Vacation

It occurred to me today that there's kind of no such thing as a "vacation" when you're 13 months old. (and really no such thing as a vacation when you're a parent- alas.) For Clio, so much in the world is so new that most of the markers of "vacation" are probably no more thrilling than any new experiences she has here. In a way, I think a trip to Europe (or any other overseas travel) is especially lost on a kid like Clio; you know you're in Italy through the language, or the food, but Clio is used to experiencing more than one language (in fact, with the similarities between Spanish and Italian, she probably understood more than we did!) and let's face it, cheese (or "chee") is universal.

So Clio's vacation was really about the little things in the environments she encountered that were new on a very local level:

The excellent gravel dirt path at the Villa (and eating the sticks and stones),




The massive clawfoot tubs big enough to bathe 3 cousins


cousin time in general


experiencing boats, above deck and down below




and discovering new spaces, like the wardrobe in the Hotel Cassanova.


I think that, if I could think of vacation this way, I would rethink the idea that you can't have one if you have kids- there might be an important lesson here!