Allison's Wonderland

In the morning, I wake up in my little room, fling open my windows, step out on my balcony and sing, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," from the musical "Oklahoma!" I just can't help it! Spring has sprung here in Northern Italy and I am loving every second of it. Unfortunately for Mattia and I, we've been stuck inside all week in some of the most beautiful weather I have seen here in Italy so far. The poor little guy has Chicken Pox and so we're abiding by Doctor's orders, which pretty much means House Arrest.

Yesterday I had the chance to go for a drive and take a walk in the sunshine. I normally don't ever get to drive, so this was a real treat! Jess is gone for the week in Spain and so she left the car she has been loaned to drive at the train staion, and her host family said I could drive it while she's away. There is nothing in this world that makes me happier than driving in the car with my windows down, belting to some song on the radio. In this case it had to be my iPod because the radio in the car doesn't work. Either way, I love doing it! The Italians driving past me, probably thought I was a complete nut job, but I can't say that I really care. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to drink in every aspect of it.

I found a little country road that wound it's way through lush green fields, and I brought my handy dandy camera along. The night before the stars were absolutely brilliant, so I got a towel, went outside, and laid down in the garden for half an hour just staring. Sometimes I wish I were born in a different era where there wasn't terrible electricity to drown out the beauty of the stars. Here in Villanova, with a population of 6,000 people, there's not a whole lot of light to drown them out, so it's almost as good. It's simply beautiful here with the trees blossoming, and in the distance are snow covered mountains. I just can't get enough. I thought spring was absolutely beautiful at home, but spring here in Piemonte is just as beautiful, if not better. But I guess there really is no place like home. :)

Okay, this is a bit embarrassing, but I just had to write about it.

Let me start off by saying, locking myself in the bathroom was NOT my fault. There is something seriously wrong with the door.

Here's how it went...
The family and I went to Snow Fever Sunday night for dinner. We all got pizza and it was absolutely divine. As we're finishing up they start doing this thing called, "The Baby Dance," where Manu (a girl that works there) tries to get all the kids on the dance floor. They dance to songs that have choreography like the Hokey Pokey. That kind of thing. So, while Gian and Simona try to coerce Mattia into dancing, I head to the bathroom. I've been in this bathroom many a time before, and I know the door is a bit quirky. So I try and close it slowly so it doesn't close all the way, but its one of those sliding doors, and I slid it a tad bit hard. It slammed into the door frame. When I tried to open it back a little ways, it wouldn't budge. My heart started pounding really hard, as I'm a bit claustraphobic. I tried to calm myself down, and just do what I came to do first. After finishing my business, I tried to open the door again calmly without freaking out. After about 10 seconds of that I started to panic. As I pulled the handle on the door, I completely ripped the top part clear off. Screw and everything. I think someone may have been stuck in here before me, because I could not have done that all by my own strength. The panic was definitely setting in!

Here I am stuck in the bathroom not able to get out. I didn't want to call for help because seriously, it was embarrassing, but what was I to do? I start banging on the door as hard as I could. The door was a solid wooden door and after banging for about 10 seconds, my hand was on fire. Not a good idea. It hurt pretty bad. Plus, everyone's on the dance floor doing the baby dance with the music turned up loud. Nobody was going to hear me, but like I said I was panicking, so I didn't care. I just wanted out!!!

I tried to get my thoughts back together, because I let them run wild for a moment. Thoughts like, "I'm going to have to sleep in here. Gian and Simona will leave without me, thinking I walked home, and I'm going to be stuck in here all night till someone comes to clean." Thoughts like that. Luckily for me, I brought my cell phone to the bathroom (who does that?). I set my pride aside and phoned Simona. Yep, she didn't pick up. Baby Dance was either too loud for her to hear, or she didn't have her phone on her. I tried again. Nothing. UGH!!! So if two phone calls were not enough I texted, "I'M LOCKED IN THE BATHROOM!! HELP!" So now she had my embarrassing moment in writing. As I just sat there on the toilet, I tried to figure out what to do. I went up and tried the handle again. Put the top part back in and pulled with all my might. Nothing. So then I just tried wiggling the lock, wiggling the handle, and VIOLA! It finally opened! I was so relieved. I felt like a prisoner who just found freedom! After I was out, I asked Simona if she got my phone calls or texts. Come to find out she left her phone in the car. Once we got in the car she read my text, and just laughed super hard. Not my most shining moment for sure. Next time I use the toilet there, I'm going with the door WIDE open because I am NOT experiencing that again.

