After summer is over, the base pool closes and we can swim for free at the Aviano City Pool. It is actually a very nice pool, exceptionally clean with nice clear water. They do have a few rules that are slightly different from your average pool in America including:
1. Shoes must be left at the door to the locker room. You must put your flip flops on at that point (and you cannot accidentally wear the flip flops out of the building!)
2. Swim suits must be tight fitting - no board shorts for the boys
3. Robes are highly encouraged
4. Caps are required
5. You must shower before entering the pool (This is typical in America too but rarely enforced)
6. It is forbidden to shower without wearing a bathing suit
7. You cannot use your own hairdryer but must pay 10 cents to use one that is there
I didn't realize that Italians were such germ phobes. They sell several items at sporting goods stores to ensure that you never have to touch the floor and are comfortable while getting dressed. Here is an example of a pop-up mat that you can put down so that you have something to stand on while changing. The also make a hard fold-up disc that has some sort of carpeted material on the inside. If you ask me, I would rather take my chances with the germs on the locker room floor rather than what can grow inside those mats!
Anyway, all of this information is unrelated to the real reason for this post. Kwame and I went swimming yesterday. (Side note: I love it when Kwame swims with me but I can hardly ever get him to go. It was his suggestion yesterday!) He said that while he was in the locker room changing after our swim, there was an older man changing as well. The man's underwear said FRIDAY on it. I asked if he was wearing days of the week undies like a little girl (or boy?) might wear. Kwame said that FRIDAY was just written in there. I don't know what was funnier, the fact that the man had FRIDAY hand written in his undies or that it was Wednesday!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Festivals!
It is Festival time . . .
We hit up a couple of local festivals the last two weekends. (By the way, I have no idea why this is all underlined . . . I don't even see an option for underline!). Our first stop was the Basket Festival in Polcenigo, which is about 15-20 minutes from our house. I know what you are thinking. Basket Festival, how boring! Well, we actually didn't buy a basket but totally fell in love with Polcenigo and the idea of festivals. This was the first time that we arrived at a festival in time to see stuff. We have happened across plenty of festivals as they were being set up but never got to see anything. If you actually get there when everything is ready to go and people are arriving, you can try wine and local food, hear music, and look at lots of booths.
A cool and old building on the top of the hill in Polcenigo. We never figured out what it was but it was fun to look at:)
Dear Dogs and Puppies, Do not poop here please (or these weird little tree men will get you while you are sleeping).
The next day we headed to Venice to see our friends, Abby and Greg Dennis. They were in town following a week of hiking in the Alps. After meeting up with them, we took the vaporetto (water bus) out to Murano to check out the glass factories. These nice men gave us a demonstration of glass blowing and then ushered us into their shop. It was amazing how quickly this guy made this vase. It took less than 10 minutes.
Then he made this horse in less than 5!
After Murano, we headed back to the main island to watch the annual regata. Like everything else in Europe, this has been going on for many years and features several different events. The sidewalks along the canals were lined with spectators. If visitors were to do it right, they would get a room in one of the fancy hotels overlooking the canal and watch from their window. We, of course, did not plan that far ahead and are far too cheap for that kind of entertainment!
All motorized boats were banned but the gondolas could still go. That would be second to your own hotel room for best spectator spot. I believe the guys in the striped shirts are former gondoliers.
Next, they had a youth race. Each team had two boats. It was fun watching them race. Unfortunately, they tended to run their boats into each other frequently.
The next event was the parade of old boats and people in traditional costumes. These boats were incredibly elaborate. Some were really big as well and took a small army to row.
Since we had only been walking for 10 or so hours by this point, we decided to head back to our hotel, quickly change clothes, and catch a vaporetto to the Venice Film Festival on the tiny island of Lido. First of all, while Lido is part of Venice, it is nothing like the Venice you will think of. It has cars and scooters, which is something you will never see in the main part of Venice. It also has beautiful houses, green space, and nice beaches allegedly - they are difficult to see at night! This picture is of the casino that housed most of the auxiliary events to the festival.
The main theater for fancy people. The public theater was down the street.
