The First Time My Mom Came to Italy
For one whole week, I had the opportunity to play the only child. I had my Mom all to myself. No distractions, no work, no other siblings to draw her attention away…and while that may seem selfish, it has never happened in my life before – that I can remember that is. I grew up in such a big family, with 4 of us kids, that we always shared parents, attention, toys, experiences, friends, etc etc.
One thing that we don’t have in common though, is living abroad. And when my Mom came to visit me for the first time, it was just me and her for a whole week!
I had asked my parents to come when I found out that Stephen would be gone for work on and off the majority of three months. It was my first time really being alone in Italy, plus May is a great time to come visit before tourist season starts. It gets hot, miserable, and jam-packed in the cities during summer months. Not how I want someone’s first impression of Europe to be!
So, Mom agreed and took the week off work. She called it my “mayday” signal, but it wasn’t really that dramatic. Dad had a little harder time getting out of work – his boss is kind of an ass – and he wanted to come visit when Stephen would be here (Lord knows when that will be)!
I asked Mom what all she wanted to do while she was here, especially since the Sunday after she landed would be Mother’s Day. A few days later, I received the cutest email from her detailing, with a bulleted list mind you, the things she wanted to see, experience, eat, and drink while she was here! Apparently, she had spent quite a bit of time browsing through my blog posts looking for inspiration – shout out to her for being a loyal reader!
**Related posts: Looking for travel inspiration? Head on over to the categories page where you can search by specific country! For posts about Italy, click here. Or for Germany, here. What about Switzerland? That’s here!
From her list and my personal experiences, I created a solid plan for once she arrived! I didn’t send it to her in advance since I wanted it to be a surprise. I’m so glad we had an agenda to keep us going each day and accountable, otherwise, in our downtime, it was easy to snuggle up in my loft on the couch with little P and watch movies. We did this most nights until the wee hours of the morning.
Benvenuto to Italia – Day 1
When I picked her up at the airport on Saturday morning, with freshly picked roses and Presley in tow, my heart swelled. It was the best feeling on Earth having her on the same ground as me. She made it through Venice Airport customs without a hitch! Having not slept at all on the plane, I figured she’d want to go home and nap. But, according to her research, she shouldn’t nap as it would impede her adjustment to the time zone difference. We needed to just keep going, so we dropped her stuff off at my house and I gave her the full villa tour (hey, if you hadn’t seen it yet, you can see pics before we moved in here). She approved! Thank God…because I had been scrubbing and dusting every nook and cranny all week before her arrival. I even stocked each room with fresh flowers!
It was about lunch time at this point, so I took her to downtown Vicenza to grab a bite to eat. She spotted a takeaway pizza place where we ordered pizza slices and sat downtown eating and people watching. 
Stuffed with yummy pizza and very content, we headed back to the house just to rest our feet. Next thing I knew we had fallen asleep and when I woke up it was almost 7 pm. I wanted to take her to my favorite local Italian restaurant (that was on her list by the way).
Traditional Italian Dinner
We got ready and biked – yes, she rode a bicycle for the first time in 20+ years – to Trattoria Ambrosini. This is Stephen and I’s favorite place to eat in our little town and we are frequent diners there. And this night may have been the best meal we’ve had to date! I told our usual waiter – the only one who speaks English and works on Fridays and Saturdays – that my mom was here visiting for the first time, and she treated us like royalty. Everything from appetizers as compliments of the chef to little desserts following our meal. She even offered to make my favorite after-dinner drink, a ginseng cappuccino. I think Mom thoroughly enjoyed herself…After all, we did make our way through 2 bottles of wine over our dinner stint. We may or may not have soaked it all up with yummy bread & pasta though. What happens in Italy, stays in Italy (unless of course, I write about it ha!).
Our dinner on Saturday night went like this: small appetizer, bread, first course, second course, small dessert, after dinner drink. A typical meal for Italians based on my experience.
We rode our bikes home and shared many laughs along the way. The sun was setting over the Alps, the bike trail was empty minus a few late-night walkers, and it was just us two headed home after a wonderful first night!
Our upcoming week was bound to be a blast as many laughs as we shared that first day. With plenty more to share, I will keep you waiting with this – one of the last days’ Mom was here, we were driving through my little town of Costabissara and she said to me, “Colfax will never look the same to me after this.”
And right then and there I knew she understood everything about me and my life here! To be continued…
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