Above: Eli chasing bubbles while we had a picnic in the park outside Villa Lante in Bagnaia.
Below: The family unit at the Etruscan amphitheater in Sutri.



Above: the Etruscan amphitheater in Sutri as viewed from above.
Below: Eli contemplating his realm in Valle Faul here in Viterbo.


Above: Sarah and Sam taking in the view in Pienza.
Below: Blake and Eli in Perugia


Above: the family unit in Assisi.
Below: Eli playing with his cars in Montepulciano


Above: two Savage men in Villa Lante in Bagnaia.
Below: Eli and a bubble.

about that...

In my last post I mentioned that the depths of winter had passed. Never assume, children. As I was mumbling something or other about fate, religion, and the fear of death, a student in my first period Virgil class notified the rest of us that it had started to snow outside. (That's how enthralled she was with the class.) Nothing accumulated and the rest of the day has been cold with the occasional rain shower and some sun. We are really hoping that this cold weather passes before we head down to Sicily on Saturday.

While I'm here I guess I can tell you a bit about our plans for Sicily. We are taking the ferry (more like an overnight cruise on which we have a cabin) from Naples to Palermo on Saturday. We hope to get to Naples in time for lunch and a visit to the archaeological museum there which is supposed to be on of the best in the world. I have been doing some research on pizzerias in Naples, and I think we might try one called La Sorrentina which got voted the best pizza in the world in some competition in 2006. I read about it on Chowhound, and we are pretty curious. Whether or not we make it there, we have heard that it is hard to have anyhting other than the best pizza in the world in Naples.

On Sicily we are spending two nights in Palermo, one night near Marsala, one night near Agrigento, two nights near Piazza Armerina, and three nights in Siracusa. Then we high-tail it back to Palermo for the ferry to Civitavecchia. WE will see lots of Greek and Roman ruins, some baroque towns, the coast, the mountains, and whatever else we can manage to fit in. We are honestly most excited about the food which we hear is amazing. Great seafood, great pastries, and great wines.

When we get back, we look forward to meeting up with some friends from our days at Groton, the Capen's. John will be here running the Rome Marathon, and we are looking forward to seeing the whole family. I don't have to go back to work again until April 2nd, and I am very excited about this long vacation. I'm sure we'll go to Rome a few times in the last days of March when there is a week during which all of the state-run museums are free. Mostly we are looking forward to spending some down time around here taking hikes, going to the lake, and generally relaxing. Still no word from Deerfield, it looks like I should know more by the time school starts up again, i.e. early April. \

I hope you all are well. I'd post new pics, but I am here at work. I don't have any pics on this computer. I'll try to post some soon. In the meantime, take care. Skype us if you get the chance (elicarolinesam). Ciao,
Sam

p.s. Eli can now say "car", "star", "meow", "moo", and make the sound of a plane which I would spell if I knew how. He's a cutie.

On a roll...

I can't believe it has been a month since our last post. Sorry about that. We'll, my family's visit was busy and awesome. We saw a lot of Rome, ate very well, spent loads of q.t. with the family unit. Caroline's brother John arrived shortly after they left, and he leaves tomorrow. Sarah and Blake arrive from San Francisco today. We're on quite a roll as far as visitors coming through. It's great to see everyone, but I'd be lying if I said all this hosting wasn't tiring. On a different note we have just planned our next two trips for just the three of us. In two weeks we are headed to Sicily for 10 days, and we are wicked psyched about that. In June we are going to send 8 or so days down in Puglia (the heel of the Boot) at the beach. Life isn't so rough here. Tomorrow I am going on a school fieldtrip to the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. We'll see what we feel like this weekend. Maybe lunch in Umbria or an archaeological site or two. (suckas)

A few highlights in the last few weeks include:1) a fresh truffle pasta dish in Orvieto that was absolutely out of this world, 2) Eli now says "car", "doggie", "bowbow" (that's what dogs say here in Italy), and "Daddy" consistently (we're working on "Mommy" but he is stubborn about that one), 3) the Villa Farnese in Caprarola which John told us about; it is 10km away and pretty impressive, 4) I took a trip to the States to interview at Deerfield Academy in MA, and I am waiting to hear from them about whether they will offer me the job, 5) Eli and I went to a kids' Carnevale party on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday where Eli dressed as a Roman; it took him a while to warm up, but when he did he had a blast running around and playing with the other kids, and 6) our apartment building has turned into a massive construction zone since they decided to replace some damaged stucco work and found a massive water issue that deteriorated the water and gas lines to the point where they need to be redone. I also went on a nice bike ride last weekend with Rolf and Chris, fellow American teachers here, to Monte Romano and then through Blera and back to Viterbo. It was a 65k ride with a 35mph headwind for the last 35k. It was the best I have felt on a bike in a long time, and I am looking forward to getting out more now that the depths of winter have passed.

