Let it SNOW! Let it SNOW! Let it SNOW!

Ferrara is really beginning to look a lot like Christmas. On Friday and Saturday it snowed about a foot. Our whole Italian world blanketed in bright white snow only adds to the ambiance. It turns out it hasn’t snowed like this here in years, how great for us. We took the boys outside to play in the snow and throw snowballs. I tried in vain to build a snowman in the fine white powder, but my Texas roots got in the way. We had a blast until Will’s lips started to turn blue. On Sunday evening we went down to the Christmas market, drank warm spiced wine and perused the vendors’ booths until we were frozen.

I drove into work on Monday and the entire countryside was blanketed in snow and a soft white haze. It was difficult to see where the ground ended and the sky started. The sounds of feet crunching and a few birds shaking off the cold seemed to be swallowed up in the cold winter morning. Truly breath taking…kind of like the drive on the snow and ice covered roads, which was breathtaking in a scary I think I’m going to slide off the road into an irrigation ditch kind of way.

Somebody to Lean On

After our excursion to Pisa Lauren commented; “there are lots of towers that lean here…I’m not sure what the big deal is!” I tried to defend the great and complicated beauty of the Pisa tower, but to no avail. It turns out she’s right! Ferrara has 3 leaning towers that I have found and one of them leans a lot and is right next to a main street. I knew Italians had a talent for a great number of things (wine, cool cars and outrageous fashion that only looks good on them to name a few) but it seems that gravity deifying structures might be their true hidden talent.

The Guest Blogger, Nana and Papa Bob in Italy

Magnifico Italia! Bravo Italiani! The Italians seem to have cornered the market on being a very happy and contented people. This ever-present attitude makes them into very gracious people who try to never offend - thereby, I suppose, attempting to keep everyone as happy as they are. A little story can illustrate. A few days ago Bob and I spent the entire day strolling the city blocks, visiting museums, and walking in a drizzle under umbrellas through the piazza. For lunch, we wandered into a restaurant right next to the Este castle built in the 14th century. Bob talked me into having a 26 Euro lunch consisting of four courses: antipasto, pasta, meat, dessert and caffe. It was actually served one course at a time allowing us to savor each bite while we spent nearly two hours eating! At dessert time, we were allowed to choose (dolce della casa) from all the desserts. I chose tiramisu not realizing that THIS tiramisu would be perfetto: coffee soaked layers of sponge cake stacked with mascarpone cheese and chocolate. What heaven! And so yummy! As full as we were, we ate every bite.

Remembering the taste of the tiramisu, last night after dinner, Bob and I walked into the city center with the intention of shopping, seeing the Christmas lights, and of course, getting caffe and the same dessert at the same restaurant. How could I go back to the States without one more taste? So, we entered the restaurant, were seated by a very pleasant young man who gave us a menu and a basket of the famous Ferrera bread. After looking over the menu and deciding that yes, we really could not go wrong by having the very same dessert, the waiter came back. He listened very closely and politely as we said, "Due tiramisu e due caffe, per favore." With a strange look on his face, he leaned in very close to us and spoke in a near whisper - in English! (How can you speak Italian and get a reply in English?) He said, "I am very sorry, but we have a bit of a problem. This is a restaurant, and I have to serve you food before I can serve you dessert." After realizing that we didn't want other food - we had already eaten dinner and it was nine o' clock - late for even Italian eaters, he very politely told us of a bar (Italian equivalent to a bakery/coffee shop) which was right around the corner - almost drew a map for us. I explained to him that we had eaten food at his restaurant a few days earlier and really loved the tiramisu -- all the while hoping that he would relent, but he did not. As we left the restaurant he was apologizing and apologizing - ever the polite Italian, but still not serving that tiramisu. I'm just glad we didn't start eating that Ferrera bread.

Running Around Florence

With Bob and Nancy in town we set off, after giving them some settling in time, for a weekend trip to Florence. Firenze, as the Italians say, is world famous for its Renaissance art and sculptures. The ruling Medici family patronized some of the most famous sculptures and painters as Michangelo and da Vinci just to name a few. As a result the entire town is filled with beautiful art and architecture. Most famous of them is of course The David, which is a huge and very stunning work that really can only be appreciated in person. Lauren’s favorite was Uffizi Gallery, which featured a huge collection of art but Lauren loved the thousands of beautiful frescos that covered almost every inch of the ceilings. Of course all of the beautiful art attracts tourists, and huge crowds of them. Fortunately for us we were in Florence during the off season, I can’t even imagine what a full summertime crowd would look like.

The beautiful city is also a great setting for marathon and that turned out to be a problem. As we went to leave the hotel on Sunday morning we noticed the crowds and the first groups of fast runners passing by. By the time we loaded the cars and arrived at the first intersection the running hoards had descended into the city center and blocked our exit. “No big deal” I thought, since there is no traffic we can just back down the street we were stuck on and make a detour. Of course our luck would not hold. We found we were completely trapped by the race course and the only feasible exit was blocked by the Sunday market tents and crowds. So after enduring some very angry Italians, also trapped in the city and only having their car horns to express their frustration, we managed to make it back to the parking lot. Deciding to take a long and leisurely lunch, which gave even the slowest runners time to clear the course before we finally departed about 2.

Our GPS had apparently suffered some ill effects from the marathon, and kept us driving around town for about 45 mins before we were able to escape and make our way to Pisa. We of course took the obligatory pictures attempting to hold up or push down the leaning tower before heading back home.

Back in the Swing of Things

It has been a long time since I sat down and recorded the goings on here, I have been traveling for the better part of 3 weeks straight. The first week included a 2 day trip to Germany and a day trip to Pisa (for work, I only saw the tower from a great distance over the tops of the buildings). The second week was a weekend trip to the Air Force base in Aviano, about 3 hours, for an antique bazaar followed by another full week in Germany. The last one, under sad circumstances, brought me back to the US for the first time in 6 months.

