We are nearing the end of my Italy posts.  Maybe you are all ready to move on but I am not.  Looking at the photos from our trip I can’t help but be nostalgic so you will have to bear with me on my last few Italy posts.

And since I love lists and am missing Italy here are my top 10 things I loved about our trip to Italy.

1. I loved being together as a family all the time for three weeks straight. Yes, sometimes the kids drove me nuts and sometimes I missed my alone time but I still loved every minute of being all together and getting to share new experiences as a family.

2. Watching Adam and Malcolm spend so much time together and becoming so close.

3. I loved watching Malcolm learn so many new words on this trip. But my favorite by far was watching Malcolm saying Ciao Bella to an Italian grandma.

4. Watching Adam learn how not to be scared of big waves and how to really enjoy the beach.

5. Watching Adam and Malcolm spend time with Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj is always special. It’s hard to tell who loves who more!

6. I loved watching Adam and Malcolm with Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj, but we also loved spending all that time with them. Every night when the boys went to bed we would all hang out on the balcony and have the best time! There is even some video footage….but don’t worry Uncle Nooj and Randy no one needs to see you slow dancing with mosquito candles.

7.  Food and wine! As good as they say and better.

Even Adam and Malcolm appreciated the food.

8. Running. For the first vacation ever I managed to get up and run every day. It not only made me feel better about eating all the pasta in Italy but I had the opportunity to see some beautiful views every morning.

9. This right here. We go out for dinner and end up playing pinball for bouncy balls.

10. This!

And here is where the real fun starts- Adam figured out how to put funny faces on his photos.

Yes people, we’re still on Italy. In the real world Grandma Gertch is visiting and the boys are loving every second of it. Lots more coming up on that! I also had the opportunity to arrange a press conference for Secretary Kerry. Full circle people! My second day of work at the embassy, when I was 7 months pregnant with Malcolm, I was asked to help with the Secretary’s motorcade when he visited Manila and now he’s back and I had the opportunity to set up the press conference. Pretty big honor!

But in the meantime on to beautiful Matera. When Randy told me he wanted to go to yet another Italian town, one that was over an hour away I was not convinced. But when Daphne also wanted to go see Matera I was convinced.

When we arrived to Matera this scene was the first I saw and I knew right away I had made the right decision. Ok, maybe Randy made the right decision but I went along with it.

We headed to lunch first. There were some whines but luckily for you all there is no photographic evidence of that.

After lunch we headed off for our tour that we signed up for.  The tour guide was late so we amused ourselves with ice-cream.

When our tour guide finally showed he was….not the best, so we just went ahead and amused ourselves. Thankfully Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj were around to do some excellent amusing!

 Little photographer taking pictures behind.

Just when we thought the tour was over and we had seen all the beautiful sights there was, we went down some stairs and through a tunnel and were facing the most beautiful view I had seen the entire time we were in Italy.

We missed the boys terribly and had no fun. We did not shop at all….

We did not walk around a super cute town…..

We did not pick our noses while we waited for them….

We didn’t have any fun drinks…

We didn’t eat any yummy food or wine…..

or pizza….

We didn’t take any cute pictures…

or try on Aunt Das’ sunglasses….

Basically, we had zero fun…

Ok, maybe a little!

But don’t worry. The boys did not starve on the side of the road! They actually got the tire fixed pretty quickly and were soon joined us for some yummy eggplant parm and pizza!

We left our amazing house in Galantina and headed over to northern Puglia by Fasano where we would be spending the next week with Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj. That’s right, Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj flew all the way to Italy to be with us for a whole week. But first we had to pack all of our clothes, our wine, our food and two kids with all of their paraphanelia and kinder egg toy collection that had grown quite large! Thankfully I’m an expert packer. So we had tons of room left over for the groceries we had to buy for dinner before we left. How about we pause here for a minute to discuss how siestas in Italy are NO JOKE! All stores close from 1-5 so for us to start cooking dinner at 5 we needed to get to the store in the morning. So we did and we shoved our grocery bag right up there on top of the suitcase, purse and computer bag. Like I said, tons of room!

But enough rambling! Back to Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj who were delayed on their way out of New York so we all expected them to miss their connection, but the Jordans came through and transferred planes 15 minutes before the plane took off. Everyone was so excited they made it!

Randy made us all a wonderful chicken cacciatore for dinner!

A lot of fun times were had out on this deck.

Not a bad place to watch the sun set!

There was even a beautiful outdoor area to eat dinner full of lavender. The boys were excited to try to catch all the butterflies flying around. Unfortunately bumblebees also lived in the lavender but the boys didn’t care and miraculously no one got stung all week.

Uncle Nooj’s sister, Christine came and spent the weekend with us too. She was working in Milan for work so it was an easy trip for her to come join us. The boys were so happy to have so many people playing with them!

For the Jordan’s first day in Italy we went to an amazing farm called Masseria Il Frantoio. We settled in for a nice light 8 course Italian meal.

Some of us fell asleep before the meal even started.

A good 20 minutes was spent watching construction workers use a rope and pully to pull buckets full of supplies up to a second floor window, the simplest things really do amuse these two.  What i love about vacation is that we have all the time in the world to let them watch for 20 minutes if they want.

NIGHT

 

First course- a pumpkin and ricotta souffle. As delicious as it sounds. A note here about Italian food, they really care about food. They get flavors and they pay attention to details. For example, ricotta. I’m sure everyone at some point has had ricotta. But in Italy, ricotta is so delicate and sweet and delicious that I would just eat bowls of it for breakfast. The fruit and vegetables are so fresh and taste so amazing! When you go to the supermarket you have to wear a plastic glove to pick fruit or you will be instructed to put that glove on!

