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We pulled into our hotel on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence really, really late last night, so we slept in order to fuel ourselves for the long day of driving ahead. We need to sleep in Ancona, which is where we catch our ferry tomorrow, so we faced an 8 ½ hour drive. We drove east through France on a very high highway that afforded us glimpses of the Cote d’Azur on our right. We decided to have lunch in Italy and so stopped in Taggio, where we ate outside on a sleepy plaza. I asked the waiter whether the gnocchi and ravioli were made there, at the restaurant, but he said “I buy them.” I set my expectations low. But then he appeared with my steaming plate of ravioli, and proudly pronounced that his mother had made the sauce that morning. It was delicious.
We walked a block to a playground to let the kids run for awhile, licked our cones of gelato, and then piled back in for another long stretch.
We had thought we would eat dinner in Parma, but we had had a late lunch, so pushed on to Reggio nell’Emilia. We are driving across the whole of Italy today, most of the time in Emilia Romagna. Even though we are just driving through, it’s pretty cool to be see signs for Genoa (salami), Modena (vinegar) Parma (ham, and cheese), not to mention the Barilla and Riunite factories.
We ate dinner at a homey little trattoria—prosciuitto, salami, delicious reggiano cheese that our waiter emphasized was not parmagiana. He did make sure we knew it was “the best.”
The kids are tired. A full week of camp, plus dinners out with friends the last two nights, and long, late drives yesterday and today. Sleeping in the car is just not the same as getting forty weeks in your own bed. I bought a FIFA soccer app for my iPad, and Milo plays it for hours in the car. C.C. reads and reads, and listens to music. You can hear the Ramones escaping out of her earphones. They are good travelers, but we will all be happy to get to our island and relax.
