The Schmidtalies Go To Italy

The Schmidtalies Go To Italy

(No children are irritated by how many times we try to make this catchphrase happen)

September 3, 2024

Greetings Friends, Family, & Fellow Travelers,

Italy is the first country on our world tour to which both Justin and I have already traveled. I visited Rome in 2005 with my dear friend, Olga, and Justin has been here twice, once with his family and once with his friends. We are mostly avoiding/limiting time in the common travel spots (Rome Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice), opting for some off the beaten path options instead.

Sara’s Thoughts:

We departed from Velenje, Slovenia bright and early on August 24th, ready to pick up Jonah from camp. He understandably wasn’t pleased to learn that we had COVID and that we would driving to Italy in masks and with the windows down. [Ed note: Jonah never got sick, so hooray for taking appropriate precautions!] He told us all about camp, and his siblings insisted on playing all of the weird podcasts and songs they discovered in the time he was away. (Parents: do yourself a favor and look up the podcast, Story Pirates, “The Baby Who Never Grew” episode. Thank me/disown me later.) 

We chose to begin our Italy trip in Lake Garda because it seemed like an area less frequented by American tourists and because we also thought the weather would be more manageable by the water than in a larger city since Italy in the summer is notoriously hot. We are staying in Bardolino, a small town on the east side of the lake. After a 7-hour drive, we arrived exhausted and crabby. Also, why doesn’t the backseat have detachable barriers that allow you to put up a wall between you and the person who sits next to you? Whoever invents this would make a fortune off of beleaguered, long-suffering parents. At any rate, we checked into our apartment and immediately did all of our laundry, which was particularly great since Jonah was coming off of a two week stay at sleepaway camp. We grabbed some takeout pizza – including Hawaiian, to my dismay – and ate back at the apartment.

The next day (Sunday) we were finally feeling more or less recovered and ventured to Verona. I was interested in seeing the Capulet house/Juliet’s balcony despite knowing it was super touristy. And…eh. The balcony was only added in the 1900’s, so while it is presumed that Shakespeare, who lived in Verona, did, indeed use that house for inspiration, the famed balcony did not exist at time of writing the play. Nevertheless, it was fun to see. We wandered around for a while, picking up large pretzels (kids) and focaccia sandwiches (adults). I was starting to feel dizzy given the heat and residual COVID symptoms, so we decided to grab quick gelatos and head back to our apartment. At long last, the gelato I ate rivaled the very first one I had back in Dubrovnik (ah, goat milk caramel). We went to Gelateria La Romana, where I ordered two complementary flavors: croconte della nonna (caramel cream with crunchy almonds) and caramello salato con nochi pecan (salted caramel with crunchy pecans). It was so delicious that after polishing off a small (what was I thinking?!) I bought another one and split it with Calla. 

The following day (Monday) I took it easy and just slept and read. Justin took Calla to the park and pool, but after two weeks of camp (Jonah) and COVID (me) we really needed a day to recoup before Justin’s parents, Kathryn and Joseph arrived. We all tested negative for COVID, so felt good about meeting them at a restaurant later that evening. Unfortunately, flight hiccups interfered, so they showed up just as we were winding down our meal. They brought their food back to our apartment complex, where they were informed that the hotel had no record of their reservation. Mind you, my father-in-law had a printed confirmation, and the hotel just happened to have a room available for a week that matched the exact description of the one they had booked. The whole thing was bizarre but thankfully resolved itself quickly.

On Tuesday, we ventured to Sirmione to walk around and visit the Scaligero Castle, built in the 14th century and apparently haunted by the ghost of Ebengardo looking to avenge the death of his wife, Arice. Sadly (or fortunately?) we spotted no ghosts. After a quick lunch, we found a secluded beach spot, where Simon and Calla played in the water and Jonah…did not. We headed out in the early afternoon since we had plans to meet Justin’s former au pair, Laura, and her husband and son for drinks and dinner later that evening as they were driving back from Rome en route to France. It was lovely to see them again, and we had a very rowdy, late dinner before we excused ourselves from the fun to get the kids to bed since we had a long day ahead of us.

Wednesday was Gardaland day. After spending several days in February in Disney World, we weren’t really sure what to expect from Italy’s foremost theme park. However, one thing we quickly realized was that Calla was going just miss the height minimum for several of the mid-range adrenaline rides. We hoped she could eek by, but at 107 cm, she very clearly did not hit the 110 cm mark, which resulted in a full-blown meltdown at the entrance to Mamnut, a roller coaster similar to Disney’s Thunder Mountain (which she loved). Fortunately, there were tons of rides for smaller kids, which she enjoyed, but in her heart girlfriend is an adrenaline junkie and really just wants to be on a roller coaster.

