VENICE (VENEZIA)

I have been bugging Nick for the past 24 days that I've been in Italy because I have wanted to go to Venice SOOOO bad! I finally got my wish on Saturday, August 25, 2012. We walked 12 minutes to the train station from our apartment at 07:30 to buy our first train tickets in Italy. The train station in Sacile (suh -CHEE-lay) is small, so we had no issues buying our tickets.

 We grabbed a quick cafe americano and brioche at the little cafe in the train station, then headed outside to wait. 

The trains are very easy to use in Italy. More people take the trains than drive around Italy. A round trip ticket from Sacile to Venice is only 11 Euro per person. If you drove, you would have to pay for gas and parking, which could easily be 50 Euro for both. (And good luck trying to find a parking space!)
The one hour ride went very quickly, and we were headed out on our first adventure in VENICE!
I had only made two plans for our first trip to Venice: 1. I wanted to see San Marco's Square, 2. I wanted to ride in a gondola. I didn't even take a map of Venice with me because I just wanted to get lost. I wanted to see every nook and cranny I could find. It is an island, so you can't get too lost. :)

BUT, first we had to take a quick bathroom break. I'd heard that it's hard to find a public restroom in Venice, so I took advantage of the restrooms at the train station. It costs 1 Euro to use the restrooms there, but it's totally worth it because they are clean! (I'll spare you the pic of the bathroom:))







We left the train station and followed the crowd across our first bridge: Ponte Scalzi. I was already in love with Venice and all of the sights, and sounds...maybe not the smells. :/

We then headed away from the crowd, and down the first street. The "streets" are more like alleys. Most of the alleys are about one arms length wide. It can get interesting when they get crowded. :)

While Nick was looking at his phone trying to find San Marco's Square, I led us around the concrete jungle. I was amazed by the color! It also made me think of how funny it would be if I decided to paint our home in AZ this nice shade of orange. I think my neighbors would love it!
I can't get over all of the flowers everywhere! I love that Italians take pride in their flowers. It makes me want to plant a garden, too!

After walking about 5 minutes, we came across a BLUE pigeon! Yes, a blue pigeon. I've heard that Venice is known for the pigeons, but I have never heard of this! After doing a little research we found that we weren't crazy. There's a group of artists that dyed about 60 pigeons bright colors. The dye should come off in about 6 weeks. There were even some Italians that passed by that were stopping and staring. It was so unusual!

Gondolas will never get old for me. I love seeing gondolas! I might have taken about 100 photos of them, so I'll try and pick just a few. :)

I still can't imagine trying to navigate a boat 11 meters long, in a little canal. It baffles me!

Boats are the cars of Venice. If you see a boat, other than a gondola, you know that someone lives in the adjacent home. I can't imagine riding a boat to go get my groceries. I thought walking to a store to get groceries was strange just think about riding a boat! 













A lot of people warned me about thieves in Italy. I thought they would be everywhere from the amount of warnings I heard. I think it's good to be wise and not go waving your wallet and camera around, but you don't have to be scared. 

After about 40 minutes of walking we finally found San Marco's Square! It was beautiful...and very touristy...as expected. 
There was an orchestra playing as we walked into the square at a nearby cafe. We stopped and listened for awhile. I felt dwarfed by the buildings in the square. Pictures just don't do it justice...but we had fun trying.

We also had fun taking silly photos. We started jumping in front of a few monuments back in DC before we left for Italy, and thought we would continue the tradition in Italy. My jumping photos didn't turn out as well because my hair kept going in my face, so here's a picture of Nick. 

 

By this time, we were pretty hungry from walking, so we tried to find a place to eat that wasn't near the square. Most Italians observe Reprosso, which is a lunch break from 12-3pm. I still can't really understand this. Most people want to eat at those times, and you're going to take a break!! 
We did manage to find one place that was open, and it was also in our price range. I had Pesto Gnocchi, and Nick had Lasagna. I wouldn't normally pick Italian food on a hot day, but we did..and it was delicious!

After lunch, we walked around trying to find a "good" price for a gondola ride. We've heard that you should try and haggle on prices in Italy, so we tried to haggle our gondola ride. The first gondolier we came across wanted 80 Euro for 45 minutes, and 160 Euro for the full 1.5 hours. My jaw literally dropped. That's about $100 for a gondola ride! For that price it better come with a full 5 course meal, and we would be serenaded. Wishful thinking!  We told him we'd think about it, and we walked away. He then ran after us and offered to do a 30 minute tour for 60 Euro. We wanted to see if we could get a better deal, so we walked away again...big mistake. 

