Vico Equense and Sorrento

For the next part of our vacation I had originally wanted to stay on the Amalfi Coast. I found finding a place to stay that had all the amenities we wanted in a price range I didn't find outrageous challenging, so we instead stayed on the Sorrentine coast in the little town of Vico Equense.

We enjoyed that Vico Equense has very few tourists, is quiet and doesn't have hot tourist town prices. We spent our time in Vico relaxing at the pool and beach and walking to the local little shops for our favorite treats.

The whole town is situated on cliffs over the sea, including this little church. 

Italy seems to have very few beaches. It is mostly cliffs dropping straight into the sea. Our hotel though, had a small one we enjoyed. I introduced Anya to the hobby of sea glass collecting on a previous trip. Looking for sea glass is now one of her favorite things to do at the beach.

Vico Equense is a short - maybe ten minute? - train ride away from the larger, more touristy town of Sorrento.

Mike and I were so happy with this seaside restaurant we found in Sorrento called Trattoria Da Emilia. Besides that the food was great, our table was on this little patio overlooking the tide pools of this pretty harbor.

 Another view of the harbor.

This harbor was our favorite part of Sorrento. It felt quiet and authentic, while the rest of Sorrento is very busy with tourists and tourist shops.

We had such relaxing days in our time in Vico Equense and Sorrento.

Rome

A bonus of living in England is that you can take trips to other countries for the same cost as a trip to a neighboring state in the U.S. We used the latest half-term break from school as a chance to visit southern Italy. First stop: Rome.

The first time I went to Rome I of course enjoyed it, but it was also just a little bit of a let-down. I was expecting 1950's movie set Rome, a la Roman Holiday, and instead found it was intensely crowded, hot, and sometimes dirty. This time, going with different expectations, I was impressed by how beautiful and grand a city it is.

Anya liked the legend of Trevi Fountain. She threw four coins, just to be sure she'll return someday.

We mostly brought our girls to Rome to see the Forum and the Coliseum. We were advised to buy tickets at the short line going into the Forum instead of the monstrous line at the Coliseum, which proved to be good advice. 

One thing I wish we'd done differently is get up and go when it opened at 8:30. By the time we'd finished wandering around the Forum and made it over the Coliseum, the girls were hot and tired. They were excited to see it, but weren't up for spending extensive time for a more in-depth tour.

Mike discovered that Rome from 6 to 9 or 10 in the morning is a very quiet place on the weekends. If you're looking for a Roman Holiday experience, that's the time to be out wandering.

I love the contrasts of Rome: tiny stone streets too narrow for cars leading to grand piazzas.

Stone sculptures and fountains are everywhere in Rome.

This is the view of the Pantheon early Sunday morning, pre-crowds. 

Same spot, with the crowds of early evening.

This is a view of St. Peter's Basilica from across the river.

Looking out at Rome from the river it seems like such a sleepy place. 

Most restaurants in Italy are closed in between lunch and dinner. Instead of hovering outside the door waiting for the restaurant to open for dinner, we kicked back at this local park.

Our girls were such good diners in Italy. They liked the bread, pizza, pasta, salami, some of the cheeses, pastries and gelato. You might think, "Of course - who wouldn't?" My girls tend to take food pickiness to new levels, so I wasn't at all confident they'd enjoy it until I saw for myself.

Our time in Rome was very short, but I think we covered the parts my girls would most enjoy. Someday they might wonder how they went to Rome and didn't manage to see the Sistine Chapel or any museums, but if the Trevi Fountain legend is true, they'll be back again someday to see more.

Lucky

I hope everyone's hometown has something about it that induces moments you just want to pinch yourself and say, "I can't believe I'm so lucky that I get to live here." In Seattle one is driving along on a sunny day and reaching a spot where you can see the snow-capped Olympics on one side, the Cascade range on the other, majestic Mount Rainier in front of you, with a smattering of sparkling lakes  and evergreens thrown in for good measure. Of course in San Diego it's walking along the beach on yet another day of perfect weather. Nantes was all about the food - the bakery, the patisserie, the market. Some places I've lived I'd have to reach a little farther than others, but everyplace I've been lucky enough to live has something special.

In Cambridge, I have two almost daily experiences that just make me smile to myself and wonder how it is possible that I can possibly get to live here. 

One is the the bike route that Anya and I take to get to and from her school. It's just so perfect that I'm thankful for it almost every day. I say "almost," because if I'm being honest, there's been one or two days of cold, wind, and torrential rain where I don't think I paused to be grateful. Just about every other day though, it's such a pleasure. 

This picture was taken back last fall. 

It even has cows grazing along the way! I just think when I'm back in my suburban Californian town and looking back on this life I'm going to be amazed that our commute involved paths running through cow pastures. These are actually cows in a field across town, but the cows we pass look just as happy and picturesque. 

