Friday, June 10, 2011

chiuso il martedi

Translation: "Closed on Tuesdays."


Flexibility is the word I'd choose to describe our time with our pal, Cooper (Coop for short).

When it's only the Ramblin' Fam going on trips and seeing sights, I don't notice just how often we change our minds or decide things at the last minute and just sort of fly by the seat of our pants most of the time. One minute, we say we're spending the weekend close to home due to Tony's job, and the next minute we're parking our car to go hike through the towns of Cinque Terre.




Then, all of a sudden we're looking at the leaning tower of Pisa. 


 

I also don't notice how we tend to just go with the flow and don't let things like rain storms stop us from riding bikes through Tuscan town, Lucca.



Or, how sometimes, we're exhausted and sweaty and hungry after hiking to the top of a steep town to find a particular restaurant only to be told, "You missed your reservation. You do not have time to eat here."


Nor do we allow closed museums and churches to ruin our Tuesday in Napoli. Instead, we just followed a tour guide into the abyss underneath the city. When asked to describe this polo-and-khaki- lacking tour guide to someone who has never been to Naples, Cooper said, "He looks the way I would look if I just rolled out of bed and were showing someone my apartment. Not an official guide to the underground of Naples."


Luckily for us, Cooper is as flexible as they come and fit right in with the Ramblin' Fam. He never complained and always seemed to be enjoying himself, even after we drove up to a restaurant with perfect views of the area only to be met with a sign that said, "chiuso il martedi."

 

What I'm most grateful for, though, was the way he took to Graham. Coop is a young bachelor with little experience around 3 year olds asking him questions and demanding his attention, but he just rolled with it. By the end of his trip, he and Graham were best buds.



If we were the type of people who planned and called ahead to make sure things are open, rushed to make reservations, checked the weather forecast, or made sure to change the really old battery in our car so that it doesn't break down in the parking garage at Herculanaem and we don't have to send our friend off on the train to find the museum he wanted to see and then find his way back to our house while we wait for a mechanic, well, then, we probably wouldn't have as much fun.

I like the way we travel, and I think Cooper did, too.

At least, I hope he did...

1 comment:

  1. Great post, I love it! Email Katie and start planning her trip this fall!

    ReplyDelete