amici

I must admit that I was a little worried about bringing Holden to Italy - where he had no friends, no family except for Dave and me, and didn't speak or understand the language at all.  I knew it would be a difficult adjustment for all of us, but also knew it would potentially provide invaluable experiences for us all.  And while it is extremely difficult for me to be away from my family for so long (I miss everyone, especially my mom so badly) I knew that four months in a totally new and strange environment would definitely be a manageable amount of time.  At three and a half, I wasn't sure how easily Holden would adapt or make new friends.  But it's funny how children behave and how they perceive the world around them.  I suppose since he didn't see Dave or me worrying or acting anxious about moving to Genova and since we always talked about it in an exciting and positive tone, maybe Holden felt that he didn't really have anything to worry about.  So far, he has been making so many friends.  Every time we are at a park or playground Holden finds someone to play with.  

playing soccer at Spianata Castelleto

Its amazing how children are hardly aware of the language barrier.  Often, Holden will ask me what a sign says and I will reply "I don't know, I can't read the Italian" and he replies "You are like me now because I can't read signs either".  When we are in a piazza or a park he often finds a friend to play with and they talk to each other, he in English, they in Italian and they run around and play together and sometimes I have to tell the child he doesn't understand them because he doesn't speak Italian, but most times, the language barrier is not that evident and they can deduce from each other's actions what they are playing and what the rules of the game are and they play together harmoniously without needing to understand but just enjoying each other.

I was told that Holden would be treated very well in Italy since Italians generally love children and the Italians in the villa are no exception.  His new best friend is Giudi, our tour guide.  He walks up front with her on the tours leading the class around and won't let me get too close.  

Holden and Giudi

Holden and Giudi leading the students on a tour of Chiesa San Lorenzo

He also really loves Christina, the cook.  He spends much of the mornings helping her prepare lunch. And he even tries some unusual foods just because he helped her cook them, like octopus salad and beet green fritatta.  

lunch with the Italians

After lunch, he helps Fabrizio (the gardener, who also used to be  professional soccer player) or Giudi make coffee for all the Italians, and he loves to blow kisses (baci) to Lucia (the housekeeper).  Fabrizio and Lucia gave Holden a bike on Friday after lunch.  He was ecstatic!

Holden's new bike

Silvia, who is the director of the villa, is constantly teaching him Italian.  So villa life it pretty good; we have a cook, a housekeeper, and a gardener.  The villa and its views are beautiful.  The garden is full of fruit trees and even has a pond full of fish and turtles that Holden feeds his apple peels in the afternoons.  We also have our own private garden that we often use for eating breakfast and playing soccer.

our private garden

soccer on the terrace

view of the sea from the main garden

view of our garden from the terrace 

view of studio from the terrace

view of surrounding villas

Holden with a lizard in the garden

And living with the students isn't too bad.  They are generally pretty respectful and they love Holden as well and provide him with lots of entertainment.

playing guitar with one of the students

In addition to all the friends Holden has been making, we've also done a bit of exploring in the city of Genova.  Some days we just go on walks in the garden, finding interesting rocks to collect or trees to climb or grass to dig.  Other days we go into the town and ride the funicolare and explore the maze-like web of streets, usually finding a gelatteria or pasticceria (ice cream or pastry shop) along the way.  Holden is very big on Italian dolci (desserts).

view from Spianata Castelleto (one of our favorite hangouts and where a great gelateria is)

Genova public library

sailboats in the harbor 

cave at Villetta di Negro

waterfall at Villetta di Negro

plate of fritto misto (not quite what we expected)

Holden eating one of the fried fish (that looked like minnows)

We've also visited three exciting places:  il parco avventura, la citta dei bambini, and Nervi.

We stumbled upon il parco avventura in Righi which is a natural park even further up the hill than Castelletto during a morning jog (hence Holden is in his pajamas in the photos).

view from Righi

Holden was very interested and so I inquired if he was old enough - completely thinking he would not be allowed to participate - but the owner somehow managed to adjust an adult size harness to fit Holden's tiny waist.  He was so excited!  First, he practiced with climbing on logs and ropes but then he discovered the zip line and went on this about a hundred times.  Then, the guide decided to take him to the adult zip line and he rode on this for about a hundred more times (not sure if I want Nonni to see these photos!).  We have also spent some time hiking in Righi on the many trails and exploring the observatory.  It is the highest point in Genova and offers incredible views of the entire city down to the coast.

il parco avventura

La città dei bambini, the children's museum of Genova, was a lot of fun and offered Holden a chance to play with some children his own age.

la citta dei bambini

Then we spent Saturday in Nervi, the easternmost point in Genova.  Nervi is like a suburb of Genova, smaller and slower and also much warmer.  We began exploring Nervi by taking the seaside walk and watching fisherman, kayakers, and sunbathers from the rocks.  This seaside walk offered some astounding views.  Then we went into Nervi Park, which is like the Central Park of Genova.  It was a great place to have a picnic and play some soccer.  It also has the best playground in Genova.

