March 2017 - Babies With Backpacks

Of penne and pene; or, Why Italian is Hard.

Alternative title for this post: My cannabis has brown, black and white hair and a cold nose. So Chris and I are about six weeks into Italian lessons! They have some lessons on the base, but since we live kind of far away and have an -- ahem -- history of enabling each other in skipping classes we take together (I' [...]

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Caltagirone

A day trip to Caltagirone

We've been planning to go to Caltagirone for quite a while, and on Saturday we finally made it! (As you might recall, the last time didn't exactly work out). Caltagirone is a town about an hour and 20 m [...]

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Trip planning

Hunting for hostels

Since getting to Italy I've spent a (probably ridiculous/borderline compulsive) amount of time online researching places to stay for upcoming trips with the kids. I've outlined our thought process in determining where to stay before, in

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Mount Etna

Just a lot of Etna pictures

Etna has been absolutely gorgeous this last week! Though she took a quick break while my sister was in town (sorry, Torie), she has been erupting pretty much constantly for the last couple of weeks. Friends who live higher up the mountain hear her booming and feel some rattles, but I haven't noticed it in our town. We [...]

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Catania Mount Etna Siracusa/Ortigia Taormina

Visitors! A recap

So, the past couple of weeks marked the first visit from family members to our new home! My mom came for almost two weeks, and my dad and sister were in for five and six days, respectively. As I mentioned in this post, we [...]

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