We Made It!

Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it to Italy safely! Our journey was fairly uneventful. We flew U.S. Airways into Frankfurt, and they kindly rearranged seats so we could sit close together. The kids did reasonably well on the overnight flight...but not nearly as much sleep happened as I was hoping. About the time Rosa finally passed out, I hit the I've-been-up-too-long point and couldn't sleep. Around 9:30 or so (2:30 a.m. U.S. time), people started opening the windows on the plane because it was  morning!

Just to give you a visual on 24 pieces of luggage...

we took up the entire shuttle from the rental car agency to the airport!

Pianogurl and Songbird

Deep Thinker, Rosa, The Net

The Linguist and Yours Truly

Deep Thinker

In Charlotte, NC

Ice cream is good no matter where you are!

Rosa

The airport in Germany was a little intimidating, mostly because we couldn't understand any of the signs. People were kind and would approach us, asking if we spoke German or English before saying too much. We are definitely a parade. Standing outside the bathroom, someone asked if we were the line! That's how you know you have a big family, I suppose.

We all collapsed on the plane from Frankfurt to Bologna...but not before I took a look at Germany from the air. The houses are all grouped in little towns with a lot of green farm land around them. In contrast, the parts of Italy we flew over had a house or two on a large piece of land and the homes were more spread out. There is a lot more farm land here than what I pictured.

Rosa and Deep Thinker were out so cold I almost couldn't wake them to get off of the plane. Our only meltdown was Deep Thinker, who at that point was starting to get hysterical about not being able to use the bathroom on the plane. Since the rest of the plane was waiting on a bus to go to the baggage area, I didn't feel like we had time to spare. We collected our baggage (all 14 pieces) off of the carousel and were wondering how to get them out of the baggage area, when a nice man brought two carts to us. We didn't have any European money to get them for ourselves, so were very grateful.

Our sponsor and another of The Linguist's co-workers met us just outside that area and hustled us through the airport. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the legs of ham that were hanging in the airport meat shop, along with salami, etc., but I've never seen that in an airport before!

The driving here is as we expected...a little like Miami on steroids. I am not looking forward to getting my license! We had a little scare when one of the cars they used to pick us up lost speed on the Autostrada (big highway where people drive fast), but we slowed down a bit and made it just fine.

Our hotel is amazing! I'll try to attach pictures later. We have 6 rooms and 3 baths that are attached by a long hallway and a sitting area. The wooden floors are beautiful, as is the furniture. I love the windows, which are tall and shuttered. The kids are convinced we are living in a castle, and it's surely the closest we'll ever get! The doors from the street are 15-20 feet tall and the whole thing swings open to allow access. There was a welcome plate of all kinds of Italian finger foods and pastries from the bakery across from our hotel. I noticed there are also several fruit stores, gelato, pizza and a bunch of things that I can't yet name on the street across from us. We're going exploring later this morning!

It's a tradition here to help/torture new arrivals by keeping them up the day of their arrival. This is supposed to be for our own benefit, as it will help us adjust to the time change faster. We got to the hotel around 4:30 and then were picked up at 6:30 to go to a "Welcome" dinner. The food was really good, and I don't think they prepare anything until you order it. I think the appetizers came after 30 minutes -- a fried bread and then a bruschetta, followed by a tray of thin-sliced meats, a sauce that looked like it may have been artichoke something, tiny sweet onions (that reminded me of sweet pickles) and green olives. After another hour or so we had the main course. I can't remember any of the names, but the first dish was like a huge ravioli stuffed with a sweet pumpkin sauce and served with a red meat sauce, the other was the best tortellini I've ever tasted...stuffed with meat and covered with a white sauce. Dessert was like a thin brownie with two different toppings -- one was like cream and the other more like a sweet sauce (I probably could have eaten that with a spoon!) It was all delicious!

By 9:30 when dessert was served, Rosa was asleep in my lap and The Linguist and Pianogurl were both dying. The rest of us seemed to have gotten a 3rd or 4th wind and were doing okay. We collapsed into bed and mostly slept hard. I got up 3 times...kids who couldn't find the bathroom, Rosa fell out of the bed, couldn't find her sippy, etc. The usual stuff. But as a result, when our hostess came with breakfast at 8:30 I was still asleep. Go figure -- since it was 1:30 a.m. in TX!

Breakfast was an assortment of doughnuts, pastries, warm milk, juice, fried eggs, bacon and yogurt. It was all really good, and the kids were thrilled to see nutella!

The Linguist had to check in at work this morning to begin paperwork, and we're going to Vicenza tomorrow for more of the same. He'll will probably take the driver's test at the point. I won't, unless I do some serious studying of the road signs...there was so much getting ready to do that I've neglected some things I wish I would've done previously -- like buying an adapter so we could plug our computer in to charge...We'll get SIM cards for our phones tomorrow, as well...

One other interesting thing...apparently Ferrara was built on reclaimed swamp land and the Po River (featured in Dante, The Linguist tells me) runs through/close to the town, so the mosquitoes are enormous and prevalent. We’ll be buying bug spray tomorrow, as well! There’s a geo-bachelor, who also works with The Linguist, who’s living in the room upstairs from us, so he loaned us his extra can for today. We’re going to walk down to the big park area a few blocks from here and maybe down to the park, as well. They tell us everything within the wall is safe and that we should feel free to walk around and explore…there are several old churches and a castle, as well.

Much love to all! Feel free to pass our blog info around…I don’t have time/battery to send out the link yet, but I’ll pick up a charger tomorrow!