What we've been doing

Lately, we spent a bunch of time in Pradipozzo. Luisa's dad had some minor surgery that got scheduled at the same time her brother arrived for a visit. He lives near Toronto, Canada; so we were called upon to take mom and dads place for few days. Of course we planned to visit with him and his family anyway so it was no problem. Just some extra work for Luisa mostly in the kitchen.

While there we hit some of the local stores, that are all having sales, Luisa scored some goodies at the Guess store and I also picked up a couple of things for the camper. It's hot and humid in that area so it's nice to be back in Belluno for a few days where it's much cooler, mostly on account of the weather being bad, lots of rain.

On the 4th of July while in Pradipozzo I did a pretty successful BBQ American style and we did an all family toast to the good ol USA. In fact of the 18 including kids that were there 7 are more or less Americans. I say more or less because 2 are naturalized citizens who don't live there now, two kids born to a US citizen Indian mother in Canada and an Italian father, my two with an Italian mom but born in the US. At any rate I tried to emphasize the American connection. In fact I am somewhat proud of my connection to the revolution that includes at least 4 of my ancestors who fought in it.

At The Sea in Krk

We spent 9 days on the island of Krk, Croatia. Most of the time was spent
laying in the sun or the shade. The kids loved playing with friends
and the water all day. For me it was a little boring but I did do a
good amount of swimming and even lost some weight on vacation. That's
a new one.

Our Plaza Project Comes Together

We started this project a few years ago with a sketch done for free at
the request of some local citizens who weren't happy with the design
that won a competition for a plaza in Pradipozzo a little village that
is part of Portogruarro. The final design is a lot different from
what we started with but the concept is the same. That is we wanted
to create a space that would actually be used by the local residents.
The well or pozzo in Italian was built many years ago and had to stay.
The big bench in the middle serves as a place to sit, a bandstand, or
maybe a place for kids to play. The trees will provide shade in the
summer and give the area a more human scale. The overall project
conisists also of revisions to traffic flow, and a new parking area
for the stores on the other side of the street.

Slazburg the Salt Mine Tour

We had a four day weekend so we took the camper up to Salzburg Austria. Here are a few pictures of the salt mine tour.

Gifts

Lately I've been thinking about the value of gifts. I like to get them, you may say doesn't everybody. I'm not sure. I don't know if everyone apprecitates the true significane of them. The reason I like them is not that I got something for free, well we usually give in return so they are not really free. What I like is that when I use the gift I remember the person that gave it to me. Here are some examples: A Swiss Army knife my son in law Uli gave me, it's great to take on hikes, even the hikes around Venice, two high quality knives we got for our wedding from friends we don't get to see much that I use everyday, an old wine opener I sort of inherited when Luisa's grandmother died, an electric drill from my father in law, a coffee cup that Callie gave me from a riding competition, the electric grill thing Erin gave us for Christmas one year. Those are just a few that come to mind, but in a life time there are so many more and each one connects us to the person that gave it. Isn't it great to put something on or in your hand and think about for a moment the person who gave it to you.

A Little Movie of the Party

Julia's Communion

We didn't take a camera to the church as they said they weren't
allowed. That's funny as I told Luisa before, this is Italy there
will be cameras and there were. Ya gotta love this country for that.
Anyway they had professional photographers there also so we will get
pictures.

It was a nice service, I felt very good seeing my littlest daughter
welcomed into communion with the church. I wish my older ones would
consider it. But that's another story. After the mass we had 24
adults and 14 kids packed into our little apartment. But it's wasn't
bad, most had to stand. The food was a combination of efforts between
me, Luisa, Luisa's mom and the super market's prepared foods. It all
turned out great and we had food left over so we know everyone had
enough.

We need work

Well we are doing ok, but the architecture business has pretty much dried up for now at least. When are things going to turn around?

Giovanni's Picture

Giovanni, he's 7, took this picture. He's a guy what else can I say.

Pictures from Mantova

Me cooking french fries

Ready to go see the castle

What is a Typsetter

A person I know from Facebook and before that Expats in Italy says she is a typsetter. My uncle Karl was a typsetter. He took me to the newspaper one night where he worked. This was when I was a kid, too many years ago. He sat in front of a big machine with a typwriter keyboard attached to it. As I remember he would retype the reporters pieces and the machine would take melted lead and produce type that was then set into big sheets of type. They would then be put into the press to print the paper. Another part of his job was setting photos, ads etc. that had been produced also in lead onto the sheets. In other words he also composed the sheets.

Since everything today is done with the computer I wonder what does a typsetter actually do. Typsetter can you tell me. I imagine it's mostly about composing sheets.

The Great Deoderant Scam

I've been a faithful user of deodorant for how long? Since I was maybe 13. Problem is that I am a bit allergic to the stuff that really works. After a few days of using it I start to itch under the arms and if I stop using it the itching goes on for a couple of days. And besides that I still don't smell that good at the end of the day, even though I shower everyday.

I usually swim in the local community pool a couple times a week and shower at the pool where I don't have access to my deodorant. What I noticed was that I don't have that dreadful body odor they scare us about in the TV commercials for the next day. So I began to wonder why. I reasoned that it's the chlorine in the water that makes me smell like the pool but at the same time must me killing all the odor causing bacteria. I'm sure you know that when you sweat the sweat doesn't initially smell bad. It takes a little time for those little germs to produce and I guess reproduce.

Thinking about the fact that plan old rubbing alcohol kills some 99% of all germs/bacteria (fill a little bottle with it and use it instead of that hand sanitizer stuff which is just alcohol combined with some jell) I decided to try splashing a little under the arms after my shower. Guess what no more smell, works in fact much better than the deodorant and the cost is next to nothing.

I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who shaves under the arms but they might try some other medical disinfectant such as what they sell here called Lyso Form. And of course the alcohol won't stop one from sweating. But maybe if you aren't worried about smelling bad you won't sweat so much.

"Mayo Clinic Housecall

Definition

Most people sweat when they exercise or exert themselves, are in a hot environment, or are nervous, anxious, or under stress. This type of sweating is both natural and healthy.

Sweating is usually only a minor nuisance. The odor is probably more troublesome. Although perspiration is practically odorless, perspiration can sometimes cause an unpleasant smell when it comes into contact with bacteria on your skin."

I suppose there could be some downside to destroying the natural bacteria on part of your skin, but I'm thinking it can't be worse that putting those other chemicals on it on a daily basis.

What is interesting?

My traffic has dropped off a lot lately. I suppose it's partly because I don't post everyday. But maybe also that the economy has people not thinking that much about traveling to Italy. Or maybe it's that I have mostly just been posting pictures. Anyway I think I'm going to try writing about stuff that's on my mind and posting less pictures.

Earthquakes in Italy part 3

Other than un-reinforced masonry buildings the most potentially dangerous are those built up on posts with little or nothing between the posts. Try standing a pencil on end, what happens, it falls down. Now if we take our little model, even the one with the tape on it and put some posts under it we would have a hard time making it stand up. If we taped or glued the posts to the model it would probably stand up under normal conditions, but if we again moved the cardboard base back and forth some of the connections of the top of the posts to the model would start to give way and the model would eventually fall down. If it were a real building everything and everyone below it would be crushed.

By trying to understand how we could make the posts below the model strong enough to resist the horizontal forces breaking the connection between them and the bottom of the model we get into the real meat of the problem of making buildings earthquake resistent. In an earthquake the earth is moving horizontally under the building. The weight of the building or it's mass makes the building want to stay where it is. Since the earth is much stronger than the opposing mass of the building, we know that the earth will move. The bottom of the building is connected to the earth so it moves too. What we would like is for the rest of the building to move at the same time as the part connected to the earth.

In our model example that isn't happening. So how can we make it happen? One way is to make the connection between the top and bottom of the posts strong enough to not come apart when the earth moves. These are called moment resisting connections, remember moments from physics class, they would involve steel frames, steel rienforcing in concrete columns and such things as steel plates in wood columns. Another way is to add some shear walls to the posts. Picture this, take a pencil, cut two pieces of cardbord the same height as the pencil about 5cm wide. tape them to the pencil and now the pencil stands up. But if you push on it at the top it will still fall down. However, if you tape the cardbord ''shear walls'' to the carboard base it will take much more force to push it over.

The same thing that causes the failure of the connection between the posts and the floors they support happens between walls and floors. And thus we get into all the technical apects, hold downs, shear walls, moment resisting connections, floor and roof diaphrams, etc. To make it all more complicated we have old buildings designed before much was know about earthquake forces. Retrofitting these old buildings is too much to get into here. The main point being that it's a costly business, but not impossible. Many Italian engineers are quite capable of designing reftrofits if given the chance and they are capable of designing new buildings to withstand earthquakes. It will be interesting to see if the failure of some relatively new structures in the recent earthquake was due to poor design or poor construction.

Next time I'll talk about what to do in an earthquake, and what you can do to minimize your risk.

More Venice & the Beach at Jesolo

Earthquakes in Italy part 2

Last time I give an idea of how earthquakes can cause problems with old buildings. Now I want to say a little about how we prevent the damage. It is a very complicated subject, but I just want to give you a feeling for it. Lets say we take our little building of blocks and this time put a vertical row of transparent tape down both sides of each row of blocks. We should also put a couple horizontal rows. Now if we shake the cardboard base the blocks will stay together until the force applied becomes really strong. The tape seems much weaker than the blocks, but it is much stronger in tension than the weak joints between them (in this case only weight holds them together without the tape). The thing is that masonry and concrete are very weak in tension, even though strong in compression and the joints between masonry units are even weaker. So we see in modern buildings steel is used to provide the tensile strength masonry and concrete lack. We have to also apply the same logic when attaching the floors and roof. We can just sit the floor on top of the walls which is fine for the vertical forces but as soon as we move the building horizontally as in an earthquake the floor might just slide right off.

