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Traveling With Kids: Cool Hotels With a Twist

20 Mar

I’m over on Classic Play today talking about some really neat and unique accommodations that I found and that I know kids will love.  Everything from sleeping in an underwater hotel room to sleeping in a boot shaped cottage to sleeping in a real prison (where they actually treat you like a real prisoner).  Our personal family favourite is sleeping in the hay in Switzerland.  We did it a few years ago and my kids are still raving about it (who knew that sleeping on hay bales with 20 snoring goats could make such an impact on kids!).  Click here to read full post.   And if you have any stories about out-of-the-norm hotels or accommodations I’d love to hear all about it.

 

 

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Moroccan Snapshots *2*

19 Mar

A few more snapshots from our trip to Morocco…

IMG_4913Our favourite Moroccan cat sleeping on the outdoor terrace of our favourite Moroccan guesthouse.

IMG_4995 Almond blossoms with abandoned Kasbah in the background.

IMG_4971Oasis.

IMG_5038After a 5 hour hike to an isolated Berber village we were invited to have lunch in a local family’s home.  They made us the best tasting meal of our lives using this simple gas fire and metal tagine.

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Moroccan chicken.  Without the delicious spices. Yet.
IMG_5166A great way to sit back and relax after a 10 hour hike in the mountains.

Moroccan Snapshots *1*

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Moroccan Snapshots *1*

12 Mar

A few images of my latest trip to Morocco…

IMG_4819-001Arriving at Menara Marrakech Airport.IMG_4840-001Lovely little carpet shop along the side of the road. Regretting not buying one.IMG_4854-001Handmade Berber carpet with Berber sheep (in the wind)

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Delivery truck that was teetering back and forth from the height and weight of those sacks.  A bit scary to drive behind.IMG_4861-001

My dream car.  Pink back-window curtain and all.IMG_4869-001

He wasn’t as sweet as he looks in the photo.

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Our first tagine of the trip.  Eaten on a quaint little outdoor terrace under the hot sun overlooking the atlas mountains.  Nice.

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Typical Moroccan painted metal door (with small stone village in background) 

I’ll be back with more snapshots soon!

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Traveling With Kids: Venice

20 Feb

My latest Traveling With Kids column is over on the creative parenting site Classic Play today.  This time I write all about traveling to Venice as a family.  We spent a few days there at Christmas and it was absolutely beautiful.  We all loved wandering along the canals and admiring the stunning architecture as well as visiting the sites and museums.  My kids have officially declared it one of their favourite cities in the world.  Lucky for us it’s only a 3 hour drive away…

traveling-with-kids-venice1Click here to read more.

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Traveling With Kids: Geocaching

28 Jan

I’m over on Classic Play with my newest Traveling With Kids column.  This time I talk about our new family hobby geocaching.  Yep, it’s not just for techies anymore.  It’s a great way to get your family out of the house and in the great outdoors.  My kids are so enthusiastic about it and we’ve discovered some fantastic new places where we live (you can see my kids doing it in our local park in this PBS Pen Pal video).  We’re also really looking forward to geocaching on our upcoming trip to Morocco.  So, any other geocaching families out there?

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A Kid’s Life: India

22 Nov


Hello all.  I’m still here (after over a month’s absence on Jillian In Italy).  We’ve had a difficult month but things are slowly starting to get back to normal.  Thankfully.  All I can say at the moment is that I’m so grateful for my family and our good health.  So so grateful.

Today I wanted to share a new interview in my A Kid’s Life series.  Learning about regular family life and traditions from around the world is one of my favourite things and since I started this series a few years ago I’ve learned so much about different cultures around the world.  And as much as I love to hear about how different a culture is from the other side of the world I also find it so fascinating that there are so many similarities between all of our daily grinds.

Today we’re going to hear from Kanchan and her family who live in Dehli in Northern India.  I actually “met” Kanchan on Instagram (follow her here) and I was immediately in awe of her colourful photos of their life and surroundings (not to mention the gorgeous colourful fabrics that she sometimes photographs!).  I’ve been fascinated with India for years and we’re actually in the midst of seriously contemplating a family trip there in the near future.

From the beginning Kanchan was warm and friendly and so open to share her family’s daily life and culture with us here on Jillian In Italy.  Kanchan, who lived for over 20 years in Dubai, decided to return to India so that her two daughters would be close to family and friends and learn and appreciate all that Indian culture has to offer.

So let’s hear all about their life in Delhi.

A temple in Delhi

A temple in Delhi

What country do you live in?

We live in India

How many kids do you have?  What are their ages?

We have two girls.  Diya is 12 and Naina is 10.  And we have two beloved daschunds.

At the Amer Fort, Jaipur

At the Amer Fort, Jaipur

Are you and your husband the same nationality?
Yes, we are both Indian

Do you both work?  Or does someone stay at home?

