Castello di Velbona

We had a relaxing weekend around town.  On Saturday we visited a local pottery place where they make ceramics for Tiffany, Lenox, and Williams & Sonoma.  Kids were great = many treats on the ride home.  Husband not only went a long with the idea of taking the family to a super-no-touch store, but also helped me pick out some dishes (which by the way was so much more fun that it sounds. read:  stuff WAY cheaper than in stores).   

Enjoyed our park again now that it's a cool 83 here.  Dean and I used to come here most mornings when Celia was in school.  I love, love, love it. 

Some other kids there heard Celia and Dean talking so they came over to us to try out their English on us. :)

On Sunday evening we headed to a local castle for dinner.  One of the most unique dinner experiences ever.

THIS is Italy to me. :)

Even though Drew thinks this picture looks like the kids fell and he just left them, I still wanted to post it because I love the way it shows the view from the top of the castle.  And, no, the kids didn't fall...they just found some type of bug, ant that was way more interesting than a view from the top. :)

On the same castle grounds there was a playground and farm animals. 

Caorle Beach...

...is one of my new favorite places.  We went there for the weekend and LOVED it!  Everyone had a good time.  I'm happy to report that Dean is officially a beach lover.  I knew he'd come around.  The water was warm, lots of shells for collecting, hotel was great.  It had a lot of "wow" factors to it.  Right when we walked in Celia and Dean fell in love with the water theme decor, then as we walked more we noticed the hotel had its own gelataria...kids were getting more and more excited.  Outside there was a shaded playground, hammock, heated pool and the hotel had its own private beach.  We happened upon this place by luck of a random internet search.  Once we finally got to the room, Celia and Dean got one more surprise with the bunk beds.  A wonderful, relaxing trip that was just over an hour away from our house.  We're trying to "cram in" more of these adventures before we set sail back to the States in a few weeks.

Hotel entrance. Kids are already in love. :)

Side wall of entrance. Love for the place is growing.

Cooling off with some gelato...

Waste not...

View from just outside our hotel/our gelato eating spot.

Spied these guys on our beach.  Could they be any more Maverick?  I think that guy in the background is wondering the same thing. :) 

Enjoying dinner at the pizzeria across the street.  It was mighty hot this night...Finally on Sunday it got down to 83, which felt like fall.

Sidenote:  Caorle Beach is kinda touristy, meaning a lot of other Europeans come there.  We've found that in these situations Drew is always approached in German and I in Italian.  :)  Makes me feel like we are fitting in at least some!

Le Colline

(written by Drew)

At the gym that Shannon and I go to, they typically have MTV playing on the TV's since over here, MTV still plays music.  Today, at the top of the hour the station instead showed of all things, "The Hills" with Italian overdubs.  I have to admit, the characters seemed smarter, probably since they removed all of the "like"s, "um"s, and "yeah"s for Italian TV. 

And, to the other gym members' credit, within 5 minutes they went to the person working to have the channel changed.  Bad TV even translates to Italian it seems. 

Lost

While Celia, Dean, and I were at the mall yesterday, we saw someone famous! :)  We were headed to the game area and noticed a bunch of teenage girls lined up outside a store.  Figured someone famous must be coming, but didn't give it too much attention since I was sure I wouldn't know them anyway.

A little bit later Celia had to make a bathroom stop, so we headed to it which happened to be kinda behind this store.  I noticed a service elevator right next to the bathrooms and that all the employees were standing there.  Told Celia that the "famous" person must be coming there.  She got pretty excited.  Right then, they stepped off the elevator.  It was just us and them.  Figured out right away that it must be a teen pop band.  No matter the culture, they all have the same look. :)  Celia said "ciao" to them and they said it back.  Pretty sure they knew we weren't their usualy clientele as I was navigating two little ones in and out of a restroom. 