You probably noticed if you built the model that even though the model did not fall down it slid around a bit. In a way this is good as the building is still intact, in fact some high rise buildings are designed to sit on a kind of rubber cushion that allows for a small amount of horizontal movement. But in most cases we don't want our buildings sliding around. So steel is again used to tie the building to the concrete foundation.

After the Northridge, California earthquake a few years ago I did some inspections for FEMA of damaged homes. It was interesting to see how some had slid sideways on their foundations, as they had not been properly tied down to the foundation.

Next time, buildings with lots of windows, or built up on posts over open spaces, shear walls and moment resisting connections.

Earthquakes in Italy

Italy is a country where earthquakes are a constant threat. The main problem is that the old buildings have very little resistance to them. If you want to understand what happens in an earthquake try this. Take a piece of cardboard and build a little house of blocks just staked one on top of the other on the cardboard. Now grab an edge of the cardboard and pull it back and forth horizontally. As you move the cardboard the blocks will start to separate and eventually fall down. This is basically the way the old Italian buildings, and buildings in many other countries are built. They are made of stones or masonry blocks/bricks just stacked up and held lightly together with cement mortar.

Earthquakes generally move the earth horizontally, with some vertical movement as well. If you imagine the house of blocks model several floors tall with heavy concrete slabs for floors and a heavy roof on top you can imagine what happens. The inertia of the mass of the floors and roofs make them want to stay where they are. The earth moves under them and the walls start to separate and or tilt. Then they can't support the mass above and the whole thing comes falling down.

More on this to follow.

Venice Italy

Another side of Venice.

ANDREA BRUSTOLON & A Big Party

Andrea Brustolon, born in 1662 was an exceptional artist of Italian Baroque wood art. Luisa's family owns a preliminary study in clay of one of the large pieces he did for one of the churches here in Belluno. The city has put together an exhibition of his work and their piece is in the exhibition, so we were invited as "important" guests for the opening ceremony. It was fairly booring, but the exhibtion is great and after the opening the city put on a big party for the whole community. There was free food, wine, and desert that never seemed to run out along with good music from two bands. I was pretty impressed, had a good time, ate too much, and drank too much.

You can check out the details at www.brustolon.it There is a section in English.

MISSING LINKS

I tried to remove some links and the system somehow removed all of my links. So if anyone knows how to fix this let me know. Otherwise if you are checking to see if your link is still there tell me what it is and I will put it back.

Pecol

Our last trip was to Pecol where we have been before, it's just around an hour from home in the motor home. Many of the old barn like buildings have been or are being restored and it's turning into a very nice second home/tourist village.

Ski School Party

Ski school is finished and they had a little race which Julia joined reluctantly and Giovanni eagerly. Then there was a little party outdoors.

No Title

Those little things off the tree that spin like heliocopters dropped from the upper window.

Sunday's Walk

Sunday Luisa's cousin and family came for lunch. Afterwards we took a
walk down by the river and then into town.

Avalanche in Belluno

This happened in the hills above Belluno some time ago. We made it up
there to see it a week ago. It's amazing the damage it caused.

Birthday Dinner for Luisa

Yesterday was Luisa's birthday, so I made a dinner that tuned out pretty well. 

First course, mixed green salad with home made honey mustard dressing.

Second course shrimp sauteed in butter with garlic, onions and parsley.  Deep fried new potatoes on the side.

Final course shrimp risotto.

For desert those delicous little pastries so common in Italy.

The wine was a 2007 Vernaccia from a little winery near San Gimignano.

I wasn't that happy about combining two starches nor doing shrimp for both couses, but we were gone all day to a job site in another city and I had to work with what I had.  Served as courses, that is one after the other not all on the table at the same time, it worked out.

Tonight we are having some guests for dinner I'm going to cook Swiss Steak which I've found is a good way to serve those tough cuts of beef we find here. 

How do you make shrip risotto in around 15 minutes.  First of all you need a pressure cooker then:

Half a cup of choped leeks

2 tbls powdered bullion

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

3/4 cup white wine

Olive oil

2 tbls butter

As many shrimp as you like depending on the size and your taste

1/4 cup Parsley chopped

Sautee the leeks in olive oil in the pressure cooker

add the rice

then add the wine and stir it all up

when the wine is mostly evaporated add 3 cups water

Then add the bullion

let the whole mixture come to a boil and stir it up 

Finally add the shrimp and the parsley

Close the pressure cooker and wait for it to start steaming then set a timer for 8 minutes and put it on a very low flame.  When the timer goes off let the steam out of the pressure cooker then when it's safe to open it up stir in the butter and if you like a bit more of the fresh parsley.   Serve it on plates by itself, along with a nice moderately dry white wine.

Skiing and Camping La Villa

We spent four days camping at La Villa which is near Corvara and
connects to several ski areas. On the second day we did the Sella
Ronda tour which takes one around the mountain range shown in some of
the photos. The kids did it all no problem.

Some pictures of the Camper

Ski Trip to Pecol

Here is the camper parked during the day. After 5:00 there was no one in the parking lot. Actually the property belongs to a neighbor who also owns the house in the picture. He let us know we could park there. It's not really a parking lot but get used like one.
The view from one of the ski runs.
The view from our parking spot.
Julia ready to take off.

Snow Sculpture

We went up to Pecol in the camper, which is about an hour and a half from here in the camper, less in the car. Saturday evening and Sunday Julia and Giovanni made this little sculpter. The sad thing is they made it too close to the ski run and some jerk cut it all down with a ski pole. So I guess it was a kind of art happening something in which the action is part of the art.

Spring

Today I'm getting what is probably a false hope that Spring is just around the corner.  It has been sunny all day and almost warm, well anything higher than 5C seems warm now.   But also it's staying light later, which adds to the feeling.  I'm not so much in a hurry for Winter to end as I'm tired of the cold.  The end of Winter also means the end of skiing which I don't look forward to. 

I do actually enjoy the change of seasons.  Living in so Cal for so many years I always thought it would be hard to live where the Winters are so cold.  But the wonderful thing is that the seasons change, it doesn't last forever.   Then we have a real Spring followed by a real Summer etc.  

Raising my youngest kids bilingualy

When we lived in California Luisa always spoke Italian to them and I spoke English.  So when we moved to Italy Julia the oldest had a fairly easy time transitioning to Italian and her English is still pretty good.  She is now 9 and doesn't really have any problem speaking either language, though she has gotten a bit of an Italian accent.  Giovanni, had a harder time moving over into Italian.  He was not quite four.  At the preschool he only spoke English for the first couple of months and then more or less suddenly made the switch to Italian.  Now he is much more comfortable speaking Italian than English.  And he is a little resistent to speaking English, but since I mostly speak it to him he is keeping it up though at a slower pace than he might.  With him it may be a constent struggle, we will see.   We are not about to let it go.  They both must be fluent in English as well as Italian.  In the next couple of years we will have to decide on a third language.  Not sure what that will be. I suppose the choices are French, German or maybe Chinese. 

Ski Trip San Martino di Castrozza

We had a nice weekend trip. On Saturday we met some friends from Belluno who have an apartment in San Martino. We ended up skiing with about 15 people in total. That made for a fun time and an unusual one for me.

On Sunday it snowed, the kids were cozy inside the camper in spite of the weather outside. I just went skiing for a couple of hours by myself. I couldn't drag the rest of them into the bad weather. But then Julia and Giovanni played outside in the snow the whole time I was gone.

Ski Weekend

We are off this weekend for a skiing in the camper.  First the kids will go to their ski lesson today and then we leave.  I'll take some pictures as we are going to a place we haven't been before.

Ignoring the Blog

I've been ignoring it lately, no good reason, just seems to be other things to do.  It's been cold here in Belluno, must be Winter.  And we had some snow on the ground for a while, but it's all been washed away by lots of rain.  There is still plenty on the mountains around us.  We have been skiing a fair amount.  I went with a couple of male friends on Tuesday, really skied hard all day in some fresh snow.  I kept up with them inspite of that fact that they were both 20 years younger, but I will admit to being very tired by the end of the day.  A virus has had it's way with Luisa and the kids but so far I've avoided it.  

This weekend we intend to take off in the camper for a couple of days of skiing.

Ski Camping

Here are a couple of pictures of our first trip skiing and camping in the camper. It was a great place to park except that the last night we got a ticket for parking there. Too bad as it's got direct access to the ski lifts, a cross country ski area and an area for sleding. There is a campground across the street that charges 36.5 euro per night which is a big rip off, since the so called camp area is nothing more than a smaller parking area.

Number 5

I think I'll start calling them by number, just kidding this is Tabatha.

Erin, Uli, Davis, Isabel

Christmas 2008

Racism in America

Even though we have now elected our first black (well half black)president racism seems alive and well. In the past week for example I've gotten two emails as a point of reference. One was in my junk mail box, a long tirade about how they are filling laws suites in every state to get Obama to prove he is really a US citizen, this from a so called conservative group. The other most disturbing was one from I'm sorry to say a close relative that is being passed around the internet that shows the Sara Palin imitators next to pictures of her and then shows Obama next to Alfred E. Neuman the Mad Magazine character and his wife next to a monkey.

