Day Thirteen - The Giulias in My LIfe

One with a "J" and one with a "G". One twelve and one almost one. One of Italian origin and one Italian through and through. One my god-daughter and one the daughter of a best friend. Both curious girls, wanting to discover the world around them. One on her way to Junior High and one just leaving for a month by the beach...Julia and Giulia are cute girls in my life, that remind me how nice it is to be surrounded by girls with their affection, beautiful smiles and gentle presence...

My best friend in elementary school's name was Giulia Di Stefano. I lost contact with her once in junior high, but I still remember the name which is now evidently important for my future. It is nice to have Giulias still around. :)

I know my god-daughter will soon want to come back to Rome for another summer adventure. In the meantime I know she reads these lines often and waits for news from her cousins and zia.  It was hot today, the temperature even reached 38 degrees at a point in the middle of Rome traffic. Oh! Rome traffic!  What a symbol of this Italian eternal city that I will never miss in my whole life!  I drove a lot today and I am glad we made it back home safe. It is a jungle out there...literally!

The kids went to Arcinazzo and Michele is ready to share some new games he learned at camp with his friends in LIT at the YMCA when back in Edmonton.  He is already in bed - cannot stand the long days of too much fun....Marco will soon follow. We continue to enjoy everyday in this heat, sunshine, good friends and good company. Another culture and different ways of living but all worth exploring.

Day Twelve - the Trip for St. Pietro and Paolo

One of the few traditions we have established and keep up with during our biennial visit to Rome, is to follow along a group of people who call themselves Ex-Allievi (ex-students) of the Borgo Ragazzi don Bosco. My father was one of them and so is my uncle. Each year, on June 29 or thereabout, they go for a day trip somewhere around central Italy.

This year it was the time to make it to Bolsena, the biggest volcanic lake in Europe and Orvieto, a lovely medieval town with a spectacular cathedral. We ate a splendid restaurant everything fish, Marco even managed to get wet and drove the bus for a while. Marco was amazed at how "older" people do not get bored at all, they can sing forever on the bus and pray like there's no tomorrow. We even made it a day mass in a nice church were a miracle was supposed to have happened a few centuries ago.

I am a bit tired as of now, so I am only posting this brief summary and some pics. I will soon get down to a new little video montage and more details of our day. Tomorrow the ids make it to Arcinazzo where about another 500 kids from similar summer camps meet together and play games. THey will surely come home half dead but also happy.

All is well at this corner of the world.

First Day of Camp - Estate ragazzi

The adventure begins again!

We dedicate this entry to our cousin Daniela. Everyone was asking about her at camp, from the old guard. Remember Flavio?  Here is a short clip to bring back good memories.

Michele and Marco could not wait to be back. It is nice to see so many kids over and over again, enjoying their time together with each other over these summer weeks.  I am sure there will be more than our share of good stories to tell in the days to come. Even though we have a short break tomorrow - visiting another couple of Italian small towns with their good traditions and stories.

I also visited zio Morino's wood shop and the boat he is building together with his friend. As usual I add the pics to the slide show link. Maybe I will get back to these reflections a bit later. Now off to work.

Day Ten - A Lazy Sunday

...or Getting Used to a Different Rhythm of Life.

Not much to share for today. Getting my uncle at Borgo and back home for lunch together with mom. In the late afternoon we went for a walk on one of the Seven Hills of Rome, Gianicolo. The view is spectacular from this hill even if some parts are covered by trees. Marco succeeded in catching a small lizard but we stopped him before he could cut off her tail. Then our ritual continued with the ice-cream stop and a light dinner with pizza ‘al taglio’. I am on my way back to drive my uncle home and the kids are getting quite ready for summer camp tomorrow.  Fortunately the traffic on Sunday is not as bad and the weather continues to collaborate. As long as I sleep through the night we are good.

We are getting used to the rhythms of this city and the customs of this country –even though I am convinced that I am way more Canadian by now than I can ever be Italian again. But visiting is good, feels right and makes us connected to our roots – especially the kids.

I added some more pics to the show and here. Talk to you tomorrow.

Day Eight and Nine - Calming Down and Getting Ready

or...how Rome is Still so Nice even on Lazy days!

We took a couple of days off from the drive to travel around and visiting different places. We are still busy planning and checking around, but we did not travel as much. The temperature continues to favour us. Even though it is raining right now, in the early evening, threatening for us not to be able to go for our usual Italian 3-scoop ice-cream trip for Marco, we will face the weather and go visit an old high school friend of mine: zia Lalla.

Michele and I traveled a bit to the Pantheon, which we easily reached with 7 stops by bus and a quick walk. Different colours around when the skies are not as clear, but the feeling of walking around ancient history is the same. At least for me.

We dine with my uncle tomorrow and will venture a few more corners of this wonderful city of mine, to make sure the undersigned has enough photo shots for the trip. I would not want to fail and not reach my quota (usually around 6-7,000 pics per trip).