Nervi

We leave Genova this week for almost two weeks of travel in Barcelona and then the Veneto region of Italy - Venezia, Vicenza, and Verona.

camogli

Dave, Holden, and I were planning to fly to Prague and spend the weekend with our great friends Monika, Brooke, and Matthew.  But because of the incredibly high ticket prices, we were unable to go and decided to stay near Genova instead.  We visited the beautiful city of Camogli, about 30 minutes from Genova by train along the Ligurian coast.  It is similar to the popular coastal town of Portofino.  However, Camogli is more a more modest and quieter town that local Italians flock to on the weekends, rather than rich and famous Americans.  

view of the beach from above

We arrived in Camogli by train (Holden was very excited to take his first train in Italia) and walked from the station directly down to the beach.  

Holden on his first Italian train

It was a much larger beach than the one we visited the weekend before in Genova.  It too was more rocky than sandy, but was much better for playing on and the brilliant blue sea was much cleaner and more fun for Holden.

Camogli

Like the Cinque Terre, the five coastal towns further south on the Italian Riviera, it is also linked to the neighboring villages by a steep hiking path with beautiful views of the sea below.  But for this trip, we opted to spend all of our time on the beach instead of hiking, leaving the sea only for a moment to take a gelato break.  

smiling after gelato

view of the beach from the town

Holden found a new flavor of gelato, pistacchiatella.  It is pistachio drizzled with chocolate on top and is quite delicious.  Back on the beach we found a small shelf carved out of the rock to picnic in that kept us in nearly full shade and had a wonderful sea breeze.  We had a delicious picnic of fresh fruits and pane e formaggio (bread and cheese).  Camogli is quite possibly my favorite Ligurian town now and we will most definitely return soon.

picnic

playing on the beach

arrivo

Leaving from Charlotte was not terribly difficult, all our checked baggage weighed in at 49.5 pounds or less (the max allowed is 50).  Upon arrival in Roma, we somehow lucked up and were allowed all the carry-on luggage we brought and we somehow slipped past without even having the bags weighed.  It was quite difficult just moving through the airport with all that luggage (9 bags total) but Holden helped and somehow we managed.  

We were pretty exhausted when we finally arrived at Cristoforo Colombo airport in Genova, but after a short taxi ride up the hill - the very steep hill - we were finally at the villa.  

views from the villa

The students and other staff would not arrive for another four days, so we were on our own for a little while.  After a good night's sleep, we first visited the cafe in the neighborhood of San Nicola for some espresso and the pasticceria for some pastries.  The villa is in the Castelleto region of Genova and it is just a short walk to San Nicola, but down some very steep steps and across the funicolare platform.  San Nicola is the nearest neighborhood to the villa with cafes and other stores, like the pasticceria, macelleria, tabacchi, frutteria, farmacia, pesceria, and carrefour supermarket.  

walk down to San Nicola

We spent the next few days exploring the old port (Porto Antico) and the various piazzas and small labyrinthine streets of the center of this medieval city.  

pizza in Piazza Lavagna

We live in the middle of the hill.  To get down to the centro storico you must walk down many many stairs that lead straight down.  (And then you must walk equally as many stairs to get back up.)  Or you can take the funicolare (cable car).  Or you take the ascensore (elevator).  All the paths lead down.  The centro storico is the largest preserved medieval city in Europe.  Once down in the middle of the medieval city center it is impossible not to get a little lost.  

tutte la scala (all the stairs)

However, if you walk down eventually all paths lead to the harbor called the porto antico, which was totally transformed in the 1990s by Genova's native son, architect Renzo Piano.  The porto antico has an aquarium (we hope to visit soon), a place called citta di bambini (city of the children) that I think is like a children's museum and library, and two nice playgrounds.  We spent some time eating gelato here and playing on the playgrounds.  Holden's favorite thing was running along the interior of this enormous pipe that we think was some type of art installation in the playground.

gelato!

Porto Antico

Genoa is not like the other more tourist-cnetered towns of Italy.  It is a port city and many cruise ships do dock here.  However, it is a bit grimy and very hard to navigate and you can walk around an entire day without seeing other tourists.  In a sense, you get a very realistic view of modern life in an ancient city.  Not everyone speaks English, some can and some can't, so Dave and Holden and I have been sitting in on an Italian class and are attempting to learn as much Italian as possible.  Today we went to a fruit store and Holden learned fragoli (strawberries).  Yesterday he learned mela (apple) e carote (carrot).  

fragola

On Sunday, we decided to explore the beaches of Genova.  From the centro storico, you go to the fifth avenue of Genova called Via XX Settembre and basically walk to the coast when the street ends.  Here you arrive at the Corso Italia, a beautiful promenade strung with beaches, both public and private.  The beaches in Genova are very beautiful with incredibly clear water, but also very rocky.  We found a nice public beach and Holden went swimming for awhile and then we walked the rest of the Corso Italia into Boccadasse, where the promenade terminates.  Boccadasse is a small fishing village and we were told we could find the best seafood there and we did.  Holden had calamari and swordfish and foccacia (which we incidentally have every morning for breakfast and is said to have been invented in Genova).  Dave and I had griglia mista (mixed grilled seafood).  Our restaurant was adjacent to the coast and delivered beautiful views of the setting sun.

beaches and Boccadasse