House Hunting #1, #2, #3

 OH MY GOODNESS! We started house hunting today. I'm posting multiple pictures so that you can be amazed along with us. The first place we looked at is next to the castle downtown. It's also in the same complex as the family who will potentially teach our music lessons. Two points! I'm not sure if I can describe it adequately. We entered through the long hallway pictured below...

It's open, but covered by wisteria and some other viney plant. I believe this view is looking back toward the street entrance.

Just through these doors is a curling staircase that leads to an extra bed and bath.

The "passage" opens into a courtyard

On the right is the cottage. It has one main room, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.

More of the courtyard and the cottage again. On the right you can see the bottom of the staircase that leads to the entrance to the main house.

Here's the opposite view. The bottom door leads to a kitchen and tavern area. There's an elevator in the kitchen that goes upstairs to the regular kitchen, but they said it's pretty slow. There didn't seem to be any other connection to the upstairs.

This is the far end of that bottom door...previous renters were setting up a restaurant, so it's filled with tables and chairs. The woman there is standing on a little balcony that overlooks a second courtyard. We didn't take many other pictures of this level because it was quite dark. In Italy, if no one is renting the space, there are no utilities...so in order to view it, you have to open all of the windows! We also learned that they don't clean or prepare properties before showing them. You walk through it dusty and cobwebby and then negotiate how much cleaning happens before you move in...

After leaving the kitchen, we walked up the stairs and onto the 2nd level. (I'm editing this a bit...after much discussion, we agree that the 2nd level had a kitchen, bathroom and living/dining areas, along with a huge staircase that led up to the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are). It had 4 bedrooms, fairly large, but really strangely shaped. This fireplace is actually on the 4th level, and if we choose this house, it will be because of this room.

There were 5 or 6 of these windows that look out over the city. The "magnificent" view of the castle was through one of these. It turned out to be a view of the top 3 feet of the castle!

View of the city from the window.

The room up here is really quite large...it had a dining area set up on one side and more of a sitting room on the other. Definitely big enough for school, a toyroom, a familyroom and then some. The light is fantastic and the view is nice, too.

Random bathroom...

Cool floor that Pianogurl took a picture of.

Downsides to that house are that it will take 30-45 days to have it livable...or longer.The realtor doesn't seem to really care for it. We'd have an extra floor for something...but the extra bedroom in the front and the cottage would be fantastic for guests and the location is excellent! We're also not sure of the exact price. Everything in Italy seems to be negotiable.

House #2 is a duplex

Marble floors in the livingroom...realtor said they need to be polished, but they are lovely. There's also a kitchen, dining room and "study" on this main level, along with a narrow entryway.

I believe this is the kitchen-to-be and the door led out to a little covered patio/veranda area.

Here you can see the "study" on the left and the stairs lead up to the bedrooms.

One of the bathrooms. It looks nice and quite modern. 

Italian light switches are flat and you can push the bottom or top in or out to turn it off or on.

There are also 4 bedrooms on this level and 2 of them are quite large by Italian standards.

One of the smaller bedrooms has a pull-down staircase leading to the attic. 

There's quite a bit of space up there. Eli was claiming it as his bedroom.

Heading back down the stairs

This house also has a basement with another room, entrance to the garage and a utility room with a full-size freezer and plenty of space for an American-size washer and dryer.

Same basement room...I think it's supposed to be a second living space.

Utility Room

Just outside the garage doors...although there's no way the van would ever fit in there or even be able to make the turn to try!

The major downside to this one is the lack of yard. The "yard" is the concrete and the line of bushes surrounding it and this pot. The Net was not well pleased...not nearly enough habitats for bugs! It's also just outside the wall...so not quite as convenient for walking as the other, but much closer to the Iper (which is like a small SuperWalMart, apparently.)

House #3 is out in the country.  Brace yourself! This was taken from the front of the house, looking down the driveway. The realtor told us it was relatively new...built in the late 1800s.

Here's a 2nd view from an upstairs window. The building you can see a bit of to the left isn't technically part of the property...but is quite large, as well...I picture it has the little house where Jane and Elizabeth were messing with the herbs and flowers and discussing Bingley.

Here's the back of the house. I guess we didn't take one of the front, but it looks about the same as the back.

The front door opens into what we'll call the Grand Hall...basically a big room in the middle. It has 3 doors on the right and 2 doors on the left. The back right leads into a room with a fireplace and there's another room beyond it.