It's been a few days since I got these but I can't stop thinking about them. It's also interesting to note that last night an Italian friend asked me if I was surprised that people actually voted for Obama. The fear around the World being that racist Americans might say one thing to the poll takers and do another in the privacy of the voting both. Well I guess the suprise and the good thing is that a majority didn't.

Our Yard in Winter

I wish I could say it still looked like this, but the rain in the last
few days has washed it all away.

Steak Florentine

We've had a deadline for work lately so I have to do some catching up. On November 10th we took the camper to Tuscany and stayed at an agriturismo for two nights. They let us park there even though they are not supposed to. Only guests in their rooms and bus loads of tourists are allowed to eat there. But we had stayed there on our honeymoon ten years ago so they made an exception. The first night we ate the big and long dinner all the food is produced on their farm. The second night we bought the famous steaks that they produce and they grilled them for us so we could eat them in the camper. The shock came we went to leave and had to pay for them, we had made an error in what we thought they would cost. But they were good.

Navigating in the Camper

When traveling in the camper we always seem to be a bit lost even with
the gps navigator so I made this little "table" so that I can use the
lap top and have a much bigger map to look at. I have a small gps
receiver that plugs into my laptop. Originally it's main purpose was
for flying. It works with a pda and a special program for flying, but
it also works just fine with Microsoft Auto Route.

This also serves as a work station, for email and even potentially real work. The kids have also found it usefull for playing games etc. out of the way of cooking and such.

A Campsite in Lucca

Il Serchio,

As an architect I just can’t resist writing about this. This last Monday night we stayed at Il Serchio a camper site in Lucca Italy. At first glance the concept of the place seems great and it looks new and clean. It’s dedicated to campers, has electrical and water hookups at each site, free wifi internet, showers, laundry and dumping station. The price is very reasonable at 18 euro per night and it’s pretty close to the old town center. We rode our bikes into town the first afternoon then the next morning took a nice bike ride along the river bank just up a little hill from the camp.

But it’s one of the best examples of poor design I’ve seen in a while. It’s probably one of those cases where the owner’s didn’t think the services of a good designer was worth the cost of hiring one. The parking spaces for the campers are too short being more the size for a car so the camper sticks out into the road/drive area, it’s a big wide gravel drive with tiny short green spaces for the campers. They put the baths at the farthest corner rather than centrally located, the internet connection is intermittent, goes off and on, and can really only be accessed if one parks closet to the entry. The showers seem like they were designed by someone who never took a shower in a camp of any kind. They are directly across from the toilets, there is no dressing area or place to put ones clothes, turn on the shower and water sprays out into the hall area as the heads are fixed and there is no door just a curtain half of which were torn. The water stays on for something like 30 seconds then has to be started again. It was dark when my son and I went to take a shower and the lights also on timers went off 3 times causing me to have to go into the sink area naked, wet and cold to turn them back on, of course this area was also exposed to the outside through large uncovered windows. Finally, they have a nice dump area for grey and black water. But it’s right in front of the entry to the men’s bath area. In fact the black dump tank (that’s the stuff from the toilet) is right on the walk to the bath so one has to walk across the area where people dump their toilets on the way to take a shower.

As I said above the concept is great, a simple campsite dedicated to the needs of campers/motor homes, with just the things they need and nothing more at a good price in a good location. It’s just too bad it couldn’t have been designed properly.

Thank You Fellow Americans

Yesterday you restored my faith in my country. It's been really difficult watching what has happened to the US over the last 8 years especially for the 3 that I have been in Italy. I don't think most Americans even those who saved us yesterday really understand how much we have been looked down upon, how much we are feared, and how much we are disliked even hated by the rest of the world. Nor do they realize how important the world's opinion of the US is to the country and it's people. We really do live in a global society and economy and it is really important that we be a good member of that society, a good citizen. The Bush idea that you are either with us or against us just doesn't work in today's world.

I just hope that the damage done by the Bush years is not so overwhelming that it can not be overcome.

Our Next Project

Who did you vote for Daddy

At the age of 9 kids can some times surprise you at how thoughtful they can be. Julia asked us that question this morning and then she wanted to know why we chose one over the other. Part of our answer was that under Obama we hoped there will be fewer wars. So she asked what work those soldiers will do if there is no war.

Day of the Dead

We made the visit to the cemetery yesterday where Luisa's Grandparents are entombed and many of her other ancestors on her mom's side. It was interesting that the whole place was just full of flowers, very beautiful in fact. It seems to be such a nice way to remember those who have passed on.

A Walk Near Home

Economics and the US Election

Maybe being far away from the US one gets a better view of the overall situation. The last eight years have been nothing less than a tragedy for the US. Now we are in the midst of the worst economic meltdown since the great depression. Do I blame Bush for all of this, yes I do, if for no other reason than he was so easily minipulated by a bunch of self serving wrong headed people. And also that he was just never qualified for the job, and that he seems to lack even a most basic sense of morality. He calls himself a christian, but what would Jesus have thought about the wasted lives of over 4,000 Americans, and up to a million deaths in Iraq.

Now it seems we have hope that a man intelligent and thoughtfull enough for the job may get elected. That man is of course Obama. If it goes the other way, then we can only hope that McCain lives long enough to finish his term, he probably won't be as bad as Bush, but I don't see him making any changes in the wrong directions we have gone these last eight years. But if for some reason Palin has to take over, well sorry if this insults a group of women who work hard, but that would be like having the local grocery clerk with an exaggerated ego take over the most important political job in the World.

I doubt Obama has a magic solution to our economic problems, but I'm guessing at this point that there will be such a dramatic shift in the opinon of the US by the rest of the World that things will turn around quickly. It's kind about consumer confidence on steroids. I am hopeful that the US can regain it's position in the World as a fare and just nation, not one that invades other countries causing death, dislocation, and distruction just because it wants to. And I am hopeful that the American people will break away from the control over them that has been excercised by those who use fear as their favorite tool.

Halloween 2

The party was to be over at 9:45 so that's when I arrived, but it was still going strong. It gave me a chance to see what they were doing. I was impressed. Of course at the beginning of the evening they had to learn about the reason for the day and the celebration of the saints. The part I saw was all fun. It was well organized and pretty much run by a group of teenagers who were on stage directing the fun. The kids were in two groups dancing and singing. It was kind of a contest to see which group had the most energy. I really got a good feeling watching them.

There is something about the simplicity and wholesomeness of the kids here at the church at least. It's hard to explain but I see it. These kids don't seem to have that since of alienation one sees so much in the US.

It's not to say that there aren't problems here. Belluno has a problem with young kids using alcohol and drugs. My goal with my kids will be to keep a close watch over them not giving them too much freedom but at the same time not restricting their growth, it's not easy. But I have experience, my three older daughters tuned out very well.

Our Church Project

You can read about our church project in Oceanside HERE, not a great write up but at least they mention "an architect has been hired". Well yeah a few years ago.

Halloween

Halloween, pretty much doesn't exist here in Italy. The church looks down on it. In fact our kids just left for a sort of anti halloween party at the church. At least they will have some fun. Frankly I don't see the problem, in fact in Switzerland which sometimes seems more catholic than Italy they seem to make a big deal out of it. Oh well. At least we don't have to spend a bunch of money of expensive costumes.

The Bush Presidency

If you still think that anything good has come of the Bush presidency read this http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=13624

It's a pretty good summary of the failures.

Fall 2008

The Fall colors are not that intense this year not yet anyway. It
probably hasn't been cold enough. We took a nice walk this afternoon
with some friends in an area about 15 minutes from here.

Who to vote for

Here is an article worth reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html?em

Around Gruppo Sella

Just another day in the Dolomites

Blogging and Camping

Well I did get a couple of nice comments on my bloq question. I like the idea of being thought provoking. Sometimes I wonder how much I should say here about how I feel about things. I think I should say more.

We made a tour this weekend to check out possible places to park during the ski season. It was a bit disappointing. Seems so many places have signs saying no campers. I'm not sure if they can ban them or not as in Italy a camper is considered just like a car as far as parking goes. And you are not camping unless you have stuff outside the perimeter of your car/camper. So I have to do some research. The camp grounds are few and pretty expensive. And we don't need them for a two night stay. We are totally self contained for at least that long. Why would I want to pay around 40 euro just have a place to park. I think the problem is that people in campers don't spend much in the local areas. So hotel owners restaurants, and locals just don't like them.

Anyway it's a beautiful time of year here. Lots of Fall colors and today was full of sunshine. I will post some pictures.

The Blog

I haven't posted much lately, not sure why. Maybe because I don't get much feed back. It's too much of a one way street. Also I'm wondering what is of interest to people and I'm also thinking that interest in Italy has dropped off a bit. What with the dollar so low and all the economic problems who can afford to come here. Anyway if anyone has any suggestions as to what they would like to see here let me know.

Julia's Birthday Party

We had the party mostly out in the yard. Lisa prepared a treasure
hunt for the kids. It rained off and on and finally drove us inside
to have the cake and open presents.

Our New Motorhome

Well actually it's human powered, but it has everything, seating, a
bed, table, pictures on the wall.