We passed one of those carnival games where you need to throw a ball into a basket, which is angled to just the right degree that it makes the game near impossible to win. But – there were giant stuffed tigers on display, and the only thing Jonah needs more than a giant stuffed tiger (currently in storage back at home) is a second giant stuffed tiger. Thanks to a very generous, um, game runner? Game controller? We were allowed some extra turns and I miraculously managed to win the game. The boys were delighted, and I instantly became “Mom of the Century” for a whole ten minutes – (though I’ve now been knocked off my throne because a couple days later I stumbled upon penis-shaped pasta and showed it to Jonah, thinking he’d find it funny, but instead embarrassing him for all eternity.) After another ride or two, we all ate giant gelatos and ice pops, except Joseph, who fed himself an actual lunch from the snack bar. Since we’d sprung for express passes and no lines would be involved, I figured I should try at least one big roller coaster, so I went with Justin on something called Blue Tornado, which involved being strapped into a seat with my legs dangling down and then so many twists and turns and flips that I couldn’t figure out where my body was in relation to time and space, except being continuously knocked into the headboard. Despite taking nausea meds and candied ginger, it took about an hour for my stomach to recover. But at least my kids were impressed? Maybe? After 8.5 hours, we finally headed back, where we showered and immediately conked out.

Our plan Thursday was to go to the Bardolino Market, which the internet said was a lively market with food and wine vendors. Turns out, the internet sometimes doesn’t know things, because in reality the Bardolino Thursday market was just stalls and stalls of clothing, bags, and jewelry. After wandering for an hour, we finally found four small stalls that sold food. By then we were famished and refueled with pastries. We went to the supermarket, where I taught Simon the potato chip game (i.e., what are the strangest flavor of chips you can find in a foreign country?) and then to Cantina Zeni for an in cellar wine tasting. We’ve had such wonderful wine tasting experiences on this trip, and this one did not disappoint. We were seated in the large wine cellar amidst all of the barrels, and yet again, our four wine “tasting” effectively meant “four full glasses of wine.” Yet again, our “tasting” of four wines was effectively someone giving us four full glasses of wine. I didn’t even drink half, and then we got more coupons for wine next door in the shop. We then visited the olive oil museum, we learned that olive oil is made by putting a blindfold on a pony and having the pony step on olives. This is probably wrong. We had trouble following the movie despite the fact that it was in English. Did I mention that the winery gave us an obscene amount of wine? We went back to the apartment to swim and I took a quick power nap and got ready to go to dinner with Justin. We were excited for our first kid-free dinner in months at Oseleta, a one Michelin star restaurant about 15 mins from our accommodations. We enjoyed a tasting menu with fish, pasta, lamb, and cheese, and it was nice to get away for a stretch. We arrived back at 10:30pm to three awake children, and thus were immediately relegated back to parenting duties.

Friday and Saturday were quieter days. On Friday, Kathryn and Joe took Simon out for the afternoon while Justin, Jonah, Calla, and I took a quick trip to Garda, another town on the lake. We ate dinner at Al Cardellino, where we enjoyed leisurely al fresco dining while the kids played on site at the small playground. (Genius, truly.) On Saturday, we swam at the beach across the street and Justin and I tried our hand at stand up paddleboarding, though I suppose this could better be described as “stand up and then fall in the water” paddleboarding (Justin) or “stay on your knees the whole time” paddleboarding (Sara). After eating colorful heart-shaped pasta for dinner back at the apartment, we begged and pleaded with the children to go to bed as early as possible since we all needed to be awake by 6am the following morning. This went about as well as you might expect, and we dragged three very tired children to Venice bright and early Sunday morning.  

I’ve always wanted to visit Venice, and so have the kids thanks to the excellent children’s book “Olivia Goes to Venice” by Ian Falconer, which we’ve owned since Jonah was a toddler. Calla and I read the book several times before leaving Washington, and we referenced it throughout our day. Like Olivia, we stopped for gelato, were flocked by pigeons, and took a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs. Unlike Olivia, we did not steal a brick from the clock tower and cause its collapse, though Simon was eager to.

