Let's go play chess!

I had no idea how close Marostica was to Nove until I was finally ready to go to Marostica and looked it up. As it turns out, both cities can be explored in the same day easily and I think I might do that a few times with visitors because they're both great attractions.

I first learned of Marostica by way of a "local attractions" map. From this map, I learned that I'm closer to some seriously cool places than I thought I was. Naturally, Venice and Verona, but I didn't realize Asiago was so close and that's a pretty big thrill for me because it's win-win for the family: wine & cheese for me, battlefields for the boys! There's a fun little story that goes with Marostica about a chess game played with living pieces, which is the major reason it is a tourist attraction. Here is the map... and the story of the game:

In 1454, the Lord of Marostica's castle was Taddeo Parisio. Lord Parisio had a daughter named Lionora who just happened to be so beautiful that two noblemen fell in love with her. The noblemen, Rinaldo D'Angarano and Vieri da Vallonara, challenged each other to a duel to win Lionora's hand. Lord Parisio, however, was not happy with the idea of losing either nobleman in such a battle, nor did he want to become enemies with either of them. For these reasons, he decided they should play a game of chess to determine which suitor won Lionora's hand. The loser of the game wouldn't really lose either, because the consolation prize was Lionora's sister Oldrada. The game was to be played in the square in front of the lower castle using the townspeople as chess pieces. On game day, the townspeople showed up for the feast dressed in either black or white, depending on which team they were assigned to, and Lionora watched anxiously as the game was played out. Turns out, Lionora was secretly in love with one of the noblemen, so she spread the word that if her beloved were the winner of the game, she would place a lighted candle in her window so that everyone could share her joy. The game began, with each suitor directing the human players until finally, Vieri da Vallonara won. Following the game, there was much celebrating and merriment all around and that night, a candle burned in Lionora's window.

Obviously, the story itself makes you want to visit the same way Romeo and Juliet makes you want to visit Verona. It's a fun story and easy to imagine. I also learned that on even-numbered years, the chess game is reenacted in September and I have every intention of attending a reenactment in September 2012. Since Felix is such a big fan of chess, I told him about a city nearby that has a giant chessboard for human players. He, of course, thought of Harry Potter and Wizard Chess immediately and thought it was super cool. Excellent! I have a way in! I keep thinking it will be no big deal to go and check it out, but it turns out to be a little more difficult for me to schedule the trip than I thought. August is vacation month in Italy (and most of Europe, I just found out) so a lot of places are closed or have shorter hours. This, along with my school schedule, prevents me from going when I originally planned. Finally, though, I was just DONE with being stuck in the house staring at this silly little computer (it shuts itself off periodically, just for giggles, and I find that beyond frustrating) so I looked at Felix at about noon on a Saturday and said "let's go to Marostica". Happily, he was amenable, so off we went.

To get to Marostica while avoiding the autostrada, you pretty much have to go through Nove. This is excellent, because it's how I learned that Marostica and Nove are literally 5 minutes from one another. I remember being awed by the drive to Nove because the scenery was just beautiful, but when I turned the corner coming up to Marostica and had the full view of the upper castle directly in front of me, I actually had to slow down (I was already well under the speed limit) because it was absolutely breathtaking. If there had been a place for me to pull over, I would have because that's a picture I really wish I had. Maybe when I get a bit better on the bike, I'll ride up there so I can get that awesome shot. As we drive through the small town, it quickly becomes apparent that most of it is closed down. There is very little traffic of any kind and as we pass the lower castle, I see that the gates are closed. Oh well. I follow street signs up a mountain to the bird museum and the upper castle. The bird museum is closed (big shock there) but the restaurant in the upper castle is open. Driving up the mountain terrified Felix because he was able to see out the windows what I could not: a pretty steep drop only a few feet from the road. I couldn't see it because I was watching the road so closely... it was hairpin turns all the way up and the road was rarely wide enough to be legitimately considered appropriate for two-way traffic. At the top of the mountain, however, I did have the misfortune of being able to see over the edge because I drove all the way up to the restaurant where (according to the signs) there was parking available. Well, ok, there is parking there, but it's not really for big cars and even though Rob's car is not that big, it's definitely bigger than what I am comfortable trying to drive into that parking area.

This beautiful archway is the driveway up to the restaurant parking lot. The door next to it is for pedestrians. There was not even a remote chance that I was going to try to drive through that because I had no guarantee that I would be able to turn around once I was in! So I drove a little bit past it and made a 12 point turn (ok, maybe not 12, but definitely not 3!) to reverse direction and headed back to the parking lot for the bird museum. That parking lot was empty - of course - so we parked and walked back up to the top. Having no intentions of even looking at the restaurant (I want attractions, not food!) Felix and I head up to the end, hoping to find something fun or at least a sign letting us know when things will be open again. At the highest point we could find, I snapped a picture...