We walked, and we walked, and we walked and couldn't find ANY other gondoliers. After about an hour of walking we decided to go back to the first place, but couldn't figure out how to get back. We eventually realized that all of the gondoliers had been on reposso. (Ugh.) I was ready to go home at this point. It was really HOT, and we walked about 6 miles in circles.
Nick asked to try one more street, and if we didn't find anyone we could go home. I agreed, and to my surprise we did find a gondolier. He gave us the same offer the first guy did, and we quickly told him we could get the ride for 60 Euro. He scoffed and walked over to his gondola to pick up a piece of paper. It was an official document that basically said all gondoliers have to charge the same price for the rides: 80 Euro for 45 minutes, and 160 for 1.5 hours. Boooo:( I still couldn't grasp paying THAT much, so we went searching for the first gondolier. We finally found him!

He told us he wouldn't give us the price he had originally quoted, and quickly looked away from us. (Haha! It was kind of cute watching the gondolier pout.)  So we put on our sad faces, and said, "Pleeeeease." He said no again, so we walked away. The gondolier sitting next to him then jumped up and said he would do it for 60 Euro.:) Yayyyyyyyyyyy!

It was totally worth it, too! He told us a little history about Venice, and the fact that it's sinking. (scary!) I learned a few interesting facts: 1. Most people don't live/can't live on the first floor of the buildings because they're flooded from the rising sea level, 2. The gondoliers go through a year long training to become gondoliers, 3. It's passed down from generation to generation, 4. There are only about 450 gondolas and gondoliers, and there will never be more than that because it's passed down through families.

We passed by the home where Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp filmed part of The Tourist. You can actually rent it for $18,000 Euro. (I thought the gondolier said per night, and Nick thought it was per week. Either way...it's pricey!)
 If you haven't seen The Tourist, he's in the foreground of the picture to the left.<--- (Just kidding:) Haha! If you haven't seen the movie The Tourist or you don't remember what the building looked like, it is the large pink building in the background of this photo.

The only disappointing part of the ride was that the gondolier didn't sing. Apparently, that's just in the movies. All in all, the gondola ride was totally worth the 60 Euro. It made our first trip to Venice complete! 
We headed back to the train station after our gondola ride. We had a quick, and HOT trip back up to Sacile. Nick fell asleep on the train ride back...I'll spare you that picture as well. :) I loved, loved, loved every minute of Venice. I would highly recommend Venice to anyone!

Ciao!!

L'ITALIANO - THE LANGUAGE OF LAUGHTER

Boungiorno!!

KITTIES IN CARGO-
We made it to Italy! Bizou, Beeker, and I had a BIG adventure traveling 17 hours from the U.S to Italy.  Initially, both cats were going to be in cargo for the trip, and last minute the airline told me that I had to take one with me on the plane. How do I choose just ONE?! At that point, Beeker was nominated to go in cargo based solely on the fact that she had already relieved herself in her kennel. :( (Poor Beek-Beeks!) Thankfully, Bizou was uncharacteristically quiet on the plane, which was a HUGE relief.
We had a 4 hour layover in Germany where I got to make up for the 8 hours of sitting I had just done on the flight. They made us get off the plane, go through customs, collect ALL of our baggage (and cats), turn our checked bags BACK in, go through security, walk uphill both ways in the snow back to the gate we started from, and go past go and collect $200. (Phew!) While I was carrying about 70 pounds of luggage around the airport,  I discovered that Germany, and Europe in general, has VERY little air conditioning. I was never more grateful to get back on a plane for my 1 hour flight from Germany to Italy. :)
When we got off the of the plane in Italy, we were greeted by Nick, his squadron commander and wife, our sponsors, and a few others from the squadron. They were really excited to see our 2 CATS! We moved our baggage to our room in the temporary lodging facility (TLF), and finally let the cats out....of the bag. (Hee,hee) Now the kitties won't go anywhere near their kennels. :)

