Eyes Wide Open

Last night

2009-05-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm starting to think I'm so far behind on this thing that I might as well just fast forward to the present and fill the last month in as I go. Hope that works, because I want to talk about what happened last night.

At the stroke of midnight - or 00:00 on my clock for Euro time - I wake up to the sound of this pop pop popping noise outside of my window (I guess I shouldn't really call it a window b/c they're two glass doors that I can open with a little porch on the outside). I'm still half asleep, but I walk over to the doors and look outside and there's a full fireworks show going on just over the mountains near our house.

This wasn't a small neighborhood show, either. Full blown fireworks, like the 4th in Chicago. I had to pinch myself for a second to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but then I just stood there and watched them go off from my balcony. It was so surreal, I felt like I was having my own private show. Everyone else was dead asleep and the wind was still, which made it extremely quiet in the fields and up into the hills a few miles off - except for the fireworks. Every time one would go off the entire landscape would light up and you could see the red roofs and rolling hills for miles and miles. So beautiful.

I told Sarah about it today and she said she thought there might be a festa that just ended a few towns over. Apparently their big bang of an ending usually happens on Monday nights. Weird, right? I'm not sure what kids were still up at midnight, but this is Italy. The rules are totally different here! It was definitely a night I won't ever forget.

Nice, France

2009-05-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

During Easter weekend we decided to explore the Italian/French Riviera and visit Nice, Monaco and Genoa, Italy. I’ve heard so many times from various people how beautiful this area of the world is, and now I can most definitely say I know exactly what they’re talking about.

The plan was to drive to Nice on Saturday and spend an entire day and night there. It was about a six hour drive from Vicenza, and once we reached the water near Genoa (look on a map for where I’m talking about) we hit the most amazing mountains that ran right into the water. I didn’t get a lot of pictures because I was just staring with my mouth open for most of the drive, but here’s one that’s decent:

Before we reached Nice, we stopped by the Fragonard Parfumeur, a perfumery named after the famous painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard and established in 1782.

They have the factory we visited in Ese (above is the entrance), a store and museum in Grasse and another store in Paris. We were able to get a tour of the factory and see how the perfume is made. The first thing we did on the tour was test our sense of smell. Here is the board of 8 different scents we had to identify:

I had a serious headache by the time I finished sniffing all of the little bottles, but it was a fun exercise :). Here is our lovely tour guide talking about the laboratory behind us and how certain people had the job of the “smeller,” where they would literally sit there and smell stuff all day long to see what would make a good perfume:

Fragonard also makes scented soaps, and we caught some of the employees carving the soaps into little ducks:

Either she hates her job or she just hates American tourists (she’s French so my guess is #2).

Here’s a woman filling up some of the scented lotions they sell:

And then we bought some expensive, smelly goodies and walked out to the parking lot, which looked like this:

After the perfumery we spent a good two hours driving through the mountains to reach Nice, and once we did we slowly descended down one of the mountains and onto the coast.

Since we were near the water we were hoping to have some nice, warm weather, but we weren’t so lucky. The temperature wasn‘t exactly beach-worthy, so we just walked along the beachfront, called the promenade des Anglais, and took a few pictures:

That's Russ and his daughter Caitlin, frolicking on the beach :).

We stopped at one of the outdoor cafes for lunch. Here's Melissa (right) and Maritza at the table with Le Chateau (the hill in the center) in the background. There was a fortress that was once at the top of the hill and it also holds the largest cemetery in France:

Nice is at the center of the Cote d’Azur (I’m guessing azure, or blue, coast) and is very much a Mediterranean city. They have a huge flower market we walked through next:

I’m not sure why everyone kept calling it a flower market, because not only did they have flowers but fruits, vegetables and a ton of seafood:

Maritza sweet-talked the waiter into letting us take this picture because he was about to run it off to one of the outdoor tables.

As we walked out of the flower market we came into one of the main squares in the city. Here’s one of the upscale department stores, Galeries Lafayette, on avenue Jean-Medecin. Ultra-pricey:

And look at this thing:

That’s their mode of transportation around the city, it looks like a spaceship or something. We all kind of stared at it in awe for a second, because it literally parts the square where people normally walk and shoots down into another street. I can't believe it doesn't just run people over at every turn.

After the main square we reached the Vieux Nice, which is what they call the medieval part of the city:

This was about the time I fell in love with Nice. All along these narrow walkways were vendors and artists and people just hanging out. Very bohemian, very happy and very chill. People would just come up and start conversation. Maritza and I met a very attractive gypsy who gave us a rundown of the city of Chicago once he found out where we were from.

By the way, I know that sounds weird…attractive gypsy, but I swear to you there were so many beautiful men in this city. Not even just the men, the women were gorgeous, too.

So, back to the Vieux Nice…we shopped around for a while and wandered the streets. I was definitely in that “I’m so loving being a traveler right now, immersing myself in another culture, loving the atmosphere…."

And then right about the time this picture was taken Melissa got her camera stolen. I’m talking seriously ripped out of her hands with the guy running down the street. The three of us had our cameras out taking what turned out to be a very pretty picture, but one of the three of us will never see hers! We were all so stunned that it happened the way it did, we just watched him run down the street. Needless to say, it kind of put a damper on the “loving the culture” part of Nice and brought us all back to reality.

It turns out Nice is notorious for petty crime. Daniela, my Italian teacher, visited with her husband and literally had everything stolen out of her car during the hour they spent at lunch. And it was parked directly in front of their hotel, which had a 24 hr. doorman!

Ok, so this entry is getting crazy long, so I’m just going to put up the rest of the pictures. This one’s for Mom, because it’s a statue of the Three Fates! I had just finished reading the book and then Maritza told me that’s what this statue represents:

And I couldn’t walk by a Westie without taking a picture :) :

This is in one of the parks (love the wisteria):

And then another shopping area. They had some of the coolest clothing stores, and a ton of long, flowy dresses. I was in heaven:

Then we went to a Cuban place for dinner (I know, Cuban in France, but whatever). They had salsa dancing, and I had a blue drink with little flavored marshmallows in it…it was yummy:

And here is the next morning in front of the Eglise Orthodoxe Russe (Russian Orthodox Church). Nice was the place to be for Russian aristocrats back in the 19th century, so Tsar Nicholas II commissioned a church in 1912. It was beautiful:

Then we got back on the road and made our way to Monaco!

Gardaland - Lake Garda

2009-05-03T04:56:00.000-07:00

During the week of the kids’ spring break we decided to go to Italy’s largest theme park, Gardaland, for a day.

