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18th June 2024

Lights, camera and way too much action 😵‍💫

Spent the morning at home making plans for the day. It was going to be a hot one. 35 degrees! So we found 2 museums we could hit up, one kids museum which looked like Roman would absolutely love it, but it was pretty far away with not much else around it. So we opted for option 2, the light museum. We walked there, which was, exhausting! But Roman was in a much better mood and did a lot of walking and a lot of sillies! But eventually we made it! Paid a small fortune to go into this converted old building that had a permanent, fully interactive light exhibition on. And it was air conditioned. So it seemed like the best idea!

Except Roman had decided to turn full terror gnome. No one thought he was cute in that museum! They kept reassuring us that it was fully interactive but the number of things Roman almost broke…oh boy. It was fun, but small and a little annoying that every piece had a gallery attendant coming over to explain it to us. And most of them were VERY easy to grasp and had signage explaining it also. We chased Roman around and he enjoyed playing with a few of the pieces like that plasma ball and the UV writing wall and the kaleidoscope triangle.

We would have probably made our way through within 20 mins had it been just Ash and I but literally running after Roman who kept running back to where we had started meant we got to spend a good hour or so in there. It was fun! But short! And Roman was totally terror. But fun. Right?

Upstairs there was an installation that reminded me of something Grumpy sailor would have done (Ash’s old job). It was famous artworks hung on the wall that used light projections and a lil elf thing moving from painting to painting and interacting with each. Roman loved it and probably could have sat there for another hour. But tummies were grumbling (mostly mine and Ash’s) so we left. Woof! That heat! So we quickly dove into the nearest place we could find. An Irish pub. Cos why not. In Rome.

But it actually turned out to be great! We grabbed a window seat that had a small seated area for Roman to be a nuisance in and grabbed some bloody awful food and buttery beer. But the staff were lovely and talked to us about our longs flight with the terror gnome and Roman was entertained and we all felt better. And then we grabbed a quick taxi home to attempt another nap. Again. Struggle!

After his nap the heat was at its peak so we hung around the flat. Ash went to the corner to grab us coffee. Our first that day and it was 3pm! When 4 rolled round we though we’d better get out or we wouldn’t so we walked in the heat around a new area od Monti and omg, love! The cutest, most beautiful little streets and interesting shops and people. Of course we stopped for ice cream. It’s funny how it is literally such a thing here! All the locals and tourists just eat ice cream to stay cool! I guess when there is no beach what else are you going to do. Roman was over the moon. Even more so when we were joined by some pigeons which he then proceeded to chase. We headed back up hill towards our old hotel when we first arrived and headed for that over grown restaurant we wanted to go to at the start of our trip and yay! We go in! We sat kind of by the window, and ordered come aperols and orange juice and hummus. Of course hummus! And then some espressos to try and wake us up! Hopefully we can reset a lil and help with that late night flight tomorrow. Then we walked home to grab another wine for our last night and I found some I 🩷 Roma bracelets I wanted to buy for us. They were 1.50 but the guy tried to pull a quick one on me and charge 750!!! Luckily I caught it and Ash came over and we put it through correctly before giving me a dolphin charm as a sorry? We grabbed some wine, headed home, made pasta and got ready for bed. We will pack in the morning! Our last day in Rome and our trip!

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17th June 2024

Roman reset day…

Not the biggest day. Roman is a menance at night. Not sure if it’s developmental or just the trip taking its toll or the fact he hasn’t used nearly as much energy as he has on every other day of the trip. But we’ve got one very sookie boy during the day who has also decided to start meowing. He meows as soon as he wakes up and then juts meows at us throughout the day. No idea where he learnt that from but it is adorable. What isn’t adorable is having to carry him everywhere! He is a little off and insisting I carry him and not Ash. Thinking a playground might encourage him to run around and lose some energy we headed back to the playground we discovered on our first ever day in Rome. We kind of got Roman to move but not much. So we strolled through the park, me carrying him mostly. It was starting to heat up so we didn’t venture too far. Maybe a bit of a reset day would help Roman, so we headed back for a nap and grabbed a heap of fruit along the way which he has not been eating much of lately! He devoured it in front of paw patrol before another long battle for a nap. A short nap.