At least I like to think I have moves like Jagger . . . :)

Do you ever have flashes of your life where it seems like you're in a movie? Well that's how this past Friday night went for me. I was sitting in Villanova at 7:30 just being bored and making dinner for Gian and Mattia when Jess phones me and asked if I wanted to go to Cuneo. Cuneo is a town about 30 minutes away with more to do than Prato, Villanova and Mondovi combined. It's about the size of the Burg, so that's saying something about the surrounding areas. I said sure I'm game for whatever, and that's when my "movie night" began.
Jess picked me up in the Zom Mobile, and due to the fact that the car has no working radio, Amy was sitting in the front seat with Jess's laptop. It was so ghetto, but hey, it did the job. We had some tunes. On our way into Cuneo we passed two girls on the side of the road that were dressed kind of skanky and were just standing there. Amy's like, "PROSTITUTES!" I saw myself two bonafide prostitutes. I've only seen them one other time before while I was in Spain. Crazy! After spotting the ladies of the night we tried to find ourselves a parking spot. I don't know why but we could NOT find anything on the main road. After what seemed forever, we found a spot and from Amy's careful direction, Jess did the worst parking job I have ever seen anyone do. Hahah...

We walked down the street to this one place where it was seriously hopping. We into the bar to grab a drink, but we couldn't move. We finally made our way through to the bar where we grazed the Apertivo small plates like cattle. It was sooo good! In order to drink our drinks, we had to go outside, because otherwise someone would've hit our drinks out of our hands. Once outside, the people watching was prime viewing. There was weird outfits. One girl who thought it was cool to crimp her hair, and this one girl whose shirt made it look like she had a tail growing out of her butt kind of like in the movie "Shallow Hal" if you know what I'm talking about. We weren't really feeling this place because it was just so crowded so we headed to another place down the road. Jess and Amy had been here before and it looked pretty sweet.

When we got there the place was honestly, a little dead. They had a DJ in one corner with a tiny dance floor. We took to a booth and ordered a round of drinks. I had to pee so I set off to find the bathroom. That's when I ran across the two world's weirdest people. Well, maybe not the weirdest but they were super close. They were like the two bathroom guards. The one guy talked and looked like Milton from the movie Office Space. It was so weird.

Anyway, the DJ started playing some good music so I asked the girls if they'd be embarrassed if I went out on the dance floor and started shaking it. They said no, so I slowly slid out of the booth and onto the floor. Danced to the entire song with just me and myself. I guess I gained the attention of the whole bar and afterwards we had three guys come up and talk to us. They weren't creepy guys in the least, but they were fun loving older guys who just wanted to dance. Once I started it off, everybody was out on the dance floor. It was amazing, and definitely a "movie moment." I think I got the moves like Jagger. HAHA...at one point people were dancing up on the bar, our friend Francesco took Jess by the arm and was swinging her around. I got my chance to dance with him, and their friend Marco was making us all laugh. It was an awesome time. We spent about an hour and half dancing there, and then it was on to the next adventure.

We walked to this place called Ex Lavatoi. Jess and Amy had been there before and we met up with their friend Andrea who worked there. Lucky for us, he bought us two rounds of shots which were super sweet, and super good. Jess was eyeing this guy in a plaid shirt that was super hot, and for some reason he pulled up his shirt and had black X's on his nipples. I grabbed one and tried to rip it off. Haha...it was weird, but he asked me to. We met this other guy who was getting his PHD in Brisbane and absolutely loved Amy because she was Australian. He looked like he was close to our age, but he had pre-mature gray hair. Not too bad looking though. After making new friends, our old friends arrived and we hit the dance floor hard core with them.

