Wild nights make for relaxing days

10/13/2009

Today is my dad’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I called at 7am east coast time to wish him happy birthday before he went to work. I woke my mom up when I called, sorry mom!

After going to be at five in the morning last night, we didn’t wake up till 12:45, and when I did wake up it felt like 10. As a result, my time perception was out of whack for the rest of the day. We started hanging out watching a bit of television. They have English television in hopes that it will rub off on the kids. This worked out very nicely for Claire and us today. We decided to fix another delicious lunch and did something very similar to what we did the day before. I wanted to eat because I kept thinking that the mother of all hangovers was coming, but it never came. You gotta love cheap in cost, but good in quality Italian wine. The lack of sulfates makes all the difference. It was really a miracle.

We really hung out all day long and it was so nice. We collected all of our clothes from the wash. Their cleaning lady had ironed everything, even our socks! They have a cleaning lady everyday that does laundry everyday! This is probably almost necessary because it takes so long for laundry to dry without having a dryer. Laundry really is almost a two day process. Susan told us that winter will be here in a week so it is a good thing we have everything restocked. Hanging out all day was a great break in our whirlwind European tour. I loved just chilling out all day.

The kids came home around five. We played with them and then got things ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was delicious again! It was so simple and easy to prepare too. Susan steamed zucchini, onions, carrots, and potatoes. Then she had a griddle deal that she put in the middle of the table that we used to melt cheese on and then drizzle over the fresh veggies. It was delectable and surprisingly very filling! For dessert, the grandmother brought down some fried dough with powered sugar that she had made with Giacomo.

Everyone was very tired especially after last night so the family turned in early and we chilled for the rest of the night. I have no idea how Susan got up an hour after going to bed and then worked all day. Thank god for the magical no hangover powers of Italian red wine, but I am sure she was dead tired from lack of sleep. Days when you consider crawling under your desk and taking a quick nap are the worst.

We are heading to Venice next and then Claire is meeting back up with us in Florence for a couple of days. I am very excited for her to come travel with us. It should be a blast! We booked the hostels for both Venice and Florence, so now we only have Rome left to book. I can’t believe how fast these past couple of weeks have gone by.