Venice, day 3

Another jam-packed, amazing day. We have gotten so lucky with the weather- it is beyond glorious.

After the morning puke-fest, we all fell back asleep so our first venture out was to lunch. It was fairly mediocre as far as the food went, but nonetheless fun to dress up and be out together. We walked some more, split up for afternoon activities (us: naps/quiet time), found the BEST gelato in the world (truly, Capogiro in Philly and Splendora in Charlottesville were, in our opinion, just ahead of Grom in Florence, for best ever, so we were happy that the crown returned to its homeland): SoSu, just off the Rialto. It was truly artisanal- T and I shared two scoops, one of chocolate gelato with a coffee cream top and the other a pistachio with a gianduja cream. These creams were more like a caramel crossed with dulce de leche- amazingly smooth consistency with a bit of chew. T and I were rendered speechless; in the meantime, O had strawberry and J had a double cone of strawberry and frutti di bosco. We then headed off to meet up with our crew in the Campo Santa Margherita. It is what I envision when I think of traditional Italian squares at dusk: children, parents, nonnas, soccer balls, fountains, eager pigeons, lingering produce stalls and the clang of gates shutting closed stores for the night. We had apertivi -my negroni had as its garnish an orange zest nearly two feet long - let the boys run and romp and then made our way home at dark, stopping for wine and pizza along the way.

Domani, andiamo a Firenze.

Ciao!

You will never believe what I awoke to this morning. Oliver, sleeping between me and Tom, threw up in his sleep all over us and the bed. Then, again. It was 5:15a AND daylight savings time here. For the love of god, time change is stalking my family. Anyway, I bathed little O while Tom changed the sheets and took the dirty ones down a floor to a washing machine. No sooner had Ol and I climbed back into bed than blech- he hurled again. Change of pajamas, sheets, etc, back in the shower. Poor honey. He's snoozing beside me now, sadly in some pirate PJs rather than his beloved digger ones. I had to convince him that he is still a real worker who is simply dressing up as a pirate.This followed Jack's puke sessions in the elevator and against an exterior wall of a shop yesterday. Poor sweeties. It seemed to pass quickly though -you should have seen the amount he ate when he recovered- and I love that about kids. They can wretch their guts up and five minutes later be dancing in the streets ordering tortellini con panna and prosciutto (Jack) or stuffing their faces with salami sandwiches and a fried sardine, head and all (Oliver). Brava! So far, our schedule seems to be a delightful lack of any structure. We were out walking for nearly 10 hours yesterday, and I'm looking forward to another grand time today, Sunday. We're going to Trattoria alla Madonna for lunch, a place my parents and sister ate at on Easter Sunday a decade or so ago, and tomorrow we head to Florence.

Just look at it all!