Germany, more specifically Bavaria which is in south central Germany, was beautiful. Both of my trips took me thought the mountains of Northern Italy, into Austria and into Bavaria as both my destinations were only about 20 miles apart. Even in late October and early November there was good snow on the mountains and the days were crisp. Although a good portion of the days saw rainy weather and a large amount of my time indoors, it was a very nice change. My second trip was spent in a small village, Oberammergau, which has about 5000 residents and is famous for its Passion Play (www.passionplay-oberammergau.com) which is held once a decade. The play runs from May to October in 2010 and will see as many as 5,000 people a day in attendance. The trip also afforded me a chance to see “Mad” King Ludwig’s palace, Linderhoff, enjoy some excellent beer and German food.

Sadly my trip to the States was because my Grandfather, Bill, died. I elected to make the trip solo, since there were as many days traveling as would be spent on the ground. You might say that I had culture shock…in reverse. I have become accustom to narrow streets, a lot of walking, Italian food, service and hours…and Houston, Texas does not have any of that. With an hour drive contained within the Metro-plex and eight lanes of bumper to bumper traffic I was a little awe struck. I did however enjoy the time remembering Bill, hanging out with my family and some very fine BBQ.

Tomorrow we will host our first visitors, Lauren’s parents, and no doubt their escapades will make for some worthy catching up entries.

An Appeal to The Lord

As part of our rent we pay for a parking space in the parking area across from our house. We’ve been paying since we moved in for a space that does not actually exist. Unfortunately we have been on the waiting list since our move here and after some recent inquiry it seems we may be waiting until after the New Year. As one friend put it, “You may be waiting for someone to die, I mean Italians don’t just up and change routine!” So after several conversations with our landlord and a few leads we have made no progress.

The problem with parking here is this. There are not many free public spaces along our street and those are often full, especially during the day when Lauren may be out with groceries and kids in inclement weather. (It is a lot like trying to find a space at A&M, or like Kramer and George looking for spaces on Seinfeld) Also, when we park it in our “temporary” space in the garden it blocks our upstairs neighbor (the Spanish Colonel) from getting in and out of his garage…and then I have to hear about it at work. To make matters even worse, Lauren can get the car into the garden but cannot manage to get it out of the garden.

Hopefully things will change, we have God on our side. It seems our landlord knows a woman who has a garage, but there are no available spaces. The friend does however know the priest of a church down the street which has some parking. So, our landlord’s friend is going to ask the priest if there may be any spaces available…maybe I should pray a Rosary or some Hail Mary’s to help out. It is 4 or 5 blocks away but it is at least a parking space.

Alone and Unafraid

It is hard, when you are 2 years old and like pockets, to know the difference between a pocket and your waistband. So it should really have come as no surprise last week when I discovered that Will, who is 2 and loves to put things in pockets, had put a fork not in his pocket…but in his pants. See last week Lauren took a trip to the South of France with her mom and sister in law; leaving me to play 2 on 1 with the boys. So I found myself saying things I thought I would never say, like: “why is there a fork in your pants?” Despite that, everyone faired very well, myself included, and there were no trips to the hospital or anything! There were very few “that’s not how mommy does it” or “Daddy, I wish Mommy was here.” I know, everyone must be very disappointed, expecting the worst, secretly hoping for some minor disaster that would push me over the edge of reason so that I could report the insanity here, but that was not the case.
Besides the fact that Braxton was sick on Monday and Tuesday and a cold snap kept us home bound more than I would have liked, it was very fun. Will and I had coffee every morning at the café, I shopped for our dinner at the little old lady’s pasta shop near our house and we had great man bonding time. I even managed to do laundry, clean up a few things and get everyone fed and dressed appropriately and in a timely fashion.
I did discover that since men are lazy, impatient and always looking for a better way to do something; that most likely not many men do housework or are stay at home dads here in Italy…it takes more than 3 hours to wash and dry 1 load of laundry. Also I found that with 2 boys on the loose, a single parent is always either preventing disaster or cleaning up the aftermath of what appears to have been a tornado

Music to Live by

I decided that it would be cool to have a soundtrack always playing over my life…and fortunately our upstairs neighbor usually accommodates nicely. Every day, or nearly so, the two girls who live upstairs (ages 17 and 9) practice piano. The 17 year old masterfully plays classical pieces that I recognize, though sadly cannot name, that always seem to fit the mood and season. During the summer her play matched the oppressive heat and melted and muted colors of a hazy summer afternoon. Today her notes coincided exactly to the spectacular cool of autumn sunset shining off the ancient faded brick and terra cotta of the church visible out our kitchen window.

To Every Season

While the weather in our first few months here was content to remain only hot…fall has brought some changes. First of all, the weather has cooled to a very pleasant 75 or 80 in the day and 55-65 at night; also the weather changes from sunny to cloudy to rainy to very very very very very foggy at a whim and with little indication what might be next and is sometimes all in one morning. The visibility in the fog this morning was measured at 80 meters or about 200 feet. Despite the warm days however, Italians have decided, in mass, that it is cold weather time. So seeing people bundled up in jackets and scarves is not unusual even in the middle of a warm sunny afternoon…because its fall and Italians wear jackets and scarves in the fall.

Centro Sportivo

It was a bad week in Ferrara Sports. First CARIFE Ferrara Basket Club was defeated by Armani Jeans by one point on Wednesday and lost 2 of 3 over the weekend, and then the Ferrara Banditi lost 2 of 3 and did not make the playoffs. In plain English that is the local Ferrara basketball team and our friend Luke lost to the Milan team in a heartbreaker and then had a pretty rough weekend series…fortunately these are just preseason games and Luke feels like the team has strong chances this season. As for me and the flag football, well we had some abysmal showings, much like the Aggies, and will not make the playoffs this year. So all in all it was a bad weekend if you are a fan of Ferrara sports. On a high note I will not be proving how old and out of shape I am by limping into the house after 3 games of football and being sore for the rest of the week.

Check out http://www.banditi.it/news.htm and http://www.basketclubferrara.it/ for more fun facts and info.

