"The Hill are Alive With the Sound of....Panting"

June 30, 2007

I was hoping with the new sun a new and improved attitude for the boys would follow. They slept until 8:30, which is really rare and then went to breakfast with Pat. After the meal I got the boys ready for the day and while we were waiting on Pat, Filippo hit me and stuck his tongue out at me. Great another crappy day I thought. I took his MP3 player he was listening to and this proved very effective. Shortly after my mini victory of discipline we left for the base of Mt. Bianco and some beside it. I found out we were going to hike up the Alp facing Mt. Bianco. Um so I know the Sound of Music didn’t take place in Italy but it looked like the opening scene from the film. The hike (over 3 miles uphill) was amazing but very hard for this out of shape American. We stopped at a refuge at the top of the Mountain and had a typical Aosta lunch (we were in the Aosta Valley). After lunch we talked for a while before the climb down. I met a professional photographer from Milan. He told me he use to do fashion photography but changed to portraits because it was very stressful and exactly like the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. I think the climb down was harder because it was so steep. My knees were aching afterwards but I was proud that I made the trek. When we got back we went to the pool and then to the room. They were being really good so I let them watch 15 minutes of TV before dinner. We all went together for our last dinner in this amazing hotel. I enjoyed it again but unfortunately had to leave before dessert because the boys were ready to go to bed. That’s okay cause I figured I would have plenty of gelato in the future.

The next day we loaded the car and I took the boys to the park until we met the parents a little before two. While we were waiting, we went to the pool where two ruby players were laying out (the Italian National Ruby team was staying at the hotel too). When they left for lunch one of them walked past me and said hi. I replied with something very intelligent like ummm. But I can say I talked to a professional athlete. After lunch we headed back to home sweet home (and I truly mean that cause I was off for the rest of the afternoon!!) Tomorrow (the 2nd) we go to the Italian Riviera for a week.