We’re beyond two weeks in Rome and starting to feel somewhat settled in, though are still trying to nestle in to at least some semblance of routine. One difficulty has been constantly having to remind myself that we’re out here for over seven months, and so I can’t live — and most importantly, eat — like this is a typical vacation. Easier said than done when there’s so much amazing cuisine around every corner, though.

Emilia starts preschool in Italy tomorrow. We’ve found a trilingual (English, Italian, and French) school for her that’s in walking distance of our second apartment. It’ll be good for her; I think she’s going a bit stir crazy being around only us. She’ll learn some Italian without drowning in it, and also pick up some French, which will come in handy when we see her French cousins (hopefully sometime while we’re out here in Europe). More importantly though, she’ll be around other kids. She’s constantly trying to engage with other kids at the park, children’s museum, etc., and sometimes successful in courting on-the-fly friends, but it’s harder for her to break through with some kids here because of the language barrier. Most Italians speak a fair bit of English, but it’s not nearly as common for kids her age, who are probably still focused on learning their native tongue. She has no regular points of contact her age, and I think it’s finally kind of hit home for her in the past few days that she’s not going to see her nanny, Courtney, for a long while. She’s been wanting to FaceTime with Courtney several times a day lately and been running off to another room to have private chats with her (I feel like I’m getting a preview of her teenage years already). I love what a special relationship she and Courtney have (they’ve been together since Emi was just a few months old and have never been apart this long), and it’s sad to see her missing that. Bottom line is that she needs more people in her life here in Italy, and that doesn’t include any of the various restaurant owners/staff in our neighborhood that she is already BFFs with.

I’m somewhat sad to be cutting a sizable chunk of our weekly hours together, as spending more time with her was a significant factor in doing this all in the first place, but I think it’s in everyone’s best interest. I’ll still be getting a good deal more time in with her than I was previously, and I’ll be able to be much more present in the time we do spend together; there’s only so many times you can play “Animal Guessing Game” at lunch or dinner before time and space begin to fold together. This will go a long way in helping us to establish a bit of much-needed structure into our days, too. The last, not insignificant upshot of this is that I’ll now have some more time to explore the city with Erin and on my own. Time to figure out what to do with myself in the daytime.