HOUSE HUNTING-
My first full day in Italy, we headed out to do some house hunting. Nick warned me not to get my hopes up because the houses and apartments here are much smaller than anything in the US. We first visited Sacile, which is a beautiful town about 15 minutes southwest of the base where a lot of the guys from the squadron live. Sacile is the type of town that makes you want to walk through and sing like Belle from Beauty and the Beast: "Little town, it's a quiet village, every day like the one before..." There are shops, restaurants, cafes and places to eat gelato on almost every corner! There are beautiful rivers and streams that meander through the town, as well. And I still can't get over all of the beautiful flowers hanging off balconies and windowsills. Italy is stunning!
To my surprise, the first apartment we looked at was HUGE! I call it the "tree house" because there are stairs that lead in all different directions, and there are three floors! The apt has 4 rooms, and 4 bathrooms! (UNHEARD OF!) There are wood floors, wood ceilings, a huge fireplace, and a view of the Piazza (town square). It was amazing! Then we went to the second apartment. After seeing the first apartment, nothing compared. The second place felt more like an apartment, whereas the first place felt like a home. I was convinced at that point that I didn't need to see any other places. We had found our home right on the Piazza del Popolo (People Square) in Sacile, which we would get to move into on August 21st.

PIZZARIA, TRATTORIA, OSTERIA-
We HAD to stop for some gelato while walking around Sacile, and we didn't have to go far to find it. I was slightly intimidated to order in Italian, so I let Nick go first. He confidently blurted, "Ciao! Parle Iglesias?" "Uhhhh...no," responded the server, slightly confused. I started to laugh. I don't know much Italian, but I knew enough to realize that Nick wanted to ask,"Do you speak English?" but instead he had asked, "Do you speak CHURCH?" Hahaha! Iglesias is Spanish for CHURCH. Haha!
Nick proceeded, "VERO una pallina di gelato." The girl looked slightly confused again, then grabbed Nick a scoop of the flavor he picked. Instead of saying, "I would like a scoop of gelato," Nick said, "TRUE a scoop of gelato." VORREI means "I would like." VERO means "true."
The Italians love when you try and speak their language even if you make mistakes; however, most of them won't correct you if you're wrong.
I'm convinced that there is no such thing as a bad meal in Italy. Every meal we've had is DElicious! We've noticed a few differences in eating here compared to the US. If you want to have a fancy meal, you go to a RISTORANTE.  If you want a casual dinner you'll go to a TRATTORIA. If you want to eat pizza you go to a PIZZARIA. And if you want to eat at a mom and pop shop, you'll go to a OSTERIA. Nick thought that a mom and pop shop was called, APERTO.  I noticed A LOT of signs that said APERTO. There was even a FURNITURE store had a sign in front of it that said, Aperto. That was new! A furniture store with a mom and pop restaurant? APERTO, I found out, means OPEN. Hahah! I can't tell you how many stores Nick pointed at and said, "There's a mom and pop place, too!" Haha! He makes me laugh...especially when he speaks Italian. :):):)
And don't worry! If for some reason you get a craving for fast food, there's a Taco Bell, Cinnabon, and Burger King on base. :)

BEVERAGES-
I LOVE coffee, and thankfully, so do Italians. There's a cafe or "Il bar" just outside our apartment.
A big difference in coffee here is the size. As an American, I expect to get at least 12 oz for a small coffee, but not here! You basically get a shot of espresso when you order coffee. I ordered a cafe Americano, which is a shot of coffee with a small pitcher of hot water to dilute the shot.
Italians do not order coffee drinks with milk in them after noon. You will get funny looks, if you try.
When you order water here, you can expect to get carbonated water,  unless you specify "acqua naturale" which is a bottle of still water. You can also expect to pay more for water here than wine. I guess I should consider taking up drinking. :P
And if you want ice, forget it!

NON TOCCARE-
We walked around the Piazza del Popolo a little more and noticed several boutiques. YAY! (Any men reading this, you can skip this section.) Italian shopping is definitely different than American shopping. In America, we walk into a store and start picking things up and touching all of the fabrics. Here you will get funny look if you mess up their displays. If you want to try something on, you tell them what style and what size you would like. DO NOT TOUCH the clothes on display. (Non toccare)
Also, if you're like me and you head right for the sales rack in a store, you won't find one. Italian stores only have sales in August and January. There are big signs all around the Piazza del Popolo that read, "Saldi," which means sale.
One of my expectations in Italy was to see women and men wearing bright colors. That has been one of the biggest surprises for me. Most women wear very bland, neutral tones. Plus, they wear very little jewelry! I'm going to stand out like a sore thumb with all of the loud clothes and jewelry I have from working at Buffalo Girls in Texas! 
I do LOVE that the Italian women like to dress up, even if they're just going to the store. They call it "bella figura." It basically means you need to always look nice. You will never catch an Italian woman going to breakfast in her slipper's and PJ's. 