Here also, we found the beginning (or end) of a hiking trail. Felix got very excited and decided we should follow it to see where it went. I'm glad he's starting to feel more adventurous and is willing to explore a bit. Caution is great, but it can be debilitating if you let it run your life. Now for the major downside: I was not dressed appropriately for hiking. I had on a decently cute outfit that I would have been fine hiking a paved trail like this in, but I was also wearing these adorable wedges that are just not a good idea to walk trails in. I braved it for a bit because Felix was so enthusiastic and I really didn't want to crush that in any way. The trail, fortunately, also had some stone walls for me to brace myself on the way down. It was basically a looooooooonng stairway up and down the mountain, but there were no rails, just a bit of wall for preventing landslides. I don't believe we made it even halfway down when I decided that there was just no way it was safe to keep going in those shoes. Fortunately, it was just over 100 degrees out, so Felix was hot enough it was easy to persuade him to head back up to the car. He did insist on stopping at the water fountain for a bit though. By the time he was done getting a drink, he was completely soaked. Good thing Rob's car already smells funny!

I am fortunate that my son likes to take pictures with me right now and that he humors me when I want to get pictures of him in certain spots. I asked him to stand on the wooden bridge that I drove over to get up to the restaurant area so that I would have a reference for the size of the actual entrance (which was smaller than this is). He's an awfully helpful kid! On our way back down, he finally started commenting about how hot it was and how he couldn't wait to get home to the ice cold air conditioning and all sorts of nonsense like that, but then he said we definitely had to come back because we never found the chessboard and that's the whole reason we went there. Plus, Dad would really like the hiking trails. HA!

So I promise that we'll come back as soon as Rob gets back from Germany and we can all go. It turns out to only be about a two week wait. Rob had a long weekend and we had great weather, so off we went back through Nove (Rob's first time seeing it, but we didn't stop) and into Marostica again. This time there was plenty of traffic and all kinds of activity around, so we knew it would be a good trip. We parked at the lower castle and headed into the square. The first thing I noticed was that it looked a lot like Verona. The entrance was a similar archway and of course the castles were built alike. I think that very possibly all of the walled cities resemble each other in that respect. I guess I'll find out as I visit more of them. We looked around at everything, trying to get a bearing on where we were and where we needed to go to find the chessboard. There was a nice looking bank on the opposite end of the square from the lower castle and a lovely view of the upper castle behind the bank. People were eating at restaurants on either side of the square. We admired a statue of a lion with wings (the Veneto lion) and wandered on down a road to the right of the bank. At the end of that road was a lovely basilica (whose name I don't know) and we investigated. There were no signs saying not to take pictures inside, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it so the only picture from inside that I have is the one Rob took of the fresco. The artwork inside was beautiful. It was, of course, a very calm place and Felix said he wanted to go back because it made him feel peaceful. I like that he wants to return to a church... and that he was so composed and respectful inside. 

When we leave the basilica, we head back down the same street and into the square. We figure that the lower castle is the best place to learn where we can find the chessboard. Upon walking back into the square, we suddenly feel somewhat idiotic: we walked right across the chessboard twice without seeing it. It was not as big as I expected, but definitely the perfect size for human players. Felix naturally gets very excited and insists on playing even though there are people all over the place taking pictures. I'm laughing at myself for not seeing it, especially with all the people taking pictures. Felix and Rob play three games of human chess while I take pictures of them and their surroundings. Felix wins all three games.

During our earlier wanderings, we noticed a monument underneath the clock tower. I did not pay as close attention to it as Rob did, but when we came back I took a closer look at it and Rob explained it to me and I am very grateful that he did because this is exactly why I wanted to come to Italy: I want to see as much history as possible in person. He posted a similar picture on facebook and I am going to use his explanation because it's perfect and much better than I would have put it: 

Caduti Per La Patria

Memorial for Killed in Action for the Country

To the viewer's left are casualties that died in the service of Axis Italy, the ones in the middle were those who died in the first world war and the ones remaining were casualties that fell while fighting to liberate Italy with the Allies.

After the chess games and my short photo frenzy were over, we wandered back to the car and headed up the mountain to show Rob the upper castle. Boy were we in for a treat! The restaurant at the top was hosting a wedding dinner, so the parking lot was packed. Luckily, we got one of the two last spots. We walked up the hill to the restaurant area and found that the other two "parking areas" were full to capacity as well and people were having to actually back down the mountain (super scary!!) because it was impossible to turn around. The wedding did not deter us - Rob particularly - from investigating, so we looked around for a way up the wall so we could get some of those spectacular views. Rob led us in and up a steep set of stairs and we finally got those views. We stood at the top for quite awhile just taking it in. Felix was terrified of falling... he had every right to be: the walkway was enough that one person could squeeze past another person, but if you were both moving it had to be single file. The railing was not something I would attempt to lean on, even if I were a feather. But the views were well worth the climb and we made it a point to enjoy them. Felix and I both tried to talk Rob into walking the path with us, but he was definitely opposed to it. I decided that I will definitely bring Felix back one weekend so we can hike the entire trail since we both want to, but it's absolutely fair that Rob doesn't.

