The kids had their first ride in a taxi going from the airport to our apartment in Dublin. We've taken taxis a few times here in Italy as well, but mostly it's the bus and metro. Taxis just aren't a thing in suburban California where we lived. Now we see them around all the time and even ride in one every once in awhile, like when My Girl hurt her ankle and couldn't really make the 10 minute walk to the school bus on crutches. Luckily that only lasted a couple of days. And when I got the call to pick up My Girl from school because she was sick. I thought a taxi would be better than a 90 minute bus/metro ride with a queazy girl.
We had our first climb to ancient walls (to not on) while walking to the Irish consulate. Ancient walls are everywhere and you really shouldn't climb them. We live just outside the Aurelian walls to the South East of the historical center. The walls were built around 271-275 AD. It is pretty cool to have so much history part of our everyday life. The walls of the new metro C station at San Giovanni show the different layers of history as you go down. In other walls are cases displaying some of the artifacts they found while building the station. They are building the new C line and are now getting into the historical center. They are currently working on a station at the Forum next to the Colosseum. The trouble is that you can dig deep enough to avoid archeological treasures for the tunnels, but you eventually have to come up for the stations. It really slows things down when you have to excavate all the time. They have already cancelled a couple stations and just pushed the already delayed opening date from 2020 to 2024.
We had our first scout meeting. It is a small group, but I think it will be good. John was a scout here and his dad was the scout master many years ago. We really enjoyed scouting at home and hope to continue it here. My Girl was in Scouts BSA in California, but there isn't a girl troop here so she will register as a lone scout and join in on the activities. We looked at Girl Scouts, but she just turned up her nose and said, "Crafts and ponies." Not interested. She wants to go out and do stuff. The first outing is kayaking on Naples bay. Sounds good to me.
This is the first time I've lived without a dryer. It is quaint to see laundry hanging from a line, but not so much when that's the way it goes every week rain or shine. Dryers here are rare so I'm not alone. The only problem is if something falls off the line. The bottom is two floors down on the neighbor's terrace. The real problem is that no one lives there. I did eventually get the sock back when someone was there cleaning out the apartment. It will be sold sometime... eventually.
This is the view from my back window where we hang our laundry.
I made my first sketches of the city on a sketch tour. We stopped at a couple of places like the Fontana della Tartarughe and Teatro di Marcello. It was a lovely morning. I met a woman who was in Rome with a basket making tour group. Sometimes you meet the most interesting people.
I made my first visit to the Pantheon. I was out for something else and stopped by because I was close. It's pretty amazing.
People talk about the slower pace of life here compared to the US. It is slower, but not always for the reasons you want. It can be a leisurely slow, like restaurant service. But just as often it is slow because of the incredible friction involved in making anything happen. When we first arrived in August most of the shops were closed for the holidays. By mid September the city was starting to come back to life again.
It took me a day to get codice fiscale for me and the kids, but only a day. Compared to the California DMV I can't complain. It only took a day and a half and three trips to the bus office across town to get the annual bus passes. We are still working on document translations, passports, and other official things. Get the stamps, the copies, the photos, the apostille. I'd never heard of getting a document apostilled before. Now I have. Bureaucracy is an never ending frustration. You just have to let it go. Package delivery is a problem in an apartment building with no door man. If you aren't home you are out of luck unless the package gets left at the coffee bar downstairs. But then, how are you to know you have a package waiting? If you are home you can buzz in the delivery person and ask them to leave the package in the elevator for scala B. You then bring up the elevator and there it is! Magic!
There are some pretty amazing things about being here. My Boy had his first school trip. His group spent three days touring the Val d'Orcia area of Tuscany. That's pretty fantastic. No One wants to hear about the frustrations and the frictions, just the fantastic. Living here is a mixed bag but now I can say I'm glad we're here.
One last first: A pigeon in the living room. I first saw it tottering around by the kids' homework area. It must have come in through the back balcony where we do laundry. It couldn't see the way it came in so it tried to fly out the closed kitchen window. No luck flying through glass. It then got stuck between the microwave and the window glass. Since it couldn't fly in my face at that point I was able to open the window, move the microwave and shoo it out with one of My Boy's plaid shirts. I quickly closed the windows and felt very grateful that there wasn't some sort of Hitchcock ending to the whole thing. I later had to open the windows to hang the laundry out to dry. No more pigeons for today.
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