Going to the school picnic - or not?

The RIS lower school picnic was set for Bomarzo on Saturday. We were to meet other families in the "car park" between 11 and 11:30. We were excited to go, since we had planned to go to Bomarzo with the kids a couple of weekends earlier, but never made it because we were having so much fun swimming at a friends pool. So when we discovered the picnic was to be held there, we thought it all worked out perfectly.

Unfortunately, (if you read yesterday's blog, you are already aware) I was not feeling too well Saturday morning. In addition, Josh had a couple of errands that he needed to run before departing for Bomarzo. Somehow, surprising, by the time I sat down in the car, picnic ready and loaded, it was 11:15am. Bomarzo is an hours drive (90km). Oh well, Italians are always late and the picnic would be going on for hours so off we went.

Things went rapidly downhill from there (and by "downhill" I do not mean to say we got there more quickly). First, I made a tactical error and advised Josh to drive up the Cassia. It was Saturday, afterall, and why would there be any traffic on the commuter street on a Saturday? Wrong! Shortly, we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, and then Josh reminded me that Saturday was a big shopping day in Italy since most stores are closed on Sundays. And so it was.

Once we were able to get off the Cassia, we were motoring ahead on the Autostrada, but with the constant bickering of our three children in the backseat as foreground noise. Olivia was without electronic entertainment for the day (as part of an earlier punishment) and she quickly proceeded to make that everyone else's problem. Then there was no sharing. Then there was arguing. Then there was physical contact. You get the picture. This crescendoed right up until the yelling overshadowed Lola's voice on the GPS telling us to exit the A1.

Well, one thing we learned about the Autostrada (besides the fact that it's insanely expensive compared to driving on an American highway) is that if you miss your exit, the next one is often not for another 30km. And that was the case today. So now, intstead of arriving at Bomarzo at the original delayed time of 12:15 which was pushed back to 12:35 due to our stay on the Cassia, if we were to turn around at the next exit and go back, according to Lola's clock, we'd arrive Bomarzo at 1:05pm. Furthermore, the list of (loud) complaints from the little people in the backseat included hunger and starvation.

On the plus side, the next exit (the one that was 30km away) was Orvieto. Should we pass up Orvieto and it's spectacular Duomo to be 2 hours late to a school picnic at a Monster Park? I don't think so. And that is how we ended up spending the afternoon in Orvieto.

Once we found a place to park, we immediately found a couple of benches in the shade and had our "picnic." Lucky for us, Josh was able to engage a local man, sitting alongside of us and who proceeded to give us a complete overview of all the best sights in Orvieto. Having turned up here somewhat randomly and without a guidebook, we very much appreciated his advice - down to the details of where to park for free and which sights were worth paying for.

The weather was balmy and beautiful and we explored this old medieval city by foot, taking in all the valley and hillside views, and of course visiting the specatcular Duomo. I asked Josh how to put the beauty of the facade into words and he replied "you don't, you take pictures." So I am very pleased that Josh has agreed to be the illustrator of these blogs and upload his wonderful photographs for all of you to see.

Since we didn't expect to have the kids attention for long, we bribed them with a gelato reward if they were able to find the Duomo. It was good gelato, too. Last on our highlights of Orvieto tour (according to the local) was the Well of St. Patrick.

We returned to the car and drove down (by design since it rained for 20 minutes while we remained dry in our vehicle) and then entered the well, which goes down in to the earth for 300 meters. There are two staircases - ascending and descending - and the whole thing was an architectural marvel for 1537, with its arched porticos or "windows" overlooking the well water and going all the way down. The kids had a blast running down, although every time Avery approached one of the ledges to gaze down, I was so nervous, I grabbed him by his pants.

So here we thought we'd had a wonderful spontaneous day in Orvieto - despite not making it to Bomarzo for a second time (will we go for a third try?) - but the car trip home became too much to bear for any of us. We were paying dearly for keeping our kids out to dinner until 11 o'clock the night before, and then walking them all over Orvieto for the afternoon. Each child tried to outmatch the other in terms of sassiness. By the time we pulled in to our driveway I needed a Xanax!

Thank goodness we'd organized a babysitter. Avery was going straight to his room for a "time out" but first Josh managed to bathe him. Two minutes later, Avery was sleeping in his room, having apparently collapsed not only from exhaustion but from the effort of torturing his parents. I set early bed-times for Olivia and Charlotte who were equally evil during the ride home. Morris (the Pakistani baby-sitter we'd used before) made a fantastic dinner for them.

Josh and I felt like taking a nap, but instead dragged ourselves out to our friends place. We had been invited with the kids for a Rosh Hashana celebration, but were happy to be going without. Once there, we had a nice time, met several other families, enjoyed cocktails (champagne and bitters), and some light fare. We are still getting a lot of great advice from all the locals about where to buy "the best" groceries, and which cafe makes the best coffee, etc. But ultimately, everyone speaks about Josh's favorite topic, the congestion and traffic in Rome and how impossible it is to avoid.