I'm glad that this adventure was two separate trips... I saw much more and was able to appreciate all of it with relatively little stress. That's what I think sightseeing should be like and I plan to make future trips more like these were.

Monte Berico

Rob and I have been talking about taking on Monte Berico pretty much since we got here. It's a tourist attraction, of course, but the guys also use it for PT sometimes and Rob is very interested in seeing how well I can handle the mountain. We keep talking about going one weekend, assuming we'll need the entire day to get to the top and back (I'm not exactly in stellar shape!) and the big question is what to do with Felix. Today, however, Rob was released from work early and the weather is still perfect, so we decided to go with Felix. This should be especially good for us since Felix decided to start doing Insanity with me a few days ago. I'm ridiculously sore from the workouts (Felix not so much!) and Rob wants us to take the stairs.


The drive is short, it's about 5 kilometers from the apartment, and we get there right around 1300. Rob's slightly irritated that it was so easy to get to the top of the mountain in the car (I just drove where Garmin told me to) because he's only ever gone up the mountain on foot and it's a lot longer when you're running! I found a parking space at about the halfway point and we all headed to the bottom to see if we could find the stairs Rob wanted to take. When we got there, Felix and I waited on the street corner while Rob went in search of the stairs. I'm not sure yet how happy I am about it, but for now I think I'm glad he couldn't find them.

We start the walk trying to explain to Felix what he'll see on the way up. Sadly, Rob and I are not familiar enough to really explain it but it was clear that he needed to be calm and respectful and he was. Apparently, on this pathway are the stations of the cross and on certain holy days people will make the trek (some on their knees) in reverence and repentance and all other things generally holy. I personally do not know the stations of the cross (or even if that should be capitalized) but the murals are beautiful and certainly evoke religious sentiments. Even more sadly, there is some pretty disgusting graffiti on some of the walls here. I understand that there are some people here who don't want us here and they are absolutely welcome to feel that way: it's their country and their lives and I wouldn't want anyone to tell me how to feel, so I won't even pretend that it's my place to tell them HOWEVER it is absolutely inappropriate to defile this place (which is Italian!!) in an effort to make the Americans here feel less welcome. Hold a rally or something, don't destroy ancient relics! Enough of that... I took around 100 pictures here: everywhere I looked there was something beautiful to see.

The trip up was slow, not because it was a steep climb but because there was a lot to look at... and trying to read Italian can be a challenge, even if you do have a decent grasp of other Latin-based languages! I was impressed by both boys' patience... neither one of them tends to have much of it in situations like this, but they were very patient with my incessant picture-taking and general slowness. We did run into one of Rob's friends on the way up... some guys just live to PT, I guess! More power to him... I don't see myself ever running a trail like that, although it was a nice walk and now that I know where it is, I think I might like to go find those stairs... or explore the path we found at the top!

There is, of course, the cathedral at the top of the mountain and a nice viewing platform with a decent sized parking area. Before the cathedral itself, there is a cute little statue of a pregnant woman with two small children and the statement "Grazie Mamma per la Vita" which is such a sweet statement (Thank you, mom, for life). Behind the statue is a slight uphill grade with a spectacular view. I'm going to have a very hard time trying to weed out which pictures to scrapbook when the time comes! There are also public restrooms built into the side of the mountain, which amuses me. Around the corner from the restrooms is a nice little restaurant where we decided to have lunch. Felix and Rob both had the pizze della inglese, which I don't understand at all... how is pizza with slices of roast beef, baby tomatoes and "fresh cheese" English pizza? Perhaps someone can enlighten me. I don't remember the name of my pizza (fumata or something similar) but it had rosemary and oregano on it and it was delish! On a side note, something that I absolutely love about Italy in general is the lack of rushing around (besides when driving, of course!) because something I pretty much hated in the States was feeling like I could never just take my time and enjoy whatever it was that I was doing, like having a meal with my family. At this little restaurant, as with every other place I've been so far, there was no rush. We took our time eating and having a decent conversation before deciding for ourselves that it was time to go, rather than being "encouraged" to leave.

Finally, we find ourselves heading back down the mountain, past the lovely vistas and in pretty good spirits. This was definitely a more family-friendly adventure than I expected and for that, I am definitely grateful.

Verona the beautiful

Thursday begins again, a tiny bit later than originally anticipated. Then, Navigon sends us to the wrong train station... it was a lovely side trip though! It was on this little detour that I got to see Vicenza for the first time and decided it was just lovely enough I'd need to investigate further. We make it to the Vicenza train station and the girls get their tickets to Florence, then we head on to Verona. The trip to Verona is much less eventful than the trip to Venice and we arrive pretty quickly with almost no trouble finding the parking garage we found online the night before.

