Trieste

In November we traveled to Trieste. Trieste is in Italy on a little strip of land about 20 km wide and 100 km long that lies south of Slovenia between Slovenia and the Adriatic sea. This is a picture of the "beach". It's not a beach at all, but it is the swimming area. You can see the water is really clear. It's a rather large city that sits on the the edge of the mountains and slopes down to the sea. It's only about an hour and a half away. Behind me, you can see a really tall pedestal standing rising above the city. I think there's a bronze woman on top. We didn't see it up close, but you can tell how huge it is.

We went with a visit to the aquarium in mind. The Acquario Marino, which we read about in our Eyewitness Italy book, was supposed to be an excellent place to see Adriatic sea life. So that sounds exciting right? Well, all we had was an address. We didn't have a map of the city or anything, so we decided that an aquarium should be near the water. We wound our way down the mountain, through the city, toward the sea. Driving along the water we saw a building that says Acqua Marina. That sounds right so, we parked and went in. The first thing we saw was a glass enclosure where there's an indoor pool and old men in speedos. We quickly deduce that this is not the aquarium. We went to the desk and tried to ask the lady where the aquarium with the fish in it is. She understood us, but she didn't speak enough to give us directions so she took us to a window and pointed across the bay. There are a lot of buildings in the direction that she points, but we said "grazie" and left. Back at the car, I tried to call the aquarium. The man said that it was located 1 km away. We had a good parking place and 1 km is less than a mile, so we decided to walk. We walked around the bay for what seemed like more than a km and still couldn't find it. On our way back to the car we saw the front of a building that we had walked past. It said Acquario Marino. When we walked by it the first time, we had dismissed it as an abandoned building. It was the aquarium. We didn't go through it because it was 4 euros a piece and we had neglected to get euros before we left. We walked around trying to find an ATM, but we had just about walked back to the car and still hadn't seen one. In addition, this acclaimed aquarium that we had read about it our Eyewitness book seemed to be nothing more that a couple of rooms big. We decided to see the aquarium another day.

It was close to lunch time, and I had seen a Bennigan's. We went there to eat lunch. It was about 11:30 or noon and since Italians don't eat lunch until 2 or 3, we were the only ones in the place. Although it was decorated kind of like Bennigan's it clearly wasn't like the ones back home. We're learning that even though there are a few McDonald's and apparently a Bennigan's here and there, you still don't get the kind of food you're used to. Mike had fish and chips, which he said was good. I had a cheese burger, but it wasn't even close to a real cheeseburger. The cheese is a different kind of cheese and it's fried. I don't know how to describe it, but it was not "a tasty burger" ( a line from what movie?).

After we ate, we drove around for about an hour. This was the real adventure. People were triple and quadruple parked. What should have been a 2 lane road with parking on each side was turned into a one way road. Plus it's on a freaking mountainside. We almost died several times. But Mike did an excellent job. We are after all, still alive.

Then we got out of the city a little following signs for Castello Di Miramare. The picture on the left is taken as we were walking up to the castle. On the right is the side of the castle that faces away from the sea-the front I guess. This is how you would approach the castle if you were arriving by boat. We got to tour the castle and the grounds. There were extensive gardens and even a bird habitat (that you had to pay to go in to, so we didn't). These are pictures of us in the gardens. Of course I'm sure it would be much prettier during the summer. Although the castle wasn't at all old by European standards (built in about 1869), it was pretty and interesting because the guy that built it later became the emperor of Mexico. Too, during WWII it was the headquarters for the US Army and helped to put Trieste back in the hands of the Italians. There is a concentration camp in Trieste. I didn't know exactly where it was, but we drove by what I think must have been it. When we go back to see the "aquarium", we'll have to check that out more closely as well. We left at sunset. As we were driving home, we saw another castle. We parked and tried to find the entrance, but were unsuccessful. Plus it was almost dark. Oh well, a castle for another day. Trieste is kind of fun, but not to drive in. Or maybe that's the part that made it fun...

As you may have noticed, I haven't blogged in a while. Because I believe none of you would enjoy or benefit from the mundane details of our every day lives, I haven't bothered to record them.

A brief update: Mike was sent back to Mississippi on November 12 for more training. Despite ardent protests from his superiors at Aviano, the Air Force insisted upon his returning to finish what would have been 11 more days of class if Hurricane Katrina hadn't screwed everything up. The 11 days turned into 5 weeks. We had 2 days notice before he had to leave. So as opposed to spending Thanksgiving alone in a foreign country, I too decided to go back to Houston for about 3 weeks. Mike was able to rent a car and drive to Houston for Thanksgiving and we had an early Christmas. I got back to Italy a couple of days ago and Mike will be returning on Saturday.

I will blog again as soon as we do something interesting. We're hoping that Mike will get some time off at Christmas or New Year's. For the celebration of the holiday and our 5th wedding anniversary, we're hoping to spend several days in Rome. No definite plans yet, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. If we do in fact enjoy a "Roman Holiday", I will blog and post pictures of our adventure. I'll probably send out an email notifying you of a new and interesting blog. :)