A lovely weekend

We live in a 16th century palace. Half of the palace was broken into apartments during the war and the other half is still occupied by the family that originally owned the building. They are lovey and we have become friends with the owner's son and his wife who occasionally live here. They met while living in New York and she is Serbian. She remembers how diffucult it was for her when she first arrived so she has been wonderful about introducing me to her Engligh speaking friends.

This weekend, they invited us to her birthday party in their garden. The garden is gorgeous, there was live music, lots of wine, and food passed by their full time, uniformed maids. They even insisted (Italians really know how to insist) that Matt play the guitar so we even had some Robert Earl Keen added to this perfect setting. The band joined in half way through the song -- perfecto! AND we didn't even have to get a babysitter. The boys' window overlooks their garden and they slept through the whole thing. Even through Matt on the guitar!

The next night they invited us to another party and the theme was "bad taste". Our friends decided not to dress up because "we do not have the time for such things" so we didn't either. We are so so so thankful that we did not dress up because we would have gone all out and looked totally tacky but the Italians still looked fabulous. "Bad taste" Italian style is evidently not the same thing as American bad taste.

La Macchina and Mongolfiera

Much like in the States, Italians appreciate a fair or festival; complete with booths peddling over priced homemade/homegrown goods and some fried treats, cheeses and sweets as well as. Over the past week the Ferrara Balloon Fest was going on brining in a healthy crowd of tourists, and several dozen hot air balloons from all over the world of all shapes and sizes could been seen flying low over the city and surrounding countryside. Although our first attempt to watch the balloons launch last Saturday, was foiled by breezy conditions but this Saturday the boys and I took our breakfast perched on the wall, watching the balloons launch into the bright blue, cool September morning…I would even call it picturesque.
Also like the States, Italians have an appreciation for cars that would slightly border on obsession. Almost every time we drive by a carwash, and certainly on the weekends and at the big “do-it-yourself” places, people are meticulously scrubbing or having someone scrub their cars. As things are more expensive here, and the need for driving usually less, most families only have one car and having more than one is usually a sign of solid financial security. To that end Italians generally look at their cars less as tools of utility as we might, but an expense of honor. At any rate, this weekend also brought a classic car show in the city center. But in typical Italian fashion instead of parking all the cars in one central spot, the classic autos were stylishly arranged by maker in strategically selected places to highlight both the cars and the city. As a result a casual ride through town would find classic Masserati or Jaguar race cars parked in a beautiful fountained courtyard or a line of 1930’s Fiats along a shop lined walk. As a result the pictures snapped were made effortlessly beautiful, even with our inexpensive point and shoot and had the people been dressed differently you would have been whisked back in time.
Despite my earnest searching, I unfortunately didn’t find any funnel cakes.

Matt playing American flag football in Italy

Sept 14-18: Easy there Sparky

For all of you calling to leave birthday messages this week I’d like to apologize for our lack of phone response. We have received your messages and wanted everyone to know we had great birthdays. Lauren and I got to enjoy a real night out with adult conversations and a nice dinner and everything; thanks to our friend Shannon who volunteered to babysit.
The reason behind our missed calls is this, we were short on electricity. It seems there is a short in a wire somewhere in the house and at times just looking at a plug funny was enough to trip the breaker. I say the breaker because there is only one…for the whole house. So instead of being able to isolate the problem I spent a few days plugging and unplugging things trying to figure where the problem was. Only thing was it seemed randomly activated and it progressively got worse. So we decided to unplug almost everything in the house in order to run essential items, because once the power tripped it took about 20 mins, turning off all the lights and unplugging every single thing. We informed our landlord, who dispatched the electrician with amazing speed.
The electrician was on time…for an Italian and worked diligently from 930-1230 and then from 5-630. There is the interim break for lunch and reposo, which is the Italian version of siesta. So the work is still in progress, for the fourth day. Watching him work was entertaining because our 400 year old house is not conducive to easy work, especially considering the jumbled electrical spaghetti inside our walls. At one point I watch the guy shock himself 3 times, decide it was best to trip the breaker off, come back only to shock himself again on a “cold” wire. Fortunately he has isolated the problem to the “boys” bathroom, as Braxton calls it, and has disconnected all the power from the hall and guest bathroom. This weekend is a trial period to test his hypothesis and Monday he should return to fix the problem for good.
Oh yea, the electrician speaks no English at all and our knowledge of construction and electrical terms in Italian is lacking (but significantly improved now) so there is a minor communication problem. Fortunately our landlord’s son who is also a neighbor has lived in the States and he serves as translator. Unfortunately he is an artist so the technical aspects are totally lost on him…which makes for some funny translations.

Strike a pose

This is the first rainy school day and remember no one drives here. It is all walking and bicycles. There is not even parking at the school. I don't know how the Italians do it, but they are still put together and looking fabulous. All the moms were in front of the school looking like a page out of a magazine and I show up with hair that is half dry and half wet. Literally half my head. Our power went out after I dried the left side and I couldn't get it back on. Looked a bit like a clown. So then I went to the bakery to get Matt's birthday cake. Very interesting pushing a stroller, holding an umbrella and a cake. I ended up giving up on the umbrella so when I got home, my whole head looked like a drowned rat instead of just half of it. THEN our neighbor and his wife showed up with the electrician and ended up staying for a while. The whole time, I'm looking like I've been swimming and I realized later my makeup is also a mess because I put in on in the dark. Ugh! I need some of this Italian "put-togetherness" to rub off on me!

Where in Hellas am I, because it’s all Greek to me.

