Mood:  cheeky

This was an interesting weekend.  I’ll wrap up both days here, since neither one was “photo intensive.”  Both days (Friday and Saturday) were day-trips, so it was fairly low-key.

Friday began as a normal day off.  Wake up late (7:00ish, maybe 8:00) and I look at Kimberly and she looks at me, and then it starts…

“What do you want to do, today?”

“I donno.  You?”

“I donno, either.”

About ten minutes later, we had a plan.  We’ve eaten gelato at the Ponta Vecchio in Florence.  We bought a Venetian mask from Venice (during Carnevale, no less).  One thing we HADN’T done is eat Asiago cheese bought in Asiago, Italy.

Asiago is a little mountain town about an hour away from us, by jeep.  It’s up in the Alps, and it’s BEAUTIFUL.  After a fantastic drive, we arrived in the small village, shopped through their downtown area, and then concluded our trip with a visit to the local grocery store, which had several varieties of locally made Asiago cheese.  We bought the original kind and two others to sample, and then had a small picnic in the car.

By 10:00, we were done.  The drive was so pretty that we really didn’t WANT to be done, so we decided on the spot that the next thing to do would be to drive about 45 minutes from there to a smallish town called Bassano di Grappa, known for its locally produced honey. 

Asiago is near the top of the Alps.   Bassano is near the bottom.  Again, BEAUTIFUL drive.

We arrived in Bassano, parked, and started wandering around.  The first thing we noticed is that it’s bigger than I’d thought.  Then, as we were wandering, a little old guy approached us and started speaking Italian.  He had this little, out of the way restaurant that we wanted us to try, and truth be told, it was lunch time!  We decided, why not?  The little dude walked us for a few minutes to find this tiny restaurant, where we ate lunch, but mostly drank water.   We were pretty thirsty after the driving. 

After lunch, we realized that Bassano didn’t really have much going on.  There was no market in the downtown area, so we couldn’t find any obvious local honey salesmen. We realized that the whole town closed for Riposso, so no honey for us.  Then we drove home and took a nap...  :)

Aussie's have their morning tea, Italians have Riposso.  Basically, for three hours immediately following lunch, it's family time.  Stores close, gas stations close, mom and pop shops close, the whole place shuts down.  They do it every week-day, which we knew, but today was a rare day off for me (Easter Weekend), so I forgot it was a weekday...

We decided on the train for this trip.  According to the Train Italia site, it would only take two hours to get there, and it was only 10 euro each for the round trip ticket.  Can’t beat that, and we wouldn’t have to park!  -So, we woke up early and headed to the train station.

We boarded the train, made the next connection, then the next, and then arrived in San Marino!  -Italy.  NOT San Marino, San Marino.  Apparently, there is a tiny town very near Bassano (from yesterday) in a valley in the Alps called San Marino, which has NOTHING to do with the Republic of San Marino. 

So we wandered every street in that town!  It took 10 minutes.  The train station was actually a room off of the back end of someone’s house.  I’m glad we had our return tickets, because from what I saw, we would have had to knock…Lord knows some old lady in a bath robe and curlers would be there speaking Italian and we would be there, explaining how we wanted to go to San Marino, but not THIS San Marino…It just wouldn’t be good.

It was a neat little town, though.  Very pretty, but I’m glad I don’t live there…

We’ll have to try this again, after a little more research (already begun).

Posted by kisajaja at 2:46 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

If Australia has the Great Ocean Highway, then Italy certainly has the Great Mediterranean Trail.  There is a place in Northwestern Italy called Cinque Terre (the five lands). 

Basically, there are five little villages, separated by walking trails and train stops that are built right along the cliffs and coast line of Italy.  The walk is estimated to be around 10km (6 miles), up and down some pretty steep natural stairways (both rock and root) and long, winding paths.

The plan was for us to take the train into the first village, since there are no cars allowed in any of them.  Once there, we would walk, shop, and site-see through to the last village, and then take the train back to our start point, and ride the ODR (Outdoor Rec) bus home.  We had roughly five hours to do it, and when it was all over, we cut it close, but comfortably.

What a great day!  We heard in the forecast that we should expect more cold wind and rain.  Thinking Lugano, we bundled up appropriately and headed for the villages, but the weather just didn’t happen.  It was sunny, clear, warm, dry, beautify!  Of course, we were a bit overdressed, but I’d rather be warm than cold, any day!

I can’t say enough about Cinque Terre.  I think it will be one of my favorite places in Italy, much like Rothenburg was in Germany.  You simply can’t come all of this way and not see it.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, but really, they can not do it justice.

