Learning a thing or two...

Today we have a guest blogger...I know you're excited. It's my cousin, Megan! She's taking over the duty today, because I still have stuff I have to get done from work! Our family is getting spoiled by the blog...they can't believe there are no pictures or stories posted yet and Drew and Meg have been over here a week already! (How dare us not keep them informed, huh??? :) But truth be told, we haven't had time to sit down, literally. I'll let Megan explain...enjoy!

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Buon Giorno everyone! I feel so privileged to be able to write one of these, as I've been following Katie's since before she left on her trip around America over a year ago! I guess I'll go ahead and start at the beginning of Drew's and my adventure over here.
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We got in around 10 in the morning on Monday the 31st. We were greeted at the airport by Katie and her neighbor Rosario who she's written about in the blog before. He's fabulous and probably my new favorite person. Anyway, riding in the car home from Venice, it finally hit me that we were actually here and I got super excited. When we got home, Rosario insisted on making us spaghetti for lunch and bringing homemade wine over to drink, so we got our first authentic Italian meal as soon as we got here!
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The rest of our first day was relaxing enough, although exhausting for Drew and I because we were so jetlagged. Katie had a little memorial day BBQ with her friends from work and then Katie and I took a little walk around her town while Drew went to bed (at 6:00 pm!) from utter exhaustion. All the small little towns over where Katie lives are super cute and they are all built around a common centerpiece: a church and bell tower. Katie's town San Quirino has a cute little garden and field behind their church that we walked around that night and caught up.
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The next day we went into the little market at Aviano, the town that the Air Force base is in. We bought the most amazing provolone cheese and salami and ate them as a meal-replacer for the next couple of days till we left on our BIG FABULOUS trip all over Italy!
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On Wednesday we went into Venice for the day. What an amazing city! Katie told us that the best thing to do was to wander around the city and get lost. That wasn't a problem in the least bit. It is virtually impossible to navigate Venice with a map. The streets are all little alleys and they curve and turn into other little alleys. There are signs all over that point you towards Piazza San Marco and Rialto, the main bridge in the town. There are gondola's and men in striped shirts driving them all over the place, wanting 100 euro for a ride... we thought we'd pass on that one...
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Thursday morning (my birthday!) we all got up bright and early and started our fabulous journey! We got on a train to Bologna and arrived there around 10 am. It was raining a little, but most of the road we were walking on was covered, so it didn't bother us too terribly. We went into Piazza San Petronis first where we saw the fountain of Neptune, a Palazza (palace) and Basillica San Petronis. The Basillica was huuuuge and amazing inside, outside it looked kind of plain, but we were told the the city ran out of money to finish their original plans for making it beautiful as well as humongous. Next we walked down to Due Torre, two towers that were built a million years ago and are now leaning. Drew naturally decided we needed to climb up the taller of the two leaning towers and see the city from the top. I'm not afraid of heights, but climbing up the rickety, worn, wooden 497 steep stairs was not fun. It was definitely worth it though when we got to the top. The views of the city were amazing and we got some great pictures! (Yes, I'm putting them up!) The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the University of Bologna's campus and having one of the best lunches we've had here. Around 2 we ran to catch our train to Florence.
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Florence was definitely my favorite city of the trip. When we got there we checked into our hostel and went out to find the Statue of David. We got a little lost, but finally found the entrance to the Academia and whoa, was David awesome. I didn't expect the statue to be so massive, but it's yet another of Michelangelo's amazing works of art that we saw in our travels. We were recommended to go see it and now we're recommending it to you, if you haven't seen it, you definitely need to!
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Our next day in Florence was spent shopping in markets, going to the Galleria Uffizzi and climbing the Duomo. The duomo was by far my favorite thing that we did on the trip. It is a massive cathedral that has a painted dome in the back of it. Climbing up the 463 stairs, that are made of stone and way safer, was no problem, especially when you got to the top and saw the most amazing view I've ever seen in my life. The Tuscan countryside is amazing: dotted with cathedrals and vineyards, rolling hills, the Arno river and Ponte Vecchio. It was truthfully breathtaking. You can obviously see the entirety of the city of Florence also. It's just so unbelievable. I'm in love! That night we had a great dinner of bistecca di fiorentia, a classic Florentine dish that is a simply cooked t-bone steak that was to die for, as well as some pasta and of course, vino!
We woke up the next morning and did a walking tour of the historical parts of Florence; saw some new things and learned some new things about buildings we'd already seen. We got on a train to Rome that afternoon and went to Piazza di Popollo, the Spansish steps and the Trevi Fountain. We had an early night that night and woke up bright and early the next day to go to the colloseum and Palatine Hill. We took a guided tour of both of those, which was well worth it because we learned so many cool and interesting facts about ancient Rome that helped make everything seem much more real. After our tours, we decided to walk to a few more piazza's and see the capitol building and some more statues and fountains. That night we went to see the Vatican and St. Peter's Basillica at night, because Katie said that was one thing we had to do and she was right! It was gorgeous! Definitely another recommendation if you haven't seen it already. We also went and got some more fabulous gelato and went back to the Trevi fountain and see that at night, which is unbelievable as well. It's all lit up perfectly, and again, we got amazing pictures.
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Yesterday morning we went to go do a guided tour of the Vatican-- an absolute must! It was so helpful to understand everything we were looking at and really get a good idea of the meaning behind statues and paintings; especially the Sistine Chapel!! They gave us a good description before hand, so we knew what we were looking at, and it helped tremendously. Michelangelo is truly an amazing artist and it shows in the Sistine chapel. The definition and shadowing in the paintings, as well as the detail and symbolism of the whole fresco are breathtaking. Afterwards we stood outside St. Peter's Basillica and learned some interesting facts about that before heading in alone to see it. It is hands down the most amazing church I have ever seen in my life. From the marble coating every surface you see to the gold and bronze ornate designs and altars to the paintings and sculptures that line the monstrous hallways, it is the most beautiful place I've ever been. We left St. Peters without climbing up to the top, as we had wanted to because we had booked our train back too early. Other than that though, we reallly did just about everything that we had wanted to.

