Last Friday, when my (much anticipated) package arrived, I was quick to report the good news... that firstly, it got here safe and sound and even better, Mamma surprised me with Doritos! Sadly though, it was a bittersweet moment upon arrival. You see, just one day prior to my package arriving, I had read over at Ms. Adventures in Italy that she had a BIG SECRET. Before she got to her secret, she informed her readers about how she got hit with Dogana fees from a relatively small package that she received. I quickly became worried because I was expecting a package myself, a not so small one either.

Well, the Dogana police (that's what I'll call them) were the ones to deliver my package on Friday. When I heard the words, "Signora, questo paccho viene da l'estero, cè una tassa di Dogana da pagare," my face scrunched up. He used a whole lot of other words, but after Dogana fee, he lost me. Somewhere in there though, I managed to also hear the words, "molto pesante!" I asked for them to come back because I didn't have the money. Well, I did, but I didn't want them to know that. ;) Want to know their response? If I didn't accept the package (pay for it) they would have to take it back and then "Who knows what would happen to the package?!" While staying calm and collective on the outside, in my mind I went into a panic, thinking to myself, "You don't know what will happen to it???" I had horrible visions of the package going to (as Ms. Adventures put it) the Dogana cimitero! So, I scrunched up my face even more, told them to hold on, went inside and scraped up the money.

I couldn't NOT pay it. The girls were so excited about getting their package from Nonna.
Plus, they were standing right next to me all the while. Imagine how they would have reacted if I had said I didn't have the money and the men left with their goodies. In the end, not only did my mother have to pay $88.80 to send the package, I had to pay an additional €31.72 in order for them to hand it over to me!

When we went inside and opened it up, the first thing I saw was a box within the box. It wasn't sealed, so I thought the worst and imagined that these a**holes had not only ripped me off, but that they had managed to open the box up and steal some of the contents inside. When I opened it up, I realized that the box was meant to cushion... my Doritos! Wohooo! Here is their stash. On your left, in the clothing department are 3 dresses each, 1 bathing suit (one pieces, wohooo) each, 1 pair of pj's each. On your right, in the food department is 1 big jar of peanut butter, 3 bottles of syrup, 2 bags of Doritos, 1 bag of Blow Pops, 1 bag of M&M's, and a bottle of Advil!

Labels: family, love, mail, things we miss

We have been undecided as to where we want to spend our days this summer. The pool or the beach. Fortunately for us, we live in a town that has a wonderful pool/water park. It's called Happy Days. A very appropriate title, don't ya think?! ;) So basically, we have a water park to go to that is literally 5 minutes away or we can brave the traffic and heat to go to the beach. We would have to drive at least two hours (without traffic) to get to a decent, clean beach. Plus, it costs an arm and a leg to spend the day there. We've been to closer beaches that are far less expensive, but the water is gross! We didn't have the greatest experience at the closer beach (Valcatura, or something to that effect) so we crossed it off our list and chose to go to Sperlonga.

30 ingressi seems to be the most reasonable one as far as getting our moneys worth. That's 7 trips for the four of us and then we have two more ingressi left over. These are the pools available. I think that's a pretty good assortment. I know if we went to the beach, €230 would be the least we would spend! I'd say between paying for parking and renting an umbrella and chair, that's the first €50 right there!

Labels: beautiful views, family, fun, Help, summer time