Seasonal Stores

Just a note, I still haven't gotten used to everything changing with the seasons. I was in the local version of Home Depot today, it's about 1/10 the size. It was all full of things for the fire place. As each season changes so do the stores, and if one doesn't buy the seasonal things at the beginning of the season they will all be gone.

Reality of an Expat

You come to Italy as tourist and fall in love with the narrow streets, lined with ancient buildings full of rich texture and color you think that the clothes hanging from balconies are cute and add to the depth of the visual impact. You love the country side with it's rolling hills, vineyards and century old farm houses. And there is the sun with it's amber hue and the museums which hold 80% of the worlds art, the stores with the lastest fashions, the old churches and the opera.
Then you decide to leave your nice home in the subburbs of the US with it's wide yard, 3 car garage, big stores, lots of parking, great restaurants from all over the world and move to Italy. Where you find the reality of a country half run by the mafia and the other half by old and only self serving politicians. You see that the reason poeople hang their clothes on the balconies or out the window is that their apartments are tiny and they can't afford the energy for a clothes dryer like the one you left back home. On the streets and in the shops you find people just trying to survive in the rat race of a city overcrowded and polluted. You find people rude and crowding in lines, clerks in stores barely surving on an income that forces them to live with their parents are unhappy and unfriendly. You moved to the big cities because that's where you find more people like yourself and that's where you were most impressed by the famous tourist attractions. But living their you suffer from the reality of a city overcrowded and full of those Italians you thought were so friendly in the tourist places but turn out to be just normal people trying to survive. Cars are parked on sidewalks due to the lack of parking and the inability to create it in cities built back when people only walked or rode horses. You find people suffering from lack of work and low wages pitted against a high cost of living. You say I made the decision to move here so I'm going to adapt and make it work but after months or even years of trying you just have to admit that you can't do it.
Well that is the reality of Italy for many, maybe even most expats but not all. It really depends on your situation, where you live and what income and family you have. I'm happy to be living in a realitively small town in a nice home. I don't have any major complaints. Most people here stay in line and the other day as is typical I stood in a line with just three items with people ahead of me having tons of stuff to buy, they asked me if I wanted to move ahead.

Fall

Seems like fall is coming early this year. School here just started on Monday, and this morning it was 6 degrees C. That's pretty chilly.

School Starts

Julia takes a picture for school and Giovanni loses his first tooth.

Wildcamping

Camping outside of an organized campground. It's not that wild but
that is what the English call it. Here are some of the spots we
camped at during our trip though Italy, Switzerland, France and back
through Germany. Sometimes it mostly a big parking lot others along
side a river. In Germany we couldn't find a spot we spent the night
in the parking lot of a church. One night in Italy we asked the owner
of a small bar if we could stay the night in his parking lot, he said
why not. The kids get out there scotters and have fun wherevere they
are.

Paris

Random pictures without comment.

Summer is ending

We have had a long Summer vacation with the kids being out of school over 3 months. A week from today they start back to school. The kids haven't been bored, they seem to always find something to do and we have kept them busy with our trips in the camper a bit of day camp and some swimming lessons. I suppose they are ready to start back. It will be good to have them busy again with school, but I hate being tied to the clock. I'm a bit spoiled having my office in my home means we don't usaully have to stick to a schedule, but with school we do. The alarm will start going off again next Monday.

The big dilema now is what extra programs to put them in. Julia has been studying dance the last few years but she is not that excited about it. She will also try volley ball this year and I will insist they both do skiing lessons. After this year they will both be good enough in skiing to just take the occasional lesson unless they want to get more serious about it. Giaovanni, we are not sure what to do with him, swimming maybe and what else we are not sure.

Coast of Normandy

Back in Town

We are back from our trip in the camper. We were gone 16 days, the time went by pretty fast. I will post some pictures in the next few days, have to sort through around 800 to find the few to post. The trip took us to Switzerland to visit Erin and family for three nights, then to Paris for three nights, and ending up on the coast of Normandy. All along the way we spent about half a day driving so we made several stops. The only time we stayed in a paid camp ground was in Paris. All I can say about the Paris camp is that is was expensive and run down but convienent to the bus and underground. Paris is beautiful, I'm not just saying that because everyone thinks it is. It is beautiful, very clean as well. But also totally full of tourists.

Most of the time we were gone the weather was marginal, our last day in Paris is rained off and on all day. The surprise was returning to Belluno where the weather here today is perfect.

The US Army Team

Here is the team from the US Army. They are stationed in the US here
on the way back from a tour. It's all women and one man.

World Champion Parachuting Competition

It's in Belluno this weekend 8-8-08.

One Cool Airplane

Women of Italy

Here are some of the lovely women I know.

Italian BBQ

A friend invited us to his weekend home for a BBQ on his birthday.
The pictures say it all, the perfect setting.

Am I happy living in Italy

Yes, not always, but http://picasaweb.google.com/HMItaly/MalgaCipela72708 Doesn't it look like a good time. For me this is one of the things that living here is all about, 3 families hiking up 1,000 meters on the back of the Marmolada with six kids the youngest 5 years old. Then a big lunch of grilled sausage and polenta, wine and cake. It was all followed by the hike back down in pouring rain. We were all tired at the end but felt good. One couple left as they had only planed a day trip we and the other stayed in our campers over night. I cooked a bunch of chicken in the pressure cooker, our friends cooked some pasta, more wine and then some Amoreto. The next day another though shorter hike.

Hiking near the Marmolada

One night camping and two days of hard hiking. The climb up to the
refugio was 1,000 meters with a bunch of kids. Giovanni, was the
strongest of us all.

Pressure Cooking

Most Italian cooks have at least one but they seem to be falling out of favor In the US we don't tend to use them much. The microwave is much more popular for fast cooking. Recently I found myself with nothing to read in the evening so I resorted to reading the introduction to my pressure cooker cook book. Today with energy on everyones mind. The pressure cooker deserves a good look. Not only does it reduce cooking time and increase retention of nutrients but the total energy consumed must be close to one tenth of that consumed by normal cooking. Try cooking a chicken in 15 minutes, resoto or polenta in 8 and no sturring for 45 minutes over a boiling spattering pot.

San Candido to Lienz by bike

This year Giovanni, I and my brother Rocky made the trip on the bikes.
40k of fairly easy riding, but the butt is still sore after 4 hours
on the bike.

BBQ Cookoff in Belluno

Next year I'm going to enter, I think I have a good chance with my
California BBQ skills. It was all booked up this year when I found
out about it.

Close to Home

A few pictures within a little walk from home, taken with the new
camera. It seems I lost our other one on our recent trip to Croatia.

Sun Tans

Big discussion on the expat website about Italians, especially women, spending too much time tanning in the Summer. There is a tradition that at least two weeks every Summer are spent at the beach, more if possible. During that time the main goal is to get as dark as possible. Of course not everyone does this, Luisa for example has always found it to be too boring. The schedule is like this. Rise fairly early get to the beach by 9 the kids play the parents chat and lay in the sun. Around noon or so, go back to the camp, apartment or hotel for a big lunch followed by a rest. Finally return to the beach around 3 or 4 and stay until 7, go home, eat, go out if you don't have kids, and then repeat the same thing the next day.

Many women in Italy still think that tanning is good for their looks. This works great for the under 30 generation, but one does notice many of the women in their early 40's that look much older. The sun doesn't do the face or skin in general any favors as far as the aging process goes.

Camping on Uglian, Croatia

Waterfalls & Lakes

A few of the sites at Plitvicka Jezera, Croatia

Antique Wood Floors From Italy

We are looking at marketing wood flooring made near here from antique wood recycled. They are people we know from the kids school and have a very good business selling all over Europe. They don’t have any sales in the US and are willing to work with us if we can start something. Times are tough now, but since this is a high end specialty product it might still work. This is really beautiful stuff, some of the wood even comes from the old poles in the Venice canals.

Let us know if you have some interest.

13 Days in Croatia

Some friends were staying on one of the Islands for two weeks in a hotel comlete with breakfast and dinner. They asked us to join them so we decided to take the camper down. Turned out we were right next to their hotel in a tiny camp ground. The island is Uglian and so is the town. We went to Croatia for a very short trip a few weeks ago so we had some idea. But this island was much more simple shall we say. The great thing about these islands is that there are so many places to swim and very few people. The water is clear, clean and warm enough. It seems Croatia is making a huge effort to stimulate it's tourist business. Construction is going on everywhere, improvements to streets, boardwalks, and town squares.

We spent 10 days on the island with our friends something longer than we planned, because the kids were all playing together and things just went well. Then we moved on to see the cascading lakes at Plitvecka Jezera. They are a series of lakes each one a bit lower than the other so they are connected by waterfalls. Very beautiful, and quite a tourist attraction. A little like going to Yosemite. It's all very organized, we did the six hour tour, you take a bus down to the highest lake, then walk for an hour and a half or so, eventually arriving at one lake where you are taken on a boat across it. At that point there is a nice park with food service, we stuffed ourselves with roasted chicken.

What really made this a vacation was all the little problems, you know what's a vacation without them. The first couple of days on the island it rained a lot, the only hot water was solar so no hot showers, we were able to use the camper shower, but there was no water connection so I couldn't refill our tank. Eventually I bought some extra tubing and disconnected the camp shower hose to hook up my hose. It worked fine. Did I mention that there was only one other family in the camp. In fact when they arrived to stay in a trailer fixed in the camp they were just behind us so I decide to move, and that's when I backed into the tree, smashing a tail light. Next came the mountain bike ride in which I lost our camera going over some really rough rocky roads. Hours of back tracking failed to find it. We did have another camera but of course I didn't bring the charger for it as I hadn't really planned on using it. The final episode was the dead battery when we went to leave, our friend and the neighbor helped us jump start it. That was fine, I kept the motor going on the ferry ride, but when we stopped on the island of Pag for a little tour, dead battery again. I manged to jump it using the camper battery, but that requires taking out the driver seat to access it. Not much fun.

