Good Evening from Napoli, Italy (Naples)

It has been quite a whirlwind for the last week - sorry that we haven't posted more but I'll try to catch you up.

On Saturday May 8th we went to Versaille (all 6 of us). The Chateaux there was absolutely stunning and Darin got some really great photos. I'll post a few now and hopefully many more when we get home. On our way back to Paris Chelsey & Lindsey kept the kids and Darin and I got off at the Eiffel Tower stop. It was truly amazing - we stayed until dark and had dinner at a sidewalk cafe with a view of the tower and then did a bit of shopping and had desert at another cafe before going back to the tower to take more night photos and then heading back to our apartment.

Sunday we got up early and travelled about 90 minutes to Sunday morning meeting at Sylvain & Louise's home. There were 19 of us in the meeting - 11 of us visitors. They translate the meeting via whisper microphone so we were able to understand everything. We even managed to sing the hymns in French! I wish we had thought to get a photo of the group. The other visitors were a couple from Canada who are living in the South of France while he is getting his doctorate in Cancer cell research. She is working in Monte Carlo. His parents and Aunt from Canada were all travelling with them and we knew several people in common - it is truly a small world.

Sunday afternoon Lindsey & Chelsey went off on their own exploring and Jennie Herting flew in for the night and stayed with us at our apartment. We had a truly delightful evening with a guided walking tour that included dinner at a fabulous crepe restaurant followed by fabulous icecream at Jennie's favorite icecream place. It was so much fun to catch up with a wonderful friend that I hadn't spent time with in many years. It was an absolutely fabulous birthday. The only downside was that the twins chose dinner that night to have pretty much their biggest meltdown of the trip. In general they have been amazing little travelers but that night they were just out of sorts and both ended up having a big enough fit that Darin took them out and stood outside while I finished my crepe. Jennie and the restaurant staff were very gracious about the whole scene and they managed to calm down for the most part for the walk home.

Monday Darin and I had the day to ourselves and nearly walked our feet off! We walked from our apartment to the Louvre and thankfully the lines were very short but we only ended up exploring one wing (we did see the Mona Lisa) before heading on out. We had lunch at a cafe in the Tuileries Gardens and then crossed the river to go to the Orsay Museum forgetting that it is closed on Mondays. We walked from there back across the Seine river and up the Champs Elysee to Pont (bridge) Alexandre III and back across to Invalides (where Napolean is buried). From there we walked back to the Eiffel tower and across the river again to sit on the hill looking back at the tower while Darin did some sketching (all artists must do some of that when in Paris!). From there we found a small cafe with a menu all in french (less of a tourist trap) and had a lovely dinner. After dinner it was dumping rain but we braved the weather and walked to the Arc de Triomphe. We climed the 287 stairs to the top and had spectacular views of the city. Then we walked down the Champs Elysee and caught the metro back to the apartment.

Tuesday morning we had to be out of the apartment by 10 AM but were allowed to leave our bags just inside the door until 5pm. It rained pretty hard most of the day but we were able to get to the Orsay Museum which was outstanding! It was so amazing to have the opportunity to be so close to so many famous paintings - Degas, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh etc - so many amazing beautiful works of art. Sam and Sydney were fabulous - no fussing at all! We walked a few blocks towards the Rodin museum but it was raining hard and we couldn't find a place big enough to accomodate the stroller for lunch so we decided to head back to our apartment. The twins both fell asleep along the way and slept for at least 2 hours while we ate lunch etc. We found a lovely little cafe with enough room inside for us all to sit and get warm and Darin and I enjoyed a peaceful lunch with sleeping babies. By the time they finally woke up they were both soaked through with overly full diapers so we ended up buying a few clothing items at the Les Halles mall to hold us over until we could get back in to the apartment. It was so cold that day that we also had to buy coats for each of them just after we left the apartment.

Chelsey & Lindsey met us at 4:45 and we got all of our things and made our way to the train station to catch the train to Bercy. From Bercy we took the Artesia night train to Milan. We had sleeping cars - Chelsey & Lindsey in 1 compartment with 4 other travellers and Darin and I and the kids in another compartment with 3 others. We were very thankful to have good "couchette" mates (a set of Grandparents on the way to visit their daughter and grandchildren near Bologna and a lady travelling alone). The Grandparents were very cute playing with the kids and the lady took Sydney up on the top bunk for a while and made her origami to play with.

From Milan (we arrived at 5:30 in the morning) we took the train to Modena and then a bus to Maranello. The Ferrari factory and museum are in Maranello and of course that was a "must" stop for Darin. We had a bit of a challenge with the bus and language barrier but managed to make it there and back to the Modena train station with only a few bumps and bruises! We had hoped to be able to check some of our bags at the train station but there wasn't a facility for that so we had to carry all of them with us for the day. The biggest news is that Darin got to drive a 360 Modena near the Museum - you pay 50 euro and get to take it for a 10 minute drive. Then you pay 20 more euro and get the video of your drive. So - that was definitely a highlight of the day! On our way from the museum back to the bus I stepped in a bit of a hole in the sidewalk (while pushing the stroller) and fell - fortunately the stroller didn't go all the way over on the kids and they were fine and I just ended up with a skinned knee. We had been told that the bus from Maranello went directly to the Modena train station but apparently that wasn't the case as we had to transfer to another bus. That was a bit of a last minute discovery so in our rush to get off the one bus and to the other one my left toe got run over by the stroller wheel and it ripped my entire toenail off...well actually it was still partially attached and I ended up having to remove it myself once we got on the train. So that was a gross bloody mess but we were able to get it cleaned up and bandaged once we made it on the train. (Yay for the first aid kit in the diaper bag!).

From Modena we took the train to Bologna and from Bologna to Napoli. The directions I had for the hotel had indicated that it was a 10 - 15 minute walk from the train station so we decided to just walk instead of taking the metro. BAD IDEA. It was actually closer to a 20 minute drive from the station and with a few wrong turns ended up taking us almost 2 hours to get to our hotel. We were all exhausted! Fortunately just a few blocks from the hotel we connected with a Canadian woman who was staying at the same hostel as Lindsey & Chelsey and they were able to go on with her. That little jaunt was probably the scariest moments of the entire trip - Naples is so much more "foreign" than Paris and none of us have any of the language, streets are not marked well etc. But - we found our hotel and it is absolutely lovely - a true oasis in the bustle of this amazing, crazy city.

Tomorrow Darin and I will have a free day and are planning to take the ferry to Sorrento for the day. In the evening we will have dinner with Val Laurita - the aunt of my college boyfriend who has lived in Italy 30 or more years. She is the one who recommended the lovely hotel where we are staying.

Here are a few photos:

Versaille:











Eiffel Tower:












Walk with Jennie:








Darin and Jean's Paris Jaunt:











Paris to Modena/Maranello:


This is the couchette - 6 people sat & slept in this space!



This is one of my favorite pictures of Sam & Sydney - this is where we ate lunch in a small little park while waiting for our transfer bus to Modena.







Napoli: \

The first four photos are taken at our hotel - the 5th photo is a street scene nearby.








And - that will be all for tonight - we are headed to bed and will hopefully have as good a night's rest as we did last night.