Braving the heat!

Arggghhhhh................ I can't get the text to line up correctly....

My uncle Zoli, aunt Emoke, and cousin Toni decided they would brave the Rome heat and come to visit us for a week from Budapest. Once again, just like last year, they had a full agenda visiting all the sights they did not have time for last year. Miki and Lili enjoyed all the attention, as did Lexi. I was able to get away for a day and we returned to Villa d'Este ( a great outing on a hot day thanks to all the shade and the fountains) and also saw Villa Adriana ( a bit hot but very interesting- we will have to return since Mikael and Miki missed out).

Happy 4th of July!!

We celebrated the 4th of July today by going to a picnic put on by AICR ( American International Club of Rome). We did not win the raffle, we did not win the most patriotic outfit (although I think Lili did put on a good show), we did not win at the potato sack race ( that was NOT a surprise) but we had a great time. Happy Birthday America!

My 2 cents...

Umbria was not bad. I did not actually get any beer but I did get to roll in some funky stuff. Poor Zsofi- I did not mean for the guest to have to clean me up- in fact I did not think I had to be cleaned up at all.

Assisi and a really full house

So while my sister was here, we decided to take a little minivacation. We stayed at an agriturismo in Umbria, just a little bit outside of Assisi ( I mentioned these before- sort of semi-working farm houses. There is a more official definition but who cares- usually it is a place in the country where you can sleep and eat and enjoy nature a bit). Anyways, we stayed at a place called Val di Boccio and had a great time, except that for some reason I decided that we should all be in a one room ( it was called a 'triple' so it did not seem so crazy at the time). However, when we arrived we found a normal sized room - very nice- with a twin bed crammed in, after which we had to request an additional twin bed and a pack and play for Lili. So basically the entire surface of the room was covered by beds. Miki liked it - he could move from Zsofi's bed to his to ours without ever touching the floor- in fact there was not even a gap. But who cares, we did not go there to sit in the room, there were lots of things outdoors.
There was a playground (yay for Miki), a ping pong table ( yay for Mama- I mean me, I know I am an eastern european nerd), plenty of wine (yay for Mikael and Zsofi) and cow poop (yay for Lexi, nay for the rest of us I would say), and ostriches (noone really liked them, they are not nice). For Lili really anything was fine.
We drove to Assisi one day- above is a family picture in front of Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi- it is very beautiful on the outside but even more interesting on the inside with all the frescoes depicting the defining moments of his life. And considering that he is the patron saint of animals, I think the paintings had widespread appeal even for our less religious or illiterate family members. In terms of other pictures, the family picture above was the very best we could do after a ton of photos by my very patient sister- and it was not HER fault.
Also, we had one of our most awesome meals in a random Italian restaurant that looked like a wedding reception hall from 1985- who would have guessed? I can't remember what it was called but I doubt it would have a website.
All in all, it was a good time for everyone.