Venice with the Kuehnes and Joneses

On Halloween the Kuehnes arrived in Sarone in time for our neighborhood Halloween party. They had driven from Mildenhall, UK, to Rome a few days before and had done the tourist thing in the Eternal City. On November 1st, All Saints Day, Tann and I took the day off and the whole crew headed down to Venice on the train from Sacile. We had six adults and 11 children, plus Morgan's bun-in-the-oven. Not that we aren't used to be a sight while traveling in Europe, but this day was especially noteworthy.

Here are most of the kids on a bridge on the main island: Georgie, Juliet, Tally, Samantha, Adayla, Landon, Payton, and Isaac. Missing Ryann, Xanthy, and Jacquelyn. We met the Kuehnes during the summer of 2011 in Altus, OK. They were TDY there for four months in transit between DC and the UK. It was the hottest, driest summer on record in Texoma and our three families, along with Alleys, spent well over half of it at the Altus AFB pool.


I think that Isaac has the darkest hair out of all eleven kids. And that is saying something. We love the Jones and Kuehne kids. They get along great with our kids and they all practically babysit themselves. We have climbed towers in Paris with the Kuehnes, and now we have conquered the islands of the Venetian lagoon with them. I had the kids all pick buddies in order to keep track of each other. The four older girls all wanted to be buddies with each other and had a hard time splitting up into two and two. Georgie and Tally, who ended up being buddies, were born within three days of each other: May 12 & 15, 2006.

Here are Morgan and Xanthy with Juliet. I'm not sure if Xanthy is copying Juliet or if they have the same nervous habit. We first met Xanthy in Paris last spring, where she was small enough to be toted up the Eiffel Tower in a backpack.

So cute!

We walked along the main street behind the Ca' d'Oro (House of Gold), which is the most ornate and famous palazzo on the Grand Canal, and went out to look at it close up. Right nearby is the Gelateria Ca' d'Oro, which has fantastic flavors. Everyone is obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves. Now we can see Ryann in the red sweatshirt and Jacquelyn in the yellow t-shirt, along with Squadron Commander (AKA "Tool Box") Tim. He graduated from the academy a few years ahead of me and we overlapped for one year in 1996. Tann is inside picking up the check. Thanks, Tann!

Ashley has been dying to visit the islands of Murano and Burano since we arrived here almost a year and a half ago, and with easy going-travel buddies we were able to make it happen. 

This is Murano, a very short boat ride from the northern side of Venice and the home of world-famous blown glasswares. It was very uncrowded and quaint, which was nice considering the main island was jammed packed with Italians on this national holiday. Angela had an especially pleasant ride on the sardine can that was our train car to Venice. When we all go to Austria in January I am going to pre-medicate her with some meclizine.


After some horribly indecisive moments on my part, we were finally able to purchase some sandwiches and pizza from a local bakery before it closed for riposo. We sat down on a nice flat wooden dock along the main canal to eat and relax. Several other Italian tourists were doing the same so we knew we were not violating any major social norms.


I love these candid shots. Landon and Xanthy are sacked out in their mothers' laps. And you can finally see Tann, but only the back of his head. That's okay, it is definitely his better side.

Our goal before leaving Murano was to see a glass blowing demonstration. We happened upon one and were able to slide right in and watch.

Here the glass artisan is collecting the molten sand on a metal rod.

Now he is shaping the glass using various instruments. He is constantly rolling the rod back and forth, back and forth, keeping the glass round and symmetrical. We watched him make a caraffe, a serving bowl, and two horses. More on those horses later.

The kids really enjoyed watching the demonstration, but I think I was the most fascinated. Here are Tally and Ryann with Georgie.

Adayla, Isaac, and Payton watching from the back row with Tim behind them. Did I mention that I wanted to reserve one of the Kuehne girls for Isaac when he is older? I thought I had. Still do.

I slipped out immediately after the demonstration to take Juliet to the bathroom. But the rest of the crew was herded away from the restroom and into the showroom where the glasswares were for sale. They were outright refused access to the bathroom unless they purchased something. Stay classy, Italia. Tann was afraid that Landon was going to soil himself so he bought one of those glass horses for 10 euro. Best 10 euro he ever spent.

After Murano I was ready to head back to the main island, maybe see St. Mark's and the Doge's palace, then start making our way back to the train station. Ashley would have none of it. We set out to do the islands, and come hell or high water (literally, since we were in Venice) we were going to see the islands. So on to Burano, which is a much longer boat ride. It is famous for its brightly colored houses and lace. You can understand why I wasn't so enthused.

