La Dolce Vita and Frankie's Birthday

One of the things Joan and I have been looking forward to since I came to Saudi was being able to take the girls into Europe for a big summer holiday adventure. After a bit of searching different locations and ideas, Joan came across a great deal in Italy in an area that she had spent the summer in just before we met, so we locked in a few weeks camping at the Eurocamp site in Pacengo, Lake Garda in Italy.

Joan and the girls got there a week or so before I did and got settled in nicely in the awesome 2 bedroom tent we had rented, complete with a kitchen fridge etc - it was camping but this was not a DoC campsite from NZ. Scarlett and Frankie made some lovely German friends and Joan hung out with them before I was able to get on a flight out of the Red Sea and make my way to Italy.

After a very easy flight out of RSI to Milan via Doha, I spent a night in a hotel next to Milano Centrale station and was on my way via train to Pacengo the next morning. I got the train to Pesciera del Garda and then after an easy 10 minute drive I was at the campsite. The campsite itself was perfect for us, lots of families, a great big pool with an excellent bar/restaurant which kept us in Aperol spritzs, Hotdogs, Ice cream and the most amazing Caprese sandwiches for the next 2 weeks. There was so much to do for the kids morning, afternoon and night - it really couldn't have been any better.

We spent our mornings with Scarlett and Frankie at kids club for 2 hours some days while Joan and I went up to the beautiful village at the top of the hill for coffee, then into the pool for a few hours, a leisurely lunch, more pool time and then trying to hide from the sun in the afternoons. After spending most of the previously 6 weeks inside in Saudi as summer temps soared into the 40's, I was hoping for a little bit of relief in Italy but given Europe was having one of its hottest summers ever, and large swathes of Spain and France were threatened by bushfires no relief was available, and instead of having AC to cool us, we spent 2 weeks in 37 degrees in a tent and a small shade gazebo during the heat of the day.

In the evenings, we either cooked something simple in the tent, or went up the hill to an excellent restaurant in the village, or down the hill to another excellent seafood restaurant on the shore of Lake Garda where we ate like kings, sipped on lovely cold Peroni Crudo beers or enjoyed a cheeky Aperol Spritz or two. We really were living the dream.

We met a lovely Dutch couple that first week and the girls had loads of fun with their daughter Lindsey while Joan and I hung out with them in the evenings .

A huge highlight of that first week together was being able to celebrate Frankie's 5th birthday, which we certainly did in style. We spent the morning in our normal routine and then Frankie got to open her birthday presents, which we managed to keep hidden until the big day, no mean feat in a relatively small tent - ha ha. After opening the presents and another marathon pool session we headed up the hill to the village and caught the bus to Gardaland , the local themepark. We had an amazing afternoon at Gardaland with Frankie getting to meet Peppa Pig for her birthday, which she absolutely loved. We had gone to the park in the late afternoon to try and avoid the heat as much as we can, and there is a fantastic Legoland water park there too so we made a bee line for that after meeting Peppa. We spent the next couple of hours swimming and hitting the waterslides before video calling the whanau in Fermanagh and then heading to a pirate themed restaurant for her birthday dinner. Frankie had been determined that she wanted to go on a roller coaster all day so we thought we would start nice an easy and go on a log flume ride to see how that went. Safe to say Frankie is not quite as ready for roller coasters as she thought she was - as you can see in the photo - ha ha. After that fairly unsuccessful introduction to thrill rides we took the rest of the evening nice and easy and ended up on some awesome 5 year old appropriate rides and a beautiful old carousel before calling it a day and heading home - what a day that was. Gardaland was so awesome, we went back and did it again 2 days later !!

When I left Auckland 2 years ago Frankie was essentially a baby, just turned 3 years old, full of life and mischief and now she is a proper big girl - she has thrived at nursery at Ballinamallard primary school and has developed so much in the last 2 years. She has lost none of her sass and cheeky charm at all but has blossomed into a lovely, thoughtful, funny young woman and I couldn't be any prouder of her.

Another highlight of our first week in Italy was the bike ride we took to Lazise, a beautiful lakeside town about 4 km up the road from where we were staying. We hired bikes and headed out in the blazing late morning sun. After a great effort from Joan and Scarlett in tough conditions we arrived in Lazise, after a quick hydration break at a lakeside tiki bar, and started exploring. The heat was getting really bad so after a quick look around the old town we had lunch at a small restaurant and got served by quite possibly the rudest Italian waitress of all time, and she has some competition to that honour !! We battled our way back to the campsite, every one the sweatiest they had ever been and high tailed it to the pool for some relief .

An absolutely amazing first week - Joan had to head back to Enniskillen for a few days to work so the girls and I were on our own for the next few days.Read more