Nadia: Ah, Italy…

He says: Hmm…Italy

Nadia: I finally logged into my old computer which allows me to upload whole directories of photos, which is what you’re getting. Nyahaha. I feel a little bad though because my favorite place was probably Venice as far as the “feel”, but my very unadaptable computer adapter was broken, so I took very few pictures there thinking my card had to last the entire trip.

He says: “few pictures” and Nadia rarely coincide.

Nadia: To give you a very brief rundown so you know what you’re looking at, we visited about 7 or 8 towns total. We weren’t real die hard tourists and we were doing good to get that far. You’ll see me looking pretty sleepy in a few of those shots.

He says: you may notice I look “fat” in a few of them too. I’m now on a bread and water diet. It’s an awesome diet so…ancient.

VERONA

Nadia: We landed in Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet. We got to visit with old friends and some new ones. My computer adapter blew out there, but thank God, a friendly local helped bust open that old Dell adapter and fixed it right up.

He says: We stayed with the brethren in Verona. Thank you Verona home! You made jet lagging and our first days in Italy easy and enjoyable. We really appreciate your hospitality. Getting the adapter fixed was a miracle. We were pretty sure it was a gonner. We just so happen to meet this guy at a store looking for a replacement adapter who said he would try and fix it. He fixed it, but the part that he put in was too big for the adapter casing so now we have a resister, or what ever it is sticking out of the casing. It’s quite original. Two thumbs way up for the man who fixed it and, Dell, sorry, but you kind of lose this one. Make adapters that work like you say they do.

VENICE

Nadia: After Verona we trained over to Venice. I was expecting a smelly old town, but it’s very charming. We walked over to San Marcos square where our great event of the day was to spend the day in the Doge’s palace. I love the movie Dangerous Beauty, so maybe that’s why I found the place so charming. It’s just so magical though with all those canals – a city on water. They say our kids probably won’t get to enjoy it though as most likely in 10 years it’ll be starting to decay fast with water damage. Maybe it’s a sales ploy though.

He says: Never saw the movie. Don’t care to either. Despite never seeing this movie I thought Venice was a pretty cool place. The architecture is amazing. Back in the day Venice must have been a very powerful/wealthy city. For being that old I thought it was in good condition. When I saw the Grand Canal with all the buildings and gondolas I thought that heaven might look something like this, of course, heaven is much more splendorous, but oddly enough that was one of the first thoughts that past through my brain. Although raising kids in a city like Venice would be a nightmare. With all those canals it’s so dangerous. There’s not really any place for kids for that matter. It’s also VERY expensive. Bring your own lunch if you ever visit, if you don’t be prepared to pay dearly for everything. The bathroom cost me 70 Euro cents. With our failing economy 70 Euro cents is about $ 1 and 7 cents, or could be about $10 tomorrow.

TUSCANY - VOLTERRA, SAN GIMIGNIANO AND SIENA

Nadia: Next we drove on down to Tuscany – gorgeous as ever. Justin stole a little thunder by blogging about Tuscany. He really did love it. I did too, but all those hill cities really are steep. I loved the two towns, Volterra and San Gimigniano. They were so quaint. They filmed the movie Brother Sun in San G. We had a blast with the home there near Pisa. They’re the European version of the RockStar Home – very fun folks. We actually got company going to Sienna. Kaia was on her day off so she came with us to explore the one and only cathedral we went to on our trip.

Thunder stealer: who’s the “Rock star” home? Must be an inside joke. I loved Tuscany. It’s very cool. And yes I agree, the folks in the Pisa home were lots fun. I think Tuscany was the most seenic places in Italy that we visited. The old medieval towns were awesome.

ROMA

Nadia: After leaving Tuscany, our next stop was Rome. We almost decided to skip Rome, but that would have been a sad mistake. We thought we’d seen a lot of cool ancient ruins until we got there. The first day we went to the Colloseum, the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. That was such a wipeout that we decided to give the Vatican a miss and instead went to the Catacombs. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get good pictures of that though as they had huge “no camera or video camera” signs everywhere. Sneaky little Justin, with a little help from his sneaky little wife – me, did take some video though. Maybe I’ll find a way to post that. It felt very “catacombish”. Nyahaha.

