Welcome to Viola

Let’s start updating the Blog again by sharing this great news: on July 8, Chiara & Marco gave birth to Viola. And at the fifth attempt, the Marchisio have a baby-girl in the family!

Welcome Viola, and congratulations to Chiara and Marco!

Meanwhile, since I last updated the Blog, many things happened: a couple of trips to China, our Summer vacations to Lido degli Estansi, the Parc des Ecrins, and La Bourboule, and many other things that I will post little by little during these quiet days (I am by myself in Rome while Mathilde and the kids are still in France for a couple of weeks).

But let’s resume from where we left: December 2013…

Ferrari rossa? Trattore arancione!*

I always thought that kids were attracted by fast, sports cars. Leonardo seems to go against the grain. He has a weakness for big, powerful vehicles. And the bigger and noisier, the better...

(*) A red Ferrari? An orange tractor!

Oggi cucino io...

 ... e questo me lo pappo io!*

(*) Today it's me who's cooking (and it's me who's gobbling this up!)

And these are Mao & Jack

Clear, isn't it?

Leo’s heros

Pablo, il pinguino freddoloso

 Du-Du

 Brontolo

Catch the lamb!

After catch Chat-Chat, catch Mouton !

Tommy - November 2013

Two Tommies are better than one. Or not? ...

1 November - Les M&M’s in Villa d’Este

Villa d’Este, in Tivoli, 15 Km from Rome, is a little jewel. Built in the XVI century, it is famous for its spectacular terraced garden, which, taking advantage of the dramatic slope (and gravity), was decorated with a sequence of fountains, water-play structures, cascades, water tanks, pools, and water jets. 

The result is scenic and romantic.

On a sunny 1 November, Les M&M’s abandoned their children to Claudia and played the sweethearts for a day… 

How to handle Tommy - Instructions

After the Rome-Athens-Abu Dhabi-Lahore-Abu Dhabi-Athens-Rome, this was the message I found on the dining table when I entered home (Oh gosh, I completely forgot I had to take care of Leo and Tommy - for the first time by myself - for a few days!).

A bit more detailed the famous Handover Note - but how can all what you need to know about Tommy, arduously learnt in eight long months, be summarized in just one page? And, moreover, how can I even be expected to be careful to his clothes, please?!

The opening ‘I hope you had a nice trip back’, and the Ovetto Kinder and the Nutella on the table just sweetened a bit the pill. Somehow I felt like in un ragazzo padre... 

What would you do if you had five hour stop-over in Athens? (2)

What would you do if you had five hour stop-over in Athens?

Rome-Athens-Abu Dhabi-Lahore-Abu-Dhabi-Athens-Rome.

What would you do if you had five hour lay-over in Athens?

Futuri compagni di cordata?

Leo & Andrea

Trampolino milanese!

 After trampolin à la francaise, trampolino milanese !

Leo & Vega

Fa uno strano effetto vedere tuo figlio giocare con i giocattoli di quando eri bambino: un po’ di commozione e… un po’ di gelosia…

If you can lift yourself up after each fall

If you can lift yourself up again after each fall,

and start again with the same smile…

“Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!”

Pippo

Do you remember Quimo, the pony of La Bourboule? Well, let me introduce you Pippo, the pony of the Porta Venezia Gardens. And please, note Leo: riding with one hand only!

(Hey, who are those two intruders on the background of my picture waving their hands???)

Three generations of Marchisio (4)

Dalla serie: I Dialoghi dell’Assurdo*:

- È a forma di pioggia.
- Che cosa, Leo, è a forma di pioggia?
- La pioggia. È a forma di pioggia…

(*) From the series: The Dialogues of the Absurd:

- It’s rain-shaped.
- What, Leo, is rain-shaped?
- The rain. It’s rain-shaped…

Pisa

The reportage of our Tuscany tour continues. Pisa...

The Marchisio Family in Siena - Foto per le mamme

The Marchisio Family in Siena

Piazza del Campo

Week-end in Ottobre con amici in Val d’Orcia a mangiare cinghiale e ribollita e bere Chianti, lo ammettiamo, è un po’ cliché. Ma che ci volete fare: l’Italia è bella e (finché possiamo) ce la godiamo…

All’Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore

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

The hairdresser.

Last October Ingrid came to visit us and brought Leo a little yellow pot to be filled with some soil and a few grass seeds. A bit of water, and this was the result after two (two!) days. And the more you cut them, the more they grew.

(By the way, what do you think about this haircut à la Balotelli?)

Tommy - October 2013

Tommy guarda, osserva, scruta, registra. Non ride, non sghignazza, ma sorride, discreto, quasi sottovoce.

Tommy occhi neri, che ti penetrano, ti bruciano, ti lasciano un segno.

Tommy piccolino, minutino. Tommy furbetto.             

Tommy ama la mamma e adora il fratello.

Non usa il ciuccio, non ha mai messo il dito in bocca, ma in mano ci sono sempre Chat-Chat o Mouton.

I pranzi e le cene sono una battaglia. E la sveglia biologica suona sempre alle 6.45 - estate, inverno, lunedì e martedì come sabato o domenica.

Tommy muove la testa a ritmo della musica, come un reggaer, ma senza treccie. E poi ti guarda, e sorride…

Get the cat!

La prima 'media' di Tommy

We documented Tommy’s first baby food a couple of weeks ago.

And today we document Tommy’s first blonde*.

Reactions?

Well, let’s say the expression is rather different from that of the first pappa…

(*) Compare with Leo’s first pint… 

Tigrotto di Mompracem

We always thought Leo was a leoncino (a lion cub). In fact he is a tigrotto (a young tiger)...

Tommy - September 2013

My little family

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran... now China. This is the image I always bring with me - on my desktop, in my thoughts, in my dreams. This my mental shelter, my safe place, my ultimate motivation...

Autocandidatura ad una maglia per Brasile 2014

Il lancio di Pirlo, i polmoni di Gattuso, la disciplina tattica di Cambiasso… e, se devo dirla tutta, non sto male con la maglia azzurra*!

Appello al CT: caro Prandelli, nonostante i molti viaggi, sono riuscito a mantenermi in una discreta forma. Rimango a disposizione nel caso l’Italia abbia bisogno di un centrocampista duttile e di qualità a cui affidare le redini del centrocampo per quest’estate.

Attendo fiducioso le pre-convocazioni...

(*) Al torneo IFAD di calcetto a Febbraio. Resoconto nei prossimi post...

Chinese (table) etiquette

As a famous HSBC commercial depicted, the Europeans believe it's a slur on your host if you don't clean your plate. Whereas Chinese feel you're questioning their generosity if you do it.

Of course nobody tells you that. For us it’s a sign of courtesy (and the result of years of severe education) to finish all what we have in our plate. Unwittingly condemning ourselves to have it re-filled twice, three times, four times, endlessly… until you finally collapse!

Kumbum Monastery

The Kumbum Monastery, founded in 1583 by the third Dalai Lama on his way to Mongolia to teach Buddhism, is the second most important monastery after that of Lhasa in Tibet.

It was built around the ‘Tree of the Great Merit’, a sandalwood tree that - according to the legend - indicates the spot where Tsongkhapa, the founder of the ‘yellow hat’ sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was born.

The highlight of the Monastery is a golden-tiled temple erected precisely around the Tree of the Great Merit.

In a way, somehow, a leap back into Ladakh…