David, Lisa, Kayla, Isaac & Annika

I know I'm way behind on blogging.... sorry to keep these updates and pictures as ransom for so long! I'm going to post them in 4 different posts, one for each of the cities we visited. Then it won't take me even longer to get them online!

I feel like I can't really post about this vacation without spending a lot of time talking about how Kayla was on the trip. One of our biggest concerns about going to Italy was how she would handle things. We knew we would regret not going.... we were just hoping that we wouldn't go and regret it! I would not choose to take a sight-seeing vacation or take an international trip with a toddler. However, we didn't choose this trip out of the blue, the trip chose us. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to travel to Italy with David’s family and with tour guides who lived there for years and speaks the language fluently. Not to mention that Linda and Gianni basically took care of all of the details with transportation and hotel reservations and all for us. So, those are things we would never be able to do on our own. Plus obviously the whole reason for the trip was Nikki and Virginia’s wedding, which was an amazing experience in itself! So... anyway, I hope not to bog everyone down with details. If you just want to see pictures, look here, I won't be offended (although there are no shortage of pictures there)!! :)

We had our flight plan all figured out.... David and I would take a Tylenol PM to help us sleep on the plane ride, we would give Kayla some Benadryl to help her sleep on the plane (not that we ever drug ourselves or our child to sleep… but this was an extenuating circumstance), we would all get about 6 hours of sleep or so and when we got into Rome it would be 10:30am (6 hour time change) and we would just go with the flow and be a little tired but be adjusted to the new time zone. FAIL! We all did take our drugs, but the plane ride and food and movies and such was too exciting for Kayla.... she was awake until probably 11pm or so before she finally fell asleep.... for about 3 hours. Part of that time David was holding her, part of it I was holding her, and for part she was laying on both of us. The benefit to a child under 2 is she can sit in our lap and we only had to pay 10% of our ticket price for her to fly. The bad part is that she has to SIT on our laps.... for 9 hours. Well, yeah, that obviously didn't work out as nicely as we'd planned. David and I got maybe an hour of sleep, and that's optimistic. However, Kayla wasn't particularly crabby, so, go with the flow, right?! I had told myself before we went on this trip that I would do my best not to care about any sort of schedule for Kayla (not that I’m a slave to a schedule anyway, but still), considering I would just be setting myself up for disappointment. I told myself not to care if she slept or didn't sleep, napped or didn't nap, ate or didn’t eat, as long as she was in good spirits and wasn't crabby because of her tiredness. I am glad I had that attitude or the vacation would have been a disaster! After getting off of the plane, we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the Taylor's, however, we couldn't find them. With no phone, no knowledge of the area or what we were supposed to do, we camped all of our stuff and David went on a hunt! We found them after about 30 minutes and then quickly got on a 40 min train shuttle ride. When we got to the train station we then had a 4 hour train ride... Kayla napped only about an hour and David and I got little to no sleep... so I was quite worried about how things would be. However, if we could make it until bedtime, we knew we’d be exhausted but would have quickly adjusted to the new time zone.

When we got to Senigallia, Nikki met up with us and we brought our luggage to his new apartment/flat where we were staying. He and Virginia let all 9 of us stay in their new apartment where they haven't even lived yet! It was so sweet and so generous of them to let us do this. We were a little crammed in there, and 1 bathroom with 8 adults and a child was interesting at times. But it was really fun to all be together and we had a great time there!

After we got settled from our long trip, we all meet up for dinner. Virginia's father owns a rather fancy hotel, and her family treated about 25 or so of us to an amazing meal there in the hotel restaurant. We had some incredibly unique foods - and were absolutely stuffed by the end! The food just kept coming and coming and was so yummy! We had shrimp, calamari, muscles (I tried muscles for the first time and just LOVED them), pasta, salad, breads.... oh, and lots of wine! And then frozen coffee or lemon-cello dessert drinks to finish off the meal. Kayla was TIRED, and a bit of a terror (I was nervous she was going to disturb other guests), so she and Noah (2nd cousin of same age) played outside a little bit. We (the 3 of us) ended up leaving dinner a little early to get Kayla (and us) to bed! By the time we got home it was about midnight.... so we were running on very little sleep for a very long time! Kayla wouldn't even let me read a book or sing her a song or rub her back (actually, this was true almost the entire trip). She was just so exhausted that she was just begging to get in her crib and go to sleep!

