Day 85

Sat by the poolside listening to The Waterboys (I've just realised how funny that is!); thank you daddy for fixating it in my head the other day, I couldn't not buy it on iTunes once you put it into my head, although I know it doesn't sound as good as when you play it for me, it makes me smile just the same! 
Rome has been getting colder and more autumnal over the last week. There are still leaves on trees, but there are more on the ground than there have been, so I haven't entirely missed out on autumn, even if it isn't nearly as beautiful as it will have been at home. The shops are just beginning to put up decorations - the classic being faux pine branches and cones with lights around the arch doorways, and lights strung along between buildings in the streets. It all feels very Italian but homely all at once! I know I'm going to miss going into the shops and hearing Christmas songs though. Not the classics, but all the chart toppers over the years! It's strange, I'd never considered that the rest of the world wouldn't take Christmas number ones seriously, or that they wouldn't be the same everywhere, but when discussing it with Clare the other evening it dawned on me that so many ones I love are by British artists or have only topped the Christmas charts in the UK..I think I may need to give her an evening of going through them; I can't cope with her only having heard Band Aid 30, and even then just because of One Direction!! I am looking forward to December in Rome though, it's nice wrapping up warm and I've heard that there'll be a big market in Piazza Navona, where I'm sure far too much money will be spent..! 
(I've now listened to The Whole of the Moon four times in a row. I will know all of the lyrics by the time M gets out of the water!) 
I really am falling in love with Rome. You can wander for hours and just grab pizza or coffee and carry on, and nobody knows you here, so on any given day you can behave like a tourist or a local depending on how you feel. The people who recognise you are the ones that see you on a daily basis, and they're always so friendly and happy to see you; the coffee shop I've been going to since the start has now started giving me large cappuccinos for the same price as a normal. I probably don't need the extra caffeine and will more than likely end up being addicted to it by the end of my time here. Add to that my newfound love of Coke Zero (I've got it bad for Coke Zero!) and it's just a crazy mix! I do try not to have it all every day though, so I might avoid it!
(This is the sixth time I've put it on now..."I pictured a rainbow.."!)
The family and I are getting on like a house on fire, we feel comfortable teasing each other and being sarcastic and talking about anything and everything, and I feel as though I understand the way the kids' brains work, so that's made things a little easier too! 
Ciao!