Gardaland is like Worlds of Fun (for the KS people) or Great America (for the IN people) mixed in with a little bit of Disneyworld. It’s about a 45 min. drive in Wingo to the coast of Lake Garda, the largest of the northern Italy lakes that borders the Veneto region (where we are).

We were excited to get the kids out for something similar to what they’d get back in the states. Lots of fun rides, bright colors, crazy characters, etc. Well we got that and then some:

Everything in this area of the park was all about the under-10 crowd and extreme sensory overload. VP’s eyes were huge and set on the gigantic tree in front of us:

It looked like a tree house that just went on forever. Little kids were running up and down the walkways that snaked around the trunk and there was a bit of a line to get in. We figured it would be worth the wait and joined in.

Once the entrance at the base finally opened up we were corralled into an elevator. The lights go out and the ceiling lights up with this humongous wizard face. We direct the kids’ gazes up to the ceiling and are all, “Look, the wizard’s telling us a story about the tree house!” We obviously have no idea what the wizard is saying because it’s all in Italian, but we figure that had to be the gist of it.

As we’re listening to the wizard we’re slowly being lowered down, not up. I’m a little confused because I thought we would end up in the “tree house,” but the doors finally open and we walk into a dark basement-looking area. Another wizard lights up and starts talking in Italian again. This voice is a little darker and extremely loud, so Sarah and I are starting to look back and forth at each other wondering what type of “ride” this actually is.

Finally we’re led into a larger room with stadium seating on each side. It kind of resembles a barn, with a sparkly bed and wizard-looking stuff on a small stage in the middle. We all sit down, and Sarah and I are trying to encourage the kids that this will be fun…”Look we’re going to have a show!” “It looks like Mickey’s wizard hat!”…and so on.

Suddenly restraining bars whip around in front of us and the lights go out. The wizard’s voice comes on, this time louder than ever, and it’s that Mwaahhahahahahah type of laughter. The room starts swaying back and forth like one of those pirate ship rides. Only it keeps going higher…and higher until we are literally facing the ground on the highest tilt. To make matters worse, the ceiling is spinning to make it look like we’re flipping all the way around. There are lights flashing, loud cracks of thunder…it was like an evil fun house. All five of us are trying to keep our food down, and the two boys are screaming.

After what seems to be ten years, the ride finally stops and Sarah and I are tag teaming the boys trying to calm them down. GP (the 9 yr old) looks at us and goes, “We are never going on this ride EVER AGAIN!!” as these big crocodile tears run down his cheeks. All of us stumble out of the ride and immediately leave the kids section of the park…seriously?! That’s the type of “kid rides” they have in Italy?!

For those of you who know this (I’m thinking of Tracy, Allison and Melissa right now) I love roller coasters. There was a huge blue one I saw from the air while we were on this panoramic ride:

It’s called the Blue Tornado, and I begged Keaton to ride it with me. It took ten minutes and a promise of gelato afterwards, but I finally convinced her. As we get up to the ride we see this:

Keaton almost takes the exit, but she ends up staying on. We get on the ride and drop the first hill and I’m screaming my head off. Keaton’s loving it - turns out she’s more of a thrill-junkie than she thought :).

Here are some more pictures I took from on top of the panoramic ride. It was gorgeous that day:

And this is for Dad. They had some serious landscaping:

The kids found the American section of the park. It was all Wild West-themed, obviously. Here’s the country church:

Near the end of the day we decide to try this big pirate ship the boys had their eyes on. From the outside it looks as if you get to tour a life-size pirate ship, because we see kids running up and down the top deck. Judging by our experience at the beginning of the day, we should have known better, but we decide to jump in line once again.

As we follow the line of people we start walking down a huge flight of stairs. This should have been our first clue. We are led onto these tour boats, similar to the ones you ride on “It’s a Small World” in Disneyworld. We put the boys in the middle of the boat just in case we get ambushed again.

The first part of the ride is just like Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyworld. Lots of animated pirates, a little town with pirates playing cards, etc…then the ride gradually becomes more and more adult. We round the corner at one point and we are in the middle of two pirate ships in battle. Shots are being fired and the water is literally spraying over us like its been hit with bullets. We’re all ducking and dodging fire and screaming as the dummy pirates slide across ropes above our heads.

The final turn brings us to three pirates hanging by their necks as a result of getting caught by the townspeople. A cat is clawing its way up the leg of one of the dead pirates. I look back at Sarah, who has her hands over VP’s eyes, and she mouths, “We are DONE with Gardaland.”

The kids are exhausted at this point from all of the excitement/terror, so we load them up in the car and head home. All in all an entertaining day, just not exactly what we thought it would be. I guess the moral of this story is: know enough Italian to read the warning signs at a theme park before bringing the kids.

Wingo

2009-04-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

So at this point my parents and Ryan have left, and it’s sinking in that I’m actually staying here for longer than a vacation. And I have to learn how to drive a stick. Not only are the roads here about 5 feet wide, but I have to drive through several long traffic lights on my regular route through town, inching my way along in first gear. Here’s my new ride:

Its name is Wingo (given by the kids), an Alfa Romeo, and it hates me. But if I didn’t learn how to drive this thing, I would have to drive their huge Suburban. I would literally be taking up about ¾ of the road with that one.

Sarah gave me a trial run when we went over to the Bryant’s for dinner one night, and I think I killed the car about five times before I even got out of the driveway. I never knew a car could be that jerky, and I grew up with Mom driving sticks throughout my entire childhood. But that night was the last chance I had to get it right before I took the 5 yr old to school in the morning.

VP’s school is up against a mountain, and the only entrances to the parking lot are literally big enough to fit one car. So here I come jerking my way along and see a car ahead of me. I freak out and kill the car. VP has started making a “dush dush dush” noise every time this happens, and it just adds to the fun :). Then the parking lot is all gravel. Since I haven’t learned how to slowly let off the clutch before I jam on the gas I peel out of the parking lot, kicking up gravel behind me like I just started a drag race. It was like a scene out of The Fast and the Furious, except not that cool (I guess I’m not sure if you’d call that cool, but whatever).

Then that afternoon when I pick him up I take the “twisty turny” way home and end up at this stop light where there’s construction going on. And AGAIN the road only fits about a car and a half and it’s in between two large buildings. Another little known fact about driving in Italy - at the majority of stoplights around here you have to stop abnormally far away from the light. I didn’t know this, so I snaked my way between the construction and edged right up to the intersection. The guys working construction looked at me like I was crazy, and then the look turned to terror when I started the car back up again in first gear. Damnit.