So that afternoon we decided to continue to try and tire him out AND give him a reset day. Cos that makes sense. We went to a cute little toy shop which had a train table he was obsessed with. We picked a few lil surprise toys for the plane home while he played with the trains. But we could not tear that kid out of there! The only thing that would move him was the promise of ice cream. What a mistake. We were asked every 5 minutes for the next hour or so “ice cream?”. But we got him to a little park at the end of the street that was green and leafy and shady. It had a massive old Roman ruin in the middle of it, a beautiful fountain, and a stinking hot playground. Every piece of equipment was boiling hot from being out in the hot sun. All except the metal slide! Which unlike in Australia was in the shade! And this is where Roman played, over and over and over. Often sitting at the top or bottom just pondering life.

It was another battle to leave the playground. This kid has caught attitude, no idea where his stubbornness comes from because I am definitely not stubborn! 🙃 Using the ice cream card we managed to lure him out and yes, this time we found ice cream! And we got a cone to share and wandered back through the streets to home.

We made pasta at home for dinner and just had a chill night in. When Roman went to bed, again another battle 🫠, we watched the new house of the dragon. So all in all another great day.

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16th June 2024.

Rome. Rinse. Repeat.

Well we are back in Rome! And Roman has lost his Tuscan sleep glow and decided to start up some sleep grief again. So yes, he did put up a bloody good fight going to bed, and yes he did wake at 2 and have a four hour party. But that’s ok, cos we have nothing and no where to be and Roman’s seem to wake up late. Not ours…but the Roman people…

And we did have a tiny sleep in. And a white coffee and breakfast at home before we jumped in a cab and headed towards the Trevi fountain. I have one photo I can replicate from when we were last here 10 years ago so I was going to take my shot! But it’s a lot harder to get closer to the fountain in the warmer weather and a little bit harder to take a photo with a toddler, but we did it! Then we did a quick run by the pantheon because you know, Roman saw a polar bear surfing in a shop window and that beats ancient history any day.

We found a coffee shop near by that had decent reviews and managed to grab a table outside pretty quickly! Roman played with his back pack which basically unsolved him pulling out all the toys and throwing them on the floor for everyone else to pick up including the waiter and other tourists. We ordered some coffee and food and just sat and marveled at all the beautiful old buildings around us, and laughed at all the tourists using their various forms of novelty transportation to site see. Then we just went for a wander, but Roman needed to be carried everywhere by me, and he had definitely put on some weight which is making it a lot harder! So when we stumbled upon a toy shop we thought it might be a good break for my arms. Well Roman loved it! And found paw patrol almost instantly and spent easily 40 mins collecting them all and lining them up. We told him he could pick one for the plane, he told us two and grabbed three. Toddler math.

Eventually he ditched his paw patrol for dinosaurs. We negotiated him down from 7 to 1. But it was a 40cm long t-Rex. So not a great plane/holiday you. Luckily! Spider-Man to the rescue! And he picked a pink spidey toy kit which was ridiculously expensive for what it was, but Roman loved it, and hey, I guess we love him. And he did play with all day so I guess yay? We plan to grab a few surprise toys that we can open on the plane on the way home as we have lost so much of his toys on this trip and I am freaking out about the flight home. He has so much energy and excitement and stubbornness atm!

After the toy shop it was super hot, and we spied a Zara which is supposed to be amazing over here and has great kids clothes, so a Quick Look and Ash picked Roman an outfit. Blue striped shorts and a brown shirt with lemons on it. Very Italian.

Then a cab home, grabbed some bread things from the grocery store around the corner and attempted nap. Welp that was another battle. Fun. And when he woke maybe 30 mins later we just rolled with it. Maybe he’s dropping nap…😵‍💫

That afternoon we just stuck around Monte, the area we are staying. Of course we had to lure Roman out with the promise of ice cream, Ash took us to one just around the corner that was known by the locals. Roman started yelling at the man “one black one! One black one!” Which means chocolate. The man just laughed and gave Roman a high five. They are so kind and gentle with kids over here! Ash and I chose a pistachio icecream hoping it would be like the one we had back in Tuscany and while good, it was not nearly as good as that one. After that we found a cute lil wine bar and sat there and Roman was surprisingly very well behaved! We ordered two glasses of local orange wine, I got an eggplant pasta, Ash cacio e Pepe and we got Roman a hint meatball which he devoured and loved! It was so nice sitting outside in the alley, and we could have easily had another wine but Roman had been a bit off and we don’t know if it was a combination of overtiredness and lack of poop but we knew we had limited time before he cracked. So instead we opted to buy a bottle and head home to attempt bed time again. And hopefully enjoy a much needed and well deserved glass of our orange wine.

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14th June 2024

Last day in Villa. It is what it is.