Pretty nice parking garage, huh? If I had known this fountain was here, I would have brought spare clothes for Felix and let him cool off after walking all day. Good to know for next time! Off to enjoy the sights and sounds and smells of Verona. The sights are immediately present... walking out of the parking garage, the city is like all the other places I've seen here so far: a mixture of old and new with tons of color thrown in for good measure. Then you walk through a little archway and see what looks like a castle wall and you know you're in a place you'll love forever. It's beautiful. Of course, the weather cooperated so the positive demeanor of the people around us helped with the general happiness of being there, but it really is just a beautiful place to be. Almost immediately we are facing the Arena, which gets Felix all excited. We backtrack a bit looking for maps and find little one-page layouts in a hotel lobby. Excellent future scrapbooking material! We head back across toward the Arena and find an Egyptian display in the square. I go to take pictures and we find ourselves posing with Antony and Cleopatra in front of the Sphinx... es.

Then we attempt to determine our game plan for the city. Naturally, we want to do the whole Romeo and Juliet thing. There's also the Arena, which we know is a must for the munchkin and a basilica or two. Today turns out to be the separation day. We wind up several times missing people from the crew because of wandering while looking at things and not keeping a clear line of sight on one another. Fortunately, three of the five of us are familiar with their surroundings. Felix and I just had to be sure to stay in contact with one of the other three at all times! Our first priority, being that we got a late start, was food. We walked past many excellent (and expensive!) shopping opportunities, some interesting people who were pretending to be anything other than themselves and some of the most beautifully kept balconies I've ever seen. We stopped in a little market area where I picked up my souvenir shot glass and a sandwich for Felix. Around this time we got separated in the crowd and I started searching for people I knew. Fortunately, we all wound up in the same little sandwich shop and had lunch there (well, Felix had gelato...) then we headed on to Juliet's house.

If you don't know what you're looking for and it happens to be crowded, you will walk right past it. There is an arched entryway with a small sign above it announcing it as the house belonging to the Capulets from whom the famous Juliet came. It kinda looks a little trashy because of the graffiti on the walls. Not everyone who walks through it writes their name on it, but it is safe to say that a large percentage of them do! Then you walk into a small courtyard where the statue of Juliet is and people are lined up to take a picture with their hands on her heart. It's very calm and orderly and naturally, it's pretty. There are locks everywhere: on the gate behind the statue, on bars poking out from walls, even on a bridge we cross later in the day. Apparently, the idea is to lock your love in place and throw away the key. Knowing the value of a good lock, I cannot bring myself to do this little symbolic gesture and I make jokes about leaving a combination lock and coming back for it later. Above us is the balcony. Yes, it's smaller than one would expect (even being forewarned) but it's still nice to see it and take pictures, of course! Then there is the actual home to tour... so we do. It's a pretty big house. I certainly wouldn't mind having the square footage, but I think the stairs would quite literally kill me. There is art on display everywhere and they have stations set up to leave letters for Juliet (emails also!) so Felix sends her an email in addition to the letter he left in the basket behind the statue. The views of the city are progressively more breathtaking with each level climbed. I really like the architecture here, but that's probably just because I'm a sucker for old stuff... it kinda makes me feel like a part of history. From the highest level in the house, we have an excellent view of the castle I want to come back and visit. The landscaping is pretty cool (looks like that Walmart picture I have!) and appeals to me greatly. We spent more time than I expected inside, but when we left I knew I could have stayed there much longer. Across the courtyard are (of course!) gift shops... Felix wanted a couple items, so we got a castle and a snow globe. Then we went up to see the "Letters to Juliet" room. It's inside a little sports store and Felix was freaked out by the mannequins' eyes. We left our marks in a book for visitors, then moved on to see a couple basilicas... ok, I saw one and had to sit outside one because I didn't have appropriate sleeves. Whoops. Next time, for sure!! I took entirely too many pictures on this trip and I'm keeping all of them because I feel creativity pouring out of me here. This will be no mere photo album or even a traditional scrapbook. I only hope I can do this place justice!!

Everything seems to run together here and I think it's because of all the walking. Once you leave the car behind, you're just moving from place to place in a smoothly transitioning sort of way... it's not like getting in the car and driving to this place and taking pictures and getting back into the car and driving to the next place... doing it that way has definite breaks in the pattern so you can easily differentiate between points of interest. Walking the city means walking the city. You start at the parking garage and you end at the parking garage, but everything in between just kinda flows... from information desk to open square to admiring the Arena to walking the road full of shops to the little marketplace to the cafe to Juliet's house to the one little church to one massive church to one slightly less massive church then - oh yea! - we wound up on a bridge with excellent views of the castle (next visit I'll make sure to get the name right so I can blog it properly!) and more locks to make jokes about. 

We return to the square in front of the Arena and arrange our meeting point because the girls are not interested in the Arena again, but Felix will probably lose his ever-loving mind if I don't take him into it. We are not disappointed. It's big, and broken. Hahaha!! It's set up for a performance, I think. There are fake fruit trees in the main entryway and the stage has what looks like a hedge labyrinth with giant roses. When we walk in there are two tours happening: a German one on our left and a French one on our right. It's an interesting language mix to listen to and I was excited to understand a little from each side. Felix and I wander on our own through the one long hallway. Felix likes to run up and down the stairs leading into the theater and pretends to be participating in some kind of ancient Roman battle. He's also happy to realize that he can reach the ceiling on his way in... guess he's growing up after all! After exploring the Arena (where my camera dies), we meet up at the statue and head back home. I am quite happy to have visited Verona the Beautiful and can't wait to come back!

