My great aunt’s house in Valdagno, Italy.
Happy Friday!
Ciao for now,
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label italy. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
TTIC #20- Italia
Viva Italia!! I'm so excited about this week's Twilighttuesday.com challenge!! The challenge has to do with all thing Italian, as part of the Twilight saga takes place in Italy, and involves the Volturi. The comment portion of the challenge asks:"... have been to Italy? What did you like best about it? Have you been to Volterra? And what are you hoping the director of New Moon captures about Italy in the movie?"
Yes, I can finally say I've been to Italy. I am half Italian, my mother was born in Valdagno, a small mountain town in the Northern part of Italy close to Venezia (Venice). If you've been following my little blog, you have heard me mention before that we took a month long family vacation in September, spending two weeks in Italy, and the remainder of our two weeks in Austria, Germany and France.
We spent our time in Northern Italy, starting in Rome, then to the Amalfi coast, up to Florence, Pisa, Lucca, over to Vicenza and Valdagno to visit with family and then we finished in Venice. It's incredibly hard to answer which location I loved the best, each city or town presented something new and different and each time we arrived somewhere new I said "this is it, it's my favourite place". The food, the wine, the culture, the music, the men...Mamma Mia! Que bello!
I often find myself muttering under my breath in Italian when angry or frustrated, and recently I caught myself continuely saying "for why?" when asking a question. I realized that I was translating from Italian---'per que?' literally means "for why" in english...funny, eh? One other thing that stands out from my Italian classes is when my Professor, who arrived from Rome just before the semester started, was explaining reflexive verbs to the class. We had some people who were very literal thinkers, and couldn't seem to grasp reflexive verbs without a direct English translation. So the lesson about the verb "piacere" - "to like" became this:
"Tu, mi piace"-- means " you,... I like" {*said like Joey from Friends saying "how you doinnn?"}
You would never actually say this to someone if you did like them, but it soon became the motto for the class. Try it, people will be impressed. :) if nothing else, they will laugh.
Sorry for the sidebar- to continue with the challenge question- No, I have not yet been to Volterra, although I have been in the Tuscany region (Pisa, Lucca) and I imagine it to be quite similar. What am I hoping that New Moon captures while in Italy? I haven't really thought about that, I'm worried about how they're going to make the movie and release it so fast, the details about Italy aren't in the forefront of my worries.And for the crafty challenge,....I'm bringing you to Italy. Or rather, I'm bringing Italy to you. I have FINALLY found a way to share my videos of my pictures (my friends at twilighttuesday know how much I've whined about this).
So please, pour yourself un vetro di vino (a glass of wine) e corsa in Italia (and travel to Italy)
My first video is of Rome and you can watch it here.
Up next is the Amalfi Coast, including Minori, Capri and Pompeii. You can watch it here.
And last but not least, is a tour through Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Vicenza, Valdagno, and Venice. You can watch it here.
*Instructions* these links are for the instant video. If you see a screen like this:
Make sure to check out twilighttuesday.com and all the other submissions.
Buon Viaggio (have a good trip!) et bouna notte (and good night)
Ciao for now,
Friday, February 13, 2009
Foto Friday # 5- European Wedding Pictures
September seemed to be a busy wedding month in Europe; in a number of cities we saw a Bride and Groom, mostly out taking their wedding pictures.
In honour of Valentine’s day tomorrow, here are some wedding pictures from Europe.
Berlin, Germany
Rome, Italy
What could be more romantic than having your wedding pictures taken on the Spanish Steps in Rome?…
Getting married at the Cathedral in Piazza San Marco, Venice; and then crossing the Piazza to your reception with a full orchestra…
Happy Friday,
Ciao for now,
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge #15- CARS!!
I'm SOOO excited about this weeks challenge. I love cars. Love them!!If you could see the "My Pictures" folder on my computer you would discover about 90% of the pictures are of 
cars. I've gone to the car show 3 years in a row. I often day dream about what cars I would buy if I won the lotto. I have 2 dream cars- one realistic that I will (one day) buy, The Lexus Sc 430 Hardtop Convertable. Isn't it great??
And the other...requires the winning the lotto factor. Big time! A Maserati GT Spyder. *drool*
So, the first part of the challenge is to identify which of the Cullen cars you would pick. Easy peasy. Edward's Astin Martin.
It's the closest to my Maserati dream car.
I have had the luxury of seeing an Aston Martin close up, (and not at the car show- those sightings don't really count)
Ok, second part of the challenge is to make a project inspired by Car theme. After looking at Julie's awesome digi scrapbook page, and Eve's clever keychain, I figured I should think outside the box on this one. I remembered a picture I took in Italy, in Vicenza. It's a beautiful little town that's not far from where my mom was born in Valdagno. We rented a car so we could travel from Vicenza where we were staying, to visit our family in Valdagno. Now, driving in Italy is an adventure in itself. Driving in a 1994 Jaguar which is probably the biggest car in all of Northern Italy is another story. It was hilarious to see the looks on people's faces when we drove by. We couldn't go all the way up the mountain roads to our relatives house because the car was too big and would fall off the mountain side! I'm not kidding. The roads we could travel on, we followed my Mom's cousin Anna-Maria in her car because you have to honk the horn around each corner, to let oncoming traffic know you're coming- you can't fit 2 cars side by side around the corners. In 1994, Jaguar decided to put the horn on the end of the stick for the windshield wipers! it took nearly all 4 days we had the car to discover that little tidbit.