We watched the lead up to a Chilean film, Post Mortem, because that was what was going on when we got there. No idea who these stars are but they certainly did a good job hamming it up for cameras and fans! As luck would have it, everyone who we had heard of had either already made their appearance earlier that week or were scheduled for after we left! Next year . . .
Kwame outside the canal the back of the casino and theater.
On Monday, we took a quick (free) tour of San Marcos Basilica. You are not supposed to take pictures but I (along with the other 10,000 people in there) snuck in a few.
I was actually scolded for taking this one. It figures that out of everyone taking pictures, the security guard would pick me to tell to put my camera away. By the way, communion was happening a little to the left of this picture. Most people looked like tourists. This tiny little boy made his way to the front of the line. The priest talked to him for a second and proceeded to give it to him. Maybe he was very small for his age?
The last thing we did on this trip was go to the Leonardo da Vinci Machines in Motion exhibit. This is a traveling exhibit. I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance to see it. Some of the machines were hands on which was fun. It is amazing how much of our current technology was influenced by da Vinci's ideas and early inventions.
Last night, we headed to Budoia for the 43rd annual mushroom festival. Our friends, Hanna and Kevin, live in Budoia so we parked at their house and walked to the center of town. They take their mushrooms very seriously here. Apparently 23 people died trying to collect mushrooms this year for this festival!
This festival was mainly centered around incredible food and drink. We all ate too much (but it was worth it). The highlight of the evening was the entertainment, Giancarlo and the Santa Monica Band:)
Kwame won this gelatto cup for me. What a guy!
We hit up a couple of local festivals the last two weekends. (By the way, I have no idea why this is all underlined . . . I don't even see an option for underline!). Our first stop was the Basket Festival in Polcenigo, which is about 15-20 minutes from our house. I know what you are thinking. Basket Festival, how boring! Well, we actually didn't buy a basket but totally fell in love with Polcenigo and the idea of festivals. This was the first time that we arrived at a festival in time to see stuff. We have happened across plenty of festivals as they were being set up but never got to see anything. If you actually get there when everything is ready to go and people are arriving, you can try wine and local food, hear music, and look at lots of booths.
A cool and old building on the top of the hill in Polcenigo. We never figured out what it was but it was fun to look at:)
Dear Dogs and Puppies, Do not poop here please (or these weird little tree men will get you while you are sleeping).
The next day we headed to Venice to see our friends, Abby and Greg Dennis. They were in town following a week of hiking in the Alps. After meeting up with them, we took the vaporetto (water bus) out to Murano to check out the glass factories. These nice men gave us a demonstration of glass blowing and then ushered us into their shop. It was amazing how quickly this guy made this vase. It took less than 10 minutes.
Then he made this horse in less than 5!
After Murano, we headed back to the main island to watch the annual regata. Like everything else in Europe, this has been going on for many years and features several different events. The sidewalks along the canals were lined with spectators. If visitors were to do it right, they would get a room in one of the fancy hotels overlooking the canal and watch from their window. We, of course, did not plan that far ahead and are far too cheap for that kind of entertainment!
All motorized boats were banned but the gondolas could still go. That would be second to your own hotel room for best spectator spot. I believe the guys in the striped shirts are former gondoliers.
Next, they had a youth race. Each team had two boats. It was fun watching them race. Unfortunately, they tended to run their boats into each other frequently.
The next event was the parade of old boats and people in traditional costumes. These boats were incredibly elaborate. Some were really big as well and took a small army to row.
Since we had only been walking for 10 or so hours by this point, we decided to head back to our hotel, quickly change clothes, and catch a vaporetto to the Venice Film Festival on the tiny island of Lido. First of all, while Lido is part of Venice, it is nothing like the Venice you will think of. It has cars and scooters, which is something you will never see in the main part of Venice. It also has beautiful houses, green space, and nice beaches allegedly - they are difficult to see at night! This picture is of the casino that housed most of the auxiliary events to the festival.
The main theater for fancy people. The public theater was down the street.
We watched the lead up to a Chilean film, Post Mortem, because that was what was going on when we got there. No idea who these stars are but they certainly did a good job hamming it up for cameras and fans! As luck would have it, everyone who we had heard of had either already made their appearance earlier that week or were scheduled for after we left! Next year . . .
