While, to be sure, there are a lot of grandmas in Italy, there is one in particular that has not been here. In fact, she had never set foot on any part of the European continent or its neighboring islands. So, we were very excited to host Josh’s mom on her first transatlantic trip. We sent her a detailed itinerary with a daily plan, including a wide range of gelato stops to be made. While Janet may not know Italy, she does have an appreciation for ice cream.
The trip did not have an auspicious start. A blizzard was slamming the eastern seaboard. Josh worked some magic with the airlines and we managed to get her to Italy before all the NY airports closed; she arrived in Italy two days ahead of schedule. We congratulated ourselves on our good fortune. Our celebration was premature. Grandma wound up so sick that we had to take her to an urgent care over the weekend. We have almost entirely avoided medical care in Italy, thankfully. So, to have to take Janet to a random, Italian-speaking only doctor was not our idea of a great international experience for her.
But, she rallied. And over the course of her two weeks here, she really got to do a lot. We traveled to Florence, she went to an open house at the kids’s school. She did eat plenty of gelato. She confirmed that she didn’t like espresso, but did enjoy making her own americano by getting an espresso and adding hot water. In Florence, at our fanciest dinner, she ordered pasta with prawns, even after being warned that the eyeballs would come still attached.
We were very happy to get to celebrate her 70th birthday milestone with her here. It was a good reminder that no matter what stage in life, it is always good to have a Plan B. The itinerary was a really nice concept, but the trip worked out just fine without getting to visit all the sites and places on the list. Josh, the kids and I were just happy to have her here to share our daily lives.
Today she flew back to New York with a pretty Italian purse procured at a market in Florence, along with some hand-picked Italian treasures for family and friends. She was very impressed with the kids’ language skills (and her son’s) and just generally had fun seeing what daily life was like on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I don’t think that Janet is going to become a world traveler, but we were very happy to get to share this little part of the world with her.