we celebrated joey's birthday for days...it was that kind of weekend. on saturday, you saw the post from joey but I'll give you just two more;). we hiked and explored and picked asparagus until we couldn't wipe the grin off our face.
it was a magical day:
on sunday, the actual day we headed up into the mountains for lunch at a a cheese farm way up at the top. our italian friends deemed it a family favorite: malgo di coda del bosco. the food was rich, heavy and cheese laden.
megan and greg joined us
after lunch the rest of the crew came over for cake and games outside
the guys played petanque, a game they learned together in france and haven't stopped talking about it since. i'm sure we'll introduce you before too long. it's a great yard game. (what am I saying, i've never played it...!! but the guys sure seem to like it!)
here's joey being goofy with his cake. our friend ben, next to joey, came straight over, immediately after getting off a flight from the US. crazy!!
i can't believe i sleep next to a 37 year old. it's weird.
the best part of joey's birthday, in my opinion, was this sweet letter from georgie, who wrote this days before his big day and stashed it safely in her room in a private drawer until she could give it to him (spelling errors included, so you can see how the Italian is effecting her;):
My Dad (star, heart)
My dad is the best. Wene my sister get's hurt he cams (calms) her down like magic. He never get's to mad (but sum tims he dos a litel bit)
I luve him like crazy. He is funny to, he dos scary things but today is the best day cuse (the e has a tag over it like in Italian;) it is his BIRTHDAY!!!
(heart) yor Georgie
p.s. You ar the best dad in the hol world if I had to choose any other dad's i wudent choose enie cus you are the best.
(A picture of she and Joey)
This letter brought them both to tears. He bent down and hugged her for 2 whole minutes, at least, and when they both stood up (so cute!!) they both had little wells of tears in their eyes. xoxoxoxox!!
Early spring is when the wild asparagus is in season around here. Last year Ashley had picked a few stalks but this year we decided to go all out. Right behind our house is a hill literally covered with wild asparagus bushes so we didn't have to go far. As an added bonus, we got to watch Yorba and Verna, Greg and Megan's dogs, as well as Ava, the McDowell's German Shepherd puppy.
Ava obviously thinks that Juliet is crazy. Georgie is holding a handful of the asparagus shoots. The small, dark green bushes in the background are wild asparagus.
So cute how much our kids love these dogs. After we dropped them off Isaac pouted in the car for a few minutes saying, "I want to keep those dogs!"
Here is a video of Georgie explaining the ins & outs of wild asparagus hunting:
As we continued to explore the hill behind our house we found a clearing with trees planted in neat rows and ground cover in between, including beautiful blue flowers that reminded us of Texas bluebells.
After coming down off the hill we crossed the highway and followed a dirt road up to the top of another hill where there is a large vineyard. The owners have a couple of bee boxes that the kids were very interested in. The bees flew all around us but were very calm and didn't seem threatening at all.
Here are the kids with Verna and Ava in front of the main part of the vineyard. Not sure if they are red or white wine grapes but the owners no longer make their own wine and instead sell the grapes to other wine makers.
We meandered back home to play fetch with the dogs and the girls decided to climb the pear tree. Juliet is very independent and gets upset when I try to help or spot her.
Georgie likes to show off just how high up she can get. This poor tree has a fungus growing on the bark, which you can see as white patches all over the place. Last year it produced over 250 pears but they were hard, inedible, and nearly every single one was infested with worms and bugs. Not sure what we need to do to turn this thing into a productive asset. Same with our apple tree. But I do have high hopes for our walnut and fig trees this year.
It was a fantastic afternoon. I really enjoyed the wild asparagus hunting and would like to have asparagus bushes as part of a productive food forest on our future property. We ended up with two colanders full and ate half of them for dinner. We'll have the rest tomorrow morning in some omelets and then share some with our guests tomorrow afternoon for a small party. Somebody around here is getting old.
In late March our great friends the Alcocer family came to visit. Nick and Tanya are both from Upstate New York ("Oop-state!") and we met them in Altus in the summer of 2011. They have five kids, all of whom came with them on this trip: Trinity, who turned 18 while here, Arianna 10, Andres 8, Alyska 5, and Athan 3. They drove the 25 hours from Altus to Baltimore, flew on the worse-than-coach-on-domestic-flights rotator both ways, then drove the same 25 hours in reverse back to the dust bowl. And Nick didn't commit even one homicide the whole time!
