Month: January 2022

One Week with Nonno / Jedouh

Our list of family visitors to Rome grew by one with the arrival of Dalia’s father, Aleksander’s only living grandfather, for one week in mid-January.

He’s been staying with his son in Dubai and we managed to pry him over to the Mediterranean just before he returns to Canada.

We revisited many of the family-tourist trail spots that we’ve shown to Dalia’s brother and my mom and brother after that. It’s so great to be able to share this beautiful city with our families and experience the sites anew with each of their stays.

It’s always great for Aleksander to see and spend time with family and hopefully it becomes easier and easier as the pandemic eases. Jeduh (aka Arabic grandpa) Joseph enjoyed time with his grandson, with us, left us with some incredibly tasty Sudanese stews and effortlessly swagged his way through the streets of Rome. We all hope to see him again soon!

Grandma’s Last Weekend – St. Peter’s Basilica & Limoncella

After almost seven weeks with us, it was finally time to say goodbye to my mom. She had arrived just before Omicron started to take over the world and stayed over the holidays.

It was a real joy and blessing to have her here for our first Christmas in Rome. She dazzled us with a full Polish Christmas Eve spread and spent lots of quality time with Aleksander.

My mom is quite religious and visited many Churches during her stay, unfortunately, every time we passed by St. Peter’s, the line seemed too long. We decided to finally take the time to wait and, of course, weren’t disappointed.

Aleksander may never have enjoyed an open space this much in his life! All pews and chairs were removed and he gleefully roamed and snag his way around the beautiful floors. It also made it easy for our group to reconnect – follow the baby sounds!

Of course it’s not easy to say goodbye to close family after time well spent, especially as the grandparent and grandchild bond is so special and with all the travel uncertainty covid brings. That being said, we’re super thankful for the holiday time together and look forward to the next opportunity, wherever it may be.