Susan and Matea went out this afternoon… on their way out.  … for Matea to get her hair cut (I believe her first real cut since we moved to this country in August 2010!) …and after They grabbed some treats from the boulangerie next to the hair-dresser – then went over to eat by a…

One of the great things about being along the sea is, of course, the sea.  All four of our kids love the water – and we made the most of the fact that we were staying so close to the water. There was quite a bit of swimming, playing on rocks, diving, playing in the…

A few weeks ago I got to go to Vienna to conduct some research for my second year PhD paper.   For my paper I am investigating what allows resource-constrained individuals to be able to overcome their constraints and create successful innovations.  The field that I’m looking at is the coffee-growers who supply the specialty coffee world.  Most…

Since the idea of the Cinque Terre holiday is fundamentally about hiking between the villages, that is exactly what we spent a fair amount of our time doing.  So there were 7 of us walking along the trails from age 5 to {redacted} plus Alma on my back.   The first day we drove to Riomagiore and…

One of the things that is hard not to like about Italy is the Gelato. Not only is it good (at least if you get it from a place that actually makes it – not just a franchised stand like mostly what we found in Rome last year) – but it is everywhere, reasonably priced, and is…

We had a pretty spectacular place to stay while we where in Cinque Terre, about 200 m above the sea along a rocky outcropping among the vines of local wine growers. heading in the first day – the kids were the only ones who could keep up with Luca We rented a small stone house…

The week before Susan’s parents left we took a trip together to Italy – to the Cinque Terre.  These are five small towns along the northern coast not far from Genoa that are either perched down along the sea at the bottom of a cliff, or hanging on the side of a cliff above the sea.  We were…