We were talking yesterday on our way out of the Vatican and saying how we all felt that we had probably learned most of the stuff that we had re-learned over the weekend before in school, but it really doesn't take root until you see it all firsthand. Hands down, the past 6 days have been filled with the most amazing sights I have ever seen. You HAVE to come visit Katie. She's a fabulous tour guide!

Enjoy the pictures! these are just a few of the many we've taken.

 

Drew and I exploring a stream that Katie took us to see in Polcenigo

Katie and Drew on the Rialto bridge in Venice

Katie and me in front of the Basillica San Marco in Venice

Drew and me in front of Basillica San Petronis in Bologna

Drew sitting in a window of Torre Assinelli

The Due Torre-- the one on the right was the one we climbed up!

The Duomo!!!

Katie, Drew and me on top of the Duomo looking over Florence and Tuscany

Katie, Drew and me on Ponte San Trinita at sunset in Florence

Our fabulous pasta and bistecca dinner in Florence

Drew and me assuring our return to Rome by throwing a coin in the Trevi fountain

Drew and me in front of the Colloseum

In front of St. Peter's Basillica at night

The three of us in front of Trevi Fountain at night

In St. Peter's Square on our last day in Rome

Katie was a littttle exhausted! Waiting for our train home once we got into Venice

Shopping Day in Nove!

Alright so I had this post written a week ago and kept waiting to include some pictures, but it's not gonna happen at this point, so I'm just posting it!!


Last Saturday the girls planned a shopping day down to the town of Nove where they make ceramics.  I wrote about this in a previous blog entry, but it's a town about two hours away that houses all the factories which produce ceramics for Williams Sonoma, Lenox, Tiffany's...etc.  I bought many of my Christmas gifts there for family this year.  Unfortunately, two of my gifts broke in the mail so I was finally able to replace the Christmas gifts yesterday.  I'll get them mailed out soon.  Christmas in June!  I was also able to make some purchases for myself...they have so many beautiful things!!

