Nel paese dei Trulli (In Trulliland)

The first leg of our journey towards Salentu brought us in a bucolic land that, if we hadn’t known we were in Puglia, we could have easily mistaken for the land of a Tolkien’s tale.

In this part of Puglia, the territory is divided in ‘contrade’ (shires), the villages have picturesque names such as Alberobello (lovely-tree), Locorotondo (round-place), Gioia del Colle (happiness-of-the-hill), and the houses are dry-stone huts with a conical roof: the ‘trulli’, precisely.

And wandering about these villages made of trulli, you immediately realize there is something bizarre, but it actually takes you a while to understand what it is: the doors of the trulli are no more than 1 meter high - exactly the height of a Hobbit…

Les M&M’s go to Salentu

Les M&M’s (which, as we said, comprise Leo as well) are leaving to Salento, or Salentu in local dialect*, the ‘heel’ of the Italian ‘boot’, the land of trulli, traditional dry-stone huts with a conical roof, of the ‘orecchiette ai broccoli’, one of my favourite dishes, of the ‘pizzica’, the Salento version of the tarantella, of the ‘Grecìa Salentina’, an extensive area in the region where a Greek dialect is spoken, of the ‘barocco leccese’, a form of baroque architecture typical of this piece of land, and of many other things that we hope to discover in the next few days…

We’ll be back on the 9^th, with plenty of stories to tell and pictures to show you.

Viva lu Salentu!

(*) By the way, did you know that there is a Wikipedia in Salentino dialect???

The things I learnt this week, mum…

… and that I’ll show you tomorrow when you are back:

- to be sitting without falling
- to say ma-ma-ma
- to say pa-pa-pa

Parabéns, Tiago

Tiago, Leo’s best friend, is one year old today.

Parabéns, Tiago, parabéns a você!

È arrivata zzzia

A darci man forte per il week-end...

Hey my love, we have a problem: we don't have milk anymore...

Ciao mamma, guarda come mi diverto!

Hi my love, enjoy your trip and don’t worry: I have everything under control...

My first Father Day

Arrivano i nostri!

Mathilde had not yet taken off from Fiumicino Airport, that Nonna Rita had already arrived at Termini Railway Station - to rescue me…

And since you may become 'nonna', but you don't forget you are a 'mamma' as well - between changing a diaper, washing a bottom, and feeding a hungry stomach, she managed (in the spare time) to cook for me for the entire week, so that I can focus on Leo and don’t have to bother about myself in the next days.

Grandmas: what a great invention! But mums: if they didn’t exist they should invent them…

(But now that Nonna Rita has left, who will come to rescue me during the week???)

Bye-bye mum...

... have a safe trip. See you in one week...

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…)

Leo, one of us (2)

Apologizes for having overwhelmed you with Leo’s pictures in the past couple of weeks, but, beside ascertaining that the editorial line of our Blog has now irreversibly changed, have to say, as a partial justification, that (1) he is so funny in this period, that if we could we would record him 24/7, (2) he absorbs so much of our time, that in fact we don’t have much else to tell beside showing how he grows, and (3) he absorbs so much of our energies, that we often do not have the energy to write anything longer than two lines.

We will however soon start travelling again (Mathilde will be in the US next week and then in France the following one, we’ll go to Puglia over Easter, and then I leave to Afghanistan and then Pakistan), and so - hopefully - we’ll have again plenty of stories to tell and material to share…

Leo, one of us

Who said that you actually need a name that starts with ‘M’ to be an M&M’s?

(Ps: Special thanks to Sarah)

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!

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

Il gommista (the tyreman, le réparateur de pneus...)

Happiness is...

Happiness is... sitting for the first time on your new high-chair...

Nel lettone con la mamma!

Leo’s new stroller

Do you remember Leo’s baby carriage?

Et voilà, now it has turned into a stroller!

Mr. Tall

Yesterday Leo went to the pediatrician for his monthly control. Apparently with his 70 cm height he is taller than the average at his age.

Se il buon giorno si vede dal mattino (if you can tell a good day from the morning), Leo will grow as tall as his dad…

Ps: today Leo is seven month old - happy monthyversary, Leo!

Les M&M's al Concerto di Jovanotti

Jovanotti may perhaps not be as talented as Conte or De Gregori, his voice may not be as poweful as that of Battisti or Morandi, and his texts may perhaps not be as profound as those of De Andrè or Guccini - but his songs belong somehow to us.

I always recognized myself in the words of ‘Ragazzo fortunato’, and Mathilde has loved ‘Questo è l’ombelico del mondo’ from the first time she listened to it, in Ethiopia.

But all his songs in a way or another remind us a moment, a trip, a person. And so ‘Chissà se stai dormendo’ is part of the soundtrack of our (Silvia, Fabio, Eugenio and me) trip to Prague in the summer of 1993. We all have the refrains of ‘Io penso positivo’ and of ‘Piove’, or that of ‘Ciao mamma’ in our ears. And you cannot not have a throb when you listen to ‘Per te’.

And even the most recent songs - ‘Ora’, ‘Le tasche piene di sassi’, ‘La bella vita’, ‘The sound of sunshine’ - are part of us by now.

Thanks Mathilde for this nice present, thanks for this beautiful night. I do believe that lo spettacolo più grande dopo il big bang siamo noi…

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…

Leo’s likes and dislikes (2)

Leo likes:

- Chewing labels
- Observing lifting up and letting the shutters down

Ps: please note the thick hair that are growing on Leo's head. Emily, tu ne pourras plus dire que Leo est chauve!

Done

…and tomorrow I’ll go to the orthopedist to be reproached…

W la pa-pa-pa-pappa con gli spi-spi-spi-spinaci

Leo on his new high-chair

Campo Felice

The discovery of Abruzzo continues, and after the Corno Grande in September, today I discovered Campo Felice, a skiing resort just 113 Km from Rome (thanks Federico for the hint).

The ski runs are not as long as those in the Alps, but still quite varied and a few challenging enough.

Perfect snow and sunny day made the rest.

What bliss!

Leo in Paris

Frau Constance

I remember I was once flying from Africa to Europe, and I ended up in a flight with about thirty African kids, between four and eight year sold.

‘Oh my God - I thought - this is going to be a long flight…’

I couldn’t be more wrong. During the eight hour flight I could not hear a pin drop. All the kids have been quiet at their seats for the entire duration of the flight, sleeping, playing with a toy, or reading something. Not a scream, a moan, or a complaint.

Since then I have become a profound admirer of the African educational system. To the extent that I promised myself that whenever I had had a child, I would have sent him or her every year for a few months in a Masai camp, so that he or she could learn behaving.

But once again I was wrong. I recently discovered it is actually not necessary to send our child to Africa to teach him to behave. It is sufficient to send him for a few days to Paris at Constance’s.

Leonardo just came back from Paris a few days ago, and while before leaving he was somehow naughty, often whimpering when we put him to bed or waking up during night, since he came back he seems another baby: he goes straight to bed at 9 pm without complaining or opposing resistance, he does sleep soundly the whole night, he eats everything we give him. In sum, as good as an African kid.

We don’t know what Constance did to him during his stay in Paris, but whatever you did, thank you Frau Constance - German discipline in a French cover...

The new Country Program Manager for Iran

As Pakistan and Afghanistan were probably not challenging enough, as of today I am given the responsibility for Iran as well.

What to say? That I hope that these would represent credits in my favour, and that on the next rotation I will be assigned the Maldives (and perhaps be outposted…)