Travelers, yes. Vacationers, not so much

On Wednesday we drove to Beauvais airport, north of Paris, and caught a RyanAir flight to Rome to begin a 10-day vacation in Italy. Our initial plan to stay a couple of nights in Rome, Florence, and Venice, with a side-trip to Pisa on the way back to Rome seemed peripatetic and overly ambitious, so we had scaled back and decided to divide our time between Rome and Florence.

With the advantage of hindsight, the initial plan was better. The kids have been willing (to a point) to walk all over a new city, provided the sights along the way are compelling. But after a couple of days in Rome, they were jaded to the notion that a building might have been constructed before Christ walked the earth; it became tougher and tougher to forestall outright mutiny each afternoon.

The situation in Florence was eased and complicated by the availability of internet in the hotel room (a first on our journeys – perhaps my Grandmother, during her life-time, came to take in-door plumbing for granted; I, on the other hand, had forgotten what a blessing it is to be able to connect the to web, and place a telephone call without the assistance of others.) The kids’ morale improved, but so did their determination to remain in the room, arguing over time on the laptop, instead of walking out to marvel at the ancient splendors of Michelangelo, Donatello, etc. By yesterday, they were immune to all cajoling, hectoring, threats and bribes… Mom, we’ve had gelato twice a day for a week now… why can’t we stay in the room?

Last night Ceil and I took a command decision and re-scheduled our flight back to Paris for Thursday, rather than Saturday. Miles and Lee responded with howls of protest – we like it here, France is boring – a keen observer, though, would translate this as: we have internet here and you’re going to make us go to school if we go back to France. Ton pei. I, for one, will be glad to get back to our rustic abode outside of Arthon, and I will be glad to be home in time for market-day.