Second course, delicious pasta with eggplant, burratta, meat and tomatoes.This was the favorite. The flavors were perfect together. I don’t even know the name of the pasta. There were so many pastas in Italy I had never even seen before, and I’ve eaten A LOT of pasta in my days.

Next course was another delicious pasta, orechiette with donkey meat. Don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it! It was absolutely delicious. I actually didn’t know it was donkey meat while I was eating it, maybe that helped. It just tasted delicious.

Palette cleanser came next, a cucumber that was so sweet it tasted like a melon. These two gobbled it up and asked for another. I can’t believe a cucumber could taste so amazing.

Next course was the protein course. Usually by this course in a tasting menu I am too full to eat anything, let alone a lamb chop. Well, this lamb chop was the most delicious parmesan encrusted lamb chop I have ever tasted. I ate the whole thing and would have eaten more.

This was added to our short list of places to return to! We were going to be staying near here with Daphne and MJ so we planned to return! 

The waiter brought out the fish and Adam and Malcolm picked out their very own fish.

The adults got to pick out their own rose.

The boys cuddled the entire time and finished every last bite of their fish.

Our food came and it was delicious!

After lunch we all walked around and everyone was in a great mood.

After that we headed back to the Turkish beach where Adam even caught a lizard! He was so excited and so surprised and yet he didn’t let go of that lizard. He held onto him even when that little lizard started squirming around and trying to get away.  Eventually though he let that little guy go back into the rocks. We all headed down to the beach and had a great couple of hours playing in the sand and the water.

2. A yummy breakfast where Malcolm explaining how the many hands he insisted on tracing on his card are his and daddy’s hands are the best morning for him.

 3. Even though the rice and lemon cake the boys and I made Randy didn’t turn out as well as we planned, Randy had two slices and insisted it was one of the best he’s ever had.

4.  Without me even asking, he posed like Giada with his father’s day cake.

 5. He loves his children for their individuality and never pressures them to be anything other than who they are.

 6. He loves children more than anything and loves watching them explore life and discover new places in the world.

 7. He is incredibly good looking.  Come on, this one is a given.

8. Even when not in the mood, and even on fathers day- when there is an antique market in the little Italian town you are staying in – he will not mind one bit when you want to walk up and down every bit of the market.

9. He always knows exactly which food and wine to order.

10. He loves his family endlessly.

Happy Festa del Papa to all the wonderful fathers out there! 

While it may look like we all love pictures, I am in fact the only one who loves taking pictures. It often takes a kinderegg or some treat to bribe these two to take a picture with me and a glass of Primitivo for Randy to take it, but i always get my picture…..even if it sometimes looks like this.

Adam and Malcolm are loving Italian food. I have never seen Adam eat as much as he has this trip. He has been taking down gelatos, fish, pizza, steak, nectarines, even sandwiches. Malcolm, who always eats well has been eating but for once Adam is eating him under the table every time.

These two are  also obsessed with acqua frizzante or ‘spicy water’ as its known in the Ali home and of course this must be accompanied with multiple cheers. I am jinxing myself, but these two have yet to break a little wine glass (as Adam calls these glasses) yet.

While Randy and I have had amazing tomatoes here at every meal, both boys have stayed true to their hatred of tomatoes. One day they will regret the pounds of tomatoes they could have eaten here and didn’t. But do not fear, Randy and I have eaten our pound and their pound. Oh, and we’ve also eaten their pounds of Riccota and Mozzarella cheese as well.

This one has been speaking up a storm in Italy and is all of a sudden saying so much!

And here are a few new favorite words of Malcolm’s:

“Ok, deal” This is said on repeat when we are asking him to do something he shouldn’t be doing (like not run) and he says ‘ok, deal’ and  then continues to do whatever it was he was doing. His assumption is that by saying, ok, deal- that is enough and he can now ignore us and go about his merry way.

“This way” Also said on repeat when we are not going the direction he wants to go. Followed by him standing in one spot and not moving until we renegotiate our course of direction.

“Me too”  Also said on repeat when he is not given a treat quick enough after Adam has been given one.

“Ewwww, ucky” This one is pretty cute and pretty accurate, said in reference to garbage cans, dirty diapers and any food that he is not in the mood to eat at that moment.

“Yellow butterfly” and “Yellow cake” These are Malcolm’s two standbys. Whenever he is not being paid enough attention he will say mommy and daddy, until we stop and listen and then he will proudly proclaim – Yellow Butterfly.

“Ciao bella” This is a new one and is SO cute. Everyone here loves hearing Malcolm say this.

“Pineapple” Said to correctly identify a pineapple but also to incorrectly identify a pine cone. He then proceeds to get angry when you correct him and tell him it’s a pine cone and he insists it is in fact a pineapple.

While these two fight often over very important matters like who will get to hold the flashlight first seeing them spend all this time together and learn to play together and love each other even more has been amazing! And they really do play together so well. They hunt for lizards together, play at the beach together and spend loads of time in the car amusing each other.

Today at the beach there were a bunch of older boys playing volleyball in the water. Adam was watching them and I turned to him and said, one day that will be Adam and you and your friends. He thought about it for a moment and got excited and said yes. I also got excited thinking about these two little things traveling around Europe together experiencing this all again together as adults. For now though, I’ll enjoy them just as they are, my tomato hating, flashlight loving, trouble making little boys.