THE FAST AND FURIOUS-
We decided to head back to base after a fun day of looking at apartments and sight-seeing in Sacile. Driving in Italy is an adventure, to say the least. The roads are winding and narrow. There are bicyclists EVERYWHERE, and people drive way over the speed limit. It's chaotic! Plus, when it rains here the pavement is about 100 times as slippery than the pavement in America. It has to do with the type of material they use for the roads.
I was expecting to see little European cars here that look like clown cars. NOPE! There are luxury cars everywhere. I've never seen so many BMWs in my life.
Watch out for the Carabinieri! They're the cops around here that hold out flashing "lollipops" to signal you to pull over. If you get pulled over by the Carbinieri you can expect to pay at least 200 Euro.  If you don't stop for their flashing lollipops, they have the right to shoot at you, and could arrest you and take you to Candyland...with their flashing lollipops. (Haha! Just kidding:))

We are so grateful that we've found our apartment! We're excited for you all to see it. Next on our list is finding a car...and traveling of course! :)

Arreviderci!

SEADOGS, SEAHORSES, HORSESHOES, & HORSEFISH

PACKERS -
Moving to Italy feels like a whirlwind. Nick and I had long check lists which included: out-processing, renting our house, and preparing for movers in the weeks leading up to our road trip across the US. We had to think about 3 different sets of movers coming to pack our house over 4 days. The first set of movers packed 900 lbs of home goods that we will need when we first arrive in Italy. You can only pack the basics like pots, pans, silverware, underwear, high heels, lipstick...you know, the basics. :) The second set of movers were at our house for 2 very full days and packed up 90% of our house, which should arrive to Italy in 2 months. (Yes, 2 months!) The third set of movers packed a few remaining items that we won't need in Italy, and put them in storage. (like our washer and dryer.) Apparently, you can hook up your American washer and dryer in Italy, but it costs an arm and a leg to run them. (I personally like both my arms and legs, thank you!) After 4 days of movers, we were all packed up and ready to drive across America. At this point, I was just praying we had set aside ALL the documents and paperwork we needed for traveling because EVERYTHING was packed and we won't see it again for 2 months. (No pressure.) :)


ROAD TRIP -

Our road trip started early on a Friday morning, July 20th. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us with 2 very anxious kitties: Bizou and Beeker. We loaded the car with suitcases and cats and we were off! It was a little hard thinking about leaving our home. We bought it brand new a year ago, and now other people are going to live in it. I just hope they enjoy it as much as we did! We didn't get out of the driveway before disaster struck. I broke our CD player. (OK, maybe not a total disaster) I turned on the radio and accidentally hit the CD eject button, and the CD player went haywire. Hopefully, that would be the only mishap on our journey. We made it to Amarillo, TX the first night. The cats only screamed half of the way. :/ The second day, Saturday, July 21st, was a breeze; we drove 13 hours to Dow, IL to stay with our friends, the Roberts. We took advantage of being so close to our college by visiting a few friends that are still there, and Clifton Terrace Country Inn, our favorite mom and pop restaurant. Visiting our college and old friends was amazing, even if it was brief. It helps you feel grounded, which is especially nice when we'll be so far away from home very soon. Our third, and final day on the road was the longest day. We drove for 15 hours from Dow, IL to Baltimore, MD. I don't want to do that again any time soon! Nick drove most of the way, but we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we arrived in Baltimore. The kitties were definitely most grateful to be in one place for more than a night. WE MADE IT!!


WASHINGTON D.C - 

Nick would be leaving for Italy on Tuesday, July 24th, so that left us with a day and a half to explore. The first day we drove into Washington DC. Neither one of us has ever seen the National Mall, so we headed there first. I went to the National Mall with the intention of just checking things off my so-called "bucket list." What I didn't expect was how in awe I was when seeing the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. They are enormous and stunning. (so to speak) The World War II Veterans Memorial was also breathtaking. I had an image in my mind of what the National Mall would look like, and in all the years I've seen it on TV and movies I had never realized that the White House is a part of the National Mall. It is literally across the street from the Washington Monument. I had no idea! I thought it was in a completely different part of DC. (Hopefully, I'm not the only one that thought that.) I also didn't anticipate the HUMIDITY. Nick and I walked almost 7 miles in the heat; it was overwhelming. We escaped the heat at one point in the National Air and Space Museum. Nick was in heaven admiring all of the planes, and how far we've come in aviation. I was admiring how far we've come with stewardesses uniforms over the years. :)


