April in Italy

Once again a fairly uneventful week in Bella Italia, but that doesn't mean that we aren't having one beautiful day after another . This past Sunday while Chris played golf and Emma babysat, Liz and I went to the Pordenone Antique market. We didn't do a whole lot of shopping, but still managed to have a great day.

This is the Pordenone carousel. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, but it's the oldest I've ever seen. The artwork is really pretty, and the carousel itself is beautifully unusual. Liz took the first round herself. Second round we were given free tickets and I got to ride in the rocking carriage.

Riding in carousels works up quite an appetite. We headed over to a chocolate shop for a little refreshment. Peratoner chocolates opened in 1873 and has some of the most beautiful chocolate I've ever seen or tasted. Liz's hot chocolate was basically melted dark chocolate, we had to order a glass of milk to water it down a little!

I should have gotten a picture of their front display. The current theme is "fish market" and they have an entire window filled with life sized chocolate fish laid out like what you would see in a market stall.

Liz and I had a picnic lunch while waiting for Emma to get out of school last week. Here she is as a flower princess. Yes, she's wearing the same dress, different day, it's her "go-to" outfit right now, the cowboy boots are a daily thing.

There are several things that I've tried to get picture of, only to fall short. One of the pictures is of the sheep herds that travel from place to place. As far as I can tell they are used to clear fields, eating for a day or two until an area is bare, then popping up across town at another farm. The working dogs really earn their kibble running back and forth to keep the sheep out of the roads (no fences!). The other picture is of a Nonna riding her bike in heals and a dress, probably coming back from market. There are more than a few who can do this with a child or two on each end of the bike, packages hanging off the handle bars and in the basket, and all of it with more grace in heals than I can muster on a flat surface. Here are the best attempts so far.

Sheep...

Nonna...

Part of Liz's mini-basket team. Coach Eric is the big guy on the back row, and for those of you that have heard the stories of Paolo, he's front row second from the right.

Emma has been absent a lot lately when it comes time to snap photos, so here are at least some of the pictures she's taken...

The view next to us with all the fruit trees in bloom:

Geburtstag Strudel

On April 5th our dear, sweet, super smart, gorgeous, always fantastic girl Emma turned the big 1-4. That's right, a whole year into teenager-hood and so far no ill effects have been noted. Her birthday was lucky enough to fall into spring break, so we took advantage of the time off from school to head north to Germany.

It's a little over 5 hours to get to Garmisch from where we are, and the drive took us through some really incredible sights in Italy, Austria, and Germany.

I don't think we had snow sticks this high even in Iowa (well above my head!).

How could I not have gotten a picture of this?

Em prepping for her first round of skiing.

Chris and Liz on the slopes.

Birthday lunch, more German food.

For Em's birthday dinner we headed to a traditional Bavarian restaurant complete with Bavarian dancing, and....strudel. So Em, being the lucky strudel loving girl she is, got a delicious apple strudel for her birthday "cake".

Here's the yodeling, accordion playing, singing musician at the restaurant.

I tried to get pictures of the dancers, but the restaurant was just too dark. The food was delicious and filling. Chris and Emma were in heaven trading dishes back and forth.

Birthday girl getting attacked by her sister.

Emma just seems to get better and better each year, I can't wait to see what 14 brings us.

This week..not much

This week in the James household....yeah, not much new here. Emma has all of her braces on now (see picture), we can't wait to see what her final smile will look like. She's officially registered and enrolled for (gasp) High School next year. I would complain about how quickly she's grown up if it weren't for the fact that she's just continued to become funnier, smarter, and sweeter each and every year.



Liz is busy with basketball, school.....



and friends.... Here she is with one of her favorite friends at the base Easter egg hunt this past weekend.



She's keeping pace with her sister in the growing department. Sports physicals were just done for next year. Em is topping 5'5", and Liz is doing her best to catch up at 4'3". I have the feeling that it won't be too long and I'll be short man out in this household!

Chris is, well, he's just busy as always. Me... studying, having fun going to dinners, studying, wine tastings (yumm), studying, running, studying, and most of all just sitting on our porch with a cup of hot tea watching spring happen in our new yard, and yeah...studying.

The flowers that we planted this past fall are coming up and oh so pretty. A full garden is next on the agenda.



This is the week that we were going to be back in the US visiting, so more than ever you are all on my mind. Wishing you all a happy spring, and lots of love.

Umbria

A few weeks ago a shopping trip was arranged for Umbria. I, of course, left my camera at home. Luckily a few of the gals brought theirs and were nice enough to share these photos. I'll add more as I get them.

We started off by touring one of the oldest ceramics studios in Deruta. The owner, descendant of the original owner, took us through the building and we were able to see the entire process that goes into making each one of these pieces of art. I have been forever spoiled by these pieces, and am now hoping, planning, and saving for what I want to take home.

http://www.ubaldograzia.it/home-en.html





A fantastic lunch and plenty of shopping was also done in the town of Deruta.







