Life in Italy

view from our terrace

We've been so busy settling into life in Italy that I haven't even sat down at this computer long enough to upload photos and write up another post yet.  The 'gelato' post was one I wrote a long time ago but just finished adding pictures to the other day.  So, to sum up our month of August: after receiving the keys to our new (OLD!) home, the moving van blocked our entire street and unloaded our household goods on one of the hottest days of this hottest summer on record.  It got to the point where, when the poor men asked me to which floor the current box being hoisted off the truck was heading to, I said : "the attic, I AM SORRY!"  We had three days to unpack, during which Paul was only here about half the time due to paperwork mishaps, but fortunately the girls were gone during the day, playing at the child development center on base.  After our first actual night staying in the house, Paul left the next morning at 5 am to return to the States for 10 days. WHAT?!?!  (not his choice, of course...it was for a continuing education that his commander here wanted him to complete...why he didn't do the training before they moved us, I don't know, but he spent half the week prior trying to get the trip details ironed out, but that is typical of the Air Force so not a big surprise really...)  So - move to another country with a not quite 2 year old and 4 year old?  Sure.  Spend the first 10 days in the new (did I mention old??) house without my husband and figure out how to LIVE there on my own?  Not my idea of fun.  No internet service yet and barely working A/C during the sweltering days made for one crabby mommy....but, we made it work.  We had a lot of help from our dental clinic family, thank goodness!  The girls and I explored a bit on our own and were happy to discover a few other American neighbors and one of our favorite finds - a Panificio ('bakery') just around the corner from our house.  The house is working out well...we weren't sure how Clara and Vivi would do sharing a room but it has been (mostly) fine.  Clara is such a light sleeper but I think she is getting used to it.  Everyone is breathing a bit easier now that it has cooled down - of course, they installed another A/C unit but not until after the heat wave has ended.

Looking out our front window during the Basket Festival

Luckily Paul returned in time for the big festival here in our town, Sagra dei Sest - the festival of baskets - during the first weekend in September.  It featured baskets, of course, and many other handmade folk-type items like things made out of wood, soap, local honey, etc.  There were many vendors and we enjoyed being directly in the center of it all, literally - they told us that unless we parked our car on the outskirts of town and walk in/out, we would not be able to leave as all the central streets would be blocked.  But, no need to leave as all the excitement came to us!  One of my favorite moments was on Sunday afternoon as we joined most of the Italians for riposo - 'rest' or nap time, and awoke to a VERY loud band playing outside the window, and Clara clapping along from her bed. :)  We ran out to the terrace to check it out:

(Please excuse everyone's 'bed head' hair :) and the fact that they were squinting so terribly - it was so bright after our dimmed-for-napping bedrooms! Vivian is not plugging her ears but actually trying to shade her eyes!)  It was a lot of fun.  And so much history - this was the 339th basket festival here in Polcenigo.  339th!!  As Americans we can hardly even contemplate that kind of history.  We learned from the architect who did the renovations on the house we're living in that building is 400 years old.  That includes the old sink, original fireplace and tile in the old kitchen downstairs, but he said that the tile in the entryway is "only" 300 years old.  Wow.

We love our terrace and have spent every nice evening grilling and enjoying the evening there.  Our river behind the house has been a source of constant amazement: after our first week in the house, the water flow slowed from a solid slow stream to absolutely nothing.  Niente!  I imagine that it was to everyone's horror, as they made laborious preparations for the festival, that the river remained dry with nasty looking dried algae and it stank, as even Clara noticed and often wrinkled her little nose, saying "stinky!"  Amazingly, the first night of the festival was cancelled due to steady rain, and the next morning, our river had returned!  In fact, during just the last few days it has swelled an unbelievable amount, to a rushing mountain river.

For now, we continue to set up house.  Armed with my new vacuum cleaner, today I won the battle against the spiders and other assorted insects that make their way in (there are only screens on a few of the windows), but I'm not sure if I will win the war.  And I try not to think too much about the fact that after we gave some of our empty packing boxes to a coworker of Paul's on his way out, he found the largest scorpion he's ever seen in one of the boxes.  The boxes had been stacked down on our lower level for some time before he took them....I haven't seen any so here's hoping that the scorpion made it's way in after the boxes were in his house!  We were told to expect small scorpions, but he says this one was 6 or 7 inches long...oh, be still my heart.

More later on our explorations of the nearby area, including the Castello that I am gazing out at as I type while enjoying a glass of vino from a local vineyard, and our misadventures on learning how to drive in Italy....for now, please click on the link below to view some pictures of the house (sans furniture - we'll post some "after" photos soon), two beautiful little girls, and Polcenigo, our town.  Enjoy - we sure are!

Another digital slideshow by Smilebox