What were you grateful for this week?Holidays. 

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?No sunscreen and a great new sunburn. 

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. 

One night I was sitting with one of the kids while he did his homework. I couldn’t help much with subjects that were in Italian but when he did math I tried to help him and had to even relearn how to do simple math that I haven’t done in a very long time! He thought it was funny I had forgotten and we had a laugh trying to figure out some problems.

Tell us about your week! This week on Wednesday we had a day off because it was an Italian holiday. So K and M and I went to Arona. It is a quick train ride from Gallarate to a cute city on a lake. We relaxed and laid out by the water and jumped in and swam. It felt so nice! We got some food and walked around. That night we went over to M’s house and she made us some dinner so we ate and hung out and made plans for the weekend. This weekend was another holiday so we had an extra day to do something. We went to Lake Garda. Saturday we spent the day laying out and soaking up the sun. We walked around the city center and got some dinner. The next day we decided to go to Gardaland, which is an amusement park here in Italy. We all love roller coasters and knew we had to go. It was the best day. I’ve always wanted to go to an amusement park in another country so it was a sweet experience. It also made me feel at home. 

We were so tired from walking around all day but still made it to a great dinner spot. We asked a lady at our hostel her favorite sushi place in town and took her suggestion and went for it. It was amazing! I know since we’re in Italy we’re supposed to be indulging in all the pasta and pizza, but this is some sushi I will never forget. Monday we planned to go to Verona for the day but decided to keep it more relaxed. We laid out again in the morning, got sunburned, and swam in the lake. We went to Verona in the later afternoon and had some lunch. We walked around a little only really seeing the colosseum and then headed back to the train station for home. Even only being in Verona for a short period of time I could tell It was a beautiful city and hopefully I can explore more of it later on!