Back to Reality!

Ah, vacation is over...


Back to reality. I wasn't initially enthusiastic about the way the end of our vacation was structured. Instead of flying home from Paris, we flew back to Pittsburgh for a couple more days with the in-laws. Turned out, it wasn't all bad. I maybe still would have preferred to go home, but it wasn't as stressful as I thought it could be.

Usually when we get home from a couple weeks overseas, all I want to do is get back to my routine. Which is to say, get back to eating normal food, working out regularly, and getting laundry washed and put away, just generally getting organized and back into reality.

But we both came down with some kind of cold toward the end of our trip, so while it still would have been nice to go straight home, we went back to Pittsburgh. We went to the Walgreens walk-in clinic right after dumping our luggage. Slightly fearful that (having totally avoided any news headlines while we were gone) we would explain that we'd just flown back from Europe a couple hours ago and these were our symptoms, they suddenly would come back from the doctor's office in full quarantine gear to tell us that we had Parisian flu or something. But no, it's just bronchitis. And so I have no desire to work out right now, and I don't mind living out of the suitcase and eating fun food for a couple extra days, rather than getting back to routine.

So, vacation was pretty friggin' awesome.

It was a little odd to go this time because I wasn't as excited about our major trip of the year as I usually have been in the past. It was a combination of having to run a marathon at the beginning of this trip (and not just any marathon, Boston with a time goal), and leaving behind a job that I'm finding I completely adore. But yeah, even though I wasn't chomping at the bit to get out of dodge, it was absolutely fabulous.

We broke it into 6 separate chapters, and whenever we were in transit, we'd say "capitolo" x (for whatever chapter number we were on).

Chapter 1 was Pittsburgh. Fun. We went out for a big family lunch. Hubby's parents, brother and his wife, other brother's son and his wife and their two kids, and hubby's son and his girlfriend. The restaurant had good food but pooooooor service. The set-up made it tough for everyone to talk to each other, so afterward we all went over to our nephew's house to visit with everyone some more. Got to play with his 2 babies, and hear about his wife's training for her half marathon (Nashville Country Music). Brother and sister-in-law brought dessert. Since we ate pizza for lunch and tons of dessert, I knew vacation was officially underway.

Chapter 2 was Boston. I'll have to post a full race report to cover the expo and the marathon, but besides that, we also went out for a pre-race dinner with friends at Maggiano's. I generally try to avoid eating at any chain restaurant on vacation, but the night before a marathon is a given exception to that rule since I am content with any basic known quantity. After the marathon and the immediate aftermath, we got dressed up and went to dinner at a restaurant named Torro in the South End. It was tapas and a perfect second anniversary dinner. We took a cab back to the hotel and then walked to get gelato.  But far and away, what I'll remember about Boston was the race.  Missed my time goal, but still got a PR and got my "re-Q" (which means I can run Boston next year if I want (assuming it's not full)). 

Chapter 3 was Calabria. Worst part of the trip was getting to Capitolo 3.  I don't recommend an international flight in coach within 30 hours of completing a PR marathon.  Ugh.  Tight, tight legs.  But before I knew it, we were in Bella Italia!  We really should have counted this as two separate chapters.

Chapter 3A was when we went to Pizzo, the town where we got married, and ideally the town where we'll retire and move in about 10 years, more if necessary, but best case scenario is 10 (though it will definitely depend on my job and ability to work abroad). We tried to go to lunch at the place where we had our rehearsal dinner, but it had moved and we'd already parked so we decided to find something closer. Fun little pizza place, for pizza number 4 for me, number 6 for hubby. We wandered the streets and I got souvenirs for coworkers and we got a gift for hubby's family (since somehow this had slipped my mind as something to do before we left) (note to self -- next time we're going to bring tortilla chips and salsa (if we check a bag) and marshmallows for Rosaria). We went for gelato in the piazza, and went to the castle where we got married and sat on the bench outside the castle where we'd gotten engaged. Normally we'd spend a lot more time walking, but my legs were still pretty beat up from the marathon.

