Leaving Brisbane 29-06-2010

Well, the departure day was finally upon us. The family had been working flat out to get the house tidied, buy outstanding equipment (lucky for June sales!) and to pack our newly purchased suitcases. A couple of hours before midnight and there was still plenty to do, the kids were working hard at their never ending newly delegated tasks as we mopped floors, registered blog sites, downloaded GPS European maps and checked our online finances. At midnight we were finally ready and headed off to the airport to catch our 02.30am flight.

Kailin and Genevieve's first international flight and there was much excitment. This wore off after 12hrs in the air though and after 26hrs of traveling we were all quite relieved to find ourselves negotiating the long corridors at Rome airport anticipating our meeting with Zia Liane (Adriana's sister) and Zio Nino (Adriana's uncle). Liane and Nino had kindly picked up the hire car from Avezzano (the main provincial town near Celano) and driven down to Rome to greet us. Just as well, the idea of trying to figure out how to drive a manual car on the right hand side of the road through the Italian traffic in our jetlagged state wasn't really worth the contemplation I had once given it. No chance. One and a half hours later with Zio Nino at the wheel we finally rounded a hill and saw Celano nestled into the mountains with its proud four tiered 11th century castle all lit up. We had made it.

The Travel Plan: Our main reason for visiting Italy is so the children can meet their Italian relatives, soaking up the language and culture, practicing their Italian and hopefully taking away a lifelong memory of the trip. It is also our hope that this trip will combine the wonderful experience of being able to live in a provincial region of Italy with Adriana's immediate and extended family while also enjoying the excitment of traveling the country and seeing its landmarks. The enjoyment of traveling for me is in getting to know a region, meeting and being with the people and experience their customs and way of life. On this trip our family is privelegd to have the opportunity to experience this.

Adriana's father was born in Celano, a town situated in the middle of Abruzzi, 2hrs drive from Rome and 1hrs drive from Pescara on the opposite coastline. It is up in the mountains. Victor or as we know him grandpapa, emigrated to Australia in the 1950's but his sisters and brother have stayed more or less in Celano since. So there is large extended family there. Adriana's sister Liane is also living in Celano with her two children Morgan and Lorenz. We will be staying with her and taking traveling expeditions through the countryside together as a group of seven (the three adults with the four kids). We have hired a car for the whole time and will be seeing Italy via several road trips regularly returning to Celano throughout the period.

Fred.

Kailin's Word: When I left for Italy at 2:30 in the morning, I was expecting the flight to be amazing. I was wrong. It turned out to be one of the worst days in my life.

We had three flights; the first from Brisbane to Singapore, the second from Singapore to Dubai, and the last from Dubai to Rome. They all weren't great, but the third was the worst. On every flight we survived off the sloppy mush they called food, and we only looked away from our screens to eat, sleep or tell each other what movie we were watching. On the third flight, the air- conditioning barely worked, so we were stuck in a plane with a few hundred people, sweating buckets from the 40 degree heat. Worst of all, none of the flights had sickbags! Imagine, a 26 hour flight and the only place to throw up is in the toilet. Preposterous.

When we finally arrived at the airport, we kissed the ground and hopped into our car. It had been a very, very long night.

Kailin