Week 17! - Arriving in Cannobio Italy!

Hello Everyone! Long time no write! You may have noticed that there’s been a three week gap in my blogs. That’s because I was on vacation! And more importantly my mom was visiting, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. But don’t worry because now you’ll get an epic 3 week update all in one day! So I’ll start this story way back on Tuesday the 22nd of May. This was the day that we left for Italy. We left around 9:30 after we packed up all the cars. We took two small cars so we could fit Renate, Andy, Rahel, Noah, Timo, Renate’s dad, and I, and all of our stuff for a camping trip! We drove for a while and then eventually stopped for lunch. We ate some yummy homemade rice salad at a little rest stop and we switched who was sitting in which car because everyone wanted to be in Andy’s car because it wasn’t as hot and he played better music. So we did this to be fair. But both cars were great. And I was just grateful for a free ride to Italy! When we got to Italy (it was about a 5 hour car ride in total) we looked at some campsites and picked out which one we liked best. Unfortunately, it was raining. We tried to wait out the rain before setting up camp, but eventually we decided we should just set up in the rain. So we worked fast and got it done fast enough. After camp was set up, Rahel was reading a book and the boys were playing a game, so Renate and decided to walk into the city to try and find a grocery store. Renate speaks fluent Italian so it was fun to hear her speak Italian. Renate and I walked around a bit, and I also got to try my first slice of yummy yummy Italian pizza. It was so good and I savored every bite. When we got back to camp we ate dinner and then a girl from another campsite came and played with us. It was funny how me, (a seventeen year old), Rahel, (a fifteen year old), Noah, (a ten year old), this girl, (7 and a half) and Timo, (a six year old) were all able to play together. This girl was so nice and sweet, though I forgot her name. Eventually it started getting dark so we all got ready for bed. But it was a lot of fun to just run around a campsite playing fun games again. It really made me feel like a kid and it brought back good memories of camping from when I was a child. 

It was raining when we arrived so all the leaves had cute drops on them. 

Friendly duck that hung out at our campsite a lot. 

The view from our campground! This is Lago Maggiore in the Italian Alps! 

The next day I woke up by hearing the birds sing, so I just read my book for a while. It was very relaxing. After that Renate prepared a feast of bread, cream cheese, fresh Italian cheese, apples, peppers, and carrots. And I also ate some miso soup made from fermented vegetables. It was very yummy. Then we took a little little walk and did some exploring around the area. We found a little park that the boys played at for a while, and we went to a tourist information center. After that we decided to split up, and Renate, Noah, and Timo played some soccer at the park, and they also met up with a family that has a kid that goes to Timo’s preschool. The rest of us went on hike. It was a pretty hard hike, but definitely worth it for the view. After a little over two hours we reached the top and it was absolutely gorgeous. There was a little café/ restaurant at the top and we were all hungry so we got a snack and Andy and Renate’s dad drank some coffee. After we ate and enjoyed the view we started the walk back down. This was much faster than the steep walk up. When we got back to the campsite we ate a pasta dinner that Renate made. I helped too, by cutting cheese, but I accidentally cut my finger. But it was very small and not a big deal. After dinner, I was tired, but Rahel, Noah, Timo, and Renate’s dad went swimming in Lago Maggiore. This is the lake that our campsite was on. I went with them but only to watch. However, the water was very inviting so I ended up rolling up my pants and wading. It was very cold water. So cold that Rahel’s blood sugar sensor got too cold to work properly so we had to wait for it to warm up again haha. When everyone was done swimming, we went back to our campsite, ate some leftover salad, and went to bed. 

Amazing view from the top!

There are so many plants in Italy! It's like a rain forest!

This was the church at the top! 

Day three had a slow start, but it was also nice to have a relaxing start. After we ate breakfast and everybody had gotten ready, we started the day! The plan was that Noah, Renate, Andy, and I would walk/ hike to a boat launch and Rahel, Timo, and Renate’s Dad would drive there and meet us there. Then we could take the boat back to out campground. The hike was supposedly 2 1/2 hours max. But it ended up being way longer. We thought it was going to be a flat, path along the lake, so when we saw it was going uphill, we were confused, but convinced ourselves it was just for a little bit. But as we kept walking, and it kept going more and more uphill, we started to think maybe this was the whole hike. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. It was HARD. Probably one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever been on. Because it was super steep, in the hot sun, and I was not mentally prepared for such a strenuous hike. But we just kept marching and marching. Noah was not happy, so Renate promised him ice cream when we finished. When we finally got there, we got our ice cream and sat on a nice bench for a while and ate apples and corn waffles. We were so tired and so we just sat quietly and enjoyed the view. Eventually, we met up with everyone and took a boat ride back. The boat ride was a perfect way to end the day. We sat on the boat and let the cool breeze cool us down as we looked at all the beautiful views surrounding us. When we got back to our campsite, we ate some more yummy pizza, and we also made pasta. At this point, everyone was exhausted, so we went to bed early. 

