When in Rome... skip Ikea.

Chace had to return to the states to finalize his visa, so we went with him up to Rome to see him off. We spent a gorgeous Friday afternoon together visiting the Catacombs of St. Callisto, the Forum and the Colosseum. 

And here we have a little known Michelangelo sculpture near the Forum called... oh wait, that's just Chace stretching. Magnificent nonetheless.

Then we stopped by the church of San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) which houses the shackles said to have been worn by Peter as he went to his death. The church is also home to Michelangelo's beautiful Moses. 

After pizza and gelato, we walked back to the car, past the Colosseum, just as night fell. And even though I know what horrors that building represents, I still think the sight of it all lit up at dusk is one of the most spectacular things I've seen. 

We stayed the night near the airport and Chace caught an early flight Saturday morning. The girls slept late and by the time we finished breakfast and missed the shuttle downtown, I wasn't quite sure what to do next. The only must-do on the itinerary was getting a high chair at Ikea. (After putting it off for weeks, I had finally been to the Bari Ikea a few days previously only to find that the high chair I had driven 2 hours for was out of stock! So I was not leaving town without it!) I figured the least painful thing would be to stop there first while the girls were freshly fed and rested and then go from there into downtown Rome and maybe explore the Trastevere neighborhood for the afternoon before driving the 4 hours home to Manfredonia.

Little did I know what a zoo the Rome Ikea would be that morning; I had forgotten that it was a holiday weekend. The place was packed. I decided the only way we would make it out of there in one piece would be to wear Blythe on my back in the Ergo and buckle the other two into the stroller. Which I never do. Which they hated. Which I hated. Which left my sanity hanging by a thread two hours later when we finally got out of the maze that is Ikea. I only wish I had documented the pandemonium with a video or something. But I was a little busy... By now it was the napping hour, so we ate a quick lunch in the car and I decided that, loathe as I was to miss out on precious time in Rome, I just was not physically or emotionally equipped to deal with the throngs of tourists and my throng of daughters on a holiday weekend during nap time. Then it started to rain. And that sealed the deal: we were going home.

As we drove out of Rome, I talked myself into and out of turning around and just braving the crowds, naps be damned. Who knows how many times we'll make it to Rome? Then when I saw the sign for Tivoli, I decided we'd go there instead and stop by Villa D'Este, take a little tour of the house and then let the girls run wild on the grounds. Win-win! After a half hour or so, the navigation on my phone stopped working and I had no idea where I was going. So we were lost for a little while, driving around tiny little cobblestone streets looking for signal, during which time all the girls fell asleep and it started to rain in earnest. I decided to forget Villa D'Este and call it a day. But the detour sure was beautiful! In fact, I find that it's often the detours I enjoy the most on these adventures of ours. 

Mat-EEEL-day!

This girl turned four last week and we celebrated with grilled octopus for lunch and McDonald's for dinner (both by request of the birthday girl). We also enjoyed one bite of the grossest cake in the world. But did it ever have sprinkles! Now she enjoys her new self-appointed privileges of having not three, but four scoops of gelato, four olives or four minutes more on the iPad, because, obviously, she's four years old now!

You knew her as "Matilda" but she's taken to the Italian pronunciation and loves to introduce herself as "MatEEELday." She is jumping right into the language and has begun to ask me, "Mamma, come si dice _____ in Italian?" ("How do you say ____...?") She is a great mimic and has a really good Italian accent, which she also applies frequently to her English. She's also experimenting with other accents, like the one I use when I read Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby. She is quite the girl and we are sure glad she's around to keep us in line!

Ciao, Tutti!

Well, since it's been a coon's age since we last met and I've been pitifully and inexcusably negligent in keeping my dear friends and family up to date on our comings and goings, let's recap shall we?

After leaving Chicago and spending months with parents, in-laws and in rental houses, we started looking for a house to buy. Chace found the one, exactly what we were looking for, while I was away tending my sister's kids. He made an offer immediately. A couple months later, we had a baby on a Tuesday and moved in on Friday. We spent the next months trying to whittle down the endless list of house projects and figuring out our new normal with three wee lassies.

Always interested in travel and in the possibility of returning to his second love, Italy (where he lived for two years as a missionary for our church), Chace got involved in a project with one of Boeing's partners in Italy. He was thrilled when the new year took him there on a work assignment for almost a month, during which time he got an offer to move there on a short-term assignment (9-12 months). And so the push began to complete the next year's worth of projects in a matter of weeks and pack for Italia!

So a month ago now we flew to Rome, where we spent a couple of blurry days trying to muster the strength to sight see after a grueling bout of the flu that hit all of us but Eloise during our flight. Then we headed south to Manfredonia where we stayed in a hotel for two weeks. We've now been in a little apartment right across the street from the beach for almost two weeks as well, where we'll be until the home we want to live in permanently becomes available later this summer. 

That's the last year or so in a nutshell. I'm going to try to document the beautiful places and people we encounter here on the ol' blog. I don't get many points for consistency, but I'll try to make it up to you with cute pictures.

Deal?