Seeing that One-Legged Stool

The third leg of the vacation was to Coltura (and other places) to spend time with my nonno's family. Coltura is in the Trentino region and very different, with the Dolomites rising up around you. I love this place! Here are the pics...    

This is the second post for Lazise, with pictures and explanations. During this part of the trip we saw Lazise, Bardolino, Sirmione, and Verona. Belissima!  I mean, how cute are these two? Ada on the left, Rosetta in the center. Love them both! This was after our first meal in Lazise, lunch at Rosetta's house.  Mom brought a bunch of old photos Gma had and got Rosetta to identify a lot of the people. While this was happening Sarah and I cleaned up dinner, and very fast, because the Italians never let us clean! In Bardolino. It was really hard to get Rosetta to stand still and smile at the same time... this is one of the very few where she's doing both! It was a beatiful day and this is one of my favorite pictures. We had dinner all together at Christina's hotel. Christina made a bunch of different pizzas and we had German beer. Mom and Sarah in front of the arena in Verona. It's like the colusseum in Roma, but on a smaller scale and better preser...

On day five of the trip we woke up very early (but not early enough) to take a train from Milano Centrale to Peschiera del Garda, the closest stop to Lazise. We were running behind and we had the huge suitcases that were so heavy that I decided it would just be better to take a cab to the station. We went to the cab stand and I pressed the button but nothing happened for about 5 minutes and now I'm getting really worried because my mother is stressed and projecting that stress on Sarah and myself... and I'm not used to this stress level after 4 months in Italy! Anyways I then call the cab number and a cab shows up in 5 minutes and we make it to the station with 40 minutes to spare. Piece of cake! We take the train to Peschiera where Rosetta greets us with her grandson Luca and his friend Toni... and the waterworks begin! My mom is crying and then Rosetta is crying and then I'm crying... so typical. We then proceeded to have an amazing next four days with Rosetta! Here is a...

My mom and Sarah, my cousin, arrived on the 13th of April for a week and a half (during my spring break) for vacation and we had an AMAZING time. The vacation was divided into three parts: Milano (and Venezia), Lazise (and Bardolino and Verona), and Coltura (and Trento). These cities correspond with my living place, my grandma's family, and my nonno's family. In just 12 days we saw Milano, Venezia, Lazise, Verona, Bardolino, Sirmione, Ragoli, Coltura, Trento, Madonna di Campiglio, Ponte Arche, and Algone. PHEW! In my opinion, vacations with my mother are never really relaxing and this proved to be no exception. So, Milano and Venezia (Venice). I think it's easier to describe with pictures. With Ernesta, my grandma's cousin, and Ilaria, her niece. At breakfast one morning with our cappucci and brioche. Fish market we stumbled upon in Venice. So interesting! I had some questions so I found the oldest lady near me and she helped clear everything up. Tip #1 fro...

While I've been here I have had the amazing opportunity to go to La Scala twice! The first time was for an opera performance but it wasn't really a typical opera. This was a special performance by one man (a tenor, I believe?) who was invited to give this performance by the really important opera-world people, as I understand it. Kasia, my roommate who studies music/opera performance, said that to perform there is the ultimate recognition you can receive as a opera singer. Also, fun fact, this guy is AMERICAN! So it was just him and the pianist, which I was a little skeptical about at the beginning. I was afraid I would not be able to stay focused for however many hours this performance was about to be with only a piano, pianist and the singer. This fear was completely unwarranted, though, because the concert was absolutely amazing! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! We also had really good seats on the floor that were not that expensive (in my opinion) considering...

Folks, I've seen the one-legged stool! Or sort of. The problem is that the house fell in on itself 2 years ago, so I didn't actually "see" it! I was little upset about this when I first heard that you couldn't go inside but after putting the whole experience in perspective I've come up with this general conclusion. The stool was object to focus on, obviously. It embodied all the amazing places I had heard about for so many years and wanted to see for myself. The house where the stool was - I saw that and being there was simply amazing. As we drove to it I was just overwhelmed with thinking of my Nonno, walking this path in 1925 with his siblings and how different life must have been for them here. Seeing the house where my Nonno grew up was mind-boggling as well. Seeing the graves of my great-great-grandfather and mother made me speechless. I am beyond blessed that my family still keeps in touch with these relatives and I am able to see all these amazing thi...

