Molto Vecchio

Today I'm loving...

Gorgeous, ancient cobblestone roads. How amazing is it that these have held up over hundreds of years?

As beautiful as it is, cobblestone is rather precarious to navigate in heels. Seriously, not only is it uneven, but the space between the stones is just enough for a stilleto to get stuck down in there. Last year it was all wedges and flats for me. This year, I'm braving the heels and am always thankful when my husband is there to hold my hand. We just look all affectionate but really he's keeping me from busting it.

The Italians tromp through on four inch heels like they're wearing Nikes. They never even hesitate or look down. Oh, that Italian confidence.

Craving. . .

I am craving the September issue of American Vogue. If I can't find one here, it will be the first time since 1993 that I won't spend a whole August evening engrossed in the 300+ pages of fall fashion forcasts.

I don't have a subscription because the September issue is the only issue of Vogue I read all year. Maybe someone should buy a copy for me then pack it in a suitcase and come visit. I'll trade free room and board in Italy for one September Vogue. Any takers?

Rispettate i Fiori e Le Piante

Today I'm loving. . .

. . . our garden.

We spend almost every evening out here and I occasionally find myself daydreaming about what has happened here in the last 500 years. You can almost see the history. There are still iron rings built into the building that were used to tie horse reins and the crazy tall double doors are just wide enough for a carriage. It is like stepping back in time.

How great is it that this is not just an Italian inspired garden. It's the real thing, complete with orange trees with actual oranges. They are growing in these enormous 60 year old planters from Tuscany. It takes a forklift to move them for winter. There are roses, hydrangeas, wisteria, statues that are older than America, and several pet turtles. The planters outside our back door and throughout the garden sit on pieces of old columns. I'd love to know the story about those. Roman? Greek? Part of the original house? Who knows.

Our garden is small with a tiny piece of grass. But the boys love moving the gravel around in dump trucks (like a giant sandbox, I guess!). Our front yard is a street. Literally. So it is so nice to have this little piece of green tucked inside an urban city block.

(You can see one of the old column pieces here in the top right.)

My project for today

It was a gorgeous weekend here in Italy. I'd love to tell you we spent the weekend doing something fun and exciting but we were stuck in the house attempting to get our two year old potty trained. All the windows were open all weekend because the weather was beautiful and that is what you do here (no air conditioning, remember). We live on a fairly busy city street and I can only imagine what the Italians walking by thought when they heard what was going on in our house. It is times like these that I am thankful for the language barrier. Hopefully only a few understood the joyous yells of "Yay, you put it in the potty!!"

Glamorous, isn't it?

We did escape for a bit Saturday night and went out with friends for an amazing dinner. Two courses of seafood and endless wine. When the waiter put the first course in front of me, most of the food was looking at me. Lots of heads still on the fish, whole octopus, whole shrimp. When I say whole, I mean the entire thing, head, eyes, everything. The second course was much the same. I got over it quickly and it was delicious. We left the restaurant after 1:00 and bicycled home, riding past the moat of the 13th century castle on the way. Quite surreal after being away for a month.

But back to today. Here is my project for today. This is the list of school supplies for my son. The only thing in English is the supplies used for English class. Lovely.

INGLESE/MATEMATICA/SCIENZE/STORIA/GEOGRAFIA/ICT
2 BOOKS WITH 1CM SQUARES
2 BOOKS WITH LARGE, WIDE LINES (RIGHE DI 5°)

ITALIANO
1 QUADERNO A QUADRETTONI GRANDI ;
4 QUADERNI A RIGHE DI 1°;
1 QUADERNINO PICCOLO (RIGHE O QUADRETTI) DA UTILIZZARE COME DIARIO;
1 CARTELLINA CON ELASTICO;

ARTE
ALBUM DA DISEGNO FOGLI LISCI

MUSICA
1 QUADERNO A QUADRETTONI GRANDI
1 RACCOGLITORE GRANDE AD ANELLE CON CARPETTINE TRASPARENTI


So I thought, no problem, I'll just type it into google translate.
Right. Check out the google translation...

ITALIAN1 notebook A LARGE plaid;
4 PAPERS OF STRIPED 1;
1 SMALL notebooks (rows or squares) HOW TO USE DIARY;
1 CARD WITH ELASTIC;

ART
Sketchbook smooth leaves

MUSIC
1 notebook A LARGE quadrettoni
1 LARGE RING BINDER WITH TRANSPARENT CARPETTINE

And so I'm off to the Italian store to find a "card with elastic", a "large plaid notebook", and a "stetchbook with smooth leaves".

Wish me luck.

So Italian

My brother sent me this and I couldn't resist sharing it with all of you.

