Today and last Sunday

Last Sunday we weren't able to attend church. Why, you ask? Titus & Angie called us first thing in the morning to see what we were doing. Then in a very calm, almost nonchalant voice she asks if we can take Bella for the morning. I said sure. Then she explained that she thought she was in labor and preferred Bella to not be there. She wanted a home birth and previously wanted Bella to be there to preserve her routine. So we picked up Bella and Pam, the intern for our church for the summer, and brought them to our hotel. We showed Pam around the base because she had never been on a military base before. Then we stopped at the commissary for breakfast since none of us had eaten yet. We came back to our hotel, ate breakfast and then just spent time chatting and watching a movie with Bella. Here is Bella with the boys on their "bed". Now, keep in mind that we got the call around 8 am and arrived back at our hotel a little after 9 am. At 10 am we received another call from Titus, this time telling us that baby Kaewynn Hope was already born. She was in labor for an hour and a half before giving birth. Simply amazing. We took Bella home around 1 pm and saw the amazing handiwork of God in the beautiful, hours old, baby girl. This Sunday was a typical service for us. Service in Italian, singing in Italian, James giving a prayer for the Lord's supper in English and then Titus partially translating the service for us. (He whispered this while sitting behind us). Then they announced that after church instead of Sunday school they were taking the children to see a Children's Choir in the square. So we walked down there with them and enjoyed the show. The voices of the children was so sweet and pure. We took a short video of it and if I can I will upload it to the website as well. I must close for now. I hope you have enjoyed the update. Sorry it has taken so long.


Ci vidiamo!

ps. going to add the choir photos later. I have been sitting here for almost an hour waiting for the photos and video to load. At this time of night the hotel internet just gets so slow. I will try to add them in the morning when everyone has gone to work. Plus, I have a couple of other things I would like to blog about so I can try and add that as well.

Benvenuti - Day 4 - Marostica, Nove & the Chicken man

The above pictures were taken in Marostica. What a beautiful place. The medieval town of Marostica in northern Italy is located in the foothills, just a half hour's drive from Vicenza and 10 minutes from Bassano del Grappa. Surrounded by the ancient walls of its castles, Marostica is best known for its square which is a giant chessboard. Each September of every even numbered year, a human chess game is played in full medieval costume on the square of Marostica. The festival lasts 3 days. Starting in the second week of September, it is a tradition dating back to in AD 1923, inspired by a supposed event in AD 1454.

After we left Marostica we traveled to Nove which is known for its ceramics. Many of the ceramics manufactured there are sold in the US under the Lenox name. The ceramics can be found at Nordstroms, Macys, Banana Repulic and more. I can shop here for beautiful ceramic dishes, vases, platters, wall plaques and more for about 1/4 of the price I would pay in the US. Can't wait to go shopping - can you see me rubbing my hands gleefully? and James looking into his empty wallet? I will let you know what I get.




Finally we went to Rossano to see the Chicken Man. His name is actually Ermano and he does fantastic wood working. Just beautiful. James and I will be going to Ermano to have him make us a table. His work is just amazing. We were able to tour his warehouse and see a desk he recreated from a magazine picture. Tables, cabinets, wine racks and more. Then the most wonderful thing happened. We headed into his home and had a home cooked meal prepared by his mother. Like most people in Italy his home was located on the grounds of his business. We walked into a cute little kitchen with the table already made. We had roasted veal, roasted potatoes, a wonderful herb salad and a cheese plate. For dessert we had Foccacio bread - very refreshing, lightly sweet and very soft. This was served with Prosecco wine and cold water. What a tasty meal. Guess, I should explain why he is called the Chicken Man. Apparently a long time ago there were chickens that walked around the area, into the workshop, the warehouse etc. He would go in and have to shoo the chickens out a cabinet he was showing. American kids started referring to him as the Chicken Man and the name stuck. No chickens now though. this desk is the recreation I referred to. Amazing don't you think??
this photo is of the leaf to the table which is stored under the main part of the table. One on each side...adds about another 6 feet to the table.


