Babies, Diapers, Carnivale and Hot Springs!!

View from future house-sit at end of April with Pam!!

Time definitely feels more surreal and intangible when I travel. I'm keeping close track of my total days here so I can be sure to stay under the 90-day requirement on my tourist visa (and still allow enough days for when my friend Pam arrives so we can tour around a bit in Italy...starting with a lovely house-sit on the Italian side of the Adriatic Sea), but even when I'm trying to track it, time seems to be very fluid!! The last two weeks have gone a bit more slowly (with crying, sick babies - and a sick mama as well), but it also feels like time has flown by (and I can't believe I've been here - in Italy - for almost 8 weeks)!! This Workaway experience has been quite a bit more consuming than the last two, and my day-to-day life has been a bit less adventurous... not in a bad way, just in a "I-have-no-time-to-ponder-life-because-I'm-so-busy-living-it" kind of way! 

A fountain I walk by every day!!

Each day starts with a wander around the neighborhood with Linda in the stroller (getting out of the house so daddy can cook lunch without baby constantly underfoot)! We usually sit on the benches in the nearby park when it's sunny and enjoy the peace and quiet (with an occasional "smiling and nodding" conversation with the older ladies in the neighborhood who want to "coo" over the baby)!! One woman told me she is 97 and has 15 children...at least I THINK that's what she said, but it was in Italian so I'm not sure!!

After lunch, Francesco goes to get the 3-year-old from preschool while I do the dishes and watch the baby. Since they do all the cooking, my part of "the deal" is that I do the dishes - which includes LOTS of hand-washing pots and pans - goodbye nice nails!! Once he returns and takes over, I get a LITTLE rest until it's time to play/speak English with Raquel for a couple hours (and keep an eye on the baby if she hasn't fallen asleep for her afternoon nap....which can make things a bit challenging, but when they are sweet and giving hugs or snuggles, it's totally worth it)!!

So as you can see, any thoughts of sightseeing and writing a post have taken a back burner! I decided if I was going to get the energy to see (or write about) anything besides babies and the neighborhood around the house, I needed to get away! As anyone with young children understands, even when I'm officially "off" I'm not really AWAY from the sounds of crying, needy babies! (And on a side-note, one good thing I've learned from this experience is that I'm waaaay too empathic to do another Workaway with small children!! It just doesn't work for me! Oh well, live and learn.... that's part of the journey, right?!?!)

My "cultural experience" here was going to the Carnival parade in the historic center of Fano a couple Sundays ago! Ketty and the girls were on the edge of being sick (either just getting over it or just beginning to get a snuffly nose and croupy cough), but we decided to go for a few hours because they really wanted me to see the parade since it was the last week! It was the true "Carnivale" experience: wild-looking floats (and people), children dressed up in costumes, people on the floats throwing candy for the kids (and grown-ups ruthlessly running to catch the candy - almost got knocked over a few times!!), etc. It's what our Halloween might look like if we had a parade!! It was a bit noisy and crowded for my taste, but at the very end - just as we were leaving because everyone was tired, cold, cranky, starting to get sore throats and stiff knees, etc. (oh wait....that was me, not the babies - ha!!), we saw the floats all lit up near the historic arch that leads into the center. It was spectacular and the very LOUD music just made you want to dance!! 

Ketty said her parents usually just come for that part - I definitely recommend doing just that because the rest of the day was a BIT long and tiring (although I DID catch one piece of candy without trying....landed IN my hand that I had on top of my head to protect myself from getting bonked as the candy showered onto our heads from the floats)!! All-in-all, it was a fun experience to have as part of my travel adventure, but as someone who easily gets overwhelmed with loud noises and crowds, it probably won't be something I need to experience again! 

Instead, I'd much rather have more experiences like I'm having right now!! Church bells tolling, gorgeous views of the village, and lots of peace and quiet! You might be asking yourself, "Where is this wonderful piece of paradise?!?!" Well, let me tell you...a quaint little town called Bagno di Romagna in the mountains near the Tuscan border! I can see a mountain almost directly outside my window with beautiful views of the village and mountains just outside my bathroom window....no shower stall (or what they call a "wet room"), so I could practically shower "au naturale" if it weren't freezing cold and pouring rain outside!! It's probably not the best time for sight-seeing, but I'm here to check out the hot springs they're famous for in this area! 

According to Wikipedia, the Romans named the town Balneum (meaning 'bath' or hot springs). (Now I'm thinking to myself, "Oohhhh....that's where they got the name for the place I'm staying...Balneum Boutique B&B!!")

