper or easier to fly into Rome for your trip. In our case, we pre-booked the Frecciargento train from a train station right inside the airport to Firenze’s central Santa Maria Novella train station. It takes about 2 hours to cover the 192 miles between the two, and the trains were quite comfortable. Prices varies depending on the time of day, and prices seem to be between about about $30 and $50. Kids under 4 ride free.

Closing thoughts on Florence with kids

Overall, I’m so glad we had the opportunity to see the beautiful city of Florence! While it wasn’t necessarily my favorite place, we got to see fantastic art, eat some fabulous meals and spend time with the grandparents . I wouldn’t say that Florence has a reputation as a destination to take young kids, and I do get why. That said, I don’t think there is any reason to let that stop you from visiting if Florence is calling to you! As I’ve talked about before, kids can surprise you by what they are interested in. The key is to keep them engaged in what they are looking at. For example, Fiona and I would pick a set of paintings and discuss which one we liked better, with her usually giving preference to anything with gold on it. Or we’d find statues and make up funny reasons for the expressions they were wearing. Keeping it fun is crucial to keeping kids engaged in what they are doing.

And gelato. Gelato helps everything.

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10 reasons to plan a family holiday in Sicily

It’s been more than 18 months since we moved to Sicily, but I remain astonished by how much this island has to offer. Despite having spent a considerable amount of time daydreaming about possible vacation destinations in the years before moving here, the thought of planning a family holiday in Sicily never crossed my mind. I’m betting a lot of people looking for that perfect family vacation destination are in the same boat, but – no worries, folks – I’m here to help.

So, why plan a family holiday in Sicily? Because there is something for everyone at every age. We’re talking beaches, mountains, hiking, dining, relaxing, history, outdoor sports and much more. To top it off? It’s budget-friendly. Can’t beat that!

10 Reasons to Choose a Family Holiday in Sicily

1. It’s all about that beach.

Sicily boasts what I firmly believe are some of the most gorgeous beaches in the world. They vary considerably depending on your location — rocky in some areas, sandy in others, and with black sand in places on the Aeolian Islands — but just about everywhere you go you’ll find that warm, gemstone-colored Mediterranean Sea.

On the eastern coast you’ll find rocky beaches near Taormina, while you’ll want to venture just south of Siracusa to Fontane Bianche, San Lorenzo or Avola for some sand. On the west coast, San Vito Lo Capo and Favignana Island are the places to go. To the north, try one of Sicilians’ favorite summer spots, the town of Cefalu. We spent two weekends in Cefalu last summer;  if you go, we’d suggest staying at the Royal Sea House.

2. History buffs will love a family holiday in Sicily

Sicily has a rich and tumultuous history of being claimed throughout the centuries by the dominant forces of the era. At various points it was under the control of the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Normans (to name a few), and its cities reflect this fascinating mix. For instance, in  70 BC, the Roman orator Cicero referred to the Sicilian city of Siracusa as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all.” If you visit Siracusa today you can walk past an ancient temple to Apollo (who was believed to be born there) and into the iconic Duomo di Siracusa, a structure built on the site of a Greek temple, repurposed as a church, transitioned into a mosque and ultimately changed back into a church.

History lovers can visit ancient structures like the Temple of Concordia in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples, or enormous Greek and Roman theaters in Taormina and Siracusa. Those who are interested in more recent history can tour sights relevant to the Allied Invasion of Sicily in 1943.

3. Sicily is home to one of Europe’s largest volcanoes

Mount Vesuvius might be the best-known of Italy’s three volcanoes, but it is dwarfed by Sicily’s Mount Etna, which is 2-and-a-half times larger. Mount Etna also happens to be one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is almost constantly smoking, with occasional visible lava. According to Greek mythology, Hephaestus’ forges were located within Mount Etna’s depths. Polyphemus, the Cyclops blinded by Odysseus in the Odyssey, also hailed from Etna and the rocks he chucked at the escaping hero can now be found in the stunning seaside town of Aci Trezza.

It’s been almost a year and a half, and I still haven’t tired of gazing at Mount Etna. If you opt for a family holiday in Sicily, I’d suggest taking the opportunity to visit Etna, either on a tour or solo. We’ve enjoyed hiking on Mount Etna several times, but if hiking isn’t necessarily your speed there are cable cars that can take you up the mountain or various tours (include by mountain bike or quad!) to get you to the top. Every member of the family is bound to get a thrill out of seeing Etna smoke, picking up chunks of lava rock and learning about eruptions of years past.

4. There are plenty of ways to spend time outdoors on a family holiday to Sicily

If laying on a beach isn’t necessarily your speed, there’s plenty of other opportunities for fun in the sun! Across this country you’ll find places to fish, rent boats, go horseback riding or simply enjoy dining al fresco and people-watching. Mount Etna is a natural choice to hike, but in Sicily you’ll find plenty of other places to walk as well, with varying level of difficulty for the kids. Parco Monte Serra in Viagrande is a nice place to take a walk, check out a butterfly house or try your land at land-tubing. The Alcantara Gorge (Gole Alcantara) is also a fabulous place to cool off in the summer, albeit better suited for older children rather than toddlers.

I’d also suggest checking out local farmer’s markets while in Sicily, especially if you are with kids. Spotting fresh-caught fish, still-living crabs and all the fruit they can eat is always amusing for my crew, and a good place to pick up a snack as well. Try the Catania fish market (every morning except Sunday) or the Siracusa market near Apollo’s Temple.

5. The food is incredible.

Seafood. Pasta. Arancini. Granita. And did I say pasta yet?

Sicilian food is both delicious and, in many ways, different than you’ll find anywhere else in Italy. While you’re on your family holiday in Sicily, you’ll want to be sure to try some of the island’s specialties, such as arancini — fried rice balls flavored with fillings like ragu, spinach, pistacchio — and pasta al Norma, noodles with a tomato-based sauce with eggplant and salted ricotta. Anything with pistachio is always a good bet, whether it is on a cannoli or a pizza. I personally never pass up a ravioli con pistacchio. As you might expect on an island, fresh seafood is a big deal here as well — you can get fabulous options in restaurants or even just on the side of the road.

Kids and adults will love granita, a Sicilian frozen specialty best described as being somewhere between Italian ice and a slushie in consistency, served almost exclusively in the warmer months. Common flavors are fruit when in season, pistachio, coffee, almond and chocolate. I recommend raspberry or lemon. Top it with panna (cream) and eat it with a brioche. Here’s a secret: the best granita is in eastern Sicily, and the best granita in eastern Sicily is at Taormina’s Bam Bar. Don’t miss it!