My First Scappatella Veneziana!

The Navigon is very polite. It says "please" a lot... like "please turn soon" when you miss your turn. So, I guess it's just polite to me because I seem to really enjoy driving in circles.

On Tuesday evening, I prepared well so that Felix and I could be up bright and early around 0545. I figured since it takes about 45 minutes to get to Venice from here if you know the way, then I should probably leave around 0620 if I plan to be there by about 0730, which is roughly when we expected the train with CJ, Kamryn and Mariah to arrive. I think I've mentioned before that if something is supposed to arrive at a certain time in Italy to give it some room to be late, because it will. This was no exception! I woke up to my phone alarm and when I silenced it (because I was READY to be awake!!) I noticed that I had two texts. Both were from CJ... the first one said their train was running about 30 minutes late, so I shouldn't rush to get to them and the second one said their train was actually running about 90 minutes late, so I should definitely not rush to get to them. Their train wound up running a full two hours late, which was good for me because when I saw the texts, I set my alarm for one more hour... I should never do that because I always wake up poorly from it. I got Felix ready, got myself ready, got on facebook to announce my departure (how do people live without facebook?!) made a promise to take tons of pictures and headed out. First stop: gas station... I had half a tank, but it never hurts to start a trip with a full tank. Venti litri later, we're on the road back to our apartment because how am I gonna take pictures without a camera??? Good thing the autostrada entrance is close by! So we finally get going and I'm grateful that I made a trial run on the autostrada yesterday (I'd never been on it before) because I had been a little worried about how the ticketing worked and didn't want to be completely confused by more than one thing at a time. The ticket machines are very polite when asking for your money and telling you goodbye. I think that's a good thing because it makes me less fearful of driving on their roads in the future! As we enjoyed the scenery, the Navigon got lost. Naturally. We were on the A4 and Navigon told me to stay on the A4, so I did... suddenly, according to this wonderfully polite little box, we were no longer on a road of any kind. Fortunately, I pay attention to road signs as well and realized that what Navigon meant to tell me was that I should follow the part of the A4 that combined with the A57 towards Venice, rather than following the A4 all by its lonesome. No big, I pay a toll, get off the A4, get back on the A4 in the opposite direction and follow it in the right direction this time. Navigon thanks me. This is right about the point - only maybe 10 minutes from our destination - that we hit a dead standstill. I think it had to have been related to the construction because I never saw a disabled vehicle or any kind of accident. Felix learned how to text at that point, letting CJ know we were actually on our way, but stuck in traffic. Finally, we arrived and CJ told me there was a parking garage across from the bus station where they were waiting for me, so that's where I went. The first picture I took in Venice was from the 10th floor of the parking garage, which is where I parked.

After getting a little vertigo looking down the stairwell, Felix and I met up with the girls at street level and brought them back to the car to stow their luggage. Then we were off to tour the city. All of the streets are either cobbled or water, so there are a ton of adorable shops just over this bridge or just under that bridge or lining that cute little avenue... some of the "roads" were so skinny that foot traffic in both directions was questionable. The whole place was beautiful, of course, and I know I'm lucky to have made my first visit on a sunny day because that helps the atmosphere tremendously. Also, we were touring with the pros! First purchase of the day was a city map... in Italian, English, French and German. This is particularly fun for me because the little labels in my house are in all of those languages, plus Spanish. Fun fact, strictly. Oddly enough, there's not much to see in Venice... just EVERYTHING!! I followed my tour guides dutifully, snapping pictures of everything that caught my eye: the Santa Lucia train station, every adorable little bridge, the cute shops (and their bizarre mannequins), the ancient-looking walls and roads, the gondolas, the guy playing the accordion, the signs, the balconies, the soccer ball on the roof... yeah, everything. We stopped for food and espresso about 45 minutes in... naturally, it was delish! Felix enjoyed his hot dog immensely.

After lunch, we walked on to see more of what should be seen when visiting Venice: the Grand Canal, which is kinda hard to miss... Ponte de Rialto is where I bought my souvenir, which amusingly is a shot glass that says Ponte dei Sospiri... Piazza San Marco of course! who goes to Venice without taking pics of seaweed and lions and seagulls on the heads of naked statues?! NO ONE! The city is small, but since it's all foot traffic - ok, and boats - it takes time to traverse. I enjoyed a lot about it except that it was so crowded. Again, blame the weather: it was a gorgeous day! I think I'd like to go back when it's rainy and a little cooler and maybe either see more, or see it slower. It was fun, for sure... especially falling on the steps two seconds after CJ warned me they were slippery. Finding hidden treasures, like the eyes on another set of steps... spending time with family who I will see more of now that I live an ocean away from them than I did when I lived two states away. Felix had a little gelato and I had a mint and lemon slushy... both were yummy. The fish market was definitely an amusing experience: everything super fresh... some so fresh they were still moving.

