Italy

Thankful in November

November 10, 2010 by Kelli

My sister-in-law (who is all kinds of awesome) is doing a month long series in which she details that which she is thankful for. Imagine that! Giving thanks in the month of Novemeber…who ever heard of such a thing?

I, personally, love the idea of focusing on that for which I am thankful. It’s so easy to get bogged down in the negative, in the business and craziness and OMGI’MNOTGONNASURVIVETHIS moments of life that sometimes I have to stop myself and remember the happy.

In general I’m not much of an Eyeore type person. I’m thankful for that because with some of the heartaches that I have faced in the past, it would be very easy to be an Eyeore. But then again, it’s that way for all of us, isn’t it? We’ve all faced pain, heartache, trial, hurt. We all have the choice to dwell in the pain, live in the past and simmer in the hurt.

Or…

We can move on, step forward and let the past fade in the distance. For some, that’s easy to do. For others, it’s much harder due to deeper wounds, harsher trials or simply because they are hardwired from conception to stew, analyze and think.

So today I’m focusing on the thankful. I have been so bogged down lately that I really haven’t had time to stop and think and…thank.

Outside of the obvious (my husband and kids…what kind of wife and mom would I be if I didn’t mention them, right?) I’m thankful for where we are in our lives right now. We’ve walked a bit of a tightrope in the last few months and it had every potential end in a stomach dropping plunge. But, instead, the tightrope has slwoly widened and we are once again feeling a bit more secure. Not comfortable, of course, as we are ever on our guard, but we have definately seen blessing in the last month.

I’m thankful for that.

I’m thankful for the memories I made travelling Europe with my husband where he snapped the above picture on our last day in Italy as I lounged in a park in Bellagio. I was looking at the mountains across Lake Como and marvelling at God’s majesty, totally in awe of creation. I’m thankful for that day, for that moment and for the many pictures that are seared into my brain from across the seas.

I’m thankful for the career I’m slowly but surely beginning to develop in writing, editing and social media. I wasn’t looking for this and it kind of fell in my lap and I just have to say – I’m having the time of my life. I’m still navigating the waters of what is feasible for me to pursue and what needs to be sacrificed as I also tend to my young brood. But I’m thankful for opportunity, whatever it might be, that comes my way and I’m totally enjoying the ride.

I’m thankful for Nutella. It’s just so very, very good. On everything. Including pizza crust, on which we slathered an entire can a couple of weeks ago and presented it to the kids as dinner. Which leads me to the next thing:

I’m thankful that I can still please my kids with a Boboli Pizza crust and a can of Nutella. I’m thankful that my seven year old still thinks it’s cool when I accompany him on field trips. I’m thankful that my four year old still wants to hold my hand and sit in my lap. I’m thankful that my two year old tells me I’m beautiful almost every day and then squints his eyes in a mischevious grin because he knows it melts my heart.

I’m thankful for my soft bed and thick pillows even though I don’t get to enjoy those as much as I would like to.

I’m thankful.

I’m also now craving Nutella.

I’m thankful that Target is only a couple of minutes away and they faithfully stock Nutella on their shelves.

What are you thankful for?

Filed Under: Family, Holidays, Lee, Life, Thanksgiving Tagged With: God's Creation, Italy, Motherhood, Nutella, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving

September 24, 2010 by Kelli

Well we have had a whirlwind few days here in Italy. It’s been a lot of fun and good with a bit of frustration sprinkled in. It’s definately harder to be spontaneous in Italy and we’ve found it difficult to find nice, affordable places to stay. Minus our hotel in Florence, which was a bit of a dump, we have managed to stumble upon some nice places. We are now in Genova for the next two nights. The hotel is beautiful – we’ll see about the city. It’s a little too bustling for my taste, but we’re going to give it a try tonight. We may head over to San Margharita for the day tomorrow to enjoy the beach and the beauty.

