Adventures With Dino and Family – Part 9 – The Greatest Adventure, Fond Memories, and Goodbye!
Before we knew it, the time had come to head off to Rome! Unfortunately, every new adventure begins with a goodbye.
Only now, as I sit down to write about our goodbyes to Dino and fam, do I realize how poorly I conveyed our time with them in my recent blog posts. With all the exciting exploration that Aubre and I were doing (partially on behalf of Dino’s project), our time with the fam took a back seat while our sightseeing took the spotlight. This was wrong of me, and I hope to remedy this mistake (at least in part) with a brief shout out to the most amazing family I’ve had the pleasure and fortune of being welcomed into.
It was really, really cool seeing and exploring all the amazing places you can visit while staying at Dino’s (which you can do via Airbnb!), but without a doubt the highlights of our time staying with Dino and fam were times spent with Dino and fam!
A lot of things happened behind the scenes that never got covered (I mean, we lived with them for a month and all you’ve heard about is our trips out of the house!).
Dino and fam took amazing care of me when I chopped my foot. At one point, a brutal cold swept over the household, claiming us one by one as victim. When Aubre and I fell to its wrath, we couldn’t have been in better hands (absolutely nothing is better for a cold than Grazia’s soup!).
In addition to taking excellent care of us, they ceaselessly cooked us unbelievably amazing meals! As I remember it, we spent more time eating than we spent not eating.
I endlessly teased Dino’s mom, Anna Ida. Despite the language barrier between us, we constantly joked back and forth, but she always had the final word (She’s actually really scary with a knife!).
Dino even took the time to teach us how to cook some of his famous recipes!
We played games as a family like Uno, Pictionary, and Monopoly.
Altogether, we loved our time at Dino’s. We weren’t treated like family, we were part of the family. Dino is the brother I never had, and I’ll always treasure my our time together.
Of my many ‘Adventures With Dino and Fam’, my favorite “adventure” was getting to know Dino. It was simply the collection of quiet and contemplative moments Dino and I shared: the games of chess in his workshop, the late night chats on his patio bench, and the philosophical discussions held within clouds of Da Vinci.
And so it came to be that after 1 crazy, wonderful month filled with axe wounds, endless food, happy holidays, fun games, epic adventures, and quiet moments, we found ourselves having to say goodbye.
We woke early, packed our bags, and Dino drove us to the station where we’d catch a bus to Rome. We had one last coffee together, took one last selfie, and said “Goodbye.”
Dino, thanks for being such an amazing friend! You and your family have once again made traveling the world feel like being right at home! We had such a wonderful time with you and your family, and will always treasure these memories! Since it’s officially your turn to visit, we can’t wait to host you in Minnesota!!
With that we hopped on the bus and sped off to Rome, sad to leave but excited to spend 2 days exploring the Eternal City before heading off to Jordan!
Tune in next Tuesday walk streets Rome with us, and check out the first World Wonder of our journey!