I always like dancing on something...like a box, a stage, or a chair, because it gives me more room to move around. I hate feeling like cattle shoved right up against each other. So we all ran up to the stage where these two really skanky girls were dancing. Like there dresses didn't even cover their bums, or their Cooch Cooch's. Once we got there they left though, because we out shined. We danced and had an awesome time! I was the idiot who wore heals that night, but I wanted to dance all the same. This was movie moment #2, because we were dancing so good and hard that we got the crowd into it and people were copying our dance moves. SO FUN! Marco and Francesco were three sheets to the wind and were dancing like crazy people. That made it all the more fun! Although at one point in the night Marco bit my cheek. Not cool, not cool at all. It was getting to be close to three and our friends left to go to another place, so I requested Party Rocker's to end the night. They played it and me and Amy made a spectacle of ourselves, but it was a good one. We did the choreography that we knew to the song, and everybody was watching and cheering us on. Once it was over we just peaced out and left. I got about three compliments on my dance moves on the way out and I felt on top of the world.

Our last stop for the evening was this place called Cabiria. We didn't exactly know where it was, but I got Francesco's phone number, so if we got lost we were in luck. That is to say if he wasn't too awful drunk. We finally find the place and start walking inside. This is movie moment #3. We up to the security guards and he tells us that the place is closed. We can clearly see up ahead, that there are people waiting in line to go in, so we're like WHAT!?!?! It can't be, even though it is a little past 3:00 in the morning. So our gray haired friend walks past us that we met at Ex Lavatoi that loved Amy, and he asks us if we wan to get in. We're like YEAH! So he starts talking to the security guards and tells him that we're with him. SCORE! We got in! Like I said...Movie moment! Once we got into the place it was so stinkin crowded, we couldn't even move. It was seriously like cattle. WORSTIES!! We stayed for maybe 15 minutes and then we left. Not my scene. There was no stage and nothing for us to dance on other than the dance floor. YUCK!

On the way out to the car this guy starts following us and then asks us for Blow...aka Cocaine. Umm...nope don't got any. Leave us ALONE! Amy looks over at Jess and is like Go Go Go, because the dude was knocking on our car window! CREEP! Then we had to stop on the side of the road for Amy to do a wild pee. Haha...! It was a seriously fun night. Probably one of the best since I've been in Italy!

What you may ask? I'm not getting married, I'm not pregnant, I'm not in a relationship with anyone...than what is it that's official?

I'M GOING TO THE UK FOR THE SUMMER!!!

I just got done booking my flight to fly out at the end of May! That means two weeks at home to visit family, hang with friends, and re-pack. I'm not exactly sure how I got at this decision, but it kind of just fell in my lap. Here's the story . . .


One of my best friends is getting married May 19th and she asked me to be in the wedding before Italy was even a thought. When I booked my flight here I was planning on being back for the wedding. At first I wanted to go to the wedding and then fly back to Italy after it was over, but after being here for about a month, and realizing the amount of money it would cost in order to come back, I had decided to stay in the States for the summer. So I started job hunting in January. One of my dreams is to work out west at a Dude Ranch. I applied to about 4 different places to be a children's counselor and heard back from 2. Drowsy Water Ranch close to Boulder, CO was really interested. We had a Skype interview which went really well. I got an email back saying it was between me and another candidate, and unfortunately they chose the other one. Although this was the case the lady informed me in an email that they would love to have me at the ranch and they have waitress and housekeeping jobs available. I said sure, I'd love to. Two days later, she replies and apologizes profusely saying, "There are three of us doing hiring and I did not realize, but the other two have filled the waitress and housekeeping positions. If anything comes up, you'll be the first person we contact." So great, that was out the window and I had to start back at square one. There is nothing more discouraging than thinking you have a job and then come to find out, you don't. HATE THAT!

