Arrivederci Italia!

We arrived home this morning after a long, 24-hour day of airplane travel. We left Milano for Roma at 6:30 AM on Tuesday, which meant an early start of 4AM from the hotel. After a short layover in Roma, the long-haul flight took us from Roma to Los Angeles, where Lidia happily returned home to her kids and grandkids. Rachel, Greg, and I continued on to San Francisco, where we spent the night because we were just too darn tired and jet-lagged to drive home. We arrived home today to a balloon bouquet and flowers from our incredible neighbors, the McManus family; a huge stack of mail to sort; and the wonderful sight of figs on the "bonanza" tree. It's back to the office for me tomorrow (sigh), while Greg is off until next Monday, and Rachel has another month before resuming school. Our last week in Berzo was uneventful, except for the cousin's pizza dinner which was really fun. It was the first time that our cousins on both sides had such an event, which we hope will now become more of a family tradition. I counted 22 cousins, with at least another 6 stopping by to say hello. Great fun (and a lot of laughs and storytelling) was had by all. Our rascal cousins pre-planned to pay the bill, so despite some vehement arguing on our part, we finally conceded to their gracious offer. As the saying went, we were guests, and guests don't pay for dinner while in Berzo. Our plan is to pay them back next year, but don't tell them! I can't think of anywhere I would rather have been this summer then in Berzo with our family and new home. Lidia and I are already planning a return trip next year to see the all the changes to the house that will be happening this winter - that's exciting! Our hope is that rustic downstairs will be transformed into a functional living space, with a full kitchen, soggiorno (a day room, or family room), a bedroom for Lidia, and a bathroom. Before we left, we spent time with our cousin Giorgio who will be designing the layout of the new areas and our cousin Claudio, who will be doing much of the work. We're super excited, so hold good wishes for the dollar to remain strong against the euro - we're gonna need a lot of good wishes to pull it all off. I didn't get much of opportunity to post pictures of our last few weeks in Europe, so the next few blogs will have some of those. Thanks to all who followed our blog and came along with us on our summer vacation. We hope someday that we'll be able to share our Berzo home with you so that you too can write a blog about a wonderful summer spent in Bella Italia.