Our Trip to the Chocolate Festival

In the morning we got up at 5:15 am and took 2 trains to Eurochocolate in Perugia. That is a chocolate festival in Umbria. This is a picture of me on the train sleeping because I was tired.

When we got to Perugia, we took a minimetro to up the hill to the chocolate festival. The minimetro was very very small. It was so small it was like 10 people trying to share a swing, but different.

This is a view from the chocolate festival across the valley of Perugia. I think it’s pretty.

Here are a lot of pictures of different kinds of chocolate. We got to try a lot of chocolate. There are ones like Mickey Mouse and little ducks. 

This is a view of part of the fair. It’s pretty big.

This is a picture of Daddy with the fruit guy. They were also having a health fair that day.

Look at us! I’m a cookie!

When we were walking, we saw a marionette dancing. It was silly because the puppet had strings on her breasts and they could bounce when the lady lifted the strings (Dad note: sorry no video!)

We ate lunch at a Pizzeria. Ashley and I shared a margherita pizza and Mommy and Daddy shared a calzone. 

I got a Hello Kitty Chocolate and I ate some off, basically her head. Ashley got a little chocolate turtle. It was cold and windy so we decided to go home. 

Tour of Casa Lewis

The girls give you the grand (unscripted and slightly longer than necessary) tour of our "traditional meets modern" Italian flat! 

Every day affairs: Shopping and Cooking

Five weeks down and our quiet Italian flat has become home. Chocolate banana bread bakes  in the oven, the laundry cycle bounces and spins, and Ashley is busy at the desk making a parachute out of tissue paper and masking tape. We have a daily schedule with meals, schooling, and chores, but life is anything but routine or ordinary when it comes to accomplishing life’s every tasks that were simple before. 

That is before we sold our beautiful home in California, asked friends to drive our cars, and sold or put the majority of our belongings in storage. After 13 years of marriage it hit us smack in the face that the deepest desires of our heart did not lie in our possessions, our jobs, or the comfort of the familiar. We wanted more… but more of what? More time together. More of a sense of purpose. More of a calling. More adventure. More intentionality. 

So we moved to a town where we hardly speak the language and know no one. A country we visited for all of 3 days on a cruise back in 2009. A place where we don’t have a car, or even a valid license. And so far we’re happy. But not just happy, filled with joy and peace and a trusting that at the end of a year away, we will have gleaned some sort of new perspective.

That leads me back to every day affairs. You know, grocery shopping, cooking, emails, housecleaning, exercise, entertainment. Those have not changed, but the way we go about them definitely have.

Today I’ll tell you a little bit about cooking and shopping here in Tuscany.

After being here for a week we walked about 4 doors down to the nearest bike rental shop (there are probably 10 in town) and asked if they had any used bikes they would like to sell us. We walked away with two used bikes for Dave and Arya, and two discounted new bikes for Ashley and I. The former being geared bicycles, the latter being one geared cruisers. All the girls have baskets on their bikes, and all four of us have a rack on the back. Knowing that the grocery store is outside of the medieval walls, we were expecting to carry groceries on our bikes. 

We have learned that we can make a weekly bike trip to the supermarket, Essalunga, for the basic supplies. You know, cereal, flour, milk, rice, lunchmeat, and still fit everything on our bikes. When you start getting into meat, produce, and sundries, then it becomes a problem. We overloaded the first few times and didn’t take into account that asking your seven year old to ride with a basket full of groceries changes the balance of the bike completely. As Dave said, “I had to learn how to ride my bike again when I carried newspapers on my paper route.” Also, eggs in a basket are a bad idea. Especially a metal basket. We experienced a bit of an egg scramble that concluded with Arya singing at the top of her lungs, “Eggs are dripping on my legs!”

All of the things we didn’t get at Essalunga are purchased within blocks of our apartment at local independent shops. Bread from the bakery (il panetierre), meat from the butcher (la macelleria), fruit and veggies from the greengrocer (il fruttivendolo), wine from the wine merchant (la enoteca). I look forward to every one of these trips. Sometimes I make a list (in both English and Italian), other times I just go and see what’s available. If it’s not in season here, it won’t be available at the local market. It is October 18th and we have found one place with pumpkins. The thing I’m loving the most is the relationships. Stores are owned and run by individuals or families. They are small and count on your business. They recognize you, for better or worse. At the bakery my kids get free focaccia. At the green grocer they get free grapes, and a free bunch of basil for mom. The eggs are so fresh that they burst open on the first crack, with a bright orange yolk. I get excited about cooking and producing something new. And I cook a lot. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner most days. No packing of school lunches. And time to enjoy meals together. Do we eat out? Of course! And the kids almost always order Margherita Pizza and Lasagna Bolognese.

Cooking new things is fun and cooking from old recipes a challenge. Every thing here is not measured in cups, but my weight. Yet few of my recipes are by weight. Temperatures on the oven are in celcius. Basic ingredients are different. Brown sugar has more of the texture of raw sugar and baking powder (lievito in polvere) has vanilla added to it. Pork is referred to as swine, and store made salad dressing or frozen fruit is non existent. Does this mean we’re healthier… yes and no. Yes we eat everything fresh and local and it is delicious, but my one main problem is bread… and pasta. And by problem I mean YUM!

London

My birthday in London!