My all-time favorite place there was the place that sold whole animals... I find that very attractive: waste not, want not!!

After traversing the city as much as we could in one day with a 9 year old boy, we headed back to the parking garage to get back to Vicenza. Another lovely experience: we didn't realize we had to pay for the parking at an office inside the garage before exiting, so we drove up to the exit and got rejected... then CJ went to pay the parking and holy crap! remind me not to park there again - it's 24 euros a day, whether you're there for 15 minutes or 24 hours. Lesson learned the hard way... back on the A4 (no trouble finding our way back at least!) and headed into Vicenza. The boy is not good at traveling yet, but I will fix that for sure while we're here! The girls were good sports about it though - thanks Kam and Mariah!!! We get back to the apartment and immediately start laundry... today, I'm especially glad I have the laundry room rather than a washer and dryer in my apartment. We took up all three washers getting their travels washed out of their clothes and it was quick, rather than tedious. While waiting for washers to finish, we looked over the menu from the pizza place around the corner and picked out what we wanted. Once the laundry was in the dryers, Felix got on his bike and CJ and I walked to the pizza place to pick up fresh pizzas and a bottle of vino... there was only one option, but it was good! It was especially nice to watch them make our pizzas fresh in the brick oven in front of us while Felix tooled around on the bike in the parking lot. It's about three blocks from my place to the pizza place, which is perfect for dripping deliciousness down my shirt... I didn't make a mess of the pizzas though! Happily, we all ate pizza and salad, had a little wine and diet Dr. Pepper and then it was off to bed because Verona is on the agenda for tomorrow (and train tickets to Florence). A great day I look forward to repeating in a different city each visit!!

A small adventure and a (FINALLY!) first Italian meal...

Today (Friday, June 19th) Mary is going to show me the garden shop I've been trying to find. I'm excited because I've been looking for a place that has a trellis for me to grow glicine on (I have no idea what it translates to in English, just know that it's a beautiful climbing flower and it smells like a little bit of heaven) and so far I've been unsuccessful. The name of this lovely establishment is Viridea and I believe that the name is just as beautiful as the place... As you're driving up to it, you're kinda forced to look at it because it's surrounded by nothing and crappy road, but right in front of it the road is nice so you can tell they paid for that portion of the pavement! The parking lot amuses me because you park on the grass... kinda. The aisles are paved and the parking spaces are marked with brick lines in the ground, but the spaces themselves are a brick pattern with grass growing through it. It's not something I'm used to (yet) and I think it's beautiful and pretty smart too.

After our garden shopping, we head over to Prenatal to look for baby stuff and we find a hidden jewel of a store right next to the brand new Burger King they're putting in... complete with drive-thru! Weird, trust me. This lovely little store has super cute (and functional!) stuff for every room in the house and it's very reasonably priced. SCORE! Yes, I expect I'll be back here a few more times in the next few years. I found some wall art there and I'm stoked to have it in my house now!

At the end of our little shopping excursion, it is decided that we're hungry and no one feels like cooking so off we go to Camisano so Mary can take me to her favorite little pizza place. This is an excellent little detour for me (in spite of the 3 year old and the 9 year old not quite working well together!!) and I enjoy the scenery yet again. Man, I love this place! When we get to Camisano, Mary shows me where the market will be on Sunday... they have adorable little shops that I totally can't afford, but they'll make great pics when I come back. Then we head to her little pizza place... only to find that it's not there anymore! Sadness. On the bright side, there's no shortage of places to find food here, so we go to the one around the corner. It's a little nicer than the pizzeria she was going to take me to... more like a Chili's than a Taco Bell. They certainly know how to set a table...

Our food was definitely delicious... Felix had the always safe prosciutto pizza whereas I decided to actually try something new and had a pizza with pears and four kinds of cheese. I wish I could remember what it was called... guess I'll have to go back. Dessert was excellent as well and I've already decided what I'll have on my next trip because that strawberry and lemon thing looked spectacular. Felix and I shared some kind of pudding that neither one of us complained about!

We left full and happy and looking forward to the next trip out. We'll be back in Camisano in a couple days and maybe we can throw Nove in there for good measure... Mary really needs to see it!

First trip to Nove...

So on a lovely Wednesday morning (June 8th), we decided to go to Nove to check out the pottery and ceramics that people pay ridiculous prices for in the States... yea, I won't be buying anything from Pottery Barn - I'll just get it here before I leave (IF I leave!). Before leaving, we lost one member of our caravan to a mishap with a kitten... she bumped it with her car and had to take it to the emergency vet. We hit the road in one vehicle since there were only three adults and two kids, there seemed to be no point in taking two cars. It only took about half an hour to get there and when we did, the first place we wanted to visit was still closed despite us starting late... so we went to La Ceramica VBC first (http://www.laceramicavbc.com/).