Venice #2

Our second trip to Venice pretty much consisted of a water taxi ride(s), visit to the Basilica de San Marco, and a visit to the glass making island of Murano. The picture on the left is the train station in Pordenone. It's about 15 min south of Aviano and we can leave our car here for free. The roundtrip train tickets are 8 euro a piece. On the right: this is what greets you after you step off the train, go through the station and out onto the canal. There are several stations where you can buy tickets for the water taxi that takes you to various destinations throughout Venice. We boarded the one headed for the Basilica. We also purchased a ticket for another route to Murano. It's kinda like a subway, only on water. The routes are color coded and there are various stops. The trick is getting on the right boat. There is a picture of a gondola on the left. It is much more expensive and serves more as a romantic gesture rather than as a viable mode of transportation. I think the next picture on the right is the back of the Basilica? The picture on the left is the front of the Basilica de San Marco. The following pictures will be inside. We were able to take some pictures inside. There's a "museum" mode on the camera that doesn't flash. On the right is the the Pala d'Oro. It's an altar screen. I don't really know what its purpose is, but it is beautiful. You can't really tell much about it, I know. It's obviously gold. In the little sections there are men. All over the gold are jewels of every color and size. The picture under it is the tomb of St. Mark. Supposedly his body was smuggled from Alexandria to Venice. Above the tomb in the picture is the front of the Pala d'Oro. Where you see the people on the right is where you walk behind to view the back. On the left across from the picture of the tomb is the ceiling in the main room. You can see the windows and above the windows are men. Again, all of the designs you see, including all of the gold, is done in mosaic. It's amazing. The picture of the horses was taken outside on the terrace of the Basilica. Those outside are actually replicas of the originals which have been brought inside, out of the elements for display. On the right is me standing on the terrace looking out over the plaza. You can't really see the pigeons all over the ground, but I assure you, they are there. More on the pigeons later...

This is on the outside of the Basilica. I can't remember if this too is mosaic, or whether it's painted on, but it's just one of the many all over the outside. They are mostly above the doors and on the walls in the entrances. The next row

features a few pictures of sights along the canal. I think all of these were taken from the boat. You can see the gondolas docked in the canal waiting in silence for some unsuspecting tourist to pay a small fortune for a ride. The sun is beginning to set so the pictures are much darker.

Last, is one of the pigeon pictures. You can buy corn from a vendor on the plaza for 1 euro. As soon as the vendor handed me the bag, pigeons attacked me! I didn't even have the bag open and there were easily 7+ birds perched on my shoulders and arms. (Yes, there's one on my head.) I couldn't even open the bag between being freaked out, laughing, and not even being able to physically open it because the birds were all over my hands trying to peck their way into the bag. Although Mike was super freaked and laughing (saying, "That's so gross!"), he was able to snap several pictures. All them are turned the wrong way though, so to get the full effect of the picture, you're going to have to tilt your head. You really just have to shake them off to get them to go away. It was sooo funny. It was the best euro I've spent. We went to Murano after this experience, but as it was already getting darker by the minute, we didn't take any pictures. I really wanted to attend a glass making session, but everything was getting ready to close by the time we got there.

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house...

Ok, I took about a trillion pictures of the house when I was up there today. However, because they take FOREVER to upload, I've tried to use the ones that are of the most interest. To begin, right now we use the back door, so we park and go around back. The upper left is the backyard.

Middle-the property adjoining our back fence. I don't know who these belong to. Wouldn't it be funny if we "inherited" the birds with the property? There are all manner of fowl including yes, that's a peacock in the back left. Not the white chicken, but the dark bird next to the tree. Left- grapevine. I don't know if its officially ours or not, but it's still kinda fun to have a grapevine in your backyard when you live in Italy. Right-back of the house. All of that stuff belongs to the neighbor. Our side is the one with all the windows open.

The is the ground floor. Left-first room is the garage. Middle and right-laundry room and bathroom. They are the same room. Weird-we're going to have to figure something out with that. I'm omitting the storage/heater room due to lack of interest I'm sure. Because I am not as technologically savvy as I would like to believe, I don't know how to rotate this picture (and those to follow). In the house, it is actually right side up. These two pictures are of the hallway. The first is looking at the front door and the second is walking into the house from the front door. These are some of my favorite features of the house. The wooden door and the floor. The white rectangle on the bottom right of the door is the sun shining in through the other window. This is the kitchen. On the right is a close up of the tile on the kitchen walls. A rose. The criss-cross around the edge is kind of burnt orange and the rose is pink. Sounds strange, but it's really pretty. In the middle is the "kitchen". The sink is down by the window and then there are cabinets back toward me. I'm not sure where the fridge will go...

Below is the bathroom. The tile on the walls is avocado green. There is one rod for the shower

curtain, but it seems like the window will conflict with the other rod and the curtain hangs. In Italy you're supposed to shower with the door closed and window open for mold/mildew prevention. If it looks cramped, that's because it is. The smallest rooms in the house are the kitchen and the nicer bathroom. Oh well. You've already seen the living room (it's on the first blog). The next pic is of the outside entry way and front door. Notice the fresco on the ceiling. The next photo is just the fresco above the front door. "So lover-ly".
This is one of the attic rooms, the other is just like it.

These are the views from our house. All are from the third floor. The first is looking out the back and the the left (south east-ish?). The photo to the right is standing on our Juliet balcony in the front looking right (north east?).

Last is looking to the left (north west?). The picture is actually zoomed in a bit on the church and the mountains are behind it.

Lastly, these are pictures of the lion knocker on my doors (awesome!), a rose in the garden, and the crazy star blooms on the mystery tree. (Just for you Grandma). :)

Italian towns

Italian towns (and I guess most European towns) are dominated by the church tower. In any given city you can see one or more rising high above the rooftops. Most churches are in the center of the city. All the towns have arrows that lead you to the square. The centro. This is by far my favorite part of the towns, proven by the fact that I feel the need to photograph every one I see. Each church is distinctly and uniquely beautiful. Most have clocktowers with bells that toll the hour. The bells may be at the church or sometimes at the government building. These are pictures of some of the churches in Slovenia.

I'm aware of how choppy this blog is. After spending way too much time trying to make it look cool, I've given up. There's just too many pictures and not enough words (for once). So it just looks wired.