From 2019: Home Is (Mostly) Wherever I'm With You

At some point, this started feeling like home. It happened toward the beginning of March, when I was cleaning and preparing the house for the upcoming string of guests. The cave-like green bathroom was my cave-like green bathroom. The ants were invading our spare bedroom...

I anticipated that the trip would be good for our family. What I didn't anticipate were some of the fun family moments...

Ben is growing quickly. I'm afraid that this is one of our last experiences with him being a 'boy'. For example, we were in Trieste checking out the Mar Adriatico off of one of the docks, and a bunch of jellyfish had washed in with the tide. Ben shouted down the pier, "Daddy, I see a jellyfish!" His spontaneity, energy, and lack of worry about how he was being perceived around him were so young, and I want to soak in those moments as much as possible.

At the beginning of the trip, as you may have read, the boys were holy terrors. While they still have their moments, things have calmed down a bit. They get along best when they are talking about video games or pretending to play video games. One of those moments happened in Trieste, where as we were walking down the street I noticed that they had their arms around each other, eagerly discussing the video game they had played that morning. It's a nice change from the first month of the trip, when Ben blamed Ethan for all of his misery.

[Post from 2019, just published in 2023. I can't remember what else I wanted to say here.]

Day 1 1/2: Flights and Rome

 We left O'Hare at 4:30 p.m. on the 29th. The flight took just about 7 hours to get to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, that meant that just when it was getting to be bedtime for us, it was time to land. Amsterdam local time was 6:45 a.m., so nobody got much sleep on the first flight. 

We all rested while waiting for our flight to Rome. I did some gymnastics and caught a few zzzs in the airport terminal. The flight was uneventful, and Ben and Ethan both got some sleep. 

There was a passport check point in Amsterdam, but no customs anywhere. Once we got our bags, we got in a taxi bound for our apartment. Ethan slept through the taxi ride. The kid can sleep anywhere, and today was reminiscent of when he slept on the floor at the baggage terminal in St. John two years ago. Our apartment is a clean, small loft apartment. The most interesting thing about it is that the laundry is up some stairs on the second floor above the kitchen. 

There are quite a few Roman sights to see within a short distance of the apartment. We walked through Piazza Navona, saw the Pantheon (it was closed), checked out Trevi Fountain and walked the Spanish Steps. We took the long route home and saw Piazza del Popolo, which neither Dave nor I had ever seen. Now we are winding down and hoping for some good rest overnight before we head to Vatican City in the morning.

We're Going to Italy (Again)!

 It's June 26, and we are almost all packed up to leave on our return trip to Italy and Padova. Originally we wanted to return sooner, but the Coronavirus and illness backed up our trip until now. 

We are very excited about our itinerary. We fly into Rome from Chicago, and will stay there for two days to show the boys the sights. We have appointments for the Colosseum (which I spelled correctly on the first try), Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We will take a train from Rome to Padova and stay there for about ten days. There are some friends we'd like to visit from our time there, and we will day trip to Bologna, Venice, and the Colli Euganei (hills) near Padova. At the end of the trip we will rent a car to take us to the Dolomites and be staying in a hut in the mountains, doing some hiking. We will take the train back to Rome and fly home through Detroit. The boys and I will get off the plane there, and Dave will continue to Chicago to pick up the dog and the car.

My biggest worry is sleep and adjusting to the time change. My sleep is quite iffy on a regular basis right now, so hopefully I'll be able to adjust quickly. 

I am hoping to blog during this adventure. There are some unfinished posts from our last trip, and I'd like to get some good entries in for this trip. Fingers crossed I can persevere and get the boys to do some blogging while we are on the trip as well.