Assisi & Gubbio, Umbria

Above: illegal pic. of the church St Francis built originally. The large building was built around the little one.

Statue of St Francis with live doves that we heard are always on this statue.

Views of Assisi from the drive up

Views as we were walking up

Some of the awesome people in our group

I don't remember the name of this church but it's where St Francis is buried

middle courtyard from the 2nd story of the church

This man was singing and preaching in the courtyard. He never wears shoes and after he preaches some of the people around walk up and give him food. He preached about how the Catholic church should get back to a poorer way of living. St Francis is the saint of poverty, etc.

 

View and carousel near the church of St Clare (sp?)

Our friends,Anna and Alaina carried me around a little bit. Quite comical..

Spectacular views from Rocca Maggiore, a castle above Assisi

Anna Juilann and Alaina

View of St Francis's church from the castle

Our friend Herb helping me get a view of the description of what we were looking at inside the castle

We were all confused by this exhibit..hmmm...

Pathway from one tower to the other. Above: inside  Below: outiside path on the roof

Picture below: time of praise and worship in the hotel breakfast room. An amazing time!!

Gubbio: above-street market  below: view of castles,etc. in the hills

Austin (older brother of Anna and Alaina) Aaron and Race

Our friend Steve :-) 

I have a 'thing' for taking pictures of people taking pictures and of doors, really cool doors of course!

View of a church in Gubbio. Below: Steve giving us a perspective of the size of this door. Wow!!

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure and privilege to join a group of friends from church to accompany them to Assisi and Gubbio; 2 towns north of Rome a bit.  An Italian family organized the adventure so we went along for the ride.  We stayed in Assisi for 2 nights and I think our group took up half of the hotel!   There were 7 families in our group.  It was so fun to spend time with everyone and get to know all of them a little better.  One night, almost everyone came to our room to play UNO.  It was such a blast! I wish I had a picture or a video of that time. Probably one of the best memories we took with us.
   Assisi is full of churches and we saw most of them(only got a few 'illegal' inside shots :-).  Gubbio is known for its medieval castles and buildings.  It was really neat to see all of them.  It was fun to walk around the towns and take in the sites.    

Cooking with Vera

      I had the great pleasure of participating in an Italian cooking class with some dear friends I have met here.  Now, I know what you are thinking. Cooking with Vera-doesn't sound like an Italian cooking teacher, does it?  Well, Vera is not Italian; she is from the mid-west (USA) but she has been in Italy for 41 years. She has been married to her Italian husband for 38yrs.  Vera is delightful!
     Vera has a kitchen,etc. in the garage of her home.  All of the students in the class were American-most with the military.  Vera had us make 7 different items. (Menu to follow)  I was exhausted by the end of the class. Don't forget, we got to help make all of the items but then we had to sample everything too-Delizioso!
    Some things I have learned about Italian cooking:* Italians believe their food is the best in the world so there is no reason, nor should one be found, to change anything about how their food tastes or is prepared
     *There is not a whole lot of garlic, basil, or oregano used in most dishes I have experienced here.
     * Spicy food is not common here (Naples area)
     * Garlic and onion SHOULD NOT be mixed
     *whole shrimp or prawns are not de-shelled before deep frying. hmm...quite difficult for the consumer..haha
     *Coffee is NEVER to be ordered(at a restaurant) or consumed before dessert
      *DO NOT ask for ketchup with your fries; ESPECIALLY if the cook grew the potatoes in his garden... :-)

 Vera-in the red apron

 We made:Mammarelle in Pinziomonia(artichokes), Marriage soup, Penne con vodka(pasta w/vodka sauce-yummmy!), Scaloppine al limone(veal w/lemon), Spada(swordfish) Pane Napoletan/Casatiello(Easter Bread), Pastiera(Easter Pie) Delizioso!! and fun!!!

  This is Leslie and Julanne.  I can't tell you how grateful I am for meeting and spending time with these ladies. They are FUN, delightful, intelligent, thoughtful and terrific!! (Did I mention fun?! see pictures posted on FB of a recent shopping trip to the sports equipment store..haha)

      Food is a big deal in Italy...I love that! I'm hoping to participate in another cooking class in a few weeks too. In fact, all 4 of us will go to that one. Should be fun!

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.