My mom and dad in Italy!

       My mom and dad made it to Italy!  It was really fun to have them here.  I tried to prepare them as much as possible before they came, but I think they were a little 'shell-shocked' in the beginning. Napoli is...a little intense.  ( ;~)
     The first couple of days were spent visiting and resting-jet lag was pretty hard on my parents.  It was really great to catch up with them.  We especially enjoyed hearing about how the animals are doing and how much they are spoiling them!! haha
     My dad expressed great interest in visiting Pompeii and Rome so I, as a conscientious hostess, made it my priority to get my parents to these places; but first, coffee!!!  I tried to stock our house with plenty of coffee for their visit, but that supply was no match for my parents!  Also, Napoletan coffee was not enough for them too.  Even though I think Napoli coffee is very strong... I would make enough for 4 people but they always wanted more...hehe. We also introduced them to Birdy's Bakery-An American Idea.  It is a cute coffee/bakery near our appartment.  They serve a lot of American food-carrot cake, red velvet, cupcakes, cafe americano(Napoletan coffee with more water)
Needless to say, my parents visited Birdy's several times!! It is a really fun place :-)
 

 Forgive me for posting such blurry pictures. Birdys (above) and street near our appartment (below)

(Herculaneum)

      For the interest of time and energy, we took my parents to Herculaneum instead of to the Pompeii archaelogical site. Herculaneum is similar, yet smaller, less touristy, and I would say, better preserved. My dad loved it there. I think he took a few hundred pictures to prove that point. The kids and I really enjoyed seeing that with them-despite that it was a cloudy, gray day-at least it didn't rain on us

 Inside the 'baths'

!A few days later we all went to Rome. We decided it would be best to take the 'hop-on hop-off double decker bus tour of the city. That was a really good idea! It was so fun. However, we had planned on being on the bus more than we were. The first problem was that when we first got to Rome we all had to visit the restroom and find snacks. So we got off at the first stop and had to walk about a kilometer to a bar(coffee bar). Then, we had to walk a few more blocks to the bus stop. And of course, we had to get off to show my mom and dad the Trevi fountain. Well, that excursion led us to walk around for at least 30+min sight seeing and then to find lunch. I felt bad because we ended up walking A LOT more than I had anticipated; I knew it was a lot for my mom, especially but she was such a trooper! It was really fun to take them to Rome and watch them see it for the first time. I think it is a pretty amazing place. I think that my mom and dad had a good time here and we certainly enjoyed having them. Plus, they were our 'guinea pigs' and let us use our Napoli hosting skills on them first! I hope we will be ready for the Stones and the Neilsens!!

      

Napoli sottoranea (#2 underground tour)

     

A few weeks ago, we all ventured out to another underground tour.   We have heard there are 4 different underground tours here.  Not sure if we will see all 4 but we’re half way there already. 

        Our tour guide was Italian but spoke perfect English.  He told us at the beginning that he prefers not to run a tour for Italians because they can be fussy,etc.  I found that to be funny. 
        The area that we toured around was originally used for water and then during WWII some Italians lived there for protection.  Many years after the war,etc. the space was used to store garbage.  When people realized it shouldn't be used for garbage, it was decided to just bury all of the garbage instead of hauling it out.  Sounds logical, right? haha
      During the tour, we got to walk through some very narrow passageways while carrying candles to light our paths.  We saw some really cool water reservoirs in that area.  There were also several plants and bushes that were brought underground.  The plants never got watered-obviously got enough moisture from their surroundings. That was interesting.
     Another area revealed where the nuns (from the church directly above) used to store wine.  There was a direct pathway from the church down to their 'cellar'.  There was also a pathway for the monks to go too.  It was rumored that there was a 'shared' pathway for the nuns and monks..(if you get my drift)

(sorry I will not be able to post pictures of this adventure. The pictures we took are M.I.A.-bummer.)

   

Walk of the gods: Amalfitana

      Recently, we went on a hike on the Amalfi coast. The Amalfi, by the way, is probably our favorite destination in this area...breathtaking!  Anyway, we tagged along with some families we have met here. We have been hearing about this hike since we got to Italy. Right away, I knew it was going to be a place I would love! I was not disappointed.
     Not to leave out any detail of our adventure, earlier in the week the kids and I went to the Moira circus. Juliann and Race blogged about that so I thought I would just attach the links to their blogs instead of writing about it: http://julesitalianadventures.blogspot.it/  http://ultimatederp.blogspot.it/2013/02/the-cirkus-i.html

