Hello Italy!

June 13, 2019

The day had finally arrived. Our family of 5 along with all of our luggage was going to make its way from Raleigh to Milan. So many months of planning went into this and we were about to get started on this new adventure.

We made it!

After arriving in Milan and heading to our new town called Bergamo, we arrived at our temporary apartment, since our permanent one was not ready for another month. We quickly realized what a huge endeavour it would be to take all of our 15 luggages up to the top floor on a 4×4 ft. elevator. But we did it and now our next eye opener was that there was no air conditioning, and the heat in Italy in June was unbearable. The owner of the apartment put our minds at ease when she said, “don’t worry, we don’t need air conditioning here because we’re close to the mountains. Just open the windows and you’ll feel the breeze.” We thought, ok we’ll try that and that first night was a real challenge. There was no breeze, but that was the least of our problems, when we woke up and saw that the girls were covered in mosquito bites!

We made it through the first couple of nights, never getting used to waking up covered in sweat. It’s incredible how used you get to having centralised air conditioning. On top of that, we were experiencing a heat wave with record high temperatures. I had to think of something to do with the girls in order to keep them busy while the hubby went to work every day.

One of my husband’s coworkers suggested a tennis club that has summer camp. That’s what the girls needed. Being locked up in an apartment during the summer, without air, in a new country was not going to cut it for these girls. So, out we went. The girls met new friends, learned a little bit of Italian and most importantly, started getting a positive outlook on our new life here.

Summer activities

Some time went by and we were enjoying our new city. Festivals in the summer were very common and our favorite thing to do was go up to the medieval upper town where pop-up bars, called a chiringuito, were the thing. They are outdoor bars with booths from local restaurants. You could really feel the vibe as people would gather and socialize with family and friends. Our girls loved going to these as they would make friends with kids and practice their Italian.

Those first few weeks were a learning experience about living in Italy, the European way of life, and not being in the U.S. We had so much to look forward to. Our biggest goals were to travel around Italy and learn the language as well as explore other European countries nearby. We quickly would realize how truly easy and affordable it is to travel around Italy and Europe as well.