From the category archives:

Italy 2007

Europe Diary, Day One

by Sasha Stone on August 11, 2009

It’s up early and out by around 1:30pm.¬† Airport shuttle.¬† I’ve never actually taken a shuttle to the airport.¬† Usually someone drives us – or I park down at the airport and pay $40 to park so that I can drive us home after our trips.¬† I really hate asking/depending on people to drive to the airport because it’s just such a drag.¬† We’re almost ready to go – just a few last-minute details, saying goodbye to our cute cats and bidding Los Angeles farewell for a couple of weeks.¬† We will be hitting Milan, Modena, Florence and Rimini in Italy and then flying over to Paris for four days and four nights (which turned out to be expensive, too expensive to justify).¬† I’m still feeling much trepedation about this trip.¬† My daughter is now 11 and she’s plenty old enough to really figure out the whole situation.¬† I just hope that it goes as well as possible for her.

She didn’t grow up with her father and didn’t meet him until she was eight.¬† She then visited him again at nine.¬† Then we skipped a year and she’s going back at eleven.¬† This is an experiment to see if it’s possible to forge a relationship between her and her Italian relatives.¬† Part of me feels scared about it – like what if she gets hurt somehow.¬† There is no grand plan.¬† We’re just kind of making it up as we go.¬† If all goes well, the process will move forward.¬† If it doesn’t, I’ll pull the plug.

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My A-Ha Moment – I’m Finished with Oprah

by Sasha Stone on June 21, 2008

Finished, I tell you.¬† Flipping through O Magazine and it suddenly hit me that the cult of Oprah is about perfecting, not accepting.¬† Suze Orman scolding we befuddled and bad financial planners, the array of things we can’t possibly afford – freaking ballet flats for $300?¬† Spanx to suck us in, agonizing books to read on top of being the best mom, the best business woman, the nicest person, the most charitable – you know, enough already.¬† It’s hard enough just remembering to buy and then correctly use tampons so that you can spare that last decent pair of underwear.¬† Christ almighty.¬† When will it end.

Oh, and asterickly speaking, I once went up for a job to be the Oprah guide on About.com.  Did not get the job.  Why is this not surprising?

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Aquafan!

by sashastone August 26, 2007 Italy 2007

Aquafan is a big water slide park located in Riccone Italy. It costs some bucks to get in but once in you can ride very scary water slides or else wade in the smaller kid pools. But if you don’t get there early you don’t get a chair and if you don’t get a chair you spend a lot of time standing (if you’re not swimming). But in their large pool they have “entertainment.” Here is a sampling:

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Frizzer in Rome

by sashastone August 26, 2007 Italy 2007
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Fish Talk

by sashastone August 18, 2007 Italy 2007

The open market in Rimini is spectacular. You can find any number of fruit, vegetables, meat and of course fish. It’s the best and only way to shop. We went today and loaded up on clams for lunch and some kind of fish that needs peeling for dinner. I promise pictures of all. We have five days total left in Italy, two days in Rome and then back to the urban sprawl I hold so dear.

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Rimini — FLICKR

by sashastone August 14, 2007 Italy 2007

Since I haven’t had time to update what with the exhausting beach trips and lounging at the beach bar but here but here is a link to the flickr page with all of the updated pics. http://www.flickr.com/photos/61914873@N00/ I promise more later. But tomorrow is a national holiday and I’ve been sworn off using any electronic equipment. Italy is lovely.

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Reporting from the Internet Cafe in Rimini

by sashastone August 13, 2007 Italy 2007

I really hate to be the type of person who would rather sit in an internet cafe than wander the streets of Rimini but there you have it. A fast connection, ability to know what’s going in this strange little newsy world of the net. I am happy to be able to spend time on the outside of it, as Emma and I are doing. It does put things in perspective, no doubt. No one, for instance, at the end of their life, is going to have made memories sitting in front of their computer. Most of our lives still need to be among the living, I’ve decided. Easier said than done. Today Emma and Luca are at the beach. Maybe later we will go to Aquafan, a popular swim park here in Rimini. Emma wants to see “miniature Italy” and so we will probably do that. I want to [...]

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We Have Finally Arrived

by sashastone August 11, 2007 Italy 2007

After a two-day travel odyssey we have finally arrived to a windy, sort of rainy Rimini, Italy. It is nice to be here. Jet lag has gotten the better of both of us, though, and we were awake with our various demons at 3am and finally went back to sleep around 6am. Rimini is full of vacationing Italians, French, Russians and the occasional — very occasional — American. It is not a big tourist spot and is yet undiscovered. Maybe because it is so retro, so established in its ways and isn’t as pretty as some of Italy’s other beaches it isn’t on anyone’s list of places to visit before they die. Even Fellini, who was raised here and buried here had to get out and never really came back. Though he paid tribute to it in Armacord he certainly never “gave back” to his hometown. In a doc about [...]

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First Leg, Toronto

by sashastone August 8, 2007 Italy 2007

If I had a brain in my head, which it is clear I do not, I never would have booked a trip that makes us literally traveling for two whole days before we even get to Rome. After a brief laydown disguised as sleep I forced myself awake at 3:30am to make coffee and get our shit out the door. Cheap airport parking meant we drove ourselves. Los Angeles is at its best at that hour. There are no people in their cars clogging the freeways and believe it or not you can actually see a star or two.

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