       Okay, back to the hike.  It took about 45 min to drive from downtown Naples to Bomerano/Agerola where we would begin the hike.  It is quite a pleasant drive; meandering through little villages along the way,etc. It is twisty,turny so for those who get car sick, it can be a rough ride
:-(  We were told the hike would be 2 hours or so(one way) and that there would be a lot of stairs-at one point, there are approximately 1700 stairs to go down but this time, we did not do the massive succession of stairs.  It was so wonderful to be out on the hike.  Residents use the trail to move their animals frequently; in fact, there was a herd of goats that we got to see.  The air smelled of barns and farm land-it was divine! :-)  The terrain was diverse: rocks, sand, dirt paths.  Sometimes we were right on the edge of a cliff and then other times right next to caves.  Even though the weather wasn't perfect the day we went out, it was so cool to see the fog roll in and out and so many different cloud formations all around.  We hiked into a little town near Positano. 
         All 19 of us (that includes our friends 2 dogs) stopped in a little restaurant for lunch; Santa Croce. Wonderful food!!  What a great reward for all that hiking.  I thought it was a reward because, in my ignorance,I thought that we would be catching a bus back to the start of the hike. Nope!  We had to hike back.  In my excitement of being there, I didn't realize how many hills and rock steps we had to go down on the way to the restaurant. Mamma mia!! What goes down, must come up?! or something like that... 
           Needless to say, I had worked off all of my lunch by the time we got back to the car. (I'm always hungry it seems! haha).  Isn't it appropriate for me to have placed a picture of a horse eating?  You thought I was going to post a picture of me with gelato or something didn't you? :-) 

 

 View of the water in front of Positano

 Our car in the fog at the end of the hike

          Did I mention the weather report said thunder and lightning were imminent for that evening? Well, we knew if that was correct we had to hurry back to the cars. We didn't quite make it back before the weather started to turn on us. The wind picked up so much, at one point, I was pushed against the hill next to the path (so glad it was not in the direction of the cliff..ahhh!) The fog came in so it was hard to see where we were going. Also, at a fork in the path, we weren't overly confident of what way to go, but fortunately, we chose correctly. Then, it started to rain-big, heavy, slow drops of rain. The group I was hiking with got seperated from the majority so a few came back looking for us to make sure we got back okay. It was a little sketchy at the end but we can't wait to go back.  

 

         

Movie theater in Naples

      We found a theater nearby that plays some American movies, on occasion, in their original form-in English! (with Italian subtitles-field trip idea!!)  Aaron and I were supposed to go for a date, this past week, but the night the movie, Lincoln, was playing Aaron had to work late :-(  So, I found another 'date', my sweet friend Leslie Ross :) and we took the train to the theater.
     Before I tell you about the movie, let me tell you about what I saw on the way.  First of all, I got on the most packed train I have ridden.  It was like the bus, in that, after I got in the 'sardine can' about 15 other people got on behind me and squished me in the people in front of me. Yikes. Thankfully, I was only on for 1 stop. Then, when I got off, I spent some time people watching outside the station.  I think I could have stayed there and skipped the movie-a lot of entertainment near the station.  There was a group of boys playing soccer. They weren't just carefully juggling the ball back and forth they were kicking it as hard, fast, and high as they could; so I stood a distance away for my own safety. One boy started wailing on another kid so a woman rushed over to grab the ear of the offending boy and yell at him. He then backed away and along with many angry Italian gestures he made his thoughts known to her.  Have I mentioned that the kids here tend to be a little unruly, disrespectful and just plain rude..ugh. It's weird to me though because all of the young adults we have met have been so kind and respectful..hmm..thank God for maturity, right?
  Also near the station, there was a woman who just dove right into the dumpster nearby and started ripping garbage bags open with a little claw-like hook she had.  I guess it just seemed so crazy to me to see someone digging in the dumpster like that.  She definitely wasn't shy about it.
     So, we found the theater alright and bought our tickets. It was 5,50 euros/ticket. (less than advertised in the paper-yippee!)  I bought popcorn and fizzy water, 3,50 euros-affordable!  The theater looked very similar to what we have in the states but what we found to be interesting is that the movie stopped at one point and a big sign flashed across the screen that said, 'Intervallo', intermission.  That was different.  We asked the Italians behind us how long it would last but they didn't know either.  So, we just stayed in our seats.  It lasted about 15min. Anyway, it was quite enjoyable to go to the movies.  It's been a long time since I have done that.  I think I picked up a few new Italian words reading the subtitles too. Simple pleasures!

Abruzzi mountains

     Last weekend The LeClair family joined several other families for a day amidst the Abruzzi mountains, (appx. 2hrs drive north-ish of Naples).  It was a beautiful day but we were prepared for the weather to be bitterly cold.  We all went up there to help clean up an olive tree orchard to get it ready for the growing season.  As the saying goes, "Many hands make light work" we were a living example of that! We got to work right away and not too long after, most of us shed our coats, hats, and scarves. It wasn't as cold as we had planned for-thankfully!