6. The wine is cheap, delicious and plentiful

Need I say much more than the headline, here? Volcanoes make for fertile soil, and that soil grows some delicious grapes. We aren’t wine experts by any means, but we’ve found the house wines here to by typically very tasty and very cheap. If you are spending a family holiday in Sicily (or any holiday), I’d suggest checking out an winery/agriturismo for a combined wine tasting and expansive, farm-to-table meal that lasts hours. Murgo Winery or Gambino Winery are both great choices for this. We love Sunday lunch at Murgo, where there is plenty of room for the kids to run around while the adults sample wine.

7. Family holidays in Sicily are cheap(ish).

Finding a European holiday that isn’t going to bust your budget is always tricky, but if you are looking to spend time in western Europe, Sicily is going to be a cost-effective choice — particularly if you travel any time other than July and August. We’ve had several friends come visit here after being elsewhere in Europe, and they always remark upon how much cheaper everything is on this island. Prices can be somewhat higher at tourist-heavy locations, but in general you can expect to pay less than 1 euro for an espresso in a cafe, or about 5 euro for a “individual” cheese pizza that is more than enough for two kids.

8. Sicily is family friendly.

Walking around Sicily with kids is basically like being a celebrity. People are plenty nice to me when I’m alone, but Sicily with kids? Whole different ball game. Cashiers and waiters regularly hand my kids special treats when we are out and about, and everyone from the teenagers to the little old nonni (grandfathers) ends up smiling at them, patting their head or trying to talk to them. Usually this is accompanied by them commenting on them being bionde (blondes). Women I’ve met with newborns tell me wait staff will frequently offer to hold the baby while they eat.

Sicilians also have a remarkably indulgent attitude toward children. Unlike some places we’ve been (I’m looking at you, Paris), they seem to expect kids to, well, behave like kids. Everything is always va bene. 

9. Sicily is (somewhat) off the beaten track

Don’t love waiting in lines at every attraction? Consider a family holiday in Sicily. While I certainly would never claim there are no tourists – Sicily is a hotspot for European beach-seekers in July and August – most of the year you won’t be fighting the crowds to get into local attractions. As a result, the place has a more authentic feel and prices to match.

10. The people are the best

Sicilians are an incredibly warm and welcoming people (albeit fiery when you get them worked up, ha!). I’ve never yet had a problem that people weren’t immediately coming to my aid. When my car wouldn’t start and I was stranded at the park? About 12 different people rallied to try jumping it and helped me get a new battery. When I was lost in a sea of incomprehensible Italian at the post office? Someone patiently came over to help me translate. And I’ve already talked about how they like to indulge my children!

While there are certainly jerks everywhere and Sicily is no exception, we’ve found the vast majority of Sicilians to be exceptionally kind. And that’s something you can’t put a price on.

Planning a family holiday in Sicily: the bottom line

Whether you are looking for a relaxing beach holiday, an active, outdoorsy vacation or a journey through historic sites, chances are Sicily has something for you. It has an old-world, almost exotic feel to it — hello, sheep in the road! — but at the same time it has the modern comforts you crave. Such as a phone app that lets you order food and drinks to be delivered to you beach chair. What more can you ask for?

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Planning to go to Venice? Good for you! We had a great time on our trip and found that things went pretty smoothly for us because we’d done the research ahead of time on how to get to where we wanted to go. Now, I’d love to help you do the same!

I already touched on the fun stuff we did in Venice in this post, but in here I’d like to talk about some of the boring-but-important details.

*This post contains affiliate links. 

Who is ready for the details? You are! 

How we got there: We took a direct flight from Catania to Venice on Volotea, a flight we booked during one of the budget airline’s many fare sales way back in March. Their fares are already pretty cheap, but they often have promotions like “kids fly free” or “one-way fares for 5 euro.” The fare sale we took advantage of was the latter, and though naturally the return fare was more expensive than the 5 euro one-way option, our final price tag was less than 40 euro per person. Not bad! It certainly is a “no frills” experience, but for us price tag is a much bigger factor in our decision making than whether a snack is included or whether the plane will be missing seat-back pockets. If you are going to fly Volotea, do remember that checking any bags will significantly increase the price and be sure to pay attention to the fine print — checking in at the airport desk rather than checking in online, for example, will cost an additional 10 euro per person. If you are interested in checking out Volotea, consider using my referral link to save $10 on your first purchase. 

Travel from the airport: There are a few options for getting from Venice’s airport (actually located on the mainland) to the islands of Venice themselves, including regular buses and taxis and even the (VERY EXPENSIVE) boat taxis. I’d recommend taking the Alilaguna water bus like we did; just follow the signs for “water transport” and “water bus” and “Alilaguna” within the airport and you’ll find it easily.Tickets are 15 euro one way for adults, but kids 5 and younger are free and prices are reduced for those 6 to 14 years old. Tickets can be purchased from machines at the Venice airport or within the city (also at counters if you prefer humans), which are easy to find and user-friendly. We took the Linea Arancio to the Rialto Bridge stop, which took less than an hour. One caution: on two occasions we had to take a later water bus because it was already full and we couldn’t fit. They run pretty frequently so it wasn’t a big deal, but if you have to be somewhere at a specific time I would caution you to budget plenty of extra time just in case.

The ride itself was perfectly nice, and included cruising through the Grand Canal as we neared our destination. It actually ended up being a good thing that we didn’t make it on to the first boat as planned, because we were then the first ones on the next boat and got our pick of seats. Considering how overloaded some of those boats looked, we preferred Option B!

Where we stayed: 

Venice is notoriously expensive, but we were quite pleased to find an excellent place to stay only about six minutes’ walk from Piazzo San Marco! As I’ve mentioned before, we prefer to stay in apartments because separate living areas mean that we can put the kids to bed but stay up later ourselves. In this case, I found a place listed as the “Venice Dream House”. Although it was listed on the hotel website, it is actually a bunch of apartments in different buildings in Venice, mostly in the Piazza San Marco area. We chose the one labeled “Executive Apartment — San Marco Area, Bolero” and paid $159 per night. Admittedly this is a bit more than cheap me likes to pay for hotel rooms, but frankly things are generally just expensive in Venice and I really felt like we got our money’s worth with this place. It wasn’t especially fancy, but it had a bedroom with a large bed, reasonably-large living room with a sofa bed where we put the kids, a nice bathroom and a fully-equipped kitchen. That last item was helpful on Saturday night in particular because our kids where exhausted and whiny, so we decided to buy them some food at cook it at home rather than drag them to a restaurant.