Here's a better view of the doors on the right. The archway leads to the staircase.

The door you can't see leads into the kitchen. It's quite large for Italy and has a nice American refrigerator. You walk through to the pantry that is ENORMOUS! You all know how I feel about having space for food storage!

This is the pantry. There's an entrance to the outside for convenient loading/unloading and shelves along the walls you can't see.

Front left leads to this room with a fireplace and a little table. Through it you reach the maid's entrance that has a little closet and narrow stairs leading to the maid's quarters.

The dining rooms is entered through the back left entrance off of the main hall.

The bathrooms all look a little antiquated, but apparently the owner is willing to consider remodeling a couple of them.

After coming up the stairs, we walked through a bedroom to get to this library. We were all really excited about it!

These floors are original something...it wasn't marble, but the ladies were exclaiming over it like it was something just as good...

Like the downstairs, the upstairs has a great hall room that has doors coming off of it. I counted 5 bedrooms up there, including the library and 3 bathrooms.

This built-in wardrobe was int the maid's quarters. Very pretty!

One corner of the large back patio.

One of 2 identical garages on either side of the house.

You can see the other garage in the distance.

The ancient well...not yet covered.

 Apparently this one is an old family home that has now passed down to the cousins. They're willing to come down a bit on the price just to see it occupied, but even then, it's above what we receive for housing. The realtor didn't really like either of the larger places we looked at...she said this one would be much too inconvenient to live in, but I'm thinking her perspective (1 11-year-old child at school all day) is quite different than mine (5 kids home all of the time). There's a bus stop at the end of the lane, so potentially we could ride the bus and not deal with in-town traffic. I think we decided it was 2 1/2 miles out of town...so still pretty close. The mosquitoes were atrocious out there and we actually had to move a snake to get into the house (just a garden snake, but still!)  The boys were in absolute heaven. Pianogurl is totally in love...too much Pride and Prejudice. Songbird doesn't want to have to clean it! I'm still processing...feel free to cast your votes!

We'll see 2 more houses tonight and another in the morning. The realtor thinks we'll choose #2 or the one we won't see until tomorrow.

Taking it easy...

After all the excitement of the last few days, today was a welcome change. Several of us got up and had breakfast when Joy delivered it to our room. She brings a variety of interesting things. The first two mornings it was eggs, bacon, yogurt, warm milk and pastries. Yesterday was hot dogs that had decorations cut into them to make them look fancy with deep-fried veggies in a cornbread batter, along with the yogurt, warm milk and pastries. This morning it was limpia (she’s from the Philipines) and French fries, along with our yogurt, milk and pastries. The only thing most of us aren’t crazy about is a little cake that looks kind of like a cross between a chocolate twinky and the crème wafer cookies with all of the layers. The middle part seems to have an orange flavor, and I think the chocolate has mint in it. Deep Thinker was seriously disappointed that they weren't the brownies he was expecting. The Linguist eats most of those!

After breakfast, The Linguist put a movie on for the kids who were awake and we went back to bed until a little after noon! Then we meandered down to the park, where the kids made friends. Rosa played for an hour or so with two little girls. The Linguist spoke a little to their father. The Net invited a boy his age to play football with him and asked him his name and age in Italian. Pianogurl, Songbird and I wandered around on all of the trails. The weather was beautiful and the park is an oasis of green in the middle of all the buildings and city bustle. I especially liked the trees that had branches arching toward the ground that created little “houses” underneath. The trees in our yard in Montana did that to some extent, and we loved to play under there. I think I could be happy in the city with a park like that to wander in! I've managed to include some photos below:

A Cedar of Lebanon!

We finally tasted our first gelato at a little shop across the road, much to Songbird’s delight. The man behind the counter was patient with our attempts at Italian and I was impressed that the kids pretty much ordered in Italian. We like gelato! (go figure!)  It tastes a lot like really creamy ice cream, but it’s much more filling. Either that or we’re just starting to fill up from all the pastries and pasta!

Our first gelato! 

More gelato...I included this one because you can see the Piazza in the background.

Rosa wore a lot of hers!

