Any mother will tell you the most important thing in her life is her children. Inherent in each “La Mamma” is the drive to mold her kids into upstanding adults. Ever since they were born I have loved sharing travel experiences to shape the minds, heart and spirit of my three children (Lorenzo, Valentina and Luca), aged 11, 9 and 5. Sharing my travel/cycling passion with my children is one of the highlights of our family life. It is enormously satisfying to watch my children experience travel at their own speed and with their own wonderfully playful eyes.
Traveling with children is one of the best ways to offer them unique and fun learning experiences. Seeking out unusual locations offers them an education that can’t be taught in a classroom or the “typical” family vacations. Forget Disney World, Venice offers a Disney-like fantasy experience combined with thousands of years of culture, history and a stimulating modern culture focused on art and a passion for living. Walking through the zigzagging Venetian streets is the world's best maze, eating in the piazza is like a huge dinner party, taking the vaporetti or water taxis on the Grand Canal is better than any “ride”, visiting the Murano fishing villages is a “very cool” step back in time.” This blend of play and learning is what connects us with our children. When traveling, playful opportunities abound and because I love to play, I easily connect with my children wherever we go.
Seeing the world through the eyes of a child conjures memories of a much simpler time when we were young and experiencing things for the first time. Kids at this age respond to the simplest pleasures and remind us to slow down, play in a fountain, try on a mask or chase a pigeon through a piazza. Kids always love walking through villages, taking in the pulse of life and following their serendipitous natures.”
For those reluctant to take their kids on a vacation for fear small kids will be too challenging, Consider this, kids, while amazingly fulfilling, can present challenges wherever they are, so why not take them on a trip where we parents can have a uplifting travel experience. At home, kid are in their comfort zone and can be more difficult. When traveling, it is more likely that kids will let their guard down and follow your lead. I am usually more at peace on outings or traveling with my kids than when I stay at home where I battle the ‘Mommy, I am bored’ syndrome. When I am on a bike trip alone without my kids I find that I am always wanting to share my experience with them. Our lives are simpler when we travel. There is less stuff in our travel life, no multi tasking, constantly taking care of practicalities or rushing to get places. We are focused on each other and more in the flow of life. The spontaneity, serendipity of it all brings us closer. We see each other at our best.
Allowing your children to have experiences they would not otherwise have at home will create memories to last a lifetime for all. We loved jumping off our boat into the gorgeous blue waters of Sardinia, getting soaked in Roman fountains or playing tag in The Boboli Gardens. Some of our memorable travel experiences include bouldering (hiking rocks) along the Sardinian coastline, spinning downhill 10 miles to the sea in Greece and hiking through the Dolomites. It’s a collective memory I know we will treasure for a very long time.
When planning vacations, I start off with some initial research to list things to see and do. Upon arriving in a certain locations, she’ll make adjustments depending on each day. Guidebooks and web sites like the Family Travel Forum with kid-friendly ideas are instrumental in helping find all the kid-friendly eateries and activities. I will always mix up the highly cultural experiences with fun ones. A trip to Rome will include some classics, but lots of gelato breaks and hanging out in piazzas,” says Lauren. Anything that includes swimming, the beach or open playing (like rambling fields, etc) is a hit for us. When picking sites, we usually avoid very crowded places (like the Vatican museum) for they are guaranteed stress producers. I always choose a more low key ‘attraction’ where we can have a more authentic, human experience over the more touristy ones.” As the kids get older, allow them to have some input into the vacation plans. You never know what they are going to come up with. In the near future, This year we hope to expand our travels beyond Italy to Ireland, Paris and Norway. The world is our oyster!
Friday, May 9, 2008
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY: Share Your Travel Experiences with Your Kids!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Spring Vacation in Washington, DC
Of all of our family travel experiences, our recent trip to Washington, DC was the trip that had brains most constantly engaged. It was a journey into the the power of words and the risks and challenges that our Nation's heroes took to preserve and guarantee their vision. Of course our bodies got plenty of movement walking from museum to museum and climbing up and down the metro escalator. The timing was ripe for all us Our children 5, 9 and 11 were the perfect age for their introductory tour of this most fascinating and thought provoking city; I had not been since my own 8th grade school trip (and a couple of college protest marches) and for my husband, an Italian lawyer by trade/ new American citizen our week in Washington was important chapter in his own unique American experience.