Where we ate: 

So, Venice isn’t exactly known for its food (though seafood is supposed to be decent). We made plans to eat at exactly one fancy spot — the well-rated Trattoria al Gatto Nero — but when that fell through we didn’t seek out anything fancy. A good quick-eats spot was the Dal Moro’s Fresh Pasta-to-Go, which is a chain but still pretty tasty. You pick your noodles, sauce and any other additions you want and they cook it up for you and hand it to you in a cardboard box like you’d get at a Chinese takeout place. We ate it in the street right outside the shop.

The kids’ favorite part was being allowed to draw on the shop window! 

Other than that, our meals were fairly unremarkable. We made lunch our bigger meal of the day and avoided eating in Piazza San Marco or at places along the Grand Canal. I’d recommend doing both these things if you are making an effort to save money in Venice!

How we got around: 

As always, walking is our favorite mode of transportation and in Venice it was especially nice to be able to do so without fear of being smashed by a speeding scooter. Our worries, then, were limited to making sure the kids didn’t plummet into the filthy canal water, which would no doubt be on accident in Owen’s case or on purpose in Fiona’s.

Visiting the islands, of course, did require transport. For this, Chris and I each got a 24-hour pass for the vaporetto (water bus) that allowed us to go from Venice to Murano to Burano and back on Saturday. We took the 4.2 vaporetto line from Fondemente Nove to Murano’s Colonna stop, then took one from Murano’s Faro stop to Burano. The waterbuses can get a little confusing, but the officials on each were very good about being clear which water bus was going where (even if it didn’t necessarily match the timetable we’d read). We could have ridden the vaporettos all day and gone to the islands of Torcello or of San Michele, the cemetary island a few minutes from Venice, but we were pretty exhausted and glad of a restful one-hour return trip on the vaporetto from Burano to Venice’s Fondamente Nove.  Day passes cost Chris and I 20 euro each, but the kids were free. I mentioned this in my other post, but I’ll say it again: if you need to be somewhere at a specific time and are using the vaporetto, leave very early. On almost every occassion, Chris and I couldn’t get onto the very first vaporetto that arrived because it was too full and had to wait around for the next. It isn’t a huge issue given they come pretty often, but if I was trying to make it to a reservation or something it might have stressed me out.

Fiona loved looking out the window! 

Well, I think that about sums it up! Have you been to Venice? If so, what did you like? What didn’t you?

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Venice may have a reputation for romance, but Venice with kids can be its own kind of fun. Our kids had a blast exploring Venice’s canals, Burano’s colorful houses and Murano’s glass-blowing factories. Now, we are sharing our advice for what to do in Venice with kids — with recommendations straight from the kids themselves.

If you are following me on my new Instagram, you probably have already figured out we spent last weekend in Venice. We had fun! While Venice is perhaps better known as a destination for couples, we found there was plenty of stuff for the whole family to do. And despite my concerns that one weekend would be too little time in the city — we arrived midday Friday and left Sunday evening — we also found that two nights there was more than enough to get our fill of the city. Especially considering how pricey Venice with kids (or without) can be!

Speaking of going to Venice without kids — if you are, you’ll probably be up to a lot later than the four of us! If so, here’s a great guide to evenings in Venice for you to check out. 

In another post I’m going to talk about some the practicalities of visiting Venice with kids but for now we are going to focus on just the fun stuff — seeing the sights! Update: find the details of our transportation, lodging and more in this post. 

In honor of my son turning 5 last week (how??) I told him it was time for him to start earning his keep around here. To that end, I sought his advice for other families who are going to visit Venice with kids. His suggestions:

1. “Go on lots of canal rides.” (Fair enough)  
2. “Get an apartment so you don’t have to walk around all the time and can eat dinner.” (This seems to be a reference to Saturday night when Owen was “tooo tiirrrrrrrrred” to walk places and we ended up making the kids chicken nuggets at the apartment so they wouldn’t have to sit through a dinner. Details on the nice apartment he liked so much here.)
3. “Go to lot of chocolate and ice cream stores” and “buy lots of ghost cookies because they are really yummy.” (Easy to see what sticks out to him) 
4. “Go potty a lot.” (Accurate, though true for every single outing ever with two preschoolers)

Well, we have a little overlap in our lists at the very least! At any rate, if you are planning to visit Venice with your kiddos these are my own suggestions.

What to do in Venice with kids

1. Chase pigeons in Piazza San Marco 

I’m actually shocked this didn’t make it into Owen’s list, as he and Fiona enjoyed chasing those damn birds everywhere we went. And I do mean everywhere — there were a bunch underfoot even inside the crowded bar where we stopped for pastry and espresso every morning. Since people don’t really love it when you are chasing birds near where they are dining (ask me how I know …), Piazza San Marco is the spot to go — especially since those of us old, boring people can drink in the sights rather than pawing at rats with wings.

I should probably mention that feeding pigeons in the city is banned, but people still do it and as a result these birds are now tame enough that they’ll land on people. Owen and Fiona were both eager for a bird to land on them, but when any came close they chickened out at the last minute. They liked watching other people with birds on their heads though!

2. Take a boat ride 

I’m going to echo my son here in suggesting that no visit to Venice is going to be complete without a ride on the canals! During the course of our days there, we took the Alilaguna and vaporetto water buses (which I talk about here) and a gondola ride. The gondola ride seemed like the thing to do since we were there, but to be honest I don’t think that we (or the kids) would have really been missing anything if we skipped that one. It was obviously really cool, but apparently it didn’t even warrant an individual mention from Owen in his list! Ha.

Our ride took us under the Rialto Bridge, the oldest of the four bridges that span the Grand Canal. 

I’m not saying that to put you off or anything, as it was a cool experience and I’m glad we went. I just don’t want anyone to feel like they are missing something if they decide it isn’t worth it. Price-wise, it is expensive like just about everything else in the city. Before 7 p.m., prices are set at 80 euro for a 30 minute ride (up to six people per boat). After 7 p.m., the price rises to 100 euro for 35 minutes. I wanted an evening ride but didn’t want to pay an elevated price, so we ended up shooting for a 6 p.m. boat. We had to wait for one to show up, so we ended up getting in just under the wire at 6:30 p.m. Victory!

Our gondolier pointed out sights to us (though we couldn’t always quite catch what he was saying), and told us about how the bridges are sometimes impassable during the acqua alta times.