You’d think I would have had enough by then, but I continue to embarrass myself all week. I drive up to post and go through security. This is where a soldier has to walk up to your car to check your ID card, and then you have to maneuver through the gates. Every single time I go through I nearly run someone over. I usually see one or two of them make that "ooh" face that happens after someone's been punched really hard or falls down. It just sounds painful.

Carl actually met me at the front gate the first time to get my ID worked out, and then had mercy on me and drove the car through post. Once we get to his office he stops the car, pulls the emergency brake and we go inside. Then as I come out and get in I start up the car and try to put it into first gear…it just gurgles and stops. I try again, it does the same thing. I’m literally almost in tears thinking, “Did I break the car?!” “Did it run out of gas and this is the way it tells me?!” A soldier walks over to me after a few minutes of me cursing out loud and asks if I need help. I finally give up and let him get in and try to start the car. He looks down, lowers the emergency brake and looks up at me and says, “I think that’s your problem, miss.”

With the amount of driving I’ve had to do over the last month, between taking the kids around and traveling, I’ve slowly learned how to not give myself never-ending whiplash. I think Wingo is actually responding better to me, too. It’s like he gives me back certain privileges every time I do something good. I slowly move into first gear, he gives me my left stereo speaker back. I shift at the right time, he doesn’t choke my seatbelt on the highway. We’re slowly working out our issues and I’m not having to take several Tylenol a day! I still don’t think I’ll ever understand why anyone would want to put that much work into driving...

Innsbruck, Austria - "The Hills are Alive...."

2009-04-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

Mom’s been waiting her whole life to dance through the hills like Julie Andrews, and she finally got her chance :)

On the last day my parents and Ryan were in town we decided to leave Italy and head to Innsbruck, Austria. It’s actually only about three hours north of Vicenza, so a decent day’s trip. The drive is absolutely beautiful; it winds through the Alps all the way up. I’m not sure what Alps they are, I get in a crazy discussion about this every time I see some - Italian Alps, Tyrolean Alps, Swiss Alps….I have no idea. I just know they’re mountains and they’re pretty.

Innsbruck was the site of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, and you can tell why by looking at any of the pictures we took:

The town is surrounded by enormous mountains and it’s not unusual to see someone walking around who looks like they just got off the slopes. It was so cold when we got there, as you can tell by the looks on our faces.

I also realized why - for those of you who know her - Mel Parks loved Germany so much. People around here look like they came straight out of a J. Crew catalog, fresh off a hiking trip. It's like a bunch of Mels walking around.

Our first stop was the medieval Old City, or Altstadt. This is, obviously, the old part of town and has a ton of Gothic and Renaissance buildings and little shops:

We stopped by this fantastic store:

And Mom and I did some shopping! I stuck with a bracelet and avoided the crystal animals in the front window.

Besides the Olympics, Innsbruck is known for its ruler in the 12th century, Maximilian I. When he came into power he made Innsbruck the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and constructed most of the main buildings still standing in Altstadt today. We walked through the small streets and did a little bit of shopping, and finally ended up at the end where the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) is:

It’s at the top of that thing behind us, we didn’t actually get it in the picture. Just think of a gold roof and that’s pretty much what it was. Maximilian built it for his second wife and it was used as a royal box for watching events in the square where we’re sitting. It’s one of the main attractions in Innsbruck...probably why so many people go skiing :). Right about the time we came to it we started to get hungry. So we picked one of the outdoor cafes and tried not to shiver too much. I think that’s why we got the beer:

And here’s what Carl and I ordered (the special on the left):

I decided to be adventurous, and my first Weiner schnitzel wasn’t that bad! After lunch we walked a bit more and stopped at some of the shops. Mom and I played dress up with Ryan:

And then we walked toward the water and finally along the canal:

I’m normally a beach and water kind of person, but these mountains were really cool. It almost made me want to go skiing :).

On our way out of town we drove up in the mountains to visit this place:

Honestly we were all so tired from a week of sightseeing at full speed that we didn’t even stop to check what the name of the place was. Here are some pictures though! It was one of the windiest places I’ve ever been, and I came from Chicago:

Then it was time for the drive home. We stopped at McDonalds for a quick coffee and took the Ausfarht (Exit) back to Italy. How ridiculous does that word sound…

Venice - The Sinking City

2009-04-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

On Friday Sarah took us all to Venice for a day trip. We drove until we hit Mestre, which is the city right before you cross over onto the island itself. We parked there and took the train into the city. Parking in actual Venice is highway robbery (I sound like my mother). Anyway, as we left the train station we stopped by the Gheto Vechio first, but that’s a little sad so I’ll start this entry with the family on the Rialto Bridge:

A sunny day in Venice, who knew! For those of you who have been to Venice before, you know there’s a main canal that runs through the city called the Grand Canal (or Canal Grande). There are only three bridges that cross the Grand Canal, and the Rialto Bridge is one of them. We worked our way through the crowds to get a good shot. Because the weather was nice it seemed like twice as many people were out, so we used our elbows.

As we made our way to the Gheto Vechio we stopped by a few markets to check out the local fare:

He was schooling us on all the different types of veggies and plants - not my area of expertise.

And here is a shot of the Venetian housewives hanging their laundry. They actually live here so it's not so abnormal to them:

And then all the yummy cookies:

Then we make it to the Gheto Vechio finally. I keep harping on this because of its history. It’s considered to be the first ghetto in the world and also the best kept. At one time, Venetian Jews were confined to a walled area of the city and made to wear red or yellow marks sewn onto their clothing to identify them as Jewish. They’ve torn down much of the walls, but you can still see a little bit of it in this picture:

It’s crazy to walk through this area and look at the small passageways that used to be closed at night. The funny thing was that the Jews were accountants and dealt with all of the Venetian money during the day, and then at night they would be led into this area and these huge doors would close behind them and lock. It gives me claustrophobia just thinking about it.

At this point we were ready for some food. I’m still loving the fact that Dad wanted to get the full effect of each Italian city - because of this we got to eat in Piazza San Marco. Here we are waiting for our ridiculously expensive tiny little sandwiches:

That’s the Basilica di San Marco in the background. When you come to Europe you see a lot of churches, but this one seriously stands out from the rest (save for St. Peter’s in Rome). It’s called the Church of Gold (Chiesa d’Oro) because it’s completely covered in gold mosaic. All of the artwork you see on the front of the church is made by combining tiny little specks of gold in different colors. It’s one of the most richly embellished churches in the world.

