Summer (2)

Summer continues chez les M&M’s…

Summer

Summer has begun chez les M&M’s…

Leo’s first run

Today we run to support the research against breast cancer.

And for those who may wonder why Mathilde is not in the pictures:  she was running - she run the whole race! - while Matteo and Leonardo were lazily strolling behind the lines…

(Tonight I’ll be leaving to Pakistan. See you in about a week. Bye for now).

Al concerto del 1 maggio

The 1st May Concert in front of San Giovanni Cathedral on the occasion of the Labour Day - an happening where dozens of Italian artists play for an entire day in front of hundreds of thousands of people from all around Italy - may perhaps not be Woodstock, but still remains an event to be seen.

We were there… J

The Handover Note

‘The Handover Note’. It could be the title of a bestseller. Or that of a blockbuster. It is in fact the title of the document that Mathilde sent me yesterday, and that is now hanging on our fridge. The Handover Note: what you need to know to take care of our son for a week.

Mathilde is leaving tomorrow for the States for one week. Nine days/eight nights to be precise. Leaving me with the responsibility (burden?) of taking care of Leo. By myself! And with only one page (actually less: 364 words) of the things I need to know to carry out my duty.

“Is that all what I need to know? - was my first reaction when I read the document - I thought it would have been much more complicated…”

Have I been fooled, or in fact it is not that difficult?

The answer in a week (probably less…)

Turistas en Roma

The weather is getting better and better, spring is just round the corner, and l’Auberge ‘Les M&M’s’ - despite Leo took possession of the guests room, and after Anne’s visit in January - is receiving the first bookings for 2012.

This week-end we received the visit of Patty (an old acquaintance of our Blog) and Andres - who brightened up our week-end with their ‘Spanish’ cheerfulness. And between breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, we managed to visit a bit Rome as well…

Mum and Chiara are expected next week-end and the following one respectively. And then Lili, Macha, Muriel and Julian, Ingrid, maybe Bertrand and his family…

So, if you have not booked yet, hurry up, before it’s too late!

Young again for one night (2)

Let’s be sincere: our evenings have not being particularly exciting lately. I usually come back home around 6.30/7 pm and take over from Mathilde in taking care of Leo, and while I do play with him, Mathilde finishes to work. Then it’s bath-time, and while I bath Leo, Mathilde prepares his meal. Then while either Mathilde or I feed Leo, the other prepares our dinner. Dinner, and while one puts Leo to sleep, the other washes the dishes. If we still have a bit of energy we send a couple of emails or update the Blog, otherwise we go straight to bed, exhausted - I usually can’t finish a whole Economist’s article (Mathilde is a bit better than me and reads a bit longer…)

But yesterday evening we became young again: Mathilde left Leo to Claudia, our babysitter (we would need to write a post to Claudia soon) and called me: “I’ll be at the Laurentina metro station in half-hour”. And in half-hour I was there to pick her up: skirt and boots (wow!), and then direction Palalottomattica, the Rome’ sport arena. Two hot dogs (ref. yesterday’s post), and then my birthday present: two tickets to Jovanotti’s concert.

And after two hours and half of energy and fun, back home, well after midnight, eager to watch Leo sleeping in his bed, but happy to have been young again for one night…

Young again for one night

What do Mathilde and Matteo do in front of a sport arena on Tuesday night with two hot dogs?

And where is Leo? (he is not taking the picture).

Tomorrow the answers…

Discovering the Pontine Marshes

Today les M&M’s took a day off, left Leo to Claudia, our baby-sitter, got into their car, and drove south.

And driving, driving, they reached the sand beaches of the Agro-Pontino (the Pontine Marshes), a former marshland drained and reclaimed under the Mussolini’s regime in the 1930s, and now a suggestive plain separated from the sea by sand dunes. Pretty wild (at least on a February's Monday).

And driving further south, they finally bumped into the Mount Circeo, an isolated mountain promontory, today national park, but in the past said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Here the legend says Odysseus accidentally landed on his way back to Ithaca, and then spent a year after having saved his crew from Circe’ spells.

