Thursday, May 8th
We fit a lot in during my parents stay. One of our "down days" included walking around our local market. My mom found a cute top and some other little items. In the afternoon, we drove up to Lago di Barcis. It is one of my favorite spots in Italy, and it's just 30 minutes from us.
This almost looks like a tropical location...but no, it's Italy!
We've had beautiful weather this spring. We get cool days followed by afternoon thunder storms. My fav!
Friday, May 9th
We braved the masses by heading to Venice on a Friday. Luckily, it wasn't a holiday, but we didn't get to sit next to each other on the train.
Our first stop was to get tickets for the vaperetto. We had planned on traveling out to the islands of Murano and Burano, so we were going to get day passes. As we were standing in line, an old man walked up to us and asked if we spoke English. We thought he was either lost or wanting us to buy something. It was neither! He offered us free day-passes. The tickets lasted until 5 that day, and he didn't want them to go to waste because he was leaving that morning. That saved us about 60 Euro! I gave him an awkward hug, thanked him and we were off on our adventure! We were so grateful!
There were a few people on the vaperetto. I took this picture over my shoulder because I couldn't turn around.
Down the Grand Canal...
My mom was standing next to me in this photo. I handed my camera to my dad and asked if he could get us with the Rialto Bridge in the background. When I looked at the photo he'd taken he had completely cut my mom out. Haha! Oy!
It was also on this leg of our journey that we learned how rude the vaperetto workers can be. The worker's only job was to tie the boat to the dock at each stop and open the gate to let people on or off. At one stop, we were standing near the exit and the man told us to move out of the way. So we moved where he directed us. Then he got upset and told us to move again. So we moved back farther. The third time, I told him I understood what he was saying. He went into a long shpeel about how the vaparetto was a public service and that we needed to go sit down. Meanwhile, he missed his opportunity to tie the boat to the dock, so the driver had to try again. I wasn't intimidated. I stood my ground and didn't move. He left me alone after that. My thoughts on this: If you're doing a public service, then you might want to be polite to the public. Without the public, you don't have a job. If you don't like working for the public, maybe you should look for a different line of work. I don't know...maybe that's too logical.
After about 30 minutes, we made it to San Marco's square!
Haha! I love this photo. Everyone was staring up at the clock that was chiming. It was almost more entertaining seeing all of the tourists staring up at it.
After a quick lunch, we hopped on the first leg of our journey out to Murano - the glass island.
Murano
We couldn't believe how many people were out and how warm it was already getting.
We had gotten off at the wrong stop, but we made our way around the island to the right vaparetto stop that would take us to Burano - the lace island.
I think we all liked the lace island more. The houses were brighter.
I love the shadows on the buildings too.
Only in Europe does hanging laundry look pretty.
We noticed that this campanile looked like it was leaning. It wasn't as extreme as the tower in Pisa, but it was definitely leaning.
We picked our favorite colored houses and took some pics in front of them...
Burano was a nice escape from the hustle of Venice.
We spent about an hour and a half on the island, and then headed back to Venice. It was another hour- long ride back. We thought about getting off at Lido, but decided against it since it was getting late. We had already spent about 4 hours on trains or boats at that point just to get around.
We were the first in line on the vaparetto into the Grand Canal. I've never realized this, but there are actually seats at the front of each vaparetto. The boats have always been so full, I hadn't even seen them!
We literally had front row seats to the Grand Canal. So cool!
There's the pic I've been waiting for!
On our way back to Sacile, we saw several Alpini heading toward Pordenone. They are military men that worked in the Alps. The 87th annual Alpini festival was being held in Pordenone that weekend. Each year it's in a different city in Italy. We got lucky, that they were celebrating near us this year!
Here are two Alpini that we met on the train. They were slightly inebriated. (We actually spotted these guys a few days later at the Alpini festival!)
When I got off the train, a man yelled something in Italian at me. The only word I recognized was "Pordenone." So I turned and said, "Pordenone?" He nodded, and I gave him a thumbs up. Immediately all of his friends starting laughing and patting him on the back. I think there had been something lost in translation. Haha!
Saturday, May 10th
The morning my parents and I headed out to Spilimbergo for a tour of a mosaic school. 1000 of students apply each year, and only 50 are admitted.
It wasn't until we arrived that we discovered that they weren't doing the tour in English that week because they had so many Alpini in town. The only tour they gave was in Italian. We decided to stay and listen anyway.
The floors, walls, and ceilings are practically all done with mosaics.
The students start with the classics, and by the last year they get to do more modern pieces. I loved this piece that a student was working on.
This was my mom's favorite.
Nick didn't get to go on the tour, but this was his favorite of the photos I took. An Italian man made sure I saw this piece. It's really amazing what they can do with mosaics.
Sunday, May 11th - Mother's Day
That next morning we had all considered going to the Alpini parade in Pordenone. It was 8am on Sunday. We were trying to decide if there would even be a parade considering how hard we could hear people partying the night before. But we threw some clothes on and decided to head over to the train station.
We found the crowd! Even though Sacile was still quiet, there were tons of people waiting to head one stop over to Pordenone.
When we stepped out of the station in Pordenone, we were greeted by tents everywhere! If there was a grassy spot, people put up a tent there.
They were expecting to have over 400,000 people visit Pordenone that weekend. The normal population of Pordenone is about 250, 000. Most of the locals left that weekend. Ha!