We took the overnight train from Boston hours after spending hours cheering runners up heartbreak hill for the Boston Marathon. We rented an apartment using Vacation Rentals By Owner and found a cute apartment near the zoo. We landed at Union Station and hit the ground running. First stop was the Air and Space Museum, the most visited building on the planet. We spent all day roaming through the rich collections of exhibits. My personal favorite was the Frank and Wilbur Wright gallery in which we learn how two humble bicycle mechanics evolve into the world's first pilots. The children loved all the hands on exhibits, I caught up on some sleep at the IMAX show. From the Air and Space onto the Washington, Memorial, a fun place to run around and plan the details of the week ahead
As a child I would savor the pages of National Geographic as soon as it landed in our mailbox and was certainly the inspiration for my love of travel and photography, so a visit to its base in Washington was first on my list. The National Geographic Society museum is small but always has unique revolving exhibits, we were lucky to see one that had live frogs from around the world creatures . The museum is small but has great rotating exhibits. Here we also learned about our human footprint (one Sunday paper uses 500,000 trees) and saw sculptures made of garbage. We also learned about the Genographic Project, a five-year study using DNA as a study tool to map how humankind populated the planet.
On to the Library of Congress, considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Washington, we roamed its beautiful halls and fascinating exhibits including the an original Guttenberg Bible, an exhibit on Creating the United States that offered insights into how the nation’s founding documents were forged and the role that imagination and vision played in the unprecedented creative act of forming a self–governing country and an exhibit on Bob Hope whose voluminous joke collection was donated to the Library of Congress.
We spent the rest of a perfect spring afternoon to explore the memorials, starting with the Lincoln Memorial, then moving to the Vietnam, WW2 and Jefferson Memorial, each stop stirring many great questions about life, death and freedom. Reading the Gettysburg address and thinking of Martin Luther King's words spoken here is an empowering mental and emotional journey of how a powerful, passionate vision can ground and inspire each one of us to reach great heights.
Thursday was packed with eclectic learning starting with my son Lorenzo's first choice: The International Spy Museum. While I could have passed this descent into a Bond lovers fantasy, I found the museum's rich content, including exhibits about Renaissance spying fascinating. My 5 year old loved the James Bond Car and my daughter loved scrambling through the air ducts. The museum could better orientate its visitors, it starts out with all of the Spy paraphrenalia which bogs you down (and tires you out ) until you emerge to the broader Spy culture and history exhibits which were intriguing. Be prepared for kids to go crazy in the gift shop
Another museum on my list was the Native American Indian museum, a beautiful building that was designed to reflect the Native American sense of space the natural world. The museum was not jam packed with artifacts, instead there was a calming flow of presentations about a handful of Indian cultures in the Americas.
From Spys to Native American and finally the National Archives where we, and dozens of others jammed into a rotunda to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill or Rights. All faded but pretty special. The gift shop is excellent.
My favorite museum hands down was The Newseum, the world's most interactive museum, (that opened on April 11 ) that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second innovation and fun. It's a great museum to wrap up your visit to Washington for it brings history full circle demonstrates how our beliefs are challenged daily. One exhibit that blended famous film clips and the first amendment offered a huge learning opportunity to internalize our most precious right. Our kids even got to be filmed as live reporters. The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museum goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made. "Visitors will come away with a better understanding of news and the important role it plays in all of our lives," said Newseum Executive Director and Senior Vice President Joe Urschel. "The new Newseum is educational, inspirational and a whole lot of fun." We spent the entire day here, aside from an hour to tour the Capitol.
By Saturday AM we were ready for an easy stroll through the Washington Zoo with friends who live in the area. Even though it was crowded, the kids enjoyed seeing the Pandas, elephants and rhinosaurus.
What a perfect family spring destination...we'll be back
Monday, March 24, 2008
TED TALKS: Inspiring Website & Food for the Mind and Soul
I recently discovered (and have been mesmorized) an amazing organization and website called TED Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds.
TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. Under the moniker "ideas worth spreading," talks were released online. They rapidly attracted a global audience in the millions. Indeed, the reaction was so enthusiastic that the entire TED website has been reengineered around TEDTalks, with the goal of giving everyone on-demand access to the world's most inspiring voices.
Today, TED is therefore best thought of as a global community. It's a community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who have just two things in common: they seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.
Although it is easy to get entranced for hours by the fascinating minds showcased on this website, these three talks I found particularly inspiring:Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen offers a fast-paced round-up of radical (but possible) answers to our planet's greatest challenges, ranging from green cities and buildings, to digital collaboration tools, to ingenious tools for the developing world (flowers that detect landmines; straws that purify water as you drink; merry-go-rounds that pump water using the energy expended by children at play). As Western-style consumerism spreads to developing countries, we must re-imagine our world.
What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard has devoted his life to these questions, and his answer is influenced by his faith as well as by his scientific turn of mind: We can train our minds in habits of happiness. Interwoven with his talk are stunning photographs of the Himalayas and of his spiritual community.
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."
Enjoy exploring this website, follow your own curiosity!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Bikram Yoga, the Perfect Compliment to Bicycling
The heat produces a much easier stretch because warm muscles are suppler and more malleable, therefore allowing for greater range of movement in joints, muscles, ligaments and other structures in the body. This is the effect that I have appreciated most. The cardiovascular system gets a very thorough workout too. Capillaries dilate more in the heat bringing oxygen more efficiently into the tissues, muscles, glands and organs and helping in the expelling of waste. The long term effects of hot yoga are also too good to pass up. For instance, muscles and connective tissue become more elastic and allow for greater flexibility with less chance of injury and improved resolution of injury. Sweating leads to detoxification through the skin - which is the body's largest eliminating organ. It is really like a BODY facial! Quite possibly the most important plus are the mental health benefits. You can enjoy greater willpower through discipline, self control, concentration and determination. Also, the effects on the stress in your life and how you manage it are incredible. You will learn techniques to control reaction to the stressful stimulants that are encountered throughout the day. Birkram, or Hot, Yoga is one of the most popular practices for physical and mental well-being in our society today, and for good reason. For a great total body workout that can be performed on all levels and enhance your spring cycling season, give Birkram Yoga a shot and get ready to roll. If live in the Boston area and you are interested in sampling a variety of yoga classes, check out Davide Magone's Inside Yoga (rated one of the TOP 25 yoga studio teachers in the world by Travel and Leisure Magazine).
During the winter I take off time from long rides on my bike (although I still commute by bike) to cross country ski, lift weights and practice yoga. Cross training for cyclists is key and I believe yoga is extremely beneficial for cyclists as it helps stretch out and relax VERY (sometimes chronically) tight cycling muscles, especially the hamstrings and back that actually get shorter from months in the saddle. Yoga is the YANG of Cycling's YIN but both are about flow, alignment, balance, centering and deep breathing. Yoga combined with Cross Country skiing has been my perfect preparation for a stronger and longer cycling season in 2008. In fact at our recent guide meeting, while my guides can outsprint and climb me on the hills, most of them could not even touch their toes, forget about geting into a deep, relaxing Frog pose. As we stood around waiting for Marcello to start his cycling clinic talk, I just started doing yoga as they watched in amazement but agreed that AM morning YOGA stretches would be a good addition to our tours.
For many years I have taken yoga classes here and there usually following a style, time or instructor that worked for me. Friends had sworn my Bikram yoga at Baron Baptiste Studio in Cambridge, MA but the thought of the high temperatures and close quarters kept me away. Finally this winter I gave it a try and LOVED it. Listening to my body, I was pleasantly surprised at how much my muscles deeply loosened and felt so good. I love the way you start out slowly and steadily progress towards very deep stretching, opening up all the tight spots. I had ACL reconstruction two years ago and my knee continues to feel stiff and sore. Not in Bikram yoga! Although I have to be careful in some positions but in general I am able to work on the micro muscles and ligaments that surround the knee and if feels much better, looser and stronger.
Because the room is so hot, it really feels like an internal massage and an external body facial---you can keep stretching farther than you imagined getting into the tiniest but tightest creaky spots of your whole body. After each morning session I not only feel like I got a perfect "work out" but I feel amazingly relaxed and ready to peacefully start my day. I started with one session a week and quickly moved up to two and now three, energizing 90 minute sessions each week.
What is Bikram, or Hot, Yoga? Hot Yoga is done in a room heated between 100 and 115 degrees and usually kept at 60 percent humidity, depending on each studios individual policy. Although, as should be expected, you have to be in good physical health to participate in hot yoga.
The Mental and Physical Health Benefits
Despite the sweat and sometimes light-headedness that comes from this extreme workout, the benefits to your physical and mental health are just too plentiful to ignore. Your body burns fat more effectively when it is warm. Body fat may be redistributed and burned as energy during the class. Also, your metabolism speeds up the breakdown of glucose and fatty acids.
Just as when your body raises its temperature to fight infection, the raised temperature in the room will assist in improving T-cell function and the proper functioning of your immune system. While the rest of my family (and 30% of Arlington) was very sick with the flu this winter, I know that Bikram yoga was helping me fight off the nasty bugs that were floating around. I did Yoga one morning with a blocked sinus and finished feeling clear and purified
Ciclismo Classico's favorite yoga expert, Luciana Lo Presto also has an excellent yoga program in Italy, check it out: www.yogatrips.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ciclismo Classico Annual Guide Meeting
What is it like spending four days talking, learning, eating and cycling
with 28 Ciclismo Classico guides?
How about inspiring, crazy, engaging, fun, interesting, warm and intense? Each year I spend several days in Tuscany with our guide team, bonding, learning and sharing new ideas as well as best guide practices. Oh yes there are always fun and games like when Paolo Taberetti (we call each other cugini since he is from Fano, the town that my grandfather was born) and Simone Scalas showed me how to play the Italian "Morra" ( a hand game, involves strategy, tactics and energy brought to Italy in the 16th century from Turkey).
Outside of my own crazy family, there is no group of people I feel more akin with and amazingly proud of than this wonderful group of super talented, affectionate and passionate Ciclismo guides.
This year our meeting was based at beautiful La Fattoria degli Usignoli, one of most popular hotels panoramically perched in the hills near Regello in the Pratomagno. Not only are our guides talented but also they are super loyal to Ciclismo, many have been with us 8 years or more. Almost every region of Italy was represented at this guide reunion Tuscany, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardia, Abruzzo, Tuscany, Lombardia, Reggio Emiglia [Emilia Romagna], Sicilia, Sardegna and my family's origins: Le Marche. I love hearing their distinct regional accents
and the way they playfully make fun of each other. There were also four Americans, Irish and Spanish guide to round off our team.
In addition to learning and sharing, this gang is like a one big family who really knows how to have fun. They tease, hug, laugh, yell, and share pictures, stories, jokes and most of all they share a bottomless wild passion for what they do. On Saturday morning we all took a bike ride along the "mitico" Strada dei Setti Ponte to Castellfranco where we piled into a small café for a ritual and one of the many "Sosta di Café" (coffee break).
Running the show this year was European Manager, Davide Marchegiano, Italian base manager Suzie Regul and the one and only Paolo Nicolosi "della Sicilia" who with his affectionate commands of "CAFÉ" and "A TAVOLA", made sure that we got a steady stream of coffee and three delicious four course meals. No meeting has better food for sure! Andi Nufer, Suzie's right hand gal, was busy trying to take meeting notes while interpreting wild gesticulations, Italian sarcasm and linguistic regional nuances.
In addition to amazing native guides, what differentiates Ciclismo Classico from other operators is our dedication to making every guest a better cyclist. Quality coaching requires teaching from the best such as Super athlete and new papa' Marcello Bonino [Bonini] who gave an EXCELLENT cycling skills clinic session. Colorado native, Italian import and Campagnolo devotee, Franco Yantorno (one of the best mechanics on the planet) gave a four-hour session on how to fit and fix almost everything on a bicycle. My new general manager Stephen Lang and controller Scott Robertson were there to witness the passion play up close; they were amazed as I always am with this amazing group of talent.
Are you joining us on a tour in Italy and have some extra post tour travel time? Are you traveling on your own to Italy and wish to have a very unique experience? Would you like to really get up close and behind the scenes of the Italian culture? If so I highly recommend that you hire one of our SUPER knowledgeable guides for a very special and 1-2 day private walking or driving tour. Our guides are also full of unique ideas for private tours and are willing and ready to put together a one-of-a-kind custom tour for you and your friends. Feel free to contact me and I can help match you with one of our Ciclismo Classico guides
Monday, March 3, 2008
Lake Placid: A Learning Winter Wonderland
Although my family had fantasized returning to the warm beaches of Mexico for our February break, we eventually opted to enjoy the awsome winter season here in the Northeast. We knew that we wanted to ski but I was hoping to go somewhere different as well as a place where we could all learn something new. Lake Placid came highly recommended by my cross country ski pal Jennifer Saffran who provided me with copious emails and web site links on all the great activities we would find there. I got Olympic fever, made my reservation and started planning our week. I had also been to the 1980 Olympics to see the 50KM men's cross country ski race won by Nikolay Semyonovich Zimyatov, one of the most successful Soviet/Russian male cross-country skiers ever. He was the first man in the sport to win three gold medals at a single Winter Olympics, winning in the 30 km, 50 km, and 4 x 10 km relay at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Needless to say, I was curious to return to this historic trail
We spent an entire week and had a great time in this charming Olympic Village that hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympics. We rented a spacious condo with a sauna, jacuzzi and mountain views right on the golf course. If your family loves winter sports, then this is a great destination to inspire them to take any winter sport they love to the next level.
