Trip to Venice

OK, so I've finally got reliable internet, and I can begin posting again. Yay! Yes, we did get the house, but I am going to save that story for another post. This one is about our trip to Venice on Saturday, October 18.

Some friends of ours from back when Jeff was in school in Troy, Alabama are stationed in England and made a long weekend trip to Venice, just after we arrived in Italy. We decided to meet them for a day trip. We took the train from Ferrara to Venice that morning. Here is Emily on the train to Venice.


It was great to be able to take the train, since parking most places in Italy is hard to find and/or expensive. The train is also cheap! It was only 30 Euro for all 3 of us round trip. It took about an hour and a half to get from Ferrara to Venice, and Bill and Laura met us at the station. We walked around for a little while and found something to eat before going to the famous Piazza San Marco. On the way, we did see the Rialto Bridge, as pictured below.



Here we are in front of the Basilica San Marco.


We found a traghetto, which is the poor man's version of the gondola. A ride on one of the famous gondolas, with the gondolier in his striped shirt, and velvet cushions on the seat costs about 80 Euro. The traghetto, which is the same type of boat, but without the fancy appointments, and they fit as many people on board as possible, costs 1 Euro per person for a ride straight across the canal. Here are Jeff, Emily, Bill and Laura, ready to get on board.


Here are Jeff and Emily in the middle of the grand canal on our ride.


We had a very nice day walking around, looking, and taking pictures. There were lots of nice views to see. We even had gelato (the Italian version of ice cream, which is wonderful!) twice!

Here are a couple more good pictures we got.



It was a very nice day, though we were very tired by the time we got back to Ferrara. For more pictures, check out my album on Facebook.

random stuff and houses

I have finally gotten the internet working today, so I'll just comment on some random stuff.

I took this picture this morning on the way home from taking Emily to school.

It was in a park that we pass through every day on the way to and from Emily's school. I just thought it was funny that in American parks you see beer bottles, etc. left over from the night before, but, in Italy, it's a WINEGLASS on the park bench!

Yesterday, I had some yogurt, and Hamlet got his sample, as pictured below.

European yogurt is similar to the kind we have in America, but not quite the same. It is not as thick. It's not like the drinkable kind, but it is definitely more soupy than the Yoplait that I usually eat. It tastes good, though, as Hamlet will attest.

Here is Hamlet enjoying one of the cabinets in our hotel apartment.

Hamlet and Jeff relaxing in the hotel.

We have been looking at houses lately, in search of somewhere to live for at least the next 2 years. It has been interesting. Italian ideas about houses and furnishings are not the same as American ideas. For one thing, Italian houses do NOT necessarily come with kitchens or bathrooms installed. When Italians move, they take the kitchen sink. And the bathroom sink, and the oven, and the cabinets... All of the houses we have looked at have had kitchens and bathrooms because Silvia, our housing liaison, knows that we need them, but I have seen pictures of houses and apartments with just pipes sticking out of the wall. We did see one that was missing the kitchen sink and the stove.

Italian houses are small compared to American houses, especially the bedrooms. We have seen some secondary bedrooms that were barely as big as a small bathroom. Most houses have more than one floor, and most of the ones we have seen have 3 levels. We have not seen any houses with carpet. All of them have tile, wood, or marble. Every house that we have seen has shutters on the windows that can be opened and closed. Italians close these every night, and open them in the daytime. They come in several different types, but they block out the light very effectively, so you don't need heavy curtains. Here are some pictures of a couple of the different kinds.

Most buildings do not have screens on the windows or air conditioning, unless an American family has already lived there. I don't understand this because the mosquitos here are awful! Worse than Wisconsin! We have been eaten alive in the hotel because for the first 2 weeks we couldn't figure out how to work the air conditioning and had to open the windows. It seems that all air conditioning is done room by room with units that mount on the wall and work with remote controls. The remotes had somehow been removed from our rooms. We have gotten them back now, and are sleeping much better. If only we could kill the last 6 mosquitoes that are hanging out on the ceiling...

We have found a house that we really like, but we are still negotiating with the landlord on some issues, so I will not comment too much about it here. I don't want to jinx our chances of getting it! We are supposed to meet with the landlord on Monday, so hopefully I will have good news then, and can tell all about it. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Ceramics in Nove

Wednesday, October 8, I went with a group of the American wives to a town called Nove (know-vay), which is famous for its ceramics industry. We got off to a late start, but went and looked at a warehouse shop which had just about every type of ceramics one could want. They had platters, cake plates, pitchers, candle holders, tiles, plates, bowls, spoon rests, and just about everything else you could think of. They had patterns with lemons, olives, tomatoes, eggplants, onions, artichokes, and many, many other things. I bought the white ceramic basket pictured below that was marked Tiffany and Company on the bottom. Ceramics from Nove are sold at Tiffany's, Pottery Barn, and many other famous companies.