Ashley and Morgan were in lace heaven, however. You can see some of the doilies and such in front of the shop behind them.  This picture says a lot about Morgan. She is pregnant and is carrying around her toddler on her back all over the Venetian islands. Ironwoman.

Here they are loving the brightly-colored houses along Burano's main canal. Xanthy demands to be noticed.

Angela and Jacquelyn wanted to get in on the action as well.

My number one priority in Burano, besides lace doilies obviously, was finding somewhere to eat. Fortunately, we found a nice restaurant with plenty of seating for all of us and a non-judgmental atmosphere regarding our brood of blonde children.

Xanthy and I bonded over pasta and insalata while Samantha and Adayla made faces at us. You can tell that I am waxing eloquent about some nonsense or another.

Keep talkin', blowhard.

There's Tann! The items in the middle were some kind of fried goodness that I don't remember. Ashley does, I'll bet. ("Cheese and cauliflower" is the reply.)

After dinner was the obligatory second gelato run of the day. Ahh, Venice.

The next day we took the Kuehne girls off Tim & Morgan's hands so that they could have some alone time. We went to Payton's birthday party at the Jones' house and then to the base Fall Festival for costumes and trick or treating. We buddied up again, and this time Ryann was my buddy. She is the sweetest little girl. If for some reason Adayla or Tally don't work out for Isaac, the boy has got options. I told Tim later on that every time we get together with them I am more and more impressed with his girls.

That evening we got the kids all together at our house and plopped them in front of a movie so that we could have some serious adult fun. We resurrected the Envelope Game that we played in Altus, minus the Alleys of course. Ashley texted some of these pictures to Jodi to make her jealous.

Now Angela is the one waxing eloquent. At least I appear to be listening.

Deep in thought, trying to think up the funniest questions/answers possible.

And here we are showing off our envelopes, along with some decent red eye. What a weekend! A blow-out Italian-American Halloween party one night, a tour of the Venetian islands the next day, followed by a birthday party, trick or treating, and the envelope game the next. The Kuehnes had to wake up at six o'clock the next morning to make sure they arrived in Calais in time for their Chunnel window. I did not envy them. But then I realized that I hadn't cleaned up from the party three days ago and it had rained significantly since then. Touche'.

Our three families will be getting together again this January in Austria for a skiing and hot springs weekend. Oh the hardships of an overseas tour! I love this place.

Thanksgiving in Tuscany

Thanksgiving in Tuscany has become a tradition in the short time that we have been here. Last year Megan found us a great renovated farmhouse near Scansano in southern Tuscany. This year she bested last year's performance and found us a huge villa just south of Florence with 38 acres of land on the rolling, olive orchard-covered hills of the Chianti region.

Are you kidding me? This is the kind of thing you see on Rick Steeves or Anthony Bourdain TV shows. Or, if you live here, this is your Thanksgiving house. This year our group included our family, Megan, Greg, Verna, Yorba, Ben, Charlotte, Luca, Steve, Kate, Brennan, and Ashley. What a fantastic bunch.

This place was amazing in November, so it must be mind-blowing in the spring and summer.

Juliet with Ben and Luca in the swing chair hanging from one of the many oak trees. The cat of the house, with the unoriginal moniker "Gattina", ran up this tree to get away from Yorba and Verna. And there she stayed despite the best efforts of multiple adults and children on a huge ladder. Once we ignored her and started eating dinner, she came down on her own. Of course. Cats.

There were two kitchens, and here are Ben, Megan, Greg, and Ashley in the first and most functional one. I made it a goal this year to not be a total mooch, so Ben and I did a literal mountain of dishes both before and after the meal.

When you are in Tuscany, the pre-dinner appetizer must consist of a variety of Italian cheeses.

And here is Isaac preparing, under Megan's supervision, the all-important M&M casserole.

Georgie helping Kate with the potatoes. Kate was wonderful with Georgie, and this is the beginning of a weekend-long practice for G.

Here Steve is putting the finishing touches on the Turkey in the suvee. You wrap the meat in plastic and the cooker circulates hot water around it until it is perfectly cooked.

And the end result. Enough to make a vegetarian weak in the gullet.

The formal presentation of the turkey. Our host, Francesco, whose family owns the villa, came to Thanksgiving dinner with us. He could not stop taking pictures of the turkey or commenting on how fantastic it was. Coming from an artistic Italian foody, that was a huge complement to Kate & Steve, who slaved over the turkey for a week.