Enjoy what I get to post - I will add a few more of videos when we go for a new full day trip. In the meantime the kids look forward to starting summer camp on Monday.

Day Seven - On Our Way Back to Rome...

...or How to Learn that Traveling Together Makes Us Closer.

I have to share my sense of accomplishment and success, having completed all in calm and cool fashion a full day trip back from the island of Sardinia all the way back home to my mom. May I point out that I had to travel from the village we were in to the main port  - Olbia and from the port of Civitavecchia to Rome, on highways that I had never covered before.  And may I add that some of the roads were traveled in the middle of the night.

We came back all in one piece and had a great time together. OK: Italy sucked.  Real bad this time. I heard on the radio this was the worst performance in half a century. The way I see it sometimes you win sometimes you loose, right?  Michele spent time watching the game from one of the decks, while the kids and myself stayed in our room.  When Michele came back he said he had never heard so many swear words in his life.  He was not sure it was actually legal to scream and act that way in public! (I do not think it is, but people were justifiably upset, to say the least. And there was no actual violence!)

Marco and Sara enjoyed themselves quite nicely in the room. Though small and the trip being long, the sharing of that long trip to be together forced them to bond in quite a nice way. Marco learned (or was literally forced) to actually memorize the names of all these different actors and actresses that 11-year-old girls in Italy go crazy for, as Sara was sharing the pages with him.

The bonding of the cousins has become, and so has the speaking of Italian.  Practice makes perfect, and needed practice to survive and thrive amongst young people in order to remain the cool dude, is quite important.  I just make the kids stay in the right company and do the right things. Family and friends will do the rest.

Day Six - Save the Best for Last...

or...How to enjoy a day on the boat in the company of Filippo.

As they say, save the best for last is quite a good piece of advice. We did not plan for it but it happened. The perfect day for a boat trip that truly turned out to be the experience of a lifetime.

We begin at around 10:30 a.m. meeting on the dock our guide for the day: Paolo. Rough, gentle and very good looking sardinian sea man. His skin as dark as they come, bilingual (Italian and French) and very proud of his coast. There are about 16 of us, with one more kid from another family and some couples from out of town.

But the star of the day is Paolo's stray dog Filippo, who is an adopted sailor that loves the sea, the boat and high speeds. As you can see from the pictures this little thing was truly our guide for the day. As much as his owner tried to control him, the dog was a free spirit, who could not resist going on other boats or jumping in the middle of high waters for the sake of it. Everyone loved him.

The coast line of Cala Gonone is an amazing piece of art from nature. The sea has as many shades of blue as you can imagine, the rocks on the coast make shapes that change with each season, and the small private beaches (reachable only by sea) are a jewel to contemplate and be amazed by.

We did our trip from the end to the beginning - the waters were a bit unstable in the morning but the small motorboat let us get into practically every single corner of the land. And when we took off for longer stretches the kids enjoyed the bumpy ride from the font of the boat. Definitely an experience.

Two more highlights of the day included passing through a corner where cormorant birds come to breed and raise their little ones. We passed through with our boat engine turned off and keeping as silent as possible. Unbelievable.

Finally the caves of the Marine Bull, another phenomenon of mother nature and her calcium-formed rocks. Millennia took over the rocks and erosion created fable-like corners that are a feast to the eye. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside. Back at the cars we still had time for one more swim and ice-cream before heading home. And even if we leave tomorrow (Thursday) we will have much to tell for many weeks to come. And this entry will give us the sparkle to remember it all.

Day Five – Change of Plans

We had it all figured out – take a long day trip on the longest day of the year and the first day of summer. Destination: the coasts of this wonderful gulf via motorboat. An all day trip to the ocean corners of the island that can be reached only by the sea. Everyone here raves about the adventure and we thought that would be a nice highlight of the trip.

But the weather is playing a funny game all over Italy, and though we were spared heavy rains, the cool temperatures of the day did not warrant trying out for the adventure quite yet. So we dedicated the morning to visiting a holy ground for the original peoples of the island, walking through ruins of 3600 years ago, chasing lizards that came out as soon as a bit of sun started peeking in…Marco had it hard not being allowed to climb on these wonderful sized walls…I felt Goosebumps as I walked around the place.

After that we cam down the coast and attempted a new take at the beach as the waters seemed docile and the wind had stopped blowing. Desert beaches are not hard to find in here, at this time of the season. In fact the waters were better and even though not sunny it seemed possible to try a dive or two. But jellyfish decided to show up so no one dared to get wet and remain relaxed.

No one but Marco that is! He stayed by the wet side of the beach and hunted the fish that was either dead or too cold to resist his attack. We proudly counted two catches before we left the spot for a brief rainy break. Any excuse to get wet will do for him.

Back home the afternoon nap lasted about 2.5 hours for the kids, as we planned our outing at a pizza place.  Even in Sardinia, a land that is not known for its pizzas, this delicious meal is to die for. Of course the finishing plan had to include a new ice-cream stop before getting back home. And sleeping tight while praying – or as my cousin Daniele said “dancing for the sun” – that the warm weather will assist us for tomorrow’s day trip before we head back home on Thursday.