Posted by kisajaja at 7:47 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 5 April 2009 8:00 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

On our last ITR trip ever (they merged with Outdoor Rec) we decided to go to Lugano, Switzerland to check out the Euro-Chocolate Festival.  It was supposed to be this great little town, and with the festival, I thought it would be fun to sample all of the chocolates and see who’s best.  Spain claims that there Toblerone is pretty good.  I’ve ALWAYS like the German Kinder-chocolate.  Kimberly likes the swiss chocolates, particularly the dark kind.  All of us like Cadbury, but they don’t make that here…

As a last minute change on this trip, Jacoby asked if Jenny could come along, so I went and got one more ticket.  In hindsight, this was money well spent.  I’ve never seen Jacoby so happy about wandering around a small town!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Lesa, the ITR tour guide told us that we would have PLENTY of time at the festival, so if we wanted, we could stop by one of the swiss cholcolate factories on the way, see the chocolate being made, and then buy “seconds” and bulk chocolate at the factory outlet.  Sounded good to us, so we did!  And it’s a good thing, too, for reasons that I’ll get to later.

The factory wasn’t really working at the time we were there.  We walked the whole tour in about five minutes, seeing all of the machines at rest.  Not real exciting, but then we got to the store.  FANTASTIC!  Not only did they have samples of everything readily available, they had full shelves of everything they made at discount prices.  It was crowded, but we did very well there.  Then it was off to the festival!

Which was thoroughly underwhelming.  Seriously, I think it was four tents, all of which had samples and over-priced chocolate products available.  It was fun to walk through and try things we had no intention of buying, but we “did the festival” in about twenty minutes.

Then we walked through the town and it’s neighborhoods and parks until it was time to catch the bus to come home.  While walking the town, I bought a small Swiss Army knife, because I wanted to say that I got it in Switzerland.  We also got a tourist spoon from one of the local jewelers.  I think it’s pewter.  I may be wrong.

Anyway, the weather was lousy.  Cold rain on an already cool day, we spent pretty much the whole day under coats and an umbrella.  It’s too bad, because it really did look like a nice town, with neat terrain.  We may have to go back some time when the weather is nicer.

Still, I’m glad we went!  We still have PLENTY of the factory chocolate left, and we did buy some stuff at the festival.  A bad day out of the house, out doing stuff is still better than a day indoors.

Posted by kisajaja at 7:35 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 5 April 2009 8:08 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Between home and Verona is a small town called Soave.  It is an old military fortress dating back to the early 1200’s.  It’s similar in size and structure to Marostica (the town with the human chess board), but we had never been.

We spent about an hour this morning walking through the old town, climbing the hill to the castle fortifications, and crawling around on the castle walls.

It’s a neat place, but there really isn’t too much to write about.  The pictures pretty much tell the story, so here they are…

Posted by kisajaja at 4:27 PM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 14 March 2009 4:36 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

As was pointed out to me by my dear sister Jamey, it has been over a month since our last entry.  The question was, “Are you that busy with work, or are you that busy with play?”  The truth is that I have been that busy with work.  I am averaging about 12-hours per day at the office.  With the commute, I leave home at around 5:40a each morning, and am usually home right around 6:45p each afternoon.  By the time the weekend gets here, I’m pretty beat.  But that’s no excuse!  With the pending exercises and potential deployment on the horizon, the time to get out and do things with the family is now!  So, Jamey is right.  Time to get off my backside…

Toward that end, Friday was a training holiday for me.  Jacoby had school, but Kimberly and I had a day to play.  We decided to take a quick walking tour of Verona, since its less than an hour away, and we hadn’t been there, yet. 

First, It’s THAT Verona.  The one Shakespeare wrote about.  Romeo, Juliet, and all of that.  The town has completely adopted the Shakespearian theme, as there are hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, markets, etc, all dedicated to Romeo and Juliet themes and paraphernalia.   The key tourist destination in the town is Juliet’s Balcony, which you can photograph from the ground for free, but there is a modest price to actually get to go out on the balcony.  The town of Verona recently announced that they would soon open the balcony for weddings and receptions.  I guess ‘cause it worked out so well for Romeo et al.

Truth be told, it’s a plain little balcony.  I’m not sure why they picked that one, or even why they bother.  I wanted to point out to folks that the story is FICTION.  There was no Juliet.  I probably would have gotten punched, as her bronze statue is right there, beneath her balcony!

Posted by kisajaja at 4:17 PM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 14 March 2009 4:26 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

We had several minor successes on Saturday, and perhaps one big one.  I’ll write the whole story and let you decide for yourselves which successes are which.

The day started off with our intent to go to Venice for the opening day of Carnevale.  We have heard that Venice does it up really well, and if you don’t mind the crowds, you can see costumes as ordinary as the “bought-of-the-shelf” Halloween type, or as extravagant is any you might see in the movies or at Renaissance fairs.  We decided that any amount of time spent in Italy would be, at best, incomplete if you didn’t see this, at least once, so we that was the plan.