Charmed, we will probably return for a relaxing week-end in the summer…

When you start getting older

When, at your birthday party, you realize there are more children than adults among your guests. And when your child receives more presents than you!

Chance encounters

Snow in Rome (3) - Federica’ shots

I conclude the reportage of the snowfall in Rome by posting these pictures by Federica.

Fede, has anyone ever told you you have the photographer ‘touch’?

Snow in Rome (2)

I don’t know why, but snow pulls out the ‘childest’ part in each of us: with the snow, everyone becomes child again, and cities transform themselves in enormous playgrounds…

Snow in Rome

Giardino degli Aranci

Snow in Rome is somehow magic.

And it little matters the troubles that it creates.

It little matters for instance that I got stuck in the traffic jam for six hours and half, proceeding at the speed of 800 m (800 m!) per hour. Or that we don’t know whether Mathilde’s tomorrow flight to Paris will be able to leave (and even in case it will, whether we would be able to reach Fiumicino, the airport).

Perhaps because so rare, perhaps because so abundant, snow in Rome is still somehow magic…

Circo Massimo

It’s snowing!

At Steve McCurry’s (2)

Believe it or not, Leo has been very attentive, interested, and excited during the whole exhibition.

I dreamt of a career as football player for him, but perhaps he will end up being a photo-journalist…

At Steve McCurry’s

Today we went to the MACRO, the Rome’s Contemporary Art Museum, to a photo exhibition dedicated to Steve McCurry. Even those who do not know McCurry by name, they must know him by fame: he is the author of the famous portrait of the Afghan girl with the green eyes that appeared on the National Geographic cover 17 years ago.

And have to say that the exhibition is really worth: literally a journey, made of more than 200 pictures taken over 30 years, through the colors, the cultures, the recent history of several countries - from Afghanistan to India, from Pakistan to Myanmar, to Kuwait, Cambodia, Tibet, and many many others - with, as guiding thread, human beings and the human condition.

With over 200 pictures displayed, it was difficult to pick our favourite one. Mathilde liked this one, taken in the Hunan Province in China, which portraits Buddhist monks on training. I had few that, for a reason or another, I liked very much - but the one that stroke me the most is this one, shot in Peru. The image on the web does not reproduce the dramatic power of the real photo, but I can assure you I shuddered in front of it.

If you are in Rome, we do recommend you to go before it ends - it is on until April 29. And if you come to visit us, we will be happy to take you to see it and to see it again... J

The world is small

The world is small. No, we are not talking about Anne, our neighbour at the Dorchester House in DC, who came to visit us for a few days.

We are talking about Anne, who came to visit us for a few days, who - while wandering about Trastevere - accidentally met a friend of her from the US who had not met for more than two years.

The world is small indeed!

Thanksgiving in Rome

For an American, Thanksgiving is a must. And for us who have lived in the States for many years (and that therefore can rightly claim to be a bit American as well) Thanksgiving has become somehow a pleasant tradition.

Interestingly, while in the States we never celebrated Thanksgiving with an American. We were invited a couple of times at Olga’s (Russian), another time we celebrated it with James and Kristina (an Australian-Bulgarian couple), and we once celebrated it with Pavel and Petra (a couple of Czech friends).

We had to wait to be in Rome to finally celebrate Thanksgiving with an American - and in the proper way: turkey and pumpkin soup.

Thanks Elizabeth!

Putting Leo into the National Health System

Today we finally managed to enroll Leo to the National Health System.

I will spare telling you in details all what it took to achieve this achievement. I will just list the offices I had to visit before getting this done: ASL - Anagrafe Comune di Roma - Agenzia delle Entrate - ASL - Ufficio di Collocamento - ASL*.

Why I had to go to the Ufficio di Collocamento (Employment Office) to have Leonardo enrolled to the National Health System, well, that's part of the mysteries of the Italian bureaucracy...

(*) Local Heath Office - Rome General Registry Office - Income Taxes Office - Local Health Office - Employment Office - Local Health Office.