3. Watch glass blowing in Murano

If you are going to Venice, a day trip to nearby islands should be near the top of your must-see list! The island of Murano (well, islands — like Venice itself, it is made up of several islands clustered togehter) is only about a mile from Venice, an easy 10-minute ride from Venice’s Fondemente Nove station by vaporetto. We got off at the first stop, Colonna, which led us immediately to streets full of glassmaking shops. Several were offering glass-blowing demonstrations, and we stopped at one of them. The kids were fascinated!

Murano has been known for glassmaking for centuries, in particular since the fear of fire led Venetian officials to order all glassmakers to moved from the city center to Murano in 1291.

In addition to watching the glass blowing demonstration, we mostly walked along the streets looking in shop windows. We did go in a few, but as you can imagine having a pair of boistrous preschoolers in a shop filled with extreme breakable, extreme expensive things was fairly stressful. Almost as stressful as the prospect of me, an excessively clumsy adult, knocking over a bunch of shit myself.

There is a glass museum on Murano, but we opted to skip it because, honestly, we just weren’t interested enough. However, a highlight of the day did come when we ran into this sculpture, “Comtet Glass Star,” which Owen would end up demanding to take 10,000 pictures of.

4. Visit Basilica San Marco and the Campanile 

Chasing pigeons in Piazza San Marco is all well and good, but eventually I do recommend you leave the birds behind and head inside. It is free to get into Basilica San Marco, but once you get inside they want to charge you to see various parts of it. We paid 3 euro or so to see the treasure, but skipped the rest, such as going upstairs to see the original bronze horses from the facade (they were removed because pollution was damaging them and replicas put up. This was after they’d been retrieved from Napoleon, of course). I also paid 2 euro each to buy skip-the-line passes into the basilica online after reading some horror stories about two- to three-hour lines, though on the day we were there it wouldn’t have been nearly that bad.

The horses I mentioned are just above the central arch. 

The basilica is absolutely magnificent; per usual, the photos don’t even do it justice. Even more impressive is its age. Churches were built on this site, directly next to the Doge’s Palace, as early as the mid 800s.The five-domed building in its present form was probably built about 1063, though that is apparently debatable. No matter how many fantastic old structures I see, I never ceased to be amazed that they could have been created without the benefit of modern building equipment and tools.

Photos aren’t allowed inside the basilica (though, rather like with the pigeons, everyone was dong it anyway) so as a result I only have a couple of shots from the interior of the exterior, if that makes sense. It should give you an idea of the gorgeous gold-glass mosaic that covered almost the entire ceiling within, however. At this point we’ve been in an awful lot of churches, but this ceiling was something to behold.

As I mentioned, we also paid a little extra to see the treasure of Saint Mark’s, which was easily the kids’ favorite part. Predictably, Owen was most impressed with a massive sword. I was impressed by the opulence of the treasures, but even more so by the various relics — mostly bones — on display within the treasure. Chris, on the other hand, found the body parts a bit creepy.

If you are visiting in summer, I would definitely recommend skip-the-line tickets. Also, remember that the church has some dress code requirements — no exposed knees or shoulders.Obviously that wasn’t a big concern for us since it was in the 50s and 60s when we were there, but keep it in mind if you are visiting when it is warmer.

After the church, we walked the few feet to the Campanile di San Marco, St. Mark’s bell tower. The early iterations of the bell tower were built in the 9th Century, but it reached its current look in the mid-1500s. Today’s 323-foot tower is actually a reproduction of that original tower however, as the 15th Century one collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt 1912.

Honestly, to me the Campanile wasn’t especially thrilling — it is just an elevator ride up to the top of the tower to look at the views — but for whatever kid-reason, Owen and Fiona absolutely loved it. I guess there is something thrilling for kids about being up high? After all, they are still talking about “being on top the Eiffel Tower’s head” to practically every new person they meet.

5. Visit to Burano 

While the kids loved Murano, another island was my personal favorite: Burano. Admittedly there isn’t a ton to do there, but for me it was all about drinking in the beauty of the town. Historically it has been a fishing village and one known for lace-making, but what drew me in was the colorful buildings. To be honest, the kids weren’t super impressed by this place but file this one under “it’s our vacation too!”

We took the vaporetto from Murano’s Faro station to the Burano stop, which took about 40 minutes or so. The return to Venice took about an hour on the way back. Worth it!

6. Visit the Doge’s Palace 

I spent an absolutely unreasonable amount of time obsessing over whether or not to take a tour of the Palazzo Ducale, the Doge’s Palace. On the one hand, I much prefer to know what I’m looking at while visiting a historical site. On another, even the cheapest tour (36 euro) was still a bit expensive for something that I questioned whether the kids would make it through. In the end, we decided to go with the one-hour tour in the hopes that Fiona would chill out in the carrier during most of it like she has in the past, such as at the Kilmainham Gaol. In the end she didn’t last too long in there, but I still felt it was worth it even if I missed chunks of what our guide said. As to whether you want to go that route, it is simply a judgement call on your part — you know yourselves, and you know your kids.

At any rate, I definitely recommend visiting the palace even if you don’t do a tour.

The Palace is right next to Piazza San Marco and is actually connected to the basilica, which was originally the doge’s chapel before it was consecrated as a cathedral in 1807. It has been rebuilt in whole or in pieces many times throughout the year, thanks to its nasty habit of catching on fire (what is with that?). The public areas were built to impress upon visiting dignitaries the wealth of the trading nation, and from looking at it I have to imagine that it worked.

Entrance to the basilica from within the palace’s courtyard. 

The ceilings were entirely covered with gold-framed portraits of the doges, all of whom are portrayed on their knees in a gesture of humility. Venice herself is portrayed as a beautiful blonde woman. 

Our guide, Gina, did a nice job of telling us about the history of Venice and of the building itself. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was quite interesting — especially some of the details of how the Venetian Republic influenced the United States Constitution.

This is a box in which Venetians could accuse their neighbors of not paying their taxes, a death-penalty offense in Venice! However, anonymous accusations were not allowed and if you were found to have made an unfounded accusations — well, you were in trouble instead.

The last stop was a walk across the “Bridge of Sighs” that connects the interrogation rooms of the doge’s palace with the prison next door. Lord Byron dubbed this the “Bridge of Sighs” because of the notion that prisoners would here be able to take their last look at the beauty of Venice before execution. Our guide, however, assured us that Venetians were a very practical, no-nonsense people and certainly would not have given the bridge such a fanciful name themselves. Ha!

7. Wander the city 

Seeing the “official” sights of Venice is all well and good, but in my view the most important thing you can do in Venice is simply to wander. Head down little alleys, stop and take a million pictures on some of Venice’s 400-plus small bridges, people-watch or pigeon-chase in various small plazas, stop and watch gondaliers in action — whatever strikes your fancy. Of course, if you are like us “your fancy” is likely to be stopping for snacks or wine more or less constantly.