Since we are trying to minimize moving accommodations, we opted to visit Venice as a (very) long day trip from Bardolino. We left Bardolino at 7am and drove to the Verona train station, where we parked our car and met Justin’s parents. We boarded an 8:22am train, which arrived in Venice at 9:50am. My mother-in-law raved about the first glance at Venice upon departing the station and she was not wrong. Upon stepping out of the train station, we were treated to a glorious view of the Grand Canal. We found the stand for the water taxi, which took us to San Marco. Kathryn and Joe went to their hotel to drop their bags, and we all met our tour guide, Romy, at 11:15am. For those keeping track, that’s about 4 hours of travel before our day officially began. You can probably see where this is heading. Romy – Venetian born and bred - took us all around the city, sharing information about its centuries old history. I hadn’t realized that Venice is essentially over one hundred tiny islands joined by bridges. Each one has its own church, but with only 48,000 permanent residents, not all of the churches are in operation. In the afternoon, we took a water taxi to Murano, where we watched a demonstration of glass blowing. It was truly impressive, particularly when the artisan crafted an entire horse in 90 seconds. The pieces were still so hot after their creation that if you threw a tissue on them (as the guide did) the tissue would immediately burst into flames. We visited the gallery and marveled the chandeliers and vases, and in the gift shop, bought the kids some small glass blown animals. In the afternoon, Romy took us to see the Basilica and the Campanile. She then walked us over to get a gondola, which was on my personal bucket list. Calla freaked out sobbing and decided she was scared and wanted to stay with her grandparents, but we knew if she did that the moment we sailed away she’d be melting down and begging to go with us. Justin came up with a story about “Shonda the gondolier” and “Rhonda the gondola” to help Calla engage and feel calmer, and she ended up enjoying the ride. We snapped a photo of the kids under the Rialto Bridge to match a similar shot of Justin and his brother, Jeremy, at similar ages that my in-laws have displayed on their mantel for as long as I can remember. After departing the gondola, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa for cicchetti, traditional Viennese tapas, and said our goodbyes. We walked back to the train station and caught at 8:10pm train, which arrived in Verona at 9:38. Calla conked out the moment we drove away from the station, and we were back shortly after 10.  

All in all, Venice was a mixed bag. Everyone really enjoyed the city, which is like nowhere I’ve ever been, but it was just too long a day for the kids, particularly given the heat. We’ve also been staying up late and sleeping late, so they were all exhausted from the early wake up time despite attempts to get everyone to bed early. This resulted in multiple melt downs, emergency juice stops, demands to head back, and children sitting down in the middle of sidewalks refusing to move. Ideally, we would have stayed in Venice for a couple of nights. While we still think it’s better overall for us to stay longer in our accommodations and take day trips, we definitely need to minimize days that involve so much complex travel and walking, and for the days when this is unavoidable, we need to carefully consider our pacing. (For example, Romy took us for gelato as our first stop; it would have been better saved for later in the tour.) We hope we can all take this as a lesson learned, while at the same time, not be too harsh on ourselves if we end up in a similar situation in the future.

This has been our longest stay of the trip thus far (10 nights) and it felt like a good length. It was also so special for all of us to be able to spend time with Kathryn and Joseph, and a welcome reprieve from 24/7 just the five of us. During down time, Jonah is reading, writing, and playing Minecraft. Simon reads voraciously, often graphic novels, and plays solitaire on his tablet. Sometimes we watch movies or play family card games. In the evenings, Calla has been regaling us with shows. Last night, I was treated to a 9-minute song that I think was a melody mashup of “Helpless” (Phillipa Soo) and “bad idea, right?” (Olivia Rodrigo) with improvised lyrics. Calla is also prone to randomly breaking out into song and dance in the middle of piazzas. Justin says, “These are my genes.” Today we head for Bologna, known as the food capital of Italy. It is also the first day of school, both for our boys (online) and for our friends in Kirkland. I cannot believe it is already September and that we’ve been gone for two whole months. How bittersweet it is to be missing the flurry of back-to-school texts (“What teacher does Simon have?”) and get togethers. We hope everyone has a wonderful start to the school year, and Calla especially wants to wish her friends Ziva, Arya, Adreena, and Greta good luck on their first days of kindergarten!

Justin’s Soapbox:

It’s gonna be an abbreviated soapbox speech today, folks. Because I am tired. Good tired, but tired still. After the various hiccups in Vienna we ramped back up again into the Lake Garda region, and it’s been a lot. A lot of great food, a lot of different places (Garda, Verona, Sirmione, Venice), and a lot of family wrangling. So I’ll keep this to the key points for now.

1. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for coming out to visit us in Italy during our craziest week yet. It was great to see you, and to do a bit of wining and dining (and also a little whining, but all out of love). I’m sure we tired you out a bit as we always do.

2. If you ever go to Gardaland, make sure to ride Oblivion, one of the more unique roller coasters I’ve had the pleasure of riding. Probably the best “first drop” I’ve experienced! But it did make me tired.

3. I still don’t have a phone. Dealing with this has also made me tired.

4. In Venice I found myself continually referencing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to the boys, so we decided to watch it again last night. Jonah had seen it before but it was Simon’s first watch. Really one of the most endearing movies of all time, with a solid couple of sequences set in Venice. This seemed to provide more cultural context for them than my earlier attempts to try and talk about actual Venetian history. I also told them about how years ago when I first visited Venice with my parents as a youngster, I made them find and go to the square where they filmed the exterior of the “library” and we ate at the same location as the restaurant shown there in the film. This is actually not a “Key Point” I need to relate, but I’m tired and Indiana Jones helped me feel better.

