The Amalfi Coast {Day 1}

This last weekend was a 3-day holiday weekend for Steve for Veteran’s Day and Brian had 5 days off school, so we decided to waste the days away on the Amalfi Coast. We rented a beautiful apartment in the cliff side village of Furore, situated between Amalfi and Positano. We spent thursday morning packing, loading the car, and then attending Brian’s first parent-teacher conference of 1st grade (rave reviews by the way: he’s smart, nice, and cute). We were finally able to hit the road about noon and it took every second of the daylight hours and into the night to arrive at our weekend getaway at about 830 pm. We grabbed a late dinner at a nice restaurant right next to our rental and then threw ourselves into bed at 11pm. The first full day, the kids were up with the sun, so we all got up and going, and headed into Sorrento, where we immediately caught a ferry to Capri to see the famous blue grotto! Except, it wasn’t meant to be, the Blue Grotto was closed for high tide, which we would have know had we chosen to pre-plan this trip. Opps, lately I’ve been more into a go-with-flow approach to trip planning and this was one time it came back to bite us. But the day was gorgeous and sunny and warm compared to our chilly Northern Italy weather, so we hopped aboard a bus and walking tour of the island. We stopped at many viewpoints for pictures, explored the two towns, Capri and Ana Capri, toured the August Gardens and saw the Fire Cliffs of Capri. Next time, however, we check tide schedules! (Pictures above: our rental in Furore. Below: Sorrento from the ferry and the road in Sorrento down to the marina. The rest of the pictures are on Capri)

Mount Vesuvius from Capri. We would be summiting this the next day at noon!

Halloween-ish

So Halloween-ish came and went again. I call it Halloween-ish because we don’t actually do anything on October 31st. No trick-or-treating from house to house. The schools (both off and on base) don’t allow dressing up. But, the weekend after real Halloween, the base does put on a pretty cool Halloween-themed block party with all sorts of fun for the kids and lots of trunk-or-treating, so they did get to dress up and get way too much candy. Brian is clearly Obi Wan Kanobi (I had to google how to spell that). He’s clearly not Luke Skywalker (“Mom, Luke’s not cool!”) or that other guy, Hans Solo (“Mom! Hans Solo is not even a Jedi, gesh!”). And Emily was happy to just pull some Princess dress from her dress-up collection on the day of and call herself Princess Leia, although I think that’s Sleeping Beauty’s dress. Needless to say, Star Wars is super cool in our house right now!

The Aviano Blue Sharks

Brian’s Soccer season just finished up last month. His team was the Aviano Blue Sharks and he loved playing. He learned a lot about soccer strategy this season, but just never really got up the nerve to break into the group of kicking children to chase down the ball. He says he enjoyed it and wants to play again next year and we think as he learns more about the game, and gains confidence playing, he’ll love it since he loves the running part. We had fun watching him all season and the highlight was the last game, which was Blue Sharks vs. Parents. Let’s just say I found out that Steve doesn’t believe in going easy on children and scored on the kids several times to, as he says, “teach them to guard the goal.” Oh man, it was funny to watch.

Cub Scout Campout

Brian is officially a Bobcat Patch wearing Tiger Den Cub Scout! And Mommy and Daddy are officially the busiest they have ever been. Between sports and two different schools and Cub Scouts and traveling, it seems like we always have something going on. Brian has 3-4 den activities per month and then at least one pack activity, Cub Scouts alone is keeping us busy. Last month, Steve and Brian had their first Cub Scout campout, about 20 minutes from our house. Emily and I went home to sleep in real beds after the camp fire ended. Brian and his Den earned their Bobcat Patches (it goes on upside down as you can see below). They also performed a cute skit and we all got to watch the Boy Scouts perform a Flag Retirement Ceremony, which I’d never seen before and it was very interesting. We will have another pack campout in the spring and also a possible camping trip in Normandy, France in April. So far Brian is having lots of fun with Scouts.

Prosecco Road

So, another opportunity popped up for a wine tasting bus trip, this time to the Prosecco Road. This area is just west of where we live, Prosecco being the common wine of our region. Prosecco is basically Italy’s answer to Champagne. And since I love a bubbly wine, it’s a favorite of mine. Before this trip, I assumed all Prosecco was the same and I found out I was wrong. There is brut and dry and extra dry and on and on. But I still don’t know the difference. Let’s just say its all good. We were lucky to have a beautiful fall day for our trip and made 3 stops at different wineries along the road and then ended the trip with dinner at an all-you-can-eat Pizzeria.

