Seeing Siena...

March 7, 2012

While the kids were in school, David and I drove to Sienna to check it out and get the lay of the land. 

Thanks to Rick Steves' Italy guidebook, we found a great place to park and had a nice walk into town.  It was gorgeous and sunny, but deceptively cold.  I was freezing with my fleece as well as my down jacket.  

The piazza was lovely as we sat down in the sun, out of the wind.   We had a bite to eat and watched the people go by… really relaxing.

What looks like market stalls was really a chocolate festival going on!!!  It was so much fun to go around and look at all of the different things they made from chocolate.  Unfortunately, I was pretty sick with a cold, and chocolate just makes my immune system take a dive, so I didn’t get to try anything L

We stopped by the fountain and soaked up the sun for a bit.

Then we headed to lunch at this place that specializes in hot sandwiches.  This is the view from the front door of the sandwich place out into the piazza.

And this is the inside of the restaurant.

If you walk through, it leads to a balcony on the piazza.  If you look closely, you can see David sitting on up there on a bar stool.  It was really nice to be there out of the wind.

I sat at the very end in the sun with my hot sandwich and hot drink.

Doesn’t he look great? As you can see, my view was fabulous J

~Mary

Checking out FIrenze

March 4, 2012

Yesterday we decided to take the train to Florence to check things out.  Our friends from Houston, Texas, the Jenson family will be here a week from tomorrow.  We are going to go to Florence with them in a little over a week. We wanted to check how long it would take to walk to the convent from the center of Florence. 

It was a nice one-shot train ride of two hours and twenty-five minutes.  When we got there, we took the kids for some cornetti ciacolata.  Yes, they are getting extremely spoiled, but so am I…

Then we walked around the outside of the cathedral in the center of town.  I climbed the Duomo about 20 years ago, but we didn’t have time for that this trip.  The outside of the cathedral is so colorful.  David was telling me that a lot of people don’t like it because of that.  They call it “The Cathedral in Pajamas.”  Personally, I love it.

We decided to see the Uffizi while we were there as we wouldn’t have time when we come back next week.  Once inside, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I got a few non flash pictures of the ceiling on the sly. 

This museum houses all of the famous Italian paintings from the renaissance.  After viewing all of the artwork, we snapped a photo of the famous Ponte Vecchio with all of the shops. 

Then we stepped outside on the patio for a bit of a rest.

Then it was time to walk to the convent where we will be staying next time.  It is a lovely walk along the river, especially when the weather is so nice.  Seeing the crew shells on the water reminded me of when David and I first met, rowing on the Thames.  It always makes me smile when I see them. 

The walk was a bit longer than we had anticipated. It takes about 45 minutes to the center of town.  At least it is a nice walk. 

On our walk back to the train station, we stopped to take a picture of the Ponte Vecchio from the Ponte St. Trinita.

 The train ride back was a much needed rest for our sore feet.  Then it was another 750 steps to get home from the train station to our apartment.  Needless to say, we were exhausted and we all slept really well last night.

~Mary

Trasimeno Lago

March 3, 2012

While the kids were in school, David and I decided to go over the Lake Trasimeno and check things out.  It is about 40 minutes away and is the fourth largest lake in Italy.  We drove around the lake and stopped for lunch at this local favorite.  

We ordered the specialty in the area is called a torta la testa.  I had one with is prosciutto, arugula and cheese on flatbread and David’s was “bits of roasted pig” which ended up being something like bologna. 

When we picked the kids up from school, we took them back to the lake and spent the entire afternoon walking around and exploring.  Here are some of the pics.

It was a gorgeous day and we were surprised that there was still snow and ice on the banks. 

The kids spent their last hour there playing in the sand while David and I sat relaxing, listening to the lapping of the water against the shore.

A much needed lazy afternoon…

~Mary

Finally, Baking Success

March 2, 2012

Baking scones…  It all started because we had bought some marscapone to use in making a pasta dish. By the way, the pasta dish was fabulous, very creamy, and I am sure it wasn’t fattening in the slightest.

