Merci à Veronique

Everyone must have his or her guardian angel. Simply, we often are not able to recognize him/her. They say that it’s because guardian angels work better undercover. Goodness knows…

But in the case of Mathilde, it has been relatively easy to spot her guardian angel. Every time I leave on mission abandoning the family, she suddenly appears, apparently directly from Paris - but I do start suspecting that Paris is just a cover, and that in reality she comes directly from the sky.

But ‘sky’ or ‘Paris’ it makes little difference in the end: the point is that every time I leave on mission abandoning the family, she suddenly appears to keep Mathilde company and to support her during my absence.

And so it happened this time as well. And as every time she comes, I won’t be able to meet her at my return, as she will be already left. Back to Paris. Or to the sky. Because guardian angels prefer not to appear too much…

I thus can’t do anything else than to thank her through the Blog. Thank-you guardian angel, thank-you Veronique…

Another Japanese delegation in Rome (via Delhi and Wien)

After Kaz in September, les M&M’s (or, better, les M&L’s) received another Japanese delegation chez eux in Rome.

This time the Japaense delegation comprised not less than the whole Ono’s family: Toshi, Saki, and Yuta - good friends of us in Delhi, who left India and moved to Wien more or less at the time when we moved to Rome.

I am very sorry to have missed this rendez vous in Rome, and hope I will have the opportunity to see you sometime soon (perhaps in Wien in April on the occasion of the Wien marathon???).

Ancora sorrisini...

While here in Kabul the atmosphere is not too rosy* (but don’t worry, I am fine), I am thinking to the reward that is waiting for me in Rome…

(*) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-15504922

Greetings from Kabul

It’s a small world. But we already knew it…

Greetings from Kabul!

A typical Afghan dinner

The difficulty of being consistent with your own principles - a case study

Leo and uncle Francesco Maria

A doctor, an engineer, a lawyer… perhaps the president of the republic! It must have occurred to everyone to daydream about the future profession of your child…

But as much we wonder what Leonardo will do when he will be a grown up, as I wonder which football team he will support…

I wish, of course, he would eventually support Inter Milan. The French branch of the family probably wishes he could become a supporter of Paris Saint Germain. The baker in Testaccio already sees Leonardo in the ‘Curva Sud’ of the Olympic Stadium in Rome cheering AS Roma - and he has already started brainwashing Leo: every time I go to his bakery with Leo, he says goodbye to us by saying: “Ao’, Leona’, me raccomando, forza Roma!” (Hey, Leonardo, don’t forget, come on Roma!).

To be consistent with my liberal principles, I should accept that the choice of the team to support is individual - and should accept whatever choice Leonardo will make.

True, but in the meantime a little hint* doesn’t harm…

(*) Thanks to Davide and Andrea for passing Leo the ‘baton’…

Back on the road (2)

(Continues from the previous post).

I had asked (and was granted) not to travel during Leonardo’s first few months - and have enjoyed this period of family and Rome very much.

But I knew that this ‘idyllic life’ would have concluded sooner or later.

Well, that day has arrived, and yesterday, unfortunately, I started travelling again.

Perhaps our Blog will gain in variety (I have to admit that our posts have been a little bit mono-thematic lately) - but I will be missing my little family very much…

Back on the road

Departing. To Afghanistan...

(It continues).

No more white nights

In the past two weeks Leo has begun to sleep all night long: he usually falls asleep around 11-11.30 pm, and he wakes up around 7 am.

Considering the stories we heard from other parents, we can’t certainly complain, but… can someone tell him that during the week-ends he is allowed to sleep a bit longer???

Leo and his friends (2)

Le mamme…

… e i papà!

Leo and his friends

Do you remember when we announced that Leo (at the time still ‘Baby’) was not yet born, and he already had plenty of friends? (click here if you don’t remember…)

Well, today we finally managed to have Leo, Duccio, and Riccardo meeting.

Let’s hope that this will be ‘the beginning of a beautiful friendship’…

(Ps: we take this opportunity to also announce the birth of Federico, today in Milan. Welcome Federico, and best wishes to Maura and Stefano!)

Officer in Charge

In the past two weeks our Director has been out of the office on mission. And as every time he is out of the office, an OIC (Officer in Charge) is appointed.

This time, to my own surprise, I was the ‘designate’. To my own surprise because I am one of the youngest in our division.

I tried to guess why the choice fell on me. And I could find only one explanation…

… multitasking!