Square one wasn't feeling too good. I gave up looking for about a week and just sat and pondered what I really wanted to do. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here as a nanny with Mattia and I thought, "Hey why not give this another go?" All the while I'm thinking Simona didn't need me this summer since she wouldn't be instructing and Mattia would be out of school. I got on my handy dandy website, reinstated my profile and put myself out there again. I originally wanted the UK or Italy again somewhere on the coast. I applied to several families. One which had two girls aged 10 and 12, lived 30 minutes outside of London and had two dogs, a Black Lab and Jack Russell (2 of my favorites). I knew it was a long shot as they had about 156 applicants already but I decided to try my chances. I had several bites, but mostly families I wasn't really interested in. I got discouraged again. I figured at this rate, I'd just try and get some teyible summer job in L~Burg. The thought of that though made me cringe. It was then that I got an email from Wendy. Wendy was the mother of the two 10 and 12 year old girls and I was so stoked that she had contacted me. We emailed back and forth regularly and I knew in my heart of hearts I would be perfect there! The night we were suppose to talk on Skype the internet kept going in and out and I was so nervous I wouldn't be able to talk to her! Thankfully Simona let me use her little USB Internet Key thing. After our talk I just felt right about the whole thing! I showed the pics and emails to my family and close friends and they were so supportive!

One of the reasons Wendy (isn't that so Peter Pan/British? Love it!) was reluctant to give me the job was because she was worried about my cleaning experience. I was like..."WHAT!?!? I can't not get this job because she doesn't think I clean!" Simona and Gian have a cleaning lady, but in between the time she comes this girl sweeps floors, vacuums, makes little Mattia's bed, cleans my bathroom and upstairs, does laundry, etc! Oh I got so scared! I emailed her back and assured her that I would be the cleanliest thing she ever did see! She emailed back and said, "When can you get here?" YES!!!!! I might have danced and squealed around my room a tad.

I'm just overjoyed to go! It's going to be an interesting summer. The Queen's 60th Jubilee is happening on June 1st, London 2012 (Summer Olympics), I want to at least see one show in the West End. The opportunities are endless! I'm also so excited to work with the girls and just play and be! Tea parties, jumping on the trampoline, and walking the dogs. I know there will be cleaning and ironing in the mix of it all, but sometimes I like to do that. Is that totally weird? Its going to be a completely different culture shock than Italy has been, but at least this time I'll know the language. :)

There are so many good reasons to live in Italy for awhile, but number one being, it gives me the opportunity to see the Italy that most tourists don’t get to see. And that’s exactly what I did this past weekend. I probably would’ve never gone to Italian Wine Country if I had not taken this Au Pair job.

I love St. Patty’s Day. I don’t know why, but I just do. This past weekend, Mattia’s Nonne came into town and so lucky for me, I had the weekend off. The luck of the Irish I guess!  Jess and I decided to spend our St. Patrick’s Day in Alba. If you’re not familiar with Italian wine, Alba and its surrounding areas are pretty much the wine capital of Italy. We had a beautiful day and set off in the Zom mobile around 11:00. Our first stop was the Ferrero Rochere factory. The guy who owns Ferrero is the richest man in Italy at the moment. I guess you can make quite a bit of money off of chocolate. Ferrero also makes Nutella and Kinder Bars. Like I said we had to stop because I am OBSESSED with Nutella. I walked into the factory and asked the lady at the desk if we could see around. I read earlier on the internet that it was pretty much impossible to get into the place, but I had to try. She looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world and said, “NO VISITORS”. Whatevs! At least I got to sniff the lobby and that in itself was a treat.

After the disappointing news we headed to the center of Alba where we found the information booth. I wanted to see Fontana Fredda so bad which is known as “The King’s Winery”. Ever since Simona went to this particular vineyard in November, I’ve had a hankering to go. Our nice little reservation helper was on the phone for about 5 minutes before she told us that they open at 3:30. It was only 1 so we had some serious time to kill. She circled several other wineries in the surrounding areas that allow drop in visitors without an appointment. I discovered on our little day trip, Italians take their wine super seriously. Jess and I walked around Alba, grabbed a coffee and stuck our head in some churches. The one I wanted to go into really bad was closed. It boasted of having a tower with 360 degree views of Alba. Let down! Alba is based at the bottom of the Lunghe Hills and the views are simply spectacular. We saw about a million cyclists when we were driving and I envied them so bad. Cycling through vineyards would be a pretty awesome way to spend the day.