We also went to dinner at the restaurant we ate at the night we got engaged. We slept like crazy that night too. Then in the morning, we pretty much just got up and got organized and then were on our way to my husband's family's house.

Chapter 3B was Lamezia Terme. Wow, we love it here. His family is getting more consolidated in the same area. We stay with hubby's aunt and uncle, who are older. Unfortunately on this visit, his aunt was sick. She was in her robe and pajamas the entire time we were there, even for Easter lunch. I still need to look up what she has -- sounds like it was some kind of herpes of the colon???? Definitely manifested in a rash, pain and fatigue. That was hard to watch. We never discussed it, but I think it was a dose of reality for both of us -- they are getting older, and at some point, they may pass away. Hopefully that is still way, way in the future, and ideally won't even happen until after we've moved there and gotten to spend a lot more time with them.

So most of the time in Lamezia, we were just hanging out. Lots of time visiting with family and friends. And we met tons more people this trip because hoards of people seemed to stop by over the course of the many days to check in on his aunt. And we went to church. A lot. We went 3 times while we were there, and narrowly dodged a fourth, though we did have to go into a church during the vigil and pray for a little while, so that was almost like a fourth time. We went to a cool park one day to go running, and we went to the Lamezia Tennis Center, once to watch, once to play.

And above all else, we ate. Huge meals for lunch every day. I think only one large dinner (out for pizza with hubby's cousin and his wife). I took photos of lots of the food in Lamezia and on the rest of the trip. I'll have to do a separate post about that. Having his aunt be sick meant that one of her daughters did a lot of the cooking. She lives in Belgium and I'd never met her before, though I'd talked to her on the phone. But it was cool because she understood the vegetarian concept. She didn't do much altering of what she cooked, but she would set aside some of the pasta without sauce for me and then top it with greens or something else. And she'd warn me when something was stuffed with meat. She missed it once, there was pasta with a red sauce that definitely had meat in it, but I picked out what I could and just ate the rest. So even skipping the meat, I felt like I was borderline ready to hurl a vast majority of the time we were there, but I wouldn't have it any other way. They feed and feed and feed us. It's so much fun. It's impossible to say no. Even when you know it's too much, but it's definitely how they show their hospitality.  From Lamezia, we drove through Calabria and Basilicata and then into Puglia, the region that makes up Italy's boot heel. 

Chapter 4 was Lecce and environs. We were there to visit our neighbors in Dallas. They are among our favorite people in the world and divide their year among homes in Dallas, outside of Detroit (Troy), and in Lecce. And we see them in Dallas of course all the time, and we're going to visit them in Troy for the first time in July because my baby bro is getting married in Detroit. So we figured we could cap it off and make 2011 be the year we see them in all three of their homes. The first day there, we went to her sister and brother-in-law's house for a huge VEGETARIAN lunch. That was awesome. Our neighbor knows all about my dietary restrictions (re: vegetarian and allergies) as well as my preferences since we eat dinner together so often in Dallas. So it was an awesome meal of course. That was actually good because our stomachs were fully stretched from all the time in Lamezia, so we were really able to put some food away! There was eggplant parmesan followed by a secondo of mostly kinds of cheese. But that too will be in the food post I'll have to do. We spent one day kind of driving around the heel of the Italian boot, the Salento peninsula. We took some completely awesome pictures.

It's funny, I've been all jazzed about doing our Christmas card photos on this trip. We always send a photo or two with our cards. Usually from wherever we were on vacation that year. So we took great shots, several of which would work well for our 2011 card enclosures. Until I got back to the hotel that night and realized the sweater I was wearing is the same one I wore in our Christmas card photos in 2006 when we went to Bosnia! Shit!!! What can I say? I hate shopping, I have several things that I love to wear and wear often, and further, there are only a certain number of clothes that are kind of thin and packable and the right weight to wear in Europe and be ready for layering as needed. Ugh. So maybe we won't be using the pictures we took that day! Anyway, among driving the coast and stopping for pictures, we got to see the chapel where our neighbors got married (he wasn't Catholic so they couldn't get married in the Lecce cathedral). We took some pics down at Santa Maria de Leuca, which is the very tip of the heel, where the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea meet. We also went to Gallipoli, which was fun. Not the same as the famous Gallipoli from WWI. But good gelato and crepes.

