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".

Alpine adventure

We went back to the Alps with the rest of my family. This time however, my brother and I packed a couple of backpacks and headed into the mountains, not to return until the next day at noon at lake Misurina. It was an incredible experience, one that we will both cherish forever. Hiking while being utterly wet and cold, then sleeping in a room with 20 other people is not something that is easily forgettable. Actually, the truth is that even in the hardest moments, we were still ecstatic to be doing the hike and to be experiencing it as we were.

And off we go. When my parents dropped us off, there was an unquestionable, and unspoken, concern about the weather and lack of clothing. Alas, we are young and nothing will get in our way!

We have to reach two "rifugi" (mountain lodges that provide lodging and food for hikers), before we reach the Locatelli, which is the third one and where we will be spending the night. Here is a little sactuary for the Virgin Mary on the way to the first.

Hey, this isn't so bad. Sure it's a little wet but the sun looks like it wants to come out.

We made it to Lavaredo, our first stop on the way to Locatelli. We are so optimistic! (and so naive).

This pair of photos really sums up the course from Lavaredo to Cengia (the second stop). As you can see, the view was less than desireable.

Despite the "nubi" (low clouds), the beauty of the dolomites is undeniable and each moment that the sun broke through they dominated our attention.

We had a map, but it's always nice to see some signage.

Still on the way to Cengia. We are cold and wet. We stopped to have lunch (prosciutto and cheese sandwiches my mom prepared for us, some fruit, and a snack consisting of a spunge cake encased in a thin chocolate coating with a layer of alcohol inside). Hey, we may be cold and wet but we are not barbarians! Actually we are just Italian, there is never a good reason to have a bad meal.

Take it from the top.

Almost there...

And there it is! Our penultimate stop before Locatelli!

We stop in Cengia to warm up a bit and re-energize before our last track of the day. Alex looks pretty beat here eh? I have some hot tea, Alex has a Fanta, and we share a dessert. We have a nice conversation with an Italian couple because we sat at their table but also because everyone else was German. In fact for the entire trip 99% of the people we encountered were german.

This is easy!

We exit Cengia ready for the next phase of the hike. Our optimism is back! Locatelli is within our reach!

It's really hard to see here, but there it is, that speck of white in the top(ish) center is where we will be spending the night!

Breathtaking views continue.

Getting closer.

Taking a short break

And back to work.

We are so close now!

We made it! Locatelli is fairly large lodge that has a dormitory (where Alex and I slept) as well as smaller rooms. After hiking solitarily for a hours, entering Locatelli was like stepping into a tiny city made of transient inhabitants. No one here stays more than one night, everyone is tired and hungry, and every person has a story to share. And so, immediately upon arrival, Alex was quite literally accosted by an American couple who had heard him speak a few words to me in English. We ended up eating, drinking, and chatting with them for the rest of the evening.

After we arrived, we immediately went to the dormitory to change and drop off our stuff on our side by side top bunks.

We had an hour before dinner, so we took a short hike up behind Locatelli to check out some caves (from WWI) that we could see from the lodge.

And here is Locatelli from the caves.

We also fraternized with a group of Germans who'd left their wives and kids at home for a week to hike and drink in the alps. They were a ball and we all got along famously.

Here I am with the Germans (who are drinking red wine by the pitcher).

And here is Alex actually donning one of their group hats. As Drunk #1 (that's how he introduced himself) was putting the hat on Alex he remarked "You haves too much hairz on your head!" Yes, Alex has a solid head of hair.

And here is the view that we woke up to from our dormitory!

The next day was sunny and gorgeous, we were ready to go! We had only a two hour moderate hike ahead of us! Whoppie!!!!

Yup, still good!

We came from "over there".

Alex decided to hike in his PJs.

We are nearly there! We arrived at Auronzo (shortly after I took this shot). From here we caught the bus that would take us back to lake Misurina where our parents were picking us up! What an amazing trip and advenure! We had an amazing time and most of all, we learned what we should have packed for the next time.