I had to take a trip to Larissa, Greece for work, but unfortunately would have little time for sightseeing. It dawned on me only hours before departure however, they don’t speak Italian in Greece they speak Greek, this would become a problem later. I also decided that in honor of all the great cultural contributions made by the Greek civilization, this blog is kind of a quiz…see if you can find some of the more famous contributions to Western Civilization by the Greeks.
Since we have the philosophy of saving money as often as possible I was forced to choose between traveling by 12 hour plains/trains and automobiles to get to my destination or driving my own car to the ferry and taking an overnight ferry to Greece before completing my journey by car, about 18 hours. The ferry seemed like a much more leisurely course, and that turned out to be correct. Although uncomfortable in my airline style seat on the ferry, I arrived in port early on Tuesday morning after an overnight crossing and set out on my odyssey. Always prepared I had a GPS, a map and Google map directions to guide me along the three hour trip across the Greek countryside. A breathtaking sunrise and a new, uncharted highway met me as I pressed eastward, and confounded my GPS and map for the next 2 hours. No worries, I could see that I was clearly following the same track as intended, until I hit the real mountains.
The Greek countryside is most similar to Northern California or perhaps Southern Colorado in its rugged beauty, but the winding mountain roads and mile long tunnels are not conducive to GPS signals. As a result, I missed my exit and was steered sharply north, towards Alexandria. This was troublesome but there we no more exits for another 25 miles and I was forced to follow the GPS when it recovered; as I had no idea what the signs said (my best understanding of Greek is that PI is 3.14….) or even which way might be best to go. I exited onto what might best be described as a goat path and pressed on towards my destination.
Now here an explanation about Greek driving and roads is in order…it makes Italy look like a Sunday drive in Mayberry. The roads are bad, poorly marked, the drivers are INSANE and will pass you or the oncoming traffic at any random spot despite the “no passing” signs, there are few guardrails to prevent a 400 ft plummet to your death and you have no idea if the geometry of the approaching curve is a gentle bender or a 180 degree descending hairpin of death; they all have the same non-threatening “curve ahead” sign before them. Fortunately our Cadillac has active stability and traction control as well as “manu-matic” shifting; all of which saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Fortunately my drama turned into more of a comedy than a tragedy and I arrived safely at my hotel.
My hotel was a very nice and modern affair, and I had a large balcony room on the 5th floor which provided me an excellent view of the city and the ancient Greek amphitheater below. Larissa is a good sized city, about the size of Ferrara, with many modern conveniences such as coffee shops, chain retail stores, and the like but there is also an indescribable third world feel to the city as well. I very nearly was run down by cars…on the sidewalk, on more than one occasion. In fact one guy had his toe run over by a moped when he stepped out of a restaurant after dinner. Fortunately no trip to the doctor was necessary.
The food was excellent and we even enjoyed a dinner put on by our Greek military hosts or traditional Greek food. I will not dispel the myth put forth by the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”; I had 3 separate conversations on the fact that every English word has a Greek root. After three short days of mostly work I head back toward the ferry, this time better prepared for the journey ahead.
The trip back was uneventful, until I was about 5km from the Ferry port where I was passed by a pink and blue Ferrari. I’m sure Enzo Ferrari turn over in his grave when that one received its paint. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed the car again…along with 4 other Ferraris, 3 Lamborghinis, 3 Porches, 2 Rolls Royce, 2 Lotus, 1 Aston Martin and 1 V12 powered Mercedes. All of the cars were painted in crazy schemes, including Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars and the Mercedes bore a camo pain scheme with the words “Il Presidente” down the side. The drivers and passengers were similarly adorned in crazy costumes including a “shiek”, in a tux a la James Bond and the “Il Presidente” looking like a South American dictator complete with medals and a sash. Needles to say they gathered quite a large crowd, all gawking at both the cars and the people. It turns out, I found out later that evening, they were having a race from Austria to Serbia, Macedonia, Athens, Rome, Milan and finally to Munich for October Fest. I’m sure the parties at each stop lasted far longer than the driving legs between them.
At last back in Italy I made the 2 hour drive home, glad to see my family again but happy I had experienced such an adventure.

August 29- Venice

We decided that we are now prepared to start truly enjoying all that Italy has to offer and with that in mind decided to head up to Venice for the day. We originally thought we would catch the 830 am train, but that didn’t happen. Instead we punched our tickets at 929, just in time to make the 930 train. The hour-ish long ride kept the boys mostly entertained and we stepped out at St. Lucia station.
On the advice from some friends we decided to make a leisurely stroll through the city, stopping along the way to sightsee, shop and have lunch; towards St. Marks square. Despite the heat and crowds, Venice does not disappoint. I am not really into architecture, but it is truly amazing and seeing the gondolas gliding through the canals is stereotypically wonderful. After about three hours of sightseeing we emerged onto the breathtaking grandeur of Piazza St. Marco. Bypassing the throng pressing to be admitted to the cathedral, we enjoyed the view and some gelato as an approaching storm provided some relief from the heat. We realized that despite our growing comfort to the old world beauty we see every day, Venice is truly special and should be witnessed to be truly appreciated.
The one low point of the trip was our choice in transport back to the train station. We decided on the Vaporetto, or waterbus, and that was a mistake. The sweaty crowd pressed the boats to Cuban refugee levels of misery as tourists attempted to escape the oncoming storm. We choose poorly on the route and I’m sure we hit every stop on the 3 mile ride back. The stop and go and press of the crowd and the heat made a few passengers sea sick, which only added to discomfort of others. Despite this, the boys rode uncomplaining and chattering about all the things they had seen and mostly about how excited they were to be boarding the train again. We boarded the 330pm train home, and enjoyed a nearly empty 1st class car (it was only 3 Euros more) with excellent air conditioner.
I expect that we will venture to Venice again, as we only saw a small portion of what the city has to offer, but maybe during the low tourist season and this time we will take a water taxi instead of the bus.

The pace of life. . .

I just got an e-mail from Braxton's school reminding us that school starts this week. "School begins each day at 8:30. Children need to be at school no later than 9:00"

A Random Observation

Since our arrival here I have noticed something about Italians, while they do everything in life very, very slowly; they drive very, very fast. At first I thought it might have something to do with the heat, but it’s not hot here all the time. Then maybe I thought that the semi-socialist society had bred a kind of laziness, but many of the people I’ve met so far are very hard working. As far as the driving goes I thought maybe that had something to do with their great racing heritage; you know Mario Andretti, Ferrari and Lamborghini and all that. But there is NASCAR all over the south and nobody there drives like this. So I remained perplexed, until recently.

