December 19th: Fifteen hours, three changes of baby clothes, and a rental car later—we weren't quite dreaming of a white Christmas, but it looks like that is what we'll have. Three weeks ago Florence was a warm 60 degrees; last week when we checked the projected weather it was supposed to be in the fifties. Excited to get out of the cold temperatures in Kyiv, we all packed accordingly...
Rawly had been doing very well, first there was the 3:30am airport pick up, then we we stopped at Customs because they wanted a copy of his Birth Certificate in addition to his Passport, and finally our three hour flight to Treviso—just outside of Venice. From there we were to drive two more hours to our villa outside of Florence. Such was not the case. The weather had turned and the Treviso airport had closed due to snow. Milan was the next closest airport, but even after we had landed we had to wait on the plane another hour. Our car rental in Treviso had been canceled and couldn't be transferred and was going to end up costing an arm and a leg to have a different drop off location. Budget Rental, however, came to our rescue and gave us a better deal than we originally had. Ready to get out of the snow, we were all hoping that Florence would not be experiencing the same bone chilling temperatures. So far our time in Tuscany was looking to be much bleaker than we were wishing.
Finding Florence had been
easy enough—finding our villa proved harder than the directions had boasted. Round and round in circles we drove trying to match the directions to landmarks, straining to see the limited road signs in the dark, and being pointed this way and that. At last we asked to use someone's phone and the owner of the villa met us at a gas station and led us along (to our credit, the directions didn't match.) It was an uncanny -13 C and almost that cold in our stonewalled apartment. Even with the heat turned up to 28 C and layers of clothing, we never warmed up that night. 
Mom's clock thermometer read 56 F. (Ken and I have been spoiled in Kyiv with the hot radiators in our apartment.)
Rawly had been doing very well, first there was the 3:30am airport pick up, then we we stopped at Customs because they wanted a copy of his Birth Certificate in addition to his Passport, and finally our three hour flight to Treviso—just outside of Venice. From there we were to drive two more hours to our villa outside of Florence. Such was not the case. The weather had turned and the Treviso airport had closed due to snow. Milan was the next closest airport, but even after we had landed we had to wait on the plane another hour. Our car rental in Treviso had been canceled and couldn't be transferred and was going to end up costing an arm and a leg to have a different drop off location. Budget Rental, however, came to our rescue and gave us a better deal than we originally had. Ready to get out of the snow, we were all hoping that Florence would not be experiencing the same bone chilling temperatures. So far our time in Tuscany was looking to be much bleaker than we were wishing.Finding Florence had been
easy enough—finding our villa proved harder than the directions had boasted. Round and round in circles we drove trying to match the directions to landmarks, straining to see the limited road signs in the dark, and being pointed this way and that. At last we asked to use someone's phone and the owner of the villa met us at a gas station and led us along (to our credit, the directions didn't match.) It was an uncanny -13 C and almost that cold in our stonewalled apartment. Even with the heat turned up to 28 C and layers of clothing, we never warmed up that night. 
Mom's clock thermometer read 56 F. (Ken and I have been spoiled in Kyiv with the hot radiators in our apartment.)The next day the sun was out, so although it was cold, at least we had real sunshine--something we haven't seen in Kyiv for quite some time!
Being first time parents is stressful enough--I'm not sure how you're doing it with all the added craziness! But it sounds like you're enjoying the ride and handling it better than I would! :) Rawly is so adorable...love all the new pics!
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