Pianogurl, The Net and The Linguist wandered around downtown at the Antiques and Craft Market, while the rest of us waited here for an American friend who dropped off some toys for the kids. They returned around 6, ready for dinner, but most restaurants here don’t open again until 7:30 or 8 p.m., so we watched the morning session of conference while we waited…the time zone thing is still a little weird. Sitting here typing this, my computer shows that it’s 2:53 in the afternoon, and we’re getting ready for bed!

The Net inside the Cathedral downtown

Dinner was good…although really expensive at 74 euro (is that word plural or does it need an “s”?) We had two different appetizers (a tray of thinly-sliced meats and a salad with a balsamic dressing), along with twisted bread that Rosa thought looked like goat horns. This was followed by four pasta dishes that we shared --gnocchi with cream and zucchini, tortellini stuffed with sausage, tagliatelle ragu (which is a really thin noodle with meat sauce) and the local specialty that’s called cappellacci zucca (big ravioli that are shaped like hats filled with sweet pumpkin sauce). This time we had them with butter and sage instead of ragu. They’re quite delicious! Our waiter asked me where we were from and when I told him Montana he wanted to know what professional sport’s team was from my city in Montana. I told him none and that my town was closer to what they call a village here and that it had animals. I really need to learn some more Italian vocabulary!

At the Ariosteria

Deep Thinker lost his second tooth during dinner. Now both his bottom teeth are gone. He wasn’t pleased, and sat with his hand over his mouth for the rest of dinner. That was actually a big improvement over the day he lost the first one and cried for at least 30 minutes and demanded that I put it back. After discussing options like glue, tape or perhaps small nails, he decided it could stay out. He really doesn’t like things he can’t control. I asked him tonight if he thought the Tooth Fairy would bring dollars or euro for gelato...that made him smile!

Falling in love with Italy

I’m falling in love with Italy! Austrid, our sponsor’s wife from the Netherlands, and I walked back down to the town square to check out the Friday market. Ferrara has at least 2 markets each week. The Friday one is mainly clothing and the Monday one is mainly produce. There were all kinds of booths with different clothing items – everything from underclothes flapping in the breeze to beautiful tailored jackets to scarves in every pattern/color imaginable. Scarves are huge here…and skinny jeans and leggings. Scarves I’ll do…probably not skinny jeans and definitely NOT the 80s leggings with the long shirts –unless all this walking does an amazing number on my thighs. Eek! Overall, the people are much more formally dressed here. Nearly everyone is wearing a jacket, nice shoes, a scarf (of course) and the woman are usually wearing nice jewelery. They look ready for church and are peddling down the road bikes! I’m not sure my poor feet would ever go out walking in heels, no matter what anyone else is wearing!

Anyway…we also went inside the Cathedral. It was breathtaking. First of all, it was HUGE…there were two separate areas for mass, a baptismal area, and several others areas that looked as if they were dedicated to different things. One looked like a burial place for a Bishop (?) who was important in the city several hundred years ago and another seemed to be a shrine to the apostles. There was even a confessional booth and a Priest there hearing confessions! The stained glass was lovely and the ceilings just blew me away. I can’t imagine how they got such intricately carved panels and paintings so high up. I definitely need to get an art history book so I can better understand/appreciate what I’m seeing. It’s Renaissance and that’s as much as I know.

We had hot chocolate/coffee and pastries in Austrid’s favorite outdoor shop and sat watching the people and looking at the beautiful buildings. Then she took me down a side road that looked like a movie set for Italy. I keep pinching myself because it’s just what I pictured…little shops with fruit or pastries or gelato. There are modern things, too, like the cell phone shop and the bookstore. There’s a livestage theater, as well, that does all kinds of shows, including the local school play in December! As we walked down the movie set road, she had me turn to the left and look down an alley that was framed by arches. I was kicking myself for not taking a camera…maybe tomorrow I’ll make it back down there to photo things!

Meanwhile, The Linguist and the kids were at the park. I was shocked to hear that Deep Thinker (a.k.a. Mr. I’m-not-learning-Italian-because-they’ll-all-speak-English) was the one trying to speak to the Italian kids in Italian! Of course, all he wanted to say was, “I’m American.” But hey, it’s a start! The Linguist also said that Claire was speaking Italian to her little friend. Unfortunately, the little girl is Ukranian, so didn’t understand her!

