VAN VOORHIS FAMILY BLOG

Men do eat quiche…and they also wear capri pants, ride Vespas and live with their parents till they’re 40.

We’re in Italy.

And this post is as “on-time” as an Italian train…about a week behind schedule. Hopefully this post will be a little cleaner than an Italian public restroom.

The difference between clean, prompt Switzerland and quaint (read as…dirty) we’ll-get-there-when-we-get-there Italy could not be more striking.

After the extremely “quaint” MOTEL 6 on rails last Friday night…I was ready for a little rest in Tuscany.

Montreux. Switzerland was an absolutely beautiful accident begat when Euro-union goons calling a strike… But without a hotel room to operate from, it couldn’t be fully appreciated. Our villa in Italy was probably the only thing in this country that arrived just in time.

We spent many hours – under the Tuscan sun — and on shaded terraces…recharging our batteries. The former home of a 17th century Pope & vacation home of King Henry the (insert number here?), our villa had complete seclusion, a big pool and covered veranda, and beautiful grounds with several terraces littered with numerous chairs suitable for slouching & storytelling…

Nearly horizontal for several hours at a clip, the only thing I lacked was a straw to drink my Chianti.

We experienced a 40-degree change in weather overnight…from the kind of heat that could make you go postal to a much-welcomed cool rain that drove the tourists away — freeing up the alleys of San Gimignano and Volterra for exploration.

I loved the medieval hill towns…we all did. And we explored 5 of them this week. On three different nights we visited Volterra. Monteriggoni, and Montipulciano, leaving at last light — the time when even Central Ohio looks beautiful.

But perhaps the best day of all was the day we hiked the Cinque Terre — the Five Lands – at the beginning of the Italian Rivera. These five Mediterranean seaside towns were cutoff off from automobiles by the terrain for hundreds of years. Bet the residents wish the roads never came.

We cruised back down the autostrada at about 130-140 — which isn’t nearly as sexy when you learn that MPH is really KPH — putting the whip to our overpriced yet underpowered Mercedes diesel rental.

My sister Julie’s finance Scott had become fixated on a castle on a hill that we’d seen from afar a couple nights before, and on the return trip we decided to indulge his curiosity.

We spent 3 hours walking the walls, watching the real people in this tiny town, and having dinner together outdoors in the town square. (I would say piazza, but then I would have to slip into a fuchsia pair of capri pants and purchase a matching Seinfeld-style European carryall.)

I even picked up a little political intel about a 2010 race for Governor, from an American businessman who falsely assumed that he was protected by the 5000 miles that separated him from his state capital. I stopped by his table, introduced myself and sent him running for a Zantac and a publicist.

It was pretty close to perfect and we have Scott and Julie to thank. In fact, our first week in Italy was most excellent with both my sisters making the trip across the pond to join us for the week.

Now we are off to Venice. The train was very quaint – at least until we disinfected it with diaper wipes from the US EPA approved warehouse of sanitation supplies that doubles as my wife’s purse.

I could walk a fairway faster than we’re moving now and we’re 25 minutes behind schedule…and right on time.

Sam

I undoubtedly spelled some stuff wrong…so bring it on, Dad.

Well, it’s been a fabulous week for us in Italy, although one without much access to internet. That’s been about the only bad thing we’ve experienced (with the exception of a wicked hot day in Sienna earlier).

My last post found us at an internet café, but we didn’t have much time to post, so I was cut short. I’m now in the car typing a post that hopefully we can get up soon – or at least when we arrive in Venice on Saturday.

So many things to write of, but it would most likely bore you to tears if I put the entire week in one post – so we’ll see how this goes.

Our villa is outside a small town called Sovicille just southwest of Sienna – marvelous place. Enjoyed the time we’ve had with the VV family here and taken full advantage of the pool, tennis court, ping pong table and the terrace overlooking the hills of Tuscany.

As I started to say before, we’ve really enjoyed the cooking skills of our chef Sofia. She doesn’t speak much English, but she has fed us well with multiple course meals – all of them fabulous. Again, good thing we’re getting in some hiking on this trip or we’d be hard pressed to fit into our plane seats on the way home.

After arriving Saturday, we took Sunday as our day of rest and recovery. Monday we ventured into Siena with the whole crew. The town itself is a beautiful and historic town – but with the 8 of us in two cars, parking was a bit of an adventure. We enjoyed the piazza and envisioned the neighborhood horse races that will take place there the first week of July. After a lunch of pizza at an outdoor café, we took Ethan up on his desire to visit the Museum of Torture. Anna wasn’t too sure about it but wanted to give it a try, so Sam & I agreed to meet up with the rest of the family in 45 minutes and we ducked into the dark museum. Well, it truly lived up to it’s name and after about 12 minutes we all decided that we had seen enough of mans depravity and headed out, feeling slightly embarrassed that we dropped 24 euros on that. Note to fellow travelers – persuade your children that it really isn’t all that exciting.