There are some other great stories to tell, but I will leave them for Caroline since she's got the first person account. I have to run off to a calcetto (small field soccer) tournament to play in the first game of the playoffs. My team is in first place after the round-robin, and I am getting pumped up to do some more damage. The teams are made up of American students, Italian students from local schools, and three of us older guys who work/teach at the school. There are only four teams in the tournament, but it has been fun to get into some competitive sports after a long break from anything like this.

I hope you all are well. Alla prossima,
Sam

Roman Holiday

So we just got back from a week long getaway in Rome with Sam's family. His parents, his brother, sister-in-law, and their two daughters, and his sister and her husband. All told, it was a party of eleven. Poor Sam was commuting from Rome to Viterbo most of the week, but we still made the most of it. I'll let him fill you on visit in his next post. For now, here are a few pictures/highlights:

The entire Savage clan out to lunch. (From left to right: Steve, Lois, Sam, Will, Sean, Meredith, Baby Sally, and Jess. Eli and Emily are hiding away in the back watching a video.)

Mimi Lo and Eli reading together.

Sally is 10 months old and looks like the perfect cupi doll.

Eli followed Emily around like a puppy all week. She took it in stride and they ended up being great playmates.

Sam lead us all on a fantastic tour of the Forum.

We stole away a few moments alone time here and there. This is Sam and Eli splashing around at a water spout in Campo di Fiori, close to where we stayed.

No trip to Rome is complete without a visit to the Trevi Fountain.

We had hopes of being blessed by the Pope on Sunday, but the kiddies were restless so we had to move on before he made an appearance. The crowd in front of St. Peter's was a spectacle in itself.

Happy New Year!

Hope you had great holiday celebrations filled with friends and family. We were definitely missing everyone this holiday season, but in lieu of loved ones, save each other of course, we ventured off to Germany and Switzerland for some holiday cheer. A family friend (Luca's mom for those of you who know her) was kind enough to lend us her house in Ehingen so we had our Christmas there. We did plenty of day-tripping and dropped in on Sam's friend Luca in Zurich on our way to and fro. The photo essay:

Ok, so this one was actually taken before the trip, but I thought it was so cute I couldn't resist.

Here are Sam and Eli in Lugano, Switzerland. It was our first stop. We only stayed for a night, but it was a great night. The city was beautifully decked out for xmas. We came upon a Christmas pagent in the main piazza of the town. It was really fun because after the kids completed their nativity scene, the pagent goers were led to another piazza by light of a star (see below). Carollers (sp?) took over from there and so on. Luca later told us that it's a German tradition to do pagents this way. I thought it was wonderful.

Just a little taste of Switzerland as we drove through...

We stopped in on Luca in Zurich. Luca was visiting his brother's family for the holidays. Zurich was very wealthy, as expected, but very quaint and charming too. Luca took us on a culinary tour of sorts which was a welcome break from Italian food.


We arrived in Ehingen late that night. The next day was Xmas Eve. Ehingen is a cute little town. On Xmas Eve it had a market going and, despite the cold, a band filling the marktplatz with music all morning. We just walked around and took it all in. Note Eli in his snow suit ala Christmas Story... "Can't put my arms down"... it was COLD.





Xmas morning we opened presents...

Boxing Day (still a holiday in Germany, so not much was open) we headed to Munich. Munich was beautiful. We toured the old royal palace and took in some other sights around town. We had a great meal and, of course, we stopped in at the Haufbrau House for a beer before day's end.






The next few days were local jaunts to Ulm, Tubingen, and some smaller hamlets around southern Germany. Ulm was especially interesting. The town is a wonderfully harmonious mix of old and new. This is the modern stadthaus (a Richard Meier design) next to the medieval munsterkirsch. The town is full of interesting juxtapositions like this one.




Tubingen is a beautiful college town. We had a fantastic meal here at a restaurant that specializes in a sort of ravioli typical of southern Germany - very different from the Italian variety - and delicious!


Finally it snowed enough for Eli to take notice of the white stuff on the ground. He discovered snow in one of the smaller hamlets we visited along the Danube. Here he is in front of one of the monasteries we visited.




We finished up the trip by spending New Years Eve in Zurich with Luca and his family. His brother generously extended us an invite to his NYE bash. It was a great party and a good time was had by all, especially Eli who probably literally had the time of his life with all the other kids at the party. Happy New Year everyone!