If you are going to be in Venice before November 26, 2017, I’d also highly recommend seeking out “Support,” an enormous public art installation by Lorenzo Quinn. The piece is a statement about the risks of global warming and humans’ power to affect change, and it is truly impressive-looking in person! UPDATE: A friend who was there recently says they are still up in 2018. So that’s good news if you are going to Venice with kids because hey! These are cool. 

Another fun stop to check out as you walk is the Libreria Acqua Alta, a book shop known for keeping some of its books in gondolas for times when the high water floods the shop. It was pleasantly chaotic the way old bookshops tend to be, and we spent a little time poking around in there. Out back there are also book steps, which are pretty good fun to climb on. This was only about a five-minute walk from the Doge’s Palace and Google Maps managed to lead us there quite easily.

Psssst. Looking for even more ideas for kid-friendly museums and restaurants in Venice? Visit my friend Elizabeth’s blog here.

Overall, the four of us really enjoyed Venice. It is a nice little weekend trip, though I’d urge anyone thinking of going to Venice with kids wait for the shoulder- or off-season to visit. Hell, that’s actually for anyone going to Venice at all, not just with kids.The crowds weren’t too bothersome during a chilly weekend at the end of October, but I have to imagine that during the height of cruise ship season it would be absolute madness. In our view, three days/two nights was also plenty of time to see what we wanted to — certainly there are other sites we could have seen both inside and outside of the city, but we felt like we got to see the highlights without feeling as if we were rushing around too much. One last note — I realize that I’ve mentioned a few times in this post that things were quite expensive in Venice, and they were. However, it is worth mentioning that children ages 5 and under were free on public transportation and to get into every activity. That’s just one more benefit of traveling with small children! 

Happy travels!

*Pssssst! Like this post? Sharing is caring! Please also consider following me at my Facebook page, Babies With Backpacks, so you never miss a post (plus additional content!). 

The post Enjoying Venice with kids: Top 7 things to do first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post Enjoying Venice with kids: Top 7 things to do appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

Well, I started my last post by telling you that our trip to Rome made me realize that I need to dig out my Ergo and revisit baby toddler wearing. The other thing we determined is that we totally need to find a reliable babysitter who wants to travel with us once in a while, even though on the surface that sounds way too fancy for us. But I guess it is pretty common for people here (we know at least three different families who have done this).

Anyway, Mike and Andrea brought their friend/babysitter Melania with us to Rome, which meant that the four of us got to go out on Saturday night while Melania stayed home and had a “pizza party” with the five kids. I love traveling with the kids and getting to see things through their eyes, don’t get me wrong, but man, was it ever nice to get to have a meal and only worry about cutting my own meat. Our hotel wasn’t far from the Trevi Fountain and there were a ton of nice restaurants in that area, so we picked one with an open spot outside and enjoy a couple different courses, two bottles of wine and good conversation. The only food-related mirth was us marveling at Mike’s steak. He said that is appeared to have sniffed the grill on the way to the table, but I doubt it ever got that close.

The Trevi Fountain at night

We ended our evening drinking wine at the apartment until midnight because Chris, Mike and I are apparently all ancient and were tired, but Andrea and Melania went out on the town after the rest of us had gone to bed. I’m still exhausted just thinking about it!

Anyway, to go backward — we decided to take the bullet train between Naples and Rome.The train runs basically every hour and it insanely fast, something like 200 mph. I think it got us there in about an hour, so very easy. From there, our apartment proved to be only about a kilometer away so we just walked there. (We did, however, get busted for not having told our AirBnb host that we were going to have 10 people instead of 4. Whooops). From there, it was on to the Vatican.

So we had bought tickets the night before online because we wanted to skip the lines, but I guess we needn’t have bothered because we got offered “no line” tickets by about 95 different people as we were walking to the Vatican Museum. Once we got there, we also realized that our tickets wouldn’t allow us to go straight into St. Peter’s Basilica, though many of these salesmen helpfully offered to get us in for a bunch more euros each. We’ll pass, thanks guys!

We did briefly consider taking a tour, but ultimately rejected it because with five kids we were very concerned that someone would have a meltdown ten minutes in and we’d have wasted a bunch of money. Instead, we opted for audioguides. I can’t speak for Mike and Andrea, but I ultimately didn’t get to use mine all that much because Fiona was absolutely fascinated by it.

Don’t mind me, Mom, just expanding my horizons. This is almost as interesting as those pigeons I desperately want to continue chasing.

So, after realizing that we were actually a good ways away from the entrance of the Vatican Museum and also that our noon tickets didn’t actually mean we had to enter at noon, we ended up deciding that we should eat something before going in. Given that a) both Sadie and Fiona were asleep at the table and b) we ended up being in the museum and Sistine Chapel for almost FOUR HOURS, this was the best thing we could have done. Especially the part where we had wine to fortify ourselves beforehand. Travel tip: be well fed and watered before beginning long journeys, haha.

The Vatican Museum was amazing, but I think I was more impressed by the structure itself than necessarily the artwork/artifacts/tapestries/etc. Although I’ve read a lot of historical fiction novels where they are working on tapestries so to seeing some did give me a new appreciation for how freaking massive they are. In a lot of places the most incredible artwork was on ceiling (most notably, obviously, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel). I do wonder what inspired them to do that — was it the only place not already covered with artwork? Did they figure no one would mess it up if it way up there? Or was it a “BECAUSE WE CAN” kind of thing? I’ll let you know if I ever get around to actually researching this.

This is from the Hall of Maps, my favorite room other than the Sistine Chapel. (Where you aren’t supposed to take pictures).

The kids actually did quite well for a lot of the visit. Fiona loved any statue of a baby or cherub, though she laughed really hard when they were naked. “He’s gotta go POTTY, Mommy. He’s going to poop.” Owen was also impressed with the ceilings like I was, though walking around with your head craned up toward the ceiling can be a perilous business.

After a couple hours, however, you could tell interest was waning. The one thing about the Vatican Museum is that every sign points you in the direction of the Sistine Chapel, but of course you have to pass through miles of other rooms first. By the end, we started to feel as if we’d never make it.

This was shortly before Owen fell asleep in Andrea’s Ergo, as discussed yesterday.

St. Peter’s Basilica from a spot where we stopped to rest and chase pigeons.

Once we did, however, it was absolutely worth it. It was exactly as gorgeous as you would expect a place painted by the combined efforts of the likes of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Roselli, etc to be. If you only have a few days in Rome, I definitely think the Vatican — and especially the Sistine Chapel — should be on the must-see list.