More later

Beauties on the Beach

Pictures in Croatia

A really nice place for the kids to swim.

Staying Fit Looking Young

People ask John how do you do it, stay so young looking at your age. Well actually no one ever asks me that, but I want to talk about anyway. Really my secret is to drink a lot of wine, and eat plenty of salty greasy snaks. The wine and the snacks are my weakness. Otherwise I do all right with the food. But I think the important thing to remember in keeping one's physcial fitness as one ages is to make the effort part of everything one does. For example: the little things we do everyday make a difference, practice your balance by always putting on your socks and shoes standing on one foot rather than sitting down, stretch your legs by reaching down to the floor without bending the knees, unless picking up something heavy. Take the stairs always. Walk whenever you can rather than taking the car. The idea is to make things we have to do anyway part of an overall fitness program, I'm sure you can come up with your own ideas. One really needs to be stuborn and not accept the aging process as a given, of course it is, but we don't have to just sit back and get fat and weak. Are you 30 something and think it's not important to excercise. Don't kid yourself, the body starts going downhill after 20 something. Take care of yourself and at 65 you might ski better than you ever have, or swim 2k. It's really amazing how much one can do if one takes moderate care of oneself.

TRIESTE & ROVENJ

A few of the pictures from our recent excursion, see more pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/HMItaly/TriesteRovenj

The Emperor of Mexico

I think many Americans have heard of Archduke Maximilian. He's the guy who was asked to and finally accepted the title of Emperor of Mexico. Little did he know what he was getting himself into. His end came at the firing squad of Benito Jauraez. We made a trip down to a beach in Croatia this weekend and along the way stopped off to see Miramare Castle, manily because it was used in a movie we saw recently. It's in Trieste. It was built by Maximilian as his home which he lived in only 3 years before heading off to Mexico. I had no idea really of the history so I've since done a little studying, that's the funny thing about traveling about, it does make you have to wake up a bit to what's around you.

We took the camper of course, "camped" in a parking lot on the water front in Trieste the first night which gave us a chance to make a bike tour of the center of the city. It's really a pretty city, and on a Saturday night with warm weather, the outdoor bars and restaurants where full. One can see the influence of the Austrians in the architecture.

Croatia, was the second night but only after taking a tour of the biggest cavern in the World also in Trieste. Very impressive, especially the 140 meters of steps to go down and then back up. Then it was the beach, mostly rocks big and small, but very clean and clear water. Not really a great place for kids, but being so early in the season at a camp ground we had a beautiful spot overlooking the water. The nearby giant waterslide free as part of the campgrounds made up for the lack of sand on the beach for the kids.

All this followed Monday by it taking 4 hours to travel 90 kilometers. Just traffic and border crossings. Interesting being in a traffic jamb in a camper, spent time cleaning and organizing, then fixed dinner, ate, got Giovanni and Julia ready for bed, teeth brushed etc. Then they went to bed and slept through the rest of the trip, but not before watching some of a movie on the laptop.

Family Blogging

I feel a need to write about this, as I guess I have mixed feelings. It's great to be able to keep up with family members spread around the world, daughters and grandchildren from Seattle to San Diego to Switzerland and me in Italy. Email has pretty much replaced the hand written or even typed letter sent through the mail which was something to keep as a record of relationships, friends and lovers. It was a way to record history. I have copies of letters written by ancestors nearly 200 years ago, they really give a sense of the times.

Email on the other hand just doesn't have that personal touch, how many of us file them away to remember times past. Well I guess a lot of them are just left in the computer to be searched for later. Of course the new computer every few years and changed email programs tends to eleminate them regardless.

But blogging I don't know, it's kind of like reading about your family in the newspaper, ultimately unpersonal. It is great as an addition to the personal call or email. A way to see pictures, videos and little stories. It's not a replacement for some form of direct contact, it doesn't make one feel better to see photos when phone calls are rarely returned or initiated. In a way without the addition of personal contact it can make one feel somewhat alienated, like well there is a life going on there but I'm not part of it.

Not Much

What's up, not much, you? Seems we've been busy, but nothing exciting that makes life in Italy seem different than any other place on the planet. We went to Milan for Julia's orthodontist appointment on a Friday, then home Sunday morning for a kids birthday party. The next weekend was off to Pradipozzo for Luisa's Dad's birthday and to see her brother in from Canada for a visit and a conference in Tuscany. Then back home for guess what, another kid's birthday party. Then this last weekend back to Milan for Sara's first communion (Luisa's sister's daughter). This coming weekend is a three day one so maybe we will take the camper out someplace. But we can't leave until Saturday as Julia has her dance class Friday until 7:30. They are getting ready for the big show in another week.

Milan was nice this last weekend. After dinner Saturday night Luisa and I walked what is I guess a couple of miles into the central area, where the duomo is. It was a nice warm evening, but then it started to rain; we were of course without umbrellas, but we managed to get into the central area where there are porticos without getting drenched. Going to Milan often one tends to forget how beautiful that part of it is. It is spectacular, always something new, and the store windows full of the latest fashions. Tourists from all over the World, and the occasional, beautiful woman passing by who can actually aford those fashions and wear them properly.

In Belluno, maybe, hopefully, the warm weather has finally arrived. We've had a ton of rain lately, so now it's quite humid and very green all around us. I managed to get my garden started the other day. It's going to be a simpler one this year for a couple of reasons, one we don't plan on being home that much and two, Luisa insists she would rather just buy her lettuce at the market as it's cheap and doesn't come into the house full of dirt.

Bank Money Transfers & Exchanges

I've been asked by one of my "many" readers to say more about some practical matters of living in Italy. I just wrote this reply to someone asking about transferring money to Italy and how to avoid the add ons from the banks, so I thought might as well post it here too.

It's pretty hard to avoid the add on fee charged over the wholesale rate you find on the Internet. Those rates are for million dollar exchanges. We do phone transfers from B of A to our bank in Italy. There is a flat fee for the transfer and an add on depending on the amount we transfer. Then our bank here charges a small fee for their service.
If you are in Italy use your credit card from the US or just take money out with your atm card. Either one is a bit less than or the same as bank transfers. I found PayPal to be good. You can set it up to transfer money in from you bank account, they put the money in a money market account and pay interest. They only charge $1 for atm withdrawals and the exchange rate is usually better than the bank. If you use the atm card as a charge card when purchasing you can set it up to get 1% cash back.

We also use a credit card that gives us miles on a frequent flyer program. We pay it off every month using our US checking account. So we get mileage and also avoid having to transfer money for daily expenses such as groceries, clothes, etc.

Purse Snatcher

We were coming out of the underground on the way to Julia's orthodontic appointment. On the stairs in front a guy in a suit was pulling on the purse of a woman. Without thinking much I yelled at the guy. Next he starts yelling at me, saying what do I want to do, my Italian escaped me and I was silent, just giving him the dirty look. In the mean time his wife or girl friend, the one with the purse, was saying something like calm down. Turns out they were having a fight over a cell phone. When I realized that I walked away and let them have their fight.

The thing is I keep wondering what I should have done, just ignore the incident, and let someone steal the purse, or do what I did. Now in a calmer moment I think it was right to yell, a real purse snatcher may have just run off, my next move if it ever happens again will be to find the nearest policeman. In this case we were right in the center of Milan and at the top of the stairs were a bunch of cops. Doing anything else would run the risk of some physical injury, probably to me, possibly to the bad guy and not worth the loss of a purse.

More Pictures

Here is our Google site for pictures, http://picasaweb.google.com/HMItaly Many more pictures of the stuff on the blog.

Ravenna

The campers come into a large grass parking area. In true Italian
style, many bring out the tables and chairs, fix a nice lunch of
pasta, wine, etc. and relax.

Po River Delta and Ravenna

A few shots from our recent trip.

Wildcamping

Wildcamping, that's what the English call motorhome camping outside of an organized camping area with facilities, like electricity, showes, toilets, etc. and of course security. So far in our three weekends out including this last four days we have camped in a campground once and Wild camped in several areas. It seems to be quite popular here in Northern Italy. I'm not so sure about the south. We've had great fun, camped next to the water in a fishing village in the Po River Delta, took a long bike ride through the marshes to visit a light house, the kids learned how they harvest clams, and mussels first hand from the fisherman. Then we camped near one of the old basilicas near Ravenna and finally parked right next to the beach for one night, about an hour north of there.

The beach parking was interesting, it reminded us of the coast of southern California where one can sometimes park right next to the beach. The main difference is that in California one can't spend the night. There were many other campers there and we were able meet a few other people. I guess what got it started was me asking about claming. I noticed a few people out in knee deep water collecting small clams. So I started asking questions. Once informed I grabbed a bucket and started digging myself. One just digs down a couple of inches and there they are. I managed to get enough for a great spagetti and clam sauce lunch today. Wow, eating them in a restaurant will never be the same, so sweet and tasty. I will post some pictures tomorrow.