It had been arranged for us to stay in a local agriturismo. For anyone who is planning a trip, I would definitely recommend this place. They provided a wine and olive oil tasting for us that evening before dinner, the rooms were comfortable, and the views were incredible.

http://www.lafornace.com/website.asp?lang=en

The next morning we took a tour of some of the local towns including Assisi. St. Francis was a fascinating person, and it was amazing to see the architecture and history surrounding these towns he was from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

This is the 10th largest cathedral in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Santa_Maria_degli_Angeli





This is the Basilica of Saint Francis in the town of Assisi. There are so many frescoes, pieces of interesting architecture, statues, etc. that it becomes difficult after a while to focus on how fascinating and amazing each of them are individually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Francesco_d%27Assisi



Pax, or peace, was the message of St. Francis. He was a vegetarian, since he would not harm any living being. In Italy that's a difficult lifestyle, in the time period of his life it would have been almost impossible. You can't help but respect someone so committed to peace and kindness.

Times that feed the soul.

The girls and I recently took a trip to see our best-est friends in the whole wide world..... Amanda tends to think my blog is too wordy, so just for her I've restricted myself (painfully) to this (love you hon ;-P) :

Ice Skating in Claut

When it rains it pours. I really shouldn't be taking the time to blog right now, but it's a quick and easy check mark off my to -do list. Plus, we've had a great past week so it's hard not to share since there are plenty of weeks where NOTHING is going on other than the mundane hum drum of every day life.
Lucia ( the mother of Mathilde Anna and Catarina) organized a day of ice skating to Claut for the bulk of Lizzie's class on one of the school days off for Carnevale. First I'd like to reiterate that many Italians in this area speak English. Lucia is so fluent that I'm shocked at how well developed and functional her vocabulary is for a non-native speaker (I'm sure she could out "english" some of our native speakers from back home!). Lucia has gone out of her way to get us involved in Italian life and to introduce us to the other families in Lizzie's class. She also is our homeroom mom for Liz's class, mother to three (one of which is under 6 mos old), and one of those people who never (never) looses her cool. Altogether a wonderful person to be around, and so much fun on an outing like this.
The trip she organized was to Claut, a town about 30 minutes from us, which frequently holds world skiing and curling competitions. http://www.comune.claut.pn.it/ is the Italian site, it translates fairly well through google.

Lizzie and her friends:



The ever elusive Emma:



Moments before a snowball fight broke out on the way home:

Carnevale Parte Due

I've said it before, and have no doubt that I'll say it again, sometimes life in Italy is a touch past surreal. Almost always in the most fun and unbelievable ways possible.
A few weeks ago the mother of one of Elizabeth's friends was kind enough to invite us to be a part of the local Carnevale parades.
Emma didn't want to be in the parade, but did dress up as a nature goddess for the first Carnevale celebration. Liz really is happy to be there, she was just eying the float we were going to ride/be with and trying to figure out what exactly it was.



So here's how a local Italian Carnevale Parade goes: music (American country of course, heavy on the Garth Brooks) blares from speakers set on a tractor rigged to pull a float and disguised as a field of cacti. You, others dressed as American Indians, and others dressed as Cacti (yes-multiple cactus) dance and throw confetti as you walk through a town. I can't really give you all the details as to how many misconceptions they have of us or of our "redskins" -but the shrunken head on a stick that one person carried was really kind of funny. It's all in good humor and fantasy as they are happy to tell you.

Part of our tribe:



The local police obviously have a good sense of humor, a few even danced with us for a bit during the parade.



This float not only had moving eyes, but also a built in beer and wine keg that was serviced by Springefields own, Moe.



After the kind of mileage we did, the thought of having traveling refreshments is pretty appealing. I should mention that several families brought out food and drinks for the parade folk, raisin cake and apple juice was greatly appreciated at hour three of dancing in the streets.

This is the end of the Maniago parade. It was cold, we were tired, and I really appreciate Em, Chris, and some great friends for being such troopers while waiting!



This is from the second parade we did that went from the town of Malnisio, through Grizzo, to the Montereale piazza. You might recognize this town square from some of my other postings, it's quite the social place.



For that parade we were the first float. It was much easier than being back in the pack, AND we got to see everyone else come in while we had giant plates of fried bread and drinks provided by the town.

A perk of Carnevale-plenty of booths set up with goodies like this:



A few of the other surreal moments from Carnevale 2010:

I'm pretty sure that none of the nuns I've known dressed like this, flashed red satin thongs, or were men...Cross dressing (smurfs, nurses, nuns, cartoon characters, ... and fill in the blank) was a big theme this year. (This is the tame picture, the one from thirty seconds later and your eyes would be permanently scarred). For such macho men they have no trouble at all donning a fake set of breasts, a pretty garter, and a high set of heels.



Safety isn't really a huge priority in Italy. They seem to figure that if you are stupid enough to try something, who are they to stop you? Proof in point- this was a moving part of one of the floats. It's a rigged up motorized-tryke thingy with a wood back platform that they've set a kitchen chair on, it has two flat tires , rusty pipes, and three teenage boys hopping off and on while it scoots around.



Being in a Carnevale parade might have been one of the items on my life's list that I'd not known to include. It was a lot of fun, and I can't get over how nice it was for them to invite us to participate.

Here's Liz and Mom : happy to be included, and happy to be done for this year!



Casa James is always open for guests, but if you haven't booked your stay yet, Carnevale 2011 is only a year away.