Rock-Chalk-Road-Trip -- Italia!
Right around the time that we decided to move to Germany, we found out that the KU Basketball team was playing a series of exhibition games in Italy the following summer. And, honestly, that news came at just the right time. We had just begun preparing for our move and were feeling excited, but also pretty nervous. So knowing that a little bit of home (click your heels 3 times) was coming to Europe, really gave us all the comfort-zone-feel-good-feels.
We knew that we'd be heading to Italy to catch the game, hosted in a city about halfway between Milan and Lago di Como, and we played around with a few different trip ideas. But, I mean ... what other rational choice is there when LAKE COMO is in the mix???! That had to be the winner. We decided to road trip (even though you know our last long car ride didn't go sooooo well) because we'd need our car to get us from the Clooney residence 😜 to the small-town hosting the bball game. Jason knew that I'd be 100% opposed to driving 7 hrs straight from Frankfurt to Como, so he planned an overnight stop at a really beautiful lake town called Lindau right on the borders of Germany, Austria & Switzlerand.
It was a cool place, right on the water. A German town, but you could feel the additional European influences of Austria & Switzerland in its architecture and style.
Once we arrived, we walked around & ate dinner - but I'd been (and actually still am, ugghhh!) battling a cold/cough that just won't quit and wasn't feeling very picturey-bloggy. So I didn't document much of that first evening. But we woke up and spent some time in the town before heading to Como.
(we now interrupt this blog post to present the handsome husband award winner ... )
From there, we took the world's most beautiful drive. Honestly. I was captivated. I really can't think of another time that I have been this impressed with Mother Nature and these photos don't even do it justice. But if you find yourself in Europe, take a drive thru the Alps & see for yourself. I cannot wait to go back this winter for a bit of skiing! I am sure the mountains are just magical in the winter snow!
So when some of your favorite photos of your WHOLE trip are from the freaking DRIVE to the beautiful destination of Lake Como, that is TRULY saying something. I'll be replaying these views for lifetimes to come.
So we pulled into the town of Verenna at Lago di Como in the late afternoon and checked into our airbnb. We traveled with our best buds, the Pearsons, and were lucky to find a beautiful apartment big enough for all 8 1/2 of us :) The only major bummer of our weekend was that we traveled during a MASSIVE heat wave. Like. Massive. It was in the upper 90s during most of our trip & most restaurants & shops in Italy don't have AC. Our airbnb advertised air conditioning, but whatever it was...was NOT air conditioning. They provided a few fans for us, but needlesstosay, it was a sweaty weekend. It did put a bit of a damper (pun intended) on our trip. But the city & lake were truly beautiful. We had amazing food & a big storm came in on our last day that cooled things off. So we were left on a high note.
The next day, Jason, Asher & I took a ferry from Varenna (that was just steps away from our airbnb) over to the beautiful town of Bellagio. We had a yummy breakfast, walked around a bit.
Then trekked over to a beach. Bellagio is better known for its shopping and restaurants, but this little stone beach was perfect. The water felt amazing. It was the perfect temp to cool us off, but warm enough that we could all just sit & play in the water. Asher LOVED this beach experience...He's been to the beach in Portugal, but wind kept us from really getting to enjoy it, so it was fun to really beach it up in Italy!
After the beach, we took the ferry back to our home away from home & got ready for the game! The Pearsons, AKA rockstar fam, took a detour on their way back to Germany from the US to join us for the jayhawks! I I guess if you're recovering from jetlag, you may as well do it with a beautiful view!
The experience of being SO INCREDIBLY CLOSE to the players was just incredible. We would never and will never come close to this at any other type of KU game. It was really cool. We love that Asher's first ever jayhawk bball experience occurred in Italy. I mean. HOW COOL???!!
Remember when I said that facilities Italy are mostly unairconditioned... well.... that included the gym where the KU game was held...it. was. hot. So please excuse our red-sweaty-faces! Asher was actually pretty interested in the basketball game - ball is one of his favorite words and he said it about a million times during the game. He clapped when the crowd cheered & danced when the music played. We stayed through the first half and then the heat won out. We headed home, but the jayhawks won too. SCORE: 99 - something way less than 99 I can't remember!
We spent the next day loving every moment of the cooler temps & shopped around Bellagio. If you have ever been to Como you know that the beauty of the towns include the mountainous backdrop, but also the super cool alleys & stairways. The stairways made baby toting a bit of a challenge, but we made it work!! We had lots of stroller & baby holder helpers and were really able to enjoy it all.
That night, we found a restaurant that got GREAT reviews literally right up the steps from our airbnb. We made a post-baby-bedtime reservation & put the teenagers in charge. Because we were honestly 30secs away, we could all relax and enjoy dinner + some grown-up time! Dinner was delicious.
So another really great trip in the books & on the blog! Asher did a CRAZY AMAZING job as a little baby road tripper. Maybe he's turned a bit of a car-riding corner. FINGERS CROSSED!!
We have a bit of a travel break until September, so I've got some DIY projects in the works. Stay tuned.
ever yours,
lindsey
