Jonah goes to Bologna!

September 14, 2024

Greetings friends, family, and fellow travelers,

We are in Bologna! I (Sara) will mostly be writing about eating food and attempting to get my sons to do online school. Occasionally I will say something about history and culture. But really…. This blog is like 35% gelato commentary. You’ve been warned.

Sara’s Thoughts:

We left Lake Garda on September 3^rd, but not before taking “first day of school” photos by the water. While I’ve intellectually known that we are going to be traveling during the 2024-2025 school year, something about taking these photos and then seeing our friends’ pictures of their children returning to school really got to me. I miss our friends and the minutia of the back-to-school routine. Simon didn’t get a welcome email from a new teacher, and Calla didn’t get to see her friends at her school’s open house. I want to be home and I want to be here in Italy, and thus I continue to find all sorts of dialectics to hold on our family sabbatical year.

And…onwards. We are staying in a spacious 3-bedroom apartment in the heart of the city. While the 54 stairs, were a blast with luggage, the space and location are wonderful. The walls are hand painted, including a “Spiderman” room to which Calla gravitated. If only she’d consistently sleep there!

THE HIGHS

Italian Days Food Tour from Bologna

For months, I was eyeing a full day food tour from Bologna through the company Italian Days, but was hesitant to pull the trigger given both the high cost and concern about whether it would hold the kids’ interest. But, after my 4^th or 5^th time salivating over the tour description, I finally booked. Thank goodness I did – this was probably one of the best days we’ve had thus far. We met our tour group at 8am by the train station, and were driven first to San Silvestro Cooperativa, a Parmigiano-Reggiano factory in Maranello. We donned hairnets, gowns, and booties, and were taken inside for our tour. Parmigiano-Reggiano is made first thing in the morning because that is when the milk is delivered. Our guide, Alessandro, showed us the step-by-step process. I hadn’t realized that ricotta – which means “re-cooked” - is made from skimming the curds off the top of the parmesan. We visited the aging room, where cheese is stamped after 1 year (minimum) to ensure it meets the national standards. Only then can you officially call it “parmesan.”

Our next stop was Antica Acetaia Cavedoni Dal 1860, a balsamic factory. First, we were served a delicious breakfast of 12- and 36-month aged parmesan, salami, apricot tart, pizzas, and sandwiches, as well as some lambrusco wine. We also tried some of the fresh warm ricotta from the parmesan factory. The story of balsamic in Modena is fascinating. When a baby is born, the family will start a “bateria” of balsamic, and for females, this becomes her dowry when she gets married. At the factory we visited, making balsamic was a 7^th generation tradition; you can’t get a business license for your balsamic until you spend years and years aging it and even then there isn’t a guarantee that you’ll be able to sell it. We also learned how to spot an authentic balsamic vinegar. Alessandro said, “When buying balsamic, if the first ingredient is wine vinegar, throw it out. If the first ingredient is cooked grape juice, keep reading. If there are more than two ingredients and/or you need an advanced degree in chemistry to read the label, throw it out.” In an IPG product, the second ingredient should be wine vinegar. However, in Modena, only cooked grape juice is used for balsamic. This is a much smaller production and a family tradition; only grapes from the county are used. We sampled a variety of balsamics, including a 5-year, 7-year, 19-year, and 25-year aged, as well as saba, which is more of a sweet vinegar with raisins and cinnamon. Calla loved it, so we bought some to put on yogurt.

Next, we drove to a prosciutto factory, Proscuittificia Montevecchio, where we joined up with the folks on the other tour bus. This was the boys’ favorite, and we were able to watch the salting, resting, and aging process. (Vegan/vegetarian friends – this would have been an absolute nightmare for you. You may also want to skip the first half of Jonah’s blog.) Afterwords, we were taken next door for lunch. The owner of Italian Days, also named Alessandro, was a big guy with face tattoos and a ton of personality. He went above and beyond to make sure my kids were having fun. We sat down to lunch, and he sent someone next door to buy juice since they didn’t have any. First up was a huge spread of four types of prosciutto, bruschetta, salad, breads, and Bolognese Friggione, which is a side dish made from braised onions and tomatoes that is bonkers delicious. They kept the wine flowing. After our first course, three different pastas were served: a tortelloni with ricotta and spinach with red sauce, a small elbow-shaped pasta with pork sausage and cheese, and lasagna Bolognese. For dessert we had tiramisu, which isn’t my favorite but we all ate it, anyways.