By the time we got finished with the museum and chapel, it was already getting dark. We decided to walk through St. Peter’s Square and that was a sight worth seeing for sure. I’m pretty sure Chris and I took a million pictures each, but here’s just a couple.

We had a bit of a slow start Sunday, just kind of bumming around until Andrea, Melania and the kids headed out to catch their train home. Mike was staying because for Chris’ birthday (Monday) I was buying him tickets for a Roma soccer game. We ended up heading out to the Spanish Steps, with the intention of trying to take some pictures and then going to the Colosseum. We did ultimately make it to the Spanish Steps (which, if you are interested, were completed in 1725 and originally built to link the Bourbon Spanish Embassy and Trinita dei Monti church) and just kind of hung around relaxing for a while. Chris flirted with the idea of taking a carriage ride since there were a bunch in the Piazza di Spagna at the bottom of the stairs, but when a driver offered to take us around for a mere 150 euros we realized that horses look just as nice from the ground and also that our feet still worked.

Pictures didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped (at least in terms of a Christmas card image) but c’est la vie.

Chris looks like he’s telling them a story

Lately Owen has taken to laying down on the floor like a corpse in random places — this is one of several pictures I have from this trip. Sometimes he insists he needs a kiss to wake him up.

Some of Rome’s most expensive shops are located on the streets leading up to the Piazza di Spagna, so we ended up taking a walk down that way to see how the other half lives spends. (Answer, in my humble opinion: foolishly). Fortunately, the shops post prices for items in their windows so we could discuss how insane you’d have to be to pay like 5,000 euro for an ugly dress/shoes/bag/whatever. Or even a beautiful one, because come on. Having prices listed was also fortunate because each shop had a burly doorman waiting just inside — presumably to keep riffraff like us from coming in and touching the merchandise — so we didn’t have to risk getting tossed out of a posh shop in an effort to satisfy our curiosity. Whew.

After a fun (/sarcasmfont) stop at Vodafone so Chris and Mike could each deal with some phone issues, we ended up having a leisurely lunch back in the Trevi Fountain neighborhood. I seriously can’t recommend that area highly enough.

Sunday night, Chris and Mike went to the Roma soccer game. That, however, is a post all on its own.

Monday was Chris’ birthday, and we decided we finally wanted to see the Colosseum (which we hadn’t gotten around to the day before) and that we wanted to do a tour. Mike left fairly early, so we headed out the door to find a tour in the morning. Chris followed a ticket seller to a tourism office, and the next thing I knew we were signed up for a comprehensive tour of the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine and all the other stuff in between. And it was four hours long. I’m going to be honest here and say that for a moment, I did wonder if Chris had lost his damn mind. However, it ended up being awesome (minus the part where we had to carry the kids for miles. Good news — Chris found my ergo yesterday!). The main reason was that while it was supposed to be up to a 25-person tour, the four of us were the only ones. This ended up working out great for us because when one of us had to run off and chase a kid, she could repeat what the other one had missed. She was also totally fine with our random stops (for snacks, the potty, pigeon chasing) and even ended up holding Owen’s hand at one point.

Fiona was very interested in the story of Romulus and Remus

This is the spot where they cremated Julius Caesar’s body after his assassination. Apparently, the many women in the city who were in love with him stripped off their jewelry and tossed it onto the pyre. Now, people still throw coins onto the rock in memory of this. Our guide took pains to assure Chris he shouldn’t be jealous if I left some coins.

The Palatine — the original site where Rome was founded, later turned into Papal Gardens.

We heard all about various temples, victory arches, the home of the Vestal Virgins and all manner of history along our tour, which appealed to both me and my history nerd husband. As for the kids, the key seemed to be a) stuffing their faces with snacks frequently and b) allowing them to chase pigeons and run around where possible. Since it is the low season, it was not overly busy and that really worked out for us.

Our last stop ended up being the Colosseum — otherwise known as the Flavian Amphitheater — which was fascinating. I know I was there once (possibly just outside?) with my parents during the 2001 trip, but I either had forgotten or never grasped the sheer scale of the place. It is incredible to me that the thing was built in only eight years.

Both kids were asleep at one point while we were there, but once Owen woke up he was very interested in gladiators. No big surprise there.

Hours of walking and holding kids had us pretty tired, so we ended up having a pretty quiet dinner in the neighborhood near our AirBnb and heading to bed early since we had to be at the airport by about 7:30 a.m. And just like that, our Rome visit was over.

We had a go-go-go three days in Rome, but I’d say the most surprisingly thing is how much we didn’t see. It’s a good thing that Rome is only a cheap plane ride away, because we’re going to need a lot more trips before we’ve even properly scratched the surface of everything there is to see. This past weekend was a great start though.

*I would like it noted for the record that this post has now taken me like four days to get around to finishing because of the insane amount of things we STILL have to do. Are things ever going to slow down? Maybe by spring?

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The post Roman Holiday, pt 2 appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

And Naples, too.

We took our first off-the-island trip to celebrate both Thanksgiving and Chris’ birthday and we ended up having an absolute blast. I did learn, however, that I need to revisit baby-wearing. Like now. I had given up on my Ergo pretty quickly after Fiona learned to walk because she’d throw a fit every time I’d put her in there. But it turns out that even my insanely energetic kids get tired when you are walking this much:

Admittedly this is a bit exaggerated because it includes the adults going out alone in the evening and doing a fair bit of walking, but still — this day was intense

We ended up carrying the Fiona (and sometimes even Owen) waaaaay more than we have on any day-trip, and our arms were absolutely about to fall off. The Ergo tends to kill my back, I still think that would be preferable. And we certainly aren’t planning to cart a stroller around if we don’t have to.

This is hour four of our tour

Owen got tired at the Vatican and our friend Andrea offered to carry his gigantic 4-year-old self in her Ergo. Because she is both SuperWoman and a freaking saint. He immediately fell asleep and missed out on the Sistine Chapel.

But, I digress. To start from the beginning, we decided to go to Naples to spend Thanksgiving with our friends from Bloomington, Mike and Andrea, and their three kids: Philip and Henry (6) and Sadie (3). Two years ago we were all in Bloomington celebrating Sadie’s first birthday (with Fiona due like any second), and now all nine of us are in Italy. Life is weird.

