Rome home

It was a strange feeling last night when we returned home, because home is Rome. All the kids were excited when we arrived at our front gate. On the way home from the airport, Olivia was really thirsty (it had felt particularly dry on the flight) and she asked me if she could drink the water from the tap when we got home. Yes, we are back to drinkable (and tasty) tap water!

Olivia and Avery marched off to school today while Charlotte slept in. She was up just in time to see them off. Josh was obliging Charlotte (and her Italian experience) by agreeing to drive her to Grosseto to meet up with her teammates and to swim in the meet there. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive in each direction.

I needed to take advantage of having the car before they left so I rushed off to the grocery store to fill up the fridge. I don't know what Charlotte did all morning after breakfast, all I know is it seemed to take her the full 2 1/2 hours until 11:30am to get ready. Adolescence!

I packed a lunch for my travelers and then enjoyed a couple of hours of quiet time after they departed to catch up on blogging, emails, have lunch and a bath. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up Olivia and Avery at school. Olivia's class was still missing half a dozen students (protracted holidays?) so her teacher decided not to start a new section. Rather, they devoted the day to learning about Egypt. Olivia had taken a few of her souvenirs to school for "show and tell" and apparently everyone was very interested in her trip. She even came home with a book from the library called Mummies & Pyramids. She seems more interested in the subject now than when she was seeing all live in Egypt a few days ago!

I opened a bottle of Vernaccio from San Gimignano and made all kinds of fish for dinner - a little calamari, some merluzzo, and a hunk of tuna steak -- all bought fresh this morning at the local grocery store; and, all better than any fish we'd eaten in Dahab. Italian food is really delicious!