This year I spent my first Christmas in Italy. I wasn't sure how I would feel spending 2 weeks away from my children, but in the end I had a magical time. P introduced me to many traditional dishes, and we spent a lot of time with his friend sand family. The sun sets around 4pm which was hard for my brain, I would begin to feel tired around 3pm, then get a second wind and want to be awake past midnight.
One of my favorite parts of this visit, was seeing the beautiful and ancient churches in every city we visited. Some of them were giant cathedrals, and some were small quaint community spaces. I went to my first Italian church service on Christmas night, and it was standing room only! We stood in the back and I really enjoyed the experience. The incense was divine - to me it smelled of sandalwood and myrrh. I recognized 3 Christmas songs and sung them to myself in English.
My greatest lesson on this visit (my second trip to Italy) is that I absolutely MUST learn Italian if I am to merge families with P. He has to translate everything for me and I feel pretty lost unless we are around his English speaking friends. I did appreciate how hard everyone tried to to communicate with me, even bridging the gap with Spanish if we could not find any common English or Italian words.
We spent a night up in the mountains which was really great. We enjoyed a spa with hot tubs and saunas (it was pretty crowded which made relaxing a bit stressful LOL), and the view was absolutely divine. In this region many people speak French and the names of the villages are pronounced in French, not Italian.
Overall I had an amazing time and cannot wait to return.