I voiced my confusion at work one morning while having coffee with several of my co-workers from other nations. It is a two or three times daily occurrence that there is a large gathering, informally of course, around one of the coffee machines at work. Sometimes it is the best place to accomplish business, sometimes it is just to pass the time. At any rate, I was voicing my curiosity and one of the Germans who has been here for some time spoke up and said (you have to imagine Col. Klink’s voice here) “Zee pace of livef is za same evwewhere, zo if you take 2 howars to eat, you must drive to za next appointment very quickly.” Riddle solved.

Why are they staring at us, again?

Yesterday was my day to make to weekly mail run, which coincided nicely with the food exhaustion in our house. So after spending enough money to bail out GM and Fanny Mae, our kitchen is fully stocked and we have a grill to prepare dinner on. This now allows us to eat dinner at home, without melting the paint off the walls. Only problem was…SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED. No big deal, I moved all the parts into the lighted entry area and began to work on the grill assembly last night. But after 2 visits from the very nice older neighbors who live across the entryway and one from the upstairs neighbors (all concerning the strange noises) I decided to call it quits and finish later.
This afternoon I completed the assembly of the grill, which again required the strewing of parts and tools across the garden and several crashing sounds. All of this again drew the curiosity of our neighbors, but not as much as when I fired it up and the smell of charcoal smoke and cooking chicken began to fill the air. This brought them out to seriously investigate what exactly I was up to. So I explained (in English and broken Italian) and listened to their stories of BBQ’s (in Italian and broken English) and showed them the grill and what I was cooking. I told them that when the weather cooled we would have a party, and they would defiantly be invited. This prompted them to give me 2 bottles of wine, both of which he bottled himself, and they offered up their picnic table, chairs and tiki lamps.
Lauren astutely pointed out that most likely the reason why things seem so strange, both to us and to our neighbors, is the close proximity in which we live. In the States you can’t always see/hear/smell what your neighbors are doing, and it is probably best when they are up to weird things. But this is not the case here; everything is very conspicuous because we are all on top of each other. So I guess our neighbors are probably as fascinated, if not more so, by the “strange” things we do as we are by them.

Giorni di Cane di Estate

I’m hot, she’s hot, we’re hot, it’s hot…and we can’t do anything about it. We decided, after about a week of avoiding the stove/oven as if it had the swine flu, that we must break down and buy a small air conditioner to cool at least our room. The problem is this: first our house is over 500 years old and putting in central AC is impossible and is not allowed because our house is “historic”. Second it has been about 95 or more for the last 2 weeks. Third turning on the oven heats the inside of our house to about the same temperature as the Sun. Fourth, since the our room opens to the street, where the heat from the day is the worst, our windows remain shut while the boys’ room and windows on the back open to the garden and are able to cool. Fifth at the end of the day our room remains around 35(Celsius) and we sleep poorly. Sixth and finally we’re stuck because all stores were closed Sunday (which is usual) and Saturday (which is odd) for a holiday. So we continue to sweat, Texas in August doesn’t sound so bad; I think we’ll go there next time. Just like all the Italians, we’ll go on vacation

Speaking of which, literally everything closes for vacation: restaurants, coffee shops, retail stores, gas stations and hotels. That’s right, gas stations and even the major hotels close for a week or two in August. The combination of August and a holiday weekend left our small town nearly deserted this past weekend. But that wasn’t so bad, we had a great afternoon tour of the Castle downtown and a nice and very Italian dinner of Panini sandwiches on the cathedral square.

We decided, while taking in the scenery and enjoying the beautiful bells from the cathedral, that our little town is a magnificent and seemingly undiscovered gem. I’m sure that Rome, Venice or other more well know and popular places have a great number of beautiful things to see and do, but I would say that Ferrara rivals them, if only on a small scale. So despite the sweating, which we have decided to remedy at the next available opportunity, we like our new home.

At 8:00 this morning a car alarm went off and it was LOUD. Not the little beep beep of European cars but loud honk, honk, honk. This is the first car alarm I’ve heard in Italy. It goes on and on. People start opening their windows and yelling in Italian.

Finally I go to the window to see why no one has turned this alarm off. Of course, I look out the window and realize it is OUR big American cadi. So of course I panic. . . someone must be stealing our car and I’m in my pajamas and Matt is at work. What do I do, what do I do??? I start looking for the keys and can’t find them. Where did Matt put the keys?!?!? Then Will walks into the room holding the keys with his finger on the alarm button and proudly saying “I push button! I push button!” Must find a better place for the keys.

La Casa

It has been very nice to be settled in. Italy is starting to feel like home.
Although we did venture to the beach on Friday, our excursions have been limited to necessity rather than fun. We spent most of the weekend hanging the last remaining pictures and curtains. If it seems that it is taking a while to get unpacked, you’re right. We could not figure out why until recently. The problem is Italy has great wine and it is very cheap. So while the kids usually prevented Lauren from making progress while I was at work, a glass or two of wine with dinner really removes any ideas we may have had about getting work done after the kids went to bed. So, an ultimatum was issued “No wine until we finish the last few things”; which we promptly ignored and spent both Saturday and Sunday working.

The beach was pretty good and it was nice to relax; but I realized how spoiled we were in N.C. The public beaches here are full with beach chairs and umbrellas, and although there weren’t a lot of people, it gave the impression of a crowd. The water was warm and there were no waves to speak of. The Adriatic is not really known for waves and there are rock jetties about 500 yards off shore that break up any small surf that may disrupt the “football” games on shore. Fortunately there was not too much inappropriate Speedo wear and we were home for dinner, since it is only about a 35-45 min drive away.

All in all things are great but like Vincent Vega said; “It's the little differences. I mean they got the same stuff over there that they got here, but it's just, just there it's a little different.”

August 3: Big Monday and La Cucina

It has arrived, La Cucina (the kitchen)! Over the past week we have had a parade of folks in our house, none of whom spoke any English, taking out our old kitchen and installing the new one. (If you are lost on the kitchen, read the June 26 blog). The old kitchen was to be donated to the Italian version of Goodwill, and starting Thursday 2 older men in one very, very, very tiny truck began the removal. I felt bad watching them work without much equipment, expertise or joint mobility so I joined in the removal process.

