His kindergarten sent down a note that they need 1 normal size and 2 ID card size pics of him …
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As I found out later, one was for identifying his locker, the others to show which towel and which toothbrush is his.
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There are those days that really don’t have a killer blog story to them .. so let’s just recap the status quo … Julius’ fever from Saturday has not returned … but he keeps reaching new levels of the ‘terrible twos’.
At least he was ok enough to be sent to school, but I called ahead to warn them. He came home fairly peachy and all was ok. But he does object about everything, cries instantly and throws his cuttlery down several times … so .. we think it might be a mix of teething, growth spurt and ‘just a phase’ … I wonder how long this will be going on …
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Sorry to all you people who like Genova .. or live there … but this was our second try (last time was also a Sunday, we got terribly lost in that very confusing traffic guidance system and in the end all we found in terms of ‘nice restaurant’ was McDonalds) .. and this place .. besides being butt ugly … just plain SUCKS …
To be fair .. I have to take into account that we had a semi sick toddler with us who was on bright red terrorist alert …
BUT .. there are like what … 5 – 6 parking lots around the very popular aquarium area .. and the guidance system totally leads you to all the ones that are full? So .. after checking four of them and stop trusting the system .. you come to #5 .. which says that it still has space .. but gee .. there is a line .. ok .. only like 10 cars .. we can do that .. so we waited .. half hour later the gate gave us a ticket telling us that NOW there is space available (and yes .. we have seen cars coming out) ..
And guess what .. I toured all 3 floors of the place .. and besides blocking life saving entrances .. there was NO space !!!! (the indicator indicated that there are still 71 places on floor 3 .. WRONG) ..
Ok .. juices pumping and everything (kid screaming in the back) … someone left and we had a spot .. about an hour after we arrived in Genova ..
So .. now it was already time for lunch .. but guess what … the one very obvious place harbourside (which had a bunch of free tables) said that they were booked out … Julius had discovered some of those rides that you put some money in and they wiggle around .. and once I pulled him off .. all was lost !!!
We found another place for food .. and it was actually ok .. but the little man was in super cranky mode .. so .. hard to review the place ..
After that we still had enough energy to check out the aquarium. If you have never been to one .. please go .. If you have been to others (like Melbourne or Cape Town) you might be a bit disapointed .. BUT .. they are actually doing a great job .. and there was some stuff I had never seen before .. and the way they lay out the path might be confusing at first .. but it actually takes you by places twice .. once down and then up .. in a way that does not seem repetetive …
They also have this cool touch pool where you can actually touch the rays … weird how after the death of Steve Irwin people still would want to touch rays.
What really ticked me off though was the fellow audience .. in the US people are trained to lines, queues and genral cortousy … not here .. not on a Sunday .. not when everyone and their grandmother’s uncle’s cousin now has a phone that can take crappy photos … now they have all the rights to stand in front of the picture perfect photo op and take blurry pictures of bubbles .. with flash … while signs and the PA tells everyone in 5 languages that flashes really hurt the sea inhabitants’ eyes ..
The level of ingnorance was just driving me nuts!
But .. we saw some great stuff .. until J just really hit the spot and we had to call it a day … Right now I have NO desire to ever return to Genova.
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Since we had been to Cinque Terre before, we could use our experience and streamline / alter this day a bit … fact is .. if you go for a 3 day weekend trip … WITH a toddler .. you get basically only one day to really explore.
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So, we walked to the train station, got our trusty 1 day Cinque Terre card for the day (still 5.40 EU) and there was actually a train waiting … so we reached Riomaggiore (the farthest of the 5 villages) fairly quickly … and this time, instead of heading right for the famous ‘Lover’s Walk’, we checked out the place .. and it is very beautiful … steep at times. This time we decided that we should use the baby backpack instead of the stroller .. which was a good idea .. but Julius must be like 14 kg by now .. and my back was really hurting later on. I just had to take a picture of this person drying all his socks .. very artsy.
We then strolled along the nice and easy Lover’s Walk, had a break at the same and only cafe/bar as last time … There was a musician playing along the way and around lunchtime we arrived in Manarola.
