Italian parenting at its finest!!!

*please note the DRIPPING sarcasm that goes along with the title of this blog post!!!*

So Italians are quite funny with their kids. Its not uncommon to see kids at the grocery store get a cuff to the head, a spanking in public or any sort of discipline that would be quite frowned upon in North America. If your kid is throwing a fit here, you're expected to discipline them, and when you do everyone gives you kindly smiles and tells you she's "Bella" (yes I'm now talking about my own beautiful little monster!!!)
BUT....no one would fault you for hand smacking, spanking or cuffing your child here, and to be fair, the kids seem to be better behaved here in public than at home!!! I'm starting to find I'm not as opposed to these things as I thought!
Reese gets her hand smacked if she does something truly naughty or dangerous, and soon she'll probably get her bum tapped too if she continues trying to pull her hand from mine to run into the road in the village!!
SO, while I agree with the Italian way of disciplining the kids, I can NOT get on board with their "God Complex" when it comes to kids and driving.
On the way back from the zoo yesterday, this very nice black SUV passes us quite quickly in the fast lane, with a nicely dressed, well groomed lady sitting in the passenger seat, and a nice, clean, respectable looking man sitting in the drivers seat. They were probably going about 130 km an hour and we were on the autostrada, and it was raining. Now on the autostrada speeds range from 80km/hr to about 180 km/hr when the Ferraris fly past you!!!

What was really out of place with this couple was the TODDLER SITTING ON THE MOM'S LAP IN THE FRONT SEAT WITHOUT A BELT!!!! WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?!

I had heard about this little Italian secret before I came here, various blogs from non-italians told about seeing it for the first time. I hadn't seen it at all until yesterday and honestly thought those people must have been making it up! Apparently it stems from the "I'm Italian and therefore I am the best driver in the world and will not crash" complex(similar to the bike complex from my previous post). This then also translates into "Baby is best in Mama's arms, and since Daddy is a great driver she doesn't need to be in a carseat".

It blows my mind

I would expect something like this from the Beverley Hillbillies, going to town in the truck thorough range roads with Junior on the knee, but not from respectable looking parents doing mach 10 on the autostrada in the rain!!!!
I guess its just their way of thinking, although I'm not sure what the rationale behind it would be, I'm fairly certain that statistics have shown that baby IS ALWAYS safer in a car seat. God forbid someone else blows a tire and spins out and you have to break suddenly....it gives me chills.
SO...if you're visiting Italy you might see this example of Italian parenting at its finest, I'm sure you'll just stare open mouthed like I did, utter WTF, and then shake your head slowly, looking back to check that YOUR precious bundle is safely strapped in the car seat!!!!!

The Italian banking system.......

.....SUCKS!!!

It really does, its years behind and completely useless( I can't even tell you how many times I used the words useless this week so far!) The problem has come from us needing to pay our preschool. Since we haven't set up an Italian bank account yet(and are trying to avoid doing so) we needed to find a way to get our money over here. After investigating many methods we've come to the conclusion that there is NO good way to get money over here from Canada!!!!
In order to email or wire transfer money to a branch here we would have to be present to physically sign for it at our home branch, until teleportation is invented this is impossible for us. Western Union can do it but the fees are INSANE. Visa told us that we should just go into a bank and open an account and do a cash advance from the Visa to put money in it. Sounds simple doesn't it, after all, Visa told us to do it. WELL, its not.
FOUR different banks in San Donato(fair sized banks, not holes in the wall) all claimed that they had never done a cash advance from a Visa, that they couldn't do it, a "bigger branch" would have to do it. The branch Richard went into was the branch that Saipam uses to do all their banking, how much bigger does it need to be!!?!?
So basically we had to take out cash in big sum and pay that way. It was really annoying let me tell you and made me paranoid!!!!!

Beauty and the Beast

We had an AWESOME surprise come in the mail this morning!!! Belated birthday present from Auntie Jenna!!!!!! She LOVES it! Its caused some minor meltdowns(its hard being a princess you know) like she didn't want the tray ON the cart, and she wanted to wear the tiara upside down. Then she insisted on eating lunch off one of the teaplates, and drinking her water out of Mrs.Potts and Chip the cup. We had a complete spaz when her "pretty dress" had to be covered up with a bib, and it took me about two minutes to convince her that it was ok to eat without her crown on(she'd left it upstairs!)
She's currently having a nap......in a big poufy yellow dress :)

ROME!!!!!!!

Rome was amazing. I've always said my favourite city was Paris, but I think Rome now tops that list. The thing about Rome is that everything there is old, and picturesque and the architecture is amazing. You could just wander through the streets all day and check out the city. I loved imagining what it would have been like back in the day. We stayed at the Hotel Amalia near the Vatican and it was really nice. It had continental breakfast included and seriously they had the BEST brioches I've tasted so far! We flew down on an Easyjet flight out of Malpensa because it was actually cheaper than all of us taking the train. Even when you factored in parking.
So if you ever get the chance.......GO TO ROME!!!! I highly highly highly recommend it!!!!
Ok...now to put some commentary on my pictures
Roman Architecture

Vittorio Emanuele II Monument
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Augustus Forum Ruins- they were so cool. I would have loved to have climbed down into them and explored for hours!