I've had a WONDERFUL time of relaxing, "vegging" and being treated like royalty by the wonderful multi-generational family running this B&B!!  Lunch after I arrived yesterday was YUMMY, and I just finished breakfast a bit ago - hot milk with espresso (sometimes difficult to explain here in Italy that what I want is a latte since the word for milk is "latte"), lots of yummy pastries, prosciutto, cheese, baked apples....the list goes on and on, but I could only eat so much and still waddle away to the "terme" (the hot springs) without sinking to the bottom of the pool!!

I wandered around a bit looking for some sights to view before "taking the waters," but basically what people come here for are the hot springs! The "pool" in the hotel spa was just a basic pool (with sulpherous smelling water about body temperature), but they had these WONDERFUL waterfall spouts that were like receiving a massage for 3 hours!!  I'm a bit sore now, but it was GLORIOUS during the whole time I was in the pool and having my muscles "worked" by the waterfalls (and a few jacuzzi-type jets around the pool).  My knee feels a lot better, my back is still a bit sore (from lifting babies), but my shoulders are so relaxed!! 

You know that spot you can't quite get enough work done on when you're getting a massage? The muscles on the top of your shoulders/back that are tight from "carrying the weight of the world" on them? THAT is the spot the "waterfall" worked for quite awhile, and it loosened up a lot around my neck and shoulders (again....probably a bit stiff from lifting babies and doing all those dishes - ha)!! If I ever have a pool, I'm going to check into getting one of those installed!! Truly GLORIOUS!! But for now, I'll just have to consider a return visit someday in the future!

Okay, getting sleepy so I'll close with two final random thoughts....the people here at the B&B are SO nice!! It's 9:00 pm and the son just brought me a little snack while I'm sitting here in the lobby in front of the fireplace (cuz the WiFi stopped working in my room....maybe due to the high winds?!?). Their level of kindness and hospitality absolutely amazes me!! And secondly, I just LOVE arugula!! He included it on my sandwich which made me remember I wanted to mention my newfound love of this veggie/herb!! I'm not a big fan of salads or vegetables in general, but with arugula, a bit of olive oil and some seasonings, I'm now in love with salads Italian style!!

I'm so relaxed now and can't think of much else to say, so I'll say goodbye for now.... Ciao!!

P. S. I didn't get this posted last night due to Internet problems, so I just have to add one final tidbit about traveling on public transportation....no problems with lecherous old men, but this time I think I was so relaxed (or a little brain dead) that when I got off the train in Fano and went running for the bus to get back home, I was like a deer in headlights!! (For my Italian friends reading this, it means I was stunned and my brain was "frozen".... if you come upon a deer in the road, they won't move, they just stand there looking shocked and mesmerized by the headlights of the car!! That's how I felt in that moment!!) No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember which bus I was supposed to take to get home!! It was the weirdest feeling....like I'd had a labotomy!!! I couldn't remember the address, I couldn't communicate with the bus driver, and I could only remember the name of the grocery store near the apartment (which I walk by on my morning stroll with Linda)! 

Through a rather humorous (and a tiny bit disconcerting) series of events which included an older gentleman who spoke a tiny bit of English telling me he knew where that store was and would tell me where to get off the bus (even though there are MULTIPLE locations for that store)....I jumped on bus #1 and took my chances!! Probably not my most logical decision, but there were other factors that made it seem like a good idea at the time....like the bus was parked in almost the same spot as the bus that dropped me off a few days before on my way out of town, I figured I had to start somewhere and maybe I could get my bearings once we started driving around (which....for future reference only leads to MORE confusion with all the turns, etc. if it's not the right bus)!!

The story goes on and on....and involves riding around on 3 different wrong buses for almost an hour until....BING!!!! The light finally came on in my head, and I remembered it was bus #2. Just like that, I could see the directions on Google maps in my head, and I knew how to get home.....Whew!! I knew if I wasn't able to figure it out, I could always return to the bus/train station and find a phone to call the house, but the more discomboobled I became the less my brain wanted to work! 

Ay yi (or "mama mia" as they say here!!).....does this mean I'm going to have to start writing stuff down instead of relying on my memory?!?! I blame it on my relaxed state of mind (or "baby brain" caused by lack of sleep)!! Whatever the cause, it's a good reminder for me to (perhaps) be a bit more conscientious of those silly details like getting back to where I started!!

P. P. S. Nobody worry.... I wasn't in any real danger, just felt a bit foolish and "stumped" because I couldn't remember something so obvious (and important) as the bus # to get home!! Geesh....!! I guess I'll be better prepared next time!!