Tuscany- a week in paradise...

Tuscany- a week in paradise...

When you go to Italy there are so many expectations, at least there were for us. Maybe it is better to go somewhere where you have no expectations and then are pleasantly surprised, like I was with Sweden.  Anyway, it is hard not to be excited about going to Italy. Probably similar to going to Paris for the first time.  There is so much hype that you run the risk of being horribly disappointed if it doesn't live up to these expectations, or you fall completely, hopelessly in love and embrace every moment. 

For us, we had both. Possibly the things we expected to enjoy the most (the most famous things) were the things that disappointed, and instead we found gems that we may not have discovered without doing a bit of prior research. 

We had a week staying on a small Agriturismo farm which was a small olive tree and wineyard set high up in the Tuscan hills about 15 minutes south of Florence. We had easy access to the main tourist cities of Florence, Sienna, and Pisa as well as several smaller towns that dotted the tuscan landscape.  The farm had a pool overlooking these hills of olive groves and vineyards and the view was postcard perfect.  

Our "local" town San Casciano

Here's some of the sights we saw: 

The low(-er)lights

Sienna - a medieval town.  Apart from driving around for an hour to try and find a park, we spent a lot of time walking through the old city. It was overrun with tourists and the kids were bored. It is a beautiful beautiful city but the number of tourists, though not surprising, does put a dampener on the whole experience. 

Florence- probably our biggest disappointment. Again too many tourists and not too many kid friendly cultural activities. We went to the famous Ufizzo Gallery after pre-purchasing tickets and this was a great experience for my husband who had studied these paintings and sculptures at school, but I had not, and I found it fairly interesting but not in the same league as the Musee d'Orsay (still my all time favourite traditional art museum). 

 The Duomo was incredible to behold but the queues for even pre-purchased tickets stretched down the street so there was little chance we were going to queue with 4 bored kids for an hour to get in.  The older kids were also rather shocked at the number of "inappropriate" statues everywhere!

Pisa- given our tourist experience in the above two cities, we decided to give Pisa a miss. We had heard that it was extremely touristy and dirty and was an hour drive away. I don't regret it as instead we had a full day at other more interesting (for us) places. 

Food- gosh our expectations were so high, but by day 2 I was kind of over pizza. The pizza was good, but it wasn't substantially better than what we were used to eating in NZ. The pasta that we had, again was nice, but not anything that I would rave about. We had definitely eaten better in Belgium.   Maybe it was that we chose places that were not as good, but we did try many different places over the week with average results. I think we are spoilt in NZ with mostly very high standards of food dining out (and certainly the coffee is unequalled in any other part of the world we have been to yet). The local produce on the other hand was lovely when we bought from the local fruit and veg shops. An odd (to us) custom is that the shop owners serve each person individually. Ie they select the fruit and veg that you are requesting one by one for each person.  So instead of gathering everything you want  in bags and then going to the counter to weigh and pay, the shop owner follows you around the store and does it for you. They do this is in a remarkably leisurely manner and it seems that the italians are just happy to wait for their turn. The gelato of course was wonderful no matter where we went.... :)

Service- whether it was the numbers of tourists (which were less than the peak peak season of august) or the impact of the economy, I don't know, but we found the shop owners uniformly depressed and missing the vibrancy that you expect from italians. It very much felt like they were tourist-weary, another reason to avoid high tourist areas. 

The highlights (in ascending order)

San Gimignano - we had heard from an italian friend that this was a great small town to visit. And it was absolutely stunning. Far fewer tourists and as stunning as the larger cities. 

Lucca - we almost didn't go here, but had a spare day since deciding to forego Pisa, and what a great experience. Here we had an absolutely fantastic day, where we rented bikes (with the little two in a carriage behind) for some ridiculously cheap amount, and then spent a couple of hours biking around the town and along the top of the city walls. We also had our best pizza of the entire trip here, for a grand total of 4euro per pizza, it was definitely a highlight of the trip. And the kids had an absolute blast.

Monteriggioni - a tiny walled village high up on the hills.  Again, we almost didn't go here as it isn't listed in most of the touristy information as a "must see" in tuscany. But oh my goodness this is a hidden gem. This would rate as my favourite place to go in Tuscany. The place was almost deserted when we were there. Parking was almost free and easy to find. We spent a half a day here meandering through the delightful streets full of quaint little shops selling local produce and arts and crafts and had a lovely italian meal (without pizza) for lunch. 

Tuscan scenery- it is like a painting.  We drove from high up in the hills each day and you could never tire of views like this. It just makes you want to relax and drink some wine! 

All in all, we loved Tuscany, we would definitely come back again, although next time we will probably explore a different area of Italy, it has so much to offer. 

Next stop Switzerland-  one of the surprising highlights of our trip whose beauty and enjoyability equalled that of Italy's. 

