We’ve hit a snag in our quest to get home. The Air France flight from Florence to Paris was over 90 minutes late taking off. It was a comedy of errors. We’re stuck in Paris for the night as our DC flight left without us. Fortunately, we’re flexible, but I doubt I’ll ever fly Air France again.

Good news is the Boingo account I signed up for before we left works here. Bad news is I checked my laptop. I’m sending this from my Zaurus.

So the plan is to arrive in DC at 1 PM. We may make our flight to Raleigh if we get in sooner, but probably will arrive closer to 7 PM.

Traveling is an adventure!
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I’m checking in from the internet cafe. This time it really is the Siena WEB 59, the other place was Siena WEB 54. They’re across the street from each other, but this one has kindergarten-size seats you can sit in while you type. 🙂 And no Paul, the American in Siena.

The weather turned out to be perfect after all: sunny and mid 70’s. Perfect tourist weather. Kelly noted yesterday now Italian parents seem to bundle up their kids in spite of the warm weather. I would also add to that how most Italians I’ve seen seem to dress far to warm for the weather, anyway. Tourists stand out with their shorts, while natives are sweating under long sleeves and jackets. Go figure.

We spent time having a big lunch of leftovers today, although fantastic leftovers. Then it was a quick walk to the bus stop into town. From there, we went straight to the Campo tower, the tallest one we’ve seen so far in Italy. With Travis strapped in front of me and Hallie being carried (!) up by Kelly, we climbed the 500 some-odd steps up to the top. It was insane, but we did it, and have some great photos to prove it. Going down was no less nerve-wracking, but at least we had gravity on our side.

I found out yesterday about my new nephew, whose name has not yet been decided, last I heard. I have yet to see pictures, as checking mail from an Internet Cafe is a sketchy proposition. I’m hoping one of the website-having family members of mine can get around to posting pics, but that hasn’t happened yet. Oh well.

I’ll miss Italy dearly. It has been much fun. Asked what I would change, I would get an apartment with a telephone. Adding Internet and satellite service would improve things. These are resources which can make the most of a visit. Its much easier to plan for things that way. I’d also turn in the car after the first week, as Siena offers plenty to see just from taking the bus and walking. Parking here is also nonexistent, so there’s that.

Travis is feeling better, in spite of his constant waking and crying last night. Kelly suspects he’s cutting a new tooth, and I agree. He is still passing out smiles to all who will take them.

If I ever decided to rob an Italian bank, all I’d have to do would be to wear Travis on the Baby Bjorn while I did it. No one would ever pick me out of a lineup! (Travis, however, would be fingered in an instant.) Italians are a baby-crazy nation! Everywhere we’ve gone, people have fallen over themselves trying to goose Hallie or Travis. It’s really cute. They’re gonna miss all of this attention when we get back.

We are planning a group dinner tonight before packing all our stuff up for the trip home. The plan is to leave for Florence at 9 AM local time, return the cars at 10:30, and catch a plane to Paris at 1 PM. From there, we catch our plane back to the States. We’ll spend Saturday night at the Swanson’s outside of DC before flying back to Raleigh Sunday morning.

Travel always changes you. You come back from a visit quite the same person as you left. This trip has changed me already, with plenty of aftershocks to anticipate once we’re back.

Ciao, y’all!

I’m checking in again from the Siena WEB 59 internet cafe in Italy. Life here is still good, for the most part. The weather was initially stunningly sunny but has since turned cloudy and the temperature has cooled off to around 18 degrees C. Also, Travis has developed a rough-sounding cough, so we’ve been giving him some extra TLC.

After a rough night with Travis, Kelly and I decided to take him in to see a doctor yesterday. We drove in a few circles around the university hospital here until we found our way in. Taking David and Kelly’s mom as support, we waited around the emergency room to be seen. A few hours later, we were released with the diagnosis of some sort of viral infection in his upper respiratory system. The tests they could have run would have given us results after we’ve already left the country, so we opted to have him seen at home. Above all, it hasn’t affected his mood any, since he charmed just about everyone he saw in the hospital. The little flirt!

We’ve done a lot of touring, of course, and have a bit more to do. Pictures taken so far total well over a gigabyte, thoroughly swamping the cafe’s internet connection. Thus, don’t expect to see them all until we return.

We’re all learning Italian and having fun doing it. Hallie seems especially good at it, and we’re making plans to have her stay a summer or two when she gets older. Of course, we’ll have to drop her off and pick her up. Darn those excuses to visit Italy.

I haven’t seen a paper or watched TV in ten days. The internet is a 20 minute bus ride away from our farmhouse apartment, which has no phone. I’m blissfully unaware of the outside world, save a visit every other day to JT.Net for word on a new nephew. So far, no word.

I’ve got to head back to the house to help with the kids. I’ll post again when I can. Ciao!

I’m posting some Italy pictures in my gallery. Check back frequently for updates.

So I’m expecting a call back from a reporter from the New York Times. I’m not sure why he wants to talk to me, but I’m curious to find out. Anyhow, I’m in an Internet Cafe in Siena with my X-Lite phone fired up so I can answer my home phone from here.

