Finally to Italy!

OK - so we made it to Italy. And I'm on borrowed time on the laptap battery. I'm grateful that Brian could figure out the dial-up connection here in the room. I'm having serious 21st century withdrawls. No cell phone (no phone for that matter most of the time) no internet, no email... It's nice, but a culture shock just the same. Colin and I are experiencing it the most. He has settled for watching Cartoon Network in French (and now Italian) when football isn't on - which there has been MUCH of lately. A truly cool experience to be part of Euro 2008. Google that, if you want more info.
So here I sit on the bed typing in my room in our hotel in Italy. Apartment won't be ready til Wednesday - and that's Italian time, so who knows? So Brian picked a hotel with a pool. Good thing too since it's friggin hot here. Hotter than I expected. Way hotter. And I can do 105 in Santa Clarita without batting an eye. Brian says it's not even 90, but I swear he's lying. I really need to figure out that celcius thing. I thought Colin would be more help with that. He isn't, but he can convert km to miles just fine for me, so we're good.
The hotel is called the Villa Potenziani. Go look it up: www.villapotenziani.it. Seriously, go now. OK now that you have seen it... Oh. My. Goodness. Words can't express the amount of fancy going on here. And I don't mean in an upscale NYC Ritz Carlton kind of thing either. Think summer palace of a prince. 250 years ago. Yeah. Now picture Ed running through the halls dressed in his bathing suit. And now picture him in one of the salons downstairs playing his gameboy with his feet up on the (beautiful) chair. Now hear him saying "Mommy, look, there's 2 toilets in this bathroom!" (and yes, the kids and I have all tried the bidet out. Not all at one time.) Wow. It's spectacular.
There is a pool here - whcih is a very good thing as Brian took the car to work and the hotel is located on a hill up above the town. The drive down is at least 1 1/2 km - and so is the WALK UP. so we are kind of stranded up here. But the kids and I spent the day in the hotness by the pool. We had to be creative as the minute we got down to the pool, Aidan naturally jumped right in and got a stern lecture from the man in charge about not having a swim cap on. Yep, swim caps are required. Who knew??? He kindly offered us the only 2 he had and I gave them to the boys to start with. The kids spent the afternoon taking turns with them and playing connect 4 and war in the shade. 2 Italian-isms: little girls do not wear bathing suit tops over here. I imagine they only start to wear them when they start to develop. By Italian standard, Julia was hugely overdressed with her tankini AND swimshirt. And while the speedo seems to be the main choice for older men and boys(Ugh...) the younger men seem to prefer longer trunks. And while most of the older women *do* shave under their arms, the younger teen girls do not. And if you are la nonna, you have a fancy swim cap and you wear your New Jersey girl-esque large gold jewelry while you swim, and reapply red lipstick as soon as you get out of the pool.
We went to the Emmezeta tonight for swimcaps of our own, and goggles too, so that we can swim tomorrow - all at the same time!
We also needed purchase some fans because while the rest of the hotel is perfectly lovely and cool, sadly the bedrooms are not. The "efficient" fan/A/C is a little too efficient. So we have the window open - I think original to the building, if not a very good facsimile - and the shutters open (no screens...) and the fan is pleasantly cool now that the sun is finally down at 9:45.
We have been staying up late almost every night - watching football - and also last night just trying to find a place to eat. Found an "English Pub" (in name only) and confused the heck out of the waitress when we tried to order courses out of order. It all turned out all right in the end. We were literally the only people not at the festival - The festival to honor St. Anthony. The coolest part of the festival/parade that we *did* see was the street lined with drawings down the middle made out of flower petals. Think of a chalk festival in the middle of the street done a la Rose Parade technique. Not just flowers made up the designs and pictures, other organic materials too. (Lots of colored finely shaved sawdust) It was beautiful - hard to appreciate a bit by our rumbly tummies, but we tried. We didn't stick it out for the procession though, being too hungry.
The day before that, we spent in the Alps. We drove to the town of Engelburg and then took several gondolas (one of them spinning 360 degrees) up to the top of Mt. Titlus. Hee Hee. Spectacular views. Sliding down the peak in the snow, going through the glacier ice cave and picnicing in the Alps. Pretty cool. Coming down (I was much better coming down the mountain, goin g up I had to do some Yoga breathing. I was the only one affected) we stopped about 1/4 way from the bottom and rented bike/scooters to make the final journey down on. The boys loved it. Julia and Ed had to ride with Brian and me, but then had fun too: they learned about saying "Hop, hop.hop, hop..." when you pass someone. I didn't know what that was until then. I couldn't figure out why all the Swiss signs said "Hop Suiss!" I gues it's a skiing thing?? Someone look it up and get back to me.
So I'll leave for tomorrow's email my adventures on driving the car. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it on that one.
Ciao Ciao!
Joelle