Epic road trips and the wonder of Italy....

We've been back for almost 2 weeks since our epic european road trip but with school holidays in full swing I have been exhausted having 4 small children at home all day... Must be almost time for another family holiday I think! 

Here's how it all went down... It may need several posts, we may have taken several hundreds of photos in the course of 2 weeks! 

Italy- aaah, just saying it brings up thoughts of fabulous food and drink, spectacular landscapes and ancient architecture, ruins and culture that  us people from downunder find endlessly fascinating through the complete lack of anything that comes close to it in our new world countries of NZ and Australia.  It has been a long dream of both of ours to go to Italy and what better way then to see it en famille and par voiture??! Following advice from friends and family we decided to restrict our visit to one region, stay rurally and do day trips by car to see the main attractions.  There is so much to see in Italy, so many regions to choose from, but we decided on Tuscany as our first experience of Italy. And it certainly did not disappoint. Tuscany - you are a balm to the soul, the inspiration of romantics.  But we found a few surprises along the way that we did not expect. 

But let us start from the beginning.  In order to get there in the first place, we had decided to drive. Apart from being about half the cost of flying and then hiring a 7 seater, what better way to see a variety of countries along the way? Right? Hahaha. Day one was a trip from Brussels through to Lake Como where I had booked a small B and B for the night.  Google Maps (oh you rotten thing) estimated travel time to be around 9 hours. We set off at 9am well prepared with snacks and entertainment for the troops.  And here is where the initial problem began.  Our GPS (who we are completely indebted to as there is no way on earth we would have found any of our accommodation without it) told us our expected arrival time was going to be 8pm.  Surely not??? Surely Mr Google must be waaaayyy more accurate than our GPS in estimating driving times. We continued with the assurance that our GPS was indeed mistaken and probably calculating some long convoluted route that we were not going to take. 

As the hours passed, it became apparent that our arrival time was in fact getting later and later, instead of earlier.  We made minimal stops, or as few as can be managed when driving such long distances with small children, but each time we stopped (usually for about 1/2 hour) that dastardly GPS added another hour to our driving time.  Finally, we arrived after 14 hours in the car at almost 11pm.   During this most epic of car trips, we managed to drive through 5 countries. Yep, that's right - 5! (Well, if you include Luxembourg as a country :), we went through Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland and Italy in one day. Surely a record of some sort with 4 kids???!) 

Some brief thoughts on our journey.  Driving was not difficult (says I who did not do any of the driving) but the scenery was spectacular and the roads were straight and fast.  Each country was unique that you could see the difference in landscape and architecture immediately on crossing the border.  Rural France is just a pleasure to behold with small hamlets popping up here and there, each with it's own ancient church and steeple.  Crossing into Switzerland we drove through the Swiss alpine regions and it was like scenes from Heidi. Seriously, it was stereotyped swiss chalets perched precariously on mountainsides that made you wonder who lived in these remote places and how on earth did they get there?  But after the easy pleasant autoroutes of France, Switzerland gave us traffic jams, tunnels and tunnels and tunnels (they love their tunnels) and oddly, traffic lights at the top of mountain passes that randomly turned red causing kilometres of cars to back up on the steep gradient.  Switzerland was also the land of ubiquitous road works.  We finally crossed into Italy, but by this stage the sun was setting and there was less to see.  The road to the B and B was obscure, windy and steep.  We had to put our faith in our GPS as by now it was dark and without a street map and only vague instructions in broken english, we had no other choice.  Finally we arrived, up a crooked little street in the middle of an ancient village. The street address was a narrow alley which we duly attempted to turn up. Unfortunately the alley was too narrow for our car and it got stuck half way up... The owners of the B&B came running out frantically shouting in italian but it was too late.  So at 11pm at night after nonstop driving for 14 hours, here we were stuck in a wee alley. My poor husband had to then attempt to back out of the alley. Despite the exhaustion, I am surprised he could still see straight,  he managed to do it with minimal scrapes to the poor car. He is a superstar.  If it had been me, I think I might just have camped in the alley for the night!  The wonderful hosts who had stayed up so late welcomed us and soon we were all sound asleep.  

Day two we were greeted by the best continental breakfast I have ever had and I regretted somewhat that we had not planned on two nights in this BandB.  The owner took us on a guided tour of the local ancient tower and then it was down to the Lake for some relaxation finally. Lake Como is renowned for stunning vistas and it was certainly spectacular. The kids swam in the lake and icecreams were had by all.  Then it was off for a more leisurely 5 hour trip down to Tuscany.  This passed without incident with the exception of our 1 hour foray into Parma.  Warning DO NOT go to Parma. We had thought we would find a pizzeria for our first italian experience, and Parma was on the way. After fruitlessly driving around this city for an hour without finding anything worth stopping at and nothing worth looking at, we moved on, surprised that a city that is named for famous produce could be so depressingly horrid. Even worse, we were then forced to stop at an autoroute pitstop to pick up some snacks for the ravenous hordes so what could have been a delightful italian food experience ended up being horrid junk from a service station. 