In comes a call. I’m thinking it’s the reporter and I get all geared up to talk to him. Instead, its a solicitation: some woman selling mortgage insurance.

I got to tell her “take me off your list” all the way from Italy. Isn’t technology wonderful?

We made it to Siena after a day of airports and airplanes. I was expecting to say “long day,” but it really didn’t seem that long. It was an adventure. This family is made up of adventurers.

I am sitting outside our apartment in a lounge chair, watching the sun rise behind me. A chorus of swallows and mourning doves are greeting me, along with one or two roosters. At ten meters away, a feral cat watches me hopefully. The air is crisp and clear.

Our trip began Friday morning as we gathered our goods for our trip. Hallie and I came up with the “Italy song,” which goes like this:

We’re going to Italy, Italy, Italy
We’re going to Italy, where we can spend some time.

(Hallie came up with the last verse.)

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, since Independence Air pushed our flight back an hour and neglected to tell us. Indy Air seems to be copying Midway Airlines’ strategy for wooing travelers, right down to the surly-seeming flight attendent. Having a direct flight to Dulles was nice, though. Not having to drive an extra six hours was especially nice.

We quickly met up with the Swansons and gathered our bags from baggage claim. After an easy time through security, we grabbed a quick lunch at the food court near our gate. None of us was looking forward to the long flight ahead, so we made the most of our freedom before our boarding.

Our baggage consisted of two large rolling bags filled with clothes, two brightly-colored duffel bags with diapers and supplies, three backpacks (the diaper bag, Kelly’s blue bag with snacks, and my gadget bag), the Baby Bjorn, the umbrella stroller, and the two carseats. We managed to tie everything but the carseats to the rolling bags, which made it fairly easy to move through the airport.

Yes, the carseats were a pain to handle. They’re bulky, they don’t strap easily to other things, but they are the best recipe for happy, sleeping kids on a plane. Do whatever you can to ensure they stay as close as possible to your kids. Do not check them, do not gate-check them. Insist they stay with
you and you will be richly rewarded. Well, well worth the effort.

Air France gave us about 20 seconds warning before they began preboarding. Hallie managed to produce a dirty diaper just as the announcement went out. We scrambled to gather our things and only did after half the plane was loaded.

Our seats were nice, however, mostly due to the roomy-seeming interior of the Boeing 777. We had the three seats on the left side, making it easy for us to maneuver around. Travis, Kelly, and I sat in front of Hallie, Gum, and Gup. David and Anna sat many seats back, with David occasionally coming up for a visit.

Service was excellent on Air France. Each seat had a video display, offering a variety of movies, news, music, games, and my favorite: a moving map of the plane’s location. Knowning the progress the plane was making made the trip go so much faster. In fact, I was suprised at how much land there is between the
two continents. A great deal of the time, options for an emergency landing were available. Comforting to know.

I watched the movie “War Games” and the TV show “Mission Impossible,” surprised at how good each show really was. “War Games” had aged very, very well and “MI” has resurged in popularity in Europe (and for good reason).

The inflight meal was very French and very tasty. The flight attendents were quick to serve us and very generous with the wine and other drinks. It was a pleasure to fly.

Sleep was hard to come by on the plane. Travis got the most of it, fortunately, but only after ten minutes of squawking. Kelly and I shifted around a bit but never got rested. In spite of Gum and Gup snoozing next to her, Hallie kept herself entertained by “reading” to herself. She seemed to go
on and on! At least she was happy. When she finally did succumb to sleep, she did so shallowly. Twice, Hallie popped her head up and laughed, eyes wide open but sound asleep. I wish I knew what she was dreaming.

Before we knew it, the map showed us over Ireland with just an hour left until Paris. No sweat, I thought. This trip is easy.

A few challenges remained, however. The plane landed late at Paris. We were met at the bottom of the stairs by a gate agent, who was holding a sign with our flight number to Florence. We were hustled on to separate buses and raced to the terminal in a mad dash to get our next flight. Running with our bags to
get to Customs, the agent then argued with the staff to get us checked in. To the front of the line we went each time, with the airport staff grumbling angrily at him and us.

We all managed get through this gauntlet in time to board the bus to our next plane. Total time in Paris: twenty minutes! As we rolled out to the plane, we burst out laughing at the sight outside: we had ended our race through the airport only twenty meters from where we began it!

By the time our plane was loaded, there were ten planes ahead of us in line for the runway, so the flight to Florence left an hour late. Hallie, who’d been a good sport up until then, finally lost it. Luckily, it wasn’t too long a flight.

We gathered up our stuff, piled into two rental cars, and took off to Siena. After some scary time on the roundabouts and skinny streets, we finally made it to the farmhouse. Beautiful! We put our stuff down and headed back out to the city by bus, stopping for a pizza at the Campo di Piazza downtown. In spite of not sleeping for well over 24 hours, we ended our first day at 11 PM!

I’ve got lots more to post, but not much time to do it as I’m a busride between here and the farmhouse. To be continued…