Once the kitchen was out we were left without running water, which upset the oldest, older gentleman. He explained to me (all in Italian) that he felt bad leaving the bambino with no water and drew me a map to the hardware store, left his phone number and offered tools to ensure I could get the sink lines capped and restore water to the rest of the house…this took awhile, and several thousand hand motions and 2 trips to bablefish.com for some translations. Luckily I already knew the hardware store, but I let him draw the map anyway.
Friday morning, after round 2 of removal the cleaning crew arrived to remove the 400 years of dirt, mold and grease left under and behind the old kitchen. You could actually see a raised edge where the grease began on the backsplash!

Friday afternoon the install guys showed up, along with the plumber…but he would have to wait until Saturday for the installation to be completed to hook up water and gas. Finally Saturday afternoon, after a reappearance from the installation guys to correct some flaws in their work (the dishwasher would not open) the electrician showed up to complete the ordeal. Sunday evening we had dinner in our own house prepared by the beautiful hands of my wife, including chocolate chip cookies…can you believe that.

This afternoon we made the last push to rid our house of boxes, hang some pictures and the shower curtain…the end is in sight.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I survived my first Italian driving experience. Passed my driving test this morning then this afternoon I was going 140 km per hour on the Autostrata. I am in one piece, Matt's cute little BMW is in one piece and all the other Italian drivers are in one piece. My nerves, however, could use a glass of wine. Whew.

Monday July 27, Boxes to Our Eyeballs

Sorry for the delay in posts, but we are still uncovering ourselves from the move in. It seems like 90% complete with 90% to go sometimes.

Still no pictures hung, but we have managed to find and make the guest room bed. The Wii and Rockband Drums have also been located as well as the AFN (armed forces network) satellite feed and DVD with surround sound…so we have the important stuff! As the movers took out the batteries from everything we still haven’t hooked up the telephone…so its cell phones only for now until we find/buy new ones. The calendar is still wide open for visitors as nobody has claimed a date for visiting…it is first come first serve for a bed.

Saturday, 25 July, Working and Playing For Pizza

As Lauren pointed out, we’ve moved in officially…hooray! It is however a great deal of work, especially with 2 kids “helping”. It seems that our stuff has arrived intact and with little to no damage…which is also good. Our final shipment of important stuff, like my golf clubs, should be here next week along with the car. So it seems we are on track to be back to normal soon. The Living room, the boy’s room and the majority of our room are unpacked and put away, except for hanging pictures. We still are short some storage solutions, especially in the bathroom and are lacking closets. But we do have a lot of space and would have had room for most of the furniture we sent to storage…except our dining room furniture.

Perhaps the biggest problem now is the kitchen. Since we are getting a new kitchen we haven’t unpacked all our kitchen stuff and as a result are stuck eating out most of the time…which translate almost exclusively to take out pizza because of the incompatible hours of our boys and most restaurants. Needless to say we (I) am getting a bit burned out on pizza.

On a similar note, I’ve joined a Flag Football league here, and these guys (all Italians except me) are perhaps the most serious group of football players I’ve come across. It is extremely fun and also very amusing. Everything is the same, I mean its football so I get it, but it’s all in Italian except for some football terms. So in the huddle I hear “Matt…something in Italian, Italian Italian…5 yard slant!” Ok…I run a slant, but I have no idea what else is happening! Also snap count and audibles are also in Italian (I told you this is serious football we have audibles and a snap count, home and away jerseys, matching shorts, socks, flags and shoes and a play book). I have an idea of what’s going on sometimes, “Rosa, Venti-Seite, Rosa Venti-Seite, Set, Hut” (That’s Red 27), but there are some things that are totally lost on me. Of course there is dinner after the games and all the teams go, including the ones that drove up from Rome! I told you this was serious. And where do you go after a day of American football, to an American steakhouse…the Roadhouse grill! Lauren recommends John Grisham’s “Playing for Pizza” for a great insight.

Coffee to go

I really should be unpacking but I need a break so here's my story of the day. . . So we moved in yesterday and I went to get coffee while Matt stayed at the house and waited for the movers. As I was leaving he said "see if you can bring me a cafe latte". There are no "to go" coffees in Italy. I drank my coffee and ordered some croissants to go. Then I asked "Avete cafe da asporto?" (Do you have coffe to take away?). They si, si! and "da dadada datada da" (Italian, italian with lots of smiles and hand movements). So I just smiled and said si. Had no idea what I was agreeing to, but I ended up with a cafe latte in a glass mug. They put a saucer over the top and motioned and spoke in Italian that I could just bring it back whenever. So I walked three blocks home with Matt's coffee, in a glass mug with a saucer balanced on top. When I got home, Matt's first words were "Did you steal it?"

Hot Air, Helsingor and Hotel Exhaustion

We’re working on three weeks of life in Italy and everything is ok…except for being in the hotel still. We found out today that our furniture should be here Thursday or Friday, if nothing Italian falls in the way, like vacation for 3 weeks. So it looks like we are on schedule to move in on the 20th.

Weatherman says it is supposed to approach 100 degrees this week, that’s 37.8 for all ya’ll using Celsius thermometers in honor of our being in Italy, which will be the hottest since we’ve arrived. The problem with all the heat means the boys and Lauren are forced inside most of the day…which makes for insanity in the room about 4 or 5pm. So I think a bit of cabin/hotel fever is setting in. We managed an excursion to Ikea this weekend…and recommend it as a potential stock purchase based on the crowds we experienced. Let me say that an extremely crowded, maze like Swedish home store in Italian is perhaps our biggest challenge to date.

Overall we are settling in as best we can for now and very much look forward to our own house/stuff/BEDS. Despite our efforts we are not yet fluent in Italian…and I was certain we would be by now. Our Italian probably sounds like one year olds English, but we press on undeterred.

