Trieste

Ok, so I am really late with this post but two weeks ago, before my parents came, Susan, Mimi, and I went to Trieste. It is very far away so we spent the better part of the morning on the train, looking for and in the information center. We had no agenda so we wanted to get some idea of what to see. SO we walked up this giant hill (that none of us were expecting!) to get to the church and one of the castles. It was a cool castle but it was under construction so we couldn't go inside. Trieste is right on the Adriatic Sea, so most of the town has some incredible views (or so we had heard), which would have been a great reason to climb up that hill. However, it was extremely foggy that day so we didn't quite get the full experience of the city.

Then we took a bus over to see another castle that was right on the water. On the bus, we asked one man which stop to get off at for the castle and, within one minute, had the whole bus helping us out. It seemed that it didn't even matter if we were there or not because they were all fighting (in Italian) over who was going to help us and who knew the best way for us to get to the castle. It was really an amazing experience.

Before seeing the castle we went to lunch in a restaurant (the only one open anywhere near us) that had a great fireplace and real trees growing through the middle of the restaurant. It was really good and on our way to the castle we found a wonderful green park that was a nice surprise. The castle is also known for its amazing views so since we couldn't really see anything we decided not to go inside.

It was a really long but fun day. Mimi and I were victims of Trenitalia and ended up traveling in circles just to get home and then straight to her house for dinner and an Italian lesson with Andrea. All in all, it was a lot of fun and successful (the Italian lesson was helpful) but I was definitely ready for bed by the time I got home.

this is maybe one quarter of the hill we climbed!

me with some Roman ruins in front of the closed castle

Susan and Mimi with the tree in our restaurant

really cool park we just came across

the castle overlooking the water

the water was so clear! I can't wait to go back in the Spring or Summer

Friday

Thursday we spent the day driving home to Montebelluna, and then we had dinner at Manuela's house. Chicco really liked my parents and he had them doing pushups with him on top over and over and over again. We had a great meal and went to bed early because we had to wake up early to spend the day in Venice on Friday.

Friday, we woke up early to drive to Venice. We got there in perfect time but we spent the better part of the morning on the boat around Venice because we didnt take the boat directly to San Marco but instead made a few stops first.

We checked into their hotel (which has a really cool canal veiw), and then went straight to the market because my mom wanted to see it. The fish at the market is so fresh (way too fresh for me, especially because I don't like fish).

views from the hotel

"snorkeling in Venice"

We were a little burnt out I think from traveling and it was cold and rainy so we were very slow and just really had lunch (after getting lost a few times), saw San Marco, and then had a drink in a cafe before taking the boat bus to the train station for me to get the train. It was really sad to leave them because I will not see them for six months but we had a great week together and I am so happy they could finally come and experience some of my Italian life.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we woke up to find snow on the ground!! It was so crazy because we had beautiful weather all week so far and was even warmer than we expected. We thought it was definitely Spring, but like they told us at our villa, "We say March is crazy!" So we had a relaxing morning, had some scrambled eggs with leeks (fresh from the garden). We didn't end up leaving the villa until the afternoon.

view of the snow from my window

We drove past Siena to some smaller towns that we wanted to see. First we saw San Giamignano, which was much more touristy than we thought it would be and we were freezing so we didn't spend much time there.

main square in San Giamignano

kinda cool automatic bathroom that we could not figure out

Then we drove back towards Siena and stopped at Moneriggioni, which is a really cool walled town on top of a hill. It is very small and it was after lunch so it was pretty deserted as well, but we loved it because it was very cute.

entrance to the walls of the city

the cute little church
the inside of the walls

someones house

leaving, this is the square (there is only one)

Then we continued on to Siena, spent about an hour to find the center and where to park, only to find out that we were in the center the whole time! We made a mistake in leaving Siena for last because it was dark by the time we got there, so our pictures didn't turn out very well and the Duomo was closed. But at least we got to see it and we ate dinner in Piazza del Campo, where they have the Palio, which I hope to be able to make a trip down to see this summer.