Getting to the airport was a bit of a worry because, as I mentioned before, our new car was still being denationalized, the minivan was still at sea and we had also moved out of the hotel and didn’t have a rental. We thought about getting a taxi but were worried because we’d need car seats for the kids to get there (Andrea had some for us to use when we arrived). Lucky, as always, The Internet Has All The Answers. We ended up hiring a local woman we found on our local Facebook page, who happened to have car seats she uses for transporting nieces and nephews. She ended up being super nice and informative (one funny thing she told us was that Italians think we’re crazy for how much we drive — 40 minutes to work is unthinkable, and a two-hour trip to another city is basically an odyssey) and now we are supposed to hang out sometime. LOL.

Anyway, so we arrived Wednesday afternoon and spent the next couple days hanging out at Mike and Andrea’s gorgeous home in a suburb of Naples. The kids were so insanely cute together I could barely stand it (minus a couple scuffles that required light-saber confiscation).

The girls spent a large part of the weekend taking care of their babies together, including making sure they got in some screen time. No judgments here, girls. We all need a break sometimes

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and included a bunch more friends (American and Italian), lots of wine and the largest turkey I’ve ever seen in real life. And the only cranberry sauce I’ve ever liked. I could go on and on.

Friday we went to nearby Limatola Castle, about 50 minutes away, for their Christmas markets.

I have annoyingly few pictures of the castle because of the rain, but it is cooler than it looks in this picture

Unfortunately, we dealt with torrential downpours for the entire day. Picture five kids and four adults, two umbrellas and some slippery cobbles and you’ll start to get the idea. We ended up trying to run from shelter to shelter, until at last we reached the indoor part of the shopping area since obviously the outside ones weren’t going to happen for us.

Andrea and her boys hiding from the rain

Once inside, it was really neat and they had some nice shops (I ended up buying a few ornaments). Naturally we had to wreak some havoc by attempting to knock over a table at the cafe, but that’s just what we do. It definitely would have been a little nicer if the weather was better because as it got dark there were some really pretty Christmas lights, but by then our soggy butts needed to get home.

Somehow we managed to get a nice picture though!

Chris and I had planned to go up to Rome on Saturday, and originally Mike and Andrea and their crew planned to come for just the day. However, we eventually realized that we had booked an AirBnb that was way larger than we actually needed (we had been motivated by the price tag and the location, not the size) so they decided to stay the night. Then I decided to buy Chris soccer tickets for his birthday, so Mike ended up staying an extra day so he could go with him. Mike and Andrea also brought their babysitter/friend with them to be an extra set of hands and OMG BEST IDEA EVER. Not only did we have one extra person to corral the kids, but us adults got to go out. Alone. With no kids. On Saturday night.

It was glorious.

But, while I misleadingly titled this “Roman Holiday” with the best intentions, I think I’m going to call it for now. To be continued!

In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of Fiona enjoying herself on the bullet train to Rome while Chris tries to sleep. You are welcome.

The post A Roman Holiday first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post A Roman Holiday appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.

The scene:

The four of us are driving along, enjoying the scenery as we traveled south and discussing whether the extensive stacked-stone fences we saw might have been built with rubble from old buildings.
And then our car got literally showered with golf ball-sized rocks.
And we yelled.

This is a carefully reconstructed photo of our reaction when showered with rocks.

A truck hauling these rocks (I assume for landscaping?) took a turn and literally hundreds of rocks came flying out of the back and POURED over our car. Nowhere to go, and no time to do it if we did. We are actually fairly amazed the windshield didn’t shatter and 100 percent certain it has a bunch of new dents, but on the bright side … it is a rental.

This is the kind of stone fencing I was talking about

The incident actually ended up being a taste of what would be a series of half-funny, half-alarming (and ultimately completely innocuous) car-related situations from this weekend. But despite a rocky start – I know, I’m hilarious – we ended up having a fabulous first weekend trip away!

This trip had been under consideration for a week or so since we knew Chris had Friday off, but we ultimately pulled the trigger on booking an AirBnb at about 6 p.m. the night before we left. From an Ikea. We had originally been thinking we might just do a day trip to Modica, Ragusa or Noto (or a couple other towns) because none of them are particularly far away, only about an hour and a half or so. As we were trying to narrow things down, however, we realized that we really wanted to see them all. We ended up booking a two-bedroom apartment in Modica for a couple of nights as our base of operations, with the intention of exploring one town per day. We obviously ended up spending a bit more time in Modica than anywhere else, which is probably why it ultimately ended up being our favorite.

A note to start: booking apartments is, in our opinion, the only way to do things when you are traveling with kids. At least, if yours sleep as noisily as ours do. We love being able to put them to bed and then still stay up talking since there are other rooms to escape to. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee a good night’s rest – Fiona woke me up by shoving an apple into my face at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, and Owen had a night terror in the wee hours of Sunday morning that had all four of us up – but in our experience the odds are a lot better. Plus, you get to feel like you are more a part of a city than you do when you are in an impersonal hotel and have the added benefit of having a kitchen. The top of the fridge, if you are wondering, is basically the only place to store $40 worth of chocolate where the kids (probably) can’t get to it while you think they are sleeping.
Another note: so far, we have only booked apartments through AirBnb or VRBO. However, I’ve recently heard there are some other sites that have lower service fees, so I’m planning to investigate that in the future.

THIS is how they choose to sleep?

Modica
Located on the southernmost part of Sicily, Modica is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the late Baroque towns of the Val Di Noto. It (and the cities around it) are built onto the mountains and valleys of the Hyblaean Mountains. Driving there is a very up-and-down, curving experience with absolutely gorgeous scenery along the way. In addition to its architecture, it is known for its chocolate. This may or may not have been a major motivating factor in going – I’ll never tell.

The sites:
We actually only explored a very small part of the city, so we’ll need to go back sometime for sure to see more of the medieval part of the town, Modica Alta (Upper Modica). We stayed in Modica Bassa, the place where residents rebuilt the city after the 1693 earthquake destroyed most of it. If that sounds familiar, by the way, it is because that must have been one hell of an earthquake because it also destroyed most of Catania. Anyway, the city has some gorgeous architecture, especially along the main drag, Corso Umberto 1. In particular, we enjoyed looking at the ornate carvings on the supporting beams of balconies here.

Its most well-known site is the Duomo Sant’Giorgio, dedicated to St. George. We weren’t able to go in, but walked by it several times and always stopped to admire it. One Italian art historian has apparently referred to its as “one of the seven wonders of the Baroque world.” It is made of what I’m thinking is sandstone, which gives it an interesting golden color. It actually reminds me a lot of some sites I saw in Jordan and in India in 2008. The kids enjoyed looking at the statues of all the apostles outside the church, and climbing the stairs.

