just some notes as I’m writing in a hurry. we’ve forgotten how slow dialup can be!

• no high speed internet yet. there’s wifi at several hotels in the area including one a block down, but not here — and i really don’t feel like walking there with my laptop and the kids.
• there are 2 options available to us — high speed internet at 1 hour a day, or 10 hours a day (or unlimited, which we don’t need or want). what, nothing in between?
• we have yet to figure out how to do the cell phone thing. right now we use our US cell phones, at 99 cents per minute PLUS roaming charges. good thing the company will be footing that bill. last time i placed an emergency call to dh while he was in germany and i was in the US we talked for only a few minutes and paid $30+.
• the hotel is really nicely situated as far as the beach goes. and since it’s not the height of tourist season yet we pretty much have it to ourselves… though still a bit chilly. the Adriatic is just beautiful this morning.
• our hotel room has a kitchenette — housed in cabinetry — and there are 4 burners, out of which one is working. and probably at 3000 BTU judging from how slow things get hot. it took me 4 hours to cook fish the other night, in an itty-bitty 6-inch skillet. non-stick aluminum weight from what i can tell. a langostina that fails to impress me. i guess cheapy cookware is everywhere. i shouldn’t complain, are still smiling.
  me: so i was thinking of having coffee tomorrow morning (at 10 pm at night)
  dh: you better start heating up your water now.
• the fridge is so small. so funny considering we made sure they understood there were going to be SEVEN of us, counting the baby. there are enough beds and cots for seven of us, alright, and 7 towel sets too, but man — how did they expect us to cook our meals here?
• so far meals have been simple. eating out we opt for the pizzas/foccacias/paninis at the mall/grocery. cooking here i made fried merluzzo (cod, i guess?) and some carnaroli. i was planning to make some yummy broccoli with lemon and parmigiano, but if i had done that we’d have had dinner at midnight. so we’ll wait ’til saturday to cook it, when we’ve moved into the condo.
• dh wanted to take me to his favorite arrosticini place last night (la rusticana) and to meet his work colleagues, but we had to change plans since i still have canker sores on my tongue and inside lip — stress-induced from the last couple of weeks of preparation. i should be back to normal soon.
• with the help of some L-Lysine, which i managed to find yesterday — yay! asked at two different herb places, but they didn’t know what i was talking about. finally asked at the farmacia — it’s called lisina here.
• we are having so much fun shopping and take 2 hours or so at the grocery just looking and browsing — dd17 and me anyway. the boys stay at the toy section or electronics section most of the time.
• italian men so far are not impressing dd-17 haha! the young guys are always in tight black jeans and black zippered leather jackets and black boots. a lot of the girls too. not too many flowing, girly, decent skirts around here, but dd spotted a beautiful patchwork dress last night at the store. skirt to ankles — but we’ll have to wait until we’re settled in to do some serious shopping.
• so we’ve figured out the meats: bovino = cow, suino = pig, coniglio = rabbit, vitello = veal, equino = horse. that last one we have yet to try. maybe we’ll wait until we have some visitors, just for kicks (no pun intended).
• they fuss and fawn over the kids! i didn’t notice this behavior 5 years ago when we were in rome, florence and assisi — i suppose those are too touristy. now that we tend to go where the natives/regulars are it’s more apparent. everyone just stops to look and stare esp. at the baby. yesterday at the grocery an elderly couple stopped me and asked to gently touch baby’s cheek, with their apologies — they are so sweet!

more later… dh has to get going to work, and i have to relinquish his laptop. if i can figure out how to connect mine, i’ll be back.