We were seated at a table for just our family. There were about 35 people and the conversation all around us was lively. I wished we’d been seated at a larger table, and at the same time, I imagine they thought we would want some space from others (and that they would want space from us)! As we are now traveling outside of the summertime, I think we are far less likely to see other kids on tours. Indeed, ours were the only ones, and we were pleased at how well they behaved. About halfway through pasta, Alessandro offered them a chance to paint canvases because why the hell not? Everyone ditched me so I picked up my wine and joined the table next door where we chatted about our world trip and everyone’s adventures in Italy. Jonah likes to make fun of me for enjoying talking to people we meet while traveling, but it’s one of my absolute favorite things. We met three couples from Australia, as well as one from Seattle, and another from Issaquah. I love meeting people who live where we live when we were thousands of miles away, and I love meeting people who live where we’ll be heading not too long from now. One of the things I’ve explained to Jonah is that for my work, I have to both be good at - as well as enjoy - connecting with people and connecting with people fast. I’m glad we got the chance to do so. One couple was celebrating an anniversary and two other individual were having birthdays so Alessandro brought out wine and sparklers. The energy was a little overwhelming for the boys after a while, but I loved it and Calla was besotted. (When we first arrived at the prosciutto factory, Alessandro asked Calla what she did for work and she said, “I take care of my baby dolls” with a very serious face thereby charming everyone.) After a very, very long lunch, we were caravanned back to the train station, and valiantly carried leftovers (they gave us so much extra food!), a hunk of 36-month aged parmesan, three canvases, and two backpacks back to the apartment. It was such a great day.

Day Trip to Ravenna

We took a truly remarkable day trip to Ravenna, which I’d also booked through the company “Italian Days.” We drove to Ravenna and met our guide, Cinzia, outside of the San Vitale Basilica, which was built in the 500’s and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Cinzia compared it to the Hagia Sofia in terms of architectural structure, but we visited the Hagia Sofia on our honeymoon and don’t remember it being nearly as colorful as the San Vitale Basilica. There are stunning mosaics everywhere, and the ceiling is a particularly spectacular, depicting several stories from the Bible (Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac; Moses and the burning bush). Cinzia was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the basilica, and there is no way we would have kept the kids nearly as engaged as she did. Next, we visited the Mausoleo di Galla Placida, another UNESCO world heritage site which was commissioned in the 5^th century by Empress Galla Placida to serve as her final resting place. Beyond the mausoleum, you can see the water that runs under Ravenna. After saying goodbye to Cinzia, we picked up piaddina (local sandwiches) for lunch. Next, we stopped briefly at the Sant Apollinare Nuovo Basilica on our way to the MAR, Ravenna’s modern art museum. I was particularly looking forward to viewing the contemporary mosaics workshop, and was pleased that this also held our kids’ attention. One of the highlights was an exhibit of paintings and mosaics from the 1950’s whereby a painter and a mosaicist would render the same image in their respective mediums. Finally, our day concluded with a mosaic workshop with Annalisa, a mosaicist who most frequently works with micro-mosaic and does restorations. (Fun fact: She told us that the reason she is a mosaicist is because a friend convinced her to take a mosaics class in art school because “the professor is supposed to be cute.”) First, we were given a brief history of mosaics, and then asked to select our designs. Calla and I both chose flowers, whereas Justin selected a geometric design more typical of the Roman style. Both Jonah and Simon wanted to go rogue and create their own mosaic art designs. The boys got to work on sketching while Justin, Calla, and I used a black marker to trace the mosaic pattern onto translucent paper. Next, Annelisa put tile adhesive onto the canvas and transferred over our patterns so we could follow along. Annelisa and Ivana, another mosaicist, helpfully pre-cut all of our needed pieces. We were told to start with the black stones, taking care that the shiny side faced down, and work carefully so that the pieces were constantly touching. I was impressed that Calla was able to trace the entire intricate design as well as place all of the tiny stone pieces. This is very much her Montessori education at work! (Thank you Jayme, Brynn, and Mrs. Aboud.) As the mosaics need a month to fully dry, we were debating how best to get them back home as we didn’t want to attempt traveling with them by place across continents, and Annelisa kindly offered to ship them back for us after they were completely dry. Thanks again to our friend, Christina, for continuing to hold onto a whole assortment of random stuff for us while we are gone. This experience was such a highlight for me. It kept the kids engaged, and I was actually quite pleased with how my mosaic turned out despite my utter lack of artistic talent. I am definitely going to keep seeking out other opportunities to learn local crafts while we travel.

