Safely home

Yesterday, we arrived home safe and sound!

Eddie didn't make it three feet inside the door before he found left-behind toys. So many toys that have been missing him! He also didn't make it three feet before we found that he could easily reach things that were previously out of his reach (a train on top of a table.) Uh oh!

We're overcoming jet lag and getting reacquainted with old buddies (Eddie has been carrying around Renard, his little fox, a lot since he found him again.) Nonno took his leave today, and Eddie will sure miss him!

Gorges

On Sunday, we left Grasse and traveled up a winding mountain road to Castellane, a very pretty little town where we stopped for lunch. It had a church high, high above it on a cliff, which we could see long before we got there; Eddie said "Bing! Bing!" when he saw the bell tower. The restaurants were all packed, even in this small town in rather remote mountains: it's amazing how many people are in Provence now! Every little village is having a festival, and is jammed, and on the roads between we saw hundreds of swimmers, climbers, and hikers. Where do they all come from?

We ate outside, as usual, in front of a church with a depiction of Jesus over the door that looked a little like Eddie's grandpa Steve when he was younger. Eddie tried a bunch of weird French foods and seemed to like them.

From Castellane we descended into the gorges of Verdon, a series of canyons whose "Grand Canyon" (that's French for "grand canyon") is second only to THE Grand Canyon in size and depth. It was pretty spectacular, but Eddie slept through it. We got to the "Point Sublime" (that's French for "sublime point") which was just breathtaking; then we passed high over a sparkling blue lake. Eddie woke up then, as we were about to leave the spectacular gorges. We passed through Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, which is apparently very cute, but we didn't stop because all this mountain driving is more exciting than the freeway, but also much slower, and we were worried about Eddie's bedtime. We did stop in a little town called Riez, which was ALSO having a festival, dedicated to wheat! Eddie was fascinated by a marching band which was led by a little girl. We heard it at first from afar making a buzzing kind of sound-like kazoos-and close up we saw that the instruments were all decorated like bees or other insects; it was a buzzing band of bees! There was a big line of kiosks selling all kinds of clothes and jewelry. As we walked through, Eddie tried to slyly slip a shiny silver watch strap (or something) off a table, but the vendor saw him. What a rascal! There were also old people dressed up like peasants (or maybe they just dress like that) showing off wool carders, smoking renderers, and other farm implements. Eddie was fascinated by some chickens-a rooster and two hens-in a cage. Then he got to watch a big group of farmers dancing while his parents got some ice cream. As we left town, we saw that there was a kind of fairground outside town with even more stuff going on, in a big field empty except for three tall columns remaining from a Roman temple. The thing is, this was a tiny little place, which in the States would just be a depressing place to get gas.

Driving along from there, we saw a few fields of lavender, and finally left the mountainous region, crossing the Durance river. We finally got to our hotel in Avignon, out of gas (American credit cards are too primitive to work in the gas stations; European cards have all had smart chips for years. And of course the stations are unmanned on Sunday, so they can't take cash) and a little late for Eddie's bedtime. So we had dinner at the hotel cafe, which was awful, and turned in.

Shoes

This kid just loves shoes. Whenever we mention them, and he catches sight of them, he says "shoes," lovingly, then giggles and covers his mouth coquettishly.

Grasse

Saturday morning, we left Genoa early and headed up the highway, which has lots of tunnels through all the mountains here. We stopped in a little town called Taggia to walk around and let off steam, after which Eddie took a long nap in the car. Luckily, he had enough time for a long nap, because of all the times we had to wait in huge lines to pay tolls!
Now we're out of Italy and into France. Our first stop is Grasse, a little town which produces a ton of the world's perfume. This weekend they're having their Jasmine festival. There were so many people and marching bands, and the whole city was rigged with sprayers misting the streets, both cooling it down and scenting it with jasmine. We followed several bands around and Eddie clapped for all the songs. On one cute street, we saw an ice cream shop, but Mama said she only wanted ice cream if they had lavender. Well, this ridiculous challenge was no problem for this glacerie, which had not only lavender but also jasmine and violet!
Eddie enjoyed finding a wall on a piazza with a big waterfall all along it. Then we climbed up to the cathedral-- Eddie still loves visiting churches to dip his hand in holy water-- and on the way, we kept encountering big blue paper ribbons on the road. Eddie would pick them up and carry them for a while. Finally, behind the church, we found their source: a bunch of trees had been festooned with them, near a square with a beautiful overlook of the valley below Grasse. A bunch of kids were running around with them, or jumping in mounds of them, and it was a wonderfully breezy spot to sit down and cool off.