Ruins of the Temple of Mars in the same Augustus Forum

Artistic picture of the Roman trees, they were exactly how I'd pictured them to be in books, and how they've been portrayed in movies!!!

This picture is just showing that those doors and windows opened out onto the ruins!! How cool is that!?!?!!

More ruins, right in the middle of the city

Vittorio Emanuelle II Monument

Tomb of the Lost Soldier

More artsy shots of the man himself on the horse

The statues there are almost always naked, or scantily clad and usually in some sort of compromising position. I'm surprised that most of them made it past the Vatican's early days where they ruined all sorts of art like this.

The upper balcony of the monument

The angel on top of one of the columns on the monument.

The architecture of the monument and a look at what kind of weather we had :)

The carvings in the marble were amazing, I can't imagine how long this would have taken!

And just to show you how intricate the romans were, here is some of their attention to detail :)

Really cool old fresco outside the ruins of a church near the monument

A statue of Romulus and Remus- the twin brothers who are supposedly the founders of Rome. Their uncle cast them out and they were found and raised by a she-wolf. Or....so the legend says!!!

The next few are of the Roman Ruins




A map showing the Roman empire

I just liked this picture, it seemed very Roman to me!!!

This was the highlight of my trip....THE COLOSSEUM

Hanging out with a Roman Legion. His tattoos say "VSQVE AD FINEM"(VSQVE to the end) and "SI VIS PACEM PARA... BELLUM" (If you wish for peace, prepare for war)

Looking up one of the hallways and into the arena

You would think this would be common sense.....


The underbelly of the arena area, where the animals, props and gladiators would have been kept.

The inside, the stage shows where they would have had the arena once upon a time, and it would have been covered with sand for the shows.

The pictures don't do it justice, it really was AMAZING!!!!!

The masonry on the upper level of the building. How amazing that it has lasted this long!

One of the cats of Rome. Apparently there are over 3000 feral cats that they think have descended from "ancient Rome" they live in and around the ruins and are now protected by the government and citizens of Rome!! There are entire calenders devoted to them!!!!

Down at the bottom of the colosseum, in modern times this would be where you get your beer and nachos!!!!! Apparently there were prostitute houses just outside of these columns!

The Roman Forum


There were a LOT of tourists, everywhere!!!!

check out this mosaic....crazy!!!

Flipping a coin into what we thought was the Trevi Fountain...turned out to be the Triton fountain!! hahaha

The Triton fountain






And now we get to the Trevi Fountain, it was insanely busy there!!!!!!!


The Pantheon- it was unreal on the inside. It had Vittorio Emanuelle's tomb and Raphael's tomb,the artist not the ninja turtle :)







Fresco of the madonna and child in the piazza outside the pantheon

The Piazza Navone. It was really amazing, had artists all over the place. Kind of like montmartre in Paris, but better!!!!We had gelato and espresso just up one of the little streets leading out of the piazza. I also bought jewellery of this really old guy who was making it at his little stall in the streets. I saw it the first day when we wandered through and when we came back past it the second day I bought three rings and a bracelet!! If I see him next time I go I'm having a necklace :)

The Four Rivers Statue in the middle of the Piazza Navone

And again from a different angle

I just really liked this shot. The red door, the textures on the buildings...the steps and the greenery. I want to live behind that red door!!!

An example of the streets that we were walking down.

The locks of Love
Apparently this started when young Roman military men went off to war, they put a lock on this bridge as a way of saying that they would be back. Somehow this evolved into people putting locks with their initials on the bridge and throwing the key into the Tiber River below, this was supposed to express the couple's eternal love for each other. Apparently its now become a tourist thing and thousands of locks have to be removed each year, kind of takes the romance and meaning out of it doesn't it!!! Makes for a cool picture though.

The Vatican

The Pope's Balcony. I kept hoping he would come out and invite me in for tea...but alas, he did not :(

Reese hugging a cement pillar outside the Pope's House :)

Carvings on the wall at the Vatican

This is a TILE MOSAIC!!!! can you IMAGINE how long this would have taken!?!?!

This is the Ara Pacis- The Peace Monument, it was built for Augustus Caeser to celebrate him bringing peace to Rome.

The Ara Pacis

The skyline is FULL of church domes here!

Rome



The gardens just above the Spanish steps

An artsy shot :)

Reese sitting on the sidewalk in that park!!!

Piazza Popolo

Statues in the Piazza Popolo. That is supposed to be Rome in the middle flanked by Tiber and Aniene

The Obelisk in the middle of the piazza, it has egyptian lions as fountains at its base.

Us being the statues, of course!! Richard is being Rome...and I'm trying to be Tiber...or maybe Aniene!?!?!


The Fountain of Neptune

Basilica dei Santi Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso- Seriously the most BEAUTIFUL church I have EVER been into!!!!






Roman Streets

Castello St.Angelo