What ya talken about

Family Trip to Venice

Week End in Caorle

La Dolce Vita

The sweet life, does it really exist in Italy. For many who come to Italy seeking it, the myth is not the reality they find. Life for many Italians is not that easy. They work hard for littly pay, poor job security, and live in tiny apartments in crowded cities. Foreigners who come here hoping to find work and live the good life discover that for them it's even harder to survive. First of all it's not easy to stay in Italy legally. One might compare it to trying to immigrate to the US, almost as hard or even harder. In fact I recently met a woman on a plane trip to the US who had gotten easily a ten year tourist visa to the US something that is almost impossible to do in Italy. Once here work is hard to find, those young women who come usually because of some romantic interest often discover their only option is teaching English, in spite of good US educations even advanced degrees.

But, wait, there are some of us who are lucky. My wife being Italian has made it easy for me. We live in an area where the air is clean, scenery beautiful. Most who live here work hard but live pretty well. We just spent a nice weekend in the camper with another couple who came with us in their camper. Sitting in the sun at the sea, eating a nice lunch with the two families and the kids playing. I couldn't help but comment that this is the Life, the sweet life. Of course that life can be found wherever one wants to and has the will to find it.

Frist trip in the camper

Motorhoming

We just got back from our first adventure in the camper/motorhome, we took off in a rain storm not sure if we should go or not. First thing was the battery for the living area was dead, but luckily I was expecting it and I discoverd the problem before we left the yard. Quick trip to the local auto electrical repair shop near here and we were on our way. Weekend turned out great. Stopped the first night by a lake, parked with a good view, too close to the train tracks but who's complaining, rained off and on all night. Next morning had a little walk after breakfast, then discoverd that 2/3 or more of our water supply was gone, seems we were draing water the entire time we traveled as I forgot that when the battery is disconneted a little selonoid valve opens up and has to be closed manually. At first we couldn't believe how much water we had used in just one night. I filled it up whe we arrived at our final destination - Roverta. I was amazed to find out that driving something so big is not that hard and one can take it most places. In Italy they don't mind if you park in any car parking place and even stay the night. We visited a big WWI war museum in the morning and saw the biggest bell in the world in the afternoon. The bell is dedicated to peace and made from melted cannons. Camped in an open area Sat. night up on a mountain road with a nice view. Seemed to be a meeting place for teens with nothing to do so I was a little nervous sleeping there, all was fine. Today, we took a long hike to see some fossil footprints. Getting to the starting point was interesting as we drove the camper up this very narrow steep mountain road, good Fiat 2,8 l. truck didn't have a problem. Maybe the best part was lunch, one day a week the little restaurant at the end of the road opens. It's kind of a meeting place for ex Alpini, the Alpine Soldiers. Lunch was polenta and stewed beef with pees on the side, hardy mountain food, very good, table wine all you want, I didn't drink but a bit as I had to get the camper back down that narrow road - too bad, then home made struddle, coffee, and grappa all for 10 euro each, they even brought out an extra bit of polenta and stew as Julia and I must have looked like we were still hungry. In the after noon we visited a pretty famous museum of modern art back in town, designed by the architect Mario Botta. The trip back just two hours to Belluno.

Camper Notes

After searching the internet for weeks on end we finally stumbled upon the camper/motorhome of our dreams. Well campers are always a compromise, but we think this one will work for us. It almost fit within our budget. Why get one, well that's the big question. We found that even though we wanted to explore Italy and Europe we weren't doing it. Mainly because with two kids and various weekend commitments we were just not making the plans, reservations, etc. it takes to go away for a weekend. So in the end we stayed home. There is also the cost issue, though it's debatable as to which is cheaper. Now we hope to be able to take off at a moments notice. We will see. The last few days have been spent cleaning, and setting it up. It's pretty much like having a second home, needs all the fixings, plus I like tinkering with things so I've installed some extra 12 volt outlets for the dvd play, phone chargers, and computer, and put in a 240 volt inverter that we already had.

So I will hopefully be posting some tales and photos of fun adventures on the road in Italy and Europe.

Wedding, Airline Flights, Skiing, Spring & A Camper

The last few weeks have been busy. There has been work to do, a new associate architect in San Diego, my daughter Callie's wedding which involved a trip to San Diego and terrible airline connections. The wedding was beautiful as was my daughter, I'll post a reference to the pictures when she gives it to me. The trip home a mess, traffic jambs on the 5 from Carlsbad to LA, rush to the airport, Midway auto rental seems a great company, they drove me right to the airport when I told them I was late rather than make me wait for their shuttle also gave me an upgrade from the basic car I reserved to the top of the line Toyota Avalon, well actually they probably gave away my car, but hey I'm not complaining. Then of course the BA flight was way late in leaving so there was no need to rush. Arrived late in Heathrow had to take a bus to Gatwick, BA doesn't make it easy to find the right bus, you are pretty much left on your own to find your way. Then of course missed the next flight and had to stay over night in a hotel. BA paid for it and dinner and breakfast, and somehow I got upgraded to business class. I could have stayed all day in the business class lounge, very nice. In some ways the trip wasn't so bad it's just that I left on Wednesday and got home on Friday.

Now it's Spring here in Belluno, we had a big snow one morning last week, the whole town was covered with a few inches in the morning and by night time it was all gone. I want to make one last ski day or two so we will try tomorrow, no one wants to go but me. Oh well I'm making them go anyway. And finally we have committed to buying a camper, found a good deal and gave a deposit so we will pick it up this week. We have spent countless hours looking on the internet and were getting tired of it all, but finally the one we think is perfect for us turned up and we got a good deal on the price.

So now we will enter the world of camper touring, autocaravans, they call them here. It's funny in some ways I've wanted one since I was about 14 taking a vacation with my family up through the Owen's Valley in California with a small travel trailer. The first motor homes which were really just a trailer mounted on a truck bed, were going by us and I thought that must be the totally perfect way to go. I've found out that in Italy and France there is an organization that has gathered a list of farms which let campers stay free for one night. I'm anxious to try that, as it seems an inexpensive way to get more in touch with the countryside.

Blog Links

I will put a link on this blog to anyone who links to here, unless it's totally offensive. Mostly I'm just returning a favor. I don't tend to read other blogs that much, just don't have the time. But it does seem that there is a wealth of good stuff written on many of them. Maybe if I had more time, but then one tends to get too buried in the internet, too connected online and not enough offline. Probably my two little ones are getting to know the back of my head better than the front. Random thoughts I guess.

Finally, if you link to me and I don't link to you then send me your link and I will link it. Or send me an email and I will link you. One good link deserves another.

Birthdays

Today is my wife Luisa's birthday. What has happened to birthdays, they used to be so important and what a difference between the way they seem to Italians vs Americans. Even on my birthday many of the Italian relatives, all mine only by marriage, call me some even give gifts. But on the American side, it seems most people are too caught up in the day to day struggle to remember. What makes the difference, I don't know. Are Americans more self centered or is life just that much harder there, or is it the difference in attitudes about family in general.

Today a Message

Today, Luisa and I went skiing, the weather was perfect, the snow ok. I think I'm a good skiier which at the end of the day today almost proved my downfall. Luisa was tired so she rested while I took one more run. I went down a black run, the snow was slushy and full of bumps, things were great, my skiis love this kind of snow. I sit back and a let the tips ride up a bit just do nice turns through the slush and mush. At some point I'm going pretty fast along the edge of a narrow run, I'm having a good time. When all of a sudden something goes wrong. I loose it, I can't turn, I'm heading towards the edge of the run out of control. There is only one thing left to do that's sit down and hope for the best. I see a big orange fence with a smaller one in front of it. I think ok, I'll just crash into it. I do. I stop. Then I look down I'm over the edge of a very steep hill full of big trees. My skiis tangled in the two fences, my body a few feet down the steep slope. I can't get up, I'm stuck in the fence and on the edge. Someone stops, asks if I'm ok, yes I say but HELP! I hand him the end of my ski pole ask him to pull me up, another guy arrives, one of the workers skiing down with a shovel. He grabs my other arm and the two of them pull me up. Then the nice guy who works there takes off my skiis and gets them out of the fence. I finally get up and thank everybody put on my skis feeling embarassed about the whole episode and ski on down.

I tell Luisa the story when I see her, she's a bit angry with me saying I take too many chances. I say you're right, and maybe God sent me a little message, a warning to watch what I'm doing.

Tonight I'm working at the computer, Luisa brings me a glass of wine. I think that's such a simple pleasure and so nice.

Bruschetta Salad

Here's a quick idea invented by Luisa tonight. Make a nice salad, her's had lettace, a few odds and ends some boiled egg, chunks of cheese, and tuna. And she made a dressing of prepared pesto thined down with olive oil. Toast a large slice of fresh bread. Rub the toasted bread with a clove of garlic, drizzle olive oil on the bread add a little salt. Then top with the salad, more olive oil and the some of the pesto sauce. Salt and Pepper to taste. Good!!

Giovanni's Frist Ski Race

Up until Friday he insisted he didn't want to race, but then he changed his mind. So this was the last one of the season for his ski club. After the races they put on a nice BBQ for the families.

Pictures and more pictures

Here is where we post pictures of some of our activities mostly in Italy. Have a look http://picasaweb.google.com/home

The New Catholic Confession system

Well I think it's funny. So have a look. A friend sent it to me.

