April marked our last month in Italy. What a difficult thing it is to say good bye to a country that you have grown to love so much and know that you will probably never live in again. (I hope and dream that we do, but I’m also a realist and know it may never happen). We spent our last few months in Italy trying to squeeze in as much adventure as we could (actually, we spent our entire time doing it!). And trying to buy all the little things I had wanted but had kept putting off. I’m not usually a shopper, but when you know it’s your last chance…let’s just say I shopped this month.
This is Jonah’s last day at his Italian preschool in Creazzo.
His teacher, Maestra Lisa left the school a few months ago. She was replaced by maestra Ana, who is in this photo, sorry it’s not a great photo. We loved Maestra Lisa and I wish we had a photo with her.
Here is his class. I don’t know too many names, the one standing and scowling is Emanuele, he invited Jonah to his birthday party. The boy just next to him is Matteo. The brown little girl on the right in the back is Malak, Jonah’s “girl friend”.
Jonah in front of his locker with Matteo. When Jonah was new, Matteo’s Mom told him to play with Jonah. Matteo responded “but he doesn’t speak Italian!” and his Mom responded “play anyways!”
My boys, they have no idea how their worlds are about to change!
One last quick trip to the lovely city of Verona.
And the movers arrived. Now it’s getting real. They were pretty careful with our stuff. I did catch one guy about to drag a box of polish pottery down the stairs and I yelled at him. The movers were funny, they like me because I spoke Italian, but they also didn’t like me because I watched them like a hawk. We have things we have gotten that we just can’t replace.
Right after the movers left I found Jonah like this. I think he is feeling some emotions about moving…
We moved into the hotel for just a few nights before flying out. It was nice to be on base to wrap up the last few things for Nick’s out processing.
We went out to eat with some friends from our apartment building at a restaurant on top of Monte Berico. Such a beautiful view of Vicenza.
Not only are we saying goodbye to Italy but we are saying good bye to the military. No more Sergeant Nick. No more man in uniform. This is all we have known while we’ve been married, so it’s a little crazy!
Kissing my soldier one last time. Love him!
I love this one. The boys with their Daddy in uniform for the last time.
We spent our last day in Vicenza trying to get a good family photo with the local scenery. Us in front of La Rotunda and the beautiful yellow flowers. And below is us under the archway of the Basilica in the heart of Vicenza.
One of the things that I have learned from living in Italy is that my bucket list never gets shorter. I am always adding things faster than I can cross them off. I think that is good though. It just goes to show how much beauty there is on this earth, so much to see and do and people to connect with and learn about. I am sad to be going back to my own country where the opportunities for adventure will not feel as abundant as they do here, but I try to remind myself that Italians think the same thing. I remember when I lived in New Zealand, my host family remarked that we had done more in their country in 4 months than they had done in a lifetime. That got me thinking, do we appreciate what is in our own back yard? As sad as I am to be going back to the states I want to try to appreciate my own back yard as well.