Unfortunately for this part of the trip as well as Nove my camera was out of batteries. Fortunately, I did have the camera phone and so I still got a few shots. Yeah! To see some of Ermano's work you can go here to his website BizzottoSilvano click on the English enter and you will have the English side and not the Italian side.

Benvenuti- Day 3 - Downtown Vicenza

We started out our day today by taking the bus from right outside the base to the downtown area. We saw this first statue and this is of Antonio Pigafetta. He was born in Vicenza. He was engaged to assist Ferdinand Magellan. During the voyage he kept an accurate journal which gave us much of the information that is available regarding the voyages of Magellan. Another important person who was born in Padua, just 25 km from Vicenza was Andrea Palladio. He influenced the architecture a great deal here in the Veneto region and is widely considered the most influential architect in the history of Western architecture. He was influenced by Roman and Greek architecture. As a matter of fact he designed a villa that was adapted for Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Andrea Palladio wrote several books in which he included the blue prints for the aforementioned villa and many other buildings. That is why many buildings here in the region of Veneto are considered Palladio's work. While he may not have built them (some even being built over a hundred years after his death) he designed them and put it all down on paper for others to copy. The next picture is a picture of the entrance to his home in downtown Vicenza.
Across the street from Pigafetta's statue the market starts. The outdoor market is every Thursday and covers a lot of different streets. Just when you think you've left it behind you turn a corner and there are more vendors set up. There are so many different things for sale. Clothing, shoes, trinkets, jewelry, purses etc. But the best part of the market by far (I think) is the fresh food. Fruits, veggies, separate areas with fresh fish, sausages, cheeses (you just don't know how many cheeses there actually are until you see them in the market) and then there are flowers available for purchase as well. Some really neat ones I have never seen before (unfortunately I didn't take pictures of these but I will next time I see them). Another nice thing about the markets is that the cheese place will let you taste the cheeses. The fish place has a fried mixture that is fresh and you can get a bag to walk around with. We tried a bag of fried shrimp and it was so tasty. Even James thought so and he doesn't really care for shrimp. So, if all the food makes you hungry you can get a little snack to get you through your shopping day.
Another thing we saw was a portion of the old gate (above). The oldest original part of the wall in town. So amazing to see such old and beautiful architecture. I am always amazed at things that are centuries of years old yet still standing.The picture below was taken in a beautiful old park.
We also saw the Olympic Theater which represents a valuable symbol of Palladian architecture and it is the most ancient existing covered theater in the world. In 1580 The Olympic Academy of Vicenza, an aristocratic cultural club assigned Andrea Palladio to project a site for performances and ceremonies. Andrea Palladio completed the project but could not carry out the construction which was assigend to the Vicenza architect Vincenzo Scamozzi. Here is a small peek...unfortunately for us it was closed to tourists on the day we were there because of a movie being filmed. HOWEVER!!! We just realized today that the Olympic Theater is actually a 30 second walk from our church. So next time we are there we will walk over and tour it then. So excited about that because we really were bummed to find it closed to us on our tour day.
This picture is of a high school in the downtown area. High schools are all specialized (like universities) and it takes 5 years to graduate. By the time an Italian student graduates from high school he has the equivalent of a US Associate's Degree.
Some of the other photos included are just random shots of things we really enjoyed looking at.

The only really bad part of today besides rushing through everything super fast was that we caught the bus back to the Base at the same time the high school was letting out for the day. Italian kids do not drive to school they ride the city bus. Not only that but the downtown area has several schools (probably more than 5). The buses were packed with students. There wasn't room for us to move at all. You enter the bus at the front or rear, validate your ticket towards the middle of the bus and exit in the middle. However, I rode at the front on the step while balancing on a couple of toes and trying to stay upright. Really I didn't need to bother about staying upright since I was wedged in tighter than a sardine. No kidding. And we still stopped at every bus stop to let more people on. I couldn't move forward or backwards. I had to pass our bus tickets to another member of our group to validate. And it was so hot and stuffy. Not a good end to the day but I did enjoy what we saw.

ciao for now.

I have been so bad at blogging lately

I was busy for a week with Benvenuti (welcome) - a class offered for the spouses of those who are new to the base. I will add some photos and try to explain them but I may break it up into several bloggos - because let's be honest I have a ton of pictures.

