Our Trip to Italy - The Homework We Did!
Beginning is half done! That was what we felt when we booked our tickets. We weren't sure how the weather was going to pan out when we visit there. Thinking about it retrospectively, the usual issues that I think now should have alerted me did not even pop up in our minds when we started planning. The itenerary was finalized, Eurorail tickets were booked, museum tickets were pre-ordered and Airbnb stay was booked. The actual expense list grew exponentially, but we made up our minds and moved staedy ahead. One more thing: how am I going to manage a 7 and 4 year old for 11 days in a country that I am visiting for the first time. Never mind! I have a reliable and strong pillar by me - he is going to take care of us!
Shailesh spent hours after work, researching about the places to visit. He made a complete list of places to visit in a city. We read books on Italy. Opened up the map of Italy, and learned about its history and geography. We watched videoas on food in Italy, the diversity and ethnicity of Italians and so on. Shailesh downloaded audio tour guide apps on the iPad. The tour guides were functional even without internet. It had detailed descriptions of the paintings on the wall to the fine carvings on the dome of the Duomo. We began exploring and went reasonably deep into it to avoid any ignorance in us about the basic culture and history of the country we were visiting. We didn't want to be stranded. We learned how to greet in Italian and even learned to speak a few common phrases. Since Italian was derived from Latin, it was quite intuitive and easy to follow. For example, naturale acqua means natural water; solo acqua means only water. It was fun to relate and speak! Then, once again, this great realization came: Wow, English is a derived language!!
We bought a stroller for $10 for our 4 year old, pumped in lots of advice to both the peanuts: always stick to one of us, stand behind the yellow line in train stations, do not step onto the escalator without one of us, do not fight, do not whine, do not talk loudly, let us know ahead of time if you wanted to go to the rest room, greet people saying "bonjourno" when you make eye contact with people and so on. Yet, we displayed a few silly fights and pinching games to the Italians!!
Packing for 10 days was a bit challenging. My way of executing a task is to plan ahead mentally and decide what will work the best. I keep churning about it all day subconsciously, so when I actually sit to do a task, most of the times (50% - a great number with two brats) it works flawlessly. I kept the weather in mind, the vibrance and nature of the city in mind and chose clothes for the three of us. The head of the family is an exception here: "Don't care about me. I will take care of myself. Leave some space in the corner of the suitcase." I did two rounds of shopping online (wink! wink!), and made sure the packages arrived before he came home from work. I volunteered to pick kids and come home everyday for a few weeks before we started our journey. You see! We did one round of shopping in the nearby mall. I pulled out all the summer dresses, pressed them all and lined them up on the guestroom bed, so we can choose easily. I bundled up the dresses we plan to wear for a day for the three of us and wrapped them in gift wrappers and labelled them as "Day 1", "Day 2", etc. This was a lesson that I learned from our previous trips. I didn't want any mayhem in the morning, searching for what to wear. Honestly, it might appear as if I am making a big deal out of it, but if you step into my shoes, you will agree with me! This strategy of packing saved time and freed us of tension!
I have to mention about our tickets. We spent $400 per head for a round trip to Milan from Newark's EWR airport, which included the Amtrak train ticket from the 30th street station in Philadelphia to the airport. We started a day early to Philly to meet with our friends; Fun before fun!! Hema &Rahul, Sushma &Deepak and Devi & Rajesh are such great hosts that they ensured food along with fun. We had a tasteful mexican dinner the night before we left. It was a relishing gathering!! We continued talking past midnight and slept little. I woke up to the aroma of poori and allo subzi. My girl friends persuaded me to take methi parathas along, and they helped me prepare it. We left to the airport after eating uthappam and sambar. The feeling of warmth and care that the people around give us is the real wealth! I and Shailesh have earned it so far for what we are! Rahul and Deepak dropped us to the train station and bid a bye! Then set our journey!
We checked in, boarded the flight, and were waiting to wake up in Italy!
Shailesh spent hours after work, researching about the places to visit. He made a complete list of places to visit in a city. We read books on Italy. Opened up the map of Italy, and learned about its history and geography. We watched videoas on food in Italy, the diversity and ethnicity of Italians and so on. Shailesh downloaded audio tour guide apps on the iPad. The tour guides were functional even without internet. It had detailed descriptions of the paintings on the wall to the fine carvings on the dome of the Duomo. We began exploring and went reasonably deep into it to avoid any ignorance in us about the basic culture and history of the country we were visiting. We didn't want to be stranded. We learned how to greet in Italian and even learned to speak a few common phrases. Since Italian was derived from Latin, it was quite intuitive and easy to follow. For example, naturale acqua means natural water; solo acqua means only water. It was fun to relate and speak! Then, once again, this great realization came: Wow, English is a derived language!!
We bought a stroller for $10 for our 4 year old, pumped in lots of advice to both the peanuts: always stick to one of us, stand behind the yellow line in train stations, do not step onto the escalator without one of us, do not fight, do not whine, do not talk loudly, let us know ahead of time if you wanted to go to the rest room, greet people saying "bonjourno" when you make eye contact with people and so on. Yet, we displayed a few silly fights and pinching games to the Italians!!
Packing for 10 days was a bit challenging. My way of executing a task is to plan ahead mentally and decide what will work the best. I keep churning about it all day subconsciously, so when I actually sit to do a task, most of the times (50% - a great number with two brats) it works flawlessly. I kept the weather in mind, the vibrance and nature of the city in mind and chose clothes for the three of us. The head of the family is an exception here: "Don't care about me. I will take care of myself. Leave some space in the corner of the suitcase." I did two rounds of shopping online (wink! wink!), and made sure the packages arrived before he came home from work. I volunteered to pick kids and come home everyday for a few weeks before we started our journey. You see! We did one round of shopping in the nearby mall. I pulled out all the summer dresses, pressed them all and lined them up on the guestroom bed, so we can choose easily. I bundled up the dresses we plan to wear for a day for the three of us and wrapped them in gift wrappers and labelled them as "Day 1", "Day 2", etc. This was a lesson that I learned from our previous trips. I didn't want any mayhem in the morning, searching for what to wear. Honestly, it might appear as if I am making a big deal out of it, but if you step into my shoes, you will agree with me! This strategy of packing saved time and freed us of tension!
I have to mention about our tickets. We spent $400 per head for a round trip to Milan from Newark's EWR airport, which included the Amtrak train ticket from the 30th street station in Philadelphia to the airport. We started a day early to Philly to meet with our friends; Fun before fun!! Hema &Rahul, Sushma &Deepak and Devi & Rajesh are such great hosts that they ensured food along with fun. We had a tasteful mexican dinner the night before we left. It was a relishing gathering!! We continued talking past midnight and slept little. I woke up to the aroma of poori and allo subzi. My girl friends persuaded me to take methi parathas along, and they helped me prepare it. We left to the airport after eating uthappam and sambar. The feeling of warmth and care that the people around give us is the real wealth! I and Shailesh have earned it so far for what we are! Rahul and Deepak dropped us to the train station and bid a bye! Then set our journey!
We checked in, boarded the flight, and were waiting to wake up in Italy!
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