I didn't really take photos while hiking (it was too hard haha) but I took this when we were relaxing.

For day four, I decided to take a shower when I woke up. The campsite we were at had very nice showers and they were free. By the time I was back from my shower, breakfast was ready. After we ate we played some Kubb (a fun German game where you throw sticks to knock down wooden blocks) for a little bit. When everyone felt ready, we left for another Italian adventure. This time, everyone went together. Timo refused to walk so poor Andy had to carry him on his shoulders the whole time, but he seemed ok with it. It helped that this walk was actually very flat. It was a relatively short walk, but it was definitely worth it. We ended up at a swimming area. It was technically a river we were swimming in, but the area we were at was very still and wide, so it felt more like a lake. Anybody who knows me, knows that I love to swim. So I was super excited to see a place to swim. I changed into my bathing suit, and was ready to run in until I realized… It was ICE cold. The kind of cold that made it hard to breath if you stayed in for too long. Most people just dipped their toes in for a few seconds, but I was stubborn, and really wanted to swim. So I forced myself to adjust to the cold water by going in, and out, and in, and out over and over again. When I felt ready, I jumped in, and swam to the other side as fast as possible. On the other side there was a big rock. It was in the sun and the rock was very warm so it was nice to sit on. The rock was also pretty high up, and I saw the water below was very deep, so I decided to JUMP! It was so much fun and it felt great, but I couldn’t convince anyone else to do it with me haha. We swam and swam and I jumped for hours. But eventually we were all getting hungry and so we decided to walk back so we could get something to eat. We decided to get some more ice cream (because Italian gelato is seriously the best tasting thing on planet earth), and then we walked back to our campsite to make an actual dinner. But dinner didn’t really turn out that great, so then we walked back to the city and ate more pizza haha. 

This was the swimming area, the rock is the back is where I jumped from!

On day five, the first thing we had to do after waking up and eating breakfast was move campsites. We hadn’t pre-reserved our campsite, and there was another group that had that campsite reserved, so we had to move to the campsite right behind the one we were at. Even though they were really close to each other, it took a really long time because they were separated by hedges so we had to walk alllllll the way around the other campsites. By the time we finished moving, the day was already half done. So we decided to drive to a National Park nearby for a short hike. But… it was like the universe was against us because we just couldn’t seem to leave our campsite. Our neighbors needed their car to be jumpstarted, so Andy used his car. But then Andy’s battery was dead so we had to use the other car to jumpstart that car. When we finally left, it was a long, curvy mountain road up the mountain, and about an hour in Rahel realized she forgot to bring any shoes with her! When we got to the National Park, it was closed but we were there, and we were hungry, so we just ate some sandwiches we’d made in the parking lot. It was then we realized we’d forgotten to bring all the water bottles. I had mine with me, but we forgot the water for everyone else. It was crazy hot, and the asphalt was to hot for Rahel, so she had to walk around on this towel so she didn’t burn her feet. The whole scene was very funny, and we were all laughing. We realized a hike wasn’t very practical, so we decided to just go back to our campsite. On the drive home, we accidentally drove the wrong way on a one way street, and we got yelled at by a police man. We stopped for gas, but Renate’s dad accidentally filled his tank with the wrong gas, so it had to get pumped out and then he had to re-fill it. The kids and I just kept laughing about how everything was going wrong, and we just kept slapping our foreheads anytime another thing went wrong. But it was all in good fun. When we were back at the campsite, Renate and Andy went to the grocery store and then we made a dinner of Gnocchis. It was a funny day for sure. 

Another view from the campground, I couldn't get enough of it!

You can't see them that well, but in the middle of this photo there are two little lizards. These lizards were EVERYWHERE but were impossible to get a photo of. 

That was the end of week 17, but it was not the end of our vaccation. Be sure to read week 18 and 19 to read about the rest of my trip! Have a great week!