Ali – For winter break, we teamed up with the Kaufmans (Joe’s sister Paula, her husband Adam and their three kids age 4,7 and 8) to plan a European adventure. I was game for heading to any new foreign land. Paula had her sights on Italy, as the Abraham family lore had it that mom and pop Abraham had the best time of their lives in the Dolemites of Northern Italy (Side note: mom and pop Abraham left their 3 kids at home for that trip, which means they could have been in Northern Jersey and had the best time of their lives). So, after the Kaufmans hung out for a week in Zurich and Adam fixed all of our broken appliances, we hopped on an early morning flight to Venice and rented a minivan that could fit 8 for the 2 hour ride into the mountains. 
I immediately became the least favorite aunt when I banished the little kids to the third row, taking both a philosophical as well as a physiological stand regarding where car sickness prone adults should get to sit.
Since it was Christmas Eve, I had it from an Italian colleague that we should do grocery shopping in the Venice area before heading into the rural hinterlands, as food would be scarce until after the holiday. So we pulled off for a grocery run. Adam guarded the van full of luggage from the maurading bands of luggage Mafia while the rest of the crew descended upon unsuspecting Italian shoppers. We piled our carts with ridiculous mountains of food including a bag of lentils that 9 year old Max insisted he loved and tried not to act gleeful when the total was a mere 260 Euros. One of the kids loudly remarked how cheap it was and Paula felt obliged to tell him that 260 Euros was a lot of money, throwing herself into the part of an American mother of only modest means suddenly plopped in Italy for her non-English speaking audience.
Back on the road and keeping a one pee stop per 30 minute pace, we arrived at our AirBnB in Peaio, a small town about 10 minutes from the world famous Cortina D’Ampezzo.
Cortina is exactly what you would picture if I said ‘imagine an Italian village filled with tourists in expensive ski gear’. If you needed skis, ski gear, fashionable clothing (Orange fur sleeveless tunic anyone?) or smoked meat products, you were in business. Anything else was harder to find. 
We strolled through town on the hunt for ski rentals and info about where to ski with 4 children and 4 adults ranging in skill from first-timer to expert. Bear in mind there was zero natural snow to be had anywhere in this world famous ski area thanks to global warming, but you would never know it looking at the abundance of snow outfits. We soon found the hot chocolate stand, which served a variety of chocolate caldo that was more akin to hot chocolate pudding than a beverage. Even the kids said it was too rich after a half a cup of Liquid Diabetes. 
The next day we did a bit of touring, heading to a famous lake called Pragser Wildsee just off the Austrian border. The lake looked to be completely frozen and folk were skating around with and without skates. Paula had the ambitious goal of walking around the lake on the hiking path but the kids were more keen on the novel experience of walking on the lake surface. So I did what any fun and negligent aunt would do… ignored the concerned look of their mom and marched them across the frozen lake surface with Joe leading as our designated ice thickness tester.
The excursion brought out the true nature of each child. Maya and Max, being rather sensible children, expressed concern over the foolishness of the endeavor and urged us to turn back. When I said to Max, “Max, we can’t turn back. We may never get to do this again!”he said,”You are right. We will NEVER do this again.” Aaron, being risk-insensitive and unable to hear the lower pitch of adult voices, kept running out ahead of our designated ice-tester, taking over the job by falling hard on the slippery surface every few feet.
To end your suspense I can report we all lived and nobody cracked their head open on the ice or cried, defying Paula’s prediction on both accounts. We celebrated with hot chocolate and cake.
The next day we hit the slopes at Socrepes, the family-oriented ski area. About half the runs were open with several tanker trucks worth of man-made snow spread like cream cheese over narrow strips of the mountain. It was down right balmy and we all stripped off the normally necessary ski layers. Joe, Max, Maya and I took off to the upper slopes since we were all semi seasoned skiers. A couple things I learned: 1) warm weather skiing is quite enjoyable; 2) the first run of the day with rental gear should not be done on the hardest slope; 3) there should be 1 adult per child skiing behind to pick up all the lost gear; 4) if you forget about 3 then Italians are very helpful on the slopes and will re-cloth and re-gear your child for you. The skiing ended up being a highlight despite the warm climate and Socrepes avoided being called SoCrappies forevermore in Abraham vacation tales. 
We soon left the Dolemites for Venice. We had a VRBO “artist loft” rental right next to Piazza San Marco – artist loft being code for funky/quirky/semi-functional. The adults had all been to Venice 10 to 20 years prior,but for the kids it was all new and enchanting starting with the waterbus. 
The first thing the parents noticed was the abundance of shops with shiny highly breakable glass objects, making them irresistible for kids and a thrilling game of Chance for the parents. The first thing the kids noticed was the stinkiness of the canals, which concerned them as we were booked on a gondola ride. Luckily I had my minty chapstick, which they all shoved up their noses.
The gondola ride was a huge hit with the kids. Our very nice Gondoleer sarenaded us and told us stories of Venice. He refused to let me row but at least showed me how they can steer these immense boats with such precision through the canals. When the kids asked if he had ever hit his head on a bridge he said no, but he once had a full-figured passenger shift position and send him into the very cold and stinky canal water. 
Most of our time in Venice we spent just wandering through the maze of a city, thanking the tech gods every 5 minutes for creating Google maps. There are no cars but hundreds of bridges and small streets. Around every corner is some new delight, like the wonderful paticerria where we stopped for espresso and sweets. It truly is the most beautiful place. 
Today we said goodbye to the Kaufmans who caught an early flight to London. It was probably for the best as Adam’s spine took a beating carrying 5 year old Josie around Venice. Here he is in a moment of spiritual defeat questioning his life choices:
The Abraham family is currently doing a remake of the movie ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ by taking a waterbus to the train station where we catch a train to Milan to another train to the airport to our flight to Madrid. That’s what European travel looks like when you don’t book ahead during the holidays. Anyway we are looking forward to the Spanish portion of our vacation, though I am concerned about the severity of my Tiramisu withdrawals. 