Here are a few pics. We have definately seen all of the beauty of Italy. One observation – Italy is truly a beautiful country, but it’s been tainted and marred by a lot of grit and grime as well. We’ve found that you have to be willing to either drive through the ugly to get to the beautiful or else drive a long way out of your way to see the beautiful alone.

Places we’ve visited are:

Northern Italy. The drive from the mountains of Austria into Northern Italy was nothing short of spectacular. We were sad to see that part of the trip end and, knowing what we know now, we probably would have spent one more day in Austria…

San Gimignano was one of our favorite places in Tuscany. We made it from Hallstatt to S. Gimignano in one long day of driving. We took back roads through the mountains and through the Tuscan Hills which made it longer but much more fun and scenic. Our Agriturismo in S. Gimignano was my favorite place. It overlooked the city and was just a beautiful place to stay.

Tuscany is absolutely gorgeous. The hills are so green and it’s just such a fun place to drive and explore. Of course, driving in Italy has been a fun experience. If you see Lee, ask him about driving the streets of Florence. Let’s just say God’s mercies were upon us!

After S. Gimignano we headed to Sienna. We LOVED it! We totally regret not spending the night there instead of heading over to Montepulciano, which was a beautiful city, but very boring. Anyway, here are a few pics:

The Tuscan Hills. So beautiful. This was at a winery where we did an impromptu wine tasting. Now we have to figure out how to get the three bottles of wine we bought back home...

The sun setting over the hills from Montepulciano.

From Montepulciano we headed to Florence. This was our stressful day. We couldn’t find a hotel we liked got totally stressed and finally paid too much for a hotel we really didn’t like. Despite the crazy of the morning, however, we got into the city by 3:00 and stayed until midnight. It was amazing to watch the sun set over the Duomo knowing that for centuries that building has graced the horizen. I was fascinated by the history in Florence. It’s so beautiful, but again, I find it sad that the history is buried between so much nonsense and commercialization. It’s unfortunate.

The only thing we made it a point to see in Florence was the statue of The David. Neither of us are huge art lovers and while it would have been nice to see some of the great masterpieces, we didn’t care to wait hours in line. So we kept it simple.

There’s no other way to put it, other than to say seeing that statue of The David was awe inspiring. Knowing it was carved out of a single piece of marble by one of the greatest sculptors in all of history 506 years ago makes it jaw dropping. But when you see the statue up close and see the precision and detail that went into it, it takes your breath away. I’m really glad we took the time to visit the museum, and I’m glad we persevered and stayed in Florence – we ended up having a great time.

I hope you appreciate this picture because I totally broke the rules by taking it. Yes, I know he's naked...

The painting inside the Duomo was fascinating. There was so much thought, depth, spiritualism and talent that went into creating these masterpieces.

The sun setting over Florence from the Piazzale Michaelangelo

Gettin' a kiss from my favorite guy as we onerlook the city. I do eventually plan to crop out the poor girl's legs behind us.

We spoke to a couple of local girls at a restaurant earlier in the afternoon and asked them to tell us a good hot spot for after dark. They directed us to a very swanky cliff top restaurant called Flo where we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet, excellent wine and views of the entire city. It was us and all the Italians…and we were under dressed. Stupid Americans…

This morning we got up and took our time driving through Pisa where we dashed to the Leaning Tower, took a picture to prove we were there, then hit the road again. We stopped Lerici for lunch – a beautiful spot right on the water, then drove down through Portofino to Genova where we actually reserved a hotel room for the next two nights. The hotel is very nice and relaxing. I’m not sure we’re going to love Genova, though. It’s kind of crazy. So we may drive up the coast a bit further to spend the day tomorrow. Today is Lee’s birthday so I’m letting him take an afternoon nap then we’ll head out for a late dinner, hopefully with a view!

Pardon the dreadful sunglasses. Mine borke after we arrived and these were the only ones I could afford without paying too much. Yikes...

Pisa - We came, we saw, we conquered. Pardon the dreadful sunglasses. Mine broke after we arrived and these were the only ones I could afford without paying too much. Yikes...