When I came here the first time Sarah and I walked through the tiny rooms inside the basilica that house religious relics from as far back as you can go. We were trying to find the oldest thing in there, and I think I remember some of the communion cups dating back to the B.C. era.

While we ate outside we were serenaded by a lovely jazz band:

I felt like we should be in a dark club somewhere in NYC, but it went well with the wine :).

After lunch we walked down to the end of the Piazza San Marco to catch a water taxi back to the train station. Here we are standing there with San Giorgio Maggiore in the background:

This church was actually designed by Palladio (for those of you who just read the Vicenza entry). I’ve heard that if you visit this church you can take the elevator to the top for an amazing view of the island of Venice, the lagoon and the Doge’s Palace across the water. You basically cannot go anywhere in this city without enjoying a good view of something...

So now we come to my favorite part of the Venice trip, the water taxi. I know everyone comes to Venice thinking they need to take one of the gondolas, but those things are crazy expensive. Like 65 euro a person at the cheapest. So a 6.50 euro water taxi down the same Grand Canal works for me. If you can make your way to the front of the taxi, like we did:

then you can see the best views of the canal. The first time I did this I took about 50 pictures of random buildings, got home and had no idea what it was I’d snapped. But it’s so pretty!

Right before we left Ryan picked up a traditional Venetian mask for one of his friends (don’t ask me why that would be something a boy would want). Here he is making sure it fit:

Isn’t it just like David Bowie in the Labyrinth?? Ok now I just realized why he bought it…

A few random pictures

2009-04-17T03:24:00.000-07:00

Dad, Mom and Ryan definitely took advantage of their time here. Ryan got dragged into playing with the boys on the trampoline:

And Dad can't ever sit still, so he took to the bushes outside of the house. Only problem was that they didn't have any tools to trim the shrubs - he used scissors instead. That man never stops gardening!

Mom took some great pictures of the area while we were driving around. Most of these are on the way to VP's school, which is still one of my favorite spots. He calls this way the "twisty turny way" because it winds through several different farms and plantations. Check out all of the vineyards:

Downtown Vicenza and picking up some wine

2009-04-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

After Rome we were pretty exhausted, but we only had a few more days with the parents in town so we hit downtown Vicenza. Every Thursday is their big city market, which looks like this:

We walked around this area for a while perusing all the items. I love these markets for several reasons, one of which is that everything is ultra cheap. And they have everything, from baby clothes to pots and pans…I usually stick to the clothes and shoes. Dad liked the flowers:

Then after the markets we walked through downtown for a while:

Vicenza is a really pretty town and this was the first time I had been there when everyone is out and about. One thing I’ve noticed here is that people get dressed up regardless of what they’re doing, which I love. You’ll see ladies in high heels and tight, sparkly pants in the middle of the day. Old men will dress in suits and wear their long jackets over their shoulders. Not too many casual jeans and shirts, which is why we stood out, once again.

Couple things about Vicenza: it's the home of one of the greatest architects of the High Renaissance, Andrea di Peitro, or Palladio. His works are all over the city and he's influenced works in America as well (Jefferson's Monticello and various plantation homes in the South.). He even has his own style - Palladianism. You see his name everywhere around here. The mall is named after him, which I think is kinda weird...

We also stopped by the Teatro Olimpico, or Olympic Theater. This was Palladio’s masterpiece and final work, and is also one of the world’s greatest theaters still in use:

Then we visited the fabulous Antico Bar del Corso to see Cynthia. Here she is with Sarah:

Cynthia came to Italy from Illinois to check it out…and has now been here for over 25 years. She owns a coffee shop/bar in downtown Vicenza, which has fantastic cappuccinos and little appetizers and desserts. I haven’t tried the main lunch/dinner items yet but I’m sure I will at some point. We like to come here a lot :).

After our little coffee break we decided to head up to Monte Berico. This is a hill overlooking all of Vicenza, and also has a church, the Santuario di Monte Berico, at the top. Here we are in front of it:

And a few views from the top:

Just down the hill is where I take my Italian lessons. Senora Daniela lives right off of the road leading up to the church in this beautiful villa. We’re pretty sure she’s got some money because the house and the gardens are gorgeous. I’ve just started going to her house, twice a week to practice my Italian with a small group.

Anyway, we had lunch on Monte Berico and then headed back toward home with a quick stop at Muraro Brothers. This is a similar wine place to where Sarah took me last fall, but apparently this is his brother’s section of vineyards,which is much bigger. I guess the brothers don’t talk, and we don’t know why…not sure why they still call it Muraro Brothers, but whatev. We picked out some wine for dinner that night. This is Dad and I in front of the place:

And here are a few pics of us taste testing:

See the one above with Sarah filling the jumbo bottle? Here’s how much it cost:

Like I said, the wine here is cheap (that's 80 cents - they use commas where we use periods and periods where we use commas). It’s like they took away the never-ending supply of Coke products we have in the states and replaced it with wine at dinner. No complaints here! Next post will show you why the wine is so abundant. We are surrounded by vineyards, and the sights are beautiful.

Here are few pics of the fam, still at Muraro Brothers. It’s an amazing area:

Rome, Day 2

2009-04-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

On our second day in Rome we got up early for breakfast at our hotel and headed out to meet up with the same tour group we had for the Colosseum and Roman Forum. It ended up taking longer than we thought to drop off our bags at the train station, so we missed the deadline for the group to meet. We were a little bummed, but still hopped the train to Vatican City anyway, popped up onto the street and there they were! We should have known tour group leaders are the most visible people in Rome. We were able to join the group for the morning tour of Vatican City.

Since we came on a Wednesday, I thought we’d be lucky enough to avoid some of the crowds. I was wrong. As we entered the Museum there were swarms of people everywhere, and the majority of them were foreign teenage groups. Teenagers tend to annoy me to begin with, but when I don’t understand what they’re saying and they laugh at EVERYTHING, I'm ready to claw my eyes out.

Touring this place has been a mission of mine for years, though. I’ve been to Rome a couple of times before this one, and each time the Sistine Chapel has been closed. I make it halfway around the world to Rome and I’m denied again and again!

The finale of our Vatican Museum tour this morning is the Sistine Chapel, so touring with these groups would have to do.

The first area we visited were a few of the gardens. Here are some pictures:

You can tell when sculptors from this period have reproduced a statue from the original bronze model if they’re standing next to a stump or something similar at their feet.

A statue of that size can’t stand on the legs alone because of the weight of the marble. In the one above you can see the tree stump at the bottom, and the robe he has draped over his left arm is also necessary to hold up the weight of the arm.