Jonah’s Musings:

August 25th: Hello people, I am back from 2 weeks of sleep-away camp. It was a very new experience for me and I am very excited to tell you about it. When I arrived at camp for the first day. There were a lot of kids and all of them were in different groups. There were six of these groups all divided by age. The first groups were the Discoverers which were 6 to 9, and the Pioneers which were also 6 to 9. Then there was the group that I was in; the Adventurers which was 10 to 12. Then there were the Outlaws which were 13 to 14, then Trailblazers which were 15 - 16, and last was the Pathfinders which was 17 - 18.

I was with 3 other kids my age 1 which was also new to the camp. They were all very nice, but I made friends with one of them in under an hour and we had already started yapping about Minecraft. In the first week of this camp we did many activities such as kayaking and going to an adventure park. But if I explained everything I did at this camp I would be talking about this until the world ends, so the one thing that I want to talk about is the camp itself. And by that I mean where we stayed, it was in these really nice cabins that actually had air conditioning. They also had this big porch that had some tables and a lot of chairs which was probably my favorite part of the cabin. The reason for that is sometimes on days when there is nothing to do I could play cards with my friends or just hang out on the porch. It does have some downsides though, one time a gust of wind picked up my drawing and it fell down the cracks in the porch, I never got it out, so it was quite unfortunate. But that's all I really have to say about the cabins. This is the first blog that has been in a while because of camp so I do apologize, but that is all for today.

September 2nd: This is my ode to pasta, pizza, and gelato. We are in Italy now, and I must say, the food is awesome. And when I say awesome I mean superior or S-tier food. I have not been disappointed once. Another thing that made Italy amazing is that my grandparents actually came to Italy as well to hang out with us for a week. Me and my grandparents played a lot of UNO and they were actually fast learners and were able to play the game really well. We also went on a day trip to Venice. Venice is probably one of the most amazing places in Italy.

As if you didn’t know, there are no cars, only gondolas, a type of canoe - like a boat. The reason that they use gondolas is because Venice has no roads, just canals and lakes around and in the city. I also liked going up this big clock tower because the view was amazing from the top. Some more things I love about Italy is how purely great it is, the people are really nice, the food is very good, and the buildings are beautiful. I am loving Italy so much that I think that it is my favorite place we have been to on this entire trip so far. Please see my video for more on glassblowing and gondolas in Venice.

 Simon’s Reflection

I am in Italy! My grandparents just left. Let’s go back to what happened a few days ago…

I went to this place called Gardaland, kind of like Disney World with all these rides and stuff. There, I went on this huge droppy thing, and then I watched my Dad do this really intense roller coaster. I got gelato there. 

To get to Venice, I went on a train. We had a really long tour. We learned about Marco Polo. We got gelato.

In Sirmione, we went to this castle and went to a little ocean and swam.

One day, Grandma, Grandpa, and me went out just us together. We had a lot of fun. When we went to lunch, I got this octopus salad, and we were going to get gelato but since I drank all my Coke I couldn’t! We also went into the water and I didn’t have a bathing suit on so it was really funny. We saw a turtle eating a dead fish in the water which was surprising.

It was really nice to see my grandparents because I haven’t seen them in a really long time. I am going to start online school tomorrow. I feel good and worried about that. I hope you like this blog post!

Calla’s Corner:

Mommy: Calla, we’ve been in Italy for about a week and a half. What has been your favorite thing so far?

Calla: I like stuff.

Mommy: Can you tell me which stuff you liked?

Calla: All the stuff I liked was going in the pool, spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, my family, I liked the theme park. Um, I also like going on so much hikes.

Mommy: We didn’t do any hiking in Italy.

Calla: I still like so much hikes, and I really liked all of it and I love my whole family in the world.

Mommy: What is your best memory from Italy with Grandma and Grandpa?

Calla: Peppa Pig Land and the Kitty Meow show.

Mommy: How has the food been in Italy?

Calla: Good! The heart pasta was delicious. Definitely delicious, haha.

Mommy: Anything else that you’d like to add about our time in Italy so far?

Calla: I liked all the castles, I liked the tour, I liked going on gondolas and since I was scared, I liked the food, and also I liked all the yummy food, and the dinner was special, I liked so much gondolas and since I was scared but now I’m not anymore. And that’s really all I want to say. And the boat taxi was so beautiful and we didn’t get to swim but that’s not really my priority, and then the water was so beautiful. And it was just fun. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying.

Mommy: Thank you, Calla, for your wise words.

As always, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for coming along with us on our adventures. Keep in touch!

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla