Teenagers… that's what we were this weekend.  Well, I didn't wear short shorts and blue eyeliner and my husband left his baggy low-riders at home, but we stayed out late, ate fatty food at 2 am and slept half the morning away - twice.  My parents took the kids for the weekend and we made good usage of this time!  Our kids are funny and fun and we love them to bits, but it's also nice to leave all responsibility for awhile and act irresponsibly!  Poutine at 2 am?  Perfect!

Aside from red wine and general debauchery, this weekend was also supposed to include finishing up the Italy preparations.  Verona has been booked so we are now fully accommodated and the transportation issue needed to be determined.  I did some comparisons between keeping a rental car for an extended time versus train tickets and shorter car rentals… the combinations were making me a bit batty and in the end it was determined that cost-wise it was pretty much a wash, but in terms of time and convenience it makes more sense to keep the same car for 12 days.  The places we have rented have parking facilities and just because we have the car doesn't mean we need to use it, but it does avoid the hassle of returning cars and getting new ones.  So, final decisions are made and reservations are underway.  Final verdict; train tickets from Rome to Florence (where we will pick up a car), then after returning the car in Verona we will take a train from Verona to Venice.  Sounds easy, right?  It took awhile to get to that conclusion so let's just say that looks can be deceiving...  I'm glad that is settled and now we're pretty much done in the planning department; next thing to occupy the brain - what to pack.  Stay tuned.

We leave in two months exactly - whoop whoop!