We've seen all there is to see on this trip - Mountains, Countryside, City and Beach. Yeah!!

The view of Lerici from our lunch table. Not too shabby.

So here’s to hoping we have fun in Genova tomorrow and can enjoy the next couple of days before heading home. We’re having fun and have loved our time, but we’re looking forward to seeing our kiddos in a few days! Ciao!

Filed Under: Lee, Life, Travel Tagged With: European vacation, Italy, travelling Italy

The Hills Are Alive

September 19, 2010 by Kelli

Hello from beautiful Austria. If I knew how to say hello in Austrian or German I would, but I don’t so…hey there! Everytime someone says something to me in this country I answer in Russian. My brain immediately switches to foreign language mode…unfortunately it’s just the wrong language.

We are having the MOST amazing time. It’s everything we hoped it would be and more. How’s that for a smarmy Halmark line? Cliche much?

Our first day was filled with rain, rain and a little more rain. It rained from the moment we pulled out of Milan’s airport until just outside of Landeck, Austria where we spent the night. It was a little disappointing not to be able to see Lake Como or to really soak in the Swiss Alps, but I will say that the Swiss Alps are spectacular with or without rain (probably more so without, but I’m thrilled with what I saw). Because it was so rainy and there was really no point in stopping and walking around, we hauled it all the way through Switzerland until our jet lagged brains turned our bodies numb. We stopped, filled our bellies and passed out only to be awoken at 8:00 by a man warbling an Austrian folk song outside our hotel door.

It was awesome!

And off we went again. We made it to Salzburg and spent four hours walking the city. Today was a much more beautiful day. In fact, it was a perfect day and Salzburg was gorgeous. I resisted the urge all day to break out in song figuring that the locals would only expect a silly American to bust out with Do, Re, Mi. Lee, however, did sing a few bars to a fellow group of Americans when asking them how we could find the steps where that song was filled.

Incidentally, I should tell you that if you ever have the chance to travel with my husband, you should take it – particularly to a foreign country. He will talk to anyone and is most comical when speaking to natives. There are a lot of hand gestures involved.

He’s just the best.

And then, after Salzburg, we headed south to…

HALLSTATT!

If I could paint a picture with words, I would. This town is spectacular. It’s gorgeous in every sense of the word. It’s picturesque and quaint, charming and baroque. It’s riddled with history and is so quiet and peaceful. Let me put it this way – we sat on an outdoor patio for dinner right nest to the lake. Church bells chimed in the background, the moon rose up over the mountains and glimmered on the lake, in the distance the lights of a train roared through a mountain tunnel and five swans swam next to us as we ate.

Uuuummm…

We love it so much here that we are going to talk with our hotel and see if we can stay an extra night. I didn’t get many pictures today as it was almost dark when we arrived, but rest assured I will take no less than 762 pictures tomorrow.

I am posting a couple of pictures tonight then I must go to sleep. It’s almost midnight here! Seriously – if you ever have the opportunity to visit Hallstatt, Austria, you have to take it. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more beautiful place on Earth. It’s that amazing here…

It may have been raining in Lake Como, but that didn’t stop us from pulling into a little cafe and having Espresso and Gelato for breakfast.

We stopped at the Triacca winery in northern Italy before crossing over into Switzerland. Incidentally, did you know that crossing country borders over here is no different than crossing state borders at home? I fully expected to be checked and interrogated at each country line. We didn’t even cross customs stations at most of them. It was a little disappointing – I was looking forward to the stamps in my passport. 🙂

Switzerland…in the rain…still amazing.

Tarasp Castle in Switzerland. This was a fun little detour. We saw it in the distance while we were driving and decided to track it down. Turns out this is one of the places I saw on Google Earth when we were researching the trip (yay internet!) and really wanted to see. So we parked and walked up to it. The tour guide told us it was closed but gave us five minutes to explore. There were gorgeous views from up top.

I had grand plans to post pictures of Salzburg too, but the connection is a little slow and my eyelids are a lot heavy. So for now, Auf Weidersehen!