They stayed with the Jones family and went with them to Verona on Friday morning. We joined up in Verona later than night and then all headed to an Agriturismo near Lake Garda. Amazingly, breakfast in their rather fancy and glass-item-filled restaurant went quite well despite having six adults, a teenager, and eleven children between the ages of two and ten. We did get kicked off their brightly green lawn for committing the unforgivable sin of playing soccer on their grass and were directed instead to the concrete sports slab. Europeans are so bizarre.
That Saturday was all about Sirmione, a medieval island village that is at the north end of the peninsula that divides the southern portion of Lake Garda in half and makes it look like...well, you know.
The Italians get a huge kick out of the shape and the fact that Garda is the biggest lake in Italy. Although I think he's got a tumor on the left side, he should get that checked out.
Here is most of the crew: Nick, Juliet, Georgie, Samantha, Tanya, Aly, Ari, Athan, Isaac, Andres, Payton, Landon, Angela, and Jacqueline. This is the Sirmione castle that was built in 1277, exactly 700 years before I was born. The large vertical gaps in the wall above Nick's head are part of the drawbridge that separated the castle & island from the peninsula and mainland.
Inside the castle Jubie is showing off her core strength.
Here are Tann and Juliet with a modern reproduction of what the drawbridges looked like.
I can't quite remember what Georgie, Samantha, and Aly are going for here. Nice navel, Gigi.
The boys are very interested in all the sundry items that have fallen between the cracks: shoes, toys, trash, etc. Nice face, Isaac.
Georgie just hanging out on the mini pedestrian drawbridge support structure. Tann put her up there and I probably yelled at her to get down.
Here is Nick putting Jubie up to copy her sister. He really is a better dad than me.
But Andres took the cake with this daring climb up the chain.
We walked through the town, along the beach, and out to the end of the peninsula where there are ruins of a Roman villa and an olive orchard. We watched the Alcocer kids while Nick and Tanya toured the ruins. I entertained them by having them work on building olive wreaths.
Doing my best Caesar impression.
Tann tried to help me attach it together up front but to no avail.
We then had dinner outside at a great pizza place in the middle of town. The big kids sat together while I sat with the medium kids and entertained them with the silent game. Landon and Aly held out for about 15 minutes (!) until Aly final broke down crying to her mom, "I don't want to play the silent game anymore!" Landon was the champion. Juliet was out before the game began. That girl can talk.
The big kids loved having their own table. They told jokes and played games and were very well behaved.
We finished the evening off with gelato (of course) and then headed back home. At the Jones' house had a light evening snack of various Italian cheeses and balsamic vinegar garnishes. We established that Nick, Tann, and I cannot tell the difference between European and American Coke, but that Angela can tell the difference between expensive and cheap balsamic vinegar.
We have had several Altus reunions here in Italy now. The Joneses, the Keuhnes, the De La Torres, the Edstroms, and now the Alcocers. We are still waiting on the Alleys, the Bahrs, the Binghams, the Harters, the Lillys, the Mumfords, the Linders, the Dawoods, Ruth, and anyone else that would like to reminisce about Oklahoma while enjoying the magic of Italy.
Back in January, Juliet celebrated her half birthday!
She wanted to have Clara over for a tea party and requested Strawberry Shortcake for dessert.
Our Crazy Ju- B
Juliet is perfectly chubby, an excellent snuggler and absolutely genetically inclined toward a type A personality. This girl knows what she wants, has strong opinions on your life and how it affects her and will let you know what your doing does or doesn't work for her. When she sees something she wants...she makes it happen. I'm trying to admire it...;)
The novelty of school has worn off for Juliet. After we got over a 2 week hump of subtle complaints about going she's settled into the routine. Since Morocco she has stayed all day at school quite a few times. I have noticed a marked difference in her language. It's helped her. Some days she says, "Aww, I don't want to take a nap at school, " while the next day she says "Yes! I love to stay all day at school..." I started teaching Yoga on base to kids with ADHD (it's so fun!) so she has to stay all day on Thursdays now.