About 2 hours after we'd all gone to sleep, David (apparently) was having a dream that he was living out and went and MOVED Kayla’s crib out of the way to get to the fridge, opened the door and pulled out a pitcher of water then immediately put it back and shut the door. Then he opened it again, studied it for a minute, then closed it again. Then he decided to open the bi-fold doors that we locked (instead of walking around) go to the bathroom... and then on his way back, he re-locked them! Kayla was woken by his initial movement of her in her crib, but he did not seem to notice! When he was done with his little escapades, he laid back down and was asleep again! He has never sleep walked before, so I was confused and frustrated by this! I was trying to get Kayla back to sleep, but after not succeeding at getting her back in her crib I woke David up to deal with her. We were all up for about an hour and a half before she finally settled back down, and then we slept for another 5 hours. So, only 7 hours of sleep for us all after a night where we got next to no sleep on our travels. To say we were tired would be quite the understatement. To say I was frustrated with David would also be an understatement! :) But he did redeem himself, by taking care of Kayla and getting her back to sleep!

Friday morning we went on a tour of the city. We went and visited a castle, went to see Nikki's restaurant/bar that he and some of his friends own, and then went to lunch.

Lunch was one of the more traumatic events for Kayla. She was ALL DONE with traveling. She was tired, she was cranky, she was very unhappy and hungry and letting everyone know about it! I was rather nervous that this was going to be a common trend on our trip, but it thankfully was one of just a few meltdowns (which given the circumstance I am considering a huge success). After eating a little food and getting out of that area, she was much better. We then all went to the beach and OH MY WORD does Kayla LOVE the beach. She ran immediately into the water, waves and all, and was just shrieking with happiness! She was really precious! And she has no fear. She ran through shells without complaining they hurt, she ran chest-high into the water without fear of anything! It was so much fun to watch her running and be having so much fun! And the water there was SO warm, it was amazing. As the tide came in it created a little tide pool that she and Noah enjoyed playing in too! At some point we realized that she was so exhausted that she was going to hit a wall shortly, so we decided to walk back to Nikki's place. We walked for maybe 1 minute and she was asleep on David's shoulder! She had a cookie in her hand, and I tried to take it away (after she was asleep) but she woke up and griped it harder! Silly girl. She slept for several hours once we got back to the apartment, so thankfully she finally got some good rest.

That evening at 8 we were meeting back at the hotel for "appetizers and cocktails" hosted by Virginia's family. We had some amazing, unique foods that were presented so beautifully. Kayla ate octopus (my child who won't eat pasta couldn't get enough of the octopus - whatever!)!! She did really well there too, not causing too much trouble, which I thought was a possibility. She had a pillow fight with David’s siblings and Nick and she also played with Noah. Also, there was some sort of festival going on where middle-school aged kids were all dressed up in costumes and were playing drums or tossing batons – it was quiet entertaining to watch them all!

After the cocktail time we all went back to the apartment and ordered some pizza (at like midnight!) and sat out on their patio and talked and had such a good time together. It really was fun to be spending some quality time with the Taylor's.

The next day was the wedding and one of my favorite days of the whole trip. We traveled by bus to the church. I brought stickers for Kayla to play with and she did and was more or less very quiet throughout the hour long ceremony. She was extremely interested in all of the music that was being played and was always a bit sad ("more?") when it was done. But we were thankful that she was so well behaved during that part. The ceremony was obviously all in Italian so we didn’t understand anything they were saying! But it was a beautiful service and both Nikki and Virginia looked very happy.

