E' Ufficiale!!!

Tira Via!!!  Gnamo!!!  Ancoraaaaaaaa!  3 in Italy is happening again!  We have just bought tickets to return to Italy for another 3 months, and I couldn't be more happy.  It will have been over a year since Ava and I first traveled to Firenze together, and now we're headed back.  And this time we'll have the opportunity to experience the city in the Spring.  Yeah, it will probably be rainy and chilly, but hey...it won't be -20 and snowing non-stop like it will be in Alaska!  Well, I can handle rain with the right outfit, and it's just about time I find a cute pair of Italian-chic-rainboots.  (But seriously, do I ever really need an excuse to buy another pair of shoes?  Uhm...not at all.)

While the climate and weather will be different from our last experience, I'm thinking many things will be somewhat the same.  That's a comfort for anyone with a kid in a new place...some familiarity and routine always help get things settled!  I'm hoping there will be an open place for Ava at the same school she attended last year.  And then while she is at school, I'm hoping to finally take some formal Italian lessons!  For the past year I've been fiddling around with Rosetta Stone, a version that is at least 10 years old.  It's helped me learn a lot of great nouns and verbs, but I still don't feel like I can form my own sentences correctly without taking 10 minutes to translate a phrase in my head!  Maybe if I have a real instructor, I'll finally get on my way to starting the long journey towards my most difficult hurddle of learning a second language. 

And so what's with the pig statue above?  It's the famous porcellino  in Firenze's Mercato Nuovo.  Many travelers go up to this wild boar and rub his nose to ensure they will return to Firenze again.  Hence the nice, shiny snout!  So the question is: was I ever superstitious enough to rub his little nose in the past times I've visited?  How have I had the good fortune of returning to such an amazing place where I've met incredible people and had indescribable experiences?  Hmm...maybe like the porcellino, I'll just sit here and smile and contemplate luck...and...what I'm going to pack!