June 25: Just a Bit of Paperwork

Our hotel room for the first few nights was in a beautiful place…there was even a part of it that bridged over the street. The only problem was it looked out onto the main square in the middle of town, which makes it very scenic and very loud since there are many bars, restaurants and even a bad until late in the night. So needless to say nobody slept great between jetlagged body clocks and all of the noise outside. Never the less we had appointments and had to get rolling, slowly, at 8:30.
I had to take a driving test…Lauren passed on taking the test because we had to cram in the car on the way up and that didn’t jive with crazy Italian driving and her motion sickness. In the meantime I headed off to get the car registered, which is not here yet but cannot be shipped from Germany until it is first registered. This required a trip to the USAA office in town, where they did speak some English but I had to call the states to get most of the items done. With the insurance in hand I went over to the vehicle shipping place, about 3 miles by car, and paid 20 dollars and 5 Euros…they would not take anything but $20 cash and 5 Euro cash, very funny. After that we went over to see when the car might arrive…looks like mid to late July if we are lucky. The problem with all of these steps is I couldn’t remember our address and didn’t know our cell phone number (we only had one at this point), so there was a lot of making things up for now until I can straighten it out next week.
Back to an appointment with the housing office, and at this point the boys began to wear out. It was their naptime and we had about an hour and a half long appointment…on the high side negotiations for the house began; so that should mean we can get moved in earlier. By the end we were all running on fumes, and despite their very tired faces, and only a few pouts, the boys were hanging in there great.
The last stop, after being picked up was to get another phone for me and some groceries to survive on, like milk and cereal. A very dreary drive back to the hotel allowed the boys to get a little nap. We stayed in the room for dinner; Lauren fixed spaghetti, after that the boys and I walked around the square for a few minutes while Lauren got the place somewhat organized.
About dark it began to rain and it continued for most for most of the night; which kept the crowds away and let everyone get some much needed rest… it had been a very long but productive day.

June 24: A City for Bicyclists.

Since we had the great help of having our new friends and guinea pigs to take us around, Paul and Jen, who have been here for about 3 weeks. Even though we were pretty tired we had decided to make some appointments to see a house and have a look around. The house we saw was AWESOME and exactly what we were looking for, expect to hear more about this later. We met a very nice couple who showed us the house and even let the kids throw toys with their dogs and play in their garden (that’s backyard in America). After that we walked around on our way to have some drinks and food to wait for dinner.
Ferrara, or least what we have seen of it, is beautiful and very historic. Copernicus apparently was a regular at a bar across the square from our hotel; it’s still the same bar. Ferrara is not a town at all but more like a busy city, with lots of people everywhere all the time. Everyone gets around by bicycle, and our friends have dubbed their bikes “Italian Sedans” because the locals can get 2 kids, a load of groceries and ride their regular street bikes in short skirts and high heels over crowded cobblestone streets. In fact the city limit signs say “Welcome to Ferrara, a city for bicyclists.”
Dinner was at a small restaurant, but since most places don’t serve until 7:30 or later, there are small shops and bars that serve snacks like cheese and bread or chips. Dinner usually also takes a long time, sometimes like 2 or 3 hours, at restaurants here but the food is very good. Since the boys had napped off and on during the day they didn’t totally fall apart until about 9:00 at which point we headed off to bed…it was a long day.

June 23/24: Getting There, Maybe I Should Have Learned German.

We made it... and actually survived. Despite the long travel, the boys performed outstandingly. There were few hiccups and in fact everything went smoothly, minus some frustrations at the Frankfurt Airport. There was a 6 mile march though the airport, 5 moving sidewalks, 3 elevators, 1 passport check, 1 security check, 2 flights of stairs, a VERY crowded bus, some air stairs and a 45 minute delay due to high winds before we got airborne; all with 2 kids, a stroller, a car seat and 5 carry-on suitcases. Luckily we had plenty of time and the gate was empty when we arrived, so we could spread out and get changed and refreshed before we made the last hour and a half leg to Bologna. Getting our luggage was fairly comical (see the pictures from the previous post) since the luggage carts (4 required…2 used) are very small and there are still only 2 big people. Our friends were there to meet us with plenty of van-room for all our stuff and even some left over room for people. A short 30’ish minute drive and we arrived in Ferrara, checked into the hotel and prepared to be acquainted with our new home.

The Intrepid Travelers

And we’re off. Since we have been homeless for the better part of two months we are moving a veritable mountain of luggage. Getting through the airport should be an adventure in itself. We fly Lufthansa from Dallas to Frankfurt and then on to Bologna Italy, about 16 hours of travel time plus early arrival in Dallas and customs/luggage pick up on the far end. It should be fun!

We will be a bit out of touch until we get more settled in Italia, but for now you can post comments here.

Ciao

The New Adventure

This Blog is a chance for us to share our adventures in Italia...more to follow.