Ski Lessons

Well Giovanni is back at the ski lessons. He's 6 remember. It's dry here, out our window we can see the slope he is skiing on, too far away to see him. We arrive at the parking lot at 1:15, it's warm for here, clear sky. A couple other cars are there with kids waiting for the bus. Ours is all decked out in his very professional looking ski suit, it's mostly bright orange which I thought was a great color for him, very visible kind of like these vests they make you put on if your car breaks down on the road here. When we ski together my greatest fear is that he will get hit by another skier so I think the suit helps.

We wait I'm sitting on the open back of our car, other kids arrvive, some of the girls are in a racing class so they have on these tight racing suits with baggy shorts over them. They are cute and very serious looking. Eventually the bus arrives, Giovanni's friend from school is sick so he gets on the big bus by himself, probably he's the youngest on the bus. We stand back and watch the bus leave, thinking he looks so small on such a big bus. Luisa wonders if he isn't too young to go off like that by himself. But I think back to the day before when I picked him up after the lesson, he was proud of himself for having bought and received the proper change for a small box of candy from a vendor who parks at the ski area selling stuff to all the kids. He seems to return with more confidence in himself than when he left. Says his instructor calls him by his last name Helm, it's cute. I can just hear it, "hey Helm, move your butt, Helm stop going off the edge of the run, hey Helm ---

Polenta

Here is the way I make it:

Mix at a ratio of 1 cup of polenta (corn meal) to 3 cups of cold water in a pot like you would use to boil pasta. I find mixing in cold water avoids the lumps as most receipes tell you to put the polenta into boiling water. Bring the mix to a boil, then that's right stir for half an hour or so, if you are adept you can do other things along the way. The polenta is done when you have a nice think mixture that pulls away easily from the side of the pot. When almost done ad some butter, salt and some gratted cheese. You can serve as is or top with lots of things, like a nice meat and gravy. Or fry up some sausages with some sauteed onions, pour the polenta onto a big round platter, put the sausage and onions and all the greasy drippings on the middle of the polenta, top with grated cheese, meat eaters love this. Save the left over polenta in a square dish put it in the fridge and it will firm up then you can slice it and grill it.

Here there often these little festivals they call Sagras, they are usually at a church or some other organization. The main thing they do is serve food. Polenta in always on the menu along with grilled pork chops, sausages, and sausage patties and sometimes a type of stu or goolash made with deer meat. And of course beer and wine. They cook the polenta in huge copper pots set on a wood burning device. Somehow it always tastes better that way.

Winter

It's a bright sunny day here, and even though the mountains all around us are full of snow, we don't have any. Maybe it's a false break but it seems like Winter is ending all ready. I'm a little frustrated because we haven't gotten any good use out of our ski passes. First there was no snow, then Christmas and New Years, then various bouts of sicknesses. Now we are almost well, and hoping to get in some Winter activities before it's too late. At least Giovanni is back in his ski class today. He missed last week. Seems he really enjoyed being of school a week even if he had to get the flu to do it. I was a struggle getting him to go yesterday.

Being Sick

Wow, we got zapped, the whole family has been sick for a week now and it seems we have at least a few more days of it. It's never really happened before that we were all down at the same time. Of course Luisa and I have not really been down, with kids to tend and work to do we've been stumbling around trying to keep up. We had a project to finish and one to get started on as the first had been waiting for a while and the later was getting nervous. This thing we have is I think the worse I've had since moving here, that all over achy feeling, fever, runny stuffy nose, sore throat and a dry cough. Only Julia has had the vomiting, that lasted 2 or 3 days, she is now ahead a bit on getting better.

The weather has been bad along with our health this last week, cold rainy, overcast. Misery loves company so I don't mind at least we don't feel the urge to be outside. This is a 4 day weekend and we had made reservations to go skiing part of the time, well obviously that got cancelled.

We are thinking of buying a motorhome/camper. It's been a big debate, the idea is to use it to tour around Europe and Italy and even take some extended time away wherever we can be in contact by the internet and keep up with our work. All we really need is the internet and a computer, so we might be anywere and keep working. Sounds good in theory at least. European motorhomes if you don't know are much more compact than the US variety, though the cost of fuel is still a big issue.

Waiting to see who gets the nods on super Tuesday, seems Obama is picking up a lot of steam and may take it for the Dems. He got my vote. On the Republican side I always thought they were supposed to be conservatives, but I don't see a conservative candidate other than Ron Paul who has a lot of appeal, but no chance. We shall see it's going to be an iteresting year for politics in the US, it can go in a new drection or follow the same path to self destruction that it has been following these last years.

Taking the kids to school

The best way we have found to get them out of bed in the morning is to turn on the tv to one of the kids programs. I turn it on at 6:45 after getting up myself. I first turn on the heat, the computer and start making our daily pot of American style coffee. We buy beans and grind them fresh every morning, a habit we formed in California. It's just the we can't really find the quality of coffee we like here. We have settled on Lavaza gold, it's 100% arrabica. I prefer Colombian. Julia who is 8 comes stomping up the stairs like a lumberjack as soon as she hears the tv and Giovanni 6 usually takes a bit of mommy time to get out of bed. At 7:20 the tv goes off and by then they are supposed to also be dressed. We really have a routine, every morning I wonder how long I can keep it up, it just seems so boring to do the same thing everyday and also to be obligated to do it. I've become spoiled over the years working independently and not having a fixed schedule. Now that the kids are both in regular school things have changed.

Luisa has the pleasure of a few minutes extra sleep and often gets hot coffee delivered to her in bed. While the coffee brews I begin to check the email and read some news on the Internet, usually starting with antiwar.com. Don't know what I'll do if the war in Iraq ever ends. Once she is up Luisa pays the price for having had a bit of extra bed time. She gets the kids dressed and fed and puts up with all the typical morning stress. In the meantime I get myself dressed, always wondering if I should actually put on real clothes or not since I'll be working at home all day. At 7:45 I get myself downstairs, our apartment is on two levels, and start telling the kids that we are late and why aren't they ready. So I wait while Julia gets her hair brushed, puts in her lip bumper, finally gets her shoes on and then the coat, Giovanni is usually ready as Luisa is still getting him dressed.

Finally we head out the door, now if by some slim chance we are out in time we can walk, however it's usually too late so we have to take the car. We descend down three flights of stairs into an underground garage. It's big and dark and always cold. A little creepy. The automatic light doesn't come on until we reach the far end. The one at the entrance has not been working for a while. Getting out of the garage is always a challenge, Italian parking lots, and garages are just barely big enough to function. I've tried the two directions to turn when backing out and have finally gotten it down to 4 turns if I go to the left on the first one. We drive up the ramp and then to the electric gate which opens shall I say slowly. Driving down the private street to the main road I always think someone should put up some no parking signs as they have turned a two way street into one way by parking on one side. So if we happen to meet an oncoming car someone has to back up so the other can pass. At least people seem pretty friendly about it and whomever has the easiest back up possibility usually backs up. When we reach the main road which actually leads directly the school there is usually a line of cars waiting for the stop light that is two blocks away, but once again people are pretty nice and we enter the line after someone lets us in.

Arriving at the school once again we are dealing with the typical Italian parking situation. Some parents just let their kids out the door and then move on turning around a sort of circular drive. While others me included like to park and escort the kids inside. So of course it takes a bit of maneuvering to find a place and then park. The school building is a semicircular structure, with I think 6 floors. The upper levels are mostly empty and contain small dorm rooms as the school was originally a live in school for boys only. It seems they use the rooms in the summer for groups and also there are a few residents. I met one and gave him ride one morning. His sad story is that he attends a high school about 15 minutes away and lives in the dorm. He had missed the bus that morning. Only problem is that I see him begging rides almost every morning so it seems he doesn't make much effort to catch the bus. An interesting bit about the school, it's a private catholic school, is that it is named after a first cousin, 4 or 5 times removed of Luisa's. Seems the ol girl who had no children of her own donated all of her money to the church in her dying days. This was much to the disappointment of her close relatives who might have wished to have the money and property.

But now we are entering the school, there is an outer door, with a paper note asking people to keep the door closed, because the facility is heated, attached to the glass panel in one of the doors. Inside the entry a nice lady is usually there greeting the kids and keeping an eye on things. In this little lobby there is a bank of telephone booths now abandoned which I suppose were used in the past by the resident students to call home and their friends. We say good morning to the nice lady and pass through the second door into a large semicircular hallway, with a very high ceiling. At one end of the hall is the school chapel. At the other are the stairs and hallway going to the various classrooms. Giovanni is on the first level above, Julia the next above that. In the hallways outside the classrooms each room has a row of benches and above the benches are hooks with the names of each student. They put their little bags of extra clothes on the hooks and also their coats and hats. Under the benches are their cubby holes where they keep their slippers. Each child at the beginning of school brings in a pair of slippers which they put on before entering the class room. We usually arrive at the last minute as the classes are heading upstairs, so my kids go charging off hardly saying good bye unless I grab them for a last minute kiss. On the rare occasion that we are there early, they meet their friends and chat or show off some little thing or toy they are smuggling into class. The parents too have a moment to chat and complain about the weather or tell stories about which kids are disrupting the class or what the latest thing is that they don't like about the school.