We also visited the Museo degli Arnesi di Una Volta by chance, as we stumbled across it while waiting in the Piazza Matteotti for our apartment to be ready. It certainly isn’t a particularly fancy museum, but it was an interesting building (a former convent) and our tour guide was extremely charming. He also kept encouraging the kids to touch stuff and telling me to quit worrying when they were grabbing at things, so that was a welcome change for us all, I think. Mostly it was full of artifacts showing every day tools used by Sicilians of the past – looms, reeds weaved into containers for ricotta storage, infant beds suspended on ropes above the parents’ bed, etc. Having a tour guide to explain what things were definitely made it worth going; without him, it would have been pretty boring and basically a guessing game since nothing much was labeled.

View of Piazza Matteotti from our balcony; the museum was in the building you see in the center

Owen and I also took a tour at a chocolate shop (more on the chocolate below), which turned out to be quite interesting. It was just the two of us, and Owen got a kick out of having to be wrapped up in a hospital gown-type thing to go into the kitchen. Our guide gave a brief explanation of where cocoa beans come front, then explained how Modica chocolate differs from traditional European chocolates. Owen and I got to see them pouring some of the chocolate into molds, and Owen took a turn rattling a wooden box where the molds are placed so that the chocolate settles before hardening. These days they put the bars in a fridge for about three hours to settle them, but before refrigeration the bars were often stored in caves. We also got more than our fair share of samples, which our teacher wrapped up for us to take home for Daddy and Fiona because she pulled out way too many samples for us. That meant that Chris (and ultimately the kids) got to try a Modica speciality – a cookie made with chocolate, nuts, fruit and minced meat. I can’t report on the taste because that wasn’t happening, but Chris said it just tasted like a chocolate cookie. Our guide explained that since the chocolate from Modica can last for a long time and does not readily melt, sailors baked meat into the cookies as a way of preserving it. Ingenious, I guess. But I still wasn’t trying it.

The chocolate:
Modica is known for its chocolate, so obviously investigating its claims to fame was high on our agenda. Especially for the kids, who had been told we were going to “a chocolate town” on the ride there. We went to Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, which we’d seen recommended several places. It ended up being a great place to sample everything (including hot chocolate and chocolate liquor) and we bought a boatload of chocolate to spare ourselves from having to really make decisions.

The chocolate itself is, for lack of a better word, weird. It is delicious in its own way, but it is like no chocolate I have ever had. When you bite into it, it doesn’t melt – it crumbles. This chocolate came to Sicily with the Spanish, who had acquired it from the Aztecs in the so-called “New World.” Today in Modica the Aztec technique of cold-processing is still used. This, apparently, is what makes it so distinctive. While chocolate that most of us will be familiar with is heated to high temperatures and usually mixed with butter, milk and sugar. Modica chocolate, however, is ground with sugar and basically nothing else (other than whatever its being flavored with). It is “cold-processed,” meaning the temperature of the mixture never gets above 40 Celsius, so the sugar doesn’t melt. The result is somewhat grainy but more pure mixture – one that I’m certainly hoping there is an argument for describing as “health food.” That would definitely make me feel a little better about the state of our cupboard right now …

Anyway, the chocolate comes in a wide variety of flavors, our favorite of which was, oddly enough, vanilla. We also ended up buying some flavored with chili, orange, lemon, salt, cinnamon and one specialty one with chocolate from Peru.

The food:
We had some great meals in Modica! It was a bit of a nice change because in the town where we currently live, the restaurants all seem to have more or less the same menu (pizza, specific varieties of pizza, spinach with butter, etc). Perhaps appropriately given that we were in the ‘Ragu’sa province, red sauces featured prominently on the menus we saw. I’m usually not such a huge fan of tomato sauce, but we had some really amazing meat sauces over ravioli (ricotta is also big here). I had the best ragu sauce I’ve ever had in my life at a restaurant recommended by a friend on Saturday evening – that is, until it was equaled Sunday in Noto. Delicious.

Of course, the only small complication was Owen. I’ve already talked about how he refuses to eat noodles, but I haven’t mentioned that he’s also off of pizza lately. In other words, the STAPLES of Sicily. He’s been pretty much ordering a chicken or veal Milanese (breaded cutlet) everywhere we go, but while they have that in every restaurant in our current town it didn’t seem to be a “thing” in the Ragusa area. In fact, of the restaurant we visited only one had chicken … and it came in the form of this pizza:

Yes, that is a pizza with chicken and French fries as the toppings. No, my son would not eat this, or the fried fish he insisted on ordering. I actually wasn’t a fan either, though my four-cheese pizza was decent.

The pizza place, Restaurante Pizzeria La Contea, redeemed itself with this appetizer though, at least for Chris and Fi. Also a fun fact about this particular restaurant, while we were placing our order Fiona inexplicably picked up the bread basket and dumped it over her head.

We finally found him a veal cutlet in Noto on Sunday, but feeding him the rest of the weekend was pretty hit or miss. At our favorite restaurant in Modica, he ate a bunch of the mixed cheese we ordered as an appetizer but wouldn’t touch the sausage he had agreed to order. He mostly survived on apples, chocolate and bread baskets since he wouldn’t. eat. anything.

Our favorites:
Osteria dei sapari-perduli – Recommended by our host, we had a nice lunch here shortly after arriving. Chris has a delicious ravioli with meat sauce that we both loved, and we both liked the table wine. Which we got accidentally a little drunk on because when we asked for two glasses, this giant flask was what we got:

A Putia Ro’Vinu – This one was recommended by a friend, and I’m grateful because we definitely wouldn’t have stumbled across it. While it wasn’t far from the main street, Corso Umberto I, it was a bit of a walk through some tiny little cobblestone streets to get there. I had the ravioli with best meat sauce I’ve ever had, and Fiona absolutely devoured her cavati with tomato sauce. Even Owen ate the cheese platter we got for an appetizer, though he wouldn’t even try his entrée. We would definitely go back the next time we are in Modica – highly recommend!

I also tried my first espresso here, which was pretty shocking on first sip but definitely drinkable after an entire sugar packet. I think I need more practice.

I’ll talk some more about Ragusa and Noto, our other two destinations, sometime soon. In the meantime, however, I’ll just finish up by saying that we really liked the staying overnight vs. day trip experience. This way, we were able to walk around a lot more, especially in the evenings, and really not feel all that rushed. I also loved that Modica was so walkable in general – the area where we were in, the main street, had excellent sidewalks (which isn’t the case in the two where we are currently staying).

The post A weekend away — Modica first appeared on Babies With Backpacks.

The post A weekend away — Modica appeared first on Babies With Backpacks.