The first thing we did was to buy an olympic passport that allowed us free entry to many of the olympic venues and some great discounts on events. With our passport we did following:
1. Toured the Olympic Stadium and museum and enjoyed many historic film clips including Eric Heiden winning his 5th gold medal and the US Hockey team win against Russia
2. Took a gondola to the top of Whiteface Mountain, the Olympic Mountain, to enjoy amazing views of the Adirondacks
3. Toured the Bobsled run and watched old film clips and current insane athletes travel over 60mph down a mile course in under one minute
4. Lorenzo and Valentina actually had a ride on the Olympic track in a real bobsled (with two drivers) they made it to 55 mph!
5. Toured the 150 ft ski jump ( an elevator goes to the top) and watch more insane athletes fly like birds
6. Skated for hours (and over 60 laps, we counted!) around the Olympic oval where Heiden won his historic 5 medals. Valentina proclaim as she tries to skate like the pros: I love this, maybe I can win a gold medal someday!
In addition to the getting our passport stamped, we cross country skied for three days Van Hovenburg and Cascade Cross country ski center where we played "hide and ski" on their maze of easy and charming trails and had a delicious lunch in sun filled lodge. We also enjoyed a chilly dog sled ride across Mirror Lake, sledded down long golf course runs, bowled at Bowlwinkles (5 year-old Luca won!) and hiked through High Falls Gorge where we roasted marshmellows along the rushing river and learned all about the fascinating geology and history of the gorgeous Adirondack Region. That evening we spent watching a great movie about the history of the Olympics.
As you can tell by my other posts, I am a huge cross country ski fan so, as my son claims, I take sides easily and stand by my claim that cross country is one of the healthiest, most amazingly beautiful lifetime sports one can participate in. Aside from the fact that the sport killed and keeps stressing my knees, downhill skiing is an outrageously expensive family sport, especially if you only ski occasionally. One adult family member's downhill ticket costs the same as our entire family cross country skiing for two days. OK stop me here! Downhill is a FUN family sport that gets everyone smiling so we took the gang to Whiteface which was very vertical, windy, cold and icy. They had the snow makers going everywhere to ready the mountain for school vacation week (thanks for telling us). The loud noise and snow blowing everywhere made the skiing unsettling and more treacherous for lack of visibility. There were lots of ski patrols and folks in stretchers. Needless to say, our first day skiing there did not leave me with a lasting impression about this mountain.
Since Lorenzo prefers the downhill thrill (Valentina has been converted to cross country), I agreed to give it another chance and offered Lorenzo and Valentina the chance to take snowboarding lessons on our last day in Lake Placid. For an hour I stood in various lines, settled the gang into boarding lessons and equipment, left Luca and Mauro on the magic carpet and fled back to Van Hovenburg where I had two hours and 15 KM of cross country skiing bliss. I then returned to downhill ski half day with everyone on the easier kid friendly zone just as the big flakes started coming down. Lots of "watch me mom" and "come do the jumps with me mom", "check out the snowflakes on your goggles mom!" OK, you'll get me on another chair soon. It was a lovely snowy icing on our wonderful week. Both snow bunnies did great on snowboards and both may opt boarding over downhill. Luca is improving his "pizza" all the time and holds his own down any beginner slope. Mauro does OK for a guy who never saw snow until he was 28 and did not start skiing until 2 years ago.
As far as eats go, we mostly cooked pasta plus at our condo and ate our share of peanut butter and nutella, GORP and fruit but we did have three excellent dining experiences. For our arrival first night we had a great meal at Lisa G's where we played pool while we waited for a very nice meal, on Monday we had dinner with friends from the area who recommended simple fare at The Cottage, right on the Mirror Lake but our favorite meal by far was the Caribbean Cowboy, a small "hip" charming bistro off the main drag.
Before we left on Saturday, we returned to Van Ho (what the locals call it) where we had a couple more hours of skiing before we jumped into the car to drive home and enjoy the lasting views of a gorgous region....bye bye Lake Placid, we will be back!!
