Sunday, March 24, 2024

Our day started at Locanda Del Molino B&B, just outside of Cortona, Italy. Breakfast was included in our hotel stay, so we walked down to Restaurant La Baracchi around 9:00am to eat a little something before our departure. Andi and I were hoping for more of a breakfast spread since there’s a Michelin Star restaurant associated with this hotel, but alas, it was the usual selection of cakes, pastries, and yogurt. I felt for the wait staff who worked late into the evening at last night’s dinner service, and were still working at breakfast this morning. They must’ve been tired.

After breakfast, the four of us drove into the town of Cortona about 6 miles from Locanda Del Molino B&B. Cortona is a picturesque town in the Tuscany Region of Italy, and the setting for the book & movie Under The Tuscan Sun. It’s a small, charming town with no shortage of cobblestone streets, old churches, and breathtaking views.

Aden said his stomach hurt again this morning, and complained about walking up the hill into town. We stopped along the way at an overlook with a bench to let him rest. While we waited there, Tory and I were making fun of Andi for wearing black socks and slippers this morning. He rolled up his pants to emphasis his footwear, and said he was going to wear his pants like this all day today — just for us.

After sitting on the bench for 15 minutes or so, we decided to continue walking into the old, historic part of Cortona. It was busy this morning in the main piazza with church goers and tour groups. Today was Palm Sunday, and many people were carrying olive branches in their hands. Andi and I were surprised how many Americans we saw & heard speaking around us — more than anywhere else we’ve been in Europe.

Aden was not feeling well, so we sat on the stairs of a church while Andi went into the pharmacy to get him anti-nausea medicine. It’s so strange how he goes from feeling nauseous one minute to feeling full of energy the next.

Andi booked us a hotel room for tonight in the town of Perugia, Italy. Perugia is half-way between Cortona and Spoleto, where we have to return our rental car tomorrow. We planned to treat the kids to an afternoon of swimming in the hotel’s indoor pool, but now that Aden wasn’t feeling well that may not work out after all. That’s the trouble with traveling and being sick; we didn’t really have anywhere to go this morning until we could check into our new accommodations. Andi called the hotel and they said we could check-in early, so we decided to leave Cortona and start making our way there. At least Aden could lay down and relax in the hotel room this afternoon.

The drive time from Cortona to Perugia took 45 minutes along the expressway. Aden didn’t look so great in the backseat; Tory put on a brave face sitting back there with him! Luckily, he didn’t throw up.

Andi booked us one night’s stay at Park Hotel. This hotel offers a restaurant and a wellness center with a gym, a heated pool, and sauna/steam room. Andi and I’s idea for staying at this hotel was to give Tory and Aden a break from touring around historic villages, but Aden not feeling well threw a wrench in our plans.

The hotel wasn’t quite as nice as Andi and I imagined. It was located right off the expressway, which was convenient for our travels, but made the rooms a bit noisy. Plus, there wasn’t a lot of restaurants or things to do around the hotel except for the amenities within the hotel. Park Hotel was situated in an industrial zone.

When Andi reserved a hotel room for tonight, he was clear with the hotel employee that we were a family of 4 and needed three beds. The employee said the hotel didn’t have a family suite, but they had a room with two double-beds that would sleep four people, and they could also set up an additional cot for a child. When we arrived at the hotel this afternoon to check-in, the woman said to Andi, “No baby?”

“No, we don’t have a baby,” he said, “two children,” and pointed to Tory and Aden.

“You don’t need the cot then?” the hotel manager clarified.

“Yes, we do,” Andi said. “The children do not sleep together. We need two beds for them to sleep.”

Once again, the hotel staff were completely confused as to why we’d need two separate beds for our children to sleep. The cot she’d been referring to was actually a pack-n-play — for a baby. She went back and forth with Andi about possible solutions as the hotel did not have a family room with three beds. Andi was frustrated because he’d purposefully asked about that when booking the hotel room and requested three separate beds.

“Thank you, but this is not going to work,” he told the woman. We’d find somewhere else to stay tonight that better suited our family’s needs. Meanwhile, Aden was sitting on the lobby sofa looking like death warmed over.

“No, please, we can make it work!” the hotel employee urged Andi. She suggested we reserve two adjoining hotel rooms, each with two beds. They agreed to separate the double bed inside the room into twin-size beds for Tory and Aden. This, of course, would be an additional cost because now we had to rent two hotel rooms instead of one family suite.

We waited in the lobby for about 15 minutes to make the necessarily room accommodations. I overheard the woman on the phone relaying orders “for the Americans” to housekeeping. Why is it so strange that our kids want to sleep in separate beds? This is clearly a cultural difference from most Europeans.

Once in our adjoining hotel rooms, Andi and I offered to pickup something to eat for lunch and bring food back to Tory and Aden at the hotel. (The hotel had a restaurant, but apparently it wasn’t open). Tory said she’d stay with Aden while he laid down. Andi and I drove all around the area near Park Hotel, but couldn’t find a restaurant that was open today except for McDonalds. Finally, we found a place with traditional Italian-style food still serving customers until 3:00pm.

Judging by the look on the greeter’s face when Andi and I walked into the restaurant, I thought it was going to be another instance where she told us there weren’t any tables available for us. There aren’t a lot of tourists outside the historic city centers of Umbrian towns, and once we leave that bubble the local people don’t seem to speak or understand English. This woman did find a table for us this afternoon, and gave us menus in Italian.

Andi ordered an appetizer for us to share, and we each ordered an entree. He picked chicken breast with boiled potato, and I ordered papparelle with ragu. The food was very “home cooking” and reminded me of a place families at home in Wisconsin would go after church to eat together on Sundays.

Andi used Google Translate to order chicken nuggets, fries, and gnocchi to-go for Tory and Aden. It was too much detail to try to relay to our server through hand signals and broken Italian. Our waiter was very kind about preparing a take-out order for us, and even gave us a metal fork to keep when we asked for plastic silverware to take along.

Aden had perked up by the time we arrived back at the hotel, and said he was ready to eat. He finished his entire entree, then said he felt fine enough to swim. It’s so strange how his nausea comes and goes — yesterday throwing up in the car, but then being completely fine last night at dinner; feeling nauseous this morning in the car again, but then perking up this afternoon. Maybe it’s just car sickness?

We had the entire pool & spa area to ourselves as I don’t think there are very many guests staying in the hotel with us. The kids had a blast swimming in the heated pool, and then the four of us sat in the steam room & sauna room together. It was nice to do something fun & different this afternoon. Glad Aden was feeling better.

Later, Andi and Tory ran to McDonald’s to get food for dinner. There weren’t any other options close to our hotel, though McDonald’s suited Aden and Tory just fine. We ate the food in our hotel rooms, and Andi and I watched our home church’s Palm Sunday service together.