Friday, June 18, 2010

Sailing the Adriatic!

On the Sunday after the Rotary District Conference, Lolli picked us up at 8:00am for a day of sailing on the high seas!! At dinner the night before after two sweaty walks into and out of Venice, we tried to persuade him for a later start time, but Lolli promised the only activity planned for the boat was to sunbathe and rest. So 8:00am it was:)

We left the hotel in Mestre and headed to the fish market in Chioggia to pick up some fish for our lunch. The fish market was an open air market with about 50 booths for fisherman to display and sell their catch of the day. We saw many types of fresh fish (eel, octopus and more).

After the fish market we drove out to the area where Lolli’s boat was docked and met his son 5-year old son, Nicolo and his wife Kiara. Loaded everything up and headed to the boat.

The boat is a new 43-foot sailboat with 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms. It was probably as much (if not more) sq footage as my condo in San Fran. (This photo is from the boat as we left the marina.)



We sailed out the Venice lagoon to the Adriatic Sea. Nicolo liked to call us ‘The Americani’s and made sure all five of us were accounted for on a regular basis (uno, due, tre…) like any normal five year old. Nicolo’ did a lot of drawing and coloring while we sailed. He asked Lolli to tell him a story. So Lolli shared the historic story of how the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor to start World War II. Heavy stuff for a 5-year old, but he was intrigued. So curious that he asked Lolli to draw it for him! Tim and Dave put their drawing skills to the test!














While the drawing and history lessons were taking place, Eduardo, an avid sailor and Rotoractor who had been recruited to help with the sailing, was shepherding the boat out to the Adriatic Sea.



























Lolli and Kiara prepared Kiara’s favorite seafood risotto for lunch and it was out of this world. We drank, ate, and then napped in the sun. It was nice because (this is going to sound crazy, but...) we each got time to be quiet. It was truly a day of leisure!!





















The day ended with a comedy of errors including a dead battery in Kiara's car, a 2-hour trip from Chioggia back to the hotel in Mestra (we were all climbing the walls), missed our train to Verona so our massive luggage, 7 adults, and 1 child crammed into two cars for a crazy ride!! Kiara and Nicolo both had to ride in his car seat. Jess and I were in the back of the BMW with bags piled on top of us! Stopped at the autogrill (aka gas station) for dinner and went on to meet our host families (still in our beach attire) at 1am!! After dropping Dave with his Rotarian host in bathrobe and all, we headed to the train station to meet the other hosts. We were driving in tandom and Lolli drove off and lost Kiara. There was some stressful Italian shared between the two vehicles and when Kiara got off the phone with Lolli she shared with Tim (in her broken English) that Lolli was 'Hungry' with her (meaning he was angry with her). (For those of you who know Tim, ask him to share his version of this!)

1 comment:

  1. absolutely...positively...without a doubt...this is a typical GSE day!

    begging for AND being promised a day of relaxation (only to have it end at 1am!)...fantastic, new and special friends caring for you unconditionally (and constantly feeding you!), being able to take naps in front of your hosts and your teammates and everyone with you understands the need for your nap and loves you more for it. Learning from and teaching a young child in a new language...relaxing times, fun time, stressful times and all of them memories that will last forever.

    Thank you for sharing Wendy!

    ReplyDelete