A Family Reunion in Italy

The much awaited for and planned for and thought over Europe adventure and Family Reunion began as we landed at Heathrow Airport on Sunday the 27th September, exhausted of course, but a little less so I'm sure, because our impression of a 10 hour flight has certainly changed after all these 18 hour plus bus rides! The Amazing Race feeling continued as we waited in an hour-long passport queue, anxiously checking the time, watching the 3 hours until our 4:30 check-in at Gatwick airport for our flight to Italy, rapidly counting down. Raced for our bags, bought an airport transfer bus ticket, enjoyed our first taste of real English countryside from the bus, made it to Gatwick with plenty of time, chilled in a waiting lounge filled with things marvelously familiar (English discussions, books and magazines, Accessorize...) and unfamiliar (Ben & Jerry's vending machines, the Pound...) and were soon on another plane to Pisa.

The following day we dashed through town to see the leaning tower of Pisa, along streets that were so effortlessly Italian...outdoor cafe's lining cobbled streets with girls on bicycles, mottled tiled roves, clothes hanging from washing lines below shuttered windows and flower boxes. The Tower of Tendency (as translated by our hostel website) was pretty impressive, and although heavily restored, still has a authentic feel, and really looks as if it is about to topple over. We were surprised to read that it had already started to tilt before even the first few levels had been finished, but after an unexplained break in construction, was continued anyway.

At 10 we caught a train through the Tuscan countryside to Arezzo, where we would be meeting up with the Halland family, anxiously counting down the stations. Eventually we were excitedly walking down the platform, tortoise-shells on backs, seeing 5 marvelously familiar heads making their way through the crowd toward us. Laughing and laughing we watched them approach, holding a welcome banner, dressed up for the occasion in swimming caps they'd found! It was a fantastic welcome, hugs and laughter all round, and much, much story swapping.

Squashed into the rental car they'd hired in Zurich to drive through Switzerland and down Italy to get here, and drove the 45 mins to the small town of San Giustino in Umbria, and then to a beautiful old rustic Italian house, converted from a water mill, outside of town, where we'd be staying for the next 2 weeks. The house was big and square, and perfectly crumbly, and barged into the road in a wonderfully impractical rambling country way. Little wobbly windows placed randomly peered out at the surrounding stream and trees and hills.

We had a fantastic time enjoying the Tuscan and Umbrian Italian countryside, food and sights the next 10 days, visiting the towns of Gubbio, Sansepolcro, Perugia, Assisi, Castiglione del Lago, Arezzo, and Florence, doing walks through forests in Germagnano, Monte Cucco National Park and along Lago Trasimeno. We had two delicious pizza evenings where the boys made good use of the pizza oven at our house, a little picnic at sunset from a view point up the road from our house, and many adventures with the mischievous GPS which seemed to be set sometimes on Fastest Route and sometimes on Shortest Distance and most times on The Scenic Route, which took us along random narrow hill top streets when the highway was within sight, a setting which we could not locate on the GPS to change. My aunt Rosemary came from England for a few days too and the house was lovely and bustling.

We thought Italy was so beautiful, and some of our highlights were the converted Mill where we stayed, the pretty town of Gubbio where we took a funicular ride up the mountain, and the walk up the forested mountain where we watched a huge herd of goats with dinging and donging bells -all appropriately sized for the size of the goat that wore it- that passed us being calmly lead down the hill by a sheep dog.

What a wonderful holiday, and break from backpacking - thank you for your generosity Mom and Dad! It was a sad sad day when the family left on the 9th October to drive back to Zurich, and the only thing that made it bearable was knowing that we'd be home in a month! We had an eventful day to keep our minds off it though...Steven had to climb through a second storey window after we locked ourselves out of the house, and a thunderstorm and power cut during dinner kept us busy while we searched the house for candles we'd bought a few days before. On the 10th our backpacks were on again and we walked into town to catch a bus to Arezzo, and then a train to Rome!