This girl loves sugar, candy cookies, hot chocolate, gum, yogurt and gum...oh yea and gum. Sometimes I have to tell her, "If you ask me for gum again I'm going to...never give you gum." She loves gum.
Juliet thinks she's 10 like Isaac almost is. She bosses Isaac and Georgie around like they are her subjects. She can be like that with friends too. Occasionally she gets in a baby mood and hangs on me, moans and grunts in vowel sounds and refuses to walk. But don't dare call her a "little" girl. That's a class A offense. She laughs a lot...which I love. She's still pooping in her pants from time to time...the little squig marks in her underwear. I've come to accept it but it makes Joey soooooo angry! It's the only thing she can do to piss him off (he is SUCH a softey with her..like whoa!) The other day she poooped in her pants and strolled into me, saying, "Mom," big teenager sigh, hand on her hip, "I pooped in my pants, " another big sigh, "I am sooo disappointed." As if it was out of her control. I couldn't help but laugh.
Last month was Isaac and Georgies' parent teacher conferences. Once again, rave reviews!
This is a picture of a picture that Georgie drew in class. The teachers both expressed how much they are so glad to have her in their classroom. She is always attentive, obedient and loves to learn. She excels in Math, shows improvement in Italian and is very artistic. She appears to be happy at school, never complains or cries anymore about social situations and has happily found her niche. She is a particular dresser, very creative and as long as she doesn't read this I can say that sometimes she looks a little crazy, even weird. But I try not to hover in their lives where I don't have to (because I do that so well in the areas that I do...I'm annoying, I'm pretty sure.) so I let it go. She has her own style and I am learning to embrace it.
I can't remember the phrase now..darnit..but Isaacs teacher kept referring to Isaac as "l'ultimo bambino" or something like that, which can't be right because that means the final boy, but then again, maybe it is. But what I gathered from her was that he is special. He is excelling in class and they enjoy having him. She told me that he needs to work on his temper, which ...we know, so we discussed this with him but despite that, the teacher can see his specialness.
The sun is rising and it's time for me to check out. It's Thursday mornings, and Joey and I do yoga together early on Thursdays! Yay! Buona Giornata to you!
The kids had three days off of school for Carnevale, the big holiday before the 40 days of Lent start. I took a couple of days off of work and we headed down south to have a real Italian experience. First stop was the home of San Francesco (AKA St. Francis, San Francisco): Assisi in Umbria.
The day was overcast and threatening rain constantly, but luckily it didn't rain much. Assisi is an old walled mountain city overlooking a large plain. Here are the kids sitting on the wall getting ready to start our adventure. On the drive down Ashley tried to tell them about San Francesco but kept hearing that "We already know that from our Catholic religion class!" The current Pope took the name of Francesco and came here last year to celebrate mass in his namesake's hometown.
This is the old Temple of Minerva in the main piazza (that used to be the Roman forum) that was converted into (surprise) a Catholic church.
This is the Basilica of San Francesco. He is entombed in the basement of the church.
This is the expanse of lawn in front of the basilica. The bushes form the latin word "pax", which means peace.
From Assisi we headed further south in Italy than we had ever been before and found our apartment in Sorrento, a lovely beach town south of the Bay of Naples. We woke up to a spectacular view of the town, the water, and Mount Vesuvius towering over the area.
Look at that thing! It is an active volcano and is way overdue for an eruption (last one was in 1944). They say that they can tell when it is about to erupt about two weeks ahead of time. Unfortunately, it would take much longer than that to evacuate the over three million people that live in the nearby area. Disaster waiting to happen. Did we learn nothing from Pompeii?
Speaking of which, here is Juliet at the entrance to the ruins of Pompeii, with Vesuvius ever-present in the background. We visited at the right time of year, with cool weather and occasional rain showers. In the summer this place can be crowded and scorching from what I've heard.
This is inside the basilica of Pompeii, which was their courthouse. It had been destroyed by an earthquake 17 years before the eruption and they were still in the process of rebuilding it when Vesuvio (as it is known around here) blew its top.
This is the Temple of Apollo, just across the street from the basilica. The statues and artwork are all replicas, as the originals have been moved to museums.
This is one of the reconstructed facades that faces the Forum Romanum in the center of town.
Here are Georgie and Isaac standing in the Forum with the Temple of Jupiter and Vesuvio in the background.