This one is the only statue they have that still has its glass eyes:

Almost all of the sculptures had glass eyes at one point and were usually painted. Also, check out the fig leaf. I can't remember who our guide said it was, but when he had control over the Museum he had all the little pee-pees replaced with fig leaves, therefore ruining each and every sculpture. When they realized what had been done they just decided to keep the leaves on in order to avoid further damage. So now most of them remain decent for the kids.

We were then led through various rooms in the Museum, which was a nightmare. Just picture about a thousand people trying to fit through several regular-sized doorways. It’s comparable, maybe even worse, than the Red line before a Cubs game in Chicago. About halfway through I was retreating to my happy place, singing the David Archuleta song in my head (“Lalalalaaaaa, happy plaaaace“). There’s only so much jostling and squishing you can take before you just want to bang your head up against a wall. At one point dad got caught up on an older, overeager German couple who literally snapped his headphone wire in half.

While we were fighting the people Mom took some pretty good pictures:

This is the original School of Athens by Raphael:

I think this was called the Hall of Maps - they have maps of the world lining the walls:

Then we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel! No pictures here because we weren’t allowed, but you’ve seen the paintings many times I’m sure. You’re not supposed to really talk either, so there was a big “SHHHH” about every 30 seconds from the museum guards to all the flippin' teenagers. The four of us found some benches and collapsed. It felt like we’d been in battle for the last two hours, and only had enough energy to crane our necks and stare at the ceiling with our mouths wide open.

As we left we were shown the hallways that all foreign dignitaries and other important people take to meet with the Pope. This is the first leg:

This is the final, with the Pope’s doors at the top:

As we left the Vatican Museum we were in need of food and sedatives. We took care of the first at a sidewalk café. We were all tired and scowling at each other. It was that moment of travel when the allure of a place gives way to reality. Nothing was “cool and Italian” anymore, we just wanted a hamburger.

If you remember from earlier, you know how my mother is with the street beggars here. She never meets a stranger. So as the accordion/fiddle players approach our table my dad barks, “Donna don’t turn around, I’m not paying for it!” It wasn’t funny to any of us at the time but it’s pretty darn entertaining now :).

Next we made our way over to St. Peter’s Basilica. Here I am standing in front of it:

I never knew this before, but the square in front of the Basilica marks the area where Christians were crucified for their beliefs centuries before. Pretty moving.

A couple of the Swiss guards:

St. Peter’s hold the remains of every pope that’s ruled the Catholic Church, and it’s massive. Here’s a picture of Mr. “I’m sick of looking at churches” Poppe touring the place:

To be honest though we were all blown away as we walked in. Every time I’m there I am, it’s just so big and beautiful. We make our way around the main floor and then head to the Vatican grottoes below. It is assumed that the remains of St. Peter himself are housed here. You have to be very quiet as you walk the grottoes because there are many people in prayer, the majority of them praying to Pope John Paul II who was laid to rest here after his death in 2005.

The first time I made it to the grottoes was on accident. I was in college and wandering the place with a few other girls. We found the exit (not the entrance) to the grottoes and ended up interrupting a devotional session to St. Peter by literally walking between the praying monks and St. Peter's remains. I’d just finished reading The DaVinci Code and was convinced we were going to be cursed by the highest order of monks in the Catholic Church! We never did get in trouble, though. Again, another story that’s funnier now than it was then.

The last part of our tour of St. Peter’s was the cupola. This is quite a hike up hundreds of stairs to the absolute top of the church. But it’s worth it for the view:

This is my new Italian boyfriend, for those of you who’ve asked.

In this one you can see in the distance the Roman Forum and the Colosseum (look for the big white building in the top left and then you’ll see the top, dark gray ring of the Colosseum just to the right):

Then on the way down we caught the inside corridor looking down on the main area of the church interior. There were a few cardinals gathered so it turned out to be a really cool picture:

At this point we’d almost come to the end of the day. We had seriously covered Vatican City and St. Peter’s and were ready to chill out. We made our way to the station, found our train and settled in for the five hour ride back to Vicenza. I made sure to take little Davey Archuleta off my playlist; I'd had enough of him for one day.

First day in Rome!

2009-04-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we got up bright and early for a 6:30 a.m. train to Rome! As some of you know, this is my all-time favorite place to be, so I was pretty excited. Still, I was a little nervous because I was going without Carl or Sarah. This meant I was the one with the most knowledge of the place, so that made me tour guide…which would be fine if I had ever cared to use a map. I was actually going to have to pay attention to where I went!

I’m only putting this one in for my own enjoyment, but let me just tell you (and Amy I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of this) that my mother was REALLY excited to see Rome for the first time. This one captures, to a tee, what you see from my dad and Ryan when she starts to get all goofy at 7 in the morning. It just makes me smile:

The train ride to Rome is fantastic, and even though it was early I still tried to stay awake as much as possible to check out the Italian countryside. The iPod helped. Btw, this is so random, but David Archuleta just makes me so darn happy. That song he sings - Crush I think is the title. I’m not even sure what he’s singing about, but I just picture him stomping his right foot forward, hand over his heart, singing the song and it just puts a big grin on my face :).

We get to Rome and it’s mayhem at the train station, which is pretty normal from what I’ve seen before. Just as a side note, my family travels in twos: my father and I sprinting ahead at warp speed and my brother and mom on a leisurely stroll - heads pointed in every direction - taking their sweet time. Add to this the fact that we don’t understand what anyone is saying and that Italian drivers, especially in Rome, are CRAZY, and we’re a little stressed by the time we make it to the hotel. The guy at the front desk is very nice and even helps us find a spot for lunch, which is here:

Very good stuff, you can’t go wrong with pasta! From here we visit Piazza Barberini, which looks like this:

In the middle is Bernini’s Fountain of the Triton (Fontana del Tritone), which has been standing for more than three centuries. It’s actually some kind of strange figure sitting in an open clam blowing water from a horn - don’t really get it. This piazza is named after one of Rome’s most powerful families.

From here I take the family through the Metra system, Rome’s underground trains - very similar to the El but a ton cleaner. It even smells pretty decent. We maneuver our way around and find ourselves at the stop for the Colosseum. Here it is:

As soon as we walk up to it we get bombarded by the guided tours and crazy gladiators asking to take our picture. We miraculously find a good tour guide and get set up with a group, something I’ve never done (truthfully been able to afford) before. Here’s Max, our tour guide:

He’s obviously not the gladiator, but we did snap a picture with them (I am with mom, after all):

I can’t believe my face wasn’t about ten shades of red at this point because we were literally standing in front of the entire tour group. Maybe you just can’t see it from that far away :).