By that time the heat was up to about 96 degrees and we were actually feeling quite nauseus from the torture, so we gathered the siblings and headed home to the pool and another fab dinner. I think we would’ve enjoyed Siena a bit more had it not been sooooo hot and crowded with meandering tourists (you know how much Sam loves meandering people).

Tuesday we rested again, and on Wed we took off with Julie & Scott to visit some hill towns. Our first visit was San Gimignano. We loved this town, but this usually prepared mom was not prepared for the weather. Lulled into complacency from the torrid heat of the day before, I neglected to pack the usual array of fleeces, raincoats and extra socks in my bag. Of course, it rained. In spite of that – the kids chose that as their favorite Italian city so far. A beautiful town with family owned shops and pretty good food as well. We did a little shopping for trinkets to send home with Julie & Scott who brought along an extra bag for us. J Now I can properly say thank you to all of you who have helped us with watching the dog, buying school supplies and all the other things we’ve needed while we’re gone.

***Note – special thanks to Constance and Staci for covering the days last weekend with Summer! We were out of touch without internet access, so you saved us in a pinch!

OK, back to Tuesday. After San Gimignano, we visited Volterra, where we wandered around for a while and found the internet café. As we left town we had the most beautiful view and a gorgeous drive back to Siena in the evening light. Pretty much exactly the way we had envisioned.

Wednesday was another nice day of sleeping in, tennis, pool and dinner with the whole family. Anna & Ethan are keeping up with their tennis game – not so sure about myself, but we’ll find out in August J

Today we decided to be adventurous and make the 3 hour trek to the Cinque Terra. Sam had researched this prior to our trip and found this to be a place that he really wanted to hike. We left early and Julie & Scott joined us while Elizabeth and Drew stayed back (they made a trip to Venice the prior 2 days, so needed some r & r). As we wound around the roads leading to La Spezia, we weren’t sure if the drive would be worth it, but as we turned the corner and viewed the Mediterranean in all it’s splendor, we knew it was worth the drive.

We drove to Riomaggiore and parked and began our walk. We walked trails above the coast to the towns of Manarola and Corniglia. We had lunch ocean side where we realized that shrimp is not served Americano style, but fully cooked with eyes, heads, tails and all. The kids were slightly grossed out by this, but at least Anna was able to eat a few. She even considered eating an eyeball just to tell her cousin Chien that she could match him, but in the end she decided against it (I’m with her – we’ll leave all the adventurous eating to Uncle John and his crew!)

We would’ve walked to more of the 5 towns, but were limited by time, tiredness and the thought of the 3 hour drive back to the villa. So now, we’re in the car, the kids are crashed in the back seat and Sam is happily driving on the right side of the road while I’m typing and trying to assist in navigation occasionally.

Tomorrow we plan to enjoy our last day at the villa before we drive back to Florence, turn in the last rental car of the trip and train down to Venice. We’ve found that the Italian trains don’t quite run as timely as the Swiss ones did, so hopefully we can make it to Venice without any major mishaps.

We’ll have tons of pictures to post, so they’ll be forthcoming.

Thanks for keeping us in hour thoughts and prayers as we travel. 1 month in and we’re still loving it and more importantly, loving each other.

Take care – Julie

OK, just a very quick post from an internet cafe that we happened upon in the ancient city of Volterra. We arrived at our villa outside of Siena on Saturday after a rough start in Florence. Villa is amazing – beautiful, nice pool, tennis court and as a bonus there is a ping pong table that has been put to alot of use.

Sam’s sister Julie and her fiance Scott as well as Sam’s sister Elizabeth and her husband Drew are here visiting with us as well. We’ve enjoyed our evenings eating al fresco with food prepared from our personal chef Sofia. I’ve never eaten food as good as this before, she is an older Italian woman that has obviously cooked many a meal before. We have not been underfed!

No more time now – we’ll post later when we find another internet access. All is well. Julie

I have been AWOL for a while. With some Internet problems and the need for extra sleep after the old man hikes at altitude, I haven’t had much to say recently.

But our travel problems have created a great opportunity…the Golden Pass. A “luxury” train from Speiz to Montreaux with food service and wide comfortable seats…a chance to plug in the headphones, write and stare out the window.

A myriad of topics with no theme for your amusement…and as always…for mine.

Somewhere, Richard Gere is weeping.
We saw four Tibetan monks slugging beers at the top of the Schilthorn in Switzerland, the mountain made famous in a James Bond flick. You think you’ve seen it all, then drunk monks in the land of 007

Potatoes…the new Ambien.
At the Hotel Eiger in Murren, our waitress (not weightless) kept encouraging me to eat more au gratin potatoes because they “make you sleep good.”

The Merits of a Walkabout
Julie and I just finished the book, “One Year Off,” written by a 40-year old that tired of his profession and took his family on a yearlong trip around the world. Hilariously real to us right now.