Day Four - Sweet Low Earthly Wind…

We finally made it to a decent morning by the beach. One that is all aligned with Italian standards. We stopped by two beaches, Santa Maria and the gulf of Orisei, the town we are staying in for the time of our beach vacation break.  You will see by the pictures that the beaches are still desert, clean and filled with the sweet sound of the wind by the ocean, a gentle sun and bearable sand on your feet.

Filled with sunscreen on every corner of our skin that the sun may touch, the kids braved the still somewhat cold waters in search for fishes. And all was fine. Back at the house we cooked home made pasta and the slowed down for the afternoon.  My connection to the Internet is still not ideal, but I will continue to commit these memories to my desktop and post them later when file uploads will be possible. We plan to do a fun-filled all day trip to special coastline of the area that can only be reached by boat. I will have much more to share tomorrow at the end of the day.

For now, keep enjoying the pictures when they do show. I will post some video clips soon – to show the lively skies and horizons of this part of the world.

Day Three Even if the Weather does not collaborate…

Day three turns out to be a nice day as the rest of the trip. I know, by Italian standards today’s temperatures and weather are not what you would call ideal.  Barely 24 – 25 degrees Celsius and a bit windy, but no rain and really, a lovely sky indeed…definitely not the outlook for a summer day that the locals would be proud of.

We still made it to the beach – two in fact. The first brief step in the morning on the way to get some milk at the store and then on our way to visit lovely caves with what we learned is the tallest stalagmite in Europe.  You will see by the pictures how everything in here is so different from home (Canada) and yet so lovely to experience as usual when in Italy.

After a brief stop by the second beach (no sand here – but little small stones) with a nice quick Panini lunch, we headed for a special place: Dorgali – La Grotta di Ispingoli. This wonderful cave is home to the tallest stalagmite in Europe – over 38 meters tall. They would not allow official picture taking in the cave, but I stole a few seconds with a small camera just to tell the tale and picture it for posterity. Hope this will not get me in trouble in the future!

Italy is playing against New Zealand as we speak – even game so far, not the best they have played to date, but the world games have just begun.

We are planning a calm dinner at home, with Spaghetti Aglio e Olio e Peperoncino and maybe an outing later one to discover some sweet sides of Sardinia (I hear they have many).  Unfortunately the connection I have does not work its best here, so the blog updating takes forever. If you read this and can view the pics it means it worked after all.

Day Two - No Other Way to Travel...

Just here not even twenty-four hours and here we go again on a traveling jump. We headed at about 2:00 p.m. to the coast of Civitavecchia, an older port north of Rome, where a bunch of ships and ferries takes off daily to bring people to other coasts of Italy. Our destination: Olbia, in Sardegna.

The good thing about traveling at home for me is finding places and people who have been places before and know their best way around. IN this case my cousin Daniele (a.k.a Jesus) and his wife Luana and little great Andrea, also known as Leonardo.  My cousins have done this trip before, many times, and in many a fashion. This time we chose the deluxe package.

Apparently, you can travel these ocean waters to the coast of the island for as little as 20 Euros each way or you can select, early as possible, to bring your car and book a deluxe cabin for about 90 Euros each way, which is what we did in our case. Let me tell you: this is the way you want to travel. The only way to go! They do not joke around. We have a four-bed cabin with blankets and pillows, a private toilet – filled with fresh towels to take a shower and a spacious closet.

The different decks on the top give you plenty of space to entertain your kids (little ones till the age of ten have much to do with the cartoons from Warner Brothers – after all the cruise line is sponsored by the American company! Ample corridors leave space to do much of anything; bars and a little theatre space for live entertainment are also included. The covered deck lets you enjoy the trip with a view and for the more courageous ones, open spaces outside lets you breath in all the wind, salt and fresh water splashes in the world.

I have definitely counted this as a very good way of traveling if going to the island.  The trip seems to be offering so much to the mind and the experience already! Not shabby at all!

…OK! There was one singe tiny bit moment of panic: when about 2,000 take the same two sets of stairs to go down four floors down to get back to their cars…not a pleasant view nor a wishing thought for anyone…But we bravely survived the adventure, with about another 90 minutes drive in the middle of the countryside and are now in place ready to settle down for sleep.

Talk to you soon!

Day One - The arrival

...or the Friday we made it to Rome in one piece!

Just a few happy notes on an otherwise uneventful if long trip.  Stop in Montreal and then heading to Rome, when the last hour on the international flight sure feels like it never ends!

A brief nap in the afternoon (believe it or not the temperatures are human this time!) and then a visit to Borgo, checking on old friends and getting acquainted back with the atmosphere of our old summer camp!

Tomorrow we head for Orosei, in Sardinia and should be there by early evening. A trip on the ferry boat with the Italian cousins and, in case we still feel the jetlag, we will be making it to the private small cabin to another nap. Looking forward to the experience. I have decided this time I am going to be off from work for a while!