A quick recap though - Day one of Benvenuti - B-O-R-I-N-G! Mainly this was informing the spouses of what was available and I think this pertained more to the Army wives than me. But I guess it is good info (I got the same info at the briefing I attended). Day two - trip to Venice - we skipped out on this day for several reasons: first one because we had been there before, 2nd - the weather was so hot and I didn't feel like tramping all over Venice at a fast clip in the heat (our guide walks very fast and actually lost someone in February due to this) and third - since we are just getting here we have at least 3 years to make another dozen or so trips to Venice. I would prefer going when it is a bit cooler. So we will wait for fall before make the 45 minute train trip or 1 hour drive to Venice. Day 3 - Tour of downtown Vicenza. Not too bad but again pretty hot and we walked at a pretty fast pace. The boys came with us for this trip (but not to the boring meeting on day one). We learned how to take the bus, which bus to take to downtown and back - this was easy BUS 1. This was supposed to be a walking tour but it was mainly walking. Our guide really didn't give us much information but their were a couple of things she did explain and that was nice. And day 4 - this was the BEST day by far. Our guide drove us to Marostica, Nove and then Rossana. I will explain more about this trip in its separate posts. So...

Ciao for now!

Aeolia La Casa del Vento

Found it...Here is the link the restaurant I went to on Wednesday.
www.Aeolia.com/e-home you can click through the pictures and see the wine cellar (where the wind comes from) By the way the English translation of the name is House of Wind.

Pretty cool, huh? I am so thrilled I found this information so I could share with all of you.

A piu' tardi.

A

Views of a Villa

an example of the small gardens you see here in Italy.

Today I went to lunch with my new friend "D" and the Moms to Moms group. I think this is what the group is called. We went to small restaurant in a villa. When we arrived though, we still had 30 minutes before they opened for lunch. So we started walking around the small village. The images today are of some the beautiful places we saw on our walk. The one with the rock behind it is actually built into the mountain side and is part of a system of caves. From what I understood they found numerous articles from the Bronze Age in the caves surrounding the area. Very beautiful - I love seeing the old architecture. The sights are amazing.










The picture above is the view from our table at lunch. My lunch today was part of the menu prezzo fisso (fixed price menu). There were 6 items to choose from and you were able to choose 2 of those items. I choose Gnocchi con Porcini e sfogliata gelato. The gnocchi is potato dumplings and it was with mushrooms and the sfogliata gelato (which is not the full name - I can't remember it) was a baked ice cream. The bottom was a crust that was a shortbread type flaky pastry. This was covered with ice cream and the top was finished like a creme' brulee. This was very tasty. The flat price was 10 Euros for the meal. Normally the menu prezzo frisso also comes with drinks also. Today for some reason it did not. Nevertheless, it was a delicious meal and I enjoyed visiting with new friends. Oh, and the following pictures are of the interior of the restaurant. There was the wall where the wine is stored, then a room across from that went down into a cellar which was actually a cave that ran under the surrounding mountains. There is a wind that comes in from the mountain that keeps the cellar very cool. The wind was very strong and felt so nice. Though I know if I had stayed there any longer it would have started feeling cold. And one of the ladies there said that this cave under the restaurant was where Galileo hid when he was in trouble for his scientific views. Isn't history cool? Sadly, I didn't get the name of the restaurant. I will try to get that information and either edit this post or add another.
this is how the ceiling of the room above the cellar cave was painted.
this is the wall across from the cave cellar.

13th Century Villa - across the street from the villa built into the cave.

Anyway, these are a few of the photos that I took today. I hope you enjoy them.

Ciao for now. A piu tardi.

Angy

How do I use this?

Can you imagine walking into the bathroom and finding this? Exactly how is this supposed to work? There are no bars on the side to hold on to. This is the same kind of bathroom that I saw all over Greece. Let me tell you that there comes a point when your knees just say NO THANK YOU! Fortunately there are a few places that you can still find "American" style toilets. The second photo is of the tank where you push a button to flush the toilet. This is usually high on the wall above your head.

Interesting? Maybe? But I definitely prefer the American way in this instance!

Ciao for now.

A