Catching Up

It has been a long time since our last post in August. Since then, we have been busy traveling- and also hosted many family members and friends here in London! We have so many stories and pics to share, I don't know where to begin -- between the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, nonna and family visiting in August, more family and friends in September and October, a trip back to the L.A. & S.F. and weddings in Taos, New Mexico and Istanbul -- we have been going non-stop!!

Since I barely have time to write as it is, a few pics highlighting each adventure are below and, time permitting, I would love to share with you more. In the menawhile, Rome is busy walking, talking, dancing and just developing so fast, we can't belive it. He's quite funny too and has us in stitches all the time.... he's saying so many new words, we have to really start watching what we're saying now (knees, down, rome and boo-ty are a few new favorite words).

Daniel in front of the Royal Albert Hall with mom and sister, Erika


















Rome dancing with the goddesses at the Masquerade Ball

Nonna Lucrezia with Rome, Liam and Alexis




























Alli and JJ back in London for Fashion Week and celebrating their recent engagement!!


Devi and Pepe at the Masquerade Ball in Glastonbury

Summer Festivals

Rome watching Hotchip at the Lovebox Festival

One of the greatest things about being in England we found are the many festivals that happen all summer long. Although we didn't make the major music festival in Glastonbury (with 170,000 others camping out in the mud), we did go to a most unique and unusual event there and have been to a few smaller, local festivals as well. Stokefest was in our local park and opened up with DJ Giles Peterson, a local. Lovebox also had a great line-up that included Groove Armada, Blondie and the b-52's -- Rome was loving them and was walking around smiling and dancing with everyone while they played!! London is super child-friendly and there are baby & kids play areas even at the festivals. Rome had his first ferris wheel ride at Lovebox and played in a drum circle. Along with this, there are always a multitude of things to do each weekend listed in Time Out-- so much it's sometimes hard to choose.



A few other highlights from this summer are.... seeing Daniel Radcliffe (ie. Harry Potter) playing the lead role in Equus. This required him to strip down for the last scene where he jumped and screamed in only his birthday suit!!

We also left the country for a 12 day cruise on the Baltics which departed from Copenhagen and made stops at Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Talinn (Estonia), and Oslo. We stayed a few days in Copenhagen before we sailed and then returned for a side trip to Elsinore -- the home of Hamlet. We ate, drank, played & saw so much. What else is there to say--yes, it was an amazing trip, and definitely an easier way to travel with a little one. Rather than write about it, I'll let the photos tell the story -- if you want to see them, click on the link below:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=26034925206.735142300306.1186527498023&page=1

Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

-in the field outside stonehenge where we camped and where rome took his first few steps alone!!

So much has happened since our last post, I don't know where to begin, so I'll start with this past week and show some pics from our latest adventure to Stonehenge.

Once a year, on the eve of the Summer Solstice, Stonehenge is opened to the public to go inside and experience the area from 8:30 p.m to 8:30 am (usually there is a rope that prevents people from getting too close and so the stones can only be seen from a distance). There were hippies and druids, ravers and old-time soul searchers, drum circles and drunkards, country bumpkins and a bunch of other crazy people (like us) who headed out & camped overnight to see the sun rise inside the stones at 4:00 am, experiencing what it was possibly created for.

Although it is still a mystery how they built or used this sacred temple, it was constructed over 3,000 years ago and the massive stones were aligned so that the sun rose above the heel stone and shone through the center of the circle on the sunrise of the first day of summer-the solstice. It was a very interesting experience and, although it was cloudy that morning, the sun did poke through for a short moment and made it worth the effort and sacrifice (just our sleep for one night-not a lamb or our first born like they probably used to do). These pics tell the story better than I can, so here they are.....




drinking wine from rome's sippy cup


stonehenge at sunset with merlin in the background

the crowd gathers inside the circle

druids??
arthur pendragon (aka. "King Arthur the Once and Future King Reborn" giving a blessing with his excalibur sword)
waiting for the sun to come out...

with 20,000 other people the sun peeking through the clouds (can you see it in the center? that was it!)

more solstice characters
a magic wand

love & kisses for being such a great baby and going along with all our craziness without any fuss