The set table. Oh man, I can't wait.

The food starting to be piled on the table. We had way too much food. I about died throwing away all those leftovers on Sunday.

Friday morning, after a ridiculously slow start, we piled into cars and headed to Siena. Siena is sort of a mini, less crowded Florence. The two Tuscan cities have an insane soccer rivalry that takes its venom from the Battle of Monteparti between the republics of Siena and Florence on September 4, 1260. Siena won that battle, but Florence has won the tourist war.

Here we are in the Piazza del Campo, the main town square, with the Torre del Mangia in the background. We ate lunch at a small tavern just outside the square.

Every year on July 2 and August 16 there is a huge horse race, the Palio, here in the Piazza del Campo. There is a jockey and horse representing nearly every neighborhood in Siena and the stakes are very high. You can sort of appreciate how large the Piazza is and how the race must somewhat resemble the old Roman chariot races. We are debating if coming back for the Palio is a good idea or not.

The duomo is even more impressive than the one in Florence, in my opinion, especially the interior. But even the facade is so ornate and varied, rivaling Notre Dame.

This is the interior. I love the black & white motif, which mimics the black & white flag of Siena. There are two works by Donatello and one small sculpture by Michelangelo here.

This is the ceiling of the Piccolomini Library inside the duomo. The art in the library depicts the life of Pope Pius II, a native of Siena. The colors and the gold are overwhelming. Apparently Raffaelo designed this library but died before he could paint it.

The walls of the library.

These are the "books" in the library, which I presume contain the lyrics and music of the liturgies that were performed here. Again, the artwork in the books was incredible.

You can see the size of the books in comparison to the kids, who are hanging out in a little cubby hole in the corner of the library.

The kids were very well behaved the whole weekend. They have become excellent European travelers.

Great view of one of the many churches of Siena.

Saturday the ladies went to an antique market in Arezzo while the men took care of the kids, went on a hike to Montegonzi, a small town on a huge hill just above the villa, and played petanque, the French version of bocce ball. Huge regret that I don't have any pictures of our epic petanque games. Maybe Ben has some.

Saturday night we had a meal prepared by the villa's private chef, Maria, and we were joined by Francesco's parents, Paolo and Anna (the owners), as well as Anna's father Amadeo. None of them spoke any English, but we still had a fantastic time thanks to the Merback Family Translators.

This is where Georige was all night. I thought she hovered in the kitchen at home because her mom is in there, but no, even with a complete stranger who spoke zero English Georgie wanted to be in the kitchen with her, talking, watching and learning. Maria even let her cut some of the fresh-picked herbs with the double handled mezzaluna knife.

When I apologized to Maria for Georgie possibly being a nuisance, she told me "Nonsense!" (in Italiano) and that she loved having her there. She commented that Georgie was a perfect surrogate granddaughter and that she spoke Italian very well. Way to go, Gigi!

Great pre-dinner conversation. You can see some of the art decor of the house.

Our kids don't like Ben and Charlotte. They love them. I won't comment on the baby bottle. Or maybe I just did.

This is Amadeo, Anna's father and Franceso's grandfather. He was hilarious! Me was a mechanic in the Italian Air Force and had visited Aviano many years ago. We couldn't understand half of what he was saying, but that didn't stop him from telling us.

Anna serving us the primo piatto di pasta.

Isaac is thoroughly enjoying it. It really was fantastic pasta al pomodoro.

Georgie in the cinghiale hat that Megan and Greg gave us to commemorate our dead chickens that were eaten, we think, by a wild boar.

Greg and Megan! The master Thanksgiving planner. What will she come up with next year to top this?

We weren't having a good time at all.

Anna with Ashley and the girls. Ashley understands so much Italian that I rarely have to translate for her. And even Juliet is becoming brave and spouting out things that she has heard at Asilo.

How best to cap a fantastic evening in a Tuscan villa? With a turtle headstand, of course! All 240 pounds of Ben's frame supported on that noggin on the hard tile floor. We played the Envelope Game on Friday night, introduced to us by Angela Jones, and it was a huge hit with an encore performance on Saturday. We also had some great conversations about the forbidden topics: religion, morality, politics, etc. With this group anything is free game. Thank you to Megan for finding the place, to everyone who worked so hard getting the food ready, to the kids for being so well-behaved, and to the US Air Force for allowing us the privilege of living here. Until next year.