This past saturday I went skiing with Davide and Keren in Madonna di Campiglio, where Andrea, Davide's brother, lives. It was amazing! The Dolomites are so much different from La Thiule, where we went skiing in February, which is in the "Alpi" on the Italian-French boarder. I would describe the Dolomiti as much more rigid and ragged but ridiculously beautiful. I loved being here because when you took a deep breath the air was so ridiculously refreshing! So much different than the smog of Milano. Here is  video of where we were when we stopped to get a bite to eat. 

This past weekend my friend Jen and I took a day trip to Lago di Como and the town of Como itself. No, I didn't see George Clooney! I have to say, I was not as impressed as I was expecting to be! Having spent so much time in towns on Lago di Garda, I was expecting something similar but Como just wasn't as picturesque in my opinion. However, a lot of people in my program have visited Como and absolutely loved it, so my opinion may not really be an accurate portrayal of the general sentiment. The highlight of the trip was definitely taking the ferry around part of the lake. Here is video!

On my second visit to Lazise Rosetta took me to Bardolino and Machesine, two towns north of where she and her children live on the eastern side of Lago di Garda. In Bardolino I visited the house where she grew up which is absolutely stunning. Her husband Giorgio did all of the interior wood work which is intricate and modern and original and is just amazing... the attention to detail is phenominal. She also took me to the Bardolino Cemetary and for this I was ridiculously excited. Odd to be excited for a cemetary, I know, but there I was able to VISIT THE GRAVE OF MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER AND MOTHER. WOW. DOUBLE WOW. DOUBLE RAINBOW WOW. Here is a picture of the stone with their pictures on it. It's a family grave so there are other pictures on here too of, for instance, Rosetta's brother. I know it's weird to post pictures of a headstone-like thing but it's for the aunts! For the Valetti Family. Ciao Nonno and Nonna x3! This is in Macesine, a town on the nor...

A couple of weeks ago we went on a day trip with the program to two different abbeys outside of Milan in the Lombardy region. The weather was pretty dismal and therefore the pictures aren't that stunning but I've put some below. Although I've been in Italy for a while now which may be causing my standards of "stunning" to be higher than they previously were... what a terrible side effect! Abby #1: The marble is starting to get yellow because it has a disease :(   Bellissima Abby #2  - Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this one either but this is where the ringing of bells during the consecration started which really blew me away. When I was little I "guest" altar served at a church near my house once for a wedding and they rung bells at this church, which I remembered because I went there when I was little and obviously this loud sound attracted my attention. So now I'm on that altar, older an...

This past Friday we had another student protest pass outside of our building where we take Italian class. It was mainly high school students who skipped class to protest... and blocked the street while they were at it. In the US isn't there rules about protests not being allowed to stop traffic? Here is is completely OK. As my Italian professor, Renata, described it, "How else will they be noticed if they don't stop traffic?" Here is a video I took with my blackberry of the first group of people walking down the street. After this there were even more people with floats, though much less impressive than the Rose Bowl or Macy's Parade floats that come to mind when you think of a "float." The passion that young people have here in regards to their sentiments, either for or against, the governement continues to amaze me and I really respect these kids for skipping school in order to march in a rally such as this one.

After having gone to Verona for an evening and then a day with friends, I returned to stay with my Grandma's cousin, Alba, and her family for another weekend. There was plenty left to do in Verona! It's just a 1.5 hr train ride from here and only about a 10 euro ticket - wonderful! Here are some pictures with explanations. This is where they put the debtors on public display... Federico and I On an old bridge, and so beautiful and clean compared to Milan!! View over the entire city - foggy because early in the morning! I've come to the conclusion that I really, really like Verona. Verona is to Milano as Pittsburgh is to Philadelphia  (these comparisons bring me back to the SATs and ACTs in high school...what are these things called again?). (UPDATE: I previously had "Italy" instead of "Philadelphia" at which everyone must have concluded that I got everyone one of these questions wrong on my SATS...) Verona is cleaner, smaller, more managea...