Primi sorrisi (4)

Apologizes for being a bit repetitive on this subject, but we have really been besotted with Leo’ smiles in the past weeks…

Dopo gara

John, Thiago, Leo and Matteo

Run for food

With hindsight, I think one of the (rational or irrational) fears of becoming father I had was to see the time I used to have for myself drastically diminishing - till (eventually) disappearing. In particular, I was afraid of not having time anymore to play sport, my hobby and safety valve…

Interestingly, the first day back to office after my paternity leaves I discovered there is actually an IFAD running group, who meets every lunch break and goes running in the neighbourhood.

Half in jest, half in earnest I decided to join the group, and since then I have been running at least twice per week with them.

And on Sunday I had my first competition: the ‘Run for Food’ - a 10 km competitive race to raise awareness and collect funds to fight against world hunger.

And well, to my own surprise, the race went better than expected. A boost to continue training - till the final goal: the Rome Marathon in March 2012… J

Primi sorrisi (3)

La prima pizza di Leo

Brie, camembert, fois gras… after ten days of French food, finally a pizza!

Like father, like son

If not exactly blonde, certainly light brown. Grey-blue eyes. Well, cannot say I ever called into question whether Leo was really my son, but cannot deny that at one point I began having a slight doubt either.

But it has been sufficient to enter in the plane with him and see him falling asleep in the twinkling of an eye as soon as we sat, that I immediately recognized the very same genes.

No need for a DNA test: Leo is certainly my son!

Leo et ses cousinettes

After ‘Rocco e i suoi fratelli’ (Rocco and his brothers), ‘Leo et ses cousinettes’ (Leo and his little cousins): Victoire et Hortense!

Back from Paris

Back from Paris. The week-end that just concluded has been a family week-end in all respects: brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, cousins, and - of course - Pasha and Masha.

Unfortunately we just realized we didn’t take even one single family picture.

To remedy to such deficiency, I post today a family drawing instead - by Victoire, one of Leo’s French cousinettes. And although the drawing does not portrait the whole family, it does however include a good part of it.

The people that appear in the family drawing can be easily guessed, but I will guide you through the drawing nevertheless.

The character above is clearly me, easily recognizable from the sideburns.

Below there are Mathilde and Leo, portrayed during Mathilde’s pregnancy. Please, note the resemblance with his dad.

And in the corner the author, Victoire, and her twin sister, Hortense.

Pour nôtres amis les français, en référant au le dernier post : ce que je voulais dire est exactement ce que j’ai écrit (je vais reprendre ma famille), mais ça a été écrit en ton ironique. J’ai compris plus tard que en français ça sonne un peu rude et je m’excuse. Considérons le un cas de ‘lost in translation’…

Et pour moi un leçon de bon français.

Rome-Paris (2)

Ce soir je vais me reprendre ma famille.

Vivement ce soir…

Arriva un bastimento carico carico di...

Geneva, Bogotà, Addis, Bruxelles, London, Paris, Washington, Delhi, Rome… An ‘itinerant’ life, as ours, has certainly many positive aspects. But some drawbacks as well.

One of the drawbacks is certainly the number of things that you end up accumulating at every place you stay, and that you have to move when you relocate.

I always tried to ‘travel light’, but evidently this has not been sufficient, and I could not avoid accumulating over time kilos and kilos of stuff. Which, at every move, were regularly placed in boxes that were either brought with us or kept safely for ‘when we will be back’.

But this turned out not being an efficient way of managing my items. At one point in time I had boxes in three different continents, and every time I was looking for something - be it a book, a document, or a garment - I didn’t know where I left it. In many cases I had everything in double: two pairs of football boots, two climbing ropes, two sets of ski gear…

Anyway, before my last move to Rome, not knowing exactly where I would have lived, I sent all my stuff to Milan, and stored them in my mum’s garage. At least - I thought - they are all in one place. And there my boxes remained during all these months.

But in the past weeks I received quite explicit signals that time had come to free some space in the garage. And so my trip to Milan ended up being a new move.

Well, at least you have all your stuff with you in Rome, you would say. Yes: two pairs of football boots, two climbing ropes…

Life

Happy birthday, Davidino!

Primi sorrisi (2)

À l’aéroport Orly de Paris

Leo & Tante Constance

Rome-Paris

Leo* and Mathilde left this morning to France, where they will stay for ten days.

Matteo, after enjoying two nights of full sleep, will go to Milan for the week end.

The M&M’s family will rejoin the following week-end in Paris.

(*) I took the plane for the first time when I was ten (actually my first flight was my tenth birthday’s present). Leo is not even two-month old and he has already taken his first plane, and he will probably take many more in the next few months. What will his tenth birthday’s present be, a trip to the moon?