Food!

We largely came to Bologna for the food, and it has not disappointed. We’ve enjoyed buying fresh pasta, Bolognese sauce, and parmesan from local artisans and cooking it all back in our apartment. One day, Calla and I went to “Mo’ Mortadella” and ate sandwiches the size of our heads. We’ve had delicious pizza and various types of breads. Wine. Gelato. At Trattoria Da Me, we ate three cheese ice cream (straccina, robiola, gorgonzola) with fig jam. The list goes on.

Biblioteca Salaborsa

The library in Bologna is absolutely stunning. The building is huge, with books in multiple languages, and a basement beneath the transparent first floor that includes excavations and sedimentation of several ancient civilizations. We spent a long time here, only leaving because we needed to run some errands and make dinner.

THE LOWS:

I suppose the actual lows are things I don’t really feel like writing about (fighting children, children who won’t sleep, children who won’t sleep because they’re fighting) so let’s instead call this “activities that didn’t meet expectations.” One afternoon, we headed out to Carpignano Gelato University, where we were scheduled for a tour and gelato making class. Carpignano is the only gelato university in the world, and the company also make the machines used to make gelato and other soft ice creams. We were able to see equipment from over the years and learn about how the gelato making process has evolved over time. Our gelato making class, though, was a bit of a let down. We first made “shrb,” which is the OG sherbet, by mixing pureed peach with water and sugar. We froze the shrb by spinning a bowl over ice. I’d been looking forward to the gelato making, but it was essentially just our guide putting milk, cream, and sugar into a machine and asking Jonah to push a button. While everything was tasty, it definitely wasn’t the depth of experience we’d anticipated. We came back and relaxed, and then went to a street food place for grab and go dinner (fried tortellini, stuffed crescentina), which we ate at the beer shop next door, and then headed back.

Another day, we planned a visit to Modena, as we had tickets to the nearby Ferrari Museum in Maranello. None of us are particularly car enthusiasts, but we’d heard good things about the museum. Overall, it was fun, though we weren’t totally sure who the intended audience was. It wasn’t quite stats/tech-heavy enough to cater to raging car enthusiasts, but it wasn’t particularly interactive enough to capture the attention of the rest of us. That said, I liked seeing all of the different customization options available for the truly elite Ferrari owners. We had read there was a simulator that our kids could do, but with a minimum height requirement of 4’11” (0/3) and 30 Euros/person, we skipped it. We ate a pasta lunch nearby, including the traditional “tortellini en brodo,” which Calla loved best because #soupie. By then, it was pouring and predicted to do so for the rest of the day. Thus, we scrapped plans to wander around Modena and headed back to our apartment by way of Cremeria Scirocco, a gelato shop on many “best of” lists that’s just outside the city. As you will see from my definitive gelato rankings at the end of my blog post, this was also a bit of a let down.

HIGHS AND LOWS:

Towards the end of our time in Bologna, I took Calla to Parma for a planned girls’ day. I checked the weather before departing, so off we went in our dress (me) and romper (Calla) and sandals. After an hour-long train ride, we exited in Parma only to find ourselves in torrential downpour. A quick re-check of the weather confirmed that despite being only 54 miles away in distance, the forecasts were worlds apart. We quickly scrambled to find a new plan that didn’t include “picnic at the park,” and were grateful when a woman offered us her umbrella. Not to be deterred by the rain – Calla is a born and bred Washingtonian, of course - we first tried to visit a museum but couldn’t find it, so continued on to OVS, a large, inexpensive clothing chain, where we bought warmer clothes. I then made my gravest error in food judgment in recent memory when I took Calla to a well-reviewed poke shop for lunch, under the auspices this would finally allow her to get some protein that wasn’t gelato-based. Fortunately, Calla enjoyed the poke bowl, but I found it essentially inedible, so we quickly moved onto our gelato stop of the day (Ciacco). By then, it was pouring even harder, so we meandered until we found the entrance to the Puppet Museum, which was brief, but enjoyable, and decided to call it a day and head back to the station to return to Bologna. I told Calla I was so proud of her positive attitude. The weather was a bummer, and our toes were cold, but she didn’t complain at all, and both of us were just happy to be spending time together.  

