We don't have an internet connection and have to travel 45 min to the library now to get a connection so we are a little out of touch. Sorry everyone! Hopefully we will be better connected soon! But here is some news from a week ago.....
Hi Everyone! We're sorry that we have taken soooo long to update the spot. We have been really busy doing a lot of things here, but most of the things we have been doing here would be really boring to report, so we'll only tell you the cool things!
Our search for a house to live in has taken most of our time. The very next day after we landed, Dad had appointments set up for the family to start viewing a list of homes. The kids liked every house better then the last, and didn't seem to mind where we lived, as long as it was something we could move into soon. Jessica had definate ideas on the homes she liked best, and so did mom and dad. We decided to narrow our options down by price, and as soon as we ruled out a few homes this way, then the market started dropping down in price, which left some homes on the list and added one in particular that Mom really loved also. However, after a lot of debate, we have decided to put the home that Pete found and has been previously posted on a contract hold. The house then had to be inspected and now is waiting for a few safety issues and requirements to be met. Hopefully it will be ready for us to move into by the end of December. There are millions of paperwork steps all along the way and each level of beaurocracy takes it's own sweet time. Then there is Italian time...we've discovered that 10 minutes in Italian means maybe if I feel like it I will be there within an hour. We had to do a lot of talking with the Italian landlord's family to get them to come down in price. They have a wonderful restaurant and hotel in Bacoli, which is down by the coast in a very pretty touristy part of Napoli. There are ruins everywhere in that area and it has a lot of great places to see. The home is located between Pozzouli and Bacoli and has been vacant for over a year. This is because "Mama" as everyone calls the owner, loves it (she raised her children there), feels like everyone else should love it just as much, and doesn't want to change a thing about it, but feels like it is worth 3,000 euro/month. For you mathmatically challenged individuals, this is over 4,500 dollars due to the terrible exchange rate. The home is probably worth over 2 million dollars because of the location. We finally got her to agree to our 2,000 euro, only with the promise that she can be "Nona" or grandma to all the children except Nicole, whom she wishes to adopt as her daughter. The Italians LOVE children. They are all amazed that we have 5 children. They all say that they would like to have more children but cannot afford it. They spoil children rotten which is not helping Paul at all. Children can do practically anything here, including break things, and they are excused from all fault. "No problem," they say, "he is a bambino."
We have done some other fun things as well. I'll let the kids put things into their own words...
My favorat thing about Italy is the pizza , it is grate, you even get to watch them make it.
there are tons of romen ruins. We went to some, at first all of the archeolegests thoght it was a temple, but it terned out to be a market place.
it is awesome. We went to a dock it was cool. We saw a ferry.
and we found a house! We still have to get moved in though.
Peter
My favorite place in italy so far is a medeval church we went to. It didn't look very old, but it was very old. We also saw a castle, it was really cool. Some times they let you in, but we couldn't go in, it was closed. We could look on it from the outside, but not on the inside. It looked really old. It was really old. So far it's really cool and I'm really liking it.
Nicole
Being over in italy has been really great for me. I don't have any friends, which is taking a little getting used to, but I'm sure in no time I'll get some. I really enjoyed church, there are some nice girls. They're italian, but we try to communicate despite the language barrier. It's really cool. We're finally getting in a house. It will be so much nicer than the TLA. We went to the market, which was really fun. I found some xmas presents for people there, but mostly I just fell in love with their cool fur coats. I'm not sure how I would feel about wearing the high pointy boots they have though, it looks dangerous and painful. The food over here is really great. I've had sea food and pizza, that's basically all there is. It's going to be really fun to go to school and learn more italian, I'm looking forward to it.
Jessica
Hi Everyone! We're sorry that we have taken soooo long to update the spot. We have been really busy doing a lot of things here, but most of the things we have been doing here would be really boring to report, so we'll only tell you the cool things!
Our search for a house to live in has taken most of our time. The very next day after we landed, Dad had appointments set up for the family to start viewing a list of homes. The kids liked every house better then the last, and didn't seem to mind where we lived, as long as it was something we could move into soon. Jessica had definate ideas on the homes she liked best, and so did mom and dad. We decided to narrow our options down by price, and as soon as we ruled out a few homes this way, then the market started dropping down in price, which left some homes on the list and added one in particular that Mom really loved also. However, after a lot of debate, we have decided to put the home that Pete found and has been previously posted on a contract hold. The house then had to be inspected and now is waiting for a few safety issues and requirements to be met. Hopefully it will be ready for us to move into by the end of December. There are millions of paperwork steps all along the way and each level of beaurocracy takes it's own sweet time. Then there is Italian time...we've discovered that 10 minutes in Italian means maybe if I feel like it I will be there within an hour. We had to do a lot of talking with the Italian landlord's family to get them to come down in price. They have a wonderful restaurant and hotel in Bacoli, which is down by the coast in a very pretty touristy part of Napoli. There are ruins everywhere in that area and it has a lot of great places to see. The home is located between Pozzouli and Bacoli and has been vacant for over a year. This is because "Mama" as everyone calls the owner, loves it (she raised her children there), feels like everyone else should love it just as much, and doesn't want to change a thing about it, but feels like it is worth 3,000 euro/month. For you mathmatically challenged individuals, this is over 4,500 dollars due to the terrible exchange rate. The home is probably worth over 2 million dollars because of the location. We finally got her to agree to our 2,000 euro, only with the promise that she can be "Nona" or grandma to all the children except Nicole, whom she wishes to adopt as her daughter. The Italians LOVE children. They are all amazed that we have 5 children. They all say that they would like to have more children but cannot afford it. They spoil children rotten which is not helping Paul at all. Children can do practically anything here, including break things, and they are excused from all fault. "No problem," they say, "he is a bambino."
We have done some other fun things as well. I'll let the kids put things into their own words...
My favorat thing about Italy is the pizza , it is grate, you even get to watch them make it.
there are tons of romen ruins. We went to some, at first all of the archeolegests thoght it was a temple, but it terned out to be a market place.
it is awesome. We went to a dock it was cool. We saw a ferry.
and we found a house! We still have to get moved in though.
Peter
My favorite place in italy so far is a medeval church we went to. It didn't look very old, but it was very old. We also saw a castle, it was really cool. Some times they let you in, but we couldn't go in, it was closed. We could look on it from the outside, but not on the inside. It looked really old. It was really old. So far it's really cool and I'm really liking it.
Nicole
Being over in italy has been really great for me. I don't have any friends, which is taking a little getting used to, but I'm sure in no time I'll get some. I really enjoyed church, there are some nice girls. They're italian, but we try to communicate despite the language barrier. It's really cool. We're finally getting in a house. It will be so much nicer than the TLA. We went to the market, which was really fun. I found some xmas presents for people there, but mostly I just fell in love with their cool fur coats. I'm not sure how I would feel about wearing the high pointy boots they have though, it looks dangerous and painful. The food over here is really great. I've had sea food and pizza, that's basically all there is. It's going to be really fun to go to school and learn more italian, I'm looking forward to it.
Jessica
One more picture for us: This is the medieval castle that Nicole was talking about. The original castle with moat was built in the 500's with the rest of the buildings including the cathedrial added in the 1500's. It was really cool! A little too cool for us, as we were freezing cold that day, and the buildings were closed for the winter. But we are definately going back to the Caserta veccio ruins in the spring. Caserta is the name of the town and veccio is the italian word for old. I'm misspelling everything though! ;)