Another shot of the Temple of Jupiter as Ashley walks along the original forum marble flooring.
This is facing back the other direction in the Forum.
This is one of the public baths, the Terme Stabianae.
This is the palaestra, or gymnasium, with a swimming pool in the center. All of the canopy evergreens in the background are originally from Africa and the seeds came over either attached to the fur or in the stool of captured African animals that the Romans brought for exhibitions and public slaughter.
Isaac inside the large Roman amphitheater where the exhibitions, gladiator contests, public spectacles, and chariot races were held.
Here I am outside the amphitheater. Not as grand as the Colloseum, but still spectacular.
This is the large theatre where plays were performed.
Here is Georgie performing on the stage of the smaller theatre.
Back in the main forum, this is a reconstructed part of the row of columns that lined the forum with a Latin inscription carved into the marble.
Georgie, using her Italian background, is trying to interpret the Latin inscriptions.
The kids really enjoyed Pompeii, although they lost steam after a few hours. I could have stayed there for days.
Here is one of the famous plaster casts that were formed from human-shaped holes in the lava and ash layers. Some of the positions the people were found in are heartbreaking.
These bodies are located in the Macellum or market area right off of the main forum. Notice the frescoes on the walls and the position of the person's arm. He likely was shielding his face from the heat blast of 250 degrees that is thought to have killed the local population. The people were small, with about 5 feet being the average height of the bodies we saw.
More columns along the forum just outside the Macellum. The Italian word for butcher shop is "macelleria."
Inside the glass case is the plaster mold of a dog. All around are artifacts found in the homes and shops. The large pitchers on the right were for wine and some of them were found labeled "Vesuvinum", which a pun involving the words Vesuvius and vinum, Latin for wine.
Imagine this person's last moments just before the 250 degree blast wave. Wow.
Inside one of the thermal baths. This large marble structure was a fountain.
These mini-strongmen sculptures are holding up the ceiling of the men's dressing room in the bath house.
And this is the ceiling of the locker room. Obviously not a joint for the meek and humble citizens of Pompeii.
This is a food stand right across the street from the bath house and we saw many similar set ups all over the city. The vendors would build fires in the circular holes to keep the food dishes warm.
This is the entryway to the House of the Tragic Poet, one of the best preserved homes in the city. This mosaic flooring with the picture of a chained dog is inscribed with the words "Cave Canem", which you don't need me to translate for you. "Beware of Dog."
This is the inner courtyard of the home.
This is the dining room with frescoes of fake window scenes.
This is the inner courtyard looking out through the entryway. The square in the middle was for collecting rainwater.
This is the "Welcome" mat of the largest, grandest home in Pompeii, the House of the Faun. "Have" means "Hail" in Latin.
This is the portico entryway to the home.
The statue in the middle of the rainwater square (a replica of course) is the Faun that the house is named for. Where Georgie is standing is the homeowner's office area and beyond that the inner courtyard.
Another replica, but just look at this mosaic from the 1st century CE. It depicts a scene from the conquests of Alexander the Great. Look at the three dimensionality of the horse's rear in the center and the dead horse to the left. Pre-renaissance artists struggled for hundreds of years trying to achieve that effect, and there it was, buried beneath 25 meters of ash and lava for over a millennium.
The inner courtyard just beyond the Alexander the Great mosaic.
Isaac took this picture of a typical small street in Pompeii.
Ashley in her element: a mill and bakery. The large grindstones would have been turned by wooden poles through the center. On the left is one of the oldest Italian pizza ovens in existence.
How far did we walk in Pompeii? Far enough that Jubie's hand-me-down boots from Georgie that we bought at the Payless in Altus fell apart by the end of the day.
That evening we spent in Sorrento, the town near our apartment. It was an absolutely gorgeous evening. We fell in love with everything southern Italy that night.
The big kids taking in the view.
In the background is the Marina Grande, where the kids frolicked in the surf.
Vesuvius haunted our nights as well as our days.
The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and soaked more than one pair of shoes on this trip.
We finished up the night at a fantastic restaurant followed by some of the best mascarpone-flavored (kind of a cream cheese) gelato on earth. The restaurant staff were so friendly and typically Italian that it really crystallized the whole Italian experience for me in that one evening.
