There was a large crowd gathered at the entrance to the piazza right near our house. In the middle of the crowd, next to a large marble colonna, was a fire truck. Interesting.

The Italian customs experience is either non-existent, or the most time consuming and hideously inefficient process possible. In this case it was the former. From tarmac to pick up was about 10 minutes. It caught me quite off guard, as I'd planned to spend the wait time doing some research on the city's driving restrictions and parking options.

Success! I have ticked off another major bureaucratic task on my list. I finally went yesterday to the local hospital and enrolled myself and the bambini in the Italian national health service. 

I have a confession to make. I'm a little bit ashamed, but the reality is undeniable. The longer I spend here, and the more language I learn, the clearer it becomes. I have an Italian speech impediment. 

Christmas preparations have well and truly begun here in Lucca. The city has been strewn with fairy lights on all the main pedestrian streets in the centre, and many of the shops have begun to dress their windows with festive decorations. Most excitingly for me - panettone is everywhere!

So arduous (i.e. Italian) was the enrolment process, that I still didn't even know the night before the term was supposed to start if I had a place, or what time the lessons started. At home I would have given up weeks earlier, but it has been yet another lesson that in Italy, shameless persistence is the only way.

The rain has continued with gusto this week - and although we've been caught out and soaked a couple of times, we have yet to succumb to any major illness. Phew! I have to say though, the obsession with avoiding sickness as a result of being cold is already starting to rub off on us.

Eventually I appealed for help from some of the other people waiting, none of whom spoke English. Once it was established that I was there to seek medical attention for Leo, the whole room sprang into action.

What I have noticed about bikes in Lucca is that, as a local, the rustier and more generally decrepit your bike looks, the better. Nothing marks a foreigner more clearly than a shiny new cruiser bike without a scratch on it.

We are approaching the three month mark of our time here in Lucca, which has absolutely flown by. It feels a momentous milestone - no longer being just another blow in here on a 90-day tourist visa, but a proper resident of the city.

Our approach since we moved here has been to embrace as much of the Italian way of doing things as possible, even if it didn't seem to make sense to our very Australian minds.

One of the aspects of general attitudes here that I appreciate greatly is unabashed efficiency in tasks that aren't inherently enjoyable. Efficiency bordering on laziness, some may say, but aren't those two concepts very close and rather subjective?

It's been a busy week for us here in Lucca. We're in the midst of school orientation (inserimento) for Raffy and Leo - a highly complex operation which seems to take a month and involve different hours for each of them every day so we are all kept on the tip of our toes at all times.

David and I went for dinner the other night (with the lovely Ilenia - she of the magical tomatoes - babysitting the bambini) and we had a rare opportunity to catch up and reflect on everything about our move so far and how we're feeling.

Last weekend we caught our first Italian train. I can't believe it actually took us this long, considering one of the reasons we specifically chose Lucca because of its rail connections. We packed up a beach bag and headed off for a morning excursion to explore Viareggio.

I always thought that Italy was located on the other side of the world to Australia, but it turns out that actually it is on the face of the sun.

Yesterday was the much-anticipated actual day of Ferragosto, the public holiday that stops the nation - for a month.

We are well and truly experiencing the phenomenon that is August in Italy. Three of our four most frequently visited cafes are now closed until the end of the month.

Settling into life officially living in Lucca has well and truly commenced. We have farewelled our last visitors for the summer and our apartment is starting to feel like home.

Siamo arrivati in Italia! We have arrived in Italy. After a couple of weeks in the UK (London and then Newquay, Cornwall - a lovely spot that we will definitely visit again!) we landed in Italy.