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| Gio returned from his two weeks at Sugar Bay. His first words off the bus, "Why couldn't I stay for 3 weeks?!" Clearly he missed us. |
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| The very next day Paolo took both children to Italy. Here they are in the airport lounge. I stayed behind a few extra days to finish a few projects. |
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| Jagger (left) and his half sister Savannah. She is in formal training to be a guide dog and spends her weekends with us! |
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| Finally solved the mystery of why many of my clean clothes are covered in white fur... |
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| First stop in Italy- gelato, of course! |
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| Meanwhile, back in chilly Africa the animals were taking desperate measures to keep warm. |
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| The day of my flight to Italy I stopped by Guide Dogs to visit Alaska who was still in season (it ended up being an 8 week heat- some kind of record!!). |
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| I finally made it to Italy! Dinner al fresco with the family. |
Jagger & Bruno were enjoying their own holiday staying at my friend Bronwyn's farm!
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| Just a few days after I arrived we packed up the car and headed to Livorno to catch a ferry to Sardinia/Sardegna. |
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| While waiting to board the ferry Gio strolled over to join this group of boys to play soccer. Benefits of being bilingual! |
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| And thus began our week of sun and sand! |
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| Maria took almost daily naps on the beach! |
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| Meanwhile, back in SA poor Alaska was having a bad time. She finally finished her heat but then a growth was discovered on her leg. It turned out to be benign (phew!) but it had to be removed and the stitches kept popping due to the difficult area on her leg. Poor girl is STILL in a cone over a month later...and still at Guide Dogs as of mid-August. Hoping I can spring her soon. |
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| And back in paradise.... |
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| While we were roasting in 90F/32C heat, poor Bruno needed lots of warm blanket wraps back at Bronwyn's. |
Jagger is so obsessed with balls that he will even chase invisible ones! (Bronwyn's husband is not actually using a ball to practice here.) Ah, Golden Retrievers....
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| My view for most of the week. |
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| And all too soon it was time to head back to the mainland. |
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| Just after we got back to our house in Emilia Romagna Paolo and Gio headed up near the Austrian border to join a group of friends for a 4 day trek in the Alps. |
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| Ready to go! |
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| Yikes! Glad I was back home! |
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| Made it to the top of Mount Coglians (highest mountain in the Carnic Alps)! |
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| Back at the refuge and ready to play cards! |
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| Proud of our boy! |
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| Meanwhile, back at home Maria and I had a lovely 5 days together drawing selfies... ...reading letters to each other..... |
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| ....eating plenty of gelato.... |
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| ...and doing some climbing of our own! |
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| The kennels in Pretoria sent us this photo of Pepperoni. Clearly he is having a LOVELY holiday! #grumpycat |
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| One day Maria and I hiked to Lake Ventasso. Pajamas seemed the right choice for a trek. |
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| Later a walk to our favorite pizzeria.... |
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| ...where she chose her favorite: cappelletti! |
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| Trampoline time! |
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| Gio came home! We had a laugh at this offering at our grocery store. We put it right back in the freezer. |
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| An outing to our favorite cheese shop. Need to fill our luggage! |
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| After an epic journey full of travel nightmares my sister Molly and her husband Tucker finally made it to Marola! They did a lot of climbing, running and hanging out with us during our final week in Italy. We loved having them around!! |
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| Someone loves her zia/aunt/godmother/madrina Molly! |
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| And they brought gifts! |
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| Gio got to add to his sportswear collection thanks to Zio Tucker! |
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| During our final weekend we had to say goodbye to Molly, Tucker and so many other dear friends and family. Here a final dinner. So fun to have a Bernese Moutain Dog with us (belongs to my niece Cristina (in front) and her fiance Giacomo (green shirt). Cristina's father Guido (Paolo's brother) is next to Giacomo. |