We had lunch at the same place as last time, but were not too thrilled this time … the waitress lady rolled her eyes a few too many times because it took us a while to decide … the food was good, Julius was falling asleep … It was a bit more stressful.
We continued the walk but found out that the stretch from Manarola to Corniglio was closed at some point .. so .. we just basically walked around, checked out the boat schedule … and discovered that Julius was running a fever (39.13 C / 102.4 F as we measured later) …
Good thing we took the boat (fairly expensive compared to the all day train ticket) but this way you get to see the villages from a different perspective. And once we arrived in Monterosso, we headed straight for the train, went home, I went to the pharmacy to get some medication for Julius … and he fell asleep.
The fever was gone when he woke up later and we were ok to go to our favourite restaurant in Levanto .. but as we had noticed last time … they are very stressed out on Saturdays … our charming waitress lady had forgotten all her English (on purpose I guess, seems she was training 2 new girls … who sucked) … and while the food was great as always … Ritsu’s fish did not show up and she went to the kitchen to complain and cancel the order. But the squid ink pasta was great, Julius ate a lot, I had grilled crustacians, Utako had steak in blue cheese … nice …
I still want to return to this restaurant for their meat fondue .. but I might want to omit Saturday evenings.
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Hey people, we are back at Cinque Terre!
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And this weekend is already starting better then last time (and that one was already pretty cool! For one, Ritsu found this great hotel directly in Levanto. Besides that it is superclose to the waterfront and everything else .. no driving duties for me after dinner .. which is great. (Plus free wifi internet connection, but reception in the room not that great .. so I am sitting in the lounge right now)
After arival we were surprised how mild the climate still was compared to Torino (which is only 2.5 h drive away) .. and people were actually still swimming and sunbathing … but compared to June, the beach was empty.
Julius had a blast throwing stones into the sea and after a short stroll around town we returned to watch the sunset.
For dinner we returned to our beloved 3 Cantine restaurant. This time we finally tried the Mixed seafood appetizer smorgasboard .. and I kid you not .. this is just fantastic .. it is meant for 2 and costs 20EU pp. But they said it is even enough for 3.5 people .. and so it was … over the next 40 minutes the nice waitress lady brought 20 different seafood themed dishes … from marinated anchovies to crab legs, seared tuna, fish salads and shrimp anything .. it was fantastic and never seemed to end … after that we could barely select our desert (but of course we did)
The little boy figured out how to de-shell and eat peanuts … and it became a fascinating game for him (and kept him quiet, as did the pencils and paper that the waitress brought)
Sicne the food came so sudden and plentiful and we were extremely busy passing on plates and comparing flavors … we did not take pictures … but I highly recommend this mista mare extravaganza (also .. the 3.5 of us walked out with a 60EU check, including wine, coffee and extra peanuts to take home)
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Last night Julius had a special surprise for me:
While the girls were out for a soccer game … he had a little fun with a water bottle … He has become quite good at opening them .. in this case it was not that great. He spilled it all and to top things off (after I had to scold at him) he dropped down and soaked his PJ .. nice …
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Tonight we went again to our favourite aperitivo place.
Although it had been some time, the owners still remembered us and totally pampered Julius with extra fruit, cookies and his own special strawberry cocktail. The food was very nice again and sop was the service. I forgot to mention that I hate salt rims around margaritas … but sippe my way through it.
I especially like combing cute Japanese girls’ hair!
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As a good Italian boy growing up in Torino, of course he has the natural love for nutella.
And finally he has figured out how to eat his bread correctly … and he does not focus on licking off the chocolate …
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He loves to explore all the tech toys that are lying around (main reason why I had to buy yet another mobile phone, more on that later). And everything is ok to make phonecalls with, iPods, remote controls, pocket calculators …
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Today J and I had a boy’s day, since Ritsu and Utako were on a day trip to the nearby lakes.
While I was not looking for 5 minutes, Julius built this remarkable lego tower … what makes it so special? If you look closely you notice that the bricks are not connected by their connecting ends … so .. this whole thing is a balance act … pretty cool for a 2 year old .. (it tumbled shortly after picture taking)
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We had been there before and we were always yearning to go back. For us the best seafood place in town .. but then again, we have not tested that many yet.