A few weeks ago police captured an alleged mob boss in Naples. Check out this picture of the arrest http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/102701971/AFP .
Now, take a look at the policewoman next to him. Those are Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses. Only in Italy do the cops wear D&G sunglasses on the job. Kudos to her for capturing the mob boss suspected of more than 80 killings around Naples AND looking that fabulous while she did it.

By the way, the policewomen who help with traffic control around my son's school often wear heels. Heels. With a police uniform. Standing in the middle of a 4 lane (or sometimes 5 lanes depending on how the Italians are driving that day) city street. Only in Italy. You've got to love it.

In Italia

After almost a month away, we are back in Italy. As we drove through the ancient city gates into our city that hasn't changed much in 500 years, my husband said, "it is so good to be home". At the time, I wasn't so sure. I was exhausted after an overseas flight with two young children, then stranded at the airport because the airline lost our carseats and we literally couldn't drive home. So when he said that, I was thinking about how everything is so easy and convenient in America and I was hoping it wouldn't be a hard transition back to Italian life.

It wasn't. Early the next morning I was back to appreciating Italy for its culture, its beauty and its people. After a good sleep, I opened the windows to all the locals bicycling to work in their suits with briefcases in the basket. Then my maid arrived with these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from her garden. (That's a regular apple in the bowl behind. These tomatoes were absolutely huge.)

They were as good as look. I served them that night for dinner with a balsamic honey reduction. Divine.

Our house was clean so our maid helped me with the ironing. I just gave her the things from the suitcase that REALLY needed pressing and she finished quickly. Then I asked her to help me hang the rest of the packed clothes. (Four people packed for 3 weeks is a LOT of clothes). I thought the wrinkles from being packed might fall out so I told her we didn't need to iron them, just hang.

She was horrified.

She held up the first item, GASPED, and said "no stirare?!?" (no ironing?). So I quickly said okay, whatever you think. She picked everything up, marched away and ironed it all.

My t-shirts look fabulous.

I always heard the Italians were raised learning the importance of ironing and it must be true. Guess that is why they look so crisp and polished.

By 4:30 my husband and I were drinking wine in our garden, sitting under 300 year old statues, watching the boys play, and chatting in broken Italian with our neighbors. One speaks dialect and all I can understand is "mama mia!" and the other gave us more of her homemade wine and told us all about these fabulous thermal spas just 45 kilometers away. I think we now have our next trip planned.

Really, the only problem I've had adjusting is remembering where I am at night because we have slept in five different beds in three weeks. You know when you wake in the middle of the night and it takes a minute to decide where you are? Try doing that staring at a 30ft fresco on the ceiling. That is really confusing.

So it really is good to be back. Back to our 500 year old house with wonderful neighbors, gorgeous frescoes and an ugly kitchen. Back to a medieval city where there are more bikes than cars. Back to being in walking distance from fabulous shops, bakeries and cafés . Looks like we are back "home" for now.

In America

We just returned from our first trip back to America in over a year. We spent over three wonderful weeks with family and friends. I thought I would have this huge culture shock going back to the States. I thought I would be amazed at the huge cars, huge highways and sweeping suburban neighborhoods, but I really wasn't. It just seemed familiar. I did, however, have a difficult time ordering in restaurants and shopping. I kept trying to speak in Italian and was surprised every time they spoke in English to me. You see, before EVERY transaction I make in Italy, I practice it in my head. Before I say, "do you have another of this in black?" I practice saying "avete un altro di questo in nero?" in my head and then I say it. It may sound strange but this was a hard habit to break and resulted in me staring blankly at most sales clerks and servers in America. My mom even noticed and said it was a good thing we started our trip in small town Mississippi and ended in Dallas so I would have a chance to adjust.

The huge difference I did notice throughout our trip was the amazing convenience of food. This is sooo different than Europe. In America, everywhere you look there are restaurants and drive-through fast food with fries that fit in your cupholders. In our Italian city of over 140,000, there is one drive-through. I also noticed everyone walking around with drinks. That seemed so strange to me, even though I used to do it, and quickly got back in the habit. In Italy there are no "to-go" coffees, drinks, etc. Everything is enjoyed at the bar. In fact, when we first moved here, I asked my regular bar for a "to go" coffee. I knew this was not common but my husband was stuck at home waiting for the movers and desperate for caffeine. They smiled and happily gave me my drink in a glass coffee cup, put a saucer over it and told me to bring it back the next day. I carefully walked four blocks home with and when my husband opened the door and saw the glass mug, he said "Did you steal it?!?"

See, no one here walks around with cokes, coffees, or even bottles of water. They don't even drink out of a bottled water, they always pour it in a glass. So if you are visiting Europe and prefer to blend in, have your drinks at a table and leave them there.

Thanks to all our family and friends for a wonderful three weeks. We miss you already!