Brian Habla Español y Baila!

Brian has been taking Spanish at school, starting last year in Kindergarten, and the first and second grade classes get to perform a dance to Spanish music twice a year. He’s been both excited for and nervous about this dancing since he was an audience member last year. The dance performance was amazing. The costumes were great and all the kids were super prepared. Brian did really well and was concentrating on the steps so hard. He has decided after this that he does not like performing for the public! He is catching on to Spanish so fast and now he also attends a “Host Nation” class where he learns Italian. He teaches me something new in both languages daily!

Shopping in Italy

I’ve taken advantage of some amazing shopping opportunities in Italy lately. The first was a day trip to the Piazzola Sul Brenta antique market, the second largest antiques market in Italy! A group of 4 of us went and although no one bought anything large, we got to see what kinds of things they sell. It was antique heaven. I love antiques, but also like to mix in new with old. Also, I’m super picky about what I like when it comes to antiques, I prefer a super simple look over the really gaudy, ornate stuff. I did come home with a few items though (below). The red striped linen tea towel was about $12, the wooden bucket about $50 (I’ve wanted one for years and the big ones are great for kids junk and umbrellas), and that little step stool was $12, and is being painted a yellow-y shade of milk paint right now to replace an old Target step stool we had in the kids’ bathroom that Brian broke while testing out a “what happens if I do this” theory. Now that my purchases have settled into their new home, I want to go back for more but I’m pacing myself.

And then of course there are the Bazaars. We were introduced to these in Germany. Basically, the spouses groups on a base will get together a hanger full of vendors from all over Europe, selling everything from furniture to wine to cheese to chocolate to soap to pottery to shoes to jewelry. Basically anything you could want from Europe they have there. It lasts 3 days, a friday to a sunday, and the vendors pay a percentage of their earnings to the spouses group, which then uses the money for scholarships and other great things around base. Our fall bazaar, hosted by the Aviano Officers and Civilian Spouses Club, just happened the first weekend in October. The Enlisted Spouses Club hosts one in the Spring too. Below are some pictures of my haul from this bazaar and past ones. The pine furniture piece I got in the spring and later found out it is called a Panera, which Italian bakers used to keep their bread in. It hinges open at the top to reveal some divided storage and then has 3 drawers at the bottom, which American children keep hordes of crayons and drawings in. The yellow wood bucket that says “DF” on it is a grape basket. The antique pizza board in the back was purchased at the fall bazaar. The metal pumpkin is not from the bazaar. And the green glass demijohn was a $5 winery purchase. The Italians still use demijohns to hold their wine. We know of a few wineries near us where you can fill a demijohn from a giant vat of wine. This little one will hold 5 liters. We have some friends who were recently cracking me up telling me how they filled a 25-liter demijohn with wine and then had a hell of a time pouring a glass of wine from it! The Venetian glass lamp was a Germany bazaar purchase back in 2004, ironic. And the Dutch wooden cookie molds are reproductions and came with a recipe and instructions on how to actually make cookies using them, which I will be trying soon!

Not long after the bazaar ended, I started having the shopping shakes. (It’s genetic, thanks Mom!) The only cure is more shopping and so when my friend Beth asked if I wanted to go to Nove with her, I knew a trip to Italy pottery mecca was just the right prescription. There are many factories in Nove, some little mom and pop shops, and some large producers, like the one below (La Ceramica VBC). VBC makes pottery for Tiffany & Co., Lenox, and Williams-Sonoma, Fiesta ware, and other fancy pants brands I can’t remember. The entire second floor is a factory outlet full of rows and rows of cheap pottery. And I mean cheap. I wish it was also cheap to mail so I could buy it for gifts!

My haul from my trip to Nove below. I picked up a few serving pieces and a small cake plate from VBC (about $70 total for everything in the top two pictures). I just looked up the online price for the small white and cream bowl and the retail price is $72. I paid $12!

 

The personalized pitcher is from Larry’s and was $12. And I also picked up the medium sized Demijohn at Larry’s for about $25, which is not a great price, but the medium-sized ones are hard to find. Happy Early Birthday to me!