Ostia Antica

Deceived by the discouraging weather forecasts, we decided not to leave Rome for the week-end. And when on Sunday morning we woke up with a bright autumn sun, we first cursed the weather reports, and then we started frenetically consulting our travel guides to see how to remedy the week-end and where we could go on a one-day-trip.

The choice finally fell on Ostia Antica, the former harbour of ancient Rome, described by the guide as ‘as charming as Pompei’.

Well, perhaps the comparison with Pompei was a bit pretentious, but we have to say we were not disappointed. On the contrary, we enjoyed it very much - according to Mathilde it was even better than the Roman Forum.

Ostia Antica is a large archaeological site, particularly suggestive as immersed in the littoral pinewood.

Because it has been covered by mud for centuries, most of the ruins remained perfectly preserved. And because of the large area covered by the site (and because probably less advertised than the Roman Forum or Pompei) there are very few tourists: in many places we felt as we were the only ones visiting.

Highly recommended to anyone who will come to visit us!

(On a marginal note: for the second time in three days we managed to eat outside with Leo. Perhaps parenthood is not as black as painted…)

Primi sorrisi (premiers sourires, first smiles)

In the past couple of days Leonardo started smiling in response to our smiles.

What bliss!

Last week-end

Let’s continue and conclude the account of the past week-end before entering in the new one.

Last week-end marked the return of Les M&M’s to society. After weeks and weeks interned between the walls of our home, we finally adventured ourselves to the ‘outside world’: on Saturday we went to a BBQ in Santa Marinella, on the seaside near Civitavecchia, and on Sunday we joined the same group of friends to the volcanic Lake of Vico, about one hour north from Rome*.

The experiment was successful in many regards: Leo behaved and seemed to enjoy being cuddled by many people (he even recorded an eight-hour-in-a-row sleep!). Mathilde was happy to finally see other faces than that of her husband. And Matteo was happy to finally use the M&M’s mobile beyond the usual home-supermarket-home way.

Considering the success of this week-end, we may expect many other week-ends scouting Rome’ surroundings.

Stay tuned!

(*) Thanks to Betty and Gigi for organizing it and for inviting us J

The strange case of a half-French, half-Italian...

Despite his French passport, it’s a fact that Leonardo is half French and half Italian*.

We often wondered which personality would have resulted from this blend. Yesterday I had a first demonstration…

I had just finished to have Leonardo taking his bath and was wiping him in his towel, when, apparently without a reason, he suddenly banged his head against me - as a notorious (former) French footballeur previously. Still half stunned I was feeling my upper lip to check whether it was bleeding, when Leonardo (as the worst Italian cheater) started screaming, crying, tossing as if possessed by demons.

Before I could even realize what had happened, Mathilde came in the room ticking me off: “What did you do to Leo?!?!”

And there was no way I could prove my innocence: “Hey, why do you give me the blame: it was him who committed foul against me!!!”

(*) Actually he is half French (with some drops of Belgian blood), three-eighths Italian and one-eighth Chinese…

Sari in Cammino - ecco perché l’India non è (ancora) un paese per donne…

In the past months the name of Valeria appeared more than once on this Blog.

A very good friend of us in Delhi, where she was working as a free-lance journalist, she moved to Rome more or less at the same time of us (you may remember our joint farewell party in Delhi), and represented a sort of reference point for us in this new city.

However, even if her name appeared more than once in the Blog, we realized that we have never ‘formally’ introduced her.

What a better occasion to introduce her to our readers then than through the book she wrote while in India (‘Sari in Cammino’), and that she officially presented a few days ago (Leo, Mathilde and I were of course in the front row!).

‘Sari in Cammino’ is a book that, through a series of interviews to different Indian women (a 12 years old child who refused an arranged marriage, a Muslim boxer who dreams to participate to the Olympic Games to emancipate herself, an untouchable who works as a journalist for the first newspaper in India owned, managed, written and distributed by untouchables, a Bollywood star, a lesbian, an activist of an Hinduism fundamentalist group, a successful fashion designer, the CEO of one of the major biotechnology enterprises in Asia, a local politician and many others) provides a portrait of today’s India and of its contradictions.

Having emotionally participated to the drafting of this book, witnessing the enthusiasm with which (but also the challenges through which) Valeria carried out this task, and having listened ‘first-hand’ to the accounts of the interviews, the early drafts, etc. we felt very proud for her.

Brava Valeria!