Italy Series

View of Roma from Giancolo

Me standing outside our apartment

Six years ago on this day, at this time, I was in Italy, more specifically, Arezzo which is a city in the Tuscany region of Central Italy. This was during 4 month stay in Italy during which I stayed in Roma while traveling and teaching. We travelled the Northern cities (Venice, Vicenza, Verona, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Mantua and more), Southern cities (Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, Positano, Paestum and more) and Hilltowns (Urbino, Pienza, Siena, Montepulciano, Arezzo and more) of Italy starting from Roma and ending in the Amalfi coast. I intend to do a post for each city or couple of cities depending on the complexity of the place. The series will start tomorrow and go on for as long as it takes me to finish it.
I remember this time being extremely stressful, challenging and liberating, I grew up a lot very quickly without even realizing it. It was a good time but one that you only appreciate later on and from the outside. I yearn for  the type of discovery and optimism I had during this time and so I have decided to dig up some of the images and relive the time through research and writing. My camera was horrible so most of my images are extremely blurry but I will try to curate a nice set of images to go along with thoughts I have.
You ask, "what does this have to do with babies?", I plan to have another opportunity like this soon and am excited it will be with my two little ones in tow. Its a bit tougher now with my husbands job but I remain optimistic. I grew up traveling with my parents and at the time hated moving so much but now I feel strongly about my daughters getting some exposure to other cultures. I know they are young but its not bad to expose them to the idea of traveling even though they may not comprehend or retain the various cultures of world but since I take so many pictures they will have the graphic memories. There is so much to experience outside of the little town we live in. It feels so devoid of this kind of complexity. I think this is what makes me feel like moving all the time, I know it only gets harder as the kids get older and start to identify with a specific place to be as mobile so I would love to take them somewhere for a few months, a year, to live not just to visit.

Husband acting cool outside apartment (notice the motorini-vehicle of choice for all Romans)

Montepulciano

Temple of Madonna di San Biagio, 1518-1529, 1545-1564

Piazza dei Salimbeni in Siena

Abbazia di San Galgano