… started in the airport. We arrived in London at 11:45 on October 7th. We made our way to the terminal train to collect our bags. Dad and I were counting down the minutes until October 8th, my 10th birthday. Dad made a joke that it wasn’t really my birthday yet, because in California it was still October 7th for 8 more hours. I turned 10 while we were on that train and we celebrated with cheers right on the crowded train. When we got off the train, I spent the first hour and a half of my birthday in the customs line just trying to enter the UK!

Arya planned my birthday, so in the morning I had no idea what we were doing, except that we were dressed in nice dresses, so it must be something fancy.

We started with lunch at Angus steakhouse which was exciting because I got ribs, which I hadn’t had in a while, one of my favorites!

Then we made our way to the mystery destination and on our way made a quick stop into a Pandora shop. Arya and I both got charms representing the UK and we decided it would be a fun idea to each have a bracelet from our trip where we collected charms from each country we visited.

After we finished shopping, we walked around a bit more and as we walked up the street I saw a sign for the musical Matilda. I was about to tell Mom and Dad that we should see it sometime, but then I realized that that could be what we were doing! And it was!

We went inside and there was a lady waiting for us who took us downstairs. As we walked, she asked whose birthday it was which surprised me. She then took us into a private room and told us it was ours to use for the whole show! Sitting on the table was a cake, programs for the show, and candy!

We also got to pick out snacks to have at intermission! I was so full of sweets! The show was so cool because Miss Trunchbull (who was played by a man!) was hilarious. My favorite song was Miracle which is a song where kids sing about how their parents think they’re miracles…believe me, it’s more interesting than it sounds.

When the show finished, Arya had planned to take me bowling, but it turned out that the bowling alley only had 4 lanes and they were booked for the night so we ended up just heading home where we watched James Bond on TV. Not a bad birthday!

The next day we headed off to do some sight-seeing. We saw Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye,

Buckingham Palace,

the Royal Mews (that’s where they keep the horses and carriages for the queen),

Westminster Abbey (the church where the kings and queens are coronated and most get married), and Picadilly Circus (which is like Times Square in New York). I really think everyone should go on the London Eye at least once in their lifetime. It was awesome and cool to see the sights from that high up…besides, you’re on a ferris wheel so it’s fun!

That evening when we were hungry for dinner, we remembered we had seen Chipotle the day before and wanted to find it again. We thought it would be a quick journey, but it ended up being more than an hour walking around asking people and getting lost. By the time we got there, it was the best Chipotle we’ve ever had!

The following day we went on a bus tour to Windsor Castle, the Roman Baths, and Stonehenge. Our first stop was Windsor Castle.  It was pretty much what you’d expect from a castle: made of stone and lots of fancy stuff inside.

My favorite part was Queen Mary’s dollhouse. Did you know that Queen Mary wasn’t even allowed to touch her own dollhouse? (Dad note: sorry no pictures from inside the castle, including the dollhouse. Cameras were not allowed.)

Then it was on to the Roman Baths. None of us knew much about them and weren’t sure what to expect. Turns out it was pretty cool! There were huge baths that were filled from a natural hot spring. It’s been there for almost 2,000 years!

Our last stop was Stonehenge. Did you know it’s been there for more than 5000 years!? The stones were carved out of a mountain far away and pulled by more than a hundred men each! I thought it was cool. (Dad note: what a great time of day to a picture!)

It was crazy to me that they had been around that long and they didn’t have any machines to get the stones there! It was all man-power.

For dinner that night, we stopped at an authentic English pub. We had some delicious pies (meat pies that is), a hamburger, and some beer (my parents did anyway. I wouldn’t dream of it.)

The day I was the most excited for was the next day: our trip to the Warner Brothers studio tour where they made the Harry Potter movies! When we got to the bus stop, there was a Harry potter bus waiting for us!

When we started the tour, the guide asked us if it was anyone’s birthday. My dad pushed me up there and she had us open the door that leads into the actual Great Hall!

So two other kids and I opened the door to reveal the Great Hall. We saw teachers’ costumes, the house tables, and the hourglasses that keep score for the houses.

The rest of the tour was pretty much a giant Harry Potter museum. We walked through Diagon Alley,

saw things from the Yule Ball, saw the Hogsmeade gate, and even rode on broomsticks and learned to use wands! One of my favorites was when we went outside and got to drink butterbeer!

It tasted like you might expect it to: butterscotch with a hint of vanilla. very good (and don’t worry, it’s not alcoholic). The last thing you see on the tour is a huge model of Hogwarts that used in filming whenever they did fly through shots.

It was an amazing model.

Our last day in London was a mix of a bunch of things. First we went to see Dolphin Tale 2. Arya had really wanted to see it before we left the United States, but it came out the day after we left so this especially exciting for her. We had lots of candy and I felt like I would explode. But guess what? Right after that we went to a nice hotel and had afternoon tea which included a bunch of sweets…and tea.

Even though I was stuffed, it was still delicious. We then went across town to visit the Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station! We took pictures of ourselves running through the wall like Hogwarts students do.

The next morning we had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to catch our flight home. And that was one of the best birthday celebrations I’ve ever had!

DaVinci's Flying Machine

While visiting Florence we stopped at the DaVinci Museum where Ashley picked up this model kit of DaVinci's design for what we would now call a helicopter. It was a great 2 day project, fun to practice building, picked up some DaVinci knowledge, and Ashley learned to use iMovie and edited the whole video. It was a festival of learning and knowledge!