The Linguist and I shopped in the pastry shop across the road for lunch items. Well, I should qualify that -- I was there. The Linguist did all the talking and actually understand most of what was said. I caught a few words – like macaroni and biscotti. Everything I’ve learned flies out of my head when someone actually addresses me in Italian. I managed to say “one” and “goodbye” and that’s about it. I have never eaten/seen as much pasta and bread as I have eaten and seen these last few days! We bought ham sandwiches…heavy on the bread, extremely lean on the ham (like a 30:1 ratio), fungi pizza (that’s what they call mushrooms…appetizing, eh?), a croissant that was rolled around what looked like a hot dog and get this – macaroni that was rolled into a croissant! I did take a picture of that one. It was actually my favorite! We also bought an assortment of biscotti (cookies) that tasted surprisingly like the ones you can buy in the U.S.

We made a foray to a grocery store after deciding that man/woman/child cannot live on carbs alone. We came home with meat and salad and potatoes and broccoli – trying to remedy the veggie deficit! It felt very European to walk to and from the store and return with our recyclable grocery bags. Now I just need a bike with a basket! Or maybe next time we’ll take all of the kids. If everyone carries a bag we could shop for 7 days instead of just 2!

The rest of our evening was spent at our first Italian/American party. The Linguist’s commander is being promoted, and the hotel owner here offered to host the promotion party. His apartment is amazing. The ceilings are all painted…the kitchen and second living area had cherubim or putti? (I should’ve looked closer) on it. I don’t know if they’re technically frescos, which Wikipedia says are paintings done when the plaster is wet, but you get the idea. The main living area had tiles painted with flowers and a gigantic chandelier. The ceilings are really high so the rooms feel really large. There were hardwood floors, a big fireplace, beautiful architecture with lots of arches, wide and intricate moldings and paintings done in the 1700s and 1800s –one of which took up an entire wall! It would be like living in a museum.

 He had a live band playing mostly American music (which the Americans enjoyed more and more as the level of alcohol consumed increased) and a spread of Italian and Japanese food, since he knew many of the Americans liked sushi. The chef who prepared the food used to work at the Italian Embassy in New York. It was lovely to look at, and there was tons -- a huge, oval table covered in all kinds of bread, fruit, cheese and other appetizers kind of spilling everywhere. I’m going to have to try that at our next gathering! Shrimp were served on skewers on a tray that looked like it was made of grass and there were plates of sushi. Near the end, the chef brought around red Jell-O served with blueberries with a white light tray underneath so that it was red, white and blue and another tray with a blue Jell-o and strawberries with the white light tray underneath. No carrots in the Jell-o here! Even the roses decorating the table were red, white and blue. Right before we left, they brought out the cake that looked like a flag with a huge lit torch in the corner. By that point it was midnight, the music was cranking up and since a number of Americans had already left, we felt okay making our getaway. I don’t things settled down until about 2 a.m.

Everyone we’ve met has gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and a part of things. We are definitely not the “typical” family here since we don’t drink alcohol or coffee, have more than 2 kids and are LDS. Just wait until my 13 buckets of wheat show up! But they have all been extremely gracious and kind. It really feels a little like a family reunion. One of the female pilots is also a fantastic pianist and said she’d try and help me figure out what to do with Hannah for lessons. Her husband, a self-taught guitarist, may take Meg on as a student. The colonel’s wife was telling me that our spouse’s group has also taken in several wives from other NATO countries who are the only ones here from their nation. I can’t even imagine arriving here without a support group. There’s so much to do and learn. It makes me even more grateful for such a close-knit community of people who speak my language and are willing to take us in.

Ironically, the local doctor (an Italian American who lives here now) said he knows the Mormons and he’ll hook us up! We were finally able to contact the Elders who are in this area, but they said they’re in the process of moving the branch to a hotel, so no meetings this week. The time difference is also a little tricky for conference. We also found out that there’s an English-speaking branch up in Vicenza that we can attend. Apparently there’s another family from Ferrara who does that.

Vicenza

Today was the big trip to Vicenza. We’ve never lived anywhere that we knew many of The Linguist’s coworkers well, but here it’s like they’re all family. We had to go in 2 groups since there are so many of us, and the younger kids and I were picked up by a couple who arrived in May (that we’d never met before), and it was like seeing a cousin you haven’t talked to in awhile. I quizzed them on the drive about things like banks,  electricity, houses, etc. There’s such a huge learning curve! It sounds like the house criteria at the top of our list should be space big enough for an American washer/dryer and one with a phone line already installed…and I was thinking about things like bedrooms!

