Italy!

Leaving for Italy At Last!

We are here! Our trip was long and very uncomfortable unless you like to be stuck in the bobsledding position unable to move for 12 hours with the head a perfect stranger tossing and turning in your lap. If you love trying to figure out just how you can actually get up and out of your seat to use the restroom and then once there, thinking you have finally found a cheap first class seat and linger as long as possible...you'd love it, this airline is for you! But it was a safe journey, we have reclaimed our personal space and and we are here! Sooooo~ all is forgiven, Lufthansa Airlines!

It felt all too familiar being surrounded by people speaking languages that we could not understand ~not unlike a trip to Cowell Park, Food For Less , or San Francisco. I mention this because I remember thinking that was unusual the first time we went to Europe in 1993 and now if felt completely normal. The world has truly gotten smaller and we are much more international in CA then I realized. It is also apparent that although we could not understand them, most of them could understand us, hmmm~ we Americans need to pick up the pace and learn some languages! It was great though in the Munich airport~I realized that even though my high school French classes were in another dispensation, I could understand a lot of it~so that was cool.

Once leaving Munich we traveled on a smaller commuter jet that we had to climb the stairs outside to broad. You would all be so proud of your once paranoid Bonbon...I actually almost fell asleep on that plane and it was being piloted by a captain (obviously very young and reckless) that flew like these wild Italians drive. It was the Mad Hatters Wild Ride into Naples and I have to say, I almost enjoyed it. It was a definite E Ticket!


We were greeted at the custom's desk by some very relaxed Italians that asked us in Charades, the universal language, if all we had in our luggage was clothing and when we nodded yes....Ciao! We were welcomed into Italy, no problemo! It was so unlike Germany where we got the pat down and you shivered when they said "immediately!" Those stiff green uniforms were just so reminiscent of the movies we have seen.

It was 10:30 p.m. when we arrived and were greeted by Laura and Spencer. They were like 'manna for the soul' and we loved our happy reunion. Spencer is so cute, while Rossie has been saving his 1001 kisses for us, Spencer is shy and gives us what I call the "little head but" hugs. He runs over throws his arms around you and then buts you with the top of his head against your body. The sweet thing is, it is just as sincere and loving as the 1001 kisses that awaited us this morning when we saw Rossie for the first time. Well, actually, the word "saw" is not exactly correct since it was pitch black in our room. What I should have said was~when he came into our room, jumped on the bed and said, "Hey, guess what? ...as though he had just seen us five minutes before. The 'guess what' was that he had lost his top front tooth on Easter and that even in the dark we could hear that little jack-o-lantern hissing always created by a missing front tooth ~ and it felt more like Halloween than Easter. He was quite excited to relay that he had gotten his tooth fairy money in a plastic egg which made it extra special! It made us know we were in very familiar territory with these sweet kids, even though we were over six thousand miles away from home. Home is where your family is.

So today we just tried to adjust to the new time zone and hung out with the family and had a nice Easter Dinner that was delicious~so we didn't skip Easter after all! More details about what it is like here later. Tomorrow is another day and unfortunately it is starting in about 2 hours! Mama Mia! Ciao for now!