the whole side of the church was painted like this

front of the Duomo in the dark

Piazza del Campo

Piazza del Campo

Tuesday

Tuesday, we got up to take Andrea to the train station in Arezzo. After seeing him off, we went to see the historical center of Arezzo, which is where Life is Beautiful was filmed. It was really cool, and we spent most of the morning there. We had lunch (salami, cheese, and bread) in a park at the top while watching a gym class of Italian kids do all different track activities.

square where part of Life is Beautiful was filmed...doesn't looked quite the same

Mom and I in an alley

another main square in Arezzo

The we drove through the country out to see a few small towns, mainly Pienza, and the rest we pretty much drove through. We had some good gelato in Pienza. It was really cool to drive through the country because it was "typical Tuscany". It was also cool because there was nothing but feilds so every town that we were looking for, we could see from far away because it was the only buildings we could see around us.

beautiful fields in Tuscany

street in Pienza

flock of sheep after leaving Pienza

Abbey Sant Antimo outside Montelcino

We returned to Arezzo early that night and went to a resaurant to eat just some pasta. Afterward we went back to our villa and mom made a big salad and cauliflower, made with the fresh vegetables from the garden of our agriturismo. It was very good! :)

Monday

Monday morning, we woke up to explore our villa in the light. We had a relaxing morning, discovering everything about the place and even went for a walk to fully explore the property. We saw the workers tying up the vineyards, as well as doing work on the new winery that is being built. The property is beautiful and it has a great view (both day and night).

After our walk, we finally got our acts together and drove over to Cortona, a small town on top of a hill about an hour away from our Villa in Pomaio (Arezzo). It was very nice there, and we spent the afternoon there after searching forever for a restaurant to eat lunch (which we seemed to be doing all week). It is a beautiful small town where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. We got a little lost in back alleys and ended up meeting an American, Deb from Dallas, who was a former flight attendant and just moved there about four months ago. She took the liberty of showing us not only her apartment but also her neighbor's.

It started getting very cold so we decided to drive back and find a restaurant in Arezzo for dinner, after going to the supermarket and figuring out the trains for Andrea in the morning. It was another beautiful, sunny, spring day.

Andrea and I in Cortona

Dad and Andrea in the cool ampitheater

Mom in the park in Cortona

cute stairs in Cortona

Dad and Andrea "waiting for the bus"- on the little log bench

vegetable garden

our villa, we had all of the left side of the house

some of the fields, land all owned by the villa

Vacation- Sunday

Over the next few posts I will be writing about my vacation last week with my parents, and Andrea for part of it. I'm just going to write one post for each day that we were gone.

My parents came on Friday morning and we spent Friday and Saturday in Montebelluna and Asolo. Saturday I cooked lunch and we had dinner with Manuela, Luca, and Chicco.

Sunday morning we left Montebelluna and headed for Florence. We stopped at a rest stop around Bologna and it was 80 degrees!! It was so nice!

We spent the afternoon in Florence, visiting the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, and Piazza Michaelangelo (view of the whole city). We had lunch overlooking Ponte Vecchio.

Duomo of Florence

Andrea and I at Piazza Michaelangelo with Duomo in the background

Then we left and headed for our villa in Pomaio and finally arrived after about an hour of being lost in Arezzo. It was too dark to see anything but the inside was amazing!!

Happy Womens' Day!

Today is International Womens' Day, even though for some reason it is not celebrated in the United States, and I am enjoying spending the day in Italy. It seems to be a pretty popular holiday here, as even in the supermarket they give away flowers to all of the women. I think it is a great idea. It is always nice to feel special. The tradition here is to give women mimosa, which are yellow flowers.

Here are the arrangements I recieved: (one from Andrea, Luca, and also Manuela). I am really enjoying being a part of Italian life for an entire year and being able to live days like these just as all Italian women do.




PS. My parents left this morning, and we had an amazing week vacation. Over the next few posts I will try to recap the trip the best that I can. It was really sad leaving them for six months. It is the longest I have ever gone without seeing my family and it makes me sad to think about it, but I hope I won't have to do it again anytime soon. I love my life here and am so glad that they finally got to see and experience it with me. It will be so hard to leave here but I already miss my parents!

My mom and I did decide that a sign like this would only exist in a place where they celebrate Womens' Day:

It is a parking space reserved for pregnant women (they really seem to take care of their pregnant women here, of course that is until they get into the hospital and go back to 19th century childbirth conditions!)