The tour was actually really great! The Colosseum is obviously a pretty amazing thing to walk through. The construction began in 72 A.D. and the structure was inaugurated with a bloody combat in 80 A.D., which lasted several weeks. At it’s peak the Colosseum could seat 50,000 people. Max told us many stories of bloody battles in the arena, including the multitude of foreign animals shipped in (lion vs. bear, two humans vs. hippopotamus, etc.).

The Colosseum used to be outfitted in marble, but has been stripped almost bare over the years to create palaces and churches. It now stands next to one of the busiest streets in Rome, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, created by Mussolini. This was crazy controversial because the road literally cuts through the ancient Roman ruins.

Next to the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine:

This was erected in 315 A.D. to honor Constantine’s defeat of the pagan Maxentius. Historically, the arch marks a period of great change in the history of Rome and inevitably the history of the world. Constantine converted to Christianity after a vision he had in battle, and then proceeded to end the centuries-long persecution of the Christians (Christians were put to death during this time for practicing their beliefs). Constantine didn’t end paganism altogether, but he started the development of Christianity into what it is today.

After the tour we took a little break before heading to the ruins (Ryan claimed he needed to warm up):

After the Colosseum we got an extensive tour of the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum, ancient ruins from the beginnings of Rome. I’ll make this short and sweet because I know it’s a lot of old history stuff.

Entrance to the Roman Forum with the Colosseum in the background. You can see the Via Sacra (Sacred Way) on the left, basically the gravel sidewalk there. This was the Broadway of ancient Rome and was walked by anyone who’s anyone from the Colosseum end to the Capitoline Hill to meet with the rulers of Rome.

Following the Via Sacra there’s the Basilica di Massenzio e di Costantino (Basilica of Constantine & Maxentius). It’s the huge brick building in the middle that used to be Rome’s public law courts.

Even further down you come to the Tempio di Antonino e Faustina (Temple of Antonius and Faustina). It’s the one with the big pillars, apparently one of the first buildings dedicated to a woman:

If you look all the way to the left you’ll see a small green dome in the corner of the brick of the balcony we’re standing on. That’s supposed to be Caesar’s grave, which looks like this up close and inside:

This is where he’s supposedly buried. We got to walk the grounds of the Roman Forum, which I’ve never done before, so I was psyched.

Then we wandered a bit up Via del Corso, one of the main shopping streets of the city. Ryan got a surprisingly good deal on a leather jacket and dad and I tried to mime-ask a guard where the nearest ATM was.

Then came my favorite part! We made our way to the Trevi Fountain, one of my favorite spots in Rome. Legend has it that if you throw a coin into the fountain over your shoulder you’ll ensure a trip back to Rome. Here we are trying to appease mom and her need for a photo. I’m playing along, dad is trying to, and Ryan’s over it:

Then a nice lady took our picture:

Next we made it to the Pantheon. I’ve heard this more times than I need to, but everyone says that if you don’t visit the Pantheon while you’re in Rome you’re branded a fool. But to be honest, this time around I realized why. The structure is mind-boggling, one of the coolest places you’ll find in Rome if you listen to its history:

The Pantheon was constructed in 27 B.C - it was literally constructed before Christ was born, which is absolutely amazing - and reconstructed in the early 2nd century A.D. This is the only building in all of Rome that remains intact. It is among the architectural wonders of the world due to the fact that it’s an open-air dome. It remained the biggest pile of concrete ever constructed up until the 20th century - and it was first constructed in 27 B.C.! Michelangelo studied it before creating the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica, and Ralphael’s tomb was discovered here about 125 years ago. Here’s what the inside looks like:

Absolutely amazing. It's obviously had some work done since Christ was born.

After the Pantheon we finally made it to dinner. We chose a restaurant in Piazza Navona, one of my favorite spots because it comes alive late at night and it still remains pretty much unspoiled by new buildings and traffic. It used to be the Stadium of Domitian, where chariot races were held as well as mock naval encounters (they would flood the stadium to do this). I’ve never been able to eat in any of the restaurants that line this piazza, but now with the parents we took advantage of it! Here we are at the oldest restaurant in the piazza, Restaurante Panzirone:

This was literally one of my favorite moments with my parents and Ryan in Italy. The food was fantastic, everyone was happy (and warm, they had heaters) and we just sat back and enjoyed the fact that we were all together in Rome on a beautiful night.

We made a quick stop by the Spanish Steps to end the evening:

Aside from the Trevi Fountain this is my all-time favorite spot. Normally these steps are filled with people, vendors and beautiful men playing guitars and singing. That's how I found it on my first visit in college, and we shared a bottle of wine with paper cups and listened to the music. It was a fantastic night. On a Tuesday night, though, it’s not as busy. Mom still got approached by a rose vendor, and then we took a quick picture and headed home. We were getting up early to tackle St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City in the morning.

Marostica

2009-04-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

After leaving Bassano del Grappa, we headed to one of my favorite spots, Marostica. This is an ancient city with old castle walls still standing as a barrier to the outside. The main castle rests on top of a hill, which you can see here:

It’s way back there in the distance. When I came here last fall there was a huge market outside of the city gates as well as in the square we’re standing in. I browsed all day and took in the gorgeous scenery - it was fantastic!

If you look behind where we’re standing you can see what looks to be a jumbo chess board. This “board” holds what they call the Game of Life, which is the story of the town’s history. The second week of September on every even year costumed townspeople become human chess pieces in order to re-create the medieval practice of playing scacchi to claim the hand of the kingdom’s most beautiful woman.

Here’s another picture of the Castello de Basso that stands in front of the chess game. We’re standing at it's entrance outside the city gates. If you look through the small doorway in the back you‘ll see the main square with the chess board:

From what Sarah's heard, the original story of the Game of Life is that the princess at the time fell in love with a commoner but was already betrothed to another. She made such a fuss about it that her father decided to challenge the two men to a chess game - whoever won got the girl. From what we can gather, the commoner won…or at least that’s what we’d like to believe :).

Bassano del Grappa

2009-04-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

Today Sarah decided to show us around some of the smaller villages near Vicenza. First stop was Bassano del Grappa. If you happen to know of Italy’s strongest alcohol already, you will know what this place is famous for. Grappa is a brandy usually made from grape pomace left in a wine press, and somehow they make it so it burns like hell the entire way down. I bought some last fall and neither myself nor any of my roommates could handle it. And we were throwing down about a thimble-sized version. Needless to say this is not my favorite drink.

