I can’t believe it’s already day ten! It is weird how fast time seems to be going, but at the same time we are starting to feel some pangs of homesickness. I think the boys are too. They are constantly talking about how excited they are to go to Coco and Pop’s house after Italy and how they want to see Grandma Linny and Dodo. It’s been a revolving door of change for them over the past ten days and I think they are craving something familiar. I think Allison and I are feeling that a bit too.
The boys woke up in the sixes again and, since today was a travel day, we hung around for most of the morning eating breakfast and packing. We caught our bus and made it to the train station like actually know what we’re doing now. It was around 11:00 AM and our train was slightly delayed. Since it seems everyone is always hungry in our family, we went to grab a bite to eat in the meantime. Funny enough, upstairs in the Rome Termini station is a Five Guys, and it looks like it was plucked out of somewhere in the US. Not a detail was different. Even the entire menu was still only in English. This was a bit of familiarity we needed. We ordered some burgers and dogs and they came just like they would in the States. It was a little taste of home.
We finished just in time to catch our train and enjoy the short 1.5 hour ride up to Florence. Beren was well behaved for most of the ride, but Silas was not enjoying it. I’m not sure if it’s just coincidence or all the change has spurred it on, but Silas’ attitude over the past few days has entered full blown terrible twos. Often he insists on having something, wining until you give it to him only to then freak out when you do. Additionally, he has now decided that Daddy is no longer cool, so he will often refuse to let me hold his hand, sit next to him, or carry him, which has put a constant burden on Allison which, to no surprise, she has born graciously.
Once we arrived in Florence, we made the walk to the building where our apartment is. It is adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria and the Palazzo Vecchio. Our host let us in and took us up what is quite possibly the smallest, most narrow elevator I’ve ever been in. My brief bout of claustrophobia subsided as we went through three more locked doors to enter our apartment. To get a sense of what the security in this place is like, there was a key to get in the front door, then the elevator. Then an eight digit code on a keypad to open the next door. Then a different key for the third door which led to a little foyer housing the final door which took a final key to unlock two deadbolts. I’m pretty sure the gold in Fort Knox will not be as secure as we will be tonight.
The view out the window onto the Piazza is fabulous and equally fabulous was the unexpected view out the window of the shower, extending over the terracotta tiled rooftops to the red roof of the Duomo. The apartment itself is beautiful, albeit maybe not the most kid friendly. It’s spacious with herringbone wood floors and large wooden bookcases. It’s ornately adorned as if decorated by a stylish elderly woman, which will be a fun challenge with the little people. The one quirky thing is the hallway to the room where the boys are staying. It is like the hallway from the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie where they walk down it and the door at the end keeps getting smaller and smaller. I have to duck every time I enter it and it is barely wide enough to fit my shoulders.
We arrived right around nap time and I was excited to put the boys down, so I could spend some time to myself recuperating or exploring the streets while Allison began work. That’s when disaster struck. The boys were too amped up from our arrival to nap, and when I say, “too amped up”, I don’t mean they were just awake. I mean they were sprinting from wall to wall of the apartment, flailing their arms, and laughing maniacally. This is where my mental breakdown began.
I didn’t realize how much I was looking forward to the time by myself. With our schedule here, we are all around each other, or working and on calls with coworkers, from the moment our heads lift off the pillow to the moment they return. When they refused to nap, I tried to keep it together, but I started to lose it. We tried watching a show or two to calm down, but it didn’t work, so the boys and I got ready to go outside and walk around.
We went into the Piazza and chased some pigeons and looked at some statues for a few minutes before meandering through the narrow streets and finding the Arno River. There were some people rowing crew the boys and I watched for a few minutes. We then walked down to Ponte Vecchio, which is a medieval bridge lined with jewelry stores but, to my point earlier about Silas never wanting to hold my hand, it was at this stage in the outing that everyone was becoming a bit too squirrely, so I bribed them with gelato.
We twisted and turned through the streets and I tried to take in the beauty while being bombarded with constant questioning of where the gelato was. Ultimately, we came upon a gelateria/chocolate shop and stood in line. The place shined with the metallic multi-color wrappers of all different types of chocolates and behind the gelato counter it looked like liquid chocolate was flowing down the wall like a fountain. It was dessert heaven.
The gelato was creamy and delicious and we sat on a nearby stoop to eat it. It was our blissful moment. Then Beren had to go to the bathroom and we rushed back to the apartment. By this point it was still only the time the boys would be normally waking up from nap and I was out of things to do.
The evening consisted of me trying unsuccessfully to keep them entertained with anything I could think of, while also trying to not disturb Allison and not break anything in the apartment. I was not very successful and the constant cycle of disobedience followed by consequence followed by continued disobedience followed by another consequence really wore me down physically and mentally. Finally, Allison had a break and we walked to a restaurant for dinner. The dinner was ok food-wise, but it was at this point the boys started to crash and their happy-go-lucky disobedience turned into tired, angry disobedience.
By the time we made it back to the apartment, everyone had worn down, and thus calmed down, and it was when we all calmed down, the remorse set in. It had been a rough day all around. Beren knew he had been disobedient many times and I knew there were times, in my impatience and inconvenience, I had been too harsh with him, forgetting he and Silas are just kids trying to have fun and adjust to all of this like we are. We apologized, forgave each other, and embraced, and he and Silas went off to bed and finally to sleep.
Today was hard. For much of it I didn’t maintain a healthy level of mental and emotional stability and I am remorseful of that. I think a lot of that comes from a lack of inviting God’s presence to be with me, acknowledging constantly the peace of his goodness and providence. I try to control and orchestrate too much myself.
From the bits of Florence we saw today, I am eager to explore it more. It is breathtakingly beautiful and, while I’ve loved Rome, a nice change of pace. I knew not all days on this adventure would be perfect. My hope is tomorrow is a better one where we all get to enjoy the privilege of being in this place together.