I loved how patriotic everyone was!
We found the parade. We tried to find a good spot to stand, but there were already lines 6 people deep by the time we got there.
I loved seeing all of the Alpini hats.
We were at the back of the crowd. Good thing I have long arms to get photos above everyone. :)
I loved seeing all of the flags and banners up welcoming the Alpini.
We were surprised at how clean Pordenone was considering people were staying up all day and night partying. This was one of the few times I saw trash laying around.
The Alpini are mostly older men, and they were so happy and fun to be around. We gathered this group of men together. Then another group of men started teasing these men as they passed by, but they just really wanted to take a photo with us. My mom got the photo with the next group. They were so happy to meet us!
We saw a few of these cut-outs around the city. This was the first one we saw. This man was standing next to it, so he made sure we knew how to do it. Haha! This photo makes me laugh every time I see it!
Profile Pic for my mom!!
It wouldn't be a party without a Peruvian Flute band. They're everywhere!
I also had to get a shot of the pizza the Italians call "American" pizza. Apparently, we like fries and hot dogs on our pizza. Haha!
That afternoon, Nick took us out to Grado to show us a new beach we'd never been to, and to do some kiteboarding. (of course!) There were HUNDREDS of kite boarders out there. Even Nick couldn't believe it.
There's Nick with the orange kite, and my dad in the foreground.
It was a fun day! I'm so glad we were here while the Alpini were in town. They're a fun bunch!
Monday, May 12th
Monday morning Nick went back to work and we were supposed to go to Padua, except I had forgotten to make reservations for the Scrovegni Chapel (one of the main attractions) ahead of time. Unfortunately, you can't make day-of reservations. So I purchased my tickets for Wednesday.
Instead, we did a few other local things...
I took them to Gorgazzo, and then we went hunting for a good poppy field. I love poppy season!
Haha! No I didn't put my parents to work while they were here, they're just trying to get a good photo of poppies. :)
This is my favorite type of scene: mountains, clouds, grapevines, poppy fields and my parents.
This looks like a Christmas card photo to me!
Tuesday, May 13th
The next morning we took a cooking class from Teresa Colors. We were learning to make gnocchi with gorgonzola and walnut sauce. My fav!
We got to take the class with Liz and her mother-in-law, Jean.
We started by peeling "old" potatoes. Then we boiled them. Next we put them through a ricer, and added LOTS of flour. We rolled them out and cut them into tiny pieces. The last part was cooking them! So easy!
Teresa made a cheese sauce, and also a butter and sage sauce.
We sure didn't leave there hungry! So glad we got to learn how to make this simple and delicious Italian staple.
Wednesday, May 14th
The last full day my parents were with us we headed to Padua or Padova. (same thing) My usually reliable Google Maps (in Italy, anyway) failed me several times. Padua is a fairly busy city with pretty confusing streets, so it was not the place to NOT have a GPS. We felt like we were on a roller coaster going through the crazy streets. Trying to find a parking lot in Padua is like finding a needle in a haystack. But we made it! We walked straight over to the Scrovegni chapel...
There were groups of people doing Tai Chi in the park IN ITALY! Something I never thought I'd see here.
Doesn't look like you can do anything in the park except hold hands and throw away food. Ha!
We walked over to the main square in Padua to see their market. This is one of the best markets in Italy.
Darn umbrella getting in the way! I loved seeing all of the people out and about in the morning. No one was sitting over at the cafes that were still in the shade; however, we Americans were seeking the shade. :)
This pictures shows the older crowd in Padua, but there was also a much younger crowd there as well because of the university nearby. There was also some good shopping as well. :) Next time. :)
This is also one of the biggest squares in Italy.
The Piazza della frutta led into the piazza Signori. There were vendors in each square!
This is the side of the Palazzo Ragione. It was used as the medieval law courts.
We walked back to the Scrovegni Chapel for our tour at 11:45. We met a nice, older couple there from California. He was a doctor and had been to Aviano in the 70s when he was in the Air Force. It was fun to talk with them.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the chapel with all of Giotto's frescos, so this was the only pic I got of it. The inside is much more interesting. :)
We walked back into the center to explore a bit more. We each bought some small, crappy sandwiches in one of the main squares. We also played "poke the pigeon." There were more pigeons here than I had seen in Venice. We could literally touch them as they walked under our chairs. Ew.
We walked down to the Baptistery that was the private chapel of Padua's ruling family. We stepped inside for a moment then realized we had to pay to see it. No thanks! We moved on to try and find St. Anthony's Basilica.
I loved the local graffiti art here.
We stumbled upon the Prato della Valle. I thought the church in the background was the one we were looking for....it wasn't.
St. Anthony's was hiding down a different street!
It was MASSIVE! This picture doesn't do it justice.
I couldn't snap any photos inside, but I did get a pic of this 200 year old magnolia tree near the cloisters.
I wish I had been able to take some photos. St. Anthony's tomb and reliefs surrounding it were really impressive. They were so lifelike. It's amazing to think what people can do with marble.
They say once you pass the banisters that mark the property line, you are passing into Vatican territory.
Padua was a fun city to see on such a beautiful day! It seemed larger than Verona. We had spent about 6 hours there, and we were exhausted. Time to head home...if I could find my way back out of the city. :)
We had such a fun time with my parents! We love, love, loved exploring with them and making fun memories!
Ciao, ciao!
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