Good thing the views are nice! Here’s some of the family standing on the Ponte dei Alpini (bridge) with the mountains in the background:

This one gives you a better idea of the view. We missed the red part, but if you look there‘s a big wall with the colors of the Italian flag painted on the side. You can see the green and white here. Very patriotic:

We visited this bridge first to take pictures because the weather was nice during the middle of the day. The Ponte dei Alpini is a covered wooden bridge over the Brenta river, which has been replaced many times due to flooding, but each time it’s rebuilt it remains true to the original 1209 design. Here’s Dad, Ryan and Sarah in front of the entrance:

There were some beautiful old houses near the bridge as well. Dad’s going to use this as his inspiration for the backyard:

If you look closely you can see what we think are bullet holes in the sides of these buildings. We’re guessing they might have come from the war. A lot of the towns in Italy were badly damaged during this time. This is another instance when it would have been useful to be able to read the Italian signs on the bridge pointing to these buildings.

Next stop was the Poli Distillerie, where we were schooled in the process of creating grappa. Here’s the entrance:

And here is what we believe to be the most recent method of mass producing grappa b/c it was right in front of the entrance. Or we might have just needed something to lean on for a while:

We toured the distillerie and looked through all the different test tube-looking devices used to make grappa over the years. Then we got to do a taste testing! I was literally cringing at the thought, but after mom shot one down and said, “Oh that was very good!” I manned up and did one myself:

It must have been so bad I decided to hunch over like an 80 yr old, awesome. Actually, to be honest these versions were not nearly as bad as whatever I had tried before. They had grappa in several different flavors including honey, juniper, pear, blueberry and peach. So we bought some souvenirs and made our way out.

I just have to include this picture because mom wanted to take it so bad she snapped it while the man was still inside his car. Granted, Dad could have hugged the entire car so it was pretty funny, but I’m not really sure the owner appreciated it as much as we did.

Verona, the city of love

2009-04-08T07:07:00.001-07:00

After a fun night of tasting the local Italian vino, we all woke up early and headed to Verona. This is the city where the story of Romeo and Juliet took place, and is about an hour’s drive from Vicenza.

Verona is a beautiful town, and the first of many the family saw on their trip. We parked and walked through the ancient city gates you see behind us here:

These actually aren’t the oldest gates to the city (which we would run into several blocks into our walk), but I didn’t get a picture of that so this is what you have to look at!

Next we come to the Piazza Bra that surrounds the Arena di Verona. Here you can see a row of the buildings to the left as you enter this area:

This is a huge tourist area, as you can see with all the canopies full of gelaterias. But it was so pretty!

Here is the picture of the Arena di Verona, which resembles Rome’s Colosseum:

It dates back to the 1st century A.D. Four arches of the “outer circle“ and a complete inner ring still stand, which is impressive because a pretty big earthquake hit this area in the 12th century. In the summer it becomes an opera house, with performances of Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, Aida and more. They say that it still doesn’t need microphones for performances as the acoustics remain top notch based solely on the way it was built.

Btw, I don’t normally link my arms with my little brother, I think I was trying to keep him in the picture. He turns into Sulky Sally sometimes and doesn’t like to take the millions of pictures mom and I require.

On our way through Verona we passed some shops, so I just wanted to include this pic to let you know that there are plenty of shops in Italy that we see every day in America (I guess this might apply to the Chicago folks primarily):

So the main event of Verona for us came once we arrived at Juliet’s house. No one’s really sure if this is actually the authentic home of the Capulet’s Juliet (ok does anyone else think it’s funny her name was Juliet Capulet? How did I never realize that before?), and many locals believe it to have been a bordello in the 19th century. As you walk into the courtyard underneath Juliet’s balcony, you see all of the tributes visitors have left on the walls:

And here is the balcony itself:

I have to include an older picture of VP from when Carl and Sarah visited Verona for the first time. Legend has it that the statue of Juliet in the courtyard is good luck, but only if you rub her right breast. So everyone that comes through rubs the bronze breast and takes a picture. VP decides to be a gentleman and grab her hand instead:

The building has been turned into a museum, so we all toured it and found out you can actually stand on Juliet’s balcony. So, being the Americans we are, we did this:

“Where for art thou Romeo?!?!?!”

The museum itself had some great history on the story of Romeo and Juliet, told throughout the years. Although I think the boys were about done with this place as soon as we walked in.

After our tour of love we had some lunch in the Piazza delle Erbe (Square of the Herbs), formerly the Roman city‘s forum:

In the center is a fountain dating from the 14th century and a Roman statue dubbed The Virgin of Verona. The weather was gorgeous, so we all had our first taste of a true Italian meal, alfresco-style. Dad got some outrageous seafood thing that grossed us all out and the rest of us enjoyed fresh salad and pasta along with him.

Today the piazza is known for its fruit-and-vegetable market, complete with a ton of Veronese shoppers and vendors. The market we came upon was just to the right of where the main piazza is you see above. Mom and I had a blast browsing over the different types of food. Here’s a taste of what the olives looked like:

Then we walked along the Adige River, which had some gorgeous views. Here you‘ll see the parents in front of the Castelvecchio (I think that means the Old Castle). This is the former home of the Della Scala family and is now an art museum, housing 14th and 15th-century sculptures and paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries:

And after walking back through town, we decided we were going to take part in the tourist area near the Arena di Verona and enjoy some gelato:

I think you can tell by this point the boys had had enough of our, “Ok let’s get together for a picture!!” excitement. But that gelato was damn good, so they played along. All in all, a good day - love and ice cream.

First day with the parents and Ryan - Villa Sceriman

2009-04-07T05:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so first of all I want to let everyone know that we’re all safe and sound, the earthquake that hit yesterday was about 60 miles northeast of Rome, which is pretty far south of us still. We were actually out at an amusement park called Gardaland (similar to Great America/Disneyworld) and I got a call from my dad on top of this floating space thingy. He’s all panicked but I assured him we were nowhere near the earthquake. It is horrible from what I can tell, and L’Aquila is torn apart. Sarah said earthquakes are pretty common in Italy, just not ones that are that big.

And onto my next addendum, I’m going to try and catch up on this thing, b/c what I’m about to write happened about two weeks ago. So I really am going to try and keep this more up to date so I can remember more of the details. Here we go:

Last I left off my parents had just arrived. Carl picked them up from the airport and drove them back to the house. They had been traveling for about 20 hours and were exhausted. KP (my 13 yr old neice) and I took mom to the panificio around the corner to get some fresh bread for dinner, but I’m still not sure if she remembers it at this point.