We arrived without problems at the little Agriturismo farm that we had booked and things were looking up!  

Here are a select few photos of Lake Como.... Tuscany in the next post...!

Yes that is the alley we tried to drive up at 11pm at night!

Just life and bits and bobs...

Nothing too dramatic to report over here.... Life seems to have settled into a somewhat chaotic rhythm of sorts. It is possible that we have finally reached something of an equilibrium.  In case anyone had not noticed, the World Cup has just started and this country has gone football mad. From some reports, Belgium may in fact have something of a underdog chance. Their first game is tonight so we will try and watch it!

So what has been happening in the Ponky clan..? Well since C's birthday, we have had Mother's Day, my birthday and Father's Day (which oddly seems to be a different weekend to the southern hemisphere and america). The older two have been watching Masterchef and feel convinced that they are destined for reality TV greatness. Any attempts at actual cooking are greatly encouraged in this household :)...although the day that they decided they wanted to prepare a complete 3 course meal for dinner when hubby was working late and it was a school night, was what I would call stressful rather than entertaining... Dishes everywhere, hungry preschoolers crying, homework left undone.. you get the idea. 

Summer is here, although the winter pyjamas have not been put away quite yet. It is nice to not be covered head to toe in sweat (a la Brisbane) so I suspect that I will really enjoy this european summer.We have discovered a few more parks and visited some castles and seen the spring flowers. And just this last weekend, a FunFair has been set up directly outside our apartment. How great is that?!!! And there is no loud music so it is not disruptive.  And no crowds, and no queues for anything, most of the rides are not full. Best FunFair we have ever been to- sure beats the Ekka and Easter Shows.   

Here are the highlights....

Hanging out in cafes. 

Castles and flower shows- Groot Bijarden

 Special visits from our friend - what better to do than visit more castles?!! This time in Ghent.



Princess S on her throne!

Followed by more food and drink




















Huizingen domain- a spectacular park with outdoor swimming pools, hydroslides, animals, boating, restaurants and massive childrens playground.  A fantastic day out for the family - thanks mum for introducing us to this place :)!

 And a random castle

Also a quick trip out to Antwerpen for my birthday and we discovered this fantastic venue - playgrounds galore and all with outdoor eating for the grown ups. 

Some Belgian cuisine :) and beer - I am gradually learning to appreciate it

As far as school goes, the older two are mid-exams. Yep they are doing a full week of exams in french. It's pretty rough but I talked to the principal and she said they just need to show improvement from when they arrived. Normally the system here is very quick to repeat students which is quite an outdated concept in education. Little miss S has suddenly started talking french at home, and she's quite the character. She has a natural beautiful accent that is cute beyond words. Even D at 3.5 years is starting to say a few things. He has settled in well to the kindy class and is quite the Mr popular with the other girls.  We were looking at old videos of the older two when we had arrived in Australia and they were laughing about their accents back then.  They had both developed a bit of an aussi twang  living there and this seems to be disappearing now. Soon they will be back to pronouncing "france" "dance"and "chance" the proper way ;).

Here is D about to board the bus on his end of year school excursion - 4 classes, 80 kids and 2 teachers per class. It was a 40 minute bus ride to a zoo/circus - no parent helpers. 1 teacher per 10 children ages 3-4 years old. Maybe it's a good thing there aren't any parent helps, it just sounds stressful to me! But they managed to bring them all home in one piece and all had a wonderful time! 

This is C at her end of year school concert.  They had to wear traditional costumes of their home countries. Of course, bringing along Maori costumes was not high on my list of priorities when we packed to move here. So I had to improvise. Goodness knows what you would do for Australia???!!! All the other costumes were extremely decorative and elaborate and beautiful. Dressing as a kangaroo would not have gone down well!! 

I should also mention that with the arrival of summer, we also have loooooooooooong days! It is still light at 10pm, and broad daylight at 8pm. Makes bedtimes tricky and confusing but the blackout curtains at least give an "illusion" that it is evening time...!
Next stop is our trip to italy. To say we are looking forward to this is an understatement. Hubby needs a well deserved break from his work grind, and I have been wanting to visit Italy for years. I, once upon a time, enrolled in a beginner italian class, so I will have to try out some basic phrases over there. The plan is to eat, swim, eat, drink some wine, oh and do a bit of sightseeing as well. We have booked a villa attached to vineyard and olive groves. I will be stocking up with the local olive oil and wines! Put your orders in now! (But only if you come to pick up from us in Belgium hehehe). 

Until next time - a bientot!

First french birthday party....!