A Presto (See you soon)

It is a rainy morning. The boys and I walked to get café. The people know our order now. . . we’re regulars, I guess. Then we successfully made it through the fruit stand (luckily all the produce was labeled in Italian so I knew what to say.) We came home with strawberries, peaches, tomatoes and lettuce all grown in Italy. This is important because we almost starved yesterday. We were totally out of food and did not know that almost everything is closed on Sunday!

Why are they staring at us?

Friday, July 3.
The week has been good but challenging. But we have a move in date for the house…the 20th. Trips to the supermarket and to the café/restaurants are still difficult, but we’re learning. We have also been frequenting the same places so people recognize us, and either like us or feel sorry for us…we’re not sure which.

Lauren here. . .

Matt’s right, it has been challenging. We aren’t settled but we aren’t on vacation either. Just a strange in between which can be difficult with little ones. BUT so many things are amazing. . . we have café at the same place every morning then walk to the Piazza for the boys to play. The park is also around the corner. We had lunch there from a little snack bar and they also served wine. The park is amazing with giant trees that must have been here forever and ever. They boys had their lunch under a cedar tree. (see picture).

Yesterday I had a plan to fill up our day. Café then a walk to the center of town to go through the castle. It was lovely but we were back at the hotel in an hour. Must think of more things to do. The problem is that the city is so busy that Will has to be in a stroller unless we are at the park or piazza.

Tuesday.

Lauren here. . .

We sold out. After only a week we sold out and went to an “American” steak restaurant. It wasn’t because of the food, it was because they serve early (7:00). These late dinners are quite an adjustment. The restaurant was empty until 8:30. I guess eating at 7:00 is the American equivalent of eating at 4:30. The food and atmosphere was 95% authentic and honestly it was quite refreshing to hear American music and see English on the menu (even though we still had to order in Italian.) They also had highchairs—no one else does.
The day was slow and hot. I took the kids to the park but they almost melted on the way home. Everyone was a bit whiny. . . it is hard be to cooped up in the hotel room but hard to be out as well because of the heat and the language barrier. We’ll be much better when we get our house. We hope to move in buy the 3rd week of July.

Monday

Lauren here. . .

Okay, finally feeling like I’ve recovered from jet lag. Matt keeps telling me things that he says he’s already told me and I don’t remember. The whole last week is kind of a cloud. . . like I was drinking (which I wasn’t :-) ).
Matt’s first day at work and my first day alone in Italy with the children. My caffeine headache prompted me to attempt ordering a coffee alone. It is not as simple as it sounds. . . do you order at the counter or at the table? When/ how do you pay, etc? There is an extra service charge for sitting at a table. How do I tell them I’m going to a table? So we walk to the café and my heart is beating like I’m about to give a speech. I practice the whole way “mi dispiace, non parlo Italiano, multo. (I’m sorry I don’t speak much Italian.) Vorei café latte e latte freddo per bambino. (which I think translates to something like I’d like café latte and cold milk for little boy). So I get there, I say it and it works. Then I say “un tavelo fuorri?” (a table outside?) and she says si (yes). I get out my wallet and she says the Italian word for later so we go outside, have a fabulous coffee and crème filled pastry. Will had a bite of the pastry then gave it back to me and asked for cheerios. The Italians sip and talk and sip and talk and then go in and pay when they are finished. It wasn’t perfect or easy but a huge confidence booster. We then walked across the street and met our friends at the Piazza (park), let the kids play a bit then walked to Braxton’s school. The school is wonderful, the people were so nice and we met his teacher who is British. I think it will be great for him. We then ventured into the little grocery market next door. Another experience. You have to wear plastic gloves to get the produce. I figured out which milk to buy (all in Italian) and even paid in Euros without a problem. Then off to the bakery to get lunch. Thankfully the girl helping me spoke English. We took our lunch and had a picnic at the piazza.
After naps (for everyone) Matt came home, we went out to get stuff to make for dinner at the grocery (the grocer remembered me and gave me Braxton’s cup we left there earlier in the day. Guess we made quite an impression). We then stopped for a glass of wine at a sidewalk café then back to the hotel to cook our fresh ravioli. How Italian.

June 27: A Quiet Saturday

Ahhh. . . our first Italian day to just enjoy. We woke up to light rain but still ventured out to the café down the street. Matt managed to order café lattes and pastries for us and milk for Braxton. Braxton’s milk came out steamed with foam. Guess we’ll learn the word for “cold”. We then walked to our new house to check out the area a bit more. It is lovely. . . we feel like we’re in a coffee table book. Then off to the bakery to buy something for lunch. We just point and smile and apologize and somehow ended up with a few croissant sandwiches and the most fabulous cookies you’ve ever tasted. The afternoon was filled with a trip to the Ipercoop (the Italian Walmart) which was an adventure in itself. I managed to ask someone where the coffee was “dove café?” but didn’t quite understand the answer. (A side note about coffee. The nice manager of our hotel is very helpful and told Matt he put an American coffee maker in our room because he didn’t think we could use the Italian espresso maker. Of course Matt tried it. He ended up with cold lemon tea. So we decide the next morning to use the American coffee maker but there are no filters and the Ipercoop doesn’t sell them of course. So I get a caffeine headache every morning which might make me brave enough to venture out and order a coffee on my own.) The Ipercoop was quite similar to Walmart in every aspect except the groceries were fresh and nice. So we won’t write any more about that…we didn’t come to Italy for Walmart
We managed to order pizza to go “asporto” because of tired kids and had an early dinner at home and put them to bed early and we soon followed.

