Roman Holiday... part 1

Swiss Border

The Alps

Gorgonzola Pasta

Oliver sick in the bed

     We took our first official vacation since the big move. The kids had two full weeks off of school for the Easter Holiday so where better to go than Rome. Rome was at the very top of Michael' "places to see list" so we thought why not start at the top.
     We both are a fan of a good road trip so instead of taking the ridiculously cheap airfares to Italy we decided to drive all 1,500 kilometers down. Mostly we wanted to take in the scenery on the way. So we headed down Germany and over the Swiss border. Someone had warned us ahead of time that you are required to purchase a toll sticker in order to drive in Switzerland which at first we thought was completely ridiculous until we had to stop get tickets and wait in line at  ever toll in Italy the 35 euro toll sticker did not seem so bad.
     Switzerland was beautiful the mountains and lakes were amazing. The best part, we did not have to drive over or around the Alps you just go straight through tunnel after tunnel. You start at one end and then pop out into the bright light and some beautiful new landscape complete with snow covered peaks and multiple waterfalls at the other. The only downside to Switzerland was I swear everywhere we got out of the car it smelled like cow manure we ate our sack lunches at a rest stop overlooking a glassy lake with the smell of manure in the air Lovely!
    As we came to the border of Italy I think Michael was ready to cancel Rome and settle into some wooden cabin in the Swiss Alps. But... we continued forward and found one the biggest negatives to driving in Italy (as mentioned previously) ENDLESS tolls, and don't make a wrong turn because it may just cost you 2 euros.
   We (or Michael) had driven 10 hours as we arrived in Bologna for the night. (also where we took our first wrong turn at a .50 loss.) We also discovered for the first time that Italy's traffic laws differ slightly from that of Germany In that they don't seem to obey them. Car lanes are of little importance as long as you can fit your car into a spot that's where it goes. Thankfully we did not have far to drive  to our hotel. At the Best Western of Bologna we had to get two separate rooms because no family in Europe is larger than 3. Even with two rooms they were very small and it was tight.    
      Everyone was starving so we walked down the streets in our new foreign land to find something to eat, this is where we made discovery number two, Italians only eat pizza and pasta. So we had pizza and pasta it was delicious the best we had the entire trip. The kids unfortunately were coming apart by then at around 9:00 and there was much groaning and gnashing of teeth. Oliver started to look a little flushed and sickly so we left as soon as we could. Michael carried him back to the hotel and set him down and he promptly throw up in the elevator and then all the way down the hall to the room.
ahh the joys of travel with kids!