Nuovo con un'etichetta

I appreciate all of the encouragement I received to continue the blog. I agree that it is an important way to chronicle our lives as we embark on many new adventures abroad. It's wonderful that our friends and family want to keep in touch with our lives! I am just happy that this digital world we live in allows us to communicate with loved ones so easily.

It's hard to believe that our boots (well sandals really) landed on the ground in Italy 10 days ago. We walk around this new land with wide eyes. A child seeing the world for the first time. It's almost too much to bear at times. We are constantly amazed by the combination of antique beauty and grime that surrounds us.

We are also trying to balance what we have to do (a lot!), with what we want to do. That's life, huh? Finalizing our car purchases, signing the contract to rent our house, having the house inspected, and moving into our house are all at the top of our to-do lists right now. Oh yeah, and LEARNING Italian!

The good news is that we found the perfect house (for us), and that alleviates a lot of the stress associated with uprooting our family and moving halfway across the world. The process of renting a house is lengthy, and in some cases takes up to 60 days to cut through all the red tape. We are learning that nothing moves fast in Italy! Since the house was previously rented to Americans we are hoping that the process is a little shorter. All fingers are crossed here!

As for now, we are still living in a hotel. Luckily, we absolutely love this quaint little place so it's not a problem. I'll tell you if we feel the same way in 40 days. You can imagine that spending 2 months in a hotel with an active toddler might be enough to fast-track anyone to the crazy house.

When looking for a house to rent, our lovely realator told many of the landlords that we are nuovo con un'etichetta (new with a tag). I can't think of a better way to describe us! Hopefully we are able to cut the tags off soon.

Ciao, for now