Day 6 (Sept. 6): Arrivederci Roma

{one of my favorite photos...p&j on the hillside in umbria}

On Saturday, we left Rome for greener pastures. We loved the city but were very eager to move on to the next part of our trip...our rental house in Umbria! Jeff picked up our rental car in the morning (surprisingly, a relatively easy process) while I finished packing up our bags. Negotiating the streets of Rome in a car was a bit tricky but actually was better than I had anticipated (less scary than when we picked up our car on our trip to Scotland and Jeff had to learn to drive on the left side of the street, on the right side of the car, very quickly). We hit the A1 and headed north severely in need of coffee. We stopped at the first Auto Grill along the way -- Italy's idea of a rest stop. I will do a longer post about coffee later -- so much to say! -- but suffice to say in this post that Jeff ordered two lattes but didn't say cafe latte. So what did we end up with? Two tall glasses of milk! Jeff never drinks milk straight-up, but we both downed our milks and left and stopped at the next Auto Grill along the way where we finally got us some coffee with our milk.

We arrived in San Terenziano before the time the house was available so we took a drive around and started soaking in the beautiful Umbrian landscape. And what a landscape it was. The area hadn't had rain for months (or so we were told) and the land was fairly parched but it was still amazing. Olive trees and grape vineyards everywhere we looked. Rolling hills, small towns, church steeples. Not a McDonald's in site. We had landed in heaven.

We returned to the house where we were let in by Karen, a British woman who lives in Umbria (lucky lady!) and works for the rental company. She showed us around the lovely house -- "Casetta Rosa" -- that wouold be our home for the next week. A whole week! It was decorated with tons of Umbrian pottery and also African artwork and crafts that were collected by the owner. It was everything we could have hoped for and more (well, except for air conditioning. Air conditioning would have been nice). My parents arrived shortly after we did and we spent the rest of the day getting settled into our new home for the week and enjoying our spectacular view.

{back of the house}

{view of the house from down the hill}

{the sun sets on our first night in umbria}

{little bench and table on the hillside below the house}

{daddy and phoebe}

{drumming on daddy's head}

{eskimo kiss}

{she's fussing but i still love this photo}

{dining al fresco}

Day 5 (Sept. 5): Nonni and Nonno Arrive

{phoebe & her nonni at the villa borghese}

On Friday, my parents arrived in Rome. We spent the morning getting ready for their arrival. I went to the grocery store (alone, maybe?) and picked up some essentials to prepare lunch for them. Jeff figured out, thanks to Google translator, how to tell the building's doorman that his wife's parents would be arriving and could he please show them upstairs. This man, who spoke no English, understood Jeff's Italian perfectly! (Oh and to think if he had not -- where my poor parents may have been led off to!) I happily chopped tomatoes, cheese, and other delicacies and laid them out on big white plates for us all to share. My parents arrived right on time and we sat down for a welcome lunch together, complete with proseco. After lunch, we took them to (where else?) San Crispino for gelato. My mom and I got the fig flavor and it was divine. Like a fresh fig plucked right from an Italian fig tree...yet somehow still distinctly gelato-ey tasting as well. De-licious.

{preparing the welcome lunch}

{fresh strawberries...small ones...the real deal}

{food laid out, lucy waiting}

{they're here...lucy confused a little}

{excellent smile, dad}

{very excited to have her grandparents in italy}

After that, my mom took a nap (or a rest anyway) at our apartment while my dad went to check into their hotel. I managed to get out for a little while on my own and I truly savored my walk around our neighborhood, getting to stop into shops and buy a few things unaccompanied by my littlest traveling companions. Later that afternoon (after a quick stop at my parents' hotel, during which Lucy decided the bidet was a "hand washer"), we all walked up to the Villa Borghese -- Rome's version of Central Park or Boston Common. It had actually been described to me as more Boston Common than Public Garden -- a very apt description and one that will make sense to my fellow Bostonians! It was actually our second visit there -- we had visited previously that week and were pleased to find a playground for Lucy (one of Rome's few) as well as an indoor playspace where she enjoyed bouncing around for a while. They even had a children's bookshop where I bought a beautifully illustrated book that I want to take apart and frame parts of for our new house. Not sure what I'll do with it exactly. Anyway, on this trip to the Borghese we sat down and had a light early dinner and even met an Italian family with a girl almost Lucy's age as well as a baby boy a bit younger than Phoebe. It was adorable to see Lucy play with her new Italian friend Ludovica and to talk to the mother, Bina. They live in Rome near the Borghese and operate a B&B.

{using the "hand washer"}

{off like a shot at the villa borghese}

{playing with nonno at a fountain in the Borghese}

This reminds me of my observations about children in Rome. I really found it to be true what I had heard about Italy's declining population -- there are so few babies there. It is just not like your typical American city that teems with babies. I saw very few babies, and even fewer babies in carriers -- most were either in strollers or being carried. So I was a bit of a curiosity, walking around with my cherubic blond Phoebe firmly attached to my body in the Ergo carrier 24/7! This is not to say that Romans don't like babies -- they love them. They practically dipped Phoebe in chocolate and ate her for breakfast they loved her so much. Men, women, young, old...even the gruffest looking of men would fawn all over her. Maybe it has something to do with her big blue eyes or maybe it's the dimple in her left cheek when she flashes her ample smile...but really I think it's just that Italians love children. Heck, they seem to love everyone...which is why Italy is like heaven on earth. But I digress.

After our visit to the park, we took a walk down the Via Veneto before heading back to our apartment (and my parents to their hotel). We started to pack up our things because the following day, we were off to Umbria. Stay tuned for that...I have photos that you won't want to miss!