BALTIMORE - 

The next day we ventured into downtown Baltimore. Once again, I was shocked! I've never heard much about Baltimore, so I never thought much of it. It is a quaint combination of Seattle, Washington; Portland, Maine; and Washington DC. It's a big city, but it has a little artsy town feel to it and it's rich with history. We first ate at a little place called Spoons that we found on Yelp. They have HUGE SPOONS hanging around the room...thus the name, Spoons. I have a couple pictures of the over- sized spoons, but I have to figure out how to add them to the blog. We then ventured into the Inner Harbor. Everything in the Inner Harbor was within walking distance, so we wandered around until we saw,"THE SEADOG." It's a tour of the Inner Harbor via speedboat. Nick was adamant that we go on the tour, so I agreed. (Big. Mistake.) I probably should have just gotten off the boat, when they handed me a poncho. It was 50 minutes of listening to a tour guide tell bad jokes, bark like a dog ("SEADOG"), and then we got SOAKING WET! They warned us that we might get a little wet. They did not warn us that we would get soaking wet by a large wall of water from their 47 ton boat. (Lesson learned!) I got a few laughs from onlookers after the tour because my poncho only kept my upper half dry...not my lower half. (oops!) That boat tour couldn't change my opinion about Baltimore. I still loved it!


ITALY BOUND -

We quickly drove back to our hotel, so Nick could pack to leave on his red-eye flight to Italy. (sniff, sniff) We left for the airport 5 hours before his departure time. It sounds extreme, but the seating is first come, first serve. Nick was able to get an aisle seat on the 747. The next time I spoke with Nick was when he arrived in ITALY! In total, he had traveled 17 hours, and the only complaints he had was that the food wasn't very good, and it was FREEZING on the plane.
Nick was greeted in Italy by our sponsors, the Collins, and a dozen squadron members. In the few days he's been there, he's met most of the squadron, looked for a car, and he might have found us an apartment. (phew!)


CALL SIGN -
Nick thinks he might already have a call sign. They've nicknamed him (no pun intended) "2 cats." Apparently, they think it's hysterical that Nick has 2 cats. Most of the guys in the squadron have a dog(s), one cat, or no pets at all. No one has 2 cats! Haha! "2 cats!"


PATCHES -
Nick has also received his new patches for his uniform. One of the new patches has a DRAGON on it. Nick thought the dragon was a seahorse, but he couldn't remember the word so he called it a HORSESHOE. "There's a flying horseshoe on my patch," he told me.  Haha! You can imagine my surprise and confusion. He then corrected himself and said, "Oh, no, I mean, there's a flying HORSEFISH on my patch." Haha! At this point, I couldn't contain my laughter. "What's it called?" he asked. "A SEAHORSE," I said. There was a long pause..."oh, actually it's a dragon," he said. Hahahahahah!
OHhhhh, man,  I love Nick. He always keeps me laughing. :) I can't wait to see him in just a few more days!

COUNT DOWN HAS BEGUN...

..To ITALY!!!! That's right! Nick and I are moving to Italy for 3 years, thanks to the US Air Force. It will be our first official base! Nick has been in training for the past 3 years. We started in the little town of Del Rio, TX at Laughlin AFB. Nick earned his pilot wings, during our 2 years there, and I got to work at an adorable boutique called, "Buffalo Girls." The past year we've been at Luke AFB in Phoenix, AZ, which has been amazing being back in civilization, and being so close to family. Now, our next big adventure is ITALY!! I can't stop writing it in caps because it's ITALY! 

We leave in T minus 7 days to head to Baltimore, MD. In that time, we need to finish renting our house out, and we'll have movers here for 4 days packing all of our junk. It's a little sad thinking about leaving Phoenix. We are leaving behind our first and only house we've ever purchased, and the beautiful pool we just put in our backyard. We'll also be leaving behind Nordstrom, Anthropologie, In n Out, and Pinkberry frozen yogurt - four of my favorite places in the world! (Don't judge.) I'll also miss having family just a short driving distance away. I recently realized it has been over 10 years since I've been driving distance away from my family because of school and work. This year has certainly been refreshing and revitalizing, like an herbal essence commercial. :)
There are a few times I've gotten caught up with all of the paperwork, and busy work of packing when I have to stop and remind myself ...that I'm moving to ITALY! (ok, I'll stop now) We are both very excited! I'm already thinking of all the places I want to visit: Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Tuscany, Greece, Turkey, Gravy..oops! (Not the last one.) I'm also super excited about Aviano AB and all of the new friends we'll meet. 
But for now, it's time to pack...