Our Adventure begins-Italy 09

Our adventure begins December 31, 2008......

We will arrive in Rome, Italy on New Year's Day 2009.....we will then rent a car and drive out of Rome and head north for 2 hours until we reach Todi, Italy.......

We will be living at Il Poggiolo for a year which is just outside of the medieval town of Todi, Italy.

Please check back for updates and photos as we make our way through the many adventures that Italy and Europe have to offer....

We hope you will join us and add your own adventures and great finds here on the blog....

Ciao!

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!

No, I mean really arrived....we have arrived at our Poggiolo........yes it does exist...we have internet now..we can function....we have wheels...temporarily....we have wine....and we have more wine......and we have so much beauty surrounding us that pictures do not do it justice....I just can't capture it...but I will keep trying.....the flight was a bit brutal...we'll pass out the xanax before everyone boards and you can sleep through it...I think that is the best way!....We made it without a hitch..of course our luggage didn't..not one stick of our 4 big-ass pieces of luggage made the last leg of the flight...God works in mysterious ways...because when we finally did find our little rental wind-up toy of a car(which is all you see here! You'll understand when you see the roads)...there is absolutely no way we could have gotten more than 1 of our suitcases in it...no really I mean it...so it was a blessing...and it did arrive the next day via some delivery guy...hooray! ..We have had a little technical difficulty getting up and running for the past 2 weeks....but I think it is all coming together.....we have a great place.......we are just blowing out the cobwebs......the house has been beautifully restored and I will try to get some new pictures posted to the website of the 2 apartments upstairs.....we were pleasantly surprised with our apartment....it is big and great...the pool will be excellent this summer for the kids.....and for us too of course...the countryside is just incredible.....wireless internet in all apartments and by the pool...I'm in heaven...!

Piddle has learned a new word that he likes to use quite often... "piccolino"...means short nap! He is in heaven also! Everything closes at noon every day for their siesta...and doesn't open back up until the late afternoon...we have been having trouble catching things open because by the time we get up and around everything is already closed...the time change has had us all messed up until probably yesterday....we are 7 hours ahead of you...so we lost an entire work day!

We can't wait to see everyone...we have some great pictures that we will get posted..I'm just playing catch up...had 101 unread messages in 2 weeks...so as soon as we get caught up, we'll post some pics...we did get signed up for skype! So I will get on there tonight and get our address sent to everyone in case you want to contact us....our US cell phones will be turned off some time this week...we can't hardly ever get a line out on them so they are pretty useless! We have made a few calls on skype and it rocks!

It is January and most of the fields are green...it is the craziest thing! We are enjoying everything....our landlady (Leyla) has been phenomenal...she had lasagna cooked for us when we arrived...oh my God! I love Italian Food....she has cooked for us once since and it was fantastic..."Parmiggiano di Melonzane"...she is teaching me how to make some dishes....She has been holding our hand and getting everything taken care of for us...we have ventured out quite a bit and made several purchase by ourselves...every time we leave the house, it is an adventure....hardly anyone speaks English in the countryside where we are...but we have managed to get a long anyway....the grocery store was an adventure....I'm cracking up just thinking about it...went to electronics store today...I was prepared..I had looked up what I needed to say.. "Ho Bisogno Prolunga" means "I need extension cord"....well 30 minutes later and with the help of some other customers we had what we needed....never as simple as you think.....they had to first decide what we were going to use it for...then we had to manage to tell him how long we wanted...not in feet...in meters or whatever... ha/ha...then they were wrapping it up for us to pay for it...when we noticed that they just cut the wire and gave us both ends....were we supposed to put these on ourselves? Okay, now this is going to be another 30 minutes to try to explain to them that we would actually like for them to put the ends on for us... another ha/ha.......finally we had what we needed and then had to pay for it...no fancy cash register here where we could actually see the total on the little monitor...it was another 30 minutes of the little old guy trying to tell us the total..when finally Bob just opened his hand with all of this Euros in it and the old guy very frustratingly took out what he needed!!!!! We laughed all the way out the door! Like I said..always an adventure!

Every every time we leave the house...an adventure...which we love of course....but we are slowly but surely learning Italian..Leyla and her boyfriend Paolo have been very patiently teaching us little words and phrases here and there...and I have been doing my Rosetta Stone every day...I hate Rosetta Stone..but they say it is the best..so I'm plugging along...

Okay, I know I need to shut up...I have so many little stories......which I will save for later....

We miss everyone and can't wait to see you!

Ciao!

Bob and LaDonna