During the summers of our youth my siblings and I spent time at our grandmothers’, which didn’t take a lot of traveling since both our mother and father’s families are from Tuscany.

For my children, all born and living in the US, the story was different. My family is in Tuscany and my husband’s in Switzerland; which means we didn’t just have to cross the Atlantic, but also ‘travel whit-in the travel’, as we all came to call it. The first visit was to the Tuscan countryside, followed by the seaside along the Mediterranean coast. From there we would leave towards the Swiss Alps to vacation with the other grandparents.

Like we had done as children, the kids always played using a lot of their imagination. At the beach rules were looser compared to the ones we grew up with. Beside building sand castles and racing marbles the older kids, always in large groups, spent hours biking in the pinewoods bordering the beach. Also, the children didn’t have to beg to play for hours coming in and out of the water as much as we used to.

Old habits are hard to break and, as I had done as a girl, I took the children on long walks along the shore while the sun was setting, searching for the most colorful rocks we could find. That had a dual purpose: to calm the children down after the energetic games they had played until then and, yes, to give myself a treat since I have always been fascinated by the awesome beauty of the rocks along the shore*. The children would come along and enjoy the search. I have always suspected that in those already very capable little brains they had figured out that if they agreed to play mamma’s game towards the end of the day, she might then be very nice to them? Who knows, fragole (strawberries) or lamponi (raspberries) with gelato al fior di latte for dessert?

We, young and brave mothers, also organized some picnics on the beach at dinner time, when the sun was almost gone from the sky. One of the kids’ favorite dishes was insalata di riso, rice salad, which they devoured to then go back to… play. After dinner it would be dark, and the children dedicated whatever was left of their energy (which seemed to be endless) to playing for a while with flashlights in the dark. Let me tell you, by the end of the day, it wasn’t clear who was the most exhausted; the children or their mothers?

*The awe for the stunning nature’s artifacts inspired me to create “Antologia di Sassi“, ‘The Stones’ Anthology‘, the painting project I worked on while raising my family. (See ‘About me‘)

Fun Fact:

After our stay at the seaside my siblings and I used to bring our collected rocks back to nonna’s garden in the countryside. Of course also my kids and I didn’t want to part from our newly found treasures?! So, the rocks would travel by car with us to the little town in the Swiss Alps that was our next destination. From there I would send them back to the States through the Swiss Post Office. The first couple of times I did it, when I was asked, “What is in the (heavy) box?” and answered, “Rocks.”, the facial expressions of the usually unflappable Swiss tellers was a sight to be relished. At the Post Office of the small Swiss mountain town they eventually got used to my yearly August oddity and didn’t pay attention to it any longer: “Here she comes. It must be mid August!”

I will see you tomorrow for a simple and delicious insalata di riso recipe.