The lady told us about this little place in Barberesco that spoke English and did tastings, so we drove. I didn't know Barberesco would be so picturesque but it was stunning. It's a little tiny town on the top of a hill with this beautiful clock tower. There was an elevator to take up to the top but when we got to it, it was locked. Ugh! I just wanted to go to the top of a tower! Jess tried picking it with a bobby pin from my hair but it just didn't work. We walked around and saw several Michelin rated restaurants. I want to go back and have a proper dinner there so bad! The area is not only known for wine but is known for truffles, hazelnuts, and the Slow Food Movement.

It was so funny because Jess and I were surrounded by wineries and vineyards but we couldn't seem to actually find a winery to go too. That's when we stumbled upon Cascina dell Rose which was one of the ones we wanted to see from the beginning. We met Ricardo who was around Jess & I's age and was SOO nice! He worked and lived at the winery along with his parents and his brother who were actually in NYC on a wine conference. He was so knowledgeable and showed us all around the place. The winery was pretty small and only produced about 16,000 to 18,000 bottles of wine per year. The wine was housed in these huge wooden vats. He told us that their barrels are toasted for a little bit because they believe in tasting wine not wood. It all has to do with how the barrel is made. No oaky flavor for them! He let us try about 5 different wines and told us how you have to hold the glass so that your perfume on your hands does not mix with the smell of the wine. He also told us that if you hold the wine up to a white napkin, you should see a clear ring around the wine. That determines which type of grape they are using in the wine. Like I said...very knowledgeable! He was so nice and didn't charge us for the tasting. Such a nice little fellow!


We hopped back in the car and drove through some amazing countryside to find the winery I had been seeking since November. Serralunga d'Alba was the supposed place of Fontana Fredda and I was desperate to get there. Lucky for Jess and I (St. Patty's day and all) we found it pretty easily without even getting lost. The signage in Italy is really excellent, so it's pretty difficult to get lost, but it does happen occasionally.


This place was absolutely divine even in the winter time. Jess parked the car and we didn't know where to start. So we found a sign that said, "Cantina: Wine Tour Begins Here." This place was like a ghost town and it looked like Jess and I were the only ones there. We opened the door to this huge cellar with barrels the size of about 15 people. They were huge!! I felt like Alice just going through these secret passageways and opening doors we didn't know where they led to. It was so fun and so cool at the same time. We walked down this drippy, dark, hallway that led out to a place that looked like the distillery. I'm not even sure because we kind of just made up our own tour. Of course we had to get pictures with the big barrels. We finally found an exit after wandering for about 20 minutes and it led to the outside where the vineyards were. We found the ice house which was freezing and was built underground in a circle. It was really cool. Literally.


We then put on our walking pants and trudged up the vineyard hill. It was seriously steep. Probably steeper than a lot of the walking I do in Prato. The view though was perfect once we reached the top. The sun was setting and it reminded me of Italy...Haha...Jess and I kept saying on our little day trip, "THIS IS SO ITALIAN!". I wonder why? Maybe because we are in Italy. :)
So beautiful. It was getting late and we had to get back to Prato because we were making a Mexican dinner for all the girls in my little flat and also going to a Pirate Party. Too bad our perfect day had to end. I want to go back so bad but I don't know when I'll get the chance. We'll just have to see! Onto the Pirate Party!

Ever since I've been in Prato I've wanted to Ski at night. The lights look so beautiful on the snow, and I just told myself that I would do it. So, I did! FINALLY! J.B., Amy, and Jess were spending their Saturday night in Sestri Levante so that meant Megan and I would be the only two Nanny's on the mountain. In Prato, we live at the top of the pist, so I am able to just walk outside the parking garage right onto the slope. It's a pretty sweet set up. Megan lives on the road below me, so we just met up on the pist. We're both poor little nannies so I was wearing borrowed gloves, borrowed hat, borrowed ski's, and borrowed boots. Megan was doing the same although she had a snowboard. Needless to say our gear didn't really fit us too well.

