Thursday, January 31, 2013

Alla mostra di Doisneau

Un individuo di bassa statura si aggira misterioso per le sale. Segni particolari: un ciuccio in bocca...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

My little family, here I come!

Here I am, on my way back home, with a few grey hair and a few wrinkles more, but happy to be only a few hours far from my little family.

These few hours are the hardest, because time goes slowly when you yearn for something, and at the same time the sweetest, because... l’attesa del piacere è essa stessa piacere*… 

My little family, here I come! 

(*) To look forward to pleasure is itself a pleasure; L’attente du plaisir c’est dejà le plaisir (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing)

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Red-handed

Preamble. There is a little corner at home. It’s really nothing special: a simple indentation on the wall in the tiny corridor that connects the entrance to the living room. Bare. Uncomfortable. Useless. But Leo keeps on going and sitting there. And he looks happy. It has become Leo’s corner…

The events. Well then, we were in the middle of the festa dei bambini, when Mathilde and I noticed Leo seemed not to be around anymore. We had a quick look around - our apartment is not huge - but we could not immediately spot him.

Almost at the same time, we noticed that Laura and Connor, a nice Italo-Irish couple friend of us, seemed to look for their daughter Luna, Leo’s classmate at the childcare, as well.

Initially laughing, we joined our efforts - but soon we got a bit frightened as we could not find them and they did not respond to our calls. Where the hell they have got to?!?

Caught in the act. But when we finally turned into the tiny corridor that from the living room leads to the main door, here they were: tenderly (too tenderly!) close to each other in Leo’s corner. And when they saw us, they immediately wriggle themselves free from each other, and they looked at us giggling as if they were caught red-handed.

Conclusion. All is well that ends well, and considering you never know what can happen with children, we were relieved to discover nothing serious had happened.

But blissful youth! They are not two years old yet, and they already disappear at the parties!!!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Postcard

Lahore by night

Saluti & baci. Matteo

Friday, January 18, 2013

La festa dei bambini

 Before

Well, yes, we have done something foolish. We have invited 10 (ten!) babies between one and two years old at our place to celebrate the Befana (the kindly old witch who brings children candies at Epiphany). We have bought coloured balloons, baked cakes and pizzette (actually Mathilde baked cakes. Matteo purchased pizzette at the bakery downstairs), and tried to make our place child-proof (we removed the crystal table from the living-room and applied child-proof outlets into the wall sockets to prevent children the temptation to plug-in their fingers).

The result?

Well, see below…

During

After

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Si riprende...

Anno nuovo, tran-tran vecchio. Si riparte. 

Ci si vede in un paio di settimane*. 

(*) New year, the same old routine. Leaving again. See you in a couple of weeks.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Three generations of Marchisio (3)

Un anno dopo il primo incontro (e cinque mesi dopo il secondo).

I figli continuano a crescere, e i padri continuano ad imbiancare...

Friday, January 11, 2013

Rollo - one year later

Leonardo’s olive tree (Ref. one year ago)
 
Leo e l’asinello (Ref. one year ago)

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Giusvalla - la casetta dei bambini

In a far-faraway land called Giusvalla, perched among the hills, hidden in the woods, there is a little wooden house where only children are allowed: la casetta dei bambini…

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Leo e nonna a Giusvalla

A few years ago, a few months before Davidino was born, my mum (alias ‘nonna’ now) confessed me, with a slight sense of embarrassment and guilt, that no, she was approaching the birth of her first grandson without feeling any sense of ‘grandmotherhood’.
 
A few years later…
 

Monday, January 7, 2013

La grande famille - Noël 2012

Apres Noël 2011 et Eté 2012, La Grande Famille Noël 2012 !

Leo, what would you like to be when you grow up? (4)

Maybe a tyreman, maybe a florist, maybe a gardener… Maybe a truck driver??? 

(Picture: courtesy of Constance)

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013

Frammenti di vacanze - Christmas

Leo has two passions: pebbles and books. Finally Santa Claus opted for the books…

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Frammenti di vacanze - Le Cap Ferret

The second leg of our tour was Le Cap Ferret, the southernmost tip of that thin tongue of land that divides le Bassin d’Arcachon from the Atlantic Ocean.
Known as a summer resort for the high French society, we enjoyed it in its most ‘romantic’ appearance: deserted, windswept by the ocean’s winds and drizzle, lit by the soft light of the winter sun…
More in the next few days…

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Frammenti di vacanze - Milano

As it seems to have become the rule in the past few years, our Christmas vacations have now literally turned into tours de force. Last year we drove more than 3,000 km in 12 days. This year we covered six places in 13 days: Milan, Le Cap Ferret, Milan again, Giusvalla/Parma, Rollo, and back to Rome.

We are not complaining. Despite got (geographically) closer to our families by moving to Rome in fact, we don’t see them often. Christmas has thus become the moment in which we can all be together. And this has now become even more important with Leonardo, as we learnt to value more and more the time he can spend with his grandparents, aunties, and cousins... 

But it’s true that we got back to Rome with the feeling we needed a few more days of vacation to recover from… our own vacation!

The first leg of our tour was Milan. As per tradition, all a bit in a rush: many things to do, many people to meet, many commitments to attend - but Christmas in Milan has, to me, always the taste of Christmas…

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013!

Les M&M’s are back from their vacations, with plenty of memories to share and pictures to show. We’ll post them, little by little, in the next few days.
 
Meanwhile, happy New Year!