Palazzo Viviani

Palazzo Viviani, upper right corner

When looking for a place to spend a long weekend in early October, I came upon an email for discounted reservations to stay in a medieval castle called "Palazzo (Palace) Viviani."  After doing a bit more research, we felt that it was meant to be for us to spend the weekend there - Vivian certainly thought so - she was so pleased to find HER castle!!  Palazzo Viviani is located a bit further south in Italy than our area - it is east and slightly north of Florence, near San Marino, about a four hour drive from our home.

We arrived late afternoon on a Saturday and stopped at the bottom of the castle in a small parking lot, unsure if we could drive our car into the castle grounds.  Paul briefly walked up and discovered that yes, we could - at least to unload our bags - and attempted to do just that, only to discover that our car would not start.  Several hours and interesting translations involving alligator clips for jumper cables later, we drove our jump-started car around for awhile and returned to the hotel, and: zilch.  No battery.

As the next day was Sunday we were unhappy as to our prospects for exploring the area - the castle itself is in a quiet little town from which we planned to drive and check out the nearby sights, that certainly weren't a walkable distance away.  We didn't even attempt to ask the staff about the possibility of a shop being open on a Saturday evening because usually even the gas stations close at 6 pm, and the entire country seems to shut down on Sundays, except for, of course, the restaurants.  So it was our lucky day indeed when we trundled down to breakfast Sunday morning and the server, who had helped jump the car the day before, asked about it.  When we said it was still dead, he explained that his good friend is the local mechanic and he would simply call him and ask for assistance.  The man showed up a bit later, with several batteries that he assumed would fit our car!  On a Sunday morning, no less!!



So we were unable to do as much sightseeing as we had planned on Sunday but were VERY thankful for our good fortune and a working vehicle.
We drove to the nearby beach (you can just see the Adriatic from Palazzo Viviani - see the hazy blue strip above the horizon, left).





Though it was 71 degrees and decent weather, albeit cloudy and a bit windy so not exactly ideal swimming weather, most of the Italians walking by on the beach were  wearing heavy jackets and scarves wrapped up to their chins.  You can only imagine their scandalized looks when our swimsuit clad children waded into the water.  Not a few glares were cast in our direction when children, equally bundled up, presumably asked their parents why they could not play in the water as well?

 

Vivian was SO excited to play in the sand and the water - she had been asking to go to the ocean since we arrived in Italy - of course we didn't want to tell her no when the weather was okay.  So, Paul and I just smiled and laughed, considering the water and the day were warmer than most of the time when our families swim in Rainy Lake and in the U.P.  Granted, these Italians are used to far hotter summers than we are in our northern U.S. climates and I realize that it is all relative- evidenced when I thought I might die from the heat in August and they do not seem bothered by it, even with the overall absence of air conditioning - but it was still amusing.

We also checked out a few of what appeared to be small castles on nearly hilltops in the area, but turned out to be sort of walled in small city-towns.  We were a bit disappointed in these after spending a good deal of time circling in to find these castles that appeared on each high spot, only to find no real castle at all - but they were interesting to explore in and of themselves.

One of my favorite moments from the trip occurred after we passed some sort of table for a club or something, from which older ladies were asking people to sign up for things, obviously something that had no meaning for us as tourists.  We nodded politely and said "buonasera" as usual and passed by, but then Vivian cried out, "Hey Mom! Why didn't you stop?"  When we explained that it was something just for local people, she said "No, no, they asked you if you wanted to have the red balloon for your children.  Why didn't you say yes that we want the balloon?" Vivian had only been in  Italian school a few weeks, but as almost no English is spoken there, she already understands far more than we do.  We had to explain to her that she needs to let us know if she thinks people are asking us something, especially if it seems important, or if she thinks she understands something that we don't.  I was so proud of my little Italian speaker!  I think she will soon be fluent :)  Sadly it was too late as the ladies were packing up the table and had given the balloon away elsewhere.  I think Vivian will speak up sooner next time!

Other than her name being on all of the signs and hotel paraphanalia, Vivian's (and Clara's too) favorite part of our stay was the cats and kittens all over the castle grounds.

 

We had a visitor to our photo opp....Vivian points....

...And a cat emerges from the bushes!

Several cats must have had kittens recently because they were everywhere and several were friendly enough to allow the girls to pet them.  Every time we stepped out of our room, Vivian cried "il gatto!" and ran to find the next cat.  The girls enjoyed it so much.  Some of the cats - eh, not so much.  I think there are a few more terrorized cats there than before we arrived...

Paul and I were more excited about the delicious food we ate (the hotel breakfast boasted several cakes and pies each morning, in addition to typical European breakfast fare of fresh bread and cold cuts, fruit, yogurt, fresh granola, cereal, and eggs and bacon for the Americans) and the relative quiet (other than the noise provided by our own energetic girls) during the  much less-busy "shoulder season".

Our Sunday night dinner and Monday morning breakfast were private dining!  The fish grotto was delicious, complete with fresh local flat bread and seafood that tasted like it had been caught that day.  Paired with local vino, of course.  Wonderful!

I loved this view of the wine cellar - doesn't it just make you want to explore down there? And sample some of it's contents??  You can just barely see the cask down at the bottom in the photo at right...just out of reach... :)

Of course, our trip would not have been complete without gelato, too.  And the name of this shop is one of our favorites to add to the archives:
Gelato Mania!  

The girls also had fun on the arcade rides next door.  Yeehaw! 

Paul says, good til the last drop.  Also, can you spot the photographer in the reflection of the glass?  :) 

Final favorite photos from in and around Palazzo Viviani, Castello Montegridolfo.  Seriously, there were so many great pictures that I had to pick and choose even which ones to include here!  Vivian especially loved "her" castello- she was smiling and posing for pictures everywhere.  Fun memories at Palazzo Viviani!  

 

We really want one of these swings in our future yard.  Fun! 

A fitting sunset to cap our fantastic and beautiful trip!

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

Gelato or Bust

Since it goes without saying that we are making it a priority to sample as much gelato as often as we can, the phrase "gelato or bust" was right up there with "La Dolce Vita" as top contenders for the title of our blog.  For those of you who have never sampled the most amazing ice cream on earth, please, start planning your trip to visit us as soon as possible because you will not be disappointed.  And if you've tried gelato in the US or even elsewhere in Europe, or perhaps the stuff that they sell in supermarket freezers and label gelato, you have tasted only a poor simulation of the real thing, my friend.  No, I'm not exaggerating.  This is ice cream on a whole new level! When we traveled to Italy while living in Germany, we often just skipped lunch and ate gelato instead, and occasionally even made excuses to indulge twice in one day.  It is just that good.

According to wikipedia, the history of gelato dates back to frozen desserts served in ancient Rome and Egypt made from snow and ice brought down from mountaintops and preserved below ground.  How cool is that? Literally!  Even ice cream in Italy is a historical tradition.


Fortunately for us, though perhaps unfortunately for our waistbands, we only have to walk about 50 paces down the street to our local gelatteria.  Almost every night after dinner our children begin their "gelato" chant and it is just so delicious, that it is hard for us to refuse.  And why should we?  La Dolce Vita, indeed!  I believe that after "ciao," "gelato" was Clara's second Italian word.

Hilfer and Frazier girls enjoying frozen treats and gelato cone seats.  The only reason they are drinking smoothies is because they had already had gelato earlier in the day.  My favorite part of this photo is actually Liz posing through the glass in the shop, though it's difficult to see her through the glare.  :)  

Gelato makes our children act very silly.  

 



So as we continue our search for gelato or bust, we will be sure to chronicle our favorite flavors and gelatterias so that we can share them with you when you visit!