He says: The Rome home was cool. God bless you guys for all your doing. We never took pictures in the catacombs. Visiting Rome was an interesting look at Christianity’s history and, of course, Roman history as well. Rome has lots of cool things to see. It’s impossible to see everything in two days, for that matter it’s the same with Venice, they’re too big. There is so much history in Rome that it would take you forever to really understand everything that you are seeing. The Colloseum is the second most visited place in the world. The first is the Ifle tower. Don’t know how that made it to the top. One amazing fact about the Colloseum is that wasn’t really used so much for killing Christians. Why? It was too small. The Coliseum held around 50,000 spectators, or so they say. Christian killing was done at the circus (the stadium in Benhur) It held many more spectators (300,000.) I guess Christian killing must have been big business. The Colloseum was for gladiators and animal fights. The sad thing about visiting the Catacombs was that there were a lot of small tombs (little kids.) The mortality rate back then was about 40 % for children- very high. There are several different catacombs in the area. One of them that we visited is said to have about half a million tombs of Christians buried there. One interesting thing that I found out is that the catacombs where used as a burial place for Christians not Romans. I had previously thought that the Catacombs were used as burial grounds for the Romans and that Christians would use it as a secret meeting place. I found out though that for the most part it wasn’t really a place were Christians would hold services, although there was a church down there. I think it was similar to what a modern cemetery would be used for. Also, the Romans were aware of the catacombs, but they left them alone. Maybe they figured that since they’re killing them they need a place to bury them. Visiting the Catacombs made me admire those that have gone before us. It also made me realize (again) that Christianity has never promised an easy life. I think it’s easy to lose that prospective. Sometimes I (we) balk at what the Lord asks of me (us.) Many of those buried in the Catacombs though gave their lives for what they believed in. We are the benefactors from their clear understanding of the word “sacrifice.”

BRESCHIA

Nadia: The grand finale of our trip was getting to go up to Breschia and see Michael and Amy the day after they arrived and before we left. We were originally going to Italy together, but got split up. L We were happy to get a little time (pizza and gelato) with them.

He says: Bresha was fun! Samuele, Lily and family, thank you so much for having us. We really enjoyed our stay with you. You were lots of fun to talk to and you helped make our stay in Italy fun and memorable. Gelatos (Italian ice cream) don’t get me started on those. I really miss them. Lucky Italians. I also miss the wine and the food.

Nadia: Enjoy the millions of photos we promised to take. There were a few million more thanks to Justin’s awe at Roman/Italian/Medieval architecture (yep, there were a lot of walls, doors, arched windows in there that will have to wait for a private viewing).

VIOLET’S VACATION 

On a final note, Grandma pulled off Violet’s part of the vacation and Violet seemed to have a blast in Texas not knowing what she was missing. She may hate me later for leaving her behind, but for now, all she knows is Grandma and Grandpa were great. She got a lot of spoiling and visits from her Paone and Bruni Grandparents and uncles/aunties. And she got mommy in the end too. What a vacation!

He says: Yes, enjoy the pics. The doors and arched windows are the good stuff - don’t be deceived. One day when the world forgets about arches and doors they will come crawling on their knees begging to see my ridiculously cool looking pictures of arches and doors.

Happy Birthday Nadia!

Posted by: admin in He Says 9 Comments »

Hope this new year is a fun filled one! Violet and I are two lucky people to have you in our lives. Love you.

Heart breaking!

Posted by: admin in She Says 2 Comments »

This story made me cry today. You just know there’s another side of the story that hopefully will start to come out before these little guys, moms and dads suffer too much more.

I miss my baby!

Posted by: admin in She Says, BabysRus 4 Comments »

Thanks for taking such good care of her, mom!