All five of us were traveling in Meredith's truck.  It is an American size truck on Italian size roads...I don't know how she does it!  Anyway, needless to say it stands out like a sore thumb in any parking lot, because it is difficult to fit it into one space!  While outside of one of the ceramic factories there was a little boy (around 2ish) and his grandfather admiring our "grande machina" (big car). The grandfather was taking the boy around the truck and letting him stand in the bed of it while we were loading our boxes of ceramics into the back.  I started talking to the man because he knew a little English.  He asked where I was from and I said the United States, usually that answer is sufficient for anyone asking over here.  But he asked where in the States and I said Tennessee.  He then told me (from the parts I understood) he had a son who was selling paintings at some convention type thing put on by Southern Living magazine in Nashville!  He said he went to visit him for two weeks and stayed at the "Gay Opera Hotel".  I took that as a translation of Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  He said it was "bellisima" (beautiful) with the gardens and the river inside.

The world is really small!

My Children, My Flowers...

There are a few congratulations that are due.  The first going to my little sister, Kelly, who graduated from Centennial High School on Saturday.  I pray for strength, confidence, courage, and wisdom as she makes the next decisions for her future.  So many possibilities!

The second goes to my hubby who just pinned on Captain in the United States Air Force.  So proud of him and thankful for his hard work.  The sneaky guy didn't even tell me he was promoting early (before he left for training), so I was not in attendance.  Although it wasn't a ceremony anyway, so he says, it was just done at the Commander's Call on Friday morning.  So typical Taylor!

And speaking of training, I took Taylor to base this morning at 0545 to send him off for RTC training in Germany for 3 weeks.  And so typically, I got home from dropping him off and I happen to look at the Accord and notice my back tire is flat!!  Go figure, as SOON as Taylor leaves I have a car issue!  Ugh.  It's off to the auto hobby shop tomorrow!  So I'm now on my own, but only for a week because then Meg and Drew arrive!!!  I'm a little excited, have I mentioned that yet??  :)

So I mentioned a few posts ago about my "not so green thumb", but I now have some plants to brag about.  Yes, plants.  I'm quickly approaching the age where many of my friends on Facebook are all posting pictures of newborn babies, and if not children, at least their dogs.  Well I am just now graduating from taking care of myself and now moving on to include plants.  Yes, baby steps, I know.  And while I may have one dead tree on my balcony and one that I still haven't figured out if it's dying or just getting a few dead leaves, I also have some BEAUTIFUL flowers in my yard that I planted about a month ago and they're doing excellent.  So please admire my beautiful Geraniums in my front pots!!  And I'll also add, they don't require any care when I leave on a weekend trip...that's MY kind of responsibility.

My Geraniums only had one bloom when I planted them!  You can also notice my Impatients in the background in the corner of my yard.  They're not doing quite as well as the Geraniums, but they're still living.  That's something, right?

Close up!

And another new addition to our home is finally a coffee table for downstairs.  I kept browsing every once in awhile through the Shopette because things come and go quickly.  After work one day I walked through and saw two of these flag trunks, I thought they were really cute and were very versatile and thought it would work well downstairs.  Luckily, I bought it right there because they were gone the next day!  So here it is. 

The home is slowly coming together, piece by piece!  I'll update again soon!

Please Come Visit...

Just take a look.  You have a place to stay, a personal tour guide, and so many, many things to see.  These are a few pics from the lake 30 minutes from our house in the mountains. 

Lago Barcis (Lake Barcis)

Arrivederci!

Friends, Deployments, Visitors, and Travel

Saturday night I set out to celebrate some friends' birthdays, Andrea and Ivy, at a local restaurant that I had not yet visited.  Still being new to the area this is not an uncommon event, I looked up the address online for my GPS, and headed out.  I have learned over here the problem with relying 100% on my GPS:  it doesn't always take you the quickest route, but it does generally gets me there eventually.  Upon arriving at my destination, as designated by my GPS, I am in the middle of some farmland with a few sheds/barns around.  Clearly this is not correct.  No problem, I'll keep driving for a bit in the right general direction and I'll keep an eye out for the restaurant.  Five minutes later, still no restaurant.  So I pull over into a vineyard (so Italian, I know) and decide to call Ivy.  I pull out my phone and it is totally dead, won't even turn on, dead.  Grrreeeat.  So I continue driving for an extra 10 minutes before I punch "Go Home" into my GPS and turn around.  I drive all the way back home, plug in my phone, get Ivy's number and call her to see what the plan is.  Mind you, at this point I'm an hour and a half late.  (Yes, that's bad, even by MY standards!!)  Turns out other people were going to be late too and I still had time to head over there.  I then got directions from them over the phone.  Turns out the restaurant was about 5 minutes from my house...AND I remember passing it when using my GPS.  Go figure! 

