When we saw our apartment in Lucca, Italy we were over the moon. It was so cute, clean, and bright. We loved it.
Until…
…we found the ants.
🐜 🐜 🐜
At first, it was just a few.
But you know how ants are — they start by marching one by one. Then it’s two by two.
Hoorah, hoorah.
And then it’s just a disaster.
We started by trying to squish ’em — but there were just too many!
And it was 10:00 pm, so we weren’t going to call our hosts at that hour.
So, what does Scott the genius suggest?
The vacuum!
Fortunately, it was a canister vacuum so we sucked ‘em all up inside a hard plastic container.
But then what do you do?
Well, Scott had an answer for that too!
You remove the canister and then fortify it with layer upon layer of saran wrap to seal them in so they can’t get out! 😆
The ant discovery meant a huge delay in getting the kids to bed, because we were shining phone lights under couches, behind doors, and everywhere to make sure there weren’t any more that might surprise us while we slept.
And I know what you’re thinking — they’re just ants. 🐜
But when you see soooo many of them crawling around a few feet away from where you rest your head at night, it just makes your skin crawl.
Plus, if kids ain’t sleepin — ain’t nobody sleepin.
So we finally got everything cleaned up, and hit the pillows hard — falling into the incredible slumber you can only get when you’re on the top floor of a five-story building without air conditioning during a 103-degree heat wave.
I know, I know — cry me a river, Molly, you’re thinking. You’re in Italy for an entire summer.
But whatever, I’m going to keep telling the story.
The next day we contacted the host and two ladies came by, taking it very seriously and explaining that in 30 years they’d never seen this but now it was happening all the time in the old buildings.
After they sprayed the area, I realized I’d better show them the vacuum canister.
It took a few moments delay for them to understand because of the language difference (and because, how often does someone show you a saran-wrapped vacuum canister filled with ants even in the SAME language?) but then it registered and they both started laughing in surprise. They took the canister out to the dumpsters and got rid of them all. A pretty clever solution for late-night ant fiascos, I’d say. 🤣
We were only staying in Lucca for three nights, so the spray kept the ants at bay and we could enjoy our quick visit — which I’ll share more about in the next post!
PS — In case you’re wondering . . . NO, Lucca, Italy is not the town the Disney movie Luca is based on but it’s a common question so you’re all good! Lucca is a little more inland, while Luca is set in a fictional town along the coast. BUT, the movie setting is very much like Cinque Terre, which will be coming up soon in the blog so stay tuned!
Up Next: Morning Walks With Molly — a short video of my walk around the walled city.
This is part of a series about our Winters Family Summer Adventure through Italy and beyond. You can start from the beginning of the blog series here or follow along on Instagram.
