Sunday 12 May 2013

Doing the things we love...



Jake, Josh & their friends at the start!
Today is Mother's day in Italy, so, I spent some quality time with my two boys and approx. 100 other people taking part in 'bimbimbici' (www.bimbimbici.it) It's all about encouraging sustainable travel from home to school - perfect for us, as we have been trying as much as possible to take the boys to school by bike for the very same reason.

We cycled about 15km in total, after abandoning Josh's bike with the cycle organisers within the first half kilometre as we were holding up the back markers! This posed two problems 
  1. Josh wanted to cycle and giving his bike to a stranger to put in his car did not go down well
  2. Jake had cycled on ahead with his friend under the impression it was a race and he had to be at the front
Picture this: Mother (me) just 500m from the start with the cycle organiser's car and ambulance held up whilst mother tries to reason with 4 year old that he needs to go on the back of my bike and give his bike to total stranger, whilst both mother and 4 year old are in a panic that 6 year old son is way up ahead, nowhere to be seen, cycling in a throng of people on the main roads possibly in a panic himself as he didn't know where we were. Reality: Jake was so intent on 'winning the race' that I don't think he had even noticed mum and brother weren't with him!!

Seriously though, we had a fabulous cycle in beautiful countryside. We stopped at the Sulmona prisoner of war camp for a half time break and watched a moving film about the British, Canadian and American soldiers that had been held in the camp, the escape attempts and the local heroes that helped them - another gem of a discovery in this area that completely undersells itself - and then took a nice slow cycle back to Sulmona once Jake finally believed me that it wasn't a competition!