Day 273

Over the last month, a lot appears to have happened, even though I feel like nothing has!
I know I said that I'd start with Sunday in my last post, but quite frankly, day-by-day account writing is not what I want to do! Mum and Dad stayed for another whole week due to a fire at the airport, and during that time more exploring was done, meals eaten and fun had. My favourite evening was where the three of us ventured over to Trastevere at around 9:30pm and had a meal with a bottle of rosé at Carlo Menta, and didn't end up leaving there until they closed at midnight; it was perfect, and relaxing, and just the best time.
After that there's been a butterfly release, birthday parties, picnics, days spent at church, nights spent watching films!
Bekah and I went to Pisa a couple of weekends ago. It was lovely just to get out of the city for a day! Pisa is a small place, and unless you want to really go exploring and visiting museums and whatever else, it can be done in half a day. I'm glad we knew this and planned ahead for it, because it was very wet there when we arrived, so we saw The Tower (y'know, the one that leans? *side point, it's a lot smaller than expected, and doesn't really lean that much*), took the pictures, ate a Burger King, bought hoodies and got back on the train. And from there we went to Viareggio, a small beach town not far away. It's a nice place, although I bet it's crazy full of people on a hot sunny day. That Saturday, however, was like most British summertime beach visits - cold and drizzly and followed by a hot drink in a cafe! The day was wonderful though, and when we got back to Rome, Bekah's roommates had just started watching Eurovision, so we got to join in with that!
M turned 4 last week, and her big party is next week I believe, but of course we had a small affair with her class and a couple extras in the apartment.(!) It was really rather crazy, but I think the kids enjoyed, and we sang Happy Birthday in at least 5 different languages, which is always entertaining! After everyone has left, things calmed down and the family and I went out onto the balcony for aperitivo and prosecco, while F played football and M painted my face (...and my neck, and my chest, and my shoulders...!), so that was definitely a good way to end the day.
Monday and Tuesday of this week, the kids were off school for the Festa della Repubblica. On Monday, G, F, M, and I went to Fregene, a beach an hour or so's drive away. We ate fried octopus, spaghetti with seafood, played in the sea and in the sand and had a beautiful, stressless day. On Tuesday, we had another one of those, except it also included B, and we all went to a friend's house for a pool and barbecue day! And to top it off, when we got back in the evening, we had gelato for dinner!! Days like these two remind me how blessed I am to be with this family, and make the stressful, crazy, busy days worthwhile - Happy 9 Months, Rome!
Ciao!
P.S. I know my date count has gone wrong... not entirely sure when I started miscounting the days, but an app I'm now using has corrected me, so hopefully it'll be okay from here on in!