Italy so far.

It is our third day in Italy. Pisa, our first day, was very busy with tourists. Getting from the airport to the station required not only my Italian but also lots of interesting German earwigging skills for the high school kids who were setting off home. Let's just say they had had 'a very good time'.

Saw the leaning tower or the 'bendy tower ' as Rory called it, but didn't go up it as you had to be 8 or older for that torture and so I stayed with the little ones.

We are now in our rented house at the coast which is very cosy and within easy walking distance of basic shops, pizzerias and the private beach. There was a huge thunderstorm last night which caused a lot of 'disturbed sleep' but was very very cool.

Today we met a friend hubby used to work with here in Italy. An older man with 2 divorces under his belt** and a new lady friend, he kept us laughing with stories clean enough for the kids but with a certain hint of other agendas. I told him I wanted to come to an Italian wedding. He told me that here they have a saying that 'only Jesus Christ made the mistake of suffering 3 times when carrying the cross.' Guess that is a no then.

We spent most of the day at the pool as the sea was red flag worthy today. I had texted hubby that the female lifeguard was in a g string bikini. He thought I was saying this as a plot to get him to show up quicker. It was in fact true. She was a very laid back life guard, paying more attention to her tanning, her cigarettes and her shoes than the kids in the pool. Occasionally sauntering off to the outside shower to cool down and prove to any new guests that she was indeed wearing a g string, occasionally even going in for a cold beer and just hoping no one came to any harm. So laid back the Italians! Occasionally her counterpart Bruno came out. Yesterday he was Mr. Speedo but today he went for the longer shorts look. We were chatting for a while. He asked me if a lot of English people have 4 kids. He also asked me if hubby was still in bed as I was there alone with the kids. Afterwards he was chatting to a single mom there in quite some detail. There were kids doing handstands etc in the pool that in USA would have been a swift blow of the lifeguard's whistle but Bruno was chatting and maybe in with a chance so his pulling was maybe the more important issue we decided.

Mac the social child is trying hard to speak to the Italian kids. Really quite sweet to see. He really wants to join in, is waving his hands madly and pointing a lot. I have translated a fair bit today. Rory on the other hand keeps asking me Italian phrases to reprimand the other kids e.g. 'How do you say in 'talian 'put your hand over your mouth when you cough?' And I just tell him it is 'ciao ' so we don't offend the locals.

Bee and Paddy were trying to talk to some older kids about italy vs America for life in general and school etc. That was interesting to translate at least, a bit like marking GCSE oral Italian exams again. We are meeting these girls at the pool again on Tuesday and I have a feeling I may be discussing 'high school musical' and the like.

We have been using bikes to get around a bit and do the shopping. Bee really loves it and seems to be having more freedom with this than she would back home. We were saying that in Denver at least going for a bike ride is for fun, a hobby, not going to get fresh bread and cheese for tea.

And where as there are places we see here with peeling paint and mismatched tiles etc, you just think it looks cool and Italian where as back home you would just think it was poor workmanship and an eyesore.

Tonight in the market the price on the cash register came up in Euros and what I thought was Lire. I asked the guy why that was as Euros had been here a good 6 (?) years. He said they have a lot of elderly customers who still like to see it in the old money!

But I love mainland Europe and these few days here even have just reminded me how charasmatic it all is.

Well maybe apart from the g string lifeguard....

** after discussing our friend today, Paddy asked it he was divorced and I explained he was, when Mac piped up and told me he knew all about divorce, so I asked him to explain it to me.
'It's when a man and a woman don't like each other any more or when the man wakes up and thinks the woman is ugly that day and so they stop being married and sharing a house and they go and find different men and women to get married with again.'

So there you have it. In case you weren't too sure.