Beautiful Bellagio

 I started today exhausted and sick of my kids.  They had done nothing wrong by 8 am, but it has been 19 days of constant contact, a lot of it on my own.  We knew what we were getting into with Will having to work, but we also didn’t fully understand.  But it is exhausting on a good day with five kids, and even more trying to navigate new languages, traditions, people, etc.  Despite my slightly dour mood to start, I was sticking with the plan to grab a bus into Bellagio.  Bus was crowded and I wish I had had Dramamine, but we made it to a bus stop of amazing beauty.  Stunning.  We didn’t have a plan of any sort for the day, so we walked toward the main drag.  Right away we watched this little train drive by and stop.  Of course the kids wanted to ride so I asked what it was and it’s cost.  

The train brought us all around Bellagio to elevations we would not have made it walking.  You could stop and hop off or hop on whenever you wanted to.  We rode for awhile and decided to get off at Il Parc di San Giovanni.  We knew we would have about 40 minutes to play.  The park had a fun zip line and the kids played capture the castle, together, without fighting.  We jumped back on and rode back to the main drag.  It was then lunchtime and I had told the kids we could get lunch, but they just wanted ice cream for lunch (again).  We then popped in a few shops, which in itself was a feat as they all have two hands and everything looks so cool. But we managed a few treasures.  The store in town I had hoped to get some food at was closed, so that was an issue. 

 We then caught the bus at a different closer stop within minutes of getting to the stop and were headed home. What happened next has been filed in the agree to disagree category.  Suffice it to say that my plea for flagging down the bus as I was not sure of where the stop was, since getting on had been so crowded, was thwarted by an American on a scooter who stopped to point out to Will where George and Amal live and take a picture.  Instead of getting off at the top of the driveway, we were now back in town a mile away.  The perfect day had a wrinkle as the little kids now whined and  cried.  The American on the scooter found me and said “you must be Will’s wife”, to which I smiled and held back what I really wanted to say about her stopping and talking to him in the first place.  Grocery store was closed so no way to even bribe them with food.  So we walked back begrudgingly and found a donkey.