AND ALSO - SCHOOL HAS STARTED:

One of the most common questions I’ve been asked about our full-time travels is, “What are you doing about school?” “Oh, the boys will do online English and math. Everything is asynchronous, so it should be pretty straightforward.” Ah, to be that naïve again! Online courses began September 3^rd, the same day as Lake Washington School District. I’m already worried we’ve bitten off more than we can chew with this. While in theory we can get away with having the kids do 1-2 hours of school each day, that’s assuming we actually do school each day. On many days of our trip, this is likely to be quite challenging. For example, on the day we went to Ravenna, we left the apartment at 9:30am and didn’t get back until close to 9pm. I know we’ll have down time on some of our tours, but I’m not sure anyone is going to want to grab the computers and workbooks when we only have a couple of hours to relax. (Me! I will not want to do this.) Thus, on days we have nothing planned, we’ve been encouraging the boys to work as much as they can ahead of schedule. Jonah has more intensive coursework, so naturally Simon is now further ahead than Jonah is. We are just going to keep doing the best we can and hope for the best. Worse comes to worse, the boys will finish up the remaining coursework over next summer. Ultimately, we want them to stay on grade level and keep up, while at the same time, we don’t want formal schooling to take over our trip and stress everyone out or result in us having to cancel activities. We are going to keep encouraging the boys to be as independent as possible, and whatever will be will be. Thus far, one of us has sat with Simon for 100% of his school work, and if I thought I missed Simon’s 2^nd grade teacher, Mrs. Ferrin, before, boy do we miss her now. I still maintain that the education they are getting traveling is invaluable, but they probably need to be able to spell words, too.

THE WTFs:

We watched 30 minutes of the presidential debate with our kids. Jonah was hesitant to do this. “It will be boring,” he said. “It will not be,” I said. I was correct, but there are things kids just can’t unsee or un-hear. #harriswalz2024 

Sara’s Definitive Bologna Gelato Rankings: I put together a curated list of 10 gelato shops to try in Bologna, plus a few others in neighboring cities. We’ve learned that the best gelato places keep their product covered in metal bins, which helps maintain the correct temperature; when you see the heaping mounds of gelato behind the glass counter, this typically signifies a product that is filled with air, prioritizing aesthetics over quality. Without exception, this has proven true in terms of taste and quality of the gelato we’ve tried over the past couple of months.

In order of preference:

(1) Cremeria San Stefano Caramel biscoff and pistachio (Sara); chocolate hazelnut and strawberry sorbet (Calla): This was the first place we visited in Bologna since it got top marks, and remained my favorite. The gelato was super creamy, and the flavors were sublime, albeit subtle.

(2) Cremeria Cavour Amalfi lemon shortbread, white chocolate with Krispies, and pistachio (Sara); stracciatella (Jonah): The cone collapsed as the server was handing it to me, so I had to put the gelato in a cup, which resulted in the two similar looking flavors blending together. Jonah, the purist, only had one flavor, which was likely a wise choice. High marks for flavor selection and creativity, as well as texture.

(3) Gelateria Galleria Ricotta granita with salted caramel gelato (Sara); lemon granita (Simon); mango sorbet (Calla): This place is known for their granitas, which are like Italian shave ice. These were super tasty, though the gelato was a bit too sweet. That said, I was pleased that their salted caramel flavor actually had ribbons of caramel rather than just offering a caramel-flavored gelato.

(4) Carpignano Fior de Latte (all) – Many of you know how much I love a whole bunch of stuff in my ice cream, so eating just fior de latte isn’t usually my thing. However, this is what we made during our gelato class and I couldn’t get over how amazingly creamy it was.

(5) Sorbettina Ricotta with caramelized figs, ricotta with blueberries, and white chocolate with hazelnuts (Sara); stracciatella and salted caramel (Jonah); chocolate and mango sorbet (Calla): Honestly, this whole experience was such a nightmare that it’s hard to even remember the gelato. We had very tired kids after a long day of sightseeing, and Calla had just woken up from a nap and was so hysterical we had to go outside and the server kindly took her order there. Nonetheless, there were tons of different flavors, many of which were unique. I made the mistake (again) of ordering too many flavors, but all were delicious.

