Fabio-lous and Simona

We are at Fabio and Simona's place which is incredibly lovely and huge with dramatically high ceilings and Gustav Klimt posters behind glass and floors and a kitchen sink made of stone. It is situated in a very wealthy neighborhood of Rome with easy access by bus and train and only a short walk to everything you could need in a day. We are confused by the size of their apartment given its location and they tell us it is abnormal to have such great space, but that it is a family apartment of Fabio's passed to him from his Dad. They seem to be living the A Rich and Beautiful Life to be sure.

They are the parents of little Arianna who looks more like Ezra's sister than Itzel does, with straight dark brown very soft hair and big dark eyes. Fabio is a psychologist while stylish and sweet Simona writes about food and wine for a magazine, and they both work from home and seem to have pretty much the perfect life. Simona is pregnant with her second child and due just when I am but the only difference is that even though she is my age, she is considered very young to have a child. We've learned that here in Italy, children are usually born only to women close to or over 40. The birth rate is less than 1 child per woman and the number of Italians are shrinking dramatically. This is the problem of an economy that doesn't allow for people getting out of college to find work that will support them to live on their own so most people stay in their parents homes into their 30s and save money until they can have enough to get their own place and get married and maybe have a baby.

We have now spent several mealtimes gathered around a large, solid rectangular wooden dining table and eaten various forms of rice and pasta and almost no vegetables at all. There is bread served with every meal, and it is always ended with a giant bowl of whole pieces of fruit. My kids think this is heaven. The food is prepared with a little more care than at home perhaps, but not exactly the version of Italian cooking we had from all the movies and Olive Garden commercials we have seen. The rice and pasta come from a box, the fruit is Chiquita and pear number 4426,and the juice from a juice box. But the tomato sauce that the rice was served in was made from tomatoes that Fabio and Simona canned themselves and the fagioli sauce made from fresh beans righto out of the pod. Besides olive oil here is total lack of condiments and I find myself wishing for some pepper and some butter.

Josh and I took the kids out walking earlier right down the street to a gelato place both highly recommended and definitely closed. We stopped instead in a typical bar, very family friendly, and had coffee and cookies instead of beer and potato chips, or little salmon sandwiches, or a whole host of other things also on offer. On the way home we decided to see what kind of flower arrangement we could buy from a street vendor for 5 euros and were surprised by the sheer absurdity of what we received. It looks like Sideshow Bob's head in a flamenco dress and here is where a picture really is worth a thousand words, so as soon as my Mom arrives with a camera cable we will post one here.