“This place has lost its ”stars”
After a string of rather fabulously overpriced hotels, the Italian train strike forced us into a mom and pop B and B TH night, Ethan decided that he would do his establish his own rating system, saying…

Land use planning in Montreux
In perhaps one of the most beautiful cities in the world…beside Lake Geneva…in a garden with trees and flowers…amidst expensive high-rise hotels…sits a $4 putt-putt course. Being their father’s children, Anna and Ethan played 36…with Ethan finishing with back to back holes in one in both rounds to claim victory over his sister.

Duomo…No Mo
We arrive in Florence this morning and walked to our hotel. The delay in traveling to Italy cost us a visit to the Academy yesterday to see the the David and a morning at the Uffizi today. But on the trail of tears from the train station to our hotel, we walked past the Duomo and it was awesome. Too tired to take a picture with a camera, but I have one that will last nonetheless.

This time the French went down fighting…
An arrogant French professor (now that’s redundant) refused to switch sleeping compartments to allow us to be together on the overnight train from Montreux to Florence. After a fascinating display in which he first refused our request and then said he didn’t understand English despite the fact that he spoke 5 other languages, I gave the train conductor a picture of American Statesmen Benjamin Franklin for his very own and our learned friend took a little involuntary ECON 101 and was summarily moved elsewhere…giving — us privacy (and safety) for our kids. I said “Au revoir…” but I wanted to say, “Hasta la vista, baby…”

I am greatly enjoying this trip…and Switzerland is my kind of place. I will miss it as it is efficient…things run on time without fail. And beautiful…mountains, lakes, meadows.

We will be back I am certain.

Sam

We’re here in Florence in the hotel we couldn’t get cancelled for last night. Exhausted, but showered and ready for a nap before we drive to the villa. Sam’s sister Julie and her fiance Scott arrived yesterday and thankfully are able to do some of the tourist things we are not.

Switzerland was beautiful yesterday – went to Montreaux. And the trip here on the train….. another story. Since we got kicked off our train due to the Italian railway strike the day before, we ended up not in first class sleeper cars, but in 2nd class – which is an entirely different story.

All I can say is that we are exceptionally tired and were very aromatic by the time we arrived here – and Sam will have an entertaining post later about how another Frenchman almost lost his life. Make Anna cry, and you will pay.

Time to nap – we will post more later.

Julie

Don t know if this will go through or not. We are at the train station in Speitz Switzerland still. The Italian rail workers decided that yesterday was the day to go on strike for 24 hours, beginning at 9 00 last night. Unfortunately, our train was scheduled to leave for Italy at 11 00 last night. So we had to find a hotel and hang here for another night. Of course, all the sleeper cars are filled up … so today we are hop skip and jumping around Switzerland so we can find something that closely resembles a sleeper so we can get to Florence tomorrow. Forgive my typing the Swiss keyboard has z and y in opposite places. hope to contact everyone from Florence tomorrow.

Hey all – slept in late this morning, nice to do here and there. Thankfully we did a ton of hiking before today – it’s a little rainy and windy, but still beautiful. This will be our last post for a few days most likely – we leave tonight for our overnight train to Florence. Sleeping on a train should be an interesting experience. The kids are excited about that, for me personally, not too sure about it.

Swiss hospitality is great – since our train isn’t till later tonight, we asked if we could have late check out. They told us no problem – leave whenever is good for us with no charge. Nice for a change to not be charged extra for something. Today will hopefully open up for one last hike and maybe some small souvenier shopping. Anna & Ethan are currently watching tennis on tv (need to get our fix somehow!).

Yesterday we had another turbo day of hiking and riding the Swiss transit system. We’ll have to officially count all our modes of transport, but yesterday we rode: train, gondola, train, gondola (3 mile hike) train, walk, gondola, hike – turbo one! (luge for the kids), another gondola, walk then small cable cars (ala ski lift practically – for almost 30 minutes), gondola, train, cable car, train, cable car, train and stairs up to our hotel – PHEW!!!! I may have missed some of it – but we were gone from around 9 in the morning to 6 at night.

After that we spent some time in the pool and then came down to eat another amazing meal. Started it off with some cheese fondue (which Ethan said wasn’t too bad and Anna actually liked), then on to lamb for Sam and spicy chicken with curry for me – yum! The waitress was another sturdy Swiss woman who kept coming back to the table and ladleing more food onto our plates. She told Sam a couple times – eat potatoes, will make you sleep good. Works for me! We all were a little tired and slap happy by the end of the meal – but good family time.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are. Hope to post again soon. Julie

My office has been making some changes to our email…and we are working out the kinks…

For now…any email that needs to come to Sam that is work related, please use sam@nextwavecommunications.org. This may be a permanent change…I am not sure yet. Email should be forwarded from my other addresses, but as of today, that is not working.

For any personal, Sam & Julie email, please use samnjuliev@comcast.net.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sam