(6) Ciacco Mascarpone with prunes & ginger and pistachio (Sara); Chocolate hazelnut and pineapple sorbet (Calla). We stopped here on our rainy day in Parma. The gelato was fine, but I couldn’t get excited about a single flavor on the menu.

(7) Cremeria Scirroco Gorgonzola almond and salted caramel (Sara); salted caramel (Jonah and Simon); chocolate (Calla); raspberry sorbet (Justin). I had high hopes for this shop, but the gorgonzola flavor wasn’t nearly as pronounced as the almond flavor, and my salted caramel had no ribbons of caramel. Points for having cheese-flavored gelato, though. Also, not as light and airy as some of the other places we tried; the consistency was more like ice cream.

I should note that other members of the family tried different gelato places throughout the week, none of which were on my list and – per reports – not as good as the places that I took them to.

Justin’s Soapbox:

I know all of you have been riveted by the updates about my broken phone and attempts to get a new one. It seems that our saga has come to a happy conclusion as I now finally, thanks to major efforts by both my parents and mother-in-law, am again the owner of a cell phone. It's funny how the primary inconvenience dealing with this wasn't the lack of a phone but simply the never-ending series of tasks to try and get the right thing to the right place at the right time. But we did learn some interesting lessons about EU data laws, Italian customs payments, and the wacky world of Apple customer service, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

On to more important matters, if there's one thing I can say conclusively about this leg of the trip it's that Bologna tastes good. There's so much excellent food in this area, and it's been a real treat to explore both the old-school traditions (Parmesan & Prosciutto factories + Balsamic distillery) and the new interpretations - our dinner at Trattoria Da Me was among my favorite to date. I know some of you have commented that Italian food in Italy is actually overrated (you know who you are!), and maybe this is true in some regions, but certainly not here.

Bologna is also a wonderful city that's full of life, with lots of cafes buzzing with locals late into the night. The center of it is generally pretty walkable, though the medieval streets definitely leave something to be desired when it comes to sidewalk access on the side streets. But on the larger streets, many (most?) in the older downtown area we've been staying in have large sidewalks covered by pillared arches, some dating back to antiquity and some clearly modern, echoing this architectural tradition. It's a nice touch to the city that gives it a very distinct look.

We only spent a day in Ravenna, but it served as a fantastic crash-course in the ancient and modern history of mosaic art. and the works inside the Basilica San Vitale significantly exceeded my expectations. Built around 500 AD, the mosaic imagery was just as bright, colorful, and intricate as any Renaissance work I've seen. The detail they managed to get in some of the faces (or perhaps character is a better term, given that we're not talking about fine brush strokes) is remarkable. I asked both our tour guide and our art class instructor (who works in restoration) about how much of the mosaic is original, and while the more conservative estimate did say that much of the ceiling had been replaced over the years, the murals of Justinian and Theodora are supposedly all-original, and these were the pieces that impress me most. I don't think I've seen anything so old that remains so colorful. I suppose I've always had this subconscious idea that anything between the fall of Rome and the late medieval period was inherently drab in color, but this was a great reminder that, nope, people liked colorful things back in 500 AD as well!

Case in point, this rainbow-circled Jesus image from the ceiling!

To close on a slightly downer of a personal note, my migraine situation hasn't improved and some days have become challenging for me in terms of dealing with headache lethargy and vision issues. As mentioned before, I've gotten an MRI which 2 doctors now have approved as "normal" so I don't think I'm dealing with anything scary, but it is proving to be an ongoing thorn in my side which I hope will not impact our experience much more than it already has. I'll be keeping an eye on it and potentially meeting with more doctors on the road. It's unfortunate, but just another reminder that life doesn't stop for you just because you decide to trek around the world - life comes with you whether you like it or not!

Jonah’s Musings:

I am going to write about two activities we’ve done since getting to Bologna: the prosciutto factory and the mosaics.

September 5^th, 2024: I have never been that interested in how food is made but today I found out a lot on how they make food. We went on a tour that involved going to multiple factories for the entire day, but the one factory I want to talk about in today's blog is the prosciutto factory. Prosciutto is a type of meat that comes from pigs, and in this factory, there were a lot of pigs, or at least what was left of them. There were hundreds of giant chunks of meat hung up on the wall and meat going through a conveyor belt that would put spices on the meat. 