Oh, by the way, this reminds me…there’s a church about two blocks from us, and I swear the bells in the tower celebrate the passing of every 15 minutes by ringing…for 15 minutes. So as we were walking to get the bread the bells rang. The entire time. And this was quite a walk. So trust that I will never, ever need to wonder when it is 11:15, 11:30, or 11:45. And don’t even get me started about dead noon.

Anyway, the parents take a nap and then we drag them out of bed and to a vineyard called Villa Sceriman. I had never been to this place before, as Sarah discovered it about a week after I left last fall. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Picture what you would think an ancient Italian mansion would look like, with vineyards in the back, and that’s where we were.

The first historical record of Villa Sceriman dates all the way back to 1447. In 1740 it was bought by the Sceriman family, rich ship-owners from Armenia, who divided it between several tenants and left a considerable amount of land dedicated to the vineyards. Now it’s a major exporter of wine all over the world.

We had a lot of this wine. This is a picture of us at the beginning of the evening:

With the wine came a lot of prosciutto and a lot of cheese. Here’s the woman cutting the cheese (tee hee):

And here’s the lovely man who gave us samples of all of their wine:

Do you see the Italian customers? Italians love to drape their sweaters over their shoulders and around their waists.

Here are my parents closer to the end of the evening, three sheets to the wind (jk mom!):

Although it was a bit chilly, it was still a beautiful evening. My parents and Ryan were excited to finally be in Italy, and we were excited to see them, so we all decided to celebrate! Here’s a picture of Ryan and I with some of the background of the place:

And to end this whole night, I’ll give you an idea of what the wine in Italy costs:

And this was expensive wine! There are vineyards we go to weekly that will give you a jug of wine for about 1,20 euro. I’ll explain that later, as well as show you why it’s so cheap. We are absolutely surrounded by vineyards.

First night in Italy for the parents and Ryan = success!!

Welcome to Italy!

2009-04-02T03:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I've finally got this thing up and running. I figured it might be easier to send one big update on a blog rather than sending a million emails. So here you go...enjoy! Where to begin...

In March I left Chicago to come and live with my amazingly generous big brother (Carl) and sister-in-law (Sarah) and their three kids near Vicenza, Italy in a town called Villaganzerla. Here they are:

This was last fall when I came to visit for the first time. Sarah (sis-in-law) said, "Why don't you come over here for a little longer next time? See what's over here for you." And my first reaction was, "Ha...yeah, you're crazy, I'm just going to up and leave?" But she got the bug in my head, and I kept thinking about it, and thinking about it...and then I decided to jump! I figure opportunities like this don't come along very often. Thankfully she wasn't kidding, and the whole family welcomed me with open arms. How cool are my siblings??

Villaganzerla is a small town outside of a pretty small town outside of Venice. So I moved from downtown Chicago to this:

Needless to say it's a little different! But so beautiful. These were taken off of the third story balcony of Carl and Sarah's place. We are at the base of hills that lead up to the Italian Alps. These things look like mountains to me, but hey, I came from Illinois so I can't really talk.

First few days

I arrived on a Wednesday night completely exhausted, but already halfway to defeating jet lag because I spent about 9 hours, from 7 am to 4 pm, in the Dublin, Ireland airport on my trip over and had to stay awake the entire time. On St. Patty's Day. As I boarded the plane for Venice I wanted to throw a middle finger back at the green, the fiddles, the shamrocks....St. Patty's is not nearly as fun when you're tired and sober.

I guess I didn't defeat jet lag like I had hoped, though, because I ended up sleeping well into Thursday morning. The next few days were spent preparing for the arrival of my parents and little brother. I was totally psyched about the visit because I couldn't wait to see what they thought of their first Italian experience.

On Friday, Sarah and I went shopping at Emisfero, a large Italian grocery store similar to a Super Wal-Mart but SO much cooler. Emily Phillips, I thought of you as soon as I hit the produce section. This would have been your cooking nirvana. I wanted to take pictures but I thought the Italians would look at me funny, although I was already walking around with my mouth wide open. It was the biggest supermarket I had ever seen, with rows and rows of vegetables I couldn't even pronounce and a HUGE section just devoted to meats and cheeses. You could actually stand there and watch them carve the meat and assemble the cheese displays. They even had these elaborate pizzas pre-made. Definitely not your regular pepperoni and cheese.

I tailed Sarah and the shopping cart around like a little kid and kept saying, "Hey look at this! Whoa, they don't have this at Jewel for sure!" Sarah, probably on her 100th trip here, tried to humor me. Who knew I'd enjoy a grocery store so much.

Then I went home and did my first trial run with Wingo, their car...that's a stick. I don't know how to drive a stick, and I definitely don't know how to drive a stick on Italian roads. But I was going to have to learn if I ever wanted to leave the house by myself. This is an entirely different story for another day, so I'll just leave it at that for now.

A few more things about where I'm living

This is the front of their place:

The houses in this neighborhood are built like fortresses; you should see their front door. It's like walking into a bank vault. No gypsy visits for us! They were lucky b/c this place is brand new. I'm definitely getting heated floors in my house someday because the ones here are faaaantastic. Oh yeah, and behind their house is a car shop, so throughout the day you'll hear this VROOOOM of a car zooming down the little side street they have. But they're very nice. Carl and Sarah have made friends and their little boy, Allessandro, comes over to play every now and then. I let VP, Carl and Sarah's 5-yr-old, translate, as he knows more Italian than any of us. He attends preschool where the primary language is Italian, so he's learning very quickly how to speak it. Although he's very shy about it, so we haven't heard much.

This is where his azilo, or Italian preschool, is located:

Beautiful, right? It's actually in the next town over called Lumignano. It's right across from the church tower you see in the middle. It's one of my favorite places so far because you are right up against the hills and they all have vineyards sprawled vertically up and down the sides of them.

I've started to help take VP to school in the morning. This actually gives me a newfound appreciation for the handful of foreign kids I've gone to school with since I was a kid. It's weird to be on the other side of that, where you have absolutely no idea what people are saying but they're all very nicely trying to speak slowly and use hand gestures. I've even had the guy who speaks very loudly as if I'm deaf. No, I'm just American sir, a dumb American! All the while VP's all blaberblahber to his preschool friends. I just stick with smiling and nodding and the occasional Ciao! and Grazie!

And finally, these are just some pics I took of VP on one of the nicer days outside, sitting on his bike, eating some yogurt:

"Are you taking pictures of me Auntie Lisa??"

Next up is the first weekend with my parents and Ryan. I'm waiting on my mother to send me her pictures (hint hint) :). First entry done!