It was a beautiful. The snow was kind of crappy. We hit quite a few ice spots, but I prided myself on the fact that I didn't fall once. Well on the slope that is. On our last run of the night I go to stop at the bottom of the hill and yet again my skis crossed one another while I was stopped and standing up. I went to move and just fell right over. It felt like I was moving in slow motion watching myself from above. I felt like such an idiot.

The next day after our night of skiing and snowbaording, we went to the White House to watch a snowboarding competition. We both just relaxed, sunned ourselves and drank cappuccino's and marracchino's. It was sweet. I got a really nasty sunglass tan though because I can't sit in the sun without them. I get all squinty and than my squint lines are white while the rest of my face is tan. I just can't win. Everyone was making fun of me though because I looked like one of the ski instructors with their Panda faces. Other than my terrible tan lines it was pretty much a perfect Sunday.

My Perfect Mother

You know how back in elementary school people would argue over whose Mom was best, or whose Dad could do this or that? Well, I have to say that I had the best mother in the world and if you try to argue with me, I’ll fight you tooth and nail. My mother was the closest person to perfect I have known or probably will ever know. If she were alive I probably would say the same thing as well, but having someone so close to you die prematurely somehow makes you dwell on the positive things rather than the negative. I like that fact, since throughout the course of an individual’s life, one tends to dwell on the negative rather than the positive.


I’m writing this post today, because 4 years ago at around 8:30 in the morning, my Mother passed from this life to the next. She battled with breast cancer for about 18 months and in the end, the cancer won. It is a battle I often regret, feel angry about, and want to completely do over, but the past is the past and nothing can change that small important detail.

Unfortunately, being in Italy has not helped me move on in regards to healing over my Mom’s death. Some people might say that after 4 years I should get over it. I can honestly say to those certain people, "go lose your mother and then tell me how you’re feeling four years later." That’s all I have to say about that. Italian culture is entirely centered on the Grandmother and the Mother. Without those two important elements of its culture, the whole structure would more than likely collapse. I believe it stems from the deep roots of Catholicism and the importance placed on Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Maybe not, but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.Yesterday I was in the kitchen and MiMi, Mattia’s Great Aunt, came by and tried to converse with me. She knows no English but I got the gist of what she was saying. I had my computer out and she asked me if I was talking to my Mom and how she was. I tried to tell her in my broken Italian that she was in heaven and died of breast cancer. The look on her face said it all. She kept saying “Brutte, Brutte”. Which in English translates to "Bad, Bad". She asked me if I had brothers and sisters, and after I answered yes, she just shook her head like I had gone through the worst thing in the world. Well probably in my 24 years of living it has been the worst thing in the world for me. So she was kinda right on, in that aspect.


One question I have struggled with over these past 4 years is this, “What good came of my Mom’s passing?” I still haven’t quite figured that one out yet. My brother and sister-in-law announced Christmas 2010 that they were going to have a baby. It was so happy and wonderful but at the same time we all cried when we heard the news because Mom wouldn’t be there to see her first Grand baby. If there was one thing my mother loved, it was babies. She worked in the church nursery for years and whenever a baby would enter the room, my mother would light up and flock to it. I think they loved her just as much as she loved them too. When Raeleigh was born September 2, 2011 we all cried again. It was so happy to see this new little baby life, but at the same time it was so sad because Mom wasn’t there to witness it. Mom would’ve been such a wonderful Grammy. I love my Grandma’s so much. They have made such an impact on my life and I grieve for Raeleigh not being able to meet her Grammy Ruth. I’m going to make sure to tell her stories, so even if she never will meet her Grandma, she’ll still feel like she knows her inside and out.




Even though it has been four years, sometimes the ache in my heart feels like it was just yesterday she passed away. She was a beautiful, amazing woman, who has left a mommy shaped hole in my heart. I may be 24 years old, but even a 24 year old woman needs her Mom. I don’t even wanna see the day I start having babies, if that day ever comes. I know I’ll be a wreck not having my Mom around. I think I just miss her. A Lot. One day I know I'll see her again, and that in itself is enough to keep me comforted.