Buon Natale!

Since arriving here, I have been consistently reminded of how fortunate my family is to have what we have - not just things (though we do have more than our fair share, in my opinion) but opportunities both afforded to us and created by us. The fact that we're in Italy is testament enough, but then to have family visit us somewhat regularly and experience these amazing destinations with us is above and beyond what most of the other service members stationed here are able to enjoy.

Nativity in San Marco Square

For Christmas this year, not only did we have the opportunity to host CJ and Kamryn again, but Meghan was able to join them AND we were able to bring Rob's mom, Ana over for a short but awesome vacation. When we picked the flights for her, we picked the same ones we would have used if we were going home, so we anticipated her being here from the 19th through the 29th of December. I'm not always the brightest bulb in the pack, so it truly did not register in my mind that she would not arrive until the 20th because of the length of the flight and the whole traveling forward in time thing. Even though it was stated on the reservations that I made! So I lost us one day of travel plans and had to move everything right one day, but it all worked out in the end. The evening she arrived, Rob went to pick her up while I made as authentic Italian a dinner as I am able being an American with German and Irish roots. In spite of myself, dinner was a pretty good Tuscan chicken stew. The perfect red wine from my current favorite wine store (Le Rive) helped! The following day Meghan was scheduled to arrive and I had planned to use her afternoon arrival to our advantage by visiting Venice that morning, then picking her up in time to head back for dinner and reasonable bed times. I spent several weeks attempting to plan this particular adventure because I knew Ana would be jet-lagged but she also needed to see as much as possible while still coordinating the airport arrivals and departures to flow smoothly with the sightseeing. Since CJ, Meghan & Kamryn have been here a few times, Venice was not high on the list of attractions for them and I thought this was a perfect way to kick off the vacation for everyone. Yup.

Rule #1 when vacationing across several time zones: DO NOT underestimate jet lag. I'll grant you, there was never a point when I thought, "oh great, we'll get up at 5am so we can be out the door by 6 and at our destination by 7" or anything even close to that. I'm not stupid. I did plan to be up by 8 so we could be in Venice before lunch because it really does only take a couple hours to see the major attractions everyone wants to see. Two major miscalculations happened here: first, I attempted to use a different parcheggio than what I had used before but did so without making a practice run ahead of schedule; second, I underestimated jet lag. We got out the door around 1030 which is when I had hoped to be arriving in Venice (or at least almost there) and when we got to the car park I had researched it turned out to be an open-air lot along one of the rivers in a not-so-friendly looking area, so we asked Garmin for a better idea and followed it. I like the garage it took us to, but we naturally got separated coming down the stairs... Felix and I were outside the garage waiting on the sidewalk while Rob and Ana were still finding their way out. Also naturally, Rob's phone was out of euro again. Luckily, it costs him nothing to call me. Silly person that I am, I wanted to walk from the garage to the main bridge into the city. It was a longer walk than I realized (just under a mile) and with traffic and bridges it was going to be complicated. We took the people mover from Tronchetto to Piazzale Roma where we picked up a map of Venice and began our misguided journey.

Upon entering the city, we immediately found photogenic views and took advantage of them. We stopped almost immediately for lunch because it was about that time and all were hungry. While ordering our food, Ana made a friend. Such a small world we live in: one of the other customers happened to share very similar roots (they grew up in neighboring hometowns, I believe). We enjoyed our lunch and moved on towards the important sites knowing that our time was limited. Then we turned right. I knew where I was going until Rob started second-guessing me because I didn't keep faith in my knowledge and allowed his doubts to become my own. We found all kinds of things in the back alleys of Venice... like an Italian Army post, several schools, some trash and a lovely gentleman who was feeding pigeons and willing to give us good directions. From that point forward, Rob decided he was going to take point. He got us back on the right track just in time to come across a gondolier, prompting Ana to insist on taking a gondola ride...

While she negotiated a price with the gondolier, Rob investigated a super creepy looking beggar who was conveniently located on the street directly in front of the ATM that the gondoliers were sending customers to. He took several pictures of the person, but I think this is the best one because it almost looks like a black and white photo and it truly captures how you see them when you're walking through the city. Finally, the haggling and ogling were completed and we climbed into the gondola for our ride around the city. At this point, to be fair to my child (who is reading this over my shoulder), I need to state for the record that Felix was not at all excited about the gondola ride. In fact, he protested it quite loudly and profusely and was considerably upset when his protests were disregarded and he found himself in the boat with the rest of us. The not-so-gentle rocking did not at all help the situation. The first canal we headed into was wide and had a fair amount of traffic. Big motorized boats, even moving slowly, create a wake that is not pleasant to people in small, pole-guided boats. Poor Felix. Our gondolier was supposed to sing to us as part of the negotiated price, so he did for awhile... until Ana sang over him! He noted points of interest for us (I don't remember any of them) and showed us a place where the gondolas were being built. It was a nice little ride... COLD but nice.

Once the gondola ride was finished, we crossed the bridge, wound our way through a few more streets and headed into San Marco Square. There is a lot to see in the square and it's huge, so when you first step into it you really just want to stop and take it all in. So we did. As we headed toward the church, we noticed that it was pigeon feeding time. It looked to me like a grayish mist was hovering in one part of the piazza until we got a little closer, then everyone got excited. Ana and the boys got in the middle of things while I tried to get pictures of everyone without getting pooped on. I'm happy to report that my mission was a success! Felix especially enjoyed the whole experience and wanted to stay indefinitely. Once the birds were adequately fed, we moved further in so we could see the rest of the square and then get over to Rialto before we ran out of time to pick up Meghan. We were walking like maniacs trying to get to all the main points, but still actually see things on our way through (because what's the point of visiting if you don't actually see anything?!) knowing that we were on a deadline. We were on Rialto Bridge when my phone rang. Luckily, that was the last stop on our way back to the car. Unluckily, Venice is not an easy city to navigate quickly when you're in a group of more than two (in my opinion, anyway). There were still plenty of turns to make and bridges to cross to get back to the people mover, so we took the traditional pictures and Rob assured Meghan that we were on our way, then I began leading us out. This time, I did not second-guess myself even though Rob did several times. I was clear on the way out and I got us out. We got back to the car in record time and hauled it over to the airport, retrieved Meghan and headed home to eat and crash for the night. CJ and Kamryn were arriving the next day, then we were off on more adventures!