Sledding, trip one

There are many things you can say about living in Italy. Some of the bad (missing family and friends), most of them good (food, wine, great people). One of the best things you can say is that there is ALWAYS something to do. Today we all layered ourselves up till we felt like overstuffed sausage and headed to the slopes. They haven't opened the lifts, you can tell there's not a lot of snow yet, but there was fantastic sledding.

It may not look like we are moving all that quick, but let me tell you...that was some fast, slick, and hard snow. D, I'm counting the days till you get here, we're going to have a blast!











Here was one of our not so successful attempts at getting a family pic.



After we had sufficiently worn ourselves out we had some fantastic hot chocolate, tiramasu, and coffee at one of the slopes restaurants.





You can see how bright and sunny it was on the mountain top, here was us entering the cloud bank and fog that lasted most of the (VERY) long (STEEP and CURVY) way down. Yes, those are snow measurement sticks next to the road.



The drive on the mountain was incredible, it looks like you are driving through a forest out of a fairy tale, or maybe in in the Italian Alps :-). All of this is only a few miles from our front door as the crow flies, and maybe 30 minutes by car considering how slow you (an American) have to drive. The Italians could make it in half as much time.

San Leonardo Fest (otherwise known as little America)

I'm sitting here listening to a little Ella and Louis realizing that if I'm going to update the blog it better happen now. School isn't leaving a whole lot of breathing room, and what I do have is usually packed with "planned fun".
Today we were really excited to attend the one fest we know of that our little town hosts. It's billed as the "Pork fest" so you can imagine that only about half our family was truly jazzed about it. Lizzie and I were game to try it out, and it really payed off. Imagine our surprise when we got near the square and heard American Country music.
Yes, you heard right. Two stepping, line dancing, and all in our little no stoplight Italian village. Now, don't get me wrong I know a few that could have put the "American Country School" dancers to shame, but it was pretty fun to watch. If you look closely you can even see the roping demo going on behind the dancers.







After checking out a few of the booths, and the local band....





we headed to the inflatable slide...yup, just like we were back in the states. While Lizzie slid...





Emma ate (this was the "pork fest" after all).



One of my favorite parts about our town, and our fest, is the abundance of farming tools.



What I didn't get pictures of were all the handmade farming (full sized and toy sized) rakes, etc. that were on display and for sale. Really cool to me, poor Chris, he had to humor me all day long.

Everywhere right now are fresh roasted chestnuts...the line was just a little too long.



I never did convince Chris to dance, but he did indulge me by taking a hot air balloon ride.



Now for some random pics of the kids...we have a lot of time on our hands in the morning while we're waiting for school to start.







This was our favorite pizzeria, within walking distance of our house. We just found out it's closed. Ugh, the only downside of living in a really small town.



The little taste of American at our fest today brought a big pang of missing ya'll. You're always on our minds!

Marostica and Verona

A few months ago I had a great day trip. Originally the plan was to go to Nove, home of many ceramic manufacturing companies, then on to Verona. While we were at Nove we spotted this gorgeous town off in the not so far distance. Being the adventurous gals we are, we decided to make a stop there too. Marostica was the town we saw. You may have actually heard of it since it is famous for it's human chess game it holds every few years, the next one is in 2010. The whole town square is a giant stone chess board.









This is the restaurant at the top of the castle wall.



The view behind me was incredible, and there is Dawn who is to thank for since it was her idea to go, and her camera taking all the pictures! Thanks Dawn, I had a blast!



At the center of this picture overlooking Marostica you can see a birds eye view of the giant chess board. After we got up to the castle, quite a long steep hike, we realized that we could have driven..but that would have taken all the fun out of it.





The hiking trail (and I use that term loosely) was surrounded by olive trees and farm areas on the slopes.





Even though this little guy tried to eat my hair, I really wanted to bring him home. He wouldn't fit in the car.



After Marostica we drove over to Verona.



As a tip making venture there are "gladiators" outside the Coliseum. I was swept off my feet by a giant of one (obviously since I'm not a "little" lady). It was fun, but alas, no picture.









Here is the tourist trap known as "Juliets Balcony". It was neat to see and is a very old building once owned by a family that may (cough cough) have been the basis for Shakespeares fueding family in Romeo and Juliet. The funny part is that I tried (many!!) times to get a picture of a Shakespeare statue only to have it go wrong. The first attempt (INSIDE JULIETS HOUSE) ended up being a Shakespeare look alike, but was actually a piece based on "Waiting for Godot", really people?! All my other attempts ended up basically the same. So, Shakespeare fans, you'll just have to come over here and get a picture yourself.



Verona is my favorite Italian city so far. It blended the best of everything and was a place I could say that I wouldn't mind living. I'll have to pack in a LOT of visits before we leave.

Fall

Our Halloween was pretty uneventful, but really fun and relaxing. There's no doubt that we miss all the fun of trick or treating and seeing friends in costume (there's a certain Swedish maid that will always stick in my brain!!). But, overall, this was one of the best Halloweens our family has ever had. No stress with costumes, no coordination of trick or treaters, no worn out children and frazzled parents...ahh just caramel apples, candy, pumpkins, and a (somewhat) scary movie.













Chris and I even got to enjoy a bottle of Castle of Dracula wine.



We've had rain the past few days. Even though it's a balmy 43 degrees here on the plains, look what that adds up to in the mountains!





Yes, that is real snow...within a short driving distance....and it won't just happen once in a decade (Montgomery)...and we can PLAY in it!!! Oh, ya'll have no idea how excited we are to get up there for skiing and sledding. We may even have to take an after school jaunt today just to see it up close and personal.