What can we say – this week was INTENSE.

We arrived exhausted from the gruelling 19 hour drive which was 90% Salvo – I was on dog calming duty. The very first thing we did was stop at the lovely chiosk/ bar right by our apartment and get a nutritious meal and a cold beer. Delicious.

We took 30 minutes or so to psych ourselves up to unload what felt like 1000 boxes from the van and then got on with it. It took is two full days to clear the van completely but in the first evening we had brought up and unpacked around 60%. Our bodies were sore but it was great to start making this house a home with some of our things. The best thing we did was ask if we could bring our sofa – the apartment previously had a sofa that had seen better days, and we don’t know about you but sofas are such personal things, we just couldn’t imagine falling asleep or relaxing on an old, uncomfortable and probably not very clean sofa, so we agreed to bring our new one and leave it at the end of our tenancy. Our landlord is super nice and was grateful for the modern update to the apartment, so it was a win-win for all.

The next day, our main goal was to make the girls’ bedroom beautiful – they’d be arriving with their Zio that evening and it was so important to us that they had a nice space to retreat to in the chaos.

We had swapped over the bedrooms the day before – we took the one with the built in bigger wardrobes, they took the room with the gorgeous antique wooden furniture, a fancy light and a bit more space for them to play and move around. We set to work getting their room nice with their familiar bedding, toys and hanging up their clothes. It took almost the whole day but it was so worth it, it’s still our favourite part of the house and thankfully they LOVE it.

The kitchen and our own bedroom were also on the priority list, and we have systematically worked through these rooms to make them organised, clean and homely.

The girls arrived in the evening and well we can’t quite find the words to describe the emotions that we felt getting our girls back after such a long time. In order to be able to do the move, still work in the UK and generally get ready for the chaos that was about to ensue, it was necessary that the girls stayed with their Nonna and extended family in Calabria directly after our family holiday there. They stayed there from the 24th July until the 14th September. For two of those weeks we were together and the rest they spent without us while we prepped. We never ever want to be without my babies for that long again. Getting them back was incredibly emotional and a moment we will cherish forever.

We have then spent some time getting used to our surroundings, finding out where things are, getting the girls settled at school and starting to work on the absolute mountain of documents necessary to stay and live in Italy, even as an Italian family. More on documents another time – we are still working through some things and recovering from the trauma of some other processes!

To sum it up, Salvo did an amazing job of finding a lovely family friendly area, a great apartment in a place where renting can be incredibly difficult. We have everything we need in walking distance, the area is clean and organised and incredibly sweet. For now we can breathe for a minute and then have a think about a more permanent property.

We will share more about our next few weeks soon! In the meantime, check our posts on socials for some road trip inspo: