Trip to Thiene

A group of us from the Italian class I've been taking took a field trip to Thiene (Tee-in-ay) this morning.  Our wonderful teacher, Miss Daniela, led a caravan of cars to two lovely places that I never would've found on my own.  The first was a purse shop where the owner hand makes purses, wallets, etc. from genuine leather.  It was called "Ciemme Spaccio Borse."  I bought a couple of beautiful purses for a great price (early Anniversary present for me... hee hee), an everyday purse and a special occasion purse I can carry for a nice dinner out with Ashley or to a military ball!  :)

The second place was a spacious nursery called "Punto Verde Dalle Rive."  I have never seen so many beautiful herbs, plants, real flowers and fake flowers in one place!  I decided to buy some rosemary, oregano and basil so that I could try my hand at planting them in our back yard when it gets warmer.  The oregano plant smells so delicious, I didn't want to take my nose out of it!  ;)  (The small plant in front is called a Coffee plant...  no, it doesn't produce actual coffee beans, much to my disappointment!).  ;-)

Caroline was SO excited to water our new plants!  :)

I saw many other lovely plants at Punto Verde... here's just a small sample of what was there:



A Slice of Italian Life... Pisa, Italy

Our First Adventure... Cittadella!

Cittadella (pronounced Chita-della) is a beautiful fortified city only 20 minutes east of our house... Ashley and I put Caroline and Kimberly in daycare (Saturday, April 10) and spent the better part of the day walking around the city, doing some window shopping, and eating pizza at one of the pizzerias. Unfortunately, I was sick that day... but we still had a great time!

A funny story from the day... this was our first time ordering pizza at an Italian restaurant and we forgot to bring our phrasebook with us... Thus, we had to order "blindly," so to speak. Ashley ordered what he THOUGHT was a pepperoni pizza and was sorely disappointed when his pizza came... and had PEPPERS on it!! ;-) Apparently, pepperoni pizza in Italy means something entirely different than it does in America. Now when he wants a pizza with pepperoni on it, he orders a salamino pizza. :)

Castle Valbona ~ April 17, 2010

In April, our family visited Valbona Castle, located an hour south of the town we live in. We were hoping to go inside and eat at the ristorante (restaurant), but as we approached the castle, we heard and saw a lot of people gathered outside of it... It turned out that a wedding was being held that day. We had unintentionally "crashed" an Italian wedding!! ;-) After getting several dirty looks from some of the guests, we decided that it would be best to leave...

But, we greatly enjoyed the beautiful drive to Castello di Valbona and we got some wonderful pictures of the outside of this castle!

As a side note... for those of you who are interested, the word "parcheggio" in the first picture means "parking."

Castle Soave... and my Two Little Princesses

On 08 Maggio (May 8), 2010 Ashley, the girls and I went to see a fortified city and castle in Soave (pronounced Swa-vay), located about 30 minutes west from where we're living in Italy. We took the stroller for the girls, but both Caroline and Kimberly decided they wanted to walk up the steep incline to the castle! Mommy was very impressed and Daddy graciously pushed the empty stroller up the rocky pathway... ;)

We got to stand on a real life drawbridge (which Caroline was particularly excited about!) and took a picture of Caroline sitting on what once was a cistern... We got some needed exercise that day, while at the same time enjoying a breathtaking view!!