Two weeks. We’ve LIVED in Italy for two weeks now. Somedays it’s hard to believe.

We still don’t have internet set up in our home so the blogging may be sparse for a while.  We were told it would be ready by December 5th. DECEMBER!? Hopefully it’s ready before then. In the meantime, Nick walks to his parent’s church to use the wifi for work.

Where to start with all that’s happened in two weeks?  So many things I’ve been “writing” in my head. Let’s see if I can pull it all together in some organized manner….

The flight

Oh it was LONG! Really the worst parts were the long layovers – five hours of not moving any closer to Italy. Between my excitement and nerves and the mild turbulence, my stomach was in knots almost the whole way.  I went from feeling nauseas, to starving, to exhausted around and around again.  The girls did well. Lana did a fair amount of sleeping. Mariah didn’t do much sleeping, but held it together most of the time. We all crashed hard when we arrived.

Jet Lag

Maybe I’m just getting older? Or it’s been too long since I’ve traveled this far, but OOFTA jet lag. Again with the queasy stomach and exhaustion. It took us all awhile to adjust – about a week for me before I felt like myself again.

Our house

It’s beautiful. I love it. It’s still a work in progress.

I love fresh starts, and this part of setting up a new home is exciting. And draining at the same time.  There is SO MUCH to do.  Italian homes don’t have closets or light fixtures.  The walls are made of cement or brick so drilling into a wall to hang something is quite the undertaking. We’re so thankful to have IKEA here to help us fill our home, but that means we’re building ALL our furniture.

So many things are new and different for me in our house – opening windows, turning on light switches, operating a gas stove and radiator heat. I have wood floors for the first time, so I’m learning the art of daily sweeping. Time to find some rugs! I learned to use a fancy schmancy washing machine (after googling the English version of the user manual). I hang dry my laundry.

Our neighborhood

We’re in a great location.  We’re in the city center, but a little north of the main shopping and markets so it’s a bit quieter here.  The University has some buildings just around the corner from us, so during the week days our streets are full of students. We’re just a five minute walk to Nick’s parent’s church and 10-15 minutes to some of the markets.

Right around us are plenty of coffee bars, bakeries, pizza shops, small grocery stores and my favorite – a pasta shop. Just fresh pasta filling the windows. We’ve found a dance studio close by where the girls can do ballet. We’re still learning where schools will be if we decide to enroll the girls in Italian school in January.

Adjusting to Italian Life

Mariah loves it here.  She says almost daily how much she loves our neighborhood and new house and walking everywhere. Lana talks about missing our old home and kitties, and she misses riding in a car, but she’s doing really well.

I’m struggling to find a “normal” and routine.  It’s mainly because we’re working to settle into our house. We’ll figure out our rhythms soon enough.  Other than that, I’m loving it here too.  It’s beautiful, it’s a fresh start and an adventure just like I’d hoped. I also can’t get enough of the food. YUM! And food is so cheap here. I could eat bread, salami, mozzarella and wine every day. And the fruit – delicious.

There’s so much more I could write, but I’ll try to break things up into smaller posts as we go along our journey.  More pictures to come too.  For now I try to post a photo a day on Instagram.