Day 60 The Art of Doing Nothing

The sun was shining bright again this morning!  We were a little slow in getting going today, but sometimes that is okay!  We had been hopping around Italy like desperate tourist trying to see it all.  Truth is we are desperate tourists trying to see it all!  Traveling is like a gift…everyday is a surprise waiting to happen.  After a bit, it becomes addicting!  You want to see more and more and more (that reminds me of one of Reid’s favorite books as a child “More More Said the Baby”) and I guess that describes us “More More Said The Travelers”! There are so many amazing places, we can never conquer them all on one trip…but gosh darn it we are going to try…just not today!

We spent the morning doing some school work…Reid’s favorite thing :-)!  Homeschooling is actually an interesting thing for me!  As a teacher for so many years, you have a classroom full of students that you are working with each day.  I would try to make sure that I connected with each of my students on a daily basis, but let’s face it some students have your attention more than others (in good ways and bad)…and then there are so many others things to take your time and attention that at times it felt like my students were last on my list (that was not my choosing!)… this is another tangent entirely!  But honestly, if you are not a teacher you may not understand all the directions a teacher gets pulled in during the day…duty, parents, staff meetings, committee meetings, colleague meetings, district meetings…it can be exhausting!  As my son’s teacher, I am totally focused on him. I can focus on him and on his learning!  I know what his strengths are…where he needs more support…and luckily I have some skills to help.  The tricky things about homeschooling on a trip like this are many.  How do you balance sight seeing and schooling?  How do you teach when you are not using any books?  How do I make sure that I teach him all he needs to know?  And of course, how the hell am I going to teach 5th grade math?  Luckily, I have a lot of resources…many helpful and supportive teachers around me…mostly my sister Melissa who is an amazing and gifted teacher who is willing to help her dorky little sister figure it all out!  So fingers crossed Reid will be just where her needs to be when we get back.  The truth is, he is a pretty bright kid who loves to read!  He reads a book about every other day…it has cost us a small fortune on Kindle…but it is worthy every penny!

In the afternoon,  we decided to explore the town a bit…it really doesn’t take too long to explore the town…literally like 5 minutes! This was the perfect outing for us! There are tiny little streets that lead you around this little gem of a town!  The best part is you seriously feel like you are in a little Italian village!  There are little old Italian ladies carrying grocery bags at every turn…there are men “working” on things (and that usually means they are standing in a group speaking in a seriously animated way..and almost always someone is smoking)… cats and dogs are around every bend just hanging out… it is awesome!

We decided to walk down to the cove below the town.  It is a beautiful little spot!  Surrounded by cliffs, there is a little tucked away  area that looks like it would be a great swimming spot in the summer, and there is also a small area for small fishing boats.  The water is clear and blue….you can see forever when you look into it!  I can only imagine what it must be like here in the summer time!  I am sure that it is filled with swimmers and sun worshipers galore! Of course the trip down to the cove requires going down steps…a lot of them!  Why oh why??  It was kind of funny to see us hobble our way down the steps…and the way back up??  Ha!  Why were we hobbling?  Oh that’s right…we went on a 10 km walk yesterday… So on our way back to town, we stopped several times to take in the view…yes it was beautiful…but not so much that we needed to stop every 10 steps.  Needless to say it was a leisurely stroll back up!

After our trip to the old swimmin’ hole, we headed back up into town!  We went to Cristiana’s little cafe and got a coffee and a brioche!  The best part about the cafe is that it seems to be a hang out for the locals!  So fun to watch old Italian men chatting it up together!  Who knows what they are saying…I just know they say it so well! Next, we went to check out the grocery store in town.  This tiny little store had the basics of what you need, but honestly it is about as big as my closet!  It did have lots of wine and some fantastic homemade pesto…but we decided that it was not nearly as good as my sister Jen’s!  I think it is only open about 5 minutes a day…no seriously it opens when the store owner gets there and it closes when he leaves…classic Italy!

We spent the rest of the day sunning on the balcony, doing a bit of laundry so we could hang it out to dry like real Italians do, and playing cards.  Tough day for sure!  There is something about the slow pace here, something that takes you in a bit and makes you feel like you too can become a master at “the art of doing nothing”…that really is a saying in Italian…just don’t ask me to translate!