And, I was right about who they are.  They are a pop band called "Lost".  Their members are from here (Vicenza).  Guess they made a song with Joel Madden last year that made them more famous.  Celia was pretty excited by her brush with fame.

Weekend of fun.

So, last week Celia and Dean only had baths on Monday and Friday.  I call that a good week of summer fun.  :)  We were at the pool a lot and when I was little, that counted as a bath.  Have I said that I LOVE our pool here?  It's so nice, kid friendly, and...entertaining.  Apparently on the weekends it's the local hang out for the 20's something crowd.  They all hang out in the baby area (zero depth entry) getting numbers and tans, I'm guessing.  I still find it quite entertaining that they see the look of swim caps paired with Ray Bans as cool.  Swim caps are about the equivalent of wearing a banana clip in your hair.  Or maybe it's the Speedos?

This past weekend our little town had its own Sagra so were able to walk to that.  It was held in our little town square.  We live in Vicenza, but kind of a suburb off of that called Cresole.  This is the area where Celia and Dean often play soccer. 

Dean enjoyed this ride a lot, even though the little girl behind him made him nervous (Dean has a little issue with personal space...which in Europe is non-existent).

This weekend we also found a pizzeria that has a big front lawn with outdoor toys for the kids.  A great idea!  Drew and I got to relax and pretend to be on a date while the kids played.  Being that we haven't had a sitter for about 6 months, it was pretty close to the real thing.

On Sunday we hiked up a (small) mountain and checked out another castle.  I mean, what else do you do on a cool 95 degree day?  Notice the red faces and wet hair on the kids.

As were we walking up, we were passing grapevines.  I mean, how much more authentic can this get?  Oh, I know...having the Italian Grandma pick some fruit from her trees and give it to your bambini as a snack on the way up.  (Happened, really.)

They are pretty excited about their new "treasure chests."

And here we are at the BEST gelato ever!  To cool off, we dined on some cioccolato gelato.  I've taste-tested a lot here and this was by far the best!  As we were eating at this cute gelateria, at 6pm (no dinner yet), on this quaint street, the church bells start chiming.  Really?  Again....so authentic.

View from our gelateria.

See the town name behind me?  Soave.  If you're wondering how to pronounce it, just think of that great 90's hit Rico Suave and you've got it. :)

Spotted this on the way back to the car.  I think it's Celia's dream come true.

They are loving life and each other after some ice cream for dinner. :)

Kick Off to Summer Vacation

Celia is officially on summer vacation.  Her last day of school was last Wednesday, 30th.  What a great experience for her and us.  The teachers were so nice and Celia got a good taste of life in another country.  So proud of her for embracing this move, going to a new (and very different) school, and for how geniunely excited she is to make new friends even when they can't understand each other!  I've learned a lot while we've been here, but one of the most memorable lessons will be from Celia and how she just jumps right into whatever the situation is and makes it a good time.

Dean was so excited to pick Celia up from her last day of school.

To celebrate July 4th, we got out red, blue, and white gear on and headed to the local U.S. military base where they were hosting a weekend celebration.  They invite the non-military community to it which is why we were able to go.  It was pretty surreal to be there for the celebration.

To continue the celebration we headed to Gardaland for a few days.  It's kinda like Italy's version of Disney World.  It's right on Lake Garda (just about an hour from us).  We stayed there at the Gardaland resort so we could enjoy the full vacation mode and too cool off in the pool (95 each day...pretty hot tamale for walking around an amusent park).

Dean insists on wearing his hat very low, which makes him have to look at you like this.

Making some wishes at the hotel's fountain.

Found this little resort for dinner.  The brown building on the left was the restaurant.  Such a beautiful setting.

Sidenote:  As I said earlier...it was REALLY hot at the amusent park.  We stayed cool by drinking lots of water, wearing our hair up, walking through the water mists, eating gelato, BUT apparently it's perfectly acceptable for women to take their tops off here when it's really hot.  Again, I'm REALLY glad we aren't living here when Dean's 15.