Coffee, Tuscany and More

Posted by: admin in He Says 9 Comments »

Captain’s Log:
Star date: April eight, two thousand and eight

Location: Tuscany, Italy

In April our specialized, compact, low fuel, low horse power, motor carriage made by Fiat crossed the boundary from the Veneto region to the Tuscan region. The divide was in the mountains — very beautiful mountains, they reminded me of the Appellatian Mountains back home.

The coffee dilemma:

No journey is without its challenges, nor was this particular leg of our journey into Tuscany. My challenge came when I felt the familiar need for a nice cup of coffee welling up in me as I forced my tired brain to focus on driving. I thought getting a nice cup of coffee would be a no brainer. I spotted a rest stop and pulled into it. As I pulled in I thought of things like “Starbucks” and figured that they must have that, or something similar to it here. I fought my way to the coffee stand (rest stops always seem to be packed here) and to my dismay I found some really odd looking, high tech machines that were all computerized, and in Italian. there was nothing that resembled Starbucks, or coffee that I was familiar with for that matter. I flagged some passerby down and in a combination of hand motions and span-o-english I conveyed to her that I ‘m a dumb tourist and need help getting coffee. Italians are very hospitable and the lady gladly helped me. I told her I wanted to get coffee, but don’t know what these fancy machines are. She realized what I wanted was “American coffee,” and with a bit of distain at the thought of such an abominable way of drinking coffee, she explained to me that in Italy I’m probably not going to find “American coffee.” “We drink espresso here” she said with a sense of dignity and pride. At this point I wasn’t sure what to do. All I wanted was a nice cup of coffee to slowly sip as I drove. Espresso is so strong and seems like such a speedy way to drink something that should be enjoyed. I think she saw my inner turmoil so she offered to help me pick out an espresso coffee from the automatic coffee vending machine. She suggested the weakest coffee available. At this point any manliness I thought I may have had seemed so far away. Here is a woman helping me pick the weakest coffee available. I humbly consented to her suggestion. She went about programing the machine with how much surgar to add etc. and then, presto, out of the vending machine poped a small disposable plastic cup with espresso along with a stir straw placed inside the cup. Amazing! The other amazing thing is I stayed up till 4:30 AM from it as well.

Tuscany:

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! People that live here should be thankful for such a beautiful environment, and I’m sure they are. The rolling green hills with olive orchards, vineyards, forests, and dotted with little stone farm houses that are almost as old as the hills themselves makes a stunning landscape. I would love to restore one of these buildings. They’re awesome. They have such character. And then there are the little villages dotted throughout the country side dating back to medieval times and older. There are castles and walls, old Roman and Etruscan ruins. We visited San Gemignano yesterday. Its called the Manhattan of Tuscany because of its medieval defense towers that give it a “sky line” look. It quite amazing. San Gemigano is where the movie “Brother Sun” was filmed.

7

***

4

***

Culture:

The culture is quite cool. Visiting the home here in Tuscany you can see the Italian culture intertwined into Family living. Dinners are a time of talking and fellowship over wine that comes from the local vineyards. They refill their wine bottles at the local wineries. I’ve found Italian bread seems to be another staple on Italian tables as well, which is quite nice. Italians love soccer and they know how to play it quite well. The guys in the home invited me to play with them yesterday. One of the guys lent me his cleats. Unfortunately, cleats is something I’m not familiar with and I took out two of their best players in the space of 15 minutes. I felt like a barbarian on the field. I also broke a bunch of strings on their guitars during their music night last night. I’m starting to get a reputation as the Destructive American. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that even with all there good food, as a society people are not overweight for the most part. Another thing I’ve noticed is that here in Italy there are very few children. I’ve read about the decrease of children in western Europeans countries, but being here, children are a rarity and stand out. We spoke with a long time resident of San Geminiangno yesterday as we ate paninos in his little restaurant and he showed us his family tree dating back 300 years and mentioned that their names dies out this generation because no one’s having children anymore. It’s pretty sad.
Well, enough rambling. We’re enjoying our trip immensely and the homes here have been very nice and hospitable to us. It has also been nice to see all the missionary work that is going on in this part of the world. The folks here are very active in there work for the Lord and are doing a lot. A special thanks to every one back home who are covering for us so that we can get some time off. We love you and are so thankful for you. Looking forward to seeing you.