It was quite a cool and weird sight at the same time, as it wasn’t exactly as morbid as seeing a live pig going through a conveyor belt and coming out as sausages but it was quite odd knowing that you were seeing ⅓ of a pig going down a belt and getting covered in spices. The reason it was cool though was, of course, that it was ⅓ of a pig going down a conveyor belt and getting covered in spices.

After doing the tour through the prosciutto factory we had this really good lunch that was mostly just prosciutto and lots of good pasta. After I was full, my siblings and I headed outside to kind of chill, we kind of just sat down and did nothing. But then one of the hosts came out and gave us canvases and paints. I guess they kind of wanted us to do something so they gave us the paints so we could do something? 

I’m not saying it was a bad thing but it was a little strange. Anyways, my brother made a painting of some background-scenery, my sister made a big purple glob, and I just drew a pig, because we were in a prosciutto factory. After all this we headed back to the hotel. I really liked going to the prosciutto factory because I enjoyed every moment of it. I loved seeing all the meat hanging up and going through the conveyor belt, the food, and of course painting the picture of the pig.

September 10^th, 2024: I didn’t know what a mosaic is, but today I learned. A mosaic is a type of unique art style. The way people make mosaics is very interesting; it involves a wet concrete- like substance in a square shape, and then you put little pieces of colorful glass or sometimes rock in the spaces. Doing this, you can make pictures. It sort of compares to modern-day pixel art. We went to a church called the Basilica of San Vitale with a bunch of mosaics in it. There were mosaics of all sorts of cool stuff like people with food, lamb-like animals, and many mosaics of Jesus. 

After going into a bunch more churches and continuing looking and studying the beautiful artwork, I think that mosaics are definitely an amazing way to do art and that they should be used more in our world in buildings, houses, and much more. After looking at mosaics we got the chance to make our own at a little art from where we were instructed on how to make a mosaic. We first would draw out our design then trace over it in marker - twice. After that the host sort of used the ink from the tracing to sort of dye the concrete to make an outline for the design. After that you fill in the design with pieces of colored rocks and glass. I made a design of my Minecraft skin. Overall, I think that doing this mosaic was a very interesting and fun experience, because it taught me a new style of art and how to do it. 

Here is a video of us making our mosaics:

Simon’s Reflection:

 
This is about our time in Bologna. Bologna is a city in Italy. There are two ancient towers here.

I have started school recently. I am very good at math and English. I am two weeks ahead! 

We did a day trip to Ravenna. It's very famous for mosaics. A mosaic is a type of art. There, we made our own mosaics. It was really fun because I made my own and I didn't even know what I made. We also went to two chapels, and we went to the modern art museum. 

We did a food tour and it was very tasty. I had a lot of fun doing it, especially the prosciutto factory because I liked seeing how they used a hydraulic press on the meat. 

We went to the Ferrari Museum, and we also did this gelato-making class where you made gelato. It was really fun. We also have been eating gelato a lot! Also, one day we went to this really amazing library. It was one of the best libraries on the planet! I liked it so much because it didn't even look like a library, it looked like a grand castle.

That is about our time in Bologna! 

Calla’s Corner:

Calla: I enjoyed the trip. We went around the world for one year.

Mommy: Sweetie, we’ve been traveling for two months. We’re at the beginning! What have you enjoyed about Bologna?

Calla: When we went on a girls’ trip, just me and you, we went on a train but it was pouring rain. We got gelato, and we went to the puppet museum. We watched a video of the puppet museum, and it was just so fun. And, we went to the mosaic class, we went on a tour to the mosaic class. That’s it!

Mommy: Can you talk a little about going shopping?

Calla: Oh yeah! We went shopping a lot, and I got a comfy purple tutu [Ed note: She did not]. And we went to the grocery store and bought some cheesy puffs, and also we had a fun time here, and we just had to love our trip and have a dream come true.

Mommy: Awww 

Calla: I love my family best as happily ever after.

As always, thank you for following our adventures. Next up is two weeks in an agriturismo in Tuscany (outside Volterra) before we leave Europe and for Morocco. It will be the first time in Africa for all five of us!

If you’ve gotten this far, please drop us a note — we’d love to hear from you.

xo,

Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla

@formidablefiveworldwide (Instagram) for more photos