Steps to old wall that Sebastian wanted to explore...

It's Friday, and the gang is here.  They arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and the only constants from the previous two weeks are daily cheese, walks, and gelato.

We feel like we have teenagers with the jetlagged crew sleeping until noon, though today the girls set an alarm to wake up at 9am so that they could adjust (yes, they did this on their own...telling in some way, I'm sure).  This means, of course, that when I'm ready to go to sleep, the kids have another two hours of energy to exhaust.  At home, when the kids can't get themselves to calm down and sleep, we assign a chore or two to tire them out and/or make them want to relax quietly in bed.  Last night, at midnight, Connor and Hannah went down the forty-two steps to put out more rifuto organico.   (Any food can go into this category of compost, not organic only and not only fruits and vegetables.  To revisit trash and recycling yet again: I've failed Thursday plastics and Saturday trash once each, and I'm determined to keep up a successful record from here on out...last night after gelato we sorted through my failed Saturday trash attempt of fifteen bags of trash to organize it more accurately into trash, give-away, paper, plastic, and food.  The contents all remnants that I found and purged in cleaning out and settling into our apartment).  While they made the trek down and up the stairs, Sebastian folded laundry in the living room, and Mary went to sleep.  Lying in bed ten minutes later, I could hear Connor pouring himself a bowl of Cheerios.  And as frustrated as I was by 12:30am, completely depleted, I smiled going to sleep, thinking about how quiet it was, almost eerily quiet, going to sleep for those two weeks by myself.  These sounds were annoying, sure, but they were also goofy and funny and happy.  The kids were acting just as they would at home -- staying up, needing some guidance, wanting some food, or, in the case of Mary, going to sleep because she had a plan to wake up at 9am today.

In some ways I'm reminded of Scituate days: the kids read and play Monopoly Deal and eat gelato (/ice cream).  They laugh and play and fight.  I wonder how they have so much time to read but I don't.  We explore and walk and even climb.  Yesterday Sebastian, Hannah, and I took a walk around the walls of the city.  As we neared Porta Romana (closest porta to our apartment), we saw some old stone steps.  Sebastian said, "Can we go this way?"  And I said, "Sure."  The stairs led to a path along the wall about seven feet up from the ground and extended twenty-five feet or so.  Then the path stopped, and our options were to turn around or to climb down with a jump.  Sebastian climbed down first, I handed him Hannah, and I went last.  I rested my foot on a nail, which broke suddenly, and down I went, with cuts and scratches to rival some of the best  on the kids this summer.  I was reminded of a walk along a sea wall in Scituate with Mary and Hannah in July.  That time, the girls were more prudent, and we chose the safer path down from the wall.

Today's excitement was getting internet working again (out all yesterday), picking up our car for the year (which we are borrowing from folks here), and getting to the grocery store.  Tomorrow Lago di Bolsena.  The temps are climbing again, and to the water we'll go.

Despite the noise and mess and dishes, I'm home.  We're all home.  And it's almost time to head out for gelato again.

It doesn't look like a big jump down, but it was daunting.

Our orange Fiat for the year: stick shift, three seats in back, and three seats in front.