Quell' Estetica Romana

Quell' Estetica Romana - That Roman Aesthetic

Well, it has been a VERY long time since our last post. A lot, and also not much at all, has happened over the past 6 weeks, so let's dive in!

A car was mentioned in the prior post. Shane's little 60+MPG Mini commuter car was acquired on April 29th. What a difference vehicular freedom makes! Sara's car arrived a few weeks later, so we are fully mobile.

What did we do the first weekend with a car? We left the base. We were initially thinking big for our first outing. Do we pick Rome (45 min train ride), Florence (<3-hour train ride), Amalfi Coast, or Pompeii (short drive for both). We decided on Parco Archeologico di Ercolano (Herculaneum Archeological Park). According to legend, Herculaneum was founded by Hercules, so how could we not choose it first? This city sits on the western base of Vesuvio. Since the prevailing winds at the time blew toward the southeast, where Pompeii sits, most of the inhabitants of Herculaneum had an opportunity to evacuate by the time the ash and hot gases arrived. Sara and the kids really appreciated going to the much-smaller-than-Pompeii site. Shane might have dealt with a mutiny if they had endured any more of his "must look at everything" self. The size of some of the homes, along with the incredible preservation of intricate tile work and paintings, made for an unforgettable time exploring such a historic site!

 Gotta love that Roman art aesthetic             

Sara busted out with new friends a couple of times in May, first on a boat tour around Capri and then enjoying a day at Villa Matilde Winery. The community that is base life is pretty amazing, and feeling so welcomed and included into an already-established group has been truly wonderful. It has definitely helped during a tough transition. Huge thanks to the OG BFF Kara for connecting us with Becky, who brought the rest of the crew!

Next, a house update. Much to our disappointment, our original choice in house fell through. The housing office on base performed an inspection that returned quite a list of issues for the landlord to address. We were told it would be ready in 10 days. After 14 days we reached out to the housing office for an update and found out that it was on the landlord to let them know when it was ready for another inspection. After several additional days, more uncertainty and poor communication, we decided to just start over. The good news is we found an even better house with a very responsive landlord and are set to move in this Thursday! And our household goods shipment arrived a couple of weeks ago and is scheduled to be delivered on move-in day, so we will have our furnishings to fill it. We are at 12 weeks of temporary living and are extremely ready to be in our own space with our own things. And we will have lemon and orange trees to enjoy!

Shane has already had his second work trip. He enjoyed a nice 5-hour train tour of Italy through Rome, Florence, and Bologna on his way to the Northeastern Italian town of Vicenza. He says it was work, but it certainly didn't look like a hardship to go! Sicily is his next trip at the end of June. We will try to join this time since the kids are out of school.

The kids both had exciting field trips before the end the school year. 

Olle's class visited an archeological museum (there are so many in the area that I can't figure out which one it was!) where they learned about prehistoric civilizations, painting pottery, and even a story about archeologists finding remains of an ancient man and bear in a cave. He tells the story much better that I do! 

Audrey's class went on a nature hike on the side of Vesuvius, and Sara got to chaperone! While we didn't go anywhere near the summit, it was still exciting to say we were on the side of a volcano. We saw loads of interesting flowers and plants, spotted a few birds and lizards, and enjoyed getting back to nature in a new place. 

Round things out with a trip to the beach for Memorial Day, Audrey's advancement to middle school (7th grade), a water splash and foam party 3K run and a cooking class and I'd say we're starting summer off on the right foot! 

In all honesty, things haven't been all sunshine and rainbows. Moving to a completely new country, where communication off of the base is intimidating, we don't understand how everything works and living in cramped temporary housing with the cheapest, most uncomfortable furniture imaginable, has been challenging. The food is incredible, people are kind and understanding, the weather is AMAZING, and there is a lot of history and beauty all around us. We are slowly taking it all in, but it's still hard, and we certainly couldn't have done it without such wonderful people around us for support. We can't wait for move-in day later this week. It will be like Christmas getting all of our things and FINALLY getting to settle in. 

Can't wait to share more soon!