The drive up there was beautiful. There are some volcanic-looking mountains with sharp points near Vicenza and a lot of old houses, etc. along the way. The Autostrada doesn’t look nearly as intimidating as I thought it would, although we did almost get squashed by a bus changing lanes. I’m also really excited to take the train somewhere. It sounds like you can take the fast train and be in Rome in less than 3 hours!

The Linguist passed the driving test, so we’ll be able to get our van when it arrives. (I didn’t even attempt it since I still have another page of road signs to memorize.) I’m sure the arrival of our van will be a great relief for all of those who are having to finagle rides for us. It is truly a group effort! The couple we rode up with had to be back in Ferrara to pick their kids up, so part of us rode home with our sponsor and the other part rode back with The Linguist’s boss. Everyone was kind and patient with Rosa hollering for all talking to stop so that she could take a nap. She did finally pass out, along with The Net and Deep Thinker. Now it’s bedtime and no one is tired but me! 

We got SIM cards for our phones. It’s crazy to me, but our data plans for smart phones are 9 euro/month. It’s a prepaid plan and if we go over our allotted minutes or texts the extra cost is .12 to .15 cents/minute or text. That seems so cheap compared to my Verizon plan for an un-smart phone that had overages for .45 cents/call and was $50/month. We are really grateful to those who helped us get the unlocked smart phones, since a gal here was only able to fulfill 24 months of her 30-month contract and was charged 600 euro for cancelling early. There is no pro-rating here.

Tomorrow I’m going to the Friday market with our sponsor’s wife, who is from the Netherlands. I’m excited to see what’s down there since it sounds like they have products from all over Europe!

Puttering around Ferrara

A terrible photo of the statue in the center of Piazza Ariostea

We spent most of today just puttering around. I took the kids down to the park on the corner called Piazza Ariostea. It’s a large grassy oval with a cement track (for lack of a better word) surrounding it. In the center is a large statue. The most interesting thing about it was the bushes separating the track from the grass. They were teaming with lizards of assorted shapes and sizes. If you stopped to look, the tops of the bushes were kind of rustling – they way they would if a bunch of birds or butterflies were there. But on closer inspection, every movement was a lizard! The kids were also thrilled to find European money (like our pennies) on the ground. They were hoping to find enough to buy gelato…but no dice. At one point I over heard a conversation between Deep Thinker and Rosa about whether or not we were poor since we didn’t have money for gelato. They don’t quite grasp the exchange thing!

One of the lizards that were climbing all over the bushes.

The kids also enjoyed the courtyard of the hotel, while I was eaten by mosquitoes (tiger mosquitoes…they’re actually striped!) It’s a prettyish sort of wilderness and has a gigantic fruit tree, among others. Even looking at the fruit I’m not sure what kind it is…it looks a little like apricots…but might be some sort of pear. I guess Ferrara is famous for them. There are also huge tomato plants on the side of the garden. Of course The Net managed to find really big snails that he wanted to bring inside to observe. I convinced him to leave them in the garden.

After The Linguist came back from work, we walked down to Estense Castle that’s near the town center. It was built in 1385 to defend the Estes from a public revolt and then transformed into a castle. South of that is the Palazzo Municipale and the Cathedral, which my guide map says are the oldest parts of Ferrara. There were a lot of families out walking (and eating gelato) and shopping. We noticed a pair of tennis shoes that looked a bit like Toms. They cost 200 euro! Yikes! There were numerous clothing stores and even a fabric store, as well.

I thought people might stare at us since we are such a parade, but few of the Italians make eye contact. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re too polite or they just don’t care enough to stare. Someone told us today that for the last year or so all of the incoming Americans stay at our hotel, so basically everyone in town knows who we are and why we’re here. So much for blending in!

Pictures of our hotel

Our second kitchen/Living area

Beautiful china cabinet in our room

Our formal dining area at the Antica Corte

Rosa sitting by one of those fantastic windows 

Pianogurl's bed

In the parking lot...looking up toward some of the rooms

Standing in the parking lot...which is enclosed by a wall.

The entrance to the courtyard

Pastries are an Italian staple. This is the sweet tray that was waiting for us in our room.

Here's the savory tray...everything is so delicious! We can actually see all of these pastries from our window. They sell them in the shop across the way!

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!