So to my entry in the challenge- this is a picture I took from our apartment balcony in Vicenza. My poor mother and her cousin trying to figure out how to get our giant Jag out of the parking spot. The caption is what another driver wrote on a note left for my mom.
I know this didn't take much to put together, but sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!!
Make sure you check out the rest of the Twilight team's projects and join us for the challenge!!
Ciao for now,
S.
cars. I've gone to the car show 3 years in a row. I often day dream about what cars I would buy if I won the lotto. I have 2 dream cars- one realistic that I will (one day) buy, The Lexus Sc 430 Hardtop Convertable. Isn't it great??And the other...requires the winning the lotto factor. Big time! A Maserati GT Spyder. *drool*
So, the first part of the challenge is to identify which of the Cullen cars you would pick. Easy peasy. Edward's Astin Martin.
It's the closest to my Maserati dream car.I have had the luxury of seeing an Aston Martin close up, (and not at the car show- those sightings don't really count)
Ok, second part of the challenge is to make a project inspired by Car theme. After looking at Julie's awesome digi scrapbook page, and Eve's clever keychain, I figured I should think outside the box on this one. I remembered a picture I took in Italy, in Vicenza. It's a beautiful little town that's not far from where my mom was born in Valdagno. We rented a car so we could travel from Vicenza where we were staying, to visit our family in Valdagno. Now, driving in Italy is an adventure in itself. Driving in a 1994 Jaguar which is probably the biggest car in all of Northern Italy is another story. It was hilarious to see the looks on people's faces when we drove by. We couldn't go all the way up the mountain roads to our relatives house because the car was too big and would fall off the mountain side! I'm not kidding. The roads we could travel on, we followed my Mom's cousin Anna-Maria in her car because you have to honk the horn around each corner, to let oncoming traffic know you're coming- you can't fit 2 cars side by side around the corners. In 1994, Jaguar decided to put the horn on the end of the stick for the windshield wipers! it took nearly all 4 days we had the car to discover that little tidbit.
So to my entry in the challenge- this is a picture I took from our apartment balcony in Vicenza. My poor mother and her cousin trying to figure out how to get our giant Jag out of the parking spot. The caption is what another driver wrote on a note left for my mom.
I know this didn't take much to put together, but sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!!
Make sure you check out the rest of the Twilight team's projects and join us for the challenge!!
Ciao for now,
S.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Foto Friday #1
Photography is something I've always been interested in. I've been known to fill up memory cards in under a day. My dad used to develop photographs in our basement, and all our baby pictures were taken by him. I thought that I would share some photos from my travels in what I'll call 'Foto Fridays'...that way at least one day of the week will have a guaranteed entry :).
It's been mighty cold here in Ontario, a cold snap is moving though from Siberia (no joke) and it's been -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F for my American neighbors) for the past few days and it has me thinking back to my recent month-long trip to Europe this past September.
We experienced beautiful, but hot hot hot! weather the two weeks we spent in Italy. One stop of our trip was the Amalfi Coast on the western side of Italy, just south of Naples. We stayed in a beautiful little sea-side town named Minori.
It was simply stunning. You were never more than a 5 minute walk to the beach.
At night, all the town residents come out to the waterfront, there's a soccer field beside the beach; the women walk and chat; the men mend their fishing nets. It's incredible.The Amalfi coast is famous for ceramics, lemons and of course, lemoncello- a liqueur made with lemons and sugar. The sea food is fresh, the gelato is sublime and the scenery...breathtaking.
We spent a day at the beach, alternating from the safe shade of our sun chair, to the salty warm sea water; enjoying the view of the cliffs and lemon trees.
During our 5 days on the coast, we met a local Italian cab driver, he is 70 yrs old and his name is Alfonso. He rescued us when we got off the bus in Maiori, a literal 2 minute drive around the cliff from Minori, our destination. Alfonso became our friend and tour guide, taking is to Pompeii to see the ruins, and showing us local lemon trees, chestnut trees, vineyards and Mount Vesuvius along the way.
We spent one day on the Isle of Capri, the most beautiful little island, famous for upscale shopping (there was a Prada store that took me hostage here). I had the best gnocchi I've ever eaten in Capri (don't tell my Nonna!-Italian grandmother for those of you not familiar with the term). Capri is famous for sandals; both my sister and I had a pair made for us. They take the measurement of your foot, you pick the leather and design you want, come back in 30 minutes, and you have yourself a pair of sandals.Enjoy this little piece of Italy, may it bring you warmth.
Ciao,
S.