Tina and Valentina in London

In May, we had a few visitors including BFF Tina and her little girl, Valentina. We explored London with the little ones, stopping at parks and playgrounds along the way. Here are some highlights from their trip....
tina with rome and valentina on the millenium bridge in front of st. paul's cathedral

exploring the backstreets of Islington running around outside of buckingham palace our first beer at the george--in the rain


afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason yummy cupcakes checking out the rocks togetherpracticing to walk in the gift shop at stonehenge t & baby v at stonehenge valentina in front of the cathedral in salisbury

the abbey at the salisbury cathedral

last night in london at the house of lords champagne reception a night out with champagne--and no baby- in our hands. aaah.

with queen elizabeth at the house of lords
romance along the river thames

Roman luxury in Bath

Last weekend, we went to the old Roman town of Bath in Somerset. The natural springs found here made it a very sacred and wealthy town. The Celts bathed and worshipped before the Romans came in and built grand bath houses and theaters. One thousand years later, much of the town was architected by a suspicioned member of the Knights Templar and has many mysterious symbols designed into the streets and buidlings constructed, most of which still remain today. Bath is a lovely town steeped in history and surrounded by natural beauty.

We , of course, had treatments in the new spa just built and soaked in the natural healing waters of the baths (they didn't even have a spa here for the last 20 years until last November!!! Can you believe??)

Ston Easton Hotel

The place we stayed in Somerset was the highlight -- a gorgeous mansion house with lush gardens and four poster beds. My best mother's day present yet-). If we timed it right, we should have come here after car camping at Stonehenge to work out some of the kinks my back still has....

view from our window in the morning

playing around

the gardeners cottage at the property - the gardens were so vast, especially the kitchen gardens--this is actually where she lives

view from the bathroom- can you see the cows in the distance? old mac donald had a farm....

Birthdays & Holidays

The past month has been too busy for words- at least to too busy write them down here. Rome's been babbling away though and is starting to make sounds that even resemble words in their correct usage--or so it sounds.


In March, we visited friends & family in New York. Rome's nonna (grandma), aunt and new cousin, Michaela, came down from Maryland for a visit over the weekend and Rome had a little pre-birthday celebration with them and his extended Italian family -- including his great- grandmother pictured below. Daniel worked during the week while Rome and I explored the parks & playgrounds, did mom & baby yoga, shopped at Buy, Buy Baby and met an old friend for a walk in Central Park with her new baby. I saw a whole different side of Manhattan I've never seen before. We even took the Staten Island ferry with our friend Katie who was visiting, went out to a restaurant with flamenco dancers with Daniela and hung out a bit with Alli and JJ in the West Village.




















April began by celebrating Rome's first birthday. On that Wednesday, we had cake and then went with his friend Alexander to Zoomaround, an indoor soft-play center full of balls, slides, and tunnels to crawl through. They had a ball!

We spent the weeekend celebrating at Spitalfield's Market and City Farm, one of the many local parks with farm animals for children to learn and explore. No day is complete without a trip to the playground to take Rome on the swing and slide--his new favorite pastime. Rome's also been working on his motor skills and the week before 1st his birthday picked up his walker and started to go -- around and around the kitchen and living room. He did laps for quite some time and hasn't stopped going since!

The days are getting warmer and we're starting to get some semblance of a routine finally with regular visits to our local "one o'clock club". These are large indoor/outdoor play areas filled with toys, games and activities for mums and their tots to visit between one and three in the afternoon each day. They're great for the babies to roam around with no worries with others their age but even better for the moms who need to get out of the house and meet others in their area. We've met a few nice people already and I even have a routine with Alexander's mom, where one of us watch the boys while the other goes to work out at the gym next door. It's working out quite well and I hope continues.

Easter Sunday was spectacular with Sunday service at St. Paul's cathedral.

This is our best-kept secret. It's a way to see the inside of the cathedral without paying an entrance fee (usually $20) and experiencing it with the organ, the choir, and a sermon as well. We even received blessings and Rome was offered a chocolate egg from the Bishop of London himself! All we had to do was convert to Anglicanism (j.k.-it's open to everyone) . That evening, we had a dinner at a gastropub with a big group of friends from INSEAD.


















We're also discovering beautiful treasures in our own neighborhood and are loving it more everyday. With over 160 parks and green spaces, loads of great shopping, outdoor farmer's markets, restaurants, and theater our little borough of Islington seriously has it all......

We've had a few more friends visit this month as well --- and met Noah, Daniel & Kathy's new boy who came from Montreal.

We're looking forward to the rest of spring and summer here and are gearing up for some more travel. Stay tuned to hear stories from Paris and possible even Disneyland Paris in May.