bertelli

The last of the Bertelli Family of San Geminiango

***

8

***

6

Two of the 13 towers of San Geminiango

***

5

The old medieval wall of San Gemianiango

***

nadia

a tired sight seer

***

sit

Great place for a nap

***

2

***

1

The roman theater and baths in Volterra

Verona!

Posted by: admin in He Says 1 Comment »

We are officially over our jet lag and got to visit Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet who we found out may not exist. Ah, well. Justin got to make out with Juliet a little and I loved this medieval garden I made Justin traipse all over town to find. Oh, and I`m starting to remember why I always felt so self conscious about my height growing up. I feel like Goliath strolling around town around these cute little Italians. A few are tall, but you walk down the mall and get a clear view all the way down. Freaky!
I`ll post pictures soon. You know we have them.

Touchdown!

Posted by: admin in She Says, He Says, BabysRus 11 Comments »

We’re here! We got in nice and jet lagged, but Justin guided us through the jungles of the Milan freeways. Actually, he was amazed at how organized and easy to use everything is. The Italians are very nice, except I’m a little shy trying to use my rusty ol’ Italian. We’re staying in Verona now with Andrea, Michael’s brother and Justin is rebelling and sleeping away his afternoon/early evening. I hear Violet’s having fun with grandma and hasn’t really started missing us yet, thanks to a few little pups and a very fun Grandma. That’s about it for now. We miss everyone.

bday
Birthday girl
kiss
Goodbyes
hat
The little tough cookie, ready to take on grandma :)
driver
Justin checking out the Milan freeways
the view
The Verona country side

Party like you’re 20, Clara! Last year before you’re officially an adult so get away with whatever you can. :)

We miss you. Violet and I send lots of love and I’ve been trying to call you. Thank you for being such a wonderful auntie and sister in law. I hope you like your present. A big smooch from Violet.

The Trip

Posted by: admin in She Says, BabysRus 3 Comments »

Violet and I made it! I’m blogging from sunny Houston, Texas. The trip was alright. I haven’t traveled Southwest in a while, so didn’t know they’ve cut back on luggage allowances, baby gear allowances, pre-boarding allowances for babies, and a bunch of other stuff that used to be quite nice. They tried to charge me $50 to check my stroller as I’m boarding the plan when it’s too late to leave it home. Well, they almost inherited it. That’s more than the stroller is worth. Unfortunately, due to my “condition” I got a little emotional and started crying. The lady instantly felt very bad, let it on for free, and even let me preboard. I hope this crazy, crying pregnant lady doesn’t see any of those people ever again.
Oh, one other thing that made me chuckle, I’m frantically removing my shoes and belt and computer and trying to shove my bags through the xray machine while Violet runs wild at the security counter and the security lady turns to this unsuspecting teen boy behind me and tells him to fold my stroller. Ha.  He looked pretty distressed before I saved the day and let him off the hook. Apparently she thought he was traveling with me. Poor baby.

The good news is, Violet was very good on the flight. It was a packed flight so she was on my lap the entire time, but she made a lot of friends and even met a children’s book author who gave Violet one of her books. She also LOVES grandma. She couldn’t stop smiling when she saw her.

We are Outta here!

Posted by: admin in She Says 2 Comments »

Violet and I leave tomorrow for Texas for part 1 of our travels. Please pray it goes well. I’ve got a few goodies in my bag — I have the “bee moomie” on my computer, her #1 favorite right now, and some arts supplies. But, for everything else — there’s prayer power. :)

Also, please pray against this flu going around. Justin has it today. At least he doesn’t travel till Monday, but I’m sure praying I don’t get it.