Lazy Blogger Update

A rare family photo...complete with Nigel!

I had such high hopes and good intentions about blogging once we were settled here in Italy. Time seems to always escape me. I received an e-mail from a lovely friend last week that reminded me how much I wanted to keep in touch with everyone while we were here. So, on that note this is the official, unofficial Do This! blog re-launch!

We don't own the whole thing!

So, here is a short recap of the last nine months. We live in a great house in a suburb outside of Vicenza. It is a circle of newer houses with a playground in the center. It is the only house we looked at, but we knew right away it was a good choice for us. The winter went by not in a flurry of activity but rather a slow trickle of things getting done on "italian" time. I have to say that Chris' co-workers were so welcoming and we have had many wonderful evenings with them.

The school year seemed to zip by, especially knowing it was Nigel's last year. I think we all just went along with the flow trying to adjust. Nigel graduated in the historic Teatro Olimpico. We sat directly behind Italian and American Generals and I cried like a baby. Nigel is turning 18 in October and plans to do a little traveling then.

We have visited many cities that are close by to us. Venice, Verona and Ikea...oh, wait, Ikea's not a city. Oh well, it's in Padova (Padua) and that IS a great place to visit. We went on two week-long vacations. In spring we went to Florence, Pisa and Lucca. It was drizzly and Ollie was not too excited about the crowds. I had been to those places before but it was still a nice trip. Early this summer we drove to Germany to stay with our great friend Sharon, who was also our neighbor when we lived there. We had the best time, and none of us wanted that vacation to end. Since then we have only managed a few visits to the local beaches here. There are three that are all about 2 hours away and we tried each of them. We plan to go back to our favorite one more time before fall.
So, that's it for now. I hope to post some more in depth details about my favorite places and hopefully lots of new things too. Check out Chris' Taste This! blog for our first venture into an Enoteca! Yeah, I didn't know what that was either. Talk soon!