Although Venice is only an hour away by car, we didn’t want to drive, simply because we didn’t want to park.  If you recall, Kimberly went to Venice on one of her days with the Benvenuti tour.  She remembered that the Train Station in Venice was right off of the Grand Canal, and very near the Rialto bridge, from which a walk to San Marco Square would be fairly easy, perhaps a little long, but almost entirely lined with tourist shops, market style carts, and lots of people reveling, just like us.

So we decided to take the train.  We had never done this before, in Italy.  Kimberly’s trip was organized and controlled by an Italian tour guide.  This time, we were solo!  We arrived at the train station in Grisignano Di Zocco, the town next to ours, and the closest train station to our house.  Significantly, they also offer free parking.  We walked into the station, found the ATM style automatic ticket machine, and worked through our broken understanding of Italian to by three round trip tickets for a mere 20Euro.  A bargain, since parking along would have cost that and more.  At this point, we realized that our train was only minutes away, just by luck, so we wandered to the track.  The train arrived, we sat, and about an hour later, we were there!

After a couple of hours, and having looked at no less than thousands of masks, we found ourselves in San Marco, where we walked for just a little bit, took some pictures, and then began walking back to the Station.  This may seem odd, so let me explain.  We’ve done Venice before.  This trip was about Carnevale.  I was determined that Kimberly would not leave Venice without a mask that she could tell everyone she got during Carnevale.  That being said, we saw, again, thousands of marks.  All different shapes, sizes, colors, made of different materials, some plain, some extravagant, some with feathers, beads, leather, you name it, it’s on a mask in Venice.  Not knowing exactly what we were looking for, we were pretty much stunned into inactivity by the sheer volume of choices we had to make.  –But again, I was determined.  Finally, on the way out to San Marco, we found what I think was the perfect mask.  By “perfect,” I mean that Kimberly likes it.  By “Kimberly likes it,” I mean that it was simply designed, expertly made, fancy without being gaudy or tacky, suitable for hanging on our “Italy Wall.”  Mostly, though, I just mean that Kimberly likes it, and so it’s hers!  Truth be told, I like it, too, but it being Valentine’s Day, Carnevale, and all of that, I would have bought it, anyway, even if I didn’t. 

No pictures of her mask on the BLOG.  You’ll just have to come to the house and see it for yourself.

At this point, we were crunched for time.  It wasn’t because the train was leaving, there were more of those, it’s just that the movie on post was going to start at 6:00p.  This was significant because Jenny would be there, and that would present Jacoby with his only shot at giving her the masks that he took forever deciding on.  It was going to be VERY close.

As it turns out, we made it to the movie theater during the previews.  It ended up being a really dumb movie (The Day the Earth Stood Still), but we didn’t mind, and I don’t think Jacoby noticed.  At least it was something to do away from the house.

Then we came home, played on the Wii for a little while, and went to bed.

And that was our Carnevale experience.

Posted by kisajaja at 4:12 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 15 February 2009 4:22 PM CET

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Mood:  happy

On the 7^th of February, we (all three of us) went on an ITR trip to Viareggio.  There are two places in Italy that go all out for Carnevale.  –Viareggio is the other one. 

Each year, they host the Carnevale parade.  It’s not a big costume and mask thing like in Venice, but more like kids costumes and such like the German Fasching or American Halloween.  However, it’s all about the parade.  There were dozens of large (very large) floats that where amazing.  They had lights, music, dancers, moving parts, and more.  They took up every bit of the two lane road that made up the parade route.  Absolutely amazing, and by far worth the trip!

Posted by kisajaja at 9:13 PM CET

Updated: Thursday, 12 February 2009 9:19 PM CET

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Mood:  happy

From the 3^rd to the 6^th of February, I went on a business trip to France.   The Brigade Commander organized what’s called a Staff Ride.  Basically, that’s when a Commander takes a bunch of people of his choosing to see something historic (usually a battlefield) and use the lessons learned from history to discuss some current event.  This time, the Commander chose all field-grade Officers (Majors and above) and Sergeants-Major to go to Normandy.  We had three purposes; 1) Learn what happened on D-Day, 2) teambuilding, and 3) Discuss current lessons learned from history that will still apply to deployments today.

The concept was pretty cool.  Each of the Battalions were assigned an Area of Responsibility, within which they were to talk about the D-Day planning for that area, which units were involved, the training they undertook, and what actually happened and where.   Our travels took us from the beaches (Utah, Omaha, and Pont Du Hoc), through the hedgerows and farmlands, and even to the site of several of the airborne insertions of both the American Paratroopers and the British Glider Infantry.