I used to work for an airline in Dubai (Emirates).  Now I am mostly at home with my girls.  My husband does financial consultancy from home.

How many languages are spoken in your house?  What one(s)?

English and Hindi.

At what age do kids start school in your country?

Most kids that we know start school at two and half years old.  By three and a half they go to Kindergarten in a proper school.  Our schools are mostly English medium and the curriculum is 10+2.

Continue reading →

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Traveling With Kids: The 100 Memories List

4 Oct

I’m over on Classic Play with a new Traveling With Kids column.  This time I share our favourite way to document and preserve our family vacation memories (besides photos).    Click here to read all about it.

 

Have a great week-end!

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Traveling With Kids: South Shore, Nova Scotia

13 Sep

My newest Traveling With Kids column is over on Classic Play today.  And this one hits home for me.  Literally.  I write all about our time spent on the South Shore of my hometown province of Nova Scotia. I don’t want to sound biased but it really is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The South Shore of Nova Scotia is all about the simple life.  Great beaches, picturesque fishing villages, cozy little cafes and bakeries and lots of hikes and walks along the beautiful coastlines and in the local forests.  In other words, the perfect destination for a summer family vacation.

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Mangia Bevi Bici

11 Sep

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As a family we love biking.  And we love food.  So when we saw that some local businesses were organising a day of cycling with gastronomic stops along the way we were immediately on board.  Mangia Bevi Bici is an event that has been going on for three years and is slowly gaining popularity by many people living in our small region.

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The idea of the day is to do a 30km bike tour (or a shorter 18km version for the little ones) and make small stops in various towns and villages at local restaurants, community centres and gastronomic shops.

Along the way there are stops for antipasto, primo piatto, secondo piatto and dolce. The organisers mapped out a perfect tour along picturesque little streets and roads with just the right amount of cycling in between stops.  Usually at each stop there was a choice of several different dishes along with lots of wine and even grappa at the secondo piatto stop.  The tour included a surprise honey tasting stop as well as some gifts for the kids along the way (cycle hats and water bottles!).

Some of our favourite dishes of the day were the Pasta con Pesce di Lago (Pasta with Lake Fish), Gnocchi alla Zucca (Pumpkin Gnocchi), Lavarello alla Griglia con Arancio (Grilled Lake Fish with Orange) and of course the impressive cheese and salami plate at one of our favourite local farm.IMG_6516

I’ll be honest though, eating all that food and then having to hop on a bike was at times challenging.  I made the suggestion to the organisers that they might want to think about installing a nap-tent halfway through the tour next time.

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Even if the sky above was chasing us in between primo and secondo piatto we managed to avoid the storms for most of the day.

Even despite a few steep hills, some fallen off bike-chains and the odd flat tire it was a really wonderful way to spend a beginning-of-fall Sunday.   We’ve already started the countdown for next year.

(all photos were taken with iPhone)


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Il Rientro

2 Sep

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(photo taken in Nova Scotia this summer)

Whoa.  We’re back.  It’s September.  And school starts tomorrow.  All pretty hard to believe at the moment.  These past two months have been so full of amazing new experiences and memories for our family.  We spent time in Umbria, Verona, Liguria and Canada and really took advantage of every moment together and with our friends and family.  Wholly satisfied would explain the way I’m feeling at the moment.

IMG_0667(never dare your kid to put his fingers in the pincers of a crawfish – they’ll do it and it hurts)

I have my girls who start secondary school tomorrow.  And they’re pretty much freaking out.  Every few minutes they come to me in a panic with questions of where they have to go after the bus arrives at school, where their classroom is, where the toilets are, how to avoid the areas where all the older kids make-out and so on.  Only problem is that I know less than them so it has been a challenge to keep them calm.  They’re actually starting to freak me out about the whole thing.

IMG_0908(entering the 13 degree Atlantic Ocean – evidence that they are indeed half Canadian)

Since we’re just back from Canada we’re still trying to adjust to the time change.  Lots of late nights and sleeping in late the last few days (see an example of the state of my kids at midnight here).  I think we’ll have a bit of a rough time getting up at 6:30am tomorrow morning in order to catch the school bus on time.   And I can’t even fathom what it will be like to be in my home alone for the day after two months of constant kid-companionship .  I know it will feel too empty and quiet.

IMG_1684(visiting the year 1744 at Louisbourg in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia)

But I’ll be so glad to be back here sharing some of my creative endeavors, trips, recipes and even some projects that I have been working on for other blogs and sites.  I’ve really taken a breather this summer and am so ready to start again!

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(enjoying a little trip on a lobster fishing boat on the South Shore of Nova Scotia)

So, cheers to a new school year!  I know it’s going to be a great one.

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