House Setup Continues

Day 3 of our Italian adventure. We are getting more efficient with our morning routine. This morning I had to get moving a little earlier. Katrina walked Brandon to school while I pulled the car out of the ‘box’ (garage). I picked her up at school and we headed into downtown Monza to take care of a Hertz rental car issue. We had to ‘rerent’ our car due to an insurance issue. This we my first daytime driving of the car. I’ve only driven at night so far, when there are less cars on the road. I felt fine, but am finding it difficult to adjust to the streetlights. In the US we become so accustomed to watching for streetlights overhead. There are no overhead streetlights in this area. You really have to change what seem to be strong subconscious habits of looking up.

Soon after we arrived home the telephone company arrived. He is currently setting up our phone and internet service.

We have internet...obvious since you are reading this blog and I have posted on Facebook. I feel connected with the world and our friends again.

Ennio, the apartment owners father, came by again this morning. He had an electrician come by to fix a few of our lights. Apparently the lights in our apartment are low voltage and a few of the transformers were burned out. Everything is working now. The only item left on the list is to get the remote for the living room AC repaired. Ennio has been very kind and willing to fix everything that needs fixed.

Its another beautiful day. We woke up to sunshine and warm weather. Its supposed to reach a high of 23C (76 degrees) today.

Laundry. It appears that laundry and I will be best friends here in Italy for a couple of reasons. The first is that most Italians do not have or use dryers. Most stores only sell washing machines. I suspect the reason for few dryers has to do with electricity. It is quite different here and so many things run on lower voltage. Dryers use a lot of power. The second reason is, our washing machine as with most washing machines, is very small. With three of us we can fit about a days worth of clothing or maybe a little more, in the washer. The washing machine is a modern appliance, but it also works differently. We have been using the "light dirty" setting which is the fastest cycle....at 1 hour 45 min per load. Once again, I suspect that the machine cycles slowly due to power issues, to conserve electricity. We have decided that we will do one load every morning. Its just an easy routine to remember and keeps us from getting mounds of dirty clothes which could take forever to wash. Once the wash cycle is complete, its time to hang it all. We had to buy a drying rack which we put out on the balcony. With this we discovered that air dried clothes become stiff. Time to buy some fabric softener next time I go to the supermarcato.

After searching a couple of stores, we found microwave popcorn. Brandon and I love popcorn and weren't sure what would be available here in Italy.

Wow, what a beautiful day. Brandon and I went next door to Parco di Matteotti so he could play for awhile. Italians seem to love being out and about in the evenings. Families go out and stroll or play at the park before dinner. Its a great atmosphere to be living in.

This evening Brandon and I tried using our Skype account for the first time from Italy. We called and chatted with the Noel's. Technology is so great.

After a great dinner of pasta with Ricotta Fresca sauce, salad and Sicilian tomotoes, we took a walk to get some gelato - right across the street. Yummy!