So I made it finally and had an awesome time at a Brazilian Steakhouse in Italy with a band playing American rock music!  It was a culture filled evening :)  Turns out to be one of my favorite restaurants I've been to over here.  Not only because of the endless delicious meat, but the fried cinnamon sugar bananas (to cleanse your palate between meats) and the delicious Caipirinha drinks (lime, sugar, and sugar cane spirits!)

Here's a picture of the girls.  All girls from work plus a neice and a daughter :)

These are the cards that sit in your spot.  Green is for Si, per favore, you would like some more meat.  They bring around meat on large skewers and slice off pieces for your plate.  All different kinds, it was delicious.

When you're done, you turn your card over.

Ivy, Kahea, and Natasha.

Misty, Natasha, Meredith, Me, Kahea, and Ivy...taking a lemon something shot.  It tasted like Pledge dusting spray.  Yep, that good :)

Anyway, it was a very fun night with good friends!  Drew and Meg, don't worry, we'll be going there when you're here, which JUST so happens to be in 16 days!  We already have our trip booked to go to Cinque Terre and Tuscany.  Not many people in the States have heard of Cinque Terre (Five Villages) but it is a very popular place over here.  It is apparently a gorgeous place on the coast with hiking between the islands with villages along the cliffs over the sea.  Here is a little pic I found online.  Look it up, it's a gorgeous place!

                                      

(Pic from http://www.backroads.com/)

I just found this map online.  I'm including it because I think it is a very good reference point for most of the major Italian cities.  This gives you an idea where everything is located.  Notice Venice in Northern Italy which is located on the Adriatic Sea.  We live just North of Venice.  And we are at the base of the Alps which are located along the Northern border of Italy with Austria and Slovenia.  Milan is about 4 hours west of us and Rome is 6-7 hours south of us.  This map also includes Cinque Terre it is just east of Genoa on the Ligurian Sea.  

                                      

The next trip I'm booking for Meg, Drew, and I is to Bologna, Florence, and Rome. You can see they are straight down the Autostrada, I'm debating between the train and driving depending on cost.  I've found that in the States we have this idea that the train is a cheap way to travel through Europe, well it's not!  It is a convenient way to travel Europe, but not cheap.  A round ticket trip from Venice to Rome will cost you at least $130 and that's when you choose to leave at crazy hours like 3am and take the regional train that stops every 20 minutes.  But it may be more affordable then gas, tolls, and parking fees, I need to crunch some numbers!

You also may be curious as to why Taylor is not going with us.  As of right now he is leaving on Sunday (May 23rd) for training in Germany for two weeks.  As of last week, he was tasked for a deployment to Kyrgyzstan at Manas Air Base.  Does this sound familiar? Why yes, deja vu...lets see if this deployment actually happens since the last two have been cancelled!  Kyrgyzstan is a country north of Afghanistan.  It is a transportation hub for troops coming in and out of the desert.  Most troops will process through Manas and receive supplies before they touch down in Afghanistan.  He is slotted to leave the beginning of July for 6 months.  Yes, that includes missing Tennessee football season for Taylor and Thanksgiving and Christmas for me.

I get to write about all kinds of trips and travel opportunities that living the military life in Italy provides.  It is such an awesome opportunity and Taylor and I are greatful for all the things we have been able to do and see.  Sometimes it is easy to see all the trips and experiences and overlook where we pay our dues...but here it is, in deployments.  Being at my first base and experiencing full on military life is such an eye opener from living in Franklin without any military affiliation nearby (Clarksville being an hour away).  It is so strange to think that there are so many people who live with a husband/wife and/or parent deployed for months at a time.  Growing up with parents that worked regular hour Monday through Friday jobs and with friends whose parents did the same it is easy to overlook the sacrifices of so many who are continuously heading overseas to defend the country.  Many are heading over for the third and fourth time (and more).  And when they leave, they leave a life back home.  Yes, it's their job, yes, they are getting paid for the work they do, but they are leaving a family back home that continues on without them for extended periods. 

