La Bella Vita

Easter 2008.

Casey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:16:34 +0000

Ok, not a real bunch to say about Easter this year. Well except for the obvious that it’s a celebration of our Savior’s resurrection. We had 2 extra house guests, Gunnar and Bailey, some of our Godkids from Adam and Paula. They were on an African Safari. We just bought the kids a giant chocolate egg, had some typpe of toy in it. Then we went to the ball field to “hide” eggs. It was really just chucking them in the field and letting the kids race to get them. They did this a few times before they got bored.

Easter 2008

I took my kite with me, and flew it a while, dive bombing the kids with it. It’s totally soft, has no poles so it didn’t really hurt too much when one of the kids would actually get hit with it. It was fun though, they would throw Easter eggs at it as it flew down, and Luke was being such a clown, as it got close he’d pull his feet up, I guess you’d call it jumping, but fall down on his side or stomach. He made me laugh so hard. Anyway, it was a good day, and the kids had fun.

Rome

Casey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:06:54 +0000

Well we finally dumped the kids off with some friends, Adam and Paula of course, and jetted of to Rome for the weekend. It was a quick 50 minute plane ride up there. Once at the airport, we caught the Leonardo Express which is a non-stop train to Termini area of Rome. That was where our bed and breakfast was. The Metro system there was excellent and allowed easy and cheap transport around the city. Our friends from Naples, Nate and Shawnie met us there.

Rome

We metro’d around and went straight to the Colesseum. That was the first big thing that we saw, and Erin flipped out. Oh my gosh, wow, wow, do you see that…..for 10 minutes we heard that. We walked around the Colesseum, had been told my many people don’t bother going in. Then we walked around the Roman forum a bit, found a nice restaurant and got a bite to eat. Then we headed to Trevi Fountain. It was very crowded, and kind of spoiled by the salesman trying to sell you their junk or wilted roses. Erin absolutely loved the fountain at night, we probably stayed there a good hour just people watching. It was about 10:30 when we got home that night. Next morning we got up and out, headed to the Vatican, saw the square, walked it a bit, then headed to the Sistine Chapel which had an uber long line for, after a good 45 minutes or waiting and not moving hardly any, we called it, and headed to the Spanish Steps. They were ok, but not too impressive. We checked out Circus Maximus, where the chariot races happened, you know Ben Hur. It was less than impressive now, only a grass field with a dirt track around it to walk your dogs or bicycle. We ended the evening with a visit to the Capution Crypt, which was kind of weird. It had the bones of 4,000 monks decorating the walls. I mean creepy, they made designs out of the bones, like star shapes made from rib bones, crosses out of tibias. After a few minutes in there, I just felt ill, like I shouldn’t be breathing the air in there. We left. Nate and Shawnie had to get on the road to head home, so we went to a nice little restaurant near our hotel and then walked around the city a bit. The trip back to Catania in the morning was uneventful. Erin really liked Rome, in fact she’s already planning a return trip. I enjoyed myself and it was nice not having to worry about the kids.

Sledding on Etna

Casey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:10:55 +0000

Well Etna has had snow on her for some time now, we’ve been up near the snowline in Bronte to sled, but didn’t have much success. I’ve been wanting toavoind Etna Sud, the tourist area, since it would likely be crowded. Monday we had a perfect chance to go, it was an American holiday, but the Italians were working so we headed up ther. It was pretty much empty where we parked and were we sledded. The first place was great, it was only about 150 feet long, and you walked up the hill before yo sled, so when you got to the bottom, you were where you started, so you never had to walk back up a hill when you were done. They had a couple “tracks” where many many many people had sled down and created almost like a bobsled track, but it was all straight. One had a huge ramp at the bottom, but also a big hole, both the boys tried to go down it, and both of them didn’t like the bottom. Cutter actually got hit it backwards and knocked the wind out of him. Another American stopped by and told us the insane fast hill was around the bend, so we had to go check it out. I have to say it was insane. It was the side of the mountain, no grooming here, just raw, unadulterated snow as long as you could see, probably a drop of 300 feet in altitude across a half mile run or so. It was fast, I mean holy crap fast, it probably would have been much more enjoyable if they had some kind of pulley system or something to get back up the hill, and if it wasn’t ontop of lava rock. Hiking back up the mountain in the snow, carrying sleds, and a kid..not fun. It was also a bit tough to always be on the look out for the thin snow spots, where the lava rock showed through. Now they aren’t giant lava rock, but the small ones like you’d see in your gas grill or something. I’m happy to report we didn’t lose any skin, or even tear our clothes, Cutter and Luke sucessfully destroyed someones snow man and Piper doesn’t really like the snow yet, and when she’s rolling down a snowhill, she didn’t listen when I told her to spread her arms and legs out.
All and all we had a great time and can’t wait to go again, maybe this time with some friends.

-Casey

Carnivale

Casey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:54:57 +0000

So one of the big reasons to get together and party out here is for Carnivale. It’s like Mardi Gras, but without all the boobs. Each major area in Italy has one around the same time each year, we went to one if not the largest for the island. We here Venice is the largest. We went to the one in Acireale, about 30 minutes north of us. Ok so the basic premise behind Carnivale is people do everything from coming in street clothes to full blown victorian dresses. Most of the kids wear costumes, many adults too, but most people wear a mask of somekind and everyone throws confetti, and sillystring. And I mean everybody. 3 year-olds, and 80 year olds. We bought a huge 2 pound bag from the supermarket before we went, although they had bags for sale on the street. The Carnivale was about a 2 mile parade route in a big square where people walked and had fun, then at night the floats started to roll down the roads. They were huge, and most had pre-teen kids on them dancing like clubkids. The “goal” is to shoot silly string on the floats or throw confetti on them. People would throw confetti and silly string on eachother, we must have brought home more confetti in our clothes than we took.

We left the kids with a sitter here at the house, it was crazy crowded there, and after going we were glad the kids stayed behind. Plus most of the floats were rather spooky, in a creepy kind of way. Erin swears next year we will do the one in Venice. We’ll see I guess. It was fun. Anyway if you ever come for a visit in February timeframe, we’ll make sure we go.

Ciao`
Casey

Carnivale