Kwame outside the canal the back of the casino and theater.
On Monday, we took a quick (free) tour of San Marcos Basilica. You are not supposed to take pictures but I (along with the other 10,000 people in there) snuck in a few.
I was actually scolded for taking this one. It figures that out of everyone taking pictures, the security guard would pick me to tell to put my camera away. By the way, communion was happening a little to the left of this picture. Most people looked like tourists. This tiny little boy made his way to the front of the line. The priest talked to him for a second and proceeded to give it to him. Maybe he was very small for his age?
The last thing we did on this trip was go to the Leonardo da Vinci Machines in Motion exhibit. This is a traveling exhibit. I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance to see it. Some of the machines were hands on which was fun. It is amazing how much of our current technology was influenced by da Vinci's ideas and early inventions.
Last night, we headed to Budoia for the 43rd annual mushroom festival. Our friends, Hanna and Kevin, live in Budoia so we parked at their house and walked to the center of town. They take their mushrooms very seriously here. Apparently 23 people died trying to collect mushrooms this year for this festival!
This festival was mainly centered around incredible food and drink. We all ate too much (but it was worth it). The highlight of the evening was the entertainment, Giancarlo and the Santa Monica Band:)
Kwame won this gelatto cup for me. What a guy!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Anniversary
Monday was our two year wedding anniversary (and almost 8 years since meeting at Howl at the Moon). Kwame took my to this awesome restaurant up the mountain from our house called Il Rifugio. It was the best meal we have had since being in Italy and it didn't involve any pizza!
Kwame had some hanging meat dish and I had gnocchi. I had no idea that gnocchi could be so good. My only experience up to that point was the freeze dried version from World Market:) Anyway, it was a great evening!
Kwame had some hanging meat dish and I had gnocchi. I had no idea that gnocchi could be so good. My only experience up to that point was the freeze dried version from World Market:) Anyway, it was a great evening!
Cerotto
Thankfully, our furniture finally arrived after its 3 month journey from St. Louis. Most things were intact. We did have to part ways with our dining room table due to an unfortunate mortal wound but neither of us were sad to see it go. The movers were very efficient and had all of our stuff in our house by 1pm on Friday. So we ate lunch and got to work moving stuff to appropriate places. At some point during the afternoon, Kwame decided that he needed to go to the hardware store for something tiny. I, of course, felt the need to continue moving boxes and unpacking while he was gone. In my over zealousness to be productive, I carried the box containing the high chair downstairs to store until we need it. Now for all of you people who think that I shouldn't be carrying boxes right now, rest assured that the box was not heavy, just awkward. I flew down the steps and made the turn to the back of the house. As I turned, the enormous support beam near the steps jumped out and hit me! Remember how I said that our house is kind of Brady Bunch meets Flintstones? Well, the pole definitely has the Flintstones look and is decorated with jagged stones. By the time I put the box down and looked at my hand, my finger was swollen and blood was dripping all over the place. Good thing we have all of our stuff because I can just pull out a band aid, right? Sure. . . Now the obvious solution is to call Kwame and ask him to pick up a box on his way home. Normally that would work except that in Italy, most people have prepaid phones and mine happened to be out of money (and Kwame's was sitting on the dining room table). So I washed off my hand, wrapped it in a paper towel, and decided that this was the perfect opportunity to practice all of the Italian I have been learning with my neighbors. I walked outside and started pushing buzzers. The first three people did not answer or were not home. I walked down the street a bit and hit the buzzer to another house. An ancient man answered his door - about 15 feet from the gate where I am standing - and I started yammering away in Italian. Of course, the only appropriate lingo I know for this situation is "Hello! My name is Christy. I am your neighbor. Band Aid (while pointing at my bloody finger." I get through all of this and the man shakes his head, waves one finger, and says, "Non c'e. Non c'e" (not here, not here) and slams his door! Did he think I was selling something? Did he think I was waving an inappropriate finger at him? By the way, it is pouring down rain at this point and I am still standing in the street. I go home, get my wallet, and walk to the store for some cerroti (band aids). I laughed the whole way back at my attempt. So much for meeting the neighbors!
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