I think it was the unwillingness to admit that the Italian adventure had ended that prevented me from updating the final "after" photos of the house. I can't believe that my time in Italy has already come and gone, and I am now back to daydreaming about Fridays like the rest of the hard-working work force. Oh Fridays, what glorious days they are. Alright, enough about that. It is now time to look back and see a job well done by a very determined machine man and his daughter. Some of the pictures will look familiar, but I needed to repost them in order to show the "before" and "after" shots in the same post. Enjoy!

As you can see behind me to your left, the walls of the house were severely damaged. I did not do a good enough job of documenting exactly how bad they were, but take this as an example and imagine it repeated throughout the house.

Here is another example. To the right of my working station, the command center as I called it, is another big gash in the cement wall. Again, this was the case in most of the downstairs.

And here now is that same wall (of the photo with me in it) where we cemented over the cracks and repainted.

More fixed walls

And more.


Ok last shot of fixed walls!

Here is a photo detailing the damage to the out side wall.

More damage, this time it's on the wall on the right side of the house.

Here is the work in progress, this is a first layer of cement that is being applied to the wall. In the most damaged areas of the wall we had to apply many layers. So, we would have to apply the cement, wait for it to dry and do it all over again. Often, this was done up to four times.

Another work in progress shot. This part had the deepest gashes, and where we applied the most cement.

Here is the front wall - also work in progress.

And here is the side of the house all fixed! (or as best as we could based on our scrappy abilities!)

And here is the ceiling of the Portico, quite a bit damaged!

And here it is all fixed! Whoohoo!

Soccer! And Alex's Last Day.

Alex left a day before us, but the day he left we managed to go to a Bologna soccer game! Bologna recently entered Serie A and we were very excited to see them live...or at all. They played against Atalanta and, while Atalanta proved to be the better team, we enjoyed the commotion of the Italian spectators around us. We heard obcenities that i had not uttered or heard in years! It was fantastic! Italians certainly have a way with words.


A little pre-game shooting.

Pezzo di merda! (piece of shit); Testa di cazzo (dick head); Va a cagare! (go take a shit); Va fa' un bagno (go take a bath); Ma va a fa'un culo; (fuck you, kind of); Cretino! (cretin); and much much more!

The game begins! Bologna ends up playing terribly and losing 1-0, but it was so much fun just being there!

Immediately after the game we put Alex on a train to Milan where he will spend the night in a hotel and flight back the states in the morning. Bye Alex!!!

With Danila and Simona

I was able to see Danila a lot this trip which made me very happy. She is extremely accomodating and even though they both work full time and have three very active kids, whenever she had time she had me over.

Here is Alex as he is driving us to her house.

Here is Alex as he is driving us to her house. It is a beautiful drive from Ca Bondi because she also lives in the hills of Bologna and the entire drive is up and down these hills with a beautiful view from each peak. These picture does not do it justice.

Here is her house one night just before dinner (we ate there, under the porch).

Simona and her husband Maurizio and the kids were there too. Here I am with Alice!

I was also able to see Simona a couple of times, here she is at Ca Bondi Sunday morning when she came to visit us with her kids Alice and Amanda.


Me with Alice and Amanda.

The Greatest Great Aunt and other fun down south

Zia Loredana (Zia means Aunt) is actually my great aunt. She is the greatest great aunt to have ever lived. She is 92, she has spunk, likes a stiff drink, but is one of the softest and most generous people I have ever known. She lives in Civitanova Marche, which is about 3 hours south of Bologna on the adriatic coast. We were to proceed to Pompei (just outside of Naples) after visiting her, but once we saw the color of the ocean and her face, we decided to stay at the beach and enjoy the paradise we had just entered. So, we found a shop that was still open and each bought a bathing suit (I bought and wore a bikini, a first for me and although a success, it was not documented by way of photography. heck no!). We also went looking for cheap towels and the cheapest we found donned suggestive photos of scantily dressed women. PERFECT! We bought them immediately and headed for the beach.

The #1 great aunt! Here we are enjoying a stroll on the "boardwalk" on the day we arrive. Just 10 minutes after this shot was taken my family makes the final decision that we are staying put and saying, "do we really have to go to Naples???"

Being very fashion forward.

My great aunt can't walk very much, so she insisted we drop her off at home for a while and go out enjoying the area. So we decided to go visit a nearby city, Ascoli Picena, or as the locals say it "Ashcoli". It turned out to be a beautiful city!

My camera was dying but I was able to quickly pull of this picture in the Piazza, resulting in my father's lack of preparation.

Here we are enjoying a cocktail at the famous Meletti bar where Annis licquor was first concocted.

My handsom brother.

And my special self.


I really liked this shot and had to wait for a lady to exit the frame before taking it. However, I snapped a picture as she was still walking thinking it was such a fitting image and that it would probably look great with some added contrast...

Here is the same shot in black and white with more contrast.

A nice Ascoli street.

Brother and sister

Corinthian columns from the Roman era (around 100 bc) that were incorporated into this church about 200 years ago.

The main duomo.

Italian men getting together to chat in the piazza.

A sea horse as a fountain.

You must drink from me now.

Building next to the duomo, both built on roman ruins in travertine.

The duomo.

near the piazza

Now this is a nice piazza, eh?

Danila and family and more eating and drinking!

Friends came over to Ca Bondi again, this time they were anxious to hear about our overnight hiking excursion and to just spend more time together...eating and drinking of course. My very good friend Danila came as well even though she still had a lot of work to do (she had an hour and a half presentation the next morning!). But she came because she is AWESOME. Her husband Gabriele (who is responsible for telling me about the particular course in the alps which my brother and I ended up doing... thank you Gabri!) and her three fantastic kids: Rachele, Samuele, and Madalena.

Here I am with Danila!!!

With Rachele!! She is so GREAT!

Here is Mariangela (Danila's mom) with Madalena. I took this picture about 6 times because Maddy kept eating an olive (she LOVES olives) and / or closing her eyes every time I took the picture. So, this time, she was very careful to keep her eyes very open and to not put anything in her mouth as I was taking the shot!

Here is Samuele, who just yesterday scored a goal on a 12 year old!!!

Here are Gabriele and Danila, the A+ couple! O Gabri, ce l'hai fatta nel blog!

More eating and drinking at Ca' Bondi!

Back to my father's land

Hello again from Veneto!

Yes, we went back to Veneto (on the way back from the Alps, again) and back to Marco's house to see even more family! Marco cooked up a storm and we ate and drank and watched the Formula One race (like good Italians).

Here is the whole group with a self-timer shot.

Here is the tiny, innocent television that caused an uproar when everyone jumped up in protest when very near the end of the race the Mclaren car passed the Ferrari. We were PISSED.

Alex and Lucia, our, hmm, third cousin?

Alex and Eugenio who got along famously. Also, I think secretly Eugenio enjoys speaking Italian with an American accent. He spoke like that every chance he had, just to poke fun at us "americans".