This is a small showing of what they have available... it's all beautiful. They make the pieces downstairs and stock them upstairs. When we walked in there were several people elbow-deep in white clay making more masterpieces as if it were no big thing. And it's not... not here at least! I know I'll be back here because I found several pieces I love and plan to have for around 1/4 or less of the price that I'd get them for in the States. I expect that this little town will be one of my frequented stops with guests as they come through! While here, I picked up a salt shaker and a pepper shaker that match the one piece of kitchen decor I actually care about: my $3 Walmart picture of Tuscany. We spent almost an hour walking through the one long room upstairs ooohing and aaaahing over everything, then finally making our purchases and moving on to the next place.

I can't remember the name, so I'll have to go back just to find out what it was, but they had the most beautiful pieces: mirrors, clocks, tables, masks and of course all kinds of dishes. At this place I bought a spaghetti measure and enjoyed immensely the fact that there is a river running underneath the store. The man who helped us took us into the back work space and showed us pictures of his relatives pulling clay from the river in the 1950s, which is when they began making their own pottery. The store itself was officially established in 1964.

At this point, the kids were becoming a bit restless... time for lunch and naps, so we ended our trip a little earlier than anticipated. This was kinda good because I needed to be back for Rob and Felix (I'm still the only driver!) and the kitten was in need of a temporary home, which I decided to provide. On the next trip out, I plan to stop and take pics of the scenery as well because it is breathtaking. Everything you imagine when you think of Italian countryside can be found on this little trip: tree lined roads, massive fields of flowers and vegetables, ancient-looking homes with beautiful landscaping and climbing ivy. I know I'm new to the country and it's always exciting when something's new, but I'm just in LOVE with this place! I truly hope I never lose this feeling...

My purchases for the day... total cost: 12 euro or about $17.

WE HAVE A CAR!!! Now, how do we get it?

The process required to snag your POV back from the government once it arrives is quite simple, three little steps as a matter of fact. The soldiers arriving here are taken through the "welcome to a different way of life" course and shown the ropes and in-processed. During this in-processing, it is explained to them that they must obtain a new driver license over here because the rules are different and it IS part of the steps allowed for during in-processing. Guess who didn't take that step? So I arrived here fully three weeks after Rob, got myself and Felix in-processed in roughly a week (minus the part that Rob was required for, of course!) and then discovered that our vehicle had arrived ahead of schedule. I asked Rob (in a ridiculously excited way, no less) to find out what was required for us to get the car so that we could get on the ball about it. Five days passed, no info from Rob. On Tuesday morning, I happen to be on post in the transportation office trying to find my household goods (now that's an adventure for you!) and while I was there, I asked where the driving info could be found. Turns out that information was right down the hall, so I went and asked my questions: how do I get the license and how do I get my car? The answer: take the class (given Wednesdays and Fridays at 1400) then take the test (administered daily at 0900 - don't forget to PASS) and you'll have your license. Take your license and insurance with 20 American dollars and 5 euros to get your car registered and you're done. Simple, right? oh.my.freaking.geez. Not so much.

The first problem was that I made an error: I switched the days in my head and believed that the class was on Tuesdays and Thursdays at which point I figured it would be perfect, I could take the class Thursday afternoon and the test Friday morning, then go register the car Friday afternoon and all would be well in our world. Whoops. On Wednesday I happened to be up there again and since I couldn't find my sticky note with the dates and times, I went to the office to verify and they set me straight. Crap. I already needed to ask a neighbor to watch Felix after school for this, the last thing I needed was to tell her the wrong day!

The second issue was, of course, finding someone to take care of Felix because the class would prevent me from picking him up from the bus stop. That problem was relatively easily fixed by a chat with my neighbor, plus two bus rides and a longish walk. A major plus? The longish walk didn't take anywhere near as long as waiting for that silly transport bus does! The school requires that anyone authorized to pick up students from the bus be listed on a card attached to the backpack and IDs are checked prior to releasing students to caregivers. This means I have to go up to the school and get the card made and make sure my neighbor knows to bring her ID with her and what time to be there.

Third hitch: proof of insurance. I know this doesn't seem like something spectacularly difficult to get, but it kinda is when you're on bus/bike/foot and have very limited time to accomplish greatness in a day. The first step is to get temporary proof of insurance because the actual insurance cards cannot be issued without the tag numbers but the tags are not yours without insurance. Catch 22 right? So, I get the temporary insurance statement emailed to me, but I refuse to jinx myself by printing it out until after I've passed the test - I'm superstitious that way and I'm fine with it!

Friday comes and I take the class, then come home determined to study like crazy to make sure I don't fail. Rob's supposed to help me study because he needs to learn this stuff too so he can get a license. No studying Saturday. Light studying Sunday right before he leaves. Then Felix quizzes me until I know it all backwards and forwards. Love that kid!!