Recently we had the first birthday party for our troops.... I was a little worried - new culture, new language - what DO they do here for birthday parties??? I was really in the dark as the girls had not as yet been invited to any birthdays from their class, but then again, none of their friends had had a birthday so far this year. What are the chances of that?! Honestly, I did feel like chickening out, it was too hard, too unknown and too much stress. Not to mention that hubby working every second weekend and various other commitments on the few weekends off made it a little tricky to even find a date between her birthday and christmas.

But I bit the bullet and so glad that I did now.... although hosting birthday parties is never going to be a favourite activity of mine.  This one was possibly the most successful party I have ever had, largely due to the wonderful blessing of having my mother also staying here on that weekend.  My mother is an expert at birthday parties. I would prefer to avoid them except for the joy that they give the kids.

I had been told many things about birthday parties in Belgium (in the french sector) - that they don't do them, that they don't play party games, that they arrive late, that they are too busy on the weekends doing family stuff, and that they don't RSVP and may or may not turn up.
Given the RSVP issue, I didn't particularly want to spend a fortune booking a venue only to have potentially noone arrive, so I organised the party to be at our apartment and asked them to bring roller blades or scooters to have fun in our outside courtyard.
Invitations went out and I was pleasantly surprised when 2 mothers RSVPd immediately. I had an interesting conversation with the first mother on the phone when I was trying to explain that our apartment entrance was at the back,  but unfortunately I was actually saying it was at the backside (yes, as in butt), I suspect she may have been silently laughing at me as she corrected my french... Two other mothers I knew by sight and saw them often at school so I was able to ask them directly, and the last girl did not RSVP but did turn up for the party (although she appeared to get the time wrong and arrived an hour late).

I had no idea what the usual custom is - whether parents stay or drop and go.  But it appears that they drop and go, and do not come into the house or make small chitchat or anything. Then to collect, they arrive at exactly the finish time and wait outside the building until the child descends.

I organised a craft activity - making paper flowers and decorating flowerpots which they all had a ball doing, followed by party games.



















 I had the impression that they were not used to party games: cut the chocolate game was a huge hit, and the egg and spoon race also went down well.

 They spent a bit of time scootering around outside and then we had the cake. Given the choice, they decided to sing happy birthday in English.  Nothing quite as cute as little french kids singing in English <3.... now if only my kids start to pick up on those accents...

And then it was time for presents and kisses all round.  

And so we survived.... We managed a houseful of girls who pretty much only spoke french.  My girls appear to be speaking and understanding enough to be fully in the midst of all the activities. I managed to explain the games and activities using a combination of french and lots of gestures. All in all a huge success. My big 10 year old had an amazing time and was just glowing with self confidence.  Oddly she appears to be more confident and sure of herself in this foreign land speaking a language that she does not yet fully grasp than she ever did back in Australia.  We have definitely been lucky that she has a class full of girls who are all universally lovely natured and kind.
Since the party, some definite changes- the mums that I know by sight are actually speaking to me! (and more than just a cursory bonjour) and I now get kisses from many kids at school pick up time as they run to greet me when I arrive. It is a lovely culture here, the kids kiss the adults and even the teachers as a greeting, and even it appears from my experience, if you don't actually know them.  I was quite surprised that all the invited kids could come to the party and I suspect this may be partly out of curiosity to know what this odd english speaking family do for birthdays, and maybe birthday parties are a novelty for the french kids here? Time will tell once a few more kids have their birthdays later this year....  Having conquered this one, I feel more able to tackle the next one in a month or so.

Sweden- Photos and photos and more photos...

Finally I have a few moments to finish off our adventures in Sweden. Well, it was really only Stockholm and I am sure that Sweden has a multitude of other spectacularly beautiful places to visit, but with a a travelling family of 6,  one destination was all we could manage this time round. 

As for what I have been doing since our holiday.... school has started back, we have had several NZ visitors including  my mum, so it has been busy and fantastic to be connecting again with some special people in our lives.  Also, I am greeted by this on a regular basis:

Sadly, this is not a week's worth, but only 2-3 days... I am kept pretty busy most of the week.

Now back to Sweden, it did feel a bit like we had returned to a civilisation that was more familiar to us... many echoes of some of the luxuries that are standard in NZ such as table water served with meals (for free- gasp!), lots of ATMs and everywhere took bank cards making it easy to live a cash-free existence, and some of you may be worried that I am now overly obsessed with this subject, but there were PUBLIC TOILETS everywhere which meant heading to a park or outing was not an exercise fraught with anxiety about whether two little ones would be able to hold on... 

There are so many sites and wonderful things to do in Stockholm, even with young children.  I had a long long list of potential options and we did not get through half of them. Here are just a few highlights: 

1) Exploring Stockholm Old Town: we spent a day wandering around the beautiful cobbled streets, taking in the architecture and browsing through shops.