The Sweet Life of the Shutlers: Italian Adventure Part 1

We arrived home late Friday night from our two week adventure in Italy. I have decided to write a blog recap of our trip -- mostly for Kellen's sake, but also to help me remember it all! I will post some pictures in here and all of them on facebook. It was such a wonderful experience and I feel so blessed to have had the opporunity to share this trip with the 8 other people who went with me. Memories to last a lifetime were made.

We departed Michigan on June 16th and drove to Toronto. We spent the night there before getting up Sunday the 17th and heading to the airport. My brother made the comment about us (Dave and I) wanting to be conservative on the time we got the airport (meaning getting there earlier than we probably "needed" to be) but it turned out we were so glad we did! We got to the airport and got in line for the check-in counter. There was already a long line formed and it was hot and stuffy. When our group got to the front, they would only check in a couple of us at a time. Dave, Kellen, Geaneen, and I were last to go up. We had purchased a lap ticket for Kellen and we had paper tickets given to us by the travel agency that we were told to give when we checked in. Well... we ended up standing at the check-in counter for almost an hour and a half because Kellen wasn't on the plane and the girl working behind the counter couldn't figure out how to get him on there (even though we had the paper ticket). It was incredibly frustrating but finally we got it all set. We were certainly thankful that we had decided to get there early! Our flight was direct from Toronto to Rome. It was an overnight flight which we thought would be good because Kellen is such a fantastic sleeper. However, the plane was not great (stuffy, crowded, lots of crying kids) and none of us, including Kellen got much sleep. He would fall asleep in my arms but then anytime the plane jostled or I moved, he would slip and that would wake him up. I had him in a zipup sleeper and I ended up unzipping it to his diaper and tying it around his waist to try and cool him down a bit. He didn't really cry on the flight at all but he did get fussy more than normal. When we arrived in Rome we had to catch a connecting flight to Naples. In Naples, we met Claudio who was there to pick us up and drive us to Casilla Villa Nerana. However, he let us know that there was a strike (this is common in Italy) and the road to our town was closed for about another hour. So we ended up having him drive us into Naples where we had a quick lunch in the center of the city before heading to Nerano. Of course we all had to get a slice of pizza! Poor Kellen had a blowout in the carseat (little did we know this was just the beginning) and we had to do a quick diaper/outfit change in the backseat of the van. We set off to Nerano (near Sorrento) on switch back roads. As we approached the Amalfi coast we got to see the awe inspiring views. I had been to this area before and it was really neat to see my family members experience it for the first time.

Nerano/Sorrento
We were greeted by the owner of the complex, Guiermo, and he helped us lug our luggage up all the stairs to our apartments. We had two seperate apartments here-- Brian, Brit, Ben, and Kristin in one and Dave, Kellen, Geaneen, my mom, and me in the other. The views of the ocean are amazing here and the building is built amongst a lemon grove. There is also a pool nestled in here as well. It is a very unique place. After we had settled in, we decided to trek downhill to the little town (Nerano) which is right on the sea. There is a pathway but it is quite a long walk. We were thankful it was all downhill and that we had the stroller for K. We arranged to have Guiermo pick us up later. We put our feet in the water, ate dinner, and of course got some gelato. I don't really want to do a day by day account of everything we did here but we did do a couple great things. One of those things was to take a boat ride to Positano. We had a private tour to Positano and got to stop along the way and swim off the boat (Kellen of course did not go in the water here). Positano is a really cool town and we enjoyed an afternoon exploring it. We also took a bus to Sorrento one day. I loved this day. We walked around, had a delicious lunch on the dock and went swimming in the ocean. I was unsure how Kellen would do in this water. We had taken him swimming in the pool at the apartment and he LOVED it but this water was a bit cooler. However, he loved the sea as well! He ended up falling asleep on one of the lounge chairs we rented...wore him right out! While in Nerano, the gang also went to Pompeii. I made the decision not to go though. I have had the opportunity to visit Pompeii twice, and while it is amazing, I also knew it was very hot and there was no shade-- no place for a baby to be. Dave decided to stay back with me. I felt bad that he missed out on visiting it, but he and I had a nice relaxing day with Kellen that day-- swimming, taking a walk, and just hanging out. The last night we were there, Guiermo had promised us pizza from his pizza oven and a tour of his wine cellar. Little did we know this would also involve dance lessons! He had a woman come in to teach us the tarentela-- a native dance of Naples. We laughed as we attempted to learn this dance-- perched out on a patio with exapansive views of the ocean and coastline down below. After dancing (and drinking sangria) we had apitizers and then pizza served in his wine cellar. It was a wonderful way to end our stay in this beautiful location!