We had the opportunity to see several museums, townships, farmhouses, and churches that played major parts in D-Day, including a really neat little town called St Mere Egilse.  For those that have sen the John Wayne movie The Longest Day, that is the location where the Paratrooper got hung up on the church steeple.  That event really happened.  –The trooper was shot in the leg, but lived, was eventually lowered and captured by the Germans, but escaped shortly thereafter.  He ended up surviving the war and living into old age, mostly splitting his time between America and St Mere Eglise, where he was something of a folk-hero.  The church, to this day, has a parachute on its steeple.  Once a year they change it out as it gets old and starts to break down.  Two of the larger stained glass windows contain paratroopers.  The whole town had stuff like “The Airborne Cafe” and the “82^nd Eattery.”  The town (actually all of Normandy) had more American flags flying in February (the off-season for tourists) than I can remember flying in one town in the States, ever!

We walked the battlefields, “stormed” the beach, and finally got to spend some quite time in the National American Cemetery, amongst the white cross and star headstones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fantastic trip! –But one that I did without Kimberly or Jacoby.

Posted by kisajaja at 8:57 PM CET

Updated: Thursday, 12 February 2009 9:12 PM CET

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Mood:  happy

So today, after we went to the Dining Facility (DFAC, from here on out) for Sunday brunch (rapidly becoming a tradition) and wandered around the PX for a little while, we decided to drive out to Marostica. 

Last week, Kimberly took part in the ACS (Army Community Service) welcome program called Benvenuti, which took her on daily tours ranging from a day at the commissary, to a day in Venice.  They also spent a day in downtown (old town) Vicenza, and a day in neighboring townships, one of which was Marostica.  The neighboring townships day was Kimberly’s favorite (Venice was rainy that day).  Kimberly told me that they found this place that had a cool castle, with walls that still extended down the hill and surrounded the old town.  In the old town center, there is a giant chess board.  On this chess board, each September, the town gathers (along with a LOT of tourists) and plays a single game of chess, using people fully dressed in character as the pieces.  Apparently, the original game was played by two men, wanting to marry the same woman.  The men, not being able to decide who should “get the girl,” decided the winner of a game of human chess would marry, with the losers consent.  Apparently, the woman in question either had no say, or wasn’t very decisive.  Either way, a crowd grew, somebody won, and suddenly a new tradition was born.    Kimberly wanted to show me this place because she knew I would like it.

So again, after lunch and some light shopping, and having nothing better to do, Kimberly noted that the weather was really nice today, and we should go see this village.  Cool.  Off we went! Andiamo! –as they say…

What a walk!  No kidding, that wasn’t easy.  It was short; only about 20 minutes, but Holy Cow!  Anyway…

We made it to the top, scrambled along the castle walls for a bit, took some pictures, and then walked back down to the town square, back to the car, and came home.  All in all, not a bad afternoon.  We were bored, so we went and toured a village dating back to the 1300s…Stood on the original castle walls, and listened to the church bells ringing.  Where can you do THAT in the states… J

Take care,

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 5:44 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 25 January 2009 5:52 PM CET

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Mood:  happy

This weekend we took our second ITR trip since arriving in Italy.   We arrived dark and early to board the bus enroute to Milan, often described as the “Italian Big Apple,” particularly by those Italians that are proud of Milan, but have never actually been to New York.  –Or the States.  –Or have seen a movie about either…

Seriously, there isn’t much there, unless you want to go name brand shopping, and even then, it’s not like 5^th Ave.  We saw plenty of Armani, Gucci, Prada, etc, etc, but they didn’t have the large windows with larger than life displays.  It would be hard to “window shop,” there, but if you knew what you wanted and where to find it, you could pay a small fortune for it, in Milan!  All kidding aside, Milan is the most expensive city in Italy.  It is considered (here, anyway) the fashion capital of the world.

This sort of shopping isn’t really our thing, so we set ourselves to the task of seeing the sites.  We found the Gallaria, separating the Duomo (Cathedral) from the Opera House.  We walked through the Duomo and Piazza surrounding it.  We walked a good distance around Milan, saw the Castle, and then ended up around the Duomo, again, got a small snack and then headed back through the Galleria to the Opera House and found our way to the bus stop for the trip home.

It is worth noting two things about the Galleria.  First, McDonald’s is directly across from Prada, in the dead center of the Galleria.  That’s just funny.  Next, there is a tile mosaic of a small bull (the ‘Torino’), which you are supposed to step on (someplace thoroughly uncomfortable for the bull) with your left foot and spin in a full circle, also to the left, to bring you good fortune in the next year.  We (all three of us) spun on the bull.  Good fortune should abound…

Our next trip (the February trip) is to Viareggio, which will be hosting the Carnivale Parade, complete with floats, while we are there.  Carnivale is done big-time in two places in Italy.  Viareggio is the other one.  Then, a few weeks later, we’ll have the opportunity to do Carnivale properly, in the old stomping grounds of Casanova himself, Venice.

Posted by kisajaja at 5:25 PM CET

Updated: Sunday, 25 January 2009 5:43 PM CET

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