Viva L'Italia

We really are committed to recording our six months in Italy, we're even committed to sharing it with others, we just have not brought both these goals into one. So today we are plumbing our personal journals and photo archives to share something of value with you, Friends, Family, and Countrymen present and future!

1-3 January 2019

Lia: "We made last-minute preparations and then at 1 pm jumped in our car to head to the SLC airport for a plane bound ultimately for Firenze via Parigi. We owe many thanks to Julianne Muhlstein who came over in the morning and helped with last minute prep and to Bruce and Patti who helped get everything loaded and drove up with us and then took our van home. 

Our flight from SLC to Paris was delayed an hour due to a flat tire on the plane, so we had to move gates instead of board. While at our new gate, Justin pointed out a hubbub over by the gate for a flight headed to Orlando. "That's Mitt Romney!" he said. It was indeed, along with his wife, Ann. 

"Oh," I said, "we just had her Blueberry French Toast for Christmas morning breakfast." 

"You should go tell her that you liked it," Justin (I think) joked. Of course I brushed the suggestion off, but then thought that there really was no reason not to, so over I went and had a little conversation with Ann about how much I like her recipes and shook both her hand and Mitt's. The whole encounter was very quick and all about cooking; it was not until several minutes later that I realized they weren't headed to Orlando but to D.C. via the next gate over, and that it was for Mitt to take his seat in the U.S. Senate. I need to stay as up-to-date on my Economist reading as on my Romney Family Cookbook reading, apparently.  

Our delay meant that we missed our connection in Paris, which meant that Delta gave us over 100 euro for our dinner, but we would have missed the connection anyway trying to get our caravan through gates and security and whatnot. So it was a blessing in disguise.

The kids were wonderful on the flight. As Katharine reports:

"Hooray! We're not on an airplane anymore! I sat on one for almost thirteen hours straight and waited in an airport for nine to ten hours. 

On the first plane I got the window seat by Abdiel, and we both watched The Incredibles 2 for the first little bit. For dinner, the options were chicken or a vegetarian salad, which I thought sounded gross, so we both got the chicken, which happened to include another salad, cheese, and grapes, and a brownie, and a roll. We got to watch the movie while we ate. It was fun. 

Then I played Fish Tic-tac-Toe with Abdiel; I was usually the fish and he was the crab. I won most of the time. *fact check Abdiel's journal on this* Then I watched a little tiny bit of How to Train Your Dragon, and then Daddy told me I had to go to sleep. 

I didn't sleep very well because the plane was so loud, so when we landed in Paris, I was grumpy and sick and tired. Then when we actually got to the people it got worse than ever. Everybody babbling in French at each other and laughing at us for not knowing French. It sounded like we had just walked straight into a chicken family's nest or something like that. Then we got on another airplane in Paris after waiting for a very long time, which took us to Florence, Italy and then Dad put us and our luggage into a great big car like the Loveridge's. I was squashed by a bunch of suitcases. 

He drove us up this scary, bumpy road when it was really late through the mountains and we finally ended up at our big, pretty house right here. And now I like it."

Julia comments: "Eight people doesn't seem like a lot until you have eight suitcases, seven carry-ons, seven backpacks, and one violin to get into a nine person van. The trouble was, we had some difficulty locating our rental car, so we had to wait a while in the midst of all our luggage. But we had lots of good food to eat from France. Anyway, we drove home buried in baggage. When we finally climbed the stairs to bed, we realized that we had accidentally missed a whole cart, which turned out to be okay, because we had no room in that rental car for any extra luggage. Mom and Dad rushed back to the airport, and there it was."

I will add that, having not slept for the previous twenty-six hours, forgetting to leave a phone with the kids, and having just landed in a foreign country, I endured some level of psychotic worry on the way back to the airport that our neighbors were most likely axe murderers and we would return to a home full of screaming or maimed children. I even told Justin on the way that all those fairy tales about mothers going to market and warning the little goats not to let any big bad wolves in was no doubt thinly veiled instruction about stranger danger.  

By morning's light it turned out our neighbors were away, the psychedelic flashing red lights in their window were actually Christmas decorations, and the worst injury sustained during our absence was in Abdiel's dreams and inflicted by dinosaurs.

Elisabeth's final comment: "I wonder why everyone's so happy we didn't bring the harp?"