     We were up there on a mission to help the nuns who live in the abbey. They were very sweet ladies and it was wonderful to be able to help out.  I wish I had taken some 'before' and 'after' pictures of the orchard. A lot of trees were uncovered from brush, ivy, etc. and a lot of limbs were pruned. Then, many burn piles were started to clear up the debris.  At one point, Aaron was seen running from one burn pile to the next with a flaming branch to start a new burn pile.

Some pictures of us workers having a well earned lunch :-).  The white dogs are Abruzzi Sheepdogs. They are pretty cool dogs!

 I got a little bit of time with these cuties.

 Pictures of a few of the buildings on the property.

 I'm sad about the lack of quality of these pictures because the views were breathtaking! The picture above is of a little village atop the hillside; the pic. below is of a really cool looking castle.

First week

       It took over 4 months but we are finally settled in a place of our own here in Naples, Italy!  Usually the first thing I like to do in new surroundings is explore and get to know the area where I'm living. The only thing I've been able to do, is go shopping! Groceries, groceries, groceries. There are 2 teenagers in the house, afterall.  The main reason I haven't gone exploring yet is because it has been raining a lot this past week-in fact, it has rained every day we have been in this appartment!  Fellow Western Washingtonians would probably agree with me: It feels like home! :-)
       All of our shipped belongings arrived this past Friday.  We went to the Questura (police station) Friday morning for fingerprinting-another part of the process to be in Italy, legally. When we returned, there were several brown paper wrapped packages on our doorstep. It was quite exciting!  We unwrapped and unpacked everything in a few hours. I don't think I've ever had a move go that quickly. Have you?  I guess we didn't bring that much stuff afterall. That's okay, more room for us to bring treasures we find here. haha!

 View of our elevator from our door. We don't use it much because we are only on the 2nd floor and we need to justify our daily meals of pasta and pizza...haha!

 Upon entering, living room on the right, dining room on the left. Beyond the couch is the door out to our terrace and washing machine room(just big enough to house the washer and some shelves)

 Master bath-with a bathtub!!

 Master bedroom above; Julianns sweet friends made lunch for us this past Sunday. It was awesome!

            We have no problem with a lot of events revolving around meals. I like to consider myself an unbiased foodie..hehe.  This past weekend we got invited to dinner with some of the missionaries from Il Faro International Baptist church.  They also invited some of their Italian neighbors. Italian was the dominant language, as you can imagine, and I was excited because I understood and was able to speak a little too! (Huge accomplishment!!)  But back to the topic of food, most Italian meals consist of several courses. Our meal: appetizer (antipasto) crackers and artichoke dip (yum!), Baked gnocchi (cooked by our friend's Italian neighbor-delizioso!), BBQ chicken wing (finger-lickin good), salad, and 2 desserts-just my style-cheescake bites and fruit salad w/prosecca.  Anyway, the food was good and the company was great! It was really fun to visit with everyone. I was a little nervous before because I don't know much Italian and I wasn't sure if I would be able to converse much. But I was nervous for nothing. The Italian guests were quite patient and kind-even in my lack.
         This next week will hopefully bring more adventures.  We'll see...

5th and final move here in Italia

  We are no longer nomads! We have a place to call our own here in Italy.  It is so nice to be where we are going to be for the remainder of our stay.  We even unpacked all of our suitcases! (I kind of want to pack some of our stuff back up-we have a lot of potential laundry-have I told you how long laundry takes here? haha)  Above: sliding doors into Race's room

  2 beds in Race's room means there is room for guests! Benvenuti ospiti!! (welcome guests)

 Stairwell up to Juliann's 'Shortlandia'  The ceiling is the right height for Juliann(and Mati!and friends) :-)

 Lots of storage and a bathroom

 Nice, spacious desk space for school work-mostly art. There is room for Juliann's sewing machine and maybe a piano keyboard?

 View from J's loft

 Our first meal in the new place. Pasta, of course!

   Our new place is in the heart of the city of Naples(email/FB me for the address).  The surrounding area houses many high end shops and a few outdoor markets; pretty convenient! We have a porter(in Italian: portiere). His name is Michele. He is very nice. He even smiles when I am trying to speak Italian. Such a patient man. haha
   Even though there are some conveniences here, everything is just a little bit more difficult than back home.  There is no where for us to park our car at the appartment so we have to park a few blocks away, there is a lot of traffic around so it takes 3-4 times longer to get around, etc.  It is, of course, totally different than in Washington but we figured we would probably never get another opportunity to live in the city so we are embracing it!
    (for some reason, I can't find the pictures of the front room, kitchen and our bedroom so I will take some more and post them on the next blog post)  Until next time..