By the final day in Lecce, I wasn't feeling swell. My throat was sore and it hurt to swallow. Couldn't tell if it was maybe from not drinking enough water, or if I was actually getting sick. We got up for breakfast and then I went back to bed. I kind of dozed most of the morning, then finally got up and went out to lunch. We ate at a restaurant that had been written up in the New York Times and was really, really good. I'll have to write that up too! Spent lots of time there wandering the streets of Lecce, checking out the old city. We walked through all three of the city gates. There was lots of graffiti in the city, and tons of immigrants (African and Indian?), and you could tell there were more Americans because of the military connection because we saw a McDonalds! That's something we see as a positive for Lamezia -- no McDonalds. But at the same time, Lecce had a lot more in terms of tourist attractions. Churches with signs, the city gates, an old amphitheater, etc. But we like that Lamezia is just authentic Italian, nothing in particular for tourists. 

Chapter 5 was Paris. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't ideal. It was grey the whole time, and drizzled/rained some one day. We were up on the Eiffel Tower and for a while, all we could see were clouds. But we did get some awesome photos there when it wasn't raining that WILL work for our Christmas cards. And I was wearing a brand new shirt for the first time, so no risk of an outfit repeat this time! We didn't do some of the main Paris sights (Notre Dame, Versailles, and the museums specifically) because we weren't there long enough. I've been to Paris a ton of times, so I've seen all of that. This was my husband's first time there and his main priority was going up the Eiffel Tower and walking around the city. He doesn't love museums and churches in general (but of course goes with me, and I've dragged him through the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and through every church we saw in Lecce, off the top of my head). So we planned our trip based on his priorities. We went up the Eiffel Tower and spent most of the rest of the time just wandering (and of course eating). We did the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, Sacre Coeur, and a few other things like strolling along the Seine. It turned out that it was good we didn't have an ambitious itinerary anyway, because by the time we got to Paris, we were both coughing a lot. I felt wheezy and a little stuffy nose/headache stuff happening. We did have one particularly great meal -- dinner in a little restaurant in Montmartre. Everyone in there was French. No menu in English. My translating skills were put to the test! I minored in French in college (and I studied French for about 6 years before that), but sadly, it is almost all lost to me now, completely replaced by what Italian I know. Anyway, Paris was lovely, despite the weather. We'll definitely go back for more time together.

Chapter 6 was back in Pittsburgh. Direct flight from Paris, which was nice. Awesome meal made by my mother-in-law the day we arrived (this penne with cauliflower ragu she knows I love), and a cake she made for dessert. And we got Z-packs and steroids that quickly started to make us feel better. We also got to see another one of hubby's brothers and his wife who came over for dinner one night. And I got to play dominoes with my mother-in-law, which is one of my favorite things to do with her (who am I kidding? with anyone!), and to look through old photos, which is always fun! Staying with the in-laws though means lots of shouting. I don't know why his mother won't get a hearing aid. The tv is on at high volume, and everyone has to shout all conversations, even not involving her, because she always wants to know what everyone is talking about. The funny thing is that in Calabria, English was like our secret little language. No secret language in Lecce because we were with our neighbors who speak English and Italian, but since we like them a lot, we didn't need a secret language. Then in Paris, we had two options -- English or Italian, for a secret language.  Depending on where we were, we usually spoke to each other in Italian. And in Pittsburgh, where his parents speak Italian and English, we still have a secret language -- we can talk in loud whispers and they don't even know we're talking!  Haha. I do love being there with them though.  But the Pittsburgh finale was pizza number 11 for my husband and 9 for me! Wow.

And after all that, vacation is over. I can feel how soft my tummy is. I can see my chest is substantially bigger. And when I try to sleep on my side, as I usually do, I can tell my thighs don't fit together the way they normally do! Yeah, I've got a lot of work to do in May! It was 100% worth it! Total damage according to the scale -- about 7 pounds.  Back to boot camp and running (but gradually easing in to both) on Wednesday...