My other moment of almost daily happiness is walking down streets like this to do my errands. I have a chore to do, like going to the market or the library, and this is how I get there! One time with Anya I was in the middle of a little rhapsody on the beauty of Cambridge streets when she expressed her preference for California highways and SUVs. To each her own I suppose. What's special for you about where you get to live?

Yellow: What I'm Seeing Now

Everywhere you go in England in April and May- well, everywhere I've gone - the countryside is a patchwork of green and yellow. The yellow is a crop called oilseed rape.

I've heard it described as a "love it or you hate it" plant. I love yellow, so I like seeing the squares of yellow fields all over. I'm not sure why people hate it. Allergies? Don't like yellow? Don't want the landscape of green fields interrupted? 

I just thought I'd share what England looks like right now from the train window or driving down the dual carriageway (that's "highway" for you American folks).

London in the Springtime

There's a concentration of official holidays in England in April and May. For the latest one we headed to London again to right a wrong: we had not yet taken our kids to see the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

Some people call this experience overrated - too much waiting, too many crowds. And it's true you won't be the only one there. 

But where else can you find such a concentration of English pomp and circumstance in such a short amount of time? And for free? There's the uniforms, the horses, the music, the guards calling out, the marching - all with Buckingham Palace with its famous balcony for a backdrop.

I didn't know what my kids would think, because they're not fond of crowds and waiting, but they loved it. Not in any particular order, here's what they've loved in London: Tower of London, open-top bus tour (Camille), checking out the street performers around Covent Garden (Anya), Harrods browsing and ice cream, seeing London musicals, riding the London Eye and Changing of the Guard. If you count the Harry Potter WB Tour as being in London, then that would definitely be on the list too. And getting American fast food, but that's just kind of sad.

Is there anything nicer to do on a warm, springy day than sit in the sun in a park eating ice cream? Green Park is right next to Buckingham Palace.

Next, I decided it was the perfect day to check out Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens is huge. We walked miles just seeing a small part of it. The top thing I wanted to see was the treetop walkway. It's 118 steps up into the treetops.

Besides being up in the trees, there's pretty views toward the greenhouse and other parts of the gardens.

Anya loves thrills and heights. Camille, not so much. She still enjoyed the treetop walk though, even with the feel of the walkway swaying lightly in the wind.

I always pictured Kew Gardens as very structured, English-style walled gardens. It's possible there's parts that are like that, but not the parts we saw. Despite that I'm sure it was all planned, it feels like wandering in a beautiful, natural wilderness.

My girls would have liked to make it to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. That isn't going to happen, so as a consolation prize Mike had Camille take this silly picture at Kew (instead of the traditional holding up the Leaning Tower picture that everyone takes in Pisa).

The traditional "fighting over not letting my sister give me bunny ears" pose. What age do kids outgrow that? We have a version of this picture at about every place we've ever been.

Just more pretty garden scenes.

The famous saying about London is, "Tired of London, tired of life." It's so true! There's endless things to do in London. With all our time there, I'll still open guide books and find we haven't even seen everything on the must-see in London list. We had a great day checking out two more experiences though.

Kenwood

Many historical homes, grounds, or archeological sites in England are owned by either the National Trust or English Heritage. Each of the organizations has a yearly pass that allows admittance to all their sites, which is a good deal when you're planning on doing a lot of travel and seeing as much as possible. Of course, just about every site has a gift shop and the first one we entered Anya spotted this Monopoly: English Heritage game. I groaned inside and steered her away from it, because Monopoly is not my favorite game in the world. She did not forget it though, and ended up buying it with her own money a few trips later. I'm actually so glad she did. I still don't like Monopoly, but what I do like is that each of the properties is an English Heritage site. It's gotten her excited about outings so much more than talk of beautiful grounds or historically significant houses ever could.  

This is all just to say that Anya was actually the instigator of this little outing to Kenwood House. It's a beautiful country home on beautiful grounds just outside London. It would be a great outing for someone traveling to only London who wanted to get an idea of the English country estate experience.  

This was one of our favorite country estate outings. I'm not sure if it's because the grounds and estate are qualitatively better than others, or if it's because my girls were happy to be along, it was a beautiful spring day and the weather was perfect. 

From the house there's a slope of grass that leads down to a little lake. From there, there's all kinds of walking trails to explore.

We encountered a cute little bird family and this unusual bird. Some kind of a fancy duck?

There's lots of great places for lounging on the grass on a sunny day.

Flowers were blooming all over the grounds, especially the rhododendrons and azaleas - reminding me of my home town Seattle. Kenwood House was a great way to spend a sunny Bank Holiday in April.