I feel fortunate to be in the Air Force who generally has shorter deployments then the Army (there are always exceptions, i.e. Thomas who is deploying for a year).  But the Air Force generally deploys 4-8 months at a time while the Army is usually 15 months at a time.  FIFTEEN months, that is a LONG time.  I also feel fortunate that I have no children.  When Taylor leaves, it is just me I have to take care of and no one else.  So many must leave not only spouses, but children as well.

Four girls at work (three of my good friends) all have their husbands deploying this week.  It is just a way of life.  And while the girls are sad to see them go, at least they are all leaving at the same time so we have time for lots of girls trips this summer (along with working 40+ hour weeks)  To people back home it is so foreign to think of living that way and I often hear, "there is no way I could do that".  But truth is, you can.  Sure you don't WANT to, but you CAN do it. 

Phew, just expressing my new found appreciation for so many military families that I took for granted for so long.  Anyway, assuming this deployment doesn't get cancelled...BRING ON THE GIRL'S TRIPS!!!  And the visitors!!

Ciao, bella!!

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

My mom always says she needs to start writing a book about funny things kids say and do at school, well I have a few chapters to add to her book.  Thought I'd share a few humorous moments.

We have a new child (7 years old, I believe) who is beginning her second week at Aviano Youth Programs (AYP).  On her second day a boy threw a wiffle ball at her "boob" (verbatim) as she yelled and burst into tears.  She then proceeded to body slam the boy to the ground.  Yes, body slam.

Same child, different day.  It's raining outside and one of the counselors, Mrs. Andrea, is carrying a plaid umbrella while picking up the kids from school.  The child says, "Ms. Andrea, your umbrella looks just like a pair of my Dad's panties!"

Same child, YET another day.  She's in a classroom with one of the counselors, Mrs. Misty.  The child has a question and calls for Mrs. Whiskey.  Misty said, "did you just say Mrs. Whiskey?  My name is Mrs. MISTY, not Mrs. Whiskey!"  The child totally believed her name was Ms. Whiskey and was blissfully unaware of the humor of her mistake.  Classic.

New child, new day.  A boy in my class (age 9 or 10) looks at me and says, "I need to squeeze the lemon".  As I am processing what he just said to me, I see Misty overheard him and is dying laughing.  So I'm doing my best to hold my composure and I said, "I'm not really sure what you're trying to ask me, but I'm pretty positive you need to rephrase it before you ask me again."  He then looks and says, "I need to use the bathroom".  Yep, that's what I thought.

My, oh my!

Lignano

Last weekend we took a trip down to Lignano beach with a group of friends from the squadron.  It's the beach about 45 minutes away from Aviano.  We had such a blast down there.  We got two hotel rooms for 8 of us, yes, it was a little cramped since we had 2 king size beds and a single, total!  The girls took one room (the three of us shared a king) and the guys took the other (a king and a single, pushed together) for 5 of them...yeah, I didn't even ask how that went.

Here is the view outside our balcony of the hotel...cute little beach town with a park across the street.

And if you look VERY closely you can see the beach between the trees and the building.  Our hotel had a pool on the roof.  We were so excited to check it out and maybe go for a swim...until we got up there and realized the pool was empty.  Hmmm...small detail that wasn't advertised :)

The girls on the balcony.

Hmm...yep, this is a very accurate picture to describe the night/weekend!

Ready to go to dinner and attempt to find some dancing.  We weren't so lucky with the dancing, but dinner was delicious!

Another telling picture!

Trying out the Carerras (or something like that).

Anyway we had a fun weekend at the beach.  No set plans coming up, maybe looking to go somewhere over Memorial Day weekend.  Taylor gets to pin on Captain that Friday, so a bit of a celebration trip.

More posts soon...I'll try to be better with them!!