As we were finishing dinner, we heard the thumping beat of a parade approaching in the distance, and set off to find it. Wow! There were all sorts of people dancing and playing music, in strange outfits. Some pretty girls were handing out a big load of flowers, and Eddie got some that he carried the rest of the trip (back to the car, and into the hotel, and back into the car the next day, although by then they had been pretty well dismembered.) Some ballerinas dressed like flowers did a dance around and on a wheelbarrow. Some people on huge stilts came leaping down the steps on the road. Eddie was really impressed by a group with very loud drums, and flashing lit-up costumes-- he says "boom! boom!" a lot now, when he thinks about them.

Eventually it was time to go back to the hotel and bed, clutching our flowers. We're really glad we got to be in Grasse for the festival-it was a lot of fun.

Genoa

After a morning walk through Lucca, visiting several churches, we drove on to Genoa while Eddie napped. It was really hot! We had to keep to the shade wherever we went. After lunch, we walked downtown. Eddie ran around for a while in the courtyard of the town hall. Then we got to Piazza de Ferrari, which had a huge fountain to run around, and some giant speakers where a band was setting up or something. Every once in a while they would start playing music—sometimes extremely loudly—then stop in the middle of a song. Eddie was running back and forth, dancing away whenever the music started, then shaking his open hands to say "all done" when it stopped. He approached some of the other people around, too. He wandered into a photo with great panache—he just walked up to stand next to the two people getting photographed, looking up as if to say "So what are we doing, guys?"

Another guy was sitting on the edge of the fountain, looking kind of depressed. Eddie climbed up to sit by him and make buddies. Then when the music started, Eddie danced on his seat, looking at the guy to say "see? Dancing is fun!" When the music stopped, Eddie ran off, but whenever it started again Eddie would run back to tell his friend about it. The guy had to smile. Nonno thinks that Eddie reminded him why life's worth living.

The next day we took a funicular up to Righi, a town on a mountain over Genoa. It had some nice views, and an observatory with models of all the planets for Eddie to look at, and then we had a long walk on a quiet road through a forest. We had lunch at a charming restaurant with a view, and underneath a man was mowing what must have been mint, because it smelled wonderful.

After Eddie's nap, we went back downtown, and headed into a street of shops. Eddie stopped in a toy store to look at some accordions. Then we got to the church of San Matteo, which besides being practically named after my father, has a mosaic above the door which looks just like him!

After that we visited the Duomo, which has some fantastic, long-maned, friendly-looking lions on its front steps. Inside, our guidebook casually mentions, it has the Holy Grail. ?! Of course we tried to see it, but it's in the treasury, which was closed. Darn! I bet this is what happened to the knights of the round table too!

We did get to see an unexploded bomb which hit the cathedral (which they keep around as a souvenir of a miracle, I guess.) I was worried that Eddie would knock it over so we hurried out. Outside, he ran around like a crazy guy. He saw another toddler, headed toward him, and said "Ciao baby!" Eddie veered away from actually encountering the kid, though, and started chasing pigeons.

At dinner time we found that Eddie is really into seafood now: shrimp and crab were big hits.

On the road again

Today we left Urbino, starting to make our way around to Spain to catch our return flight. On the way we stopped at the same restaurant in Monterchi where we ate before (and Eddie hit his head.) The restaurant's good, though (if very slow) and Eddie stayed upright this time. Then we stopped in Florence to go through the big leather market and get some belts. Eddie spent the time with Nonno in a pretty shaded courtyard by the church San Lorenzo, where he charmed all the docents.

Eddie was really tired, and he slept through a lot in the car. On the way into Florence, he was asleep when a police car went by with its siren wailing. Eddie shouted "Ah! Wee-ooo, weee-ooo!" in a voice hoarse from sleeping—and stayed asleep!

Later we stopped at an Autogrill on the highway for dinner. Eddie shared some of our food, as usual. Toward the end of our meal, I was trying to get him to eat a piece of pear, but he kept looking away and refusing it. He loves fruit, though, so I said "Eddie, I don't think you've seen what this is. Look with your eyes!"  Immediately, he turned, grinning, grabbed the fruit off the fork, and stuck it in his eye!

We stopped for the night in Lucca.