This weeks post is brought to you by the letter P for packing paper! Our household items were delivered yesterday and there are mounds and mounds of packing paper everywhere! Companies that are contracted out by the military to move service members are paid by the amount of packing paper they use…so naturally they use an entire forest amount of paper. We had at least seven sheets of paper wrapped around a light bulb. That crazy.
On Wednesday we had our items delivered from base that we loan for the entire three years we are here. Most homes don’t come with ranges, refrigerators, or closets, so the base loans us those items. The kitchens here are very tiny so we got a hutch, washer, dryer, microwave (which happens to be the size of a microwave from 1972), wardrobes, stove, transformers, and a fridge from base. Andys shipment of items from Korea also came on Wednesday as well.
Thursday morning was nice enough to have the windows and doors open while we waited for our big household items delivery. Houses in Italy do not have central air conditioning or heat so by noon when it was 95 degrees outside it was VERY hot in our house. Luckily though we have one small wall AC unit and we have shutters on our windows to block out the sun.
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| The view from our stairs and our balcony! |
So even though our household items were delivered yesterday, we took a break from unpacking and went on the Bienvenuti (Welcome) tour. This tour is put on my the Airman and Family Readiness Center here on base and takes you around town to different areas of interest. It was so cool!
Our first stop was at the bottom of the mountain. Here is an underground spring that goes 600 feet below the mountain and is a natural spring. There were divers that had gone down there but a couple of them died so they don’t allow it anymore. The pictures don’t do this place justice because the water gets bluer the deeper it gets and its so pretty.
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| Don’t mind me I look like butthole but Andy looks good haha! |
Our next stop was a place that made honey in the area. On the mountain there are tons of beehives and they make the honey in this town. We got to try some and it was really good!
Next our tour took us to the local market. Every week different areas around here have street markets like farmers markets back home. You can get everything from fresh fish, cheese, meat, clothing, produce, flowers and more. It was cool to see all the different items even if we were ‘solo guardando’ (just looking).
We did stop and have a bricohe (filled croissant) and a machiato (espresso with foamy milk). My bricohe was filled with chocolate (SO good!) and Andys was filled with lemon marmalade. Oh yeah…this all was 3.60 euro or about $4.50!
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| Church that was built in the 13th century! |
After the market, our tour took us to Pordenone (Pour-da-know-nay). This is the biggest city around the base and they have a bunch of shops. One of our stops was a local Catholic church (different from the church in the picture above). The inside was so beautiful! They were doing some restoration work to the inside and there was a man painting the walls. It was wonderful to see the craftsmanship that went into it and I’m sure it will take him a long time to paint it all! I also learned there is a Russian Orthodox church down the road from it as well so I may have to check that out sometime but we weren’t able to see it from our tour.
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| Man painting the walls doing restoration |
Next our group went into a chocolate shop and wow was it AMAZING! Andy and I shared a Panna Cotta and the group got to share some dark chocolate as well. Very good!
We got to ride the train next! While only a short 10 minute train ride, we got to experience buying our tickets, having to validate them before getting on the train and the whole process together. It was a very smooth ride and I can’t wait to take more train rides!
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Our ticket!  |
After the train ride we went to an amazing place for lunch! We had red and white wine, risotto, pasta with bacon, I had chicken and vegetables and Andy had salmon with vegetables, desserts, and a lemon sorbet with vodka drink. It was SO good but we were VERY full by the end!
Our last stop on the tour was to a local winery. We learned how wine is made, got to see the vineyard up close and even got to taste some amazing wine. We came home with three bottles of wine for 10 euro (about $12). What a GREAT deal if you ask me!
Well that was the highlight of our week! Next weeks post is going to be brought to you by the letter K for kill me because Im sick of unpacking! Expect lots of pictures of packing paper and random piles of stuff around our house because we have no storage options to put anything in. With no closest and about three kitchen cabinets, it will be hard finding a place for everything! See you next week!!
Wow, you are sure going to have lots of scrapbooking to do! Great pics of times that will be wonderful memories!! That's nice that they do a tour and teach you the ins & outs of living in the area. I suggest you look into USO tours (or something similar if they have it) and be sure to see Rome, Venice, Pisa, etc. while you're there. Time will fly!
Terri Brown
Sandy Toes & Inky Fingers
(fellow Stampin' Up demo)
Lady! I am sooooo jealous! Please, please, please – can I come visit? I know we only know each other through SU but you do have my chevron bag (well, it's yours now, but…) and we are connected via SU! I cannot wait to go to Europe!
Come fly over an visit ANYTIME! We can stamp in my craft room, look at the mountains and I will take you all over! I say DO IT! 🙂