Monday morning I get Felix on his bus and run up to my bus stop arriving five minutes early, which means I have about a 15 minute wait. I study some more. I get on post at about 0820 and I have time to kill, so I check the mailbox on the way... I sign in for the test at 0835 then sit down to wait and continue studying. Those signs are absolutely spectacular. The entire testing group is signed in by 0855 and the test is finally handed out at 0935. Really? Seriously... they were making noise about computer issues, but the test was taken and graded manually, so I don't know what the computers had to do with us starting the test 35 minutes late. Anyhow, we had an hour but were told that most of us would be done well ahead of that and not to over think it. They were right, I finished in about 40 minutes and turned it in terrified that it was gonna come back with a bunch of red marks all over it. I probably only waited ten minutes (a few others finished before me) but it pretty much felt like forever. I went back into the testing room to occupy the baby who had decided to start fussing so her mom could finish taking the test. When I walked back in, two people had failed, one was being handed a license and my test was being graded. I only saw her mark one wrong, but I don't know if that was the only one I missed... what I do know is that she looked across the room at the lady who was making the licenses and said "Bueno, pass" and I said "oh thank God!". Glad I could give the room a giggle! So I was handed my license and I went downstairs to print the temporary proof of insurance. Since the test had started late, I knew I was going to have time issues getting to the car thing, so I rushed out to the bus stop and then texted Rob to tell him I passed. Pretty much everything here closes for two hours around lunch time, generally from 1100 - 1300 give or take an hour on either side, so I went home and put away the mail, started a load of laundry and finally walked up the road to the registration office.

Here comes the fourth major issue: I don't have a POA for my own car. You know, the one I own jointly with my husband and therefore should not need his permission to register here? Yeah, that one. Well, I didn't take into consideration that the sponsor is in control of 100% of everything and the spouse/dependents are non-entities (silly me, what was I thinking?!) so I was informed that while I could obtain the license plate numbers required to get the actual insurance card, I would not be able to register the car without him present or a POA in hand. Great, because it's just soooo easy for me to convince him that finishing the in-processing of myself and Felix will prevent him from having to take time off from work frequently.... (yes, extreme sarcasm should be noted here). So I get the license plate numbers and the phone number for USAA's London office, then I start walking back fast because it's almost time for Felix's bus to arrive. While I'm walking, I call USAA and set up for the insurance card to be overnighted to the car dealership immediately off post where every soldier has to have the insurance card sent. I am told it will arrive by 1030 on Tuesday morning. Now all I have to do is convince Rob to get time off to come with me to do the car stuff.

Tuesday morning arrives and once again I'm rushing from Felix's bus stop to my own. This time Felix's bus is late and mine is early, so I have to sit and wait for the next one. No big deal, we can't get the car stuff for a couple hours anyway. I get to post and link up with Rob, who needs a bus pass. We head out to the store where he can get the pass and stumble upon a bar along the way... we stop in so he can have a beer and I can take pics.

"Fosters, Australian for Beer"

Whore house price sign from the 1930s

When he finishes his beer, we head on to the bus stop and make our way out to the registration office. At this point, I need to remind everyone that Rob hates walking places with me because I'm short and have a hard time keeping up with him. The walk from the bus stop is approximately 3/4 of a mile, so no big deal, but poor Rob's gotta walk slow for me (and I don't walk slowly... I'm just not 6 feet tall!!) and randomly my purse gets snagged on my the button of my back pocket so he has to rescue me from that as well. I swear, these things NEVER happen when he's not around, but as soon as he is a bunch of stupid stuff happens just to create irritation, I'm sure of it!! We finally arrive at the registration office and get started on the paperwork (sign this, dot that, cross the other... triplicate please) and after awhile, most of which is spent with me filling out forms and him texting people at work, our mission is accomplished: we have tags! At this point, we are informed that we will not be able to get our fuel vouchers until the car has passed inspection... on post. Before we can go on post, however we have to go do the cursory inspection and install the plates and the insurance card so we're legal to drive it to post to get it inspected. Slightly more time consumed. Finally, the car is legally driveable and we head up to post. As we're getting to the all-important bridge, I realize that I don't know how to get to the drive-in gate because I've always taken the pedestrian gate. Good thing I've got Rob and he's actually been through the other gates!! As soon as we get on post, he ditches me to go back to work even though he's got the whole day off to take care of the car situation. I get in line to have the car inspected and pray that this won't require a POA also. Thankfully, it doesn't and 45 minutes later (I was 4th in line) I was ready to go back to the registration office with the passed inspection notice so we could get permission to go back on post and buy fuel vouchers at the PX... and that's exactly how it happened, except that we had to stop in between getting permission to buy vouchers and actually buying them to pick Felix up from the bus. All of this driving was done on fumes essentially, since we're not allowed to ship a vehicle with more than 1/4 tank of gas in it. It's a very good thing that we only had to drive about 15 miles total. Yes, I just opened Google Earth and used the ruler tool to trace the exact route we took in the car that day... I find it quite amusing!

We parted ways after purchasing the fuel vouchers and I was just tired enough that I decided not to try to figure out how to use them until the morning. Wednesdays everything's open normal hours, so I wouldn't be having issues with times, just figuring out the vouchers.

All is well now... we have a car, which means that Rob can finally move in with us and I can finally go massive grocery shopping. Appropriate that Rob and food are linked like that...