**************UPDATE******************

Dear few and faithful blog-readers--
For those of you that have been observing that the dates of my blog postings don't match up with the dates of the actual entries, you will not be surprised to learn that we have been in Italy for practically the entire month of May...  Yes, I am very behind!  It turns out that it has been a challenge to keep up with a blog while simultaneously being the sole caretaker, cook, housekeeper, trip planner and laundress (is that a word?) for three young children while on-the-go in Europe for three months. I am tired. Throw a few verys in there, actually. Add in some (ongoing) internet access issues for the past week (I can't post photos at the moment), and it looks like the blogging is on hold for the moment.  The good news is... I might get a bit more sleep, since I won't be updating a blog at midnight most nights (yes, that was the old routine).  And since most of my blogs have been written from notes I've kept in notebooks, on the computer or the odd available sheet of paper on any given day, I will eventually be able to reconstruct the days and get around to typing those up and posting the photos.  The bad news is...once I am back in California in June (next week!), many of you will no longer care to know what we were doing in Italy in May. I can live with that. The reality is that this blog was never really for you anyway.  :-)  It will be a nice memory for my kids and for me to have for years to come. 

Thanks for checking on us and feel free to check back next week and the week thereafter...  Italy has been one fabulous adventure, and I can't wait to have a few hours of kids-back-in-school time to write all about it.  From Rome to the Umbrian hill towns, to Florence, Venice, Siena, Pisa and Lucca, and now on the Italian Riviera, near Cinque Terre.  It has been amazing and memorable.  But we will be ready to board our plane on Monday and come home (assuming British Air has resolved their strike issues...!)