To remind myself as I look back at this time next year of how our days were at Capo Valicano…

Although we are at the Capo Vaticano apartment for only one week, we have fallen into a routine of sorts. In the morning I have coffee, the kids have their cereal, brush their teeth, have some iPad time while I clean up, or read the blogs, or stare at the view.

After that it’s playground time. The playground is right underneath our apartment so I can stay in the apartment or the terrace while they play.

After the playground, I pack my beach bag and we go down to the beach. 180 steps down. The beach is teeny-tiny but it’s private for hotel guests and usually empty in the morning. It is quite rocky but there is plenty of cute fishes and, ahem, jellyfish.

We spend about 2-3 hours at the beach. We seem to be the ONLY people who eat *non-stop* at the beach *or the pool*Yoghurt, cookies, chips, fruit, juice boxes… I wonder what other people are thinking of such behavior…

After the beach, a quick rinse, then lunch. I either make lunch from the leftovers the night before, or just make pasta with red sauce. It’s maddening that the apartment does not have salt and pepper shakers OR a sponge. I am still salty about it 🙄

After lunch is a nap. For me but also for the kids. As basic as our apartment is, it has air conditioning and gets almost completely dark with the shades so that is certainly conducive to resting.

Then it’s pool time! Say, around 4 or 5, where we stay until dinner, think 7ish.

Evening is waiting for dinner and dinner: usually at the restaurant but we’ve had some dinners at the apartment that consisted of bread, cheese, and cold cuts, and tea. Italians eat quite late (similar to Spaniards) so we usually have to wait till 7-7:30 to sit down then the food arrives in no rush. Thankfully, there is a playground #1 right BY the restaurant so the kids can go play while I sit at the table and catch up on life. There are also rest areas- tables to enjoy the views, statues, games. So we can kill some time with no issues.

Dinner always, always gives spectacular sunsets. However, because the volcano Stromboli is blocking the view, you can never really see a FULL sunset. Instead, you see the sun go behind the volcano.

After dinner it’s usually already dark and I am done with the world. Sometimes they beg me for night swimming because – the lights are on in the pool- and I concede, so they swim for a while longer, and fall asleep within minutes, and I usually read a bit but not for long.