Again, it was very nice .. it was the same guy doing the menu introduction .. in english (after I asked)
The 2 starters were: mixed fish appertizers or fresh, raw snapper (sashimi style) drizzled with olive oil and lemon .. all 3 of us chose that
Primi: 4 different seafod pastas … Ritsu and Utako shared some thick pasta with a somewhat spicy anchovie sauce
Main: selection was: Grilled Tuna (had that last time), Swordfish gratinee (while we love swordfish this sounded a bit heavy ..with cheese and such), Monkfish cooked in lemonjuice, wine, capers, thyme, salt and pepper (we all 3 took that one and it was delicious) and then a mixed plate of fried stuff .. for the grease lovers.
Desert: the girls had the liquid chocolate filled chocolate tart and I had the zabaione. (there was also some alond cream and a strawberry pannacotta).
coffee .. liquorwines … fantastico
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Once again we were very satisfied … it took me a bit to realize that we were not bothered by anything form the vegetable group .. maybe we could have asked .. but it was all fish .. a bit of salad with the raw food … the girls got their carbs with the pasta …
Also nice again (and maybe just a brilliant marketing ploy) that the bill said 154 EU … crossed out .. and then 140 EU 
so .. like a 10% discount .. Ok .. it is pricey .. but it was SO good
(Julius was once again in the good hands of Alice)
Not really much to write about this one … some silly dancing with mama just before we are leaving for dinner
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Since we were out last night we did not get to bathe him. So he had some splash time this morning and even though we was rather cranky (for unknown reasons he keep waking up at 6 AM these days .. I suspect the hum of the recently switched on heating system) he enjoyed the bath as usual.
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Tonight we went to a highly recommended restaurant: Con Calma. It is pretty much hidden and has great local food and a very cozy athmosphere. I had that nice looking mixed appetizer platter while Ritsu had some carpaccio style meat and then we both had the pork shank and Utako had the trout.
Our wine was a Langhe Rosso, which is actually a blend of some of the grapes that make the most expensive wines in the area (Barollo, barbera) and at 8EU a bottle was a bargain (and very tasty)
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While the food was very good .. the one thing I would come back for most was the zabaglione. A typical Italian desert that is pretty hard to make because of the eggs in it. The trick is to make it foamy over heat … if you heat too long, the egg hardens and the desert tastes like breakfast. You do it not long enough and you have a smoothie.
Maybe because of that many restaurants offer a cold zabaglione cream. Like a big batch pre-made version that stays put until serving. But tonight I got the best zabaglione I had so far here in Italy!
Julius was a lucky boy tonight … besides his usual 2 clowns (mama and papa) he met Utako again, our friend from Japan who visited us back in Fiji and also saw Julius twice in Tokyo (here and here).
But that was not all .. since we had a dinner appointment, we had engaged the baby sitting services of our neighbour Alice … and he sure loved all the attention … (on the other hand .. of course he was crying once he realized that we were leaving … but we heard later that he enjoyed the rest of the evening)
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Now this is something interesting on youtube: another baby being entertained by Julius’ bath laugh video.
(Click on the pic to watch the video directly on Youtube.)
One of the nice things we bought on our trip to Germany was this very cute sweater … as usual with kid’s stuff, you buy them too big The kid will fit it eventually. Probably in summer and by next winter he is too big then.
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Interesting first time thing today: Our friend Sarah had a doctor’s appointment and had asked to drop off Sebastian for a bit … and the 2 boys had so much fun together! Sebastian found the DVD cover for ‘Bug’s life’ and asked very politely if they could watch it … then the attention shifted to playing with balls and since it was dinner time, I had prepared a big bowl of pasta and spaghetti .. and they loved it.
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For better quality version, 11.14 MB download, click here
I know I am still behind with lots of updates for last weekend … they will magically appear shortly .. I hope
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Just a quick note letting the dear readership know that we got back to Turin. We had a great party on Saturday and an overall great long weekend.
I have tons of pictures and videos. But Julius is down with a cough, so he is staying home and thus I will postpone the updates for the time being. But keep an eye on this site .. lots of stuff coming soon!
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Still working on updates .. here a small glimps of Julius playing around the airport while we were waiting for our delayed flight.
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