Anyway, as I was making the pasta dish, I just happened to lick a bit of marscapone off of the spoon.  Gotta taste things as you’re making them, right?  When I tasted it, I said to myself, “Wow, this tastes just like clotted cream.” 

Since I missed having my clotted cream with scones and jam while I was in England, I decided I must try and make scones and have them with marscapone and jam while I was here in Italy.

So, onto the internet I went and found a scone recipe where all of the ingredients were obtainable here in Perugia.  I wasn’t holding out much hope for the finished product as none of my baking has even come close to meeting my expectations since we have been here.

Well, let me tell you, the scones actually turned out to be fabulous…  Yes, I actually baked something that met my expectations.  Adding the marscapone and jam made for the perfect breakfast treat for me…

Signing off fat and happy,

~Mary

Loving Laundry

March 1, 2012

I really thought I would dread doing laundry here, but it hasn’t turned out that way.  I figured that I would really miss my dryer… and having my clothes ready instantly.

 I have to admit, that at first it was tough because it was so darned cold here. If I hung the clothes outside, they would ice up and break…  The only place to dry clothes was on the heated towel rack in the bathroom (my personal best friend that I didn’t share willingly) and the radiators.  This created two problems.  One, it made the apartment extremely humid, and two, I could only do one small load. 

Now that the weather has changed, I am actually enjoying doing laundry.  I love hanging the laundry outside to dry.  It dries really quickly as we are up high and get loads of sun when it is a sunny day.  I can do as much laundry as I want!  Since it is warm outside, people don’t have their woodstoves going, so I don’t have to worry about ruining my fresh-scented clean clothes either. 

But to me, the best part is that I think it is pretty!  I love to see all of the colors swaying in the breeze.  All of these pictures are of the laundry hanging outside our balcony.  

Call me silly, but I am loving laundry. J

~Mary

Actual size

So, having written about the FIAT Cinque Cento (500) just a day or two ago (http://fourfirths.blogspot.com/2012/02/almost-actual-size.html) we happen upon the actual car as we're walking through a park.

As you can see, "actual size" and "almost actual size" are not that different.

Ciao,

David

I win the Bad Parenting award...

This is one of those days where I really question myself.  What kind of mother am I???  Last night we took Jason to the local pool for an evening of "free swim".  We were excited to just go and have some fun with the kids, jumping in the water, having splash fights, seeing who could swim the farthest underwater, you know the  score.  We were all looking forward to getting some exercise and having a blast at the same time.  We figured it would be just like the YMCA in Missoula.  NO.  It was a complete zoo...

 First of all, it was packed with people with no space to change or set your clothes down.  Then when we got out to the pool area, which was enormous, the lanes were FULL.  There was no area for the kids to just swim and mess around. You basically had to be in a lane line swimming with adults doing laps.  I guess they don't have a place for kids to just mess around in the pool and have fun.

So, we went back out, got dressed and went and had some gelato to drown our sorrows.   Jason started acting up a bit.  It wasn't like him at all to be so mean.  After giving serious consequences that didn't seem to phase him, I was at the end of my rope.

When we got home, I finally was able to get him to talk.  The poor kid is lonely...  We had a really long tear-filled conversation.  He told me how much he misses his friends and in particular, Joseph Gillett and Griffin Richter. He said he didn't want to be on sabbatical and he didn't understand why we had to leave our friends and come to Italy.  " After all mom, four more months is a really long time " ...

Wow.  I felt terrible.  I mean, I thought what a great experience for the kids to live in a different country, speak a different language, etc., etc.  I hadn't realized just how hard this was on the kids.  I mean I should have realized it because I am terribly missing my own friends... Why haven't I been sensitive to my  kids' struggles with missing friends and specific foods and easier ways of doing things.

I talked to Jason about that fact that we are here now, and the important thing is to make the best of it and enjoy the wonderful things that we have here that we don't have at home. Jason is easy-going, so I am sure he will bounce back and be just fine tomorrow.   I sure hope in the future that I pay more attention to how the kids are doing and what level of discomfort they are feeling in these foreign places we are taking them to.

Say prayers for me to be a better mom, please...

~Mary