Wife in the Fast Lane: EASTER MARKET & OSTERIA AI PIOPPI

Sunday, April 12th

On Easter Sunday, a little market appeared below our apartment. There were signs everywhere for a "Bird Festival." I did not see one bird. There were flowers everywhere though! The festival was only supposed to go from 9-6pm. I walked outside around 6:30 and the party was still rockin'!

Sunday, April 19th

Nick returned after being gone for a month. We took it easy and hung around to enjoy our cute, little town. Sunday morning, another market appeared. There were cars lining the main square. On one side there were ferraris of all ages; and on the other side, there were old cars from the 50s and 60s.

Checking out the ferrari's from while sipping a cappuccino. Life is good.

I had to get a shot of this old man checking out the ferrari's below his home. So cute!

I loved the old cars, and Nick was a bit more interested in the Ferrari's. :)

That afternoon, Nick and I drove to Godega market. We were in search of a turquoise demijohn for a friend in Florida. Luckily, we found one for 15 Euro. Now to try and figure out how to ship it. ;)

Nick also found a pocket knife that was also a hammer, pliers, and so much more for only 10 Euro. He was so excited! We also found a cow bell that I've been looking for. We made out like bandits!

After the market, Nick had a big surprise for me. He said he'd found a place for lunch on thechive. He wouldn't tell me much more than that.

30 minutes later, we pulled into this parking lot of Osteria Ai Pioppi. The owner of the restaurant wanted to draw more customers so he started hand building toys on his property 46 years ago. It's now a large playground for kids of all ages.

This was a handmade trampoline.

This was one of the longest slides I've ever seen.

Hamster wheel? It just kept getting better!

Weeeeeee!

This thing looked like a death trap! Two people climb up through the middle, and over to one side each. You have to work together to get it to move completely around in a circle. No thanks! I was too chicken. I'd like to go back and actually try it now.

We moved on to the handle bar swings.

This one also looked like a death trap, but Nick decided to try. It swings like a pendulum with the momentum created from pedaling.

Nick was screaming like a little girl. :)

By this time, the restaurant was open. There was an outdoor section with really cheap food, and an actual restaurant inside that opened at 12:30. We were some of the first in because we were so hungry. They had a set menu for 20 Euro per person, so we went with it. We were served 4 courses. We had polenta with mushrooms, gnocchi, some sort of meat, and then some cookies for dessert.

The woman that served us was the daughter of the owner. She was so excited to have Americans at their restaurant. In her broken English, she told us that NBC had done a special on their restaurant and playground. Americans have been coming in swarms to their place because of it. I tried to tell her that we found them on the chive.com. She had no idea what that was! Haha!

Next we walked over to this little roller coaster because we heard girls screaming. Must be fun! Haha!

We had to move the chair up to the starting point, which wasn't easy because it was so heavy. There was a locking mechanism that held it in place until the rider pulled the break. I sat down first, until I realized that there was ZERO breaks on it! When you release the break, there's no controlling it! I switched with Nick and grabbed the camera!

The scariest part was going over this hill. It's not a smooth transition. And then to slow your momentum, you roll backwards down the track. Haha! No thank you!

This ride was meant for little kids. I think it's more up my alley.

We originally thought this ride was closed because there was a huge chain on the main door. It was just there to make sure the door stayed closed during the ride.

We were the first ones on!!

A lot of people followed suit! You can really get going fast on this one!

This one was a dud. You can't get going very fast or high on it....next!

The rope swing didn't disappoint!

This one was my favorite! Nick bolted to the top of the tiny stair case to ride this slide. About a quarter of the way down, he slowed to almost a stop. He looked very uncomfortable. I kept yelling at him to go faster. Once he reached the bottom, he stood up and ran down. He didn't realize there were mats for the ride, so he was getting shocked like crazy! He said it was SO painful! Hahah!