Benvenuti in Italia

 Finally to pictures of our arrival in Italy! We had a great flight over from Baltimore to Ramstein AB for a quick layover and then on to Aviano AB. The kids did great, they were so exhausted from a day hanging around in Baltimore waiting to board the international flight, that they both passed out just after takeoff and slept until landing in Germany! Then Emily fell asleep again on the second flight and didn't even wake up when the plane jostled down onto the runway, we had to wake her. We were all tired of course but we had minimal jetlag and the worst part is that we all spent the first 2 weeks in Italy with some sort of cold/flu virus. We spent the first month carless and living in the temporary lodging on base until we could get all the paperwork squared away on our house and then we moved into it with only the loaner furniture from base. Steve and I had been through that process before but it was different with kids and only having one small bag of toys to entertain them with. Luckily, our house has a great yard and the weather was beautiful so we were able to spend lots of time playing outside.

 

These pictures are from a Welcome tour the base takes newcomers on to acquaint them with the local area. Emily stayed back at base daycare because the trip was not really toddler friendly. We went to this cave lake thing (above) that goes down at least 600 feet and they don't know where it ends! Brian was facsinated by this. We went to see an Italian outdoor market, each big town has these weekly and they sell everything from food to clothes to purses. Then we went to a nearby town, Pordenone to walk around the downtown and tour a church, and took the train from there to Sacile. Only a 10-minute ride but it was only to show us how to buy/validate tickets and so on. Then onto an Italian lunch (yum!) and a winery (more yum!). Brian had a blast at the winery because the owner had a son his age and even though they didn't speak the same language, hot wheels, Lightning McQueen, and trains are a common language among 5-year-olds the world over!