After the ceremony we were bused to the reception site which was just amazing. The grounds were stunning – with garden’s and flowers and stonework. And the food was absolutely amazing. I have never seen so much food in my entire life.... seriously. We started off with appetizers and cocktails. There had to be at least 50 different kinds of unique things that were all presented in such a beautiful way. And then waiters were carrying around more trays! I could easily have filled myself on those alone (and clearly David ate his weight in food this day!). After at least an hour or two of this, we were seated for the main meal. This was a 5-course dinner... including risotto, salad, meat, seafood filled ravioli and something else! The waiters came by with a bowl full of food and you would tell them how much of it you wanted... then they came back shortly to see if you wanted a refill. Kayla and Noah weren't so interested in sitting (or eating) so we had them go and play together under our table. When they got bored, we gave them packages of breadsticks to try and open... and the mess that ensued, well.... it was worth it anyway! It bought us some peace for a little while!

Then came the cake and served with the cake were these fruit filled Italian ice type things which were delicious. Then shortly thereafter were the desserts - these tasty pastries, maybe 15 different kinds per tray. And of course the waiters are just circling around you, tempting you! Then they opened the cheese table, with maybe 5-10 types of cheese... and breads, crackers etc to go with it. And then was the fruit table. Then the nut table. Then they opened up a crepe station. Then the cookie/cake type things. Then the gelato bar (Italian form of ice cream). Then they started up the grill and went back to appetizers. It was just amazing. Like I said, I have never seen so much food in my life! We were there for probably 8 hours and ate during most of that time. Oh - did I mention the wine and other drinks? They were plentiful :) They had this peach juice that was delicious – we probably went through several bottles of that alone! They had a live band and Kayla was mesmerized by the music. She would just stare at the band and then twirl and twirl until she was too dizzy to continue!

About 9pm we headed back on the bus. Both Kayla and Noah took their turns singing into the microphone on the bus! Kayla is quite a little attention hog! When we tried to take it away she immediately started singing again and turned her back on us so we couldn't get to it - it was pretty funny! We got back to the apartment and changed, then headed to the beach for the "after-party".... where there was MORE food! They were grilling sausage sandwiches and had lots of drinks. David and I went for a walk on the beach while Kayla and Noah were playing in the play houses on the beach. We finally headed home about midnight in utter exhaustion.

While getting ready for bed we had an incident with the power to the apartment. Someone was plugging a camera battery into the convertor and somehow one of the other plugs came out and the bottom line is that we lost power. And we couldn't find the breaker box in the dark, so we decided to wait until the morning. The only problem with that is that we had brought along a white noise machine which Kayla sleeps with at nights. Since the apartment is downtown and businesses start opening and making a lot of noise very early, and since at that point it was light outside (and therefore inside), we were worried she would wake up early. And she did. At 6am. After just 6 hours of sleep for her, and less for all of us. Mom Taylor bailed us out and she took Kayla in bed with her for awhile, but after it was clear Kayla wasn't interested in lying down, she took her on a walk. Kayla fell back asleep for awhile, and thankfully David and I got to sleep in and finally catch up on some sleep. Without a good night’s rest that night after so many short nights we would have been dragging the rest of the vacation, so we were extremely thankful to Mom Taylor for taking Kayla off our hands and letting us sleep!

This day was our last day in Senigallia and it was just a relax day. We ate lunch at Nikki's restaurant and then went back to the beach. Kayla again had a blast in the ocean. We were there for hours and she was living it up. At some point we could tell she was exhausted so I took the stroller and went on a walk with her. She fell asleep almost immediately and then we all chatted at the beach until it was time to go.

For dinner that last night Nikki's family treated us all to dinner. It was another amazing 5 course meal with muscles, pasta and seafood, risotto and a yummy desserts too. After dinner Kayla and Noah played on some rides and we all did a little dancing. Then a few of us went back early to get Kayla to bed and then finish packing up. We had to be up for an early 4 hour train ride to Rome.

One of my biggest observations of our time in Senigallia was the generosity of people. I was absolutely blown away by the generosity of everyone. To Nikki and Virginia - thank you so much for inviting us to your wedding, to treating us to so many amazing experiences, and to give up your place to all of us while we were there. And to their families - thank you for all of the amazing meals you treated us to. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us and we just had a blast. After leaving Senigallia we visited 3 other famous cities (more entries to follow), but I think we both will treasure our time in Senigallia more than any other part of the trip. We are so thankful for the generosity people extended to us to make it such a wonderful time.