Some days we actually walk to school. Of course this happens more in the warm months. The walk follows the same path as the car. The kids usually complain if they have to walk but once they start they seem to have fun, running to the next intersection to wait for me or skipping and jumping along the side walk. I always remind them to watch out for the dog poop along the edge of the sidewalk, and tell myself I really need to post some signs telling people how bad it is to take their dogs there to dirty the place where we all walk. We get to the main intersection and push the button for the pedestrian signal on the stop lights. We wait, then when the pedestrian sign goes on I grab Giovanni to make sure he doesn't charge out into the street as there will often be a late right turning car. We walk along past shops and apartment buildings. We pass a ceramics studio which seems to be dedicated to classes for the handicapped. Usually outside a 30 something man waits to be let in. Sometimes I say good morning to him but he never replies, just stares at us as we pass. We arrive at the school and thread ourselves through the maze of the parking and drive through area. We enter, say good morning to the nice lady and the kids go running up the stairs, late as usual.

The Pencil

Is this an Italian trait, I don't know. But this is how it goes. My Italian wife, and architecture partner has a habit of grabbing the pencil out of my hand whenever she wants to talk when we are having a joint design session. Now for me if I have a pencil or any other object in my hand no one has permission to take it away from me. In fact I get really irritated if they do.

So we are doing an addition for her brother who lives in Canada, he has been here in Italy and we have had several design sessions with the three of us. What I noticed is that he and his sister grab the pencil back and forth from each other as each starts to talk or point to something in a sketch. This is in spite of the fact that I made several sharpened pencils available sitting there on the table. It seems that symbolically the pencil determines who has the floor for the moment.

Westward In The USA

I've started a new blog where I will be posting bits and pieces, stories, from the history of my family in the US. It starts around the time of the Mayflower and continues moving on Westward to California. I think it's interesting in that those little pieces give a picture of the common man, in the history of the US.

Sometimes I feel that my moving to Italy is in a way a continuation of that Westward movement. We went as far West as we could, so I had to finally go somewhere.



http://westwardintheusa.blogspot.com/



Have a look and let me know what you think.



John

Switzerland Holiday with Erin

School Christmas Program

I've put up a little Youtube video of the kids singing and here are a couple of pictures. I've seen a lot of these Christmas programs over the years and these here are pretty typical of the ones in the US.

Life in Italy

What is it like living here. Maybe I should write a little about our life in general here, and also compare it to how our life was in the US. To a great degree it's not so different. In part because the daily routine wherever one lives has certain common elements, kids off to school, work, preparing meals, making order in the home, etc. One major difference here from San Diego of course is the weather. There the temperature did not vary that much from month to month but here of course it does, we have real seasons here. Another big difference is the amount of time we spend in the car. We have carried some of our California habits with us, so we tend to take the car and go to the grocery store for example that is 10 minutes away where they have a bigger selections and lower prices than the store we can walk to. And we buy for a week rather than going every day like Luisa's mom does. However, even so a tank of gas lasts us 2 or 3 weeks at least where as on our recent trip to San Diego we filled up the gas tank 4 times in two weeks.

Where we live the city, Belluno, is nice but it is not one of the prettiest of Italian cities. What makes it beautiful here are the surroundings, we are surrounded by mountains, forests, rivers and beautiful valleys. In every direction from here there are lots of outdoor activities. Of course in Winter the sport is skiing.

I will make this a bit of a running commentary, so I'll write more later.

Web Site Hijacked

My domain name northeastitaly.com got hijacked, stolen as far as I'm concerned. Maybe the time for renewal was up but I did not get a notice and now I find out that someone else owns the name. I'm guessing people do this as a business. They watch names ready to expire and jump on them hoping the owner will want to buy it back at a much higher price. Well I was thinking it might have given a bit too much personal information about where we live and so on so maybe it's better that it's gone for now. But the whole idea of it is very disturbing.

The War on Iraq

One of my daughters has a step son in the Marine reserves. I'm just told he has volunteered for active duty and will be sent to Iraq. He is such a nice young man and I am pleased, and proud of his courage and commitment to the defense of our country.

But I have been opposed to this war from the beginning that has waisted the lives of some 4,000 US troops and killed undreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. It makes me so sad to see him sucked into it. I just hope and prey that he makes it through this and comes home alive, in one peace, and is not destroyed mentally for the rest of his life.

Our Christmas Tree

I didn't know where to go to find a tree here in Belluno, it's not like they have tree lots all over town. But I left with the kids thinking it was going to take a couple of hours and we might not even find one. Well about two blocks from our house at the local flower shop we saw some sitting out front. I imagined the price would be out of site. But hey they were only 18 euro. I grabbed the first one I saw and we were home in 15 minutes.

Now the tree is decorated, it's not a work of art but I love all the decorations that have been collected and added over the years. Many were made by my kids, the grown ones when they were 4 and 5 years old and now my little ones have added to the collection. There is one I found from a friend I went to college with, Bill Catron, back in 1970. Others given to my daughters 20 and more years ago. It makes a tree full of happy memories and reminds me of what Christmas is about, love of family and friends and the birth or our Lord .

Giovanni turns 6

We had a regular sit down dinner for a bunch of 6 year olds.

Davis

My grandaughter Davis, doesn't she look Swiss and beautiful! Well she's not Swiss but she does live in Switzerland.

Italian Families

What do I know about them. Some I guess. What I like right off which some expats don't is that whenever you leave or come home unless it was just a trip to the super market it's a big deal. You get a big send off when you leave and a big welcome back when you return with all the kisses and hugs. It's great. Another thing is that there is always this level of excitement when everyone is together, always two or three conversations going on at the same time.

Another thing I like are Italian mothers, yes they baby their kids too much and a lot of Italian kids are whinney cry babies, but still the moms are great. If you have any Italian friends outside Italy have you noticed how the these Italian moms greet little kids when you arrive at their house or when arriving at a get together, it's all full of joy and affection even for the kids they have just met. My wife she's a great Italian mom, always there for her kids too much in my American opinion because she just gets too tired, when they go to bed she is usually so tired she just drops off on the couch. Even after working all day, she doesn't short change them, and I think this is pretty typical.

I will write more on this subject.

Politicians

I've decided there are two types of politicians, both types are corrupted by the system that demands that they accept money from those would influence their decisions. But there is a difference in the two types. Type one is only interested in furthering their own wealth, and power. Everything they do has really only that goal. Examples would be G.W. Bush in the US and Berlusconi in Italy. Type two, though not without the first goal of gaining wealth and power is actually interested in governing as well. They want to do what is right for their countries and want to go down in history as having done a good job. Examples of the type two are Pradi in Italy and the Clintons in the US. We could name many on either side of the conservative vs. liberal issue. The two types exist in both camps. I think our difficult goal as voters should be to separate the two types and only vote for type two. The type ones destroy our countries, the type twos while making mistakes at least give us a government that is somewhat democratic.

Blog Comments

Seems that about 15 people a day look at my blog, not a lot but at least there is some interest. The thing is that few people make comments. I'd like to hear from those of you who come here. Tell my why you came, what interests you etc.

Pizza Mexicana

Or what to do with the left over taco fixings. Take an extra large flour tortilla, or in Italy you can use Piada, those things that look like tortillas but are too thick for anything Mexican.

Put the Piada in a frying pan with a little oil, fry on both sides until semi crisp but not hard, put it on an oven safe plate, spread refired beans over it, then the taco meat, then chopped tomatoes, onions, what ever you like, top with a nice cheese that melts easily. Put in under the broiler until the cheese melts, take it out and serve topped with with salsa, taco sauce, avocados, sour cream (Greek yogurt works in Italy), whatever you like, use your pizza cutter to slice it - enjoy.

Grand Children

Well now I have four all beautiful. I'd post some pictures, but their moms are doing a great job with their own blogs so if you want to see them just click on the links for my daughters.

Italian Citizenship

Here I am being congratulated by the Italian consulate in Los Angeles. Now I am officially Italian. Of course I am now a dual US and Italian citizen. I'd never give up my US citizenship. But living in Italy it's just make sense to be able to participate as a citizen and also not have any issues about being able to stay as long as I want. My whole second family and I are dual now. Luisa became a US citizen last March.

Taco Night at the Helm's

Yes, it was taco night. One of the few things we can't find around here are corn tortillas. So we brought about 6 dozen back with us from California. We left Italy with two and a half bags not that full. Returned to Italy with four all weighed out to the max 50 pounds. I bring a scale with me. At the airport check in the lady asked what I had in them that was so heavy, taco sauce and tortillas I said.

Tonight I cooked the "traditional" Mexican tacos - California style I suppose you would say. Do you miss refried beans living in Italy? Here's how to make your own. Take two or three cans of Bartollini beans, a medium brown looking bean. Drain all the liquid even maybe washing them in a colander. Put them in the food processor with some seasoning as you like, a little olive oil and pulse until they are pretty well mashed up. Put them in a pot and simmer a few minutes and there you go.

California

So here we are for a couple of weeks in sunny So Cal, it's nice. We've (mostly I have) been pigging out on typical American food, that is Mexican fast food, hamburgers and fries and then there was the steak sandwich at an expensive beach front restaurant in Del Mar, but it was happy hour half price. So not too bad. Then the long walk on the beach watching the sunset. That's California at it's best.

Reminds me of another recipe that I used to make a lot for guests before we moved to Italy, we don't have a real oven in our apartment so I have not been able to do it there:

Garlic & Onion Focaccia


Ingredients:

Medium size pizza dough, make it yourself from a typical recipe or buy ready made at Trader Joe's. Plan or with rosemary and basil.

1 Medium onion
1 Tbls minced garlic (the type in packed in water is fine)
Salt
Olive oil
Grated