We were only able to go to one shop because we had to get back to Ferrara to get one of the girls' son from school at 4:30. Nove is about 2 hours North from Ferrara. We went to the nearby town of Bassano for lunch. Their specialty is bruschetta, which is similar to pizza, but with toasted bread instead of pizza crust. It was very good. Bassano is located on a mountain stream and has lovely views of the mountains. Even though it was overcast that day, the view was still beautiful. See the pictures below. It was nice to get away from Ferrara for a little while, and to get to know some of the other wives a little better. This is a very close-knit community amongst the Americans because there are so few stationed here.

One of the buildings on the piazza in Bassano. Note all the geraniums in the windows.

The bridge in Bassano across the beautiful mountain stream/river. The water was very clear.

View from the bridge of Bassano and the mountains beyond. This was an overcast day, so I can just imagine how beautiful it would be when the weather is clear!

This is a view across the river of a lovely garden.

The Alpini (al-pee-nee), which are soldiers specially trained for fighting in the Alps, are based in Bassano and have an annual meeting there.

Scuola Internazionale

On Monday, October 6, Emily started school at Smiling Service, an international school here in Ferrara. 70% of their curriculum is taught in English, and is based on the curriculum taught in Britain. Most of the classroom teachers are British, including Emily's, named Heidi. She will receive extra tutoring in Italian, as most of the students are native Italian speakers. There are a couple of British students, as well as at least one from Spain.

We took Emily by the school on Friday the 3rd, mostly just to locate it, and ended up getting the grand tour and completing the registration process. Emily got to meet her class and spent about 30 minutes at the end of the day with them. She spent the entire weekend on pins and needles because she was so excited about going to school on Monday. Most of you are aware that Emily's attitude about school has not always been great, so we were very happy about this change. Here is a picture of Emily, ready for the first day!

Her attitude has remained good all week, so we are very pleased. We have also started having her read on her own every night at bedtime, and she has taken well to that (after some initial resistance). We hope that she will become an avid reader like Jeff and me.

Pictures of Ferrara

Here are some pictures of Ferrara, where we are currently living.

This is the piazza downtown, along the side of the cathedral. This is where the weekly market is held on Fridays.

This is the tower, on the Piazza. I believe it is part of the cathedral. I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture, but it leans a bit toward the building to its right. I don't know whether the tower or the smaller building is the crooked one.

This is the front of the cathedral downtown, known as the Duomo.


This is the castle in the center of town. I haven't gotten the history of it yet, but it has a museum inside that I hope to tour soon. There is a moat surrounding it and it has drawbridges that can be drawn up over the moat. Note all the bicycles. Ferrara is known as the city of bicycles, because everyone rides them all over town. There are probably more bicycles in town than cars.

Beginning a Life in Italy

My husband, Jeff, stepdaughter, Emily, and I have recently arrived in Ferrara, Italy for a 2 year assignment. We arrived on Thursday, October 2nd and have been trying to get our bearings in a new city, country, and culture. So far, it has been a pleasant adventure.

The trip over here was long, but went fairly smoothly. We were very concerned about our cat, Hamlet, and how he would handle the travel. He has been known to get very stressed and carsick when traveling by car, and this was his first plane trip. His vet had given me some medication at the last checkup the day before we left, so I gave it to Hamlet before we left Warner Robins. He made the trip to Atlanta on the Groome shuttle very well, with only minimal meowing and complaining. We were lucky enough to get on the shuttle and go straight to Atlanta, without the usual stop in Macon, so we arrived at the Atlanta airport very early (before 9 am for a 1:07 pm flight). We had to check in our 7 bags and the cat first. Luckily, United Airlines allows military personnel on orders and their dependents to carry 3 bags apiece up to 70 pounds, rather than the now customary one bag up to 50 pounds without any extra charge. We did have to pay separately for the cat, but it was not terribly expensive. We saw Hamlet's carrier in between flights in Washington and Frankfurt before we were able to pick him up in Bologna. He was very happy to see us!

Our sponsor, Will, picked us up in Bologna and brought us into Ferrara, after we made a report about our one missing bag. We got to the hotel, but our "apartment" was not ready, so we walked around in Ferrara for a little while. We finally got into the apartment, dumped our suitcases and got showered after wearing the same clothes for more than 24 hours. Of course, when we got done showering and wanted to go get something to eat, it was after 1 pm, and it was Riposa. Everything here closes from about 1 to 4 while everyone goes home to eat and take nap. We did find a "bar" that was still open and got some pizza. A bar is the most informal type of restaurant here, not like an American bar that is mostly for drinks.

We allowed ourselves one 30 minute nap so that we could make it through dinner with our sponsor and his family as well as another family who have been here about 6 weeks, and are still staying in the hotel like we are. No decent restaurant here starts serving dinner before 7:30, so we didn't get back to the hotel to go to bed until about 10:30. Jeff got up to go in to the base about 7 on Friday, but I didn't get up until 9, and Emily slept until 11:15. Staying up that late helped us not be so jetlagged. We are enjoying the custom of napping in the afternoon when we get the chance, but we are mostly adjusted to the time difference (6 hours ahead of Eastern).