Italian Capers

Uncle Crunchy, Aunt D and Nanny have certainly done that. What a stroke of genius. I am so used to our new set up, that it doesn't even seem that ridiculous at this point! (I am still not sure what the neighbors think, but when did we start worrying about that anyway????) One of the major drawbacks of this place is the complete lack of yard. We longed for a sunny spot to play, snooze in the sun, etc. Look what they did! These are rolls of artificial turf that they found along with fabulous new lawn chairs- the kind in which you can lounge back and really enjoy your afternoon. It's awesome. We have since added a third tarp. Someone should probably stop us from covering the entire gravel parking lot! The kids play outside all the time now, and it's wonderful. One of the best things is that The Fonz doesn't think it's real grass : )

"All roads lead to Rome." I used to think that it was because the Roman Empire was so vast that you couldn't help but end up in the capital city. We have had more than our fair share of challenges in navigating our new country. Sometimes, the map fails us; but more often, it's the signs or lack thereof. There will be a sign and you will be lulled into a false sense of security. You will motor happily along only to realize, hours later, that you are nowhere near your destination. No, they have a point. If you make enough turns, you can get anywhere from anywhere-and you would know that if you had lived here for 100 years. The coup de grace is that there was actually a third sign. This sign also read "Aviano" and had an arrow pointing away from those two signs. I couldn't get all the signs on one pic. Magical.

Once upon a time, we were on a mission to a town called Nove. We knew it was Wednesday afternoon and therefore some stores might be closed. We knew that we didn't have the exact store names. We knew that it would be several hours' drive away. We were on a mission to find beautiful Italian pottery . Some of you may know that My Man is 1/2 Italian. His grandmother did a bit of painting in her time. Sure, she was Italian, and sure she was painting on ceramics, but that isn't exactly what we had in mind . She would buy the white ceramic pieces and then paint them...no we were looking for something more in the line of "art." So, we set off. Aunt D is our trusty navigator- always. It is very difficult to navigate here and she really does a wonderful job. Uncle Crusty was at the wheel- he also does a great job. It's not easy to "just drive" while all the other eyes in the car try and figure out which way to go. As he says, he knows he's in trouble whe