Leonetti Italian Road Trip
Agosto 2011
Roma, Perugia e Genova
Avalon arrived from STR we jetted up to Malpensa from Serole, after having a great beach day, then we ferried him back to the vacay house....his 1st time ever!!!  Day 1 In the car on the way to Rome, the unused Olympic park in Rome, per Av's request to take pictures of Fascist statues, why would anyone else want to go to this place?
The Vatican Museum, still day 1. We have been to all these places before but Av wanted to revisit and we were just happy to have a vacation together as a family. Usually Av' comes to Italy and we stay at our house, or we go up to Germany and I work.

While we were there - there were a ton I mean a TON of tourists and Americans.Duh. Some horrible nasty looking American teenagers shoved past us and said really loudly, "EXCUSE ME!" You are in Italy, can you even try to speak Italian? Plus the shoving? So I broke my ankle catching up to them where they were sitting outside and said loudly, "CHE SCHIFOSO!!!" Avalon giggled and called them something they would understand. Shame on you, you nasty cracks contributing to the poor image of Americans.
Still day 1 Il Colesseo (we covered a lot of ground)
Below right ~ Let's go back to 1999... (Av' 10 and Zaven 18 months - no that isn't Adam Sandler) We wanted to re enact this picture - Joe paid the gladiators to pose with Zaven, but Zaven sped walked away and was not going to pose even when the galdiator yelled, "HEY STOP!" I was in hysterics and trying to catch up with Z afraid he would get lost in Rome, become a street kid and be raised by gypsies because he didn't have his phone with him. Below below left: If you look to the left, over Zaven's shoulder, you can see the tiny gladiators pre photo stalking... and then just below left Av's photo of Zaven being highly annoyed, but still a good sport, didn't leave us for a life of pick pocketing tourists on the Rome metro.
Day 1 - Below Rome Metro. PS - it is by far the most disgusting metro I have ever seen. Broken down, old, dirty, escaltors don't work, smelly, crowded...but it does gets you from point A to point B faster than walking.
Right: St. Peter's stroll after dinner. Because we just hadn't walked enough.
Below right: Zaven with his hand in the Mouth of Truth - he still has his hand so he must be telling the truth.
Day 2 - finally - Perugia! What a cute and friendly town...known for it's chocolate and Amanda and that it is on top of a hill. In addition to the many many stairs they have installed many escalators, so we decided to just ride up and down pre yummy Umbrian dinner.
Yes, in every picture in Perugia Joe and Av are drinking beer. I think to take the edge off of me saying, "Let's stop and take a picture." Which means finding a flat surface for the camera and setting the self timer and making sure that the new fangled camera is on the right setting. You can tell Avalon's photos as they are of professional quality - vs. mine which means weird angles, teetering on a garbage can and hoping it doesn't fall and that no one walks in front of the camera.

On the way home we stopped at the outlets outside of Firenze. I didn't score any Prada 50 euro flats, like the last time, but a few Furla and Burberry scarves - ps the Furla outlet is great, but I wasn't in 'need' of a new purse. We went back to Serole - Day 3 ~ had a day of rest (w/o being in the car), sleeping (the boys) running (Joe and I) and BBQ'ing - it was sublime - well for me because I was with my family in my favorite place. Day 4 ~ Right: Genova, another Avalon trip to Cimitero Staglieno - I won't even begin to try and explain my boys passion for photo taking of statues (vs. real people). I will let the photos & his talent do the talking THE AVALON SAYS MOO
Baci was so nice to share his couch with Avalon. The neigbors were thrilled to finally meet Avalon, they said, "He looks like you and Joe," and I had to correct them and say he looks exactly like Omar, my dad, except way taller. We had such a great vacation together! I was  proud of Av being able to live without internet or phone connection in Serole and not kill our buzz about it - I am plotting our Christmas up there.  We were sad to take Av back to Malpensa, but he had to head back for work before school starts again.
The next day we had a big Ferragosto (always a highlight) blow out with the neighbors, tons of people, food and vino before we came back to Pavia, the crazy heat and mosquitos,, such a nice way to end our vacation.