We're back!

I suppose it's worth back tracking a bit to tell the story of when we arrived at the airport in San Diego. Our friend David kindly dropped us off at the airport and we arrived 3 1/2 hours early at the Delta desk with 4 boxes 2 suitcases, 2 carry-ons and 2 personal items. Everything was fine until we put the first box on the scale and were informed that the European weight limit for any baggage is 70 lbs. Three out of four of our boxes were over. 

You can't imagine how many thoughts went through my head in the few minutes we stopped and stared at our perfectly packed but overweight boxes. At first I was thinking we could maybe have David come back and take one of the boxes back, but that wouldn't really solve the problem. The Delta staff found us a small box and suggested we open the three culprits and pack enough in the extra box to get underweight. They provided scissors and tape and even found us plastic wrap which was amazing. I was so grateful to the girl who found us the plastic wrap I gave her a big hug. 

The Delta staff told us to stay where we were so we could access the scales to make sure we had the weight. So down to work we went opening each of the three boxes and strategically pulled out the heaviest things. We pulled out the suiseki (which for those of you who don't know, are ornamental rocks for bonsai people) and books. We managed to get them all under the limit, packed, sealed and checked in about 30 minutes. As someone once told us, "We make a great team!" Go Sissons!

The best thing was, though we didn't realize it at the time, was that our four big boxes arrived in Rome the following day. And because of that Delta delivered them to Massa free of charge. This meant we didn't need to wrestle them through the airport and into Niccolo's car. Which although he was sure they would fit, we were still skeptical.

It all worked out in the end and we arrived back in Massa Marittima in time to walk through our rental apartment with our landlord, Donatella. We had a quick visit with Andrea, Melissa and V.S. to exchange gifts. V.S. had remembered that I wanted to read children's books to help me learn Italian, so she was so thoughtful and picked out 3 books in the Ladybug series (one of her favorites) and wrapped and created a pretty card, which I kept for a bookmark. Then we had a light dinner of the food that our friends and our realtor, Serena had brought for us. Before the end of the day, we went for a walk in our new hometown to get reacquainted. It was a very pretty and peaceful night. 

This night, our first night and Ira's birthday we were struck by the lighting around town. Here are a few pics we took that night.

We are still working on internet at the rental, so I am typing this at the office of Interalia Immobiliare (our realtor). Today we learned we need to get an Italian phone number and bank account to request internet service. So that's next on the list!

A dopo!