June 26: “I’ve seen those on films”

“There are tents outside our windows…and they’re for shopping!” That was the first words that we heard Friday morning, because Friday is market day in downtown. Thankfully, we all woke up late and well rested, just in time to grab some breakfast at the hotel café venture through the market and meet Jen for our next housing appointment. Although we had already decided on a house, we had 2 appointments and didn’t have any way to cancel them. The first house was nice and had very beautiful antique furniture but only one bathroom and no garden. After the showing we went to lunch and back to the hotel to get ready to move to the new digs, Hotel Antica Corte.
While the boys rested I moved bags and then Lauren and Jen road bikes to the second appointment…which was not at all what we wanted. And in the process we had arranged to meet the landlords of our new house to pick out some new kitchen stuff.
Now, you may ask why we need a new kitchen, well in Italy when someone moves they literally take the kitchen sink and install it in their next house. One of the housing office ladies has had the same kitchen for 10 years…and moved 3 times. So, we went to the house, and the landlords wanted us to go to their kitchen guys place with them…but there was only room for maybe one person, so Lauren decided to go and I walked back to the hotel with the boys. The couple was very nice and wanted to get something both they and Lauren could agree on. But one strange thing is that they don’t do traditional “Tuscan villa Italian kitchens” even in 16th century houses like ours. So all the kitchens were very modern…like shiny red and chrome, but they were able to settle on a less gaudy cream set up with new oven and sink. While they were waiting for the paperwork to be done Lauren and the wife were talking about how different decor was in America and was explaining how kitchens are wood or painted wood and the women (who owns the entire building in Ferrara and also lives in Rome) was surprised then said “oh yes, I’ve seen these, in films.”

June 25: Just a Bit of Paperwork

Our hotel room for the first few nights was in a beautiful place…there was even a part of it that bridged over the street. The only problem was it looked out onto the main square in the middle of town, which makes it very scenic and very loud since there are many bars, restaurants and even a bad until late in the night. So needless to say nobody slept great between jetlagged body clocks and all of the noise outside. Never the less we had appointments and had to get rolling, slowly, at 8:30.
I had to take a driving test…Lauren passed on taking the test because we had to cram in the car on the way up and that didn’t jive with crazy Italian driving and her motion sickness. In the meantime I headed off to get the car registered, which is not here yet but cannot be shipped from Germany until it is first registered. This required a trip to the USAA office in town, where they did speak some English but I had to call the states to get most of the items done. With the insurance in hand I went over to the vehicle shipping place, about 3 miles by car, and paid 20 dollars and 5 Euros…they would not take anything but $20 cash and 5 Euro cash, very funny. After that we went over to see when the car might arrive…looks like mid to late July if we are lucky. The problem with all of these steps is I couldn’t remember our address and didn’t know our cell phone number (we only had one at this point), so there was a lot of making things up for now until I can straighten it out next week.
Back to an appointment with the housing office, and at this point the boys began to wear out. It was their naptime and we had about an hour and a half long appointment…on the high side negotiations for the house began; so that should mean we can get moved in earlier. By the end we were all running on fumes, and despite their very tired faces, and only a few pouts, the boys were hanging in there great.
The last stop, after being picked up was to get another phone for me and some groceries to survive on, like milk and cereal. A very dreary drive back to the hotel allowed the boys to get a little nap. We stayed in the room for dinner; Lauren fixed spaghetti, after that the boys and I walked around the square for a few minutes while Lauren got the place somewhat organized.
About dark it began to rain and it continued for most for most of the night; which kept the crowds away and let everyone get some much needed rest… it had been a very long but productive day.

June 24: A City for Bicyclists.

Since we had the great help of having our new friends and guinea pigs to take us around, Paul and Jen, who have been here for about 3 weeks. Even though we were pretty tired we had decided to make some appointments to see a house and have a look around. The house we saw was AWESOME and exactly what we were looking for, expect to hear more about this later. We met a very nice couple who showed us the house and even let the kids throw toys with their dogs and play in their garden (that’s backyard in America). After that we walked around on our way to have some drinks and food to wait for dinner.
Ferrara, or least what we have seen of it, is beautiful and very historic. Copernicus apparently was a regular at a bar across the square from our hotel; it’s still the same bar. Ferrara is not a town at all but more like a busy city, with lots of people everywhere all the time. Everyone gets around by bicycle, and our friends have dubbed their bikes “Italian Sedans” because the locals can get 2 kids, a load of groceries and ride their regular street bikes in short skirts and high heels over crowded cobblestone streets. In fact the city limit signs say “Welcome to Ferrara, a city for bicyclists.”
Dinner was at a small restaurant, but since most places don’t serve until 7:30 or later, there are small shops and bars that serve snacks like cheese and bread or chips. Dinner usually also takes a long time, sometimes like 2 or 3 hours, at restaurants here but the food is very good. Since the boys had napped off and on during the day they didn’t totally fall apart until about 9:00 at which point we headed off to bed…it was a long day.

June 23/24: Getting There, Maybe I Should Have Learned German.

We made it... and actually survived. Despite the long travel, the boys performed outstandingly. There were few hiccups and in fact everything went smoothly, minus some frustrations at the Frankfurt Airport. There was a 6 mile march though the airport, 5 moving sidewalks, 3 elevators, 1 passport check, 1 security check, 2 flights of stairs, a VERY crowded bus, some air stairs and a 45 minute delay due to high winds before we got airborne; all with 2 kids, a stroller, a car seat and 5 carry-on suitcases. Luckily we had plenty of time and the gate was empty when we arrived, so we could spread out and get changed and refreshed before we made the last hour and a half leg to Bologna. Getting our luggage was fairly comical (see the pictures from the previous post) since the luggage carts (4 required…2 used) are very small and there are still only 2 big people. Our friends were there to meet us with plenty of van-room for all our stuff and even some left over room for people. A short 30’ish minute drive and we arrived in Ferrara, checked into the hotel and prepared to be acquainted with our new home.

The Intrepid Travelers

And we’re off. Since we have been homeless for the better part of two months we are moving a veritable mountain of luggage. Getting through the airport should be an adventure in itself. We fly Lufthansa from Dallas to Frankfurt and then on to Bologna Italy, about 16 hours of travel time plus early arrival in Dallas and customs/luggage pick up on the far end. It should be fun!

We will be a bit out of touch until we get more settled in Italia, but for now you can post comments here.

Ciao

The New Adventure

This Blog is a chance for us to share our adventures in Italia...more to follow.