Matteo asleep in Trastevere

Matteo and David sightseeing in Rome

Roma

Here we are in front of il colosseo and the arch of Constantine. Matteo has been a great little traveller. He slept for one hour and forty minutes of our 2 hour bus ride to Montreal and for 5 hours of our 7.5 hour trip to Italy. Jet lag had us all fuzzy yesterday. Matteo was having trouble eating solid food yesterday and ate very little but g
Drank his usual amounts of formula ... Probably with the heat and his missed sleep. Today we are all doing well with lots of walking and Matteo is able to sight see mostly from his stroller as well as take his one hour or more naps as we continue our wanderings of this huge city along mostly cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Matteo is a big flirt, gets attention from others sometimes it begins with them but sometimes Matteo generates his friendly smile and continues to coo until his has the other person smiling and talking to him. So all in all he and we are enjoying ourselves. No problem with customs in Italy and we were flagged right through though the airport was very crowded. Will post a few photos as I can.

Less than one day to go....

and today was a stressful day!!....probably not as stressful as my trip to Vietnam but stressful just the same. I managed however to get everything I think I'll need in one suitcase and a backpack. This is the suitcase I originally wanted to bring to Vietnam and instead I ended up with two suitcases and much larger than this one!!...The advantage now of course is that I know Matteo and what to expect etc..and can bring a lot less by way of clothes as I was not sure what would fit Matteo. Of course our trip this time around has a finite date where the Vietnam trip was up in the air as to whether I'd be back when my flight was originally booked!! So for now all I have left to do is deal with the bottles and food for tomorrow!! I'm looking forward to the trip and hopefully it will be less stressful and just as exciting as Vietnam was!!

This is a photo of Matteo relaxing after a mini-tantrum when we were shopping for his new travel sandals.

2 days to go...

Enjoying ourselves at the Italian procession.

6 days to go....

Matteo is just about to go down for his morning nap and then when he wakes we will head out to an open-air mass and a procession/parade that will take place. It is Italian week here and St. Anthony's mass will be out of doors and then the procession with bands will carry the St. Anthony's statue through the street. Afterwards we may stay for lunch and then head home for Matteo's afternoon nap. When he wakes again we will head to my sister's who has planned a farewell barbecue for us. So it is looking like a very nice Sunday.

Yesterday I got all the details of our hotels and travel plans and sent it to a couple of sisters. Checked my lists for items still missing and also headed out for two walks. The first was in the early morning hours right after breakfast. It was very quiet out. The second we played tourist after W's suggestion and were aiming to head to the downtown Market to try to bump into a couple of boys we know but made it as far as the parliament buildings. It was very nice and mostly quiet and I learned a few things about what I need for our tourist travels in Italy. Matteo seemed to like the grass this time so we decided to stay a bit and picnic. Well I brought some food for him but was planning on buying something for myself but instead he just had a bit of his lunch and we took a few photos. Am posting some of them here and one which is already my favourite. It was just by chance that Matteo was wearing his red sweater so I thought that was neat too!.....Afterwards we headed home. Matteo fell asleep in the stroller so he had an early nap and then later in the afternoon around 3:30 we both had a nap for about an hour. Because of our late nap Matteo went to sleep around 8 but he was in such a good mood that we enjoyed each other's company until bath and bedtime. This so far has been a great weekend. I will try to also post some photos of today's procession if the rain holds off.

8 days to go!!...

Not too long ago I was in countdown mode for my trip to pick up Matteo! This time I'm in countdown mode with Matteo for our partial vacation, partial working trip. I remember writing about this upcoming conference when I was waiting for news on a referral ( will try to go back and find it) and wondering if it would happen...actually there were two conferences in Italy, one at the end of April in Udine and this one in Venice at the end of June. There were some changes in the Udine one so opted for this one as I knew it would be a bit of a challenge to go to both, with Matteo, and financially...so the smaller suitcase has been pulled out again and the lists are made, and a few other things to purchase but I think I'm as ready as I can be.

While I do go between stress and calm, (that could also be because there is too much on my plate at the moment) there is definitely a huge difference to preparing for this trip from the last one. Of course one of the reasons is because I am not travelling on my own, as my adult nephew is coming with us. So when I remind myself of coming back from Vietnam on three flights with an infant, this one bus ride and flight will be a piece of cake. Of course there will be a few train trips while there, but they are short ones. I will be travelling much lighter than with Vietnam as I won't be packing as much for Matteo as now I know his size etc. I also won't be bringing my netbook with me so will try to post when I can from my phone. I am hoping to get some great photos of Matteo with some of the sights in Italy as he won't remember any of this trip but one day will have these photos.

For now here are some photos of Matteo in his travel carriage both happy and not so happy shots.....but the important thing is that he is able to sleep in this stroller so hopefully that takes care of some of his needs while out and about!!