Now, the only reason the kids look bored is because they were exhausted from the long day at Pompeii. Earlier they were both playing their instruments enthusiastically, but I had to record the singing of the quintessential Neopolitan song, "O Sole Mio."
The next day was all about the Amalfi Coast. After an embarrassingly amateur navigation blunder, I finally got us to the town of Praiano where we parked and set off on a journey to find a beach.
This is in Praiano looking west back towards Positano.
Another shot of Praiano with it's brightly colored duomo.
This is looking east towards Amalfi, which is around the point seen on the right. The castle turret on the coast in the center is near where we found our secluded beach paradise.
Here it is. Notice how they have cut out a walkway underneath the cliffs that surround this little enclave.
The houses and shops are built right into the cliffs. The wall of the restaurant where we ate lunch was cliff face, full of dynamite hollows and jack hammer lines.
Absolutely jam-packed in the summer, but we had it to ourselves in early March.
On the beach was a small dingy that didn't seem to belong to anyone. But soon a fisherman emerged and rowed it out to his boat that was anchored in the small cove. He drove a hundred yards out to his net and started reeling it in, plunking the fish that came out into a bucket. Once he was done, his assistant brought the bucket back onto shore and gave us a peek inside. Small tuna-like fish and a decent sized octopus. Even though I was abhorred at the fate of that intelligent cephalopod, it was still a fascinating experience to see it up close.
This is a parting shot of our cove as I headed back to the car. Isaac cuts a solitary figure in the fading hours of afternoon sunlight. I was able to drive the van off the main road, which you can see heading into a tunnel above the cove, right down to a parking lot just above the beach. That saved some serious whining on what would have been a long walk back.
On that walk back I found this on the side of the road: a manger scene (presepe) built as a small scale model of the town of Praiano.
Our final stop of the evening was the town of Amalfi, which reminded me of a smaller, quieter, more third world version of Monaco.
It was still a gorgeous afternoon. Jubie had fallen asleep in the car so I took the big kids to (what else?) play in the surf.
More wet shoes.
Just a random shot of Amalfi that I thought too gorgeous to pass up.
The duomo and main square in Amalfi. Great gelato there as well, I recommend the Amalfi flavor, kind of an orange creme, from the Gelateria Artigenale just north of the square. Coming down that street that heads north out of town we ran into the local Carnevale parade, with tons of kids in costumes dancing to music blaring from a parade float of oversized Disney characters.
As the sun set and we prepared to drive back to Sorrento, Jubie felt the need to express her amazement at the combination of natural and man-made beauty around us.
The next morning was the last day of our trip and we packed up and headed towards the birthplace of pizza. The largest, most non-touristy. dirtiest, and most dangerous city on the Italian peninsula: Napoli! (Naples just sounds wrong.)
First stop: L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, founded in 1870 by the portly gentleman on the right, presumably Michele (pronounced "Mee-KEH-lay") The poem on the wall is written in Napolese-Italian and is an ode to the margherita pizza, which they claim to have perfected.
This is the entirety of their operation, right here. The older gentleman on the left rolls the dough and then adds the sauce, cheese, and oil. Only two types of pizza here: cheese or no cheese (marghertia and marinara). No toppings! This is the authentic Neopolitan pizza, people. The gents on the right bake and serve the pizzas. The picture of Julia Roberts by our table is from a scene in the presumably awful (I wouldn't know) movie "Eat, Pray, Love" when she ate at this pizzeria with her Italian friend Luca Spaghetti.
Here is Jubie with her "small" pizza, which she almost completely finished.
Here is Georgie's "medium" pizza, which she definitely finished.
Isaac went big: the "doppia mozzarella", the biggest one they have. And yes, he finished it!
Want proof? Here it is. Five clean plates. Our server was very proud.
We finished up by walking around the streets of Napoli and seeing the duomo. I was entranced by the authentic feel of the inner city, with small dirty streets jammed with small cars and southern Italians yelling at each other in a barely comprehensible version of Dante's language. We bought Isaac a cheap Napoli soccer jersey as well as an awesome scarf that says "FORZA NAPOLI!", which he promptly wore to school the next day.
I came back from this trip in love with southern Italy and anxious to head back. Kind of like how all our trips end. If only we could extend our European time a little bit longer...
