Dante or Tuscan Sun?

Dear Readers of My Blog,

Recently I was gently chastised that my blogs were sounding more The Inferno than Under the Tuscan Sun (with Children). We are all getting used to our new place and some of it we absolutely love and some of it we are less than thrilled about – like any family moving to a new country and culture.

The good stuff – the food, the fresh fruit and vegetable market with tomatoes that we all pop in our mouth like candy they are so good, our daily gelato fix, the bunnies in our backyard that are cute with a capital “C ” (we have now fed the bunnies so many times the little ones hop toward us when we come into the yard) the beautiful pool/sports complex where we can go swimming, the wine, not having a car, Vladi (our landlady who could not be sweeter), Graziella (our realtor who when we apologized for the kid’s being too noisy answered “they are children, they are supposed to be noisy”), the helpfulness of everyone we have had to deal with in an official capacity, Paolo (Bill’s boss) & his wife Rita, the International School, listening to everyone speak the beautiful Italian language even though I understand almost none of it & Bill only a little and the sincere generosity of spirit of just about everyone we have come in contact with while getting settled in. Oh, did I mention the food? I’m sure I have forgotten other stuff that we love but these immediately come to mind.

The yucky stuff – grocery shopping without a car for our whole family (5 people eat a lot of food and drink a lot of water!), the mosquitoes, the heat with no air conditioning, having to take taxi’s to the pool which turns it into an outing versus just a quick run for a swim, the kids not having other kids to play with yet and getting on each other’s (and our) nerves and of course, the smoke (which you all know about from my rant).

By the way, I forgot my address book, so if you’d like me or the kids to write you (or your child) a letter or postcard, please send me your address directly to my WSU email. The kids love to write letters and I’m sure they would also love to receive some. We are all just a little homesick, them much more than me because I still have my email, favorite websites & the phone. Also, Bill & I are still just taking everything in and enjoying the change and wonder of Italy. I’ll send you our address via email because I don’t want to post it on this public blog. However, please don’t send any packages because we have to pay taxes on them. We found out from another American family here on sabbatical that they were planning on shipping lots of things, but you have to pay tax on everything that is shipped (even if they are yours and not something new). For example, Bill’s thoughtful sister sent the boys some games for their birthday here in Italy and we had to pay a tax of 24 euro (about $30) to get them from Fed Ex. This part of the message is mostly for my Dad who is so organized and efficient, I would hazard to guess that he has already bought some xmas gifts for my kids and thinking about when to send them.

Good bye for today – stay tuned for “Italy vs. America – To Bra or Not to Bra”