Well for the first time on this trip Roman slept in his cot all night until 8:20. Unheard of. He woke in a great mood but a crazy one, and the others littles and not slept so well so it was a slow morning. We decided it would be good to do a bin run and head into town for some groceries and lunch supplies and grab a cappuccino while we were there. The bins are all seperate here and we have to make several stops down the long windy road. They stunk! So I grabbed a bunch of lavender to stick in our car to help.

We headed back to Umbria, the little town we had ventured to before. It was a lot busier and more bustling than last time we came in and the restaurant we wanted to go to that said it was open on Mondays at 12:30 was open and it was only just 10am. 🙃 in the town square we tried the other cafe we didn’t go to the other day, and got 2 coffees and a Nutella croissant to share. Four euros!! Bargain.

Short wander before hitting the grocery store to get sammich supplies for lunch for everyone then drove back to make them. Most people had a quick bite before doing their own things, packing, baby naps, town trips etc. Roman had a quick nap before we spent the afternoon by the pool with everyone listening to “under the Tuscan sun” sound track. So nice that everyone was up at the pool at once, the sun was shining, it was warm, a nice way to spend our last afternoon at the villa all the together.

After our pool hang we packed up and showered and dressed ready for our last meal prepped by our chef friends. On the menu, burrata cheese with fresh bread and tomato capsicums chilli, raviolio, asparagus and veal, and nonnas lemon cake. Roman age like a champion! And then it was bed for the littles while the 6 of us shared some more wine. There was a big crash to my left and what looked like a big branch fell from the roof but we quickly all realised it was a snake! Wtf!!!! The kids had been sitting right under that spot for dinner and I had no idea there were snakes there! I think I would have been a lot more precious had I known! It also must have been right outside our bedroom window which was concerning. Needless to say I did not sleep that night, convinced there was a snake somewhere in the rafters and would crawl into Roman’s bed and strangle him.

After the snake we moved inside for more wine, chocolate and some good conversation, asking each other the important questions like what was your favourite subject at school and if we are living in a simulation. You know. Keeping it light! Then the girls headed to bed while Ash and Luke continued until after midnight. 💀 And oh yeah, then Jahna found a scorpion in their sink. I think Tuscany is done with us, and us with it. 😂

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13th June 2024.

First Wives Club v. Red Bull Zero Sugar

Today started out like most others, break days in the kitchen with whoever before Roman explored the grounds and pool again.

Today we had decided to split into 2, the first wives club (Angelique, Jahna and myself) and the Red Bull Zero Sugar (Ash,Luke and Annabel. These names came from our iMessage group chats, ours came from Ashley always calling me his first wife. Anyhoo. We found a beautiful restaurant/hotel called Castello Di Reschio that was 30-40 mins drive away. The first wives club would go out for lunch while the others would head out for dinner. We got a lil dressed up, coincidentally all deciding to wear white 🥸. Driving in, the place was incredible! It was beautifully landscaped grounds and rolling hills, terracotta coloured buildings everywhere, immaturely groomed gardens and trees. There was a horse arena with very medieval looking stands I guess for people to sit and watch. We rolled past stables and that’s when we clocked the hotel had horses and was a unique selling point for it. And yes we did eventually see some horses! And a deer!

The restaurant was stunning! Huge ceilings and a very appealing decor and vibe, palm trees and lamps scattered around the interior and large wooden tables with fire pits over looking the valley. It was freezing and we barely brought jumpers on this trip so we decided to sit inside first and then move our should we want. Omg. The food and drinks were incredible. The starter bread included like macadamia bark bread which when dipped into the olive oil was just like perfection. We each ordered a cocktail and they were all a hit and for food we shared some eggplant appetisers and cacio e Pepe pasta before we got our own mains. I got a blueberry tagliatelle. Purple pasta, delicious. We moved outside for a coffee and dessert and I got a pistachio tart which was strangely the bigger course out of the two and was so yummy but rich, and yet I ate it all. We loved the place so much we booked the others in for dinner. So after a small exploration of the restaurant and surrounding area we headed home to tag team with the others.

Well the house was the same as we had left it but with more empty beer cans littered around the place. The others left and straight away Roman smashed his head onto the fireplace step. Of course. I swear something always happens when Ash goes out. 🙃

But the others had a great night and were as in love with the restaurant as we were. And even got second dinner before their dessert.

Unfortunately Jahna was struggling with Ari. He was completely wired and did not want to sleep and after an hour of trying and some big screams she brought him down to join Angelique and I who were enjoying a wine together. You could tell Jahna was